Category Archives: travel days

Cinci = cold

I arrived at the FMCA campground about 1 pm on Friday after stopping at Best One Tire to get a new tire installed. My wallet feeling about $500 lighter but it was a cool and sunny day. Normally I would spend my 2 free days included with my membership and sometimes one additional day to enjoy the food that is so good here. This trip the weather has been very cold so I decided to only spend 2 days and move further south in hopes of eluding this cold.  Getting out of the city on Sunday morning is pretty easy.  It was 29 degrees when I got up on Sunday morning burr, I have been burning through propane like crazy to keep warm. I had the wet bay heater on to keep things warm in that part of the coach. The normal fun and excitement of being in Cincinnati wasn’t there this year, the cold had zapped that out of me. This leg of the trip is typically a fuel stop day and this one was interesting. I generally pick two or three places to stop to get fuel based on price and ease of getting in and out. I traveled to the first place that I  thought I could get in and made the turn but to my surprise, the road which looked like I could use on Google maps was not big enough and was blocked by a truck. So panic set in and now I needed to turn around so I could get back on the highway.  I got lucky and found a factory with a large parking lot which allowed me to swing the coach around then back to the highway. On to the second stop. Running low on fuel is never something that thrills me. Running out of fuel is not on my bucket list. Bad things happen when you run out of fuel.  This happened to be a small truck stop with a restaurant there. I managed to get in out of the tight drive getting my fuel and off to Singing Hills Rv park in Cave City.  The rest of the day was uneventful to speak.  

I usually enjoying Singing Hills park, the owners are great. I was able to get the spot I had last year which is easy in and out. The blasted cold seems to be following me. I am going to look at my route and perhaps change things up to get me into some warmer weather. More on that in the next post. The image is of my site at Singing Hills Rv Park

 

 

 

I-75 south

image of motorhome parked at the fair grounds
Looking from the grandstands at the fairgrounds

My stay in Bowling was great as it has been in the past, with one exception. Myles Pizza my favorite pizza joint closed before I landed in BG. That delicious pizza that filled my plate is no more because the owner decided he didn’t want to give the recipe away even to the new owner would buy it he said no. So the recipe goes with him to his grave and all the people who loved Myles pizza suffer, very sad.

It is always nice to visit with friends and I also installed a new surge protector. Another article on that later. Chloe enjoyed walking around the fairgrounds too.

I had ordered new tire valve extensions and had a local truck tire shop put them on. Well during the install we found out that I had a bad tire. They didn’t have the tire in stock plus their price was somewhat high. So I called Pomps whom I have purchased the tires from and they told me to check with Best One tire.

The day we left it was early, I wanted to get out early because the traffic around Cinci is usually bad. So I figured if I get out early I can get ahead of that traffic and get into the FMCA park early.

I stopped at Best One tire and had them put a new tire on the rear. They are submitting the old for a warranty claim, hopefully, I will get a fair amount back.

 

The Road to Bowling Green, OH

It’s Monday morning and after a hectic Sunday (the day before leaving). My goal was to be on the road by 6am. I wanted to get out early since Monday rush hour traffic can be brutal. I pulled out of Big Rock campground at 550 and headed to I-88. The traffic wasn’t too bad and even I-355 was moving well.

Then it happened, the dreaded beeping noise which generally means the leveling jacks are not up or low on fluid. I knew the jacks were up so that left low fluid in the pump. The beeping can drive you nuts, so I thought since I was just traveling on 80 for a short time then getting off and traveling east on route 30, I would wait and stop. I got over at route 30 and found a shopping center with plenty of room to maneuver. At 7 am, it was empty. I stopped, figuring it would be a quick fix: just put a little fluid in and off I would go. And then…ut oh! I couldn’t find any fluid. Crap.

So I pulled out of the shopping center thinking, “I can find a truck stop on the way that has the fluid I need.” I couldn’t just pull into an auto parts store with a 40ft coach and towing the Xterra — I’m about 56 feet long.

