Hit the road a little after eleven. We had an east wind pushing us to 80mph and two stressful Flying J experiences.

Newbie tip: Sometimes your rig is too big to fit into a gas station. Don’t blame yourself.

At the second Flying J, some dude started using our pump while Dave was inside prepaying. When Dave came out to see the guy putting our gas into his car, the guy shrugged and said, “I just wanna get home.”

Newbie tip: Avoid that dude.

My stomach was in knots by North Platte. Since I last saw my Fort Collins brother, he’d moved out of the marriage house and become markedly less communicative. “I don’t want to end up a sad divorced guy in an apartment,” he’d once said, and now we were headed to his new rental. I lay down through most of Nebraska.

We stopped at the Cheyenne Humane Society dog park and reached my brother’s place at six-fifteen. Instead of a depressing apartment, it was Nola’s dream house: wall-to-wall carpeting, not much furniture, huge backyard with nothing in it except grass.

My brother looked healthier but said he was worse than ever. However, he did sprinkle in a few funny stories about a friend’s cat. We made dinner from things I’d brought and I thought my stomach would explode.

Newbie tip: Chili and enchilada casserole are two good things to make and freeze for your RV adventure, but you don’t necessarily want to serve them at the same meal.

The next morning we all went to brunch with his daughters, who live with their mom. The girls were warm and engaged, which was a relief. My stomach calmed and my heart expanded, sitting on the sunny patio at Rainbow Cafe and seeing my brother laughing and listening and proud of what his daughters were doing with their lives. But afterward, he seemed sadder than ever. He doesn’t know when he will see them again.

Newbie tip: Make sure the people you love know that you love them. That’s the most you can do, and also the least.

We set our course for James M. Robb Park in Fruita, Colorado, and started driving over the Rockies.

Gas: 37.126 gallons, 301 miles, 8.1 MPG. Next stop: Grand Junction, Colorado.