A Guide to Honeymooning for the Clinically Insane

Day 15

We woke up at 9AM, which is unthinkably late for us, and went to our favorite breakfast place. It was still hitting us that all of that had happened, and that we could yet again sleep in one place, and we barely talked- just sat, enjoyed our food, and paid the check, with smiles on our faces the whole time. When we got home, we unpacked the Penske- the only thing that had been lost in transit was the coffee, again somehow. I guess I'm doomed to never be able to travel long distances with coffee.

When I started the thing, it ran worse than ever- I think it was truly broken, and had only been running as well as it had the last ~3500 miles due to constant use and abuse. It would barely do 35 mph on the way to return it- maybe it just didn't want to stop having adventures with us. We said goodbye to our faithful yellow box truck, and I delivered a massive list of issues to Penske to make sure that it would be rewarded for its' service by being fixed.

I haven't even proofread the previous posts, but I'll do that and write a conclusion or something later this week. I'm sure I missed things and that they're full of typos, but I wanted to get it all down while it's fresh in my head.

Nicely done. Thank you!

That was awesome! Congrats to you both!

Truly awesome, thanks for sharing!

Exellent!! I want to rent a box truck and go on vacation with the kids

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

You win the internet.

Awesome trip, thanks for sharing. Also amazed the Penske rental didn't break down over that distance. At the rate our older international lease/rentals go at work that is amazing.

This is something I would consider doing but I don't think my fiance is quite ready for something like this.

I love it. Thank you for sharing.

What a great read. Is that an XR4ti?.. congrats on the marriage and an epic journey.

Thanks for sharing your adventure, the pictures and the story are great!

Ok I've gotten half way thru, have to go to bed for an early flight, can't wait for the rest. You guys are awesome!

Great trip, man. When I saw the title of the post I immediately thought back to the honeymoon Mrs. VCH and I took- bombing my then-31-year-old Mercedes 450SL along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have to say- while I'd still choose the chunky old roadster over an RV/ Penske truck, and the thought of traversing several thousand miles in a commercial chassis makes my back hurt vicariously, and being limited to 72 mph sounds positively awful...

Where was I going with this?

Oh well. Awesome adventure. We definitely need to get the wives together at some point and have many adult beverages. Excellent story, terrific writing, and great pictures.

Ransom wrote: ...your ability to get a cat into a harness.

Squirrel is an interesting creature- Sara found him laying in the road as a tiny kitten, thinking he was a squirrel (hence the name). He was in sorry shape, but she brought him back to good health through constant supervision and care- she would pop him in the hood of her jacket, and keep him with her all day, driving, at work, and occasionally even in restaurants. As a result, now that he's grown he travels well and doesn't really give a crap about much of anything.

OHSCrifle wrote: Is that an XR4ti?

Yep, this one to be exact.

In reply to volvoclearinghouse:

Funny thing, several times before the trip we said to eachother "are we complete idiots for not just doing this with a car and a tent? Only one way to find out!"

On the subject of adult beverages, we invented one during the trip: one part worst cheapest Tequila you can find, one part nasty cherry cider from Carlsbad. We call it El Paso Transmission Fluid, and I have zero inclination to try it but we do still have a bottle of the cherry cider

Toyman01 wrote: I'm going to go with, "Sounds great!" I'm insanely jealous. I need to run outside and spend another couple of hours getting SanFord finished.

If we ever do the RV thing again, it's going to be something like SanFord or a custom build similar to java's- I'm going to try to avoid purchasing vehicles using plywood as their primary structural material from here on out!

Andy Neuman wrote: Awesome trip, thanks for sharing. Also amazed the Penske rental didn't break down over that distance. At the rate our older international lease/rentals go at work that is amazing. This is something I would consider doing but I don't think my fiance is quite ready for something like this.

Honestly, the Penske ran poorly when we got it, and would improve throughout each day, always running worst in the morning. It seemed to strongly prefer being run wide open for long periods of time, and was nearly undriveable the day after we got back, most likely because it sat for a full 12 hours instead of the 8 or so we had rested every night prior to that.

Wild trip, thanks for the write up. What are the chances you'll rent another box truck next time?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote:

Toyman01 wrote:

I'm going to try to avoid purchasing vehicles using plywood as their primary structural material from here on out!

RVs are generally terrible vehicles. We rented one- a brand new one, mind you, with 6,000 miles on the clock- for a recent race weekend and my teammate (who drive the thing to and from the track) said that it was a positively awful driving experience. The thing rattled and clunked and made terrifying noises over the smallest road imperfections. And he drives a C3 Corvette.

Interesting that the 454 in your motorhome gets almost identical fuel economy as the one in my K3500. I think "around 10" must just be standard fuel consumption for that engine, regardless of application or load.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote:

Toyman01 wrote: I'm going to go with, "Sounds great!" I'm insanely jealous. I need to run outside and spend another couple of hours getting SanFord finished.

If we ever do the RV thing again, it's going to be something like SanFord or a custom build similar to java's- I'm going to try to avoid purchasing vehicles using plywood as their primary structural material from here on out!

For you, I'm thinking a used Bluebird from Florida.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: Interesting that the 454 in your motorhome gets almost identical fuel economy as the one in my K3500. I think "around 10" must just be standard fuel consumption for that engine, regardless of application or load.

We had a 3/4 ton Suburban with the same engine- it managed to get 11 mpg once, but was routinely in the single digits. I think the 454 TBI just pisses fuel regardless of load, speed, temperature, throttle, or anything else really- the throttle butterflies just decide whether it goes through the engine or evaporates instead!

Ian F wrote:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote:

Toyman01 wrote: I'm going to go with, "Sounds great!" I'm insanely jealous. I need to run outside and spend another couple of hours getting SanFord finished.

If we ever do the RV thing again, it's going to be something like SanFord or a custom build similar to java's- I'm going to try to avoid purchasing vehicles using plywood as their primary structural material from here on out!

For you, I'm thinking a used Bluebird from Florida.

Is this a reference to something that went right over my head or just a really good idea for how I should get back if I fly to the Challenge this year?

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

I wasn't intending anything vague, so I'm going with the latter.

What a trip! Thanks for sharing. Seems like the universe was just trying to prevent you from attempting to cheat death with that RV on the steep grades.

BTW, major kudos for properly securing the 4-legged members of your family. I don't see that often enough.