The first travel day of a long RV trip always feels like a mixture of excitement, relief, and “did we forget something important?”
We had just returned from a river cruise in Amsterdam, which meant our normal pre-trip prep rhythm got squeezed into a much shorter window than usual. Instead of easing into the packing, planning, organizing, grocery runs, and all the other little things that have to happen before a multi-month trip, we had about six days to get ourselves turned around and ready to leave again.
By the time we finally pulled out of Kenmore, we were excited to be back on the road, but we were also already tired.
Still, there is something pretty great about that first day traveling moment. We hadn’t done a long trip since we went to California last May, so it felt good to be on the road again. And as always, it didn’t really feel official until we crossed the Columbia River and left Washington behind.
While that made Day 1 of travel sound pretty amazing, the more practical (and realistic) version involved headwinds, fuel calculations, and a cat with terrible timing.
The fuel gamble
We knew we were going to need fuel. The question was when.
Diesel prices tend to drop pretty quickly once we get out of Washington, so part of the plan was to avoid filling up too early if we could help it. We knew that once we got to our first overnight stop on the trip, the Wildhorse Casino which is on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, we would save quite a bit per gallon.
Normally, this plan would have been fine, but towing into headwinds has a way of turning a reasonable fuel plan into a tiny math problem with consequences.
The estimated driving range started bouncing around. We still had enough fuel, technically, but the cushion was getting thinner than we liked. At one point, it felt like we were playing with perhaps 20 or 30 miles of margin, which is not exactly the kind of buffer that makes you feel relaxed when you are pulling a trailer across the open road.
There were places we could have stopped sooner. It isn’t like we were stranded in the middle of nowhere. But every time we looked at the gauges, it seemed like we could make it, and the cheaper diesel was right there, just outside Pendleton. So, we rolled the dice, which, given that we were headed to a casino, felt on theme.
The cat chooses chaos
And…we made it!
We pulled into the gas station in the nick of time; we could even see the parking lot where we were staying for the night from where we were fueling up!
That is when Rus decided the day needed one more plot twist.
Rus knows travel days. He can sense them before they fully begin, which usually means he hides in the morning instead of eating, drinking, or using the bathroom like a reasonable creature. This drive was around four to five hours, and by the time we reached the stop, apparently his internal clock had reached the end of its patience.
Rus knows travel days. He can sense them before they fully begin, which usually means he hides in the morning instead of eating, drinking, or using the bathroom like a reasonable creature. This drive was around four to five hours, and by the time we reached the stop, apparently his internal clock had reached the end of its patience.
Right there at the gas station, with the casino basically in sight, Rus had a potty accident in his carrier. This was only the second time in almost five years of travel that he’s ever had that happen, and the first time he was a little under the weather, so it’s definitely not a normal thing for him. He is usually a pretty good little traveler, in his own suspicious, cat-like way.
However, the timing was almost impressive.
Not ten minutes down the road. Not halfway through the drive. Not back at the trailer before we left. No, he waited until we had survived the headwinds, made the fuel gamble, reached the cheaper gas, and could practically point at our overnight stop.
Then, as cats always seem to do, he chose chaos.
So, while one of us handled fueling, the other had to get Rus into the trailer, clean up the mess on him and his kennel, and sacrifice a kitchen towel to the road-trip gods.
Welcome back to RV life.
A casino stop without much casino
This was our second time staying at Wildhorse Resort & Casino, and we already knew it worked well for what we needed: a quick overnight stop near Pendleton, Oregon, right off I-84.
The plan, loosely, was to arrive, maybe enjoy a little of what the casino has to offer, and ease into the first night of the trip. Wildhorse has more going on than just overnight parking. There is, of course, the casino itself and a bit of food options, but the Wildhorse also has a bowling alley, a movie theatre, and enough entertainment that you could make a little evening out of it if you arrived with energy and time.
We arrived with neither.
By the time we got fuel, dealt with the cat, parked, and got ourselves settled, it was clear this was not going to be a bowling-and-movies kind of night. It was barely a “stay awake through dinner” kind of night.
So we kept it simple: dinner, a couple video slots, and sleep.
And honestly, that was exactly what we needed.
What the first day reminded us
The first day of a big trip always has a little pandemonium baked into it. You are still shaking off the prep, the truck and trailer are loaded, the pets are suspicious, the fuel math is different than it is in normal life – the wind gets a vote, and no matter how many times you’ve done this, the road always seems to find a way to remind you that you are not fully in charge.
Even with the tired start, the fuel risk, and Rus’s dramatic arrival, it felt good to be moving again.
We crossed the Columbia. We made it to Oregon. We got the cheaper gas. We found our overnight spot. We ate dinner. We slept.
It was not graceful, but it was ours. And if the first stop of Mashville was trying to set the tone, the message was pretty clear:
We are back on the road. Expect beauty, bad math, tired humans, and at least one cat-related incident.
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