2017 SE Motorhome Trip (Elkhart IN to Home)

April 5

Left Elkhart in the rain, it’s supposed to snow here today,  and drove all day in cold rain.  Elkhart to Chicago on Illinois Toll Road then met IH-80 for an exciting ride with more trucks than found on IH-35.  Turned south on IH-57, had a stop along the way for a DQ hamburger and blizzard, continuing on to Effingham, IL to spend the night.  No cable, no satellite (too many trees), no over the air TV so we read a while and then to bed.   

April 6

Rained all night with high winds.  No movement of the motorhome on the new leveling system. Rain actually stopped but drove in high winds all day arriving at Portageville, MO to a campground that had very poor instructions to find it.  This including going down a very narrow road ending at the levee of the Mississippi River where we had to disconnect the car to get turned around.  Finally found the campground and the office was closed.  We found an empty spot and got set up for the night, called the number for the office and were told they would be in the office tomorrow at 8:00 AM so we could pay.  Set up the satellite dish and enjoyed the evening.

April 7

Drove from Boot Heel RV Park in Missouri through northeast Arkansas on IH-55 then when we turned west on IH-40 we stopped at a nice rest area to fix a sandwich for our lunch.  Arrived Maumelle Park on the west side of Little Rock to find that we had been misinformed about arriving one day early as the campground was full.  But the nice lady on the desk began calling and found that someone had cancelled a reservation so we were put into a spot designed for families.   We changed our clothes and headed off to see Ann and Richard at Yaya’s for dinner.  The food was really good.  Expensive.  But a nice visit with Ann and Richard.  Back to the motorhome we discovered that the neighbors had arrived and were getting set up.  We watched a little TV  before getting in bed.  The neighbors were tenters so voices carried loudly until they finally went to bed.  After that it was tranquil.  Tomorrow we can move to our selected site with river views and lots of space between sites.

April 8

Leisure morning including a trip to Starbucks for wifi to catch up on some business requirements.  Later we got the motorhome moved to our site on the Arkansas River with great views of the water.  Late afternoon we visited with Mac and Carol at their house for drinks.  We had a good time talking about the past in Little Rock.  Back to the motorhome and early to bed.

April 9

Sunday morning spent getting ready for our day with son, John and grands, Sean and Shea.  For lunch we tried a new Mexican Restaurant close to Maumelle Park called Señor Tequilla and it was good, so much so that we decided we will go again next trip.  After our lunch we made our way to the Purple Cow for some desserts, chocolate fudge cake and ice cream.  We all enjoyed that.  When it was time for us to go back to the motorhome we spent some time preparing for our departure toward home.

April 10

Drove from Little Rock to Dallas where we spent the night at Tradition (200+ independent living apartments), home of our friend Dave who we used to motorhome with several years ago.  Dave is now 90+ and enjoys life at Tradition.  Bob would move there today.  For dinner we went to El Fenix, close to Tradition and had Mexican food again.  Maybe our Spanish will improve.

April 11

Left Tradition early and using the toll road, North Dallas Tollway, we were through Dallas during rush hour without any problem.  Arrived Waxahachie early so went to HEB to replenish our coffee and chocolate supply, get fuel in the motorhome and arrived at Lee and Vicky’s (Bob’s niece) on time.  We had a good visit, caught up on their happenings and then went to a new place on the square for lunch.  If you stop in Waxahachie look up Farm Luck Soda Fountain, good for sandwiches and soups.  Back to their house and we departed for our drive to Georgetown.  At Temple we sat for 75 minutes on I-35 without moving more than two miles.  Water being the problem over the road they closed the freeway and forced us west so Iris re-routed us on small roads to get around the problem.  We re-entered the freeway at Belton and from there it was clear sailing.  Arrived home after 6 PM so our normal trip of 3 hours turned into almost 5 hours.  Glad to be home, all seems OK with the house and yard except the star jasmine looks like it will have to go.

GREAT TRIP!

For anyone interested in our leveling jack installation this is the link supplied by the installer:

https://youtu.be/jHNjK05CVR4

Bye until next time.

2017 SE Motorhome Trip (Asheville to Elkhart)

April 2

Drove from  Renfro Valley to St Paul, IN where we stayed in a partially open campground, no sewer, limited sites with water as they think it’s still winter and we agree.  Drove admiring the pink flowers in the fields along the way.  Lunched at Cracker Barrel by parking in a huge shopping center lot next to the restaurant as all the RV spaces at Cracker Barrel we full of cars.  Dumb people can’t read signs that say “RV Parking”.

April 3

St Paul into Elkhart, IN on highway 31.   Stopped at lunch for a Subway sandwich where we could find a good parking place.  Crossed the Ohio River near Cincinnati and it looked like lots of flooding and water backup.  This was also the case at most of the rivers and creeks we crossed along the route.  Maybe snow melt! It is interesting to see how folks live off the interstate highway, lots of farming.  Arrived at the Equalizer Systems plant late afternoon, met Fred, our installer, and planned to meet in the morning for him to install the system on our motorhome.  We are hoping for easy automatic leveling once we get to a campsite and stability eliminating the rocking when one is walking around especially when one goes to the bathroom during the night and the other nearly rolls out of bed.  Had electric while parked overnight outside the service bay at Equalizer, set up the satellite dish and watched TV.

April 4

We were ready for Fred at 7:00 AM but they had sent him to deliver another coach at 6:00 AM so we had to wait for his return to get started on our install.  Once he was ready we loaded our dirty laundry and our hungry bodies into the Fit and headed to the recommended cafe for breakfast and to use the laundry next door.  Breakfast was great.   We joked upon entering that we could not expect grits here but were surprised to see them on the menu.  The waitress explained that the owner of the cafe was from Arkansas.  We understood.  Then to the cleanest laundromat we had ever been in.  A woman was constantly cleaning the fronts of machines and doing laundry for folks that drop off for washing, drying and folding - paying by the pound.  About an hour after we arrived a very well-dressed lady showed up and walked up the main aisle looking at each machine then retraced her steps, said “good morning” to us as she passed and left.  Obviously the owner.  Iris told the lady working there that it was the cleanest laundry we had ever seen.  She lit up like a neon sign.   We then went to Home Depot to make a few purchases and across the street was Walmart.  We can rarely pass one up so we stocked up on some stuff necessary to life in an RV.  Finally we found a convenient Red Lobster.  We often order a combo platter, with salmon, lobster tail, and shrimp, to share.  Also we shared a bowl of clam chowder, which our Mexican waiter from near San Miguel, divided up for us into two cups. Returning to Equalizer we got our books to sit in their waiting room and read.  At about 3:30 PM Fred drove our coach in front of the door and announced he was finished.  We had expected 1 days but had scheduled 2 if necessary.  As far as we could tell they did a bang-up job and it worked like it should.  By the time we paid (painful) it was too late to start our return home so we drove a short distance to the Elkhart Campground (catchy name?) to spend the night.  Got level, watched some TV, read a little and bedtime.  Sure enough there was no rocking of the coach when we moved around.  Nice and stable.

2017 SE Motorhome Trip (Asheville, NC)

March 31

Biltmore today!  Iris’ knee went out just as we were leaving the motorhome so when we got to Biltmore she was driven to the front door like a Vanderbilt, then Bob went and parked the car and took a shuttle back to the front door.  

Biltmore has steps - so we did the main floor without mishap to see how the Vanderbilts lived in the late 1880’s, the enclosed atrium called the winter garden.

Then to the Banquet Hall:

Obviously there were many more rooms to see on the ground floor - breakfast room, salon, music room, loggia, library and tapestry gallery.  Then we made it up to the second floor to see George Vanderbilt's bedroom, Mrs. Vanderbilts, bedroom, oak sitting room.  Completing this we saw the stairs to the 3rd floor and Iris balked so a nice lady took us to a screening room where we saw a video of all the third floor rooms on display as well as some that were not open to the tour.  This provided a nice sit-down.  The elevator only operates between the ground floor and the 2nd floor so we had used it to get up and now we used it to get down.  A rest stop in the stables plus a snack to hold us until lunch.

Iris was unable to walk through the gardens so Bob went to make photos so she could see it that way.

We re-entered the house and walked downstairs to the basement to see the servants rooms, dressing rooms for the pool, the swimming pool, gymnasium, kitchens, laundries, walk-in coolers, servants dining room and then a short stair to the Bachelors Wing to see the billiard room, smoking room, gun room and hallway.

This house is the largest private residence in the USA - 175,000 square feet,  250 rooms, 65 fireplaces, 35 bedrooms and 43 bathrooms.  The estate is 125,000 acres including the winery.  We made our way to the Antler Hill complex of hotels, shopping and restaurants and had a nice lunch at the Bistro. 

Then we drove to one of our favorite stores, Walmart, for a few purchases before making our way back to the campground to get ready for our drive tomorrow.

April 1  April Fools Day

We left thinking this would be a boring drive north toward our goal of Elkhart, IN but found it very interesting; scenery was fantastic, flowering trees, Great Smokey National Park, Cherokee National Forest, Cumberland National Park all through the Appalachian Mountains.

Campground was at Renfro Valley KY that has a Saturday night country music show with name stars, really big name stars every week.  This has been going on for 56 years.  It is part of complex including the campground so we expected it to be loud but the show is from 6:30 PM to 10:00 PM so we heard everyone crank up to leave but after that is was quiet.  Watched the Final Four game between SC and Gonzaga and to bed.