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.

2017 SE Motorhome Trip (Asheville NC)

March 30
Opps!  Yesterday I dated March 29 as the 30th.  If you look at the photos you'll find the correct date.
Anyway forward -----------
March 30
Drove in the rain from Concord to Asheville, 135 miles.  Arrived at expensive campground, closest to Biltmore House, good wifi, cable does not work so was able to get the satellite to work in spite of lots of trees.  Got set up and made our way to Nine Mile, a restaurant recommended on Trip Advisor.  We found it using the GPS got seated and read the menu.  Iris had squash, zucchini, red peppers, shrimp in siraccchi sauce over linguine topped with scollops.  Bob had scollops and mussels with squash, zucchini, sun dried tomatoes over pasta.  It was very good with a glass of French white wine.

 Bob's selection

 Entrance

Iris' selection

From Nine Mile we drove to the Basilica of Saint Lawrence, built 1905-06, very impressive, built in Spanish Renaissance style with domed roof.  The architect was Rafael Guastavino from Barcelona, emigrated to USA in the mid-1880’s to work on Biltmore House.  No wood or steel  beams were used in the entire structure.  All the stained glass windows from Munich are beautiful.  Not being Catholic we learned that the basilica designation is bestowed by the pope to certain churches because of their antiquity, dignity, historical importance or significance as a place of worship.  Presently there are only 56 basilica in the USA.

 Interior of the basilica

 Alter

 Ceiling

 Exterior

 Stained glass window

Baptistry detail

From the church we drove to Grove Park Inn, an Omni Hotel, built early 1900's, rest stop for many famous people including the "vagabonds", Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Firestone.  Huge fireplaces using 6' logs, shops, originally 130 rooms now over 500, interesting architecture.

Back to the motorhome for happy hour, dinner of left-over BBQ, some HGTV that Bob slept through then to bed but disturbed much of the night by the rain.

2017 SE Motorhome Trip (Concord NC) con't

March 30
Today we did not get in a hurry, had a light breakfast, Iris cleaned house and we got ourselves ready for the day.  We arrived at the "Smoke Pit" about 11:30 and the parking lot was already almost full.  Inside the line to order was almost out the door so we joined in and ultimately got our order in - 3 meats (ribs, brisket & pulled pork), sweet potato casserole, fried okra and cornbread.  Three kinds of sauce on each table, we mixed two and tore into the meat.  It was outstanding.  We had one order, we both ate from it and brought home at least as much as we ate.  NC is famous for its BBQ, not the same as Texas but loved it anyway.  From the "Pit" we drive to the downtown of Concord, parked on the street, walked to the old courthouse

and picked up a booklet for self-guided walking tour of historic Concord.  There were wonderful big houses along Union Street built in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  We walked several blocks to be able to stop and admire each one.  Some of our favorites were:

The flowers and trees were almost as good as the houses so we admired the plantings along the way:

Arrived back at the motorhome in time for a nap, happy hour, TV, and bed.

2017 SE Motorhome Trip (Concord NC)

March 27

Drive today from Charleston to Concord, NC with a stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch.  Our campground, Glenwood Acres, is in the shadow of the Charlotte Speedway of NASCAR fame.  It literally looms over everything around it.  Nice park.

March 28

Laundry has to be done again today, seems like every other day.  A nice laundromat was recommended by the campground manager, expensive but we were able to get four washers immediately.  Bob ducked out to have a haircut at the salon next door, much needed.  Folded all the clothes, got groceries and made our way back to the campground to fix our lunch.  Lamb chops fixed on the George Forman grill and salad.  After washing the dishes we set off for the Rocky River Presbyterian Church where we met the church administrator and the pastor.  They gave us a guided tour of the sanctuary and booklets and maps of the prior church sites and graveyards.  

The first cemetery was behind the “new” church, dedicated May 2, 1861, a beautiful red brick building. Here we found a lot of Spears markers.  These were mostly second and third generation Spears graves. 

