With the oilfield slowdown and the fact that I hadn’t been home much in the last few years, I decided to be a little closer to Lottie until my next adventure. I came home during the winter and brought most of my work gear with me. Lottie flew up and helped me pack, and we drove home, leaving my camper in North Dakota for later. As spring arrived, I decided it was time to retrieve it. I didn’t want to pull a 40-foot camper with my pickup, so my friend very graciously offered to take his 40-foot motorhome to pull it back. We made plans and arrangements and miraculously got permission from our wives to go off, unsupervised, for a while. We had already discussed seeing some of the country on the way, and planned several stops to see friends and look at interesting places.
Gear loaded, early in the morning, fueled up and on the way, wives in the rear view mirror. We headed west out of Georgia, through Alabama and Mississippi, crossing the river at Memphis, Tenn. Our mileage was better than I figured; we got almost 10 mpg on flat ground at 70 mph. Not bad for a big Cummins diesel in that size rig. Across Missouri and Oklahoma, into Colorado was a breeze. Stopped at Ft. Collins to visit a friend that I hadn’t seen in a while. He lived in a fairly tight subdivision that didn’t look conducive to Greyhound bus-sized vehicles. We got it in, but street parking was a no-no, so I squeezed it into his side yard. Glad I had lots of practice spotting rigs. Had a nice supper and set up for the night.