What's it like, being on the road?

In a word, hot. The Fat Kiwi isn't really known for its air conditioning, although it works in a pinch (we got it fixed before we left). But America in general is pretty warm in the summertime. We're using up a lot of sunscreen. It seems you need to have SPF 50 or 70 for it to have any effect. And neither of us can live without sunglasses, particularly in national parks. The higher up you go in elevation, the clearer the air is, and hence the light is harsher. It's not for nothing that everyone in America seems to wear sunglasses.

The second word would be, busy. We imagined we'd have more time on the road to do blog posts, email etc, but in reality we get up reasonably early, make breakfast, and get on the road to our first destination of the day. We spend time at our destination, make lunch, get back in the car and drive some more to our next destination, rinse and repeat. Then around 10pm we start working out where we'll sleep for the night. Unless we're in a national park, when the problem should have been solved hours earlier (i.e. before lunch) or we're in trouble! By 11pm we make dinner, and fall asleep. This is our day. There is also lots of time spent stoppng for petrol.

At present, we only have one power point available. Usually this is taken up with the GPS charger and the power inverter to run the laptop. Except we're usually out of cell range somewhere in the wops so there's none or sporadic internet for blogging, and the laptop only charges when the Fat Kiwi is stopped. (Quirk of the car battery - don't ask.)

We're also spending an awful lot of time etc at the mechanic's! In the paraphrased words of a couple who did a year-long road trip around America: an RV is both a car, and a house. This means you get all the problems of a car, plus all the problems of a house. We just got out of the mechanic's in Mineapolis, and I think they did something to our house battery. Now when we wake up every morning, the house battery has drained overnight. Which means our fridge is a bit unhappy.

Overall though, it's fantastic that the Fat Kiwi is more like a house on wheels. Even if just for the fact of having a stove, a toilet, and running water. It means you can do things like park in a rest stop or Walmart car park for the night. And we're having lots of fun. More blog posts to come, promise.