Route 30 going east in Indiana isn’t as popular as I imagine it use to be. I finally saw a sign that said Hank’s Truck Stop: Best Fried Chicken in Indiana, 2 miles. Bingo! That’s the place. I pulled in and turned around, finding a nice spot in the gravel drive. I went inside, purchased some fluid and filled the pump tank up. WHEW! that’s done. I started up the coach and no beeping sound, what a relief. By now it was about 9:30 am and I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. So I started the generator and had me a breakfast sandwich, then walked Chloe.

Route 30 improves further east: not the rough road it was through IL and into Indiana. You can generally tell the repressed areas by their roads and buildings. They don’t have the money to fix the roads, so sometimes they are pretty rough.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. In fact it was a pleasant drive. I had called the fair grounds to let them know what time I would be in. We pulled into the fair grounds about 3 or so. Right on cue one of the maintenance guys met me. I was getting ready to unhook the truck. He said we are going to park you over here behind the grandstands this year on the blacktop.

image of motorhome park at the fairgrounds
Where I parked at the fairgrounds

So I followed him to the spot they wanted me in and started to setup.

image looking out of the front of motorhome at the fairgrounds
Looking towards the front at the fairgrounds
image of motorhome parked at the fair grounds
Looking from the grandstands at the fairgrounds
image of the grandstands at the fairgrounds
Parked near the grandstands.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Plotting the Rest of the Way South

Our loose plans for the month of November were to go south, stopping in Ohio, Kentucky, and Louisiana on the way to Alamo, Texas. Richard did a great job of trip routing down here to (outside) New Orleans. But we were both kind of stumped on the best way to get from New Orleans to Alamo.

The big elephant in the route between New Orleans and Alamo is Houston. Nothing against the city of Houston, but to be perfectly honest, their interstate and freeway systems are kind of scary. Richard had never driven there before, but I have, and I vividly remember the traffic and confusing roads. I lived in Los Angeles for 13 years, and even I didn’t wanted to drive the interstates around Houston again, most specifically in an RV.

Every route we looked into seemed to take us either through, north, or south of Houston, and all way too close for comfort. We’d heard from other RVers that the best time to take on the city would be early, early Sunday morning. Unfortunately, we plan to visit the French Quarter this Sunday and leave on Monday. And there was no way we were going to brave Houston traffic on a Monday morning.

So we called our fellow (and far more experienced) full-time RV friends who traveled from Illinois to Alamo every year. We’re going to be staying in the same park this winter on their recommendation, so we thought that they would have a good route. And boy, were we right!

Richard spent a good part of an hour on the phone with our friend getting the scoop on the route. The route will take us through Louisiana and then straight down to the coast. From there we’ll hug the coast, going down Galveston Island and from there on to Port Lavaca, where it turns inland. It involved several bridges, but best of all, a free ferry! Did I mention the ferry is free?! I think I did, but let me get it out of my system. Free ferry!

He also gave us several park recommendations. Our plan is to take it in three to four legs. The first leg will take us almost out of Louisiana. The next to a county park we found across right on the beach south of Galveston Island. There we want to spend a couple of days getting ready for and enjoying Thanksgiving. We both also need to get some work done for a couple of clients as well. Juggling travel and work sometimes means that you’ve got to just hunker down somewhere for longer than you planned to get the work done.

From the county park we’re looking for someplace between there and Alamo. The last leg will be on to Alamo! It’s exciting to know that we’re almost there, but at the same time, I do enjoy the traveling. Chloe doesn’t like travel days very much, because our routine gets changed. She does like sitting on my lap while we travel though.

Tomorrow we visit the French Quarter. I’m so excited to share with Richard all the places I’ve been, and to get some good Creole or Cajun cooking (including a beignet from Café du Monde).

Our (Loose) Plans for Now

Richard and I try to remain flexible on the road, but we do like to make some sort of rough road map for at least the next couple of weeks or so. But these are not set in stone. Things change: weather, health, constitution, roads, the budget, etc.

Being able to be flexible is one of the most important skills I think full-timers can have. It’s not necessarily my strong suit, because I am a planner at heart, but it is a skill I would like to develop. I knew this lifestyle would help in that development. I’ve recently (like in the past year) adopted a more optimistic attitude.

