Heading Back West

We left Grand Rapids on May 16 after a very nice visit with Ardelle's brother and wife and went back to Elkhart for a couple days before starting our trip west. We stayed over a couple days at an RV park at the Casino Queen Casino in East St. Louis, IL. It was a very nice, modern park, but must have been laid out by someone who had never seen an RV before. We needed every inch of power cable we had and 25 feet of sewer hose to make the hookups! We had an excellent view of the St. Louis arch out of our windshield. We had a couple of great meals in the casino and played video poker. We even managed to leave there with some  of their money! Since the casino is on the IL side of the river, there is no smoking allowed in the casino, making it very pleasant to play there.

After leaving St. Louis, it was time to hunker down somewhere while the Memorial Day weekend warriors did their thing so we pulled into Cottonwoods RV Park in Columbia, MO for 5 days. This park must have been laid out by the same idiot that did the one at Casino Queen ... same routine on the hookups! There was a Bass Pro Shop near the park, so we went in and made our annual contribution. While in Columbia, we learned that the Escapees RV Club was having a rally this week in Sedalia, MO, about 70 miles from Columbia, so yesterday we moved to a small park in Sedalia that is about a mile from the State Fairgrounds, where the rally is. We opted for the park rather than the fairgrounds because we have been having quite a few of thundershowers and heard that getting stuck in the mud at the fairgrounds is not uncommon. The thought of having to have this monster pulled out of the mud was not very appealing!

Since we have been in MO, the weather has been relatively comfortable, with the temps running in the 70's and 80's, with or without rain. The humidity is a little high for our liking, but bearable. While in Columbia, we saw lot of fireflys (lightning bugs). It was Roger's first glimpse of them. They are sure fun to see. Last night, after a round of thundershowers, the tree frogs in the trees behind our rig went nuts. We thought we were hearing crickets in the motorhome until I opened the door to an almost deafening symphony of frogs going on outside. Since the trees were right behind our bedroom, needless to say, we didn't need to use our sound effects machine to go to sleep to.

Today we are going to the rally, mainly to wander through the market area. Fantastic Fan is there and we need a couple of parts for the one's in our coach. I'm sure we'll be able to find some other "must haves" before we get out of there.

We plan to continue our trek west into Kansas tomorrow.

Well folks, here's another update. After we left Tunica, we decided to go to Paducah, KY. We were there in the fall of 2007 and enjoyed the National Quilt Museum so much we decided to see it again. It was well worth the return. From there we went to Shepherdsville, KY, just south of Louisville, the same place we stopped last spring. We went back out to the Jim Beam Distillery and this time we splurged and bought a bottle of the "good stuff", Jim Beam's "Booker's True Barrel Bourbon". It's sippin' stuff! After there, we drove over to the Kentucky Horse Park and spent a couple of days there. It was rainy and cold, so we didn't do much there but hang out.

On Thursday, 4/16, we drove to Lazy River Campground at Granville, OH. This is a campground in a country setting situated a little east of Columbus. Near there is the Longaberger Basket Company. Below is a picture of Longaberger's Home Office. As you can see, it is a very unique structure in that it is a 7 story basket. Near there, we visited the Longaberger Homestead, a shopping area that displays and sells their products. The factory is there, where you can watch the baskets being made, and even make your own if you choose. There is also a huge outlet store in the same building, where one can find some bargains on seconds. 

We left Ohio on Saturday, 4/18 and travelled east to Bedford, PA, where we spent a couple of nights and then went on to Hershey, PA. There we took in the Hershey Chocolate Experience. On Wednesday, 4/22 we moved a whopping 40 miles to Country Acres Campground in Gordonville, PA, near Lancaster. This is a beautiful park with lots of green grass everywhere. It backs up to a huge Amish farm. The only down side here is it is fertilizing time in the area, and with the 80+ temps, it makes for an interesting aroma! This is a beautiful part of the country and there are many things to see and do here. On Saturday 4/25, we drove over to Wilmington, DE (about 35 miles) so we could add the last of the 48 contiguous states to our map of states visited.We ended up staying nine days in Dutch country and capped off the stay with a day trip to Philadelphia and a trolley tour of the city.

On Saturday 5/2, we arrived a Niagara Falls. Sunday we went to Lockport for a very nice  visit with Ardelle's sister, Beverly, and her niece April and family. It's been about 5 years since we've seen them. 

On Monday, the highlight of our day was a meal of wings (the tourists call them "buffalo" wings) at Duff's. We enjoyed them so much we ordered another batch to go and had them for dinner Wednesday night. On Tuesday we did the tourist thing at Niagara Falls and enjoyed it as much as we did 5 years ago. Of course we had to have a New York hot dog for lunch!

Wednesday, we moved on to Erie, PA for an overnight stop. We are in Elkhart, IN over the weekend where we will visit the RV Hall of Fame and Museum. We are also going to Bradd and Hall, a large RV furniture supplier, to look at euro recliners to use for our computer desk.

Tuesday we head up to Grand Rapids, MI for a visit with Ardelle's brother, George and his wife Peggy.

