I Am FMCA: A change in direction started this couple on a great motorhome adventure.
By Kahleen Dillon, F406904
January 2018
I had lived 30-some years in the Pacific Northwest, and had become used to being saturated to the bone. One winter day, an opportunity arose to do a work assignment in San Diego, California. With thoughts of losing my webbed feet, I packed up the motorhome and headed south, not knowing what I was getting into.
I made it to Chula Vista, California, about 10 miles north of Tijuana, Mexico, and saw people walking around town in shorts in December and January. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Golf year-round; top down on the convertible in January.
After a couple of winters in the south and summers up north, I met my husband, John. We bought a 2000 Fleetwood Discovery motorhome and began volunteering at an Elks facility, running their little RV park of 27 full-hookup sites. From there, we still spend months every year traveling in our RV.
On one of our best trips, we were going to Sacramento from Chula Vista to see John’s sister. It is 500 miles north via Interstate 5. While en route, John and I discussed going to Yellowstone National Park. John, being a history buff, also wanted to go back to Montana’s Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, the location of Custer’s “last stand.”
So, after a night on the side of the road because of a windstorm (and closed highway), we decided the next morning to turn right, not left, and head east to our adventure. We had set up camp in St. George, Utah, when John’s sister called to ask when we should be arriving for dinner. We had forgotten to tell her of our change of plans. John explained, “We turned right instead of left and we are in St. George, Utah!”
“At what point did you realize you made a wrong turn?” she asked.
We had a great trip, with many stops in Utah, and then moved on to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Yellowstone National Park. We can’t even blame bad planning — it was no planning. Because the weather is good year-round in Southern California, we were surprised to find many parts of Yellowstone not open because of snow. It was May; nice and warm when we left Chula Vista.
Yellowstone was wonderful, and because of the snow, not too crowded. Then we left Yellowstone and ventured farther into Montana, visiting Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.
From there, we drove down to Cody, Wyoming, and spent a couple days visiting the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and Old Trail Town. At this point we decided we needed to load up on provisions, and so we headed to a large store. As we filled our cart, we realized we had arrived at the store on our motorcycle. We put most of the stuff back.
From there we drove back into Yellowstone and headed west into Idaho. There we visited the caves and rock formations at Craters of the Moon National Monument.
As we entered a different state, I would read to John interesting facts about it, such as population, industry, and so on. It made the trip more enjoyable and helped us understand how certain streets and towns got their names. Sometimes you could see the history in the architecture.
After a new water pump on the engine, we made it to John’s brother’s house in Nampa, Idaho. John’s brother had just purchased a plane ticket to Sacramento. But he decided to throw it away and come on board with us. We all headed south toward John’s sister’s house and had a great visit.
Since we try to drive only a couple hundred miles a day, we finally arrived in Sacramento about a month and a half late. But it was one great, unexpected adventure.
While volunteering at the Chula Vista Elks RV Park, we have met so many great RVers, and many FMCA members who are also willing to volunteer to help out at a moment’s notice. We treasure our membership in FMCA.