“It will work out,” comes to my lips now without even having to try, because I know from experience that it will. Will it always work out the way I planned? No. Will it always work out the way I’d prefer? No. But life continues, and it does work itself out.

I didn’t always have this attitude. It was something I had to work to gain. I faked it for a long time before it became instinct. When something seemed challenging, or in danger of “not working out” I forced myself to take a breath, and say,

It will work out.

And low and behold! It worked out. Often better than I’d wanted, or in a way totally unexpected than I’d planned. But because I had accepted that life works out, one way or another, I didn’t find it unbearable when it worked out in a, shall we say, less pleasant fashion then I’d planned.

Are things always hunky-dory? Nope. But without a doubt, even when things worked out not so well, things still worked out. The key for me was taking away the unspoken valuation on the phrase, “it will work out.” Before, I attached a positive value to the phrase. So when I said, “I hope this works out,” what I really was saying “I hope this works out to my advantage.”
Our friend from RVillage, Peter, expresses a similar concept in his blog, Life Unscripted:

I suspect we all say things we mean in part, but don’t mean absolutely. There is a portion of travel I tire of; there is a flavor in hazelnut that I dislike; I don’t like the tingling sensation I get in my fingers when I’m in extreme cold. — We all say we don’t like things with an emphasis on specific characteristics.

And I think these characteristic valuations go unspoken but not unexpected.

Now I merely say, “It will work out,” secure in the knowledge that life will work out one way or the other, ether to my advantage or not. But one thing is certain, life goes on, and life going on isn’t anything that I can’t stand, since if I’m alive, I’m clearly standing life.

So, here’s the (loose) schedule for our next few days:

Travel Data

  • Traveled 240 miles in 5.1 hours from Fort Payne, MS to Marion, MS
  • Used 26.4 gallons of diesel at an average of 9 mpg
  • Cost of one night (averaged between one night with Passport America discount applied and one night with FMCA discount applied) at Benchmark Coach and RV Park $26 (averaged, with tax)

Chattanooga Traffic Craziness

Today we journeyed from London, Kentucky, to Fort Payne, Alabama. We were in four different states, and traveled our longest day yet of this particular route: six hours and 254 miles. It was not exactly a fun travel day, with happy sing-a-longs and road trip games (not that even our fun days produce such cringe worthy activities, but I think you get my drift, wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Out the windshield view of Smoky Mountains
The view of the beginning of the Smoky Mountains in Kentucky on I-75 from my seat.
The views from my seat were very pretty, I must admit, and I think they would have been even more beautiful a week or so ago when the colors would have been at their peak. There weren’t too many serious grades: one downhill at 4% was as high as it went. I-75 skirts the Daniel Boone National Forest (DBNF) (FYI, Levi Jackson State Park is also in the DBNF) all the way down to the Tennessee border, and there were many attractions that caught my eye and have since been placed on the “places I’d like to see” list, hiking the Sheltowee Trace heading the list.

We went round the western side of Knoxville with a little more extra traffic than we experienced coming down I-75, but it was the kind of traffic we would expect in a metro area. There is a left hand exit from I-640 (Knoxville by-pass) to I-40/I-65, though. Things continued along, with the hills and grades gradually decreasing as we headed on to Chattanooga.

We hit the outskirts of Chattanooga about 2:00 pm, eastern. Traffic started to get very heavy around Cleveland, KY, with increasing amounts of semis and the dangerous behavior cars that are accustomed to a specific route exhibit when around them. The end of the route around Chattanooga on the south-east side terminates with a left hand exit, not a lot of fun in light traffic, but particularly difficult in heavy, semi-laden traffic.

View through windshield of Tennessee River just outside of Chattanooga
Don’t judge the traffic by this shot, Richard likes to give a lot of space in front of him. The Tennessee river is on the right hand side.
Then came the really fun part. In order to get to I-59 on the western side of Chattanooga, one must take I-24 for approximately 17 miles. There is a moment in this stretch where you break out ugliness and overlook the city nestled in it’s valley, followed by a beautiful curve bounded on one side by cut cliffs, and on the other by the Tennessee River. It is absolutely gorgeous. And absolutely not fun for the driver.

