Even if you prepare everything for your adventure in advance, it might not always go as planned.
By Timothy Tammeling, F480757
June 2023
It was a dark and stormy afternoon when our 34-foot Four Winds Hurricane RV pulled off onto a remote road a few miles from home. At first, it was going to be a short pit stop to check our towing straps. However, things quickly went downhill, which we later realized would happen a lot.
The Tammeling family set out from their home in Virginia on the maiden voyage in a new-to-them motorhome and didn’t get far before they had an adventure while seeking a spot to check the tow dolly.
After almost a year of researching, watching countless videos, and making numerous trips to various stores, we were finally ready for our maiden voyage: a two-week adventure from Mechanicsville, Virginia, to the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum in Kentucky. We had purchased our 2008 Type A bunkhouse motorhome in April 2021, thinking it needed only a few repairs. It turned out to be more of a fixer-upper than we initially realized. Four months later, and after countless hours of labor and delays, we decided that it was fixed enough to head out.
Our intention had been to leave early, but with all the last-minute stuff and fighting to get the van onto our brand-new vehicle dolly, we were running out of time. To make it worse, the dolly did not come with a manual. Although our dad had made a number of trips in the past with rented and borrowed motorhomes, as well as 35-foot moving trucks, we were not quite prepared for the challenges of driving a 35-foot motorhome with a 15-foot towed vehicle.
The Tammeling family made it to their destination in Kentucky and has since enjoyed many trips in their motorhome.
A few miles from home, we spotted a Dollar General. Just before we were about to pull into the parking lot, we noticed that it was a dead end, so we veered onto a country road instead. When we zoomed in on the GPS, we discovered that the road we were on was also a dead end. Pulling into a long driveway to a farmhouse, we hoped that we would be able to make a three-point turn there. It took only a few feet to realize that was not going to work. The only remaining option was to unload the van, turn around, and then load the van back onto the dolly.
With the storm approaching rapidly, we got to work. All the men on board worked to get us back on the road. Just like on the iconic Ark, the door was closed before the first drops of rain began to fall.
The Tammeling family has since gone on many trips in their 35-footer, including a cross-country journey to Yellowstone National Park in 2022, and Timothy has documented every one of them in a journal. Since he was 8 years old, he has loved writing and is now working on a novel he hopes to publish by 2024, before he turns 19. His 16-year-old sister shares his love for writing and is currently working on a novel and a novella trilogy. Both are homeschooled in the woods of Virginia where they live with their parents, two brothers, two cats, and a dog.