If you like cloudy, foggy, rainy Fall weather, today was your day. We departed from St. Louis at 7:30 AM CDT at 69 degrees. It was foggy most of the day, but we didn’t hit rain until we approached Kansas City. Fortunately, the rain was never heavy enough to slow us down, but once it started it was very constant.
Out of pure luck we managed to time our trip through Kansas City shortly after the Kansas City vs Jacksonville NFL game started so we were not impacted by game traffic.
We stopped for fuel in Columbia, MO at a QuickTrip station where the diesel fuel was much less expensive than at the high end travel plazas (Flying-J and Loves) and a very nice store (comparable to a Wawa station). Beth discovered their Iced Tea bar (which was massive and had every type of Iced Tea you can imagine). She loved her unsweetened tea (in Styrofoam cup).
We stopped for lunch at the first rest area on the I-70 Kansas Turnpike and enjoyed our leftover spaghetti from Beth’s retirement luncheon on Thursday (thanks Mike and Rick for the second great meal!).
We arrived at the Triple-J RV Park in Russell, KS at 4:50 PM CDT. The temperature upon arrival was 52 degrees and the rain was pretty steady, so we turned the heater on for the first time in ages and hunkered down watching host Scott Hanson on the NFL RedZone for the rest of the day.
We started the day with a wonderful breakfast at Cracker Barrel and departed by 7:15 AM EDT. Whenever we go on a road trip, we like to purchase large submarine sandwiches from PJ’s Sandwich Shop (our favorite sandwich shop discovered when we lived in Parrish). Today we polished off the second halves of our subs for lunch at the Illinois Welcome Center on I-24 (just across the Ohio River from Paducah, KY). The sandwiches were delicious.
We arrived at the Casino Queen RV Park in East St. Louis, IL (just across the Mississippi River from the Gateway Arch) at 3:40 PM CDT. We were too tired from 9 1/2 hours of travel to donate our retirement savings to the casino, so Beth did some laundry and cooked some delicious chili which we enjoyed while watching college football. Beth thoroughly enjoyed a hot, very high pressure shower at the campground public facilities.
The day started early with Beth driving into the office for her final day. She was kind enough to load the varmints into the RV last night (she also slept in the RV with them) so I wouldn’t have to fight that battle on my own. I finished packing the RV and then headed up to the office to pick her up. I stopped at the Ace Hardware on Big Bend and topped off the LP tank and then the Shell station on Bruce B. Downs to top off the fuel tank.
Once I arrived at the office I hooked up the Tahoe and by the time I was finished my former co-worker/boss Alex and her co-worker Kay stopped by the RV to wish Beth goodbye. Beth hadn’t completed her exit interview yet, but they all ran into each other on the elevator and said their goodbyes.
Beth and a group of her co-workers escorted her out to see the RV and say their goodbyes. We departed at 11:40 AM EDT. I got a bit sleepy and Beth took over driving while I napped from Gainesville to north of Valdosta. I took over and she went back to the bedroom and took her first successful retirement nap.
We thought we had strategically avoided Atlanta traffic by arriving there around 7:30PM, but we got stuck in some traffic south of I-675 for about 30 minutes. Then we were hit by construction traffic twice north of Atlanta that took about an hour to get through. We finally arrived at the Adairsville, GA Cracker Barrel at 9:30 PM EDT. We called ahead and verified that we are welcome to park here for the night. Can’t wait for Hash Brown Casserole in the morning.
We finished packing Friday after work and decided to take off and knock out a few hours of the trip. We spent Friday night in the Lake City Cracker Barrel parking lot and had a delicious breakfast (with extra orders of Hash Brown Casserole) before heading West.
Naomi Enjoying Some Sun on I-10 Westbound
We left Cracker Barrel around 9:30AM and arrived at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park Site #14 at approximately 2:30PM.
This gave us enough time to setup the campsite and get the satellite dish connected for the Purdue vs Rutgers game in the Big 10 Conference tournament. We were able to place R2D2 in a spot on the left side of our site with a Southwestern view between the gap in two trees and pickup Dish’s Western Satellites (110, 119, 129). The campground also has HD cable which can be picked up as long as you have a TV with a QAM tuner. We were able to pickup all of the local channels on antenna as well. Verizon LTE upload/download speeds measured in at 20/10 Mb/s.
Sunday
Topsail Site 14
Topsail Site 14
We took the shuttle to the beach at 10:00 AM. The beach here is very pristine and very unmolested. It was about 65 degrees with no wind. My new perfect beach climate.
Following our trip to the beach we drove into Destin and ate lunch at Buffalo Jack’s. This is a nice little Sports Bar with the best boneless wings (all white meat chicken breast) I have ever had.
Monday
Due to an unexpected issue with our RV toilet, we had to make a run to the Panama City Camping World to purchase a Floor Flange Seal Kit. On the way there, Beth used TripