'16/#9 Forget The Rest Of The World!

With Manchester, TN in our rear view mirror we figured on one more over night stay before we get to Elkhart, IN. Looking at the map and taking into consideration how we were feeling somewhere around Louisville, KY seemed like a good place to stop.

Now you have to understand we are of a one track mind right now. We are traveling with blinders on. And we only have the finish line of this journey in mind. Do you see where I am going with this? We didn't! Trying to find a campground near Louisville seem harder than it should be until someone pointed out this was Derby weekend. With over 150,000 people attending the Kentucky Derby and thousands more just wanting to be near the action, campsites are as rare as Triple Crown winners. Ok, no more horse references. We got lucky since we would be in and gone before all the RV parks got full. By post time we will be long gone from anywhere near Louisville.

The overnight temps went down into the low 40's but we were prepared. Furnace on, quilt on the bed, and the electric blanket plugged in and we were nice and toasty all night. Still we had to get out of bed in the morning and shower if we wanted to be out of here reasonably early.

Up, dressed, and ready to go Louisville will soon be the next view in the rear view mirror. So I am signing off now from our home near the Kentucky Derby because....

Home is where we park it,
Frank and Mary

'16/#8 And The Bumps In The Road Start

Mary wasn't feeling great yesterday. Since I had not been feeling good for a few days before of course it was my fault that Mary got sick. I am the husband and it is my job to be wrong. Woke up this morning and neither one of us wanted anything for breakfast, which translates to no one wants to cook. So we hit the road and would see what happens as we woke up.

Mary's app found some cheap diesel so we decided to fill up. It was a Murphy station. So we found the Walmart and no Murphy! The Murphy was a free standing station across the street. Now to get there involved a right on the main road and a U-turn to get back to the Murphy. All this with a 40' trailer. This Murphy guy may have cheap fuel but he is becoming a pain in the butt! It was worth it because we saved 16 cents per gallon.

Back on the road and it was time to get something to eat. We like Cracker Barrel because they usually have RV parking. Into the parking lot and over to the RV/Bus spaces. I don't know what kind of RVs they are expecting but I couldn't get half of our rig in to one of those spots. I back up to the far end of the parking lot and took up about 8 regular parking spots. TOO BAD! It was a nice breakfast and Mary got to drink a gallon of hot tea. It made her feel better and our bellys were full.

Onward we go. Past Macon, around Atlanta, through the usual construction all to the harmonizing tunes of us both clearing our sinuses while destroying the forest one tissue at a time! We stopped at the Tennessee welcome center to get information on campgrounds. Found one in Manchester that sounded promising and would have us off the road by dinner time.

The campground was supposed to be a couple miles off I-24 but after 15 miles of winding 2 lane country roads we came to an intersection with 2 dead ends. I was hearing banjo music and it was time to turn it around. Back on the interstate we found a much pricier KOA but didn't care at that point. Mary wasn't feeling well again and I was getting tired.

The KOA is nice and clean and I didn't have to drive any more. We had dinner which was primarily soup for the sickies. Mary is getting the blankets out because the overnight temps are going down into the 40's. We may boondock yet since I did get the generator running. It was just the propane transfer switch had to be reset.

We are half way to our destination and are pleased with our progress. It will be an  early night what with dealing with the time zone change. Yes we have crossed into the Central Time Zone. So goodnight whatever time it is from our home in Manchester TN because....

Home is where we park it,
Frank and Mary

'16/#7 First Full Day On The Road

We opened our eyes at 7am and got ready to hit the road. Mary wanted a refresher course on our macerator (aka The Poop Shooter!). For those of you new to the blog the macerator is a garbage disposal/pump for our poop water. Sounds gross but it has it's advantages at times over the usual gravity dump system. It is also fun to think of ways to start trouble. Think feces throwing monkey with a turbo charged launcher. I'll leave the rest to your imagination. Everything was unhooked and stowed. The truck was hooked up, trash disposed of and the final walk-around to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything. It was now 9am and we didn't care! No more clocks to punch. No schedules to keep. It is now time to relax and enjoy.

Down the local streets and onto I-95 and we were on our way. Oops! Forgot to fuel the truck up before we left. No problem, we will stop on the road. As everyone knows fuel on the interstate is always more expensive than a ways off. We were finding prices 30 cents over what they were getting in town. Not a problem, Mary has an app for that, Gas Buddy. While everyone was getting $2.45 a gallon she found a Valero station that was getting $2.07! Sign me up!!!  We get there and there is no way I am going to get into the station pulling a 40' long, 13' tall trailer. Again, no problem. Unhook the trailer on the side of the road, pull in, fuel up, and hook back up to the trailer. Simple as that. Everything went smoothly and it only added 5 minutes to the stop.

Back on the road and Mary is having sinus issues. Into the back seat with a pillow and she is out like a light. About 1:30 I pull into a rest area and we have a nice lunch. The generator wouldn't start but nothing to worry about. It gets fickle some times. On through Jacksonville and onto I-10. Time to find another place to fuel up. We are fueling up more often because of the 37 gallon tank. Our old truck could carry 74 gallons. More stops, but who cares? We are in no hurry. Mary's app finds a Murphy gas station with diesel for $2.04 a gallon! Yay!! A little problem. The Murphy is in the parking lot of one of the busiest Walmart's I have seen in a long time. I can get into the pump OK, just have to watch out for traffic. I get to the pump and have no problem. Fueling is finished and every car in a 20 mile radius has come to the Murphy station. I'm not getting out! Marry blocks traffic so I can back out of the station and down the parking aisle for Walmart to get the hell out of there. Success!! And we are back on the road again.

We get onto I-75 and head into Georgia. Crossing state lines makes it official...we are RVing again! Ran into rain, well actually a down pour. Then there was a clicking sound which we figured out was small hail. It didn't last too long but we were getting tired and hungry so we looked for a place to stop for the night. Boon docking as out until I got a chance to check the generator, so we found a little RV park in Arabi, GA. The kids that run it just bought it 4 days ago so it is a work in progress. They are excited and ambitious and we think they are going to turn it into something really nice.

Well I am feed but still tired so I think I am going to take a shower and call it a night here in our home in Arabi because.....

Home is where we park it,
Frank and Mary

'16/#6 Finally On Our Way

Sunday was the day that we start our new adventure. Driving out past the Southern Charm sign for the last time was bitter sweet. Lots of memories and lots of friends left behind, but the rest of the country in front of us. For those left behind, just know that we will be thinking of you often.

Our first stop is in Port St Lucie, FL to see Don and Grace before we head out of state. It feels good knowing they have each other and are doing well. A couple of nights there and we will then head north to Indiana to get some work done on the rig.

The trip across the state was uneventful but it did get us back into RV mode. The new truck performed flawlessly and I am looking forward to seeing if the fuel mileage will be better than the old truck. The ride seems to be smoother and the 6.7 engine feels more powerful than the old 6.0.

Of course there has to be something, even a minor thing, that has us stop. Almost to our destination we have a car pass us by with the universal and useless signal that something is wrong. The passenger is hanging out the window, flailing her arms, and pointing towards the rear of the rig. That could mean anything from "a light is out" to
"the trailer fell of the truck"! Looking in the mirrors and out the rear window we see nothing amiss but we pull over to check. Better safe than sorry, right? We walk around the trailer and see nothing. The tires are all good, nothing is hanging from underneath, lights are fine....so what's up? Yes UP! It seems that one of the covers for the roof vents has come unhinged. Up on the roof I swing it back in place and lock it down. No idea how it could have come undone but all is now OK. Thank you to whoever flagged us down. It was something minor but thank you still.

We plan to leave Tuesday and take our time getting to Indiana. We have heard of too many flat tires in the RV forums lately and from experience I believe that excessive speed is a major contributor. I know that since we have kept our speeds below 65 mph tire problems are almost nonexistent.

So this is goodnight from our home in Port St Lucie because....

Home is where we park it,
Frank and Mary

'16/#5 Crunch Time!

We are down to our final week and it is time to finish our to do list before we hit the road. To simplify things we rented a storage unit and emptied the trailer of anything we didn't need for our trip to Indiana. Once we are ready to hit the road for our big trip it will be easier to organize things since everything will be out of the trailer and we can start from scratch setting things up the way we want.

The trailer has been moved 3 times this week which gave us some much needed practice hooking up and unhooking. There has been a great improvement over the comedy of errors from last week. Also we drove the rig about 100 miles to check it out for anything else that might need tending to.

This is the first time we have towed with the new truck and it performed perfectly. I drove to Pinellas county to the storage unit in the morning and  once Mary was awake she drove back.

To celebrate a good day we treated ourselves to dinner at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City. It is a favorite for us and we will miss it once we leave Florida.

Time for a nap and later more to do list. Til the next post from our home for one more week in Zephyrhills....

Because home is where we park it,
Frank and Mary

'16/#4 Getting Ready, Getting Close

Yesterday was another long day. The rig went into the shop for it's road readiness check up. The General RV doesn't take reservations so it is first come first served. RVers deal with it differently than others. When possible they will show up the night before and sleep in the service line until morning. It is hard to get there earlier than that!

I got there an hour and a half early and was third in line. Fortunately they had enough openings to get me in, but they weren't sure at first. I spent the whole day sitting in the waiting room while they gave the rig a good going over. Not the most efficient group there but it finally was done.

By the time I got back to the trailer park it was7 pm. That was 12 hours that I will never get back! Now we have to finish packing stuff away for travel. With only 1 week to go all I can hear is the clock ticking away.

The to do list is getting shorter and we are getting excited. So long for now from our home in Zephyrhills because.....

Home is where we park it,
Frank and Mary

"16/#3 Moving??????

This past weekend was interesting. Tiring, frustraing, productive, but interesting. We have finally moved on. Not very far mind you, it was a move to another site in the same park. "Why?" you might ask would we move to another site whem we are planning to leave in a couple of weeks.

First, we always get a safety check before we head out after sitting for a while. The new site makes it easier to pull out at whatever ungodly hour of the morning I must to be at the head of the line at he shop. Pulling all the wheels, checking the brakes, greasing the bearings, etc.

Second, we wanted to go through the "crap" we have gathered while we were sitting still and get rid of what we didn't need. All RVers and anyone who has read this blog in the past knows how often the RV has to go on a diet to keep it under the weight restrictions dictated by the chasis components.

Third, we thought it would be a good idea to go through our RV routine to decamp. Stowing gear, hooking up the truck, and all the checks and double checks associated with the process. This part turned out to be the most embarassing and humbling part of our weekend. It was a comedy of errors, literally! It was amazing how much we forgot that was once done as second nature. We are RVers, we are NOT supposed to sit still for 3 years!!!! We are glad the there weren't too many people eatching. That would have made it worse.

The move was successful and we are set up on our new site. And the adventure is starting.

Until the next blog form our new home still in Zephyrhills because....
Home is where we park it.

Frank and Mary