Traffic is still very heavy, the lanes are narrow, and the curve around the bend in the river is accompanied by a more steep slope than one would expect from an interstate in an urban area. Follow that up with the fact that to get onto I-59 you need to get into the far left lane, and you have a recipe for some real Chattanooga Craziness.

Craziness aside, Richard got us safely to our destination in Fort Payne, Alabama, at the Wills Creek R.V. Park. This park is great for an overnight stop, with tons of pull-throughs. Bonus, it’s not at all far from I-59. But there are little trees on either side of each site, many with low hanging branches, as well as narrow, dirt roads and tight corners. All in all, Richard and I are glad to be relaxing here and no longer in the congestion and headache of Chattanooga (even if we don’t have TV because we we’re too tired to set up the dish for one night and there’s no antenna reception here).

Road Data for November 13th

  • Traveled 254 miles in 6.1 hours from London, KY to Fort Payne, AL
  • Used 31.3 gallons of diesel and average 8 mpg
  • Cost of one night at Wills Creek R.V. Park $28.82 (with tax)

Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park

Today we traveled from the FMCA Campground in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park in London, Kentucky. We are travelling here instead of going directly south in order to visit the Visone RV Boneyard. This trip to the boneyard is both in the nature of a pilgrimage and a necessity.

The day after the slide broke, Murphy and his Law decided it was a good day to come to town. I opened the right hand door of our Norcold French-door style refrigerator and the entire door fell of the hinge, dropping everything I stored in the door on the tile. Luckily, nothing broke (most especially my bare toes), except the door. Turns out (though some of you may already be aware of this) the Norcolds have a bit of a design flaw in the bottom hinge, allowing the plastic to break and the door to fall off the top hinge.

So we needed a new door. Richard temporarily fixed the problem with duct tape so I could access the things I had stored in the fridge behind that door. We took everything out of the door to keep the load light. But this was a temporary fix to be sure, so we would be looking for a new door at Visone.

Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park is a beautiful park in the foothills of the mountains of south-central Kentucky. It’s named for one of the first pioneers of the area, and contains historical sites such as the McHague Mill, the Wilderness Road, and Boone’s Trace (named for Daniel Boone), the two primary routes for pioneers settling in the area.

The drive in recommended by the park is over several small, narrow roads, including one ascent around a right hand curve. There are two routes in, and I would recommend taking the route directed by Google using KY-229.

Image of a pull-thru site at Levi Jackson State Park
A pull-thru site next to us at Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park. The pads are all concrete and level (at least the pull-thru sites are).
Our site is a pull-thru, though from egress angle, it will be difficult to actually pull out of this site, so we are thinking we might have to back out. This park is open year round and still had the water on this time of year, though do to construction further inside the park, they advised us it may be turned off from time to time.

It’s a lovely park, with lots of space and things to do (mini-golf anyone?). Although we are surrounded by trees, there is enough of a clearing around us to be able to get a satellite signal. I wish we were going to spend more time here, as there is much to explore, and good hiking opportunities. Alas, we’re planning on going to Visone tomorrow, then moving on the following day.

Road Data for November 11th

  • Traveled 172 miles in 3.8 hours from Cincinnati, OH to London, KY
  • Used 21.7 gallons of diesel and average 7.8 mpg
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First Visit to Speedco

Today we left Bowling Green, Ohio, for the FMCA Headquarters Campground outside Cincinnati, Ohio. If you are a member of Family Motor Coach Association then you may or may not know that part of your membership includes two free nights per month at their campground, located at the shipping and receiving building on Round Bottom Rd. So, since we were going that way to begin with, we figured we’d check it out and get our two nights for November.

On the way, we needed to do a little maintenance, though, so we stopped at the Speedco in Beaver Dam, Ohio, right off I-75 to get our oil changed. We had originally planned on doing this task ourselves, but since we had extra work at our work camping job due to employees leaving early, we never found the time. Then we were thinking we’d have it done at the local Pomp’s in Montgomery, Illinois, when we got our tires changed. Plans are never set in stone, and these changed when we discovered we could combine a visit up to Richard’s sister in Wisconsin with getting new tires (at a cheaper rate!). Long story short (too late) we ended up having to leave Big Rock without having the oil changed.