Okay,We've Kept You in Suspense Long Enough

It's been far too long since we've updated our blog! I have used the excuse that we haven't been doing anything exciting enough to report long enough! Now that we are back on the road, I promise to be more attentive to the blog.

We left our winter spot (Seawind RV Resort in So. TX) on March 1. After a few days stopover in Port Aransas for a wash and wax job on the coach, we went to Kinder, LA for our annual crawfish fix, which really scratched an itch for us. We then went to Vidalia, LA/Natchez, MS and spent a few days camped along the Mississippi River before traveling the Natchez Trace Parkway up to Red Bay, AL for our annual visit with the Tiffin folks for some service and repairs. We arrived there on March 15. While we were there, we had several after-hours modifications done on the coach by current and former Tiffin employees:

Replaced a cockpit control panel with the one used in the 2009 models that is more driver friendly

Installed a rooftop cell phone antenna to enhance our internet access in fringe areas

Installed a remote controlled ceiling fan in the bedroom

Removed our driver side couch and had a computer desk and credenza built in

Rebuilt the area where the bedroom TV was, installing a sewing cabinet for Ardelle that houses her sewing machine on a slide out tray

Installed a couple of additional cabinets

We got everything finished and left Tiffin on April 1. We were very thankful for a much shorter stay than last year. After leaving Tiffin, we had one more thing to do the before we were free, so we travelled 50 miles north to Florence, AL to get a scheduled chassis alignment. There we stayed at a nice city-owned RV park right on the Tennessee River. There was a strong threat of severe t-storms and tornados, but the good Lord took care of us and most everything skirted around us.

On Friday, we drove over to Tunica, MS to spend a few days organizing our new storage space and play in the casinos. We have done both and have even managed to stay fairly even at the casinos. We have also enjoyed some good meals, on them. Yesterday the weather turned back to winter! It is very windy and some good old Canadian air has kept the temps in the 30's and 40's with a hefty windchill factor. It's supposed to move out of here tomorrow. Although our travel plans are pretty fluid right now, we plan to bum around the eastern part of the country for awhile before heading west. Kacie, our granddaughter in Utah, is graduating from HS in mid June, so we will be stopping off there on our way back to Oregon. Our next stop will probably be near the Tennessee/Kentucky border. Then we will do a weather check to determine where we go form there. As weather permits, we hope to make our way over to DC and NYC.

We'll keep y'all posted along the way.

Back to Being Winter Texans

We left Brenda, AZ on 10/30 and moved on to Tucson where we stayed for 4 nights. On Monday, we continued west on I-10, making one night stops in Deming, NM, Van Horn, TX, and Fort Stockton, TX. The trip along I -10 was made more interesting because of the constant parade of NASCAR haulers, drivers’ motorcoaches and various other support and media equipment on their way from Texas to Phoenix for the races there on the weekend of 11/7. The drivers’ motorcoaches are unbelievable land yachts, all with custom paint jobs. Most were towing a pickup with a golf cart in the back. We got to see Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s motorcoach, which had a large enclosed trailer behind it with who knows what kind of “toys” inside. On Thursday, 11/6, we checked into Johnson Creek RV Resort in Ingram, TX...Texas hill country. This was a beautiful park built in a Pecan orchard with lots of open space. There were many deer and wild turkeys in the park. About ten miles down the road in the city of Kerrville, there was a Culver’s Frozen Custard, so we of course had to go there and indulge in some frozen custard. It’s about ten times better than the best ice cream you can eat! We always look forward to “Culver’s country” because its not available on the west coast. Today, 11/10 we arrived at Pioneer Beach RV Resort in Port Aransas on Mustang Island, where we will relax by the beach until 11/24 when we move on to our winter site on Baffin Bay.

On September 26, we drove through Columbia River Gorge on I-80 on our way to Hells Canyon on the Snake River. After a couple of stops along the way, we arrived at Copperfield Campground at Oxbow dam on the Snake River. Copperfield is one of several very nice campgrounds owned by Idaho Power in the Hells Canyon Recreation Area. The campgrounds are very nicely maintained and have electricity and water at each campsite. As I mentioned in our previous post, we wanted to investigate this area as a possible place to take the boat and stay during the late spring and/or early fall. While there is no doubt it would be an excellent place for fishing and boating and the surrounding scenery is awesome, there are some deterrents to long term stays for us. First, there is absolutely no cell phone service in the area, and I don’t mean you have to drive 10 miles down the road to find it. It just isn’t there at all! Of course this also means no internet service unless we buy a satellite internet system, which we are not likely to do. Secondly, the closest medical services are about 80 miles away. Thirdly, the closest Wal Mart, or any other larger size place to shop for goods is also about 80 miles away. Being accustomed to our near-constant contact with the outside world, we’re not sure we could stand the isolation for any period of time. Other than these drawbacks, it would be a perfect place to tow our boat to in the fall, stay for awhile then leave the boat in storage there. In the spring we could come back and stay for a while then tow the boat back to the coast for the summer.

