Tag Archives: travel data

Daily thoughts, travel days

The Road to Bowling Green, OH

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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.

 

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travel days, travel plans

Our (Loose) Plans for Now

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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)
campgrounds, travel days

Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park

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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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