Image of Filters in the Kitchen
All the filters our coach needs, including the massive air dryer filer (to the left) and the filters for the gen set (to the right).
We’d already bought the filters through Filter Barn. Richard spent many hours researching the best filters, then finding those best filters at the cheapest price available. He settled on Filter Barn, which is an online company based out of Wisconsin. We were also able to obtain seven gallons (yikes!) of Valvoline Premium Blue for diesel engines at Rural King on sale for a great price.

We called ahead to Speedco, and asked if they would do the oil change with our filters. They agreed, but we didn’t want to carry the oil with us so we put it in our climate controlled storage unit before we left. We’ll use it when we change the oil next year. We’re happy with changing the oil once a year, though Richard will probably get an oil analysis done before we do so, in case we can push it to longer. So we used their oil.

We pulled into the Speedco and were treated well, even though they usually cater to semis. They had us pull into the garage from the opposite side than the one the semis use because our engine is in the back. They allowed Richard to watch the entire procedure, which is great since at some point we plan to do this ourselves. I sat inside with Chloe to keep her from barking. Their filters were included with the price ($199 with chassis lube, plus the cost of the oil analysis), so now we have another set of filters for next time.

It’s a good idea when walking around one of these places to watch your step, or you’ll track oil or some other fluid into the coach. We were both very careful. To our surprise the oil analysis showed that the oil was still quite good, which is a good sign for the overall health of the engine.

We were both pleased with our experience at Speedco, I must say. We were happy and back on the road to FMCA in no time.

Travel Data

  • 404 – Oops! I guess I forgot to write down most of the travel data for today.
  • Cost of one night at FMCA Headquarters Cincinnati: Free! ($20 a night after 2 free nights a month)

A Day (or Two) at the Fair

We left Indianapolis today after meeting with the gentleman from iRV2 who gave us the new Omega arms to fix our slide. We’re still living with a living room slide that doesn’t open, but hopefully we’ll fix it with a little help from our friend.

When we were looking at coaches over two years ago, we’d looked at our first Holiday Rambler, a 1999 Vacationer without slides. Without having looked at one with slides, we tried to tell ourselves that we could live without them. The price certainly was right. But then we saw some coaches with slides and we decided there was no way we could live without one (even though I still think every slide you add to a coach is another thing to go wrong).

At the Wood County Fairgrounds
Our site at the Wood County Fairgrounds
This experience of living without a slide has certainly proven that, though it may be fine for some, it’s no way for us to live! We can’t pass each other without someone getting squished. Poor Chloe is constantly underfoot. And we can’t eat at the kitchen table and both of us see the TV at the same time. Tough times, eh?

We left at a 11 AM, and got into Bowling Green, Ohio with plenty of daylight to set up and relax. We’re staying at the Wood County Fairgrounds for the next couple of days.

When we decided back in August to visit our good friend in Bowling Green, we wanted to stay at our favorite campground there, Fire Lake Camper Park. Although this park is mainly a seasonal place, they do have three pull-thru spots along their rectangular lake, and we’ve always been there in either autumn or spring. We’ve found it relaxing, and the views of the sunset over the lake are lovely.

This time, however, Fire Lake was already closed for the season when we’d get to BG. So, the only choices for camping in BG are Mary Jane Thurston State Park which is kind of far from Bowling Green, and the Wood County Fairgrounds. We’d never stayed at a fairground before, and I was not sure what to expect.

V=Beef Barns at the Wood County Fairgrounds
The Jr. Beef Barn next store to our site.
Long story short, we love it. Even though the grounds are shuttered up and kind of lonesome, it is still neat to be able to walk the grounds without a huge crowd of people. There is only one 50 AMP hookup: right between the Fine Art Barn and the Jr Beef Barn, right down the street from Gate C. The site is very large and although not quite level and grassy, we still managed to find a spot that, with the jacks, left us level enough.

Although shuttered-up, the grounds are far from empty. Workers are doing maintenance that they couldn’t do during high season, and people are dropping off boats, trailers, and RVs for winter storage.

There’s a guy training his horses for cart-racing in the track right across from our site this morning. First he runs the horse around the track to practice their trotting. He has this contraption on the back of a pick-up truck, and he hooks two horses at a time up to it. He drives around at trotting speed and the horses practice keeping their pace steady. Then he goes round the track with each of the horses several times, riding behind them in the cart. I liked watching him and imaging the chariot riders of ancient times, racing around a similar track to cheering, wild fans.

The fairgrounds manager is very friendly and made us feel welcome. He answered all our questions about the grounds and the Wood County Fair, which has been held in Wood County for the last 143 years. Last year they saw attendance grow to 103,000. For camping at the fair there are 600 campsites. They usually fill about 550 of them (!) and it costs $150 for the 8 days of the fair.

What I think is most exciting about the Wood County Fair, and what may bring us back to BG next August to attend, is the very unusual Combine Demolition Derby. When he told me about this, my jaw just hit the floor. I’ve only ever seen regular Demos on TV. I could only imagine how exciting it would be with COMBINES (*grunting sounds* More power!).

If you’ve been to a Combine Derby, please, let me know what it’s like in the comments.

Road Data for November 2nd, 2015

  • Traveled 213 miles in 4.5 hours from Mooresville, IN to Bowling Green, OH
  • Used 24.2 gallons of diesel and averaged 8.7 MPG
  • Cost of one night at Wood County Fairground is $20

Back on the Road (Again)

Today we left Big Rock Campground for parts South. We worked as campground attendants all summer and had a wonderful experience. We let the Senior Ranger for Kane County, IL — our boss — know that we would love to return next year.

Big Rock Campground is located in Big Rock, Illinois, west of Chicago. It is the closest campground to Chicago (besides Hideaway Lakes, which, frankly, the less said about the better). It is a young campground, open for just a partial season in 2013, but it is beautiful.

I highly recommend it, if you are ever in the area. The campground is part of the Big Rock Forest Preserve, and backs up to the forest. The pads are level and the sites are quite spacious. Each site has 20-30-50 amp service and water, as well as a fire-ring and a picnic table. There are two clean dump stations.

As for things to do, there is fairly good hiking and fishing opportunities. The Senior Ranger says he will be making even more trails for next season. In the small pond in the campground, there is catch and release fishing in a small pond at the campground, and a large quarry lake on the other side of the Preserve. The bathrooms are well kept and always clean (I know, because every morning shift we clean the bathrooms).

Our departure was not without problems. The day before we’d taken the coach up to the dump station to complete the sanitization of our fresh water tank and give the grey and black water tanks a good flushing out at the same time.

Since I am learning to drive the coach, Richard had me drive up to the dump station. Holy cow is this thing huge! I’d only ever driven our old coach (a 34 footer) before. Those extra six feet make a huge difference. I can’t see the end of the coach from the drivers seat. Well, I’ll learn, but right now I have to admit that it is intimidating.

We pulled in our two slides and went up to spend several hours at the dump station. Ah, the joys of travel! Everything went according to plan until we got back to the site and went to put out our living room slide.

Some horrible noises later and a lot of four letter words, we discovered that the little arm that provides protection from billowing ended up beneath the slide topper awning, and as a result the right side arm of our Carefree Omega slide topper hung up and then bent. We managed to get the slide in all the way, but it wouldn’t go out again.

This morning we tried to figure out what our next move should be. Should we go on to visit our friend in Bowling Green, Ohio, as planned? Or should we go to Elkhart, Indiana, to see if we could get in to see a technician at the Monaco factory or one of the other RV shops in the area?

It was in the midst of this decision that Richard had a great idea. He posted on iRV2 about our dilemma. Shortly someone posted that they had some of the very arms that we bent. They say said we could have them if we could pick them up. Richard said we’d be happy to take them off his hands. We asked where he was.

What luck! He told us he’d be in Indianapolis! So we traveled down to Indy today and we’ll meet him for the arms tomorrow. We’re staying tonight at Lake Haven Retreat. Then it’s on to Bowling Green, where our friend will (hopefully) be able to help us change out the arm and fix the slide topper.