After leaving Hells Canyon, we moved onto Sparks, NV, via Caldwell Idaho. We headed south though Nevada. We made an overnight stop in Tonopah. If you have ever been to Tonopah, I'm sure you will agree it ain’t no garden spot! When we woke up on Friday it was 28 degrees! Our first reminder that winter is on it’s way. There was some snow in the forecast, but fortunately it didn’t materialize. On Monday october 13, we settled in at Laughlin, NV for 10 days. Our plan was to hang out there until the 23rd when we would travel over to Palm Springs for a family get-to-together. However on the 14th we received word that Roger’s Mother had passed away. A memorial service in Centralia, WA was to be held on the weekend we were to be in Palm Springs. After investigating our alternatives, we decided it was best to go to Orange County so we could still get together with the family and Roger could fly up for the service.

We are now in Brenda, AZ, near Quartzsite for a couple of days to visit with our good friend Harold (camp host at Charleston Marina RV Park). Friday, we will slowly press on to our winter spot in S. Texas, dragging our feet until hurricane season is about over.

Back On The Road

Hope everyone had a great summer.

Well, to pick up where we last left off, we completed an enjoyable trip across the northern US and arrived at our summer spot in Charleston, OR on May 23. The weather there left a lot to be desired this summer. We had many windy days and the temperature only broke out of the 50's a couple of days. For the entire summer, we only managed to get out fishing about 12 times. The days we were able to get out, the fishing was generally pretty good. We didn't do any salmon fishing this year at all. Our friends Irv and Barbara from California came up in late June and fortunately we had 4 consecutive days we were able to get out fishing with them and caught our limits of rockfish every time. We went blueberry picking in Umpqua while they were here and picked 45 pounds of blueberries. A couple of weeks after Irv and Barbara left, our granddaughters Kacie and Kailey came up. While we didn't get out fishing much while they were here, we nonetheless had a good time. We went blueberry picking once again while they were here. On the day they left, grandson Brian arrived. We did manage a couple of good fishing days with him and went crabbing.

We were scheduled to stay until October 1, but by September 16 we had far too many days wishing we could get out fishing, so we decided to wrap it up and hit the road. We have been slowly working our way up the Oregon coast and on Monday, 9/22 will arrive in Centralia, WA for a few days. 

After we leave Centralia, we will probably go over to Hells Canyon on the Snake River to check out a possible place to go with the boat at the end of next summer. We are told the Crappie fishing is excellent there. 

We'll post some updates along the way as we head south. We plan to arrive in So. Texas around Thanksgiving.

LADIES AND GENTLEMAN START YOUR ENGINES

Last Thursday, we traveled from Lexington to Indianapolis. Our destination was Heartland RV Resort just outside of Indianapolis. I looked up the park in the Garmin and it was actually listed so I selected it and hit go. When we got to Greenfield, IN, where the park is located, all seemed well. We soon found out that “Mrs. Hunter” (the handle we have affectionately given our GPS) had decided the park was located in the middle of a field about 5 miles from where it was actually located. We then proceeded to drive about 10 miles, the wrong direction, in search of the park. I should mention here that when one is driving a 42 foot vehicle with a car on behind, being lost and driving on narrow country roads through corn fields is not a fun thing. Anyway, we finally found our destination about 30 minutes later than we intended to. The “resort” wasn’t a bad place if one is there for summer activities, but the camping area was somewhat run down and just so-so. Probably not one we will put on our list of future places to go.

On Friday, we made the short drive to Indianapolis Motor Speedway to go through the museum and hopefully get a glimpse of the track. I had looked at their website and it said there would be only two days for track tours in April and the dates had already passed. When we got there, however, we found out they actually were giving shuttle bus rides around the track, so that was the first order of business. We can now add to our resume that we have actually been “on” the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Seeing the track from that perspective was a real eye-opener as to what an enormous facility Indy is and the history that has taken place there seemed to come to life as we rode around the track. After the track tour, we went through the museum which took us from the roots of the Indy 500 to present day. The huge display of cars, trophy’s, pictures, and numerous other memorabilia from all eras of the sport was very interesting and impressive. This was another stop we are glad we made.

Saturday we were in Joliet, IL at the RV Park at Argosy Empress Riverboat Casino. The park there has only electric and water hookups, but is a very nice park with lots of green grass and large sites. We stayed here before about 3 or 4 years ago. We paid a visit to the casino and actually walked out of there with some of their money! What a rare treat that was! Another real treat was that the casino was ALL non-smoking. Apparently the state of Illinois has adopted a wide-sweeping non-smoking law.

On Monday we headed off to Wisconsin to begin our trek west across the northern states on our way to Washington. We have no specific destinations in mind except that Wisconsin and Minnesota are two of the four states we have not yet been to, so we can fill up two more holes on our US Map. It looks like there may be a little snow in our future, but nothing that looks too threatening.

Driving down the front straightaway

The start/finish line is all that remains of the

original brick track

Entrance to the famous "gasoline alley"

"The Pagoda" houses timing, scoring, media