Picking up Minnie Winnie

What a monster she is. Her name is “Minnie Winnie”. Our RV – short for recreational vehicle (which is an exaggeration to say the least when you have to steer this beast either through a city or along a windy costal road) – is 30 feet long, extendable inside and awning, air conditioned, equipped with a shower and a separate toilet, full kitchen with oven and microwave, TV (if you like), a generator, a fresh water tank, black water tank, grey water tank, and the possibility to hook up anytime to high power electricity and water.

When we pick her up in the middle of some commercial area of Tacoma near Seattle, we are a little overwhelmed to say the least. A big guy gives us a tour of our new home on wheels, explaining things that I have never heard before, this is this and that is that, understood? Mhm. Do you want to book the extra care free package and unlimited generator usage and I don’t know what. Yes, sure, it is probably better. We have no clue and are a little too unprepared, and they take advantage of it as much as they can.

A little rush through the paperwork: You have understood this, and you confirm that, you waive this, please sign here, now just remember that you… blablabla. I sign, I pay. End of story. Oh, and do you want some firewood? It’s only 8 bucks for a couple of logs, and you know the campsites have some, but it will be a rip off and the logs will be wet etc. etc. – and I think: this is America, too.

And so finally, we roll. Slowly, Minnie Winnie glides into open traffic, rush hour in Seattle and Tacoma, a real treat to drive such a tank at this time of day, sweat trickling down my neck. The next challenge is that we have to drop off our rental car at SeaTac Airport to start our camper journey from there. I think a lot of traffic participants that day were very angry at us. I can’t blame them.

But we eventually made it, without any damages or calamities, even onto the ferry to Bainbridge one last time to spend the night at a known location in the North of the Island. After all, we thought that the RV experience on the first day would be challenging enough. And then we arrive at our first RV camping site, “Fay Bainbridge”, a beautiful location with very friendly and welcoming management; right on the beach, the sun just goes down, Mount Rainier in the background highlighted by a pink orange blue evening sky, the sound of the waves, a playful and relaxed atmosphere. Throw some fish on the barbecue, open a bottle of wine. What a gift.