 From here we drove to the “Spears Graveyard” where the only Spears buried there is William Spears, born 1731, arrived in Carolina from Scotland in 1740, sired 10 children with his wife, Agnes Wallace, and died in 1803.  The cemetery is a bit neglected with lots of leaves and branches on the ground but William’s monument is clearly visible.

Then a drive to see the “Spears House” later known as Caldwell Creek Farm and Eudy Farm. It is on the national register of historic homes, located near Concord, Cabarrus County, North Carolina. The farmhouse, built by William Spears,was constructed in stages and, prior to 1825, reached the form of a dogtrot. The original pen was probably built sometime between about 1760 and 1795  and the second pen was probably built between 1796 and 1800. The house was restored from 1982 to 1987.  We drove into the driveway of the house and promptly met Jill Ray, the current owner of the house and 42 acres, who graciously invited us in to tour the house and see how she had restored it in the the 1980’s.  At the time they bought the property they had to make the decision to build their “dream house” or put the money into renovating the tumbling down dogtrot oak log house.  They decided to restore and keep it up for someday to be a museum.  It is the oldest standing house in Cabarrus County.  Jill showed us the interior and how one of the two buildings had to have two additional levels of logs installed in order to make the height right for incorporating the dogtrot and installing the single roof over the two halves and the dogtrot.  The  dogtrot  space was used for the kitchen downstairs, the stairs and upstairs the bathroom (only one). We tore ourselves away to keep from trying to stay the night.  Then the drive back to the campground of about 10 miles.  Interesting things - William Spears owned all the land around the Spears Graveyard as a plantation so he was probably more wealthy than any later Spears will ever be.  One story from Jill was that William’s grand-son, Columbus lived in the house many years and when one of his teenaged daughters died he was so distraught that instead of taking her body to the church (water may have been over the road) he buried her in the back yard of the house planting jonquils on her grave and one daffodil at the head.  They still today come up that way every spring.  Wow!

2017 Southeast Motorhome Trip (Charleston)

March 25

Up early (again) in order to get into Charleston, 10 miles from our campground.  First stop was Walmart for exchange of our Rand McNally atlas that did not have the first 8 pages thus missing Alabama and Alaska, then on into Charleston where parking is a real problem.  We finally parked close to our chosen restaurant in a dingy dirty parking deck for $8.  Walked back half a block to SNOB (Slightly North of Broad) recommended by Carolyn and Randall and it was outstanding.  Bob had fried chicken with grilled eggplant, zucchini, tomato while Iris had fried chicken livers with polenta.  We shared the apple pie and its a good thing we did.  It was a huge portion.  Back to the car, Iris could not walk up again due to bad knee so Bob got the car and drove down the ramp to pick her up. Then to find a parking place near the shop where we were to pick up our tickets for the house tours.  Tickets in hand, we then went to the city parking deck and found a space on level 7.  Fortunately an elevator got us back to street level and away we went for our tour of 8 houses on Meeting Street.  We were able to make 6 and then Iris was not able to go any further so we returned to the car and made our way out of town back to the campground.  A light supper, watched Xavier go down to defeat by Gonzaga, and to bed early.

March 26

Leisurely morning getting ready for our reservation at Leyla’s Lebanese Restaurant at 12:30.  Arrived right on time, greeted and seated by Leyla. We decided to share several starters for our lunch.  Everything reminded us of foods we had when we lived in Saudi Arabia and it was all very good, with baklava for dessert.  Then we proceeded to walk it all off on the walking tour of King Street.  Three houses on Broad Street, not impressive as two were B&B’s and one was a real estate office but the five on King Street were exceptional, much better to us than yesterday.  These were mostly individual houses one room wide in order to catch the breezes.  Walking almost to the bottom of King Street as well as standing waiting for entry to some of the houses was tiring,  but a very enjoyable day.  Back to the motorhome to watch NC against KY.  The locals are hoping for a finals of NC and SC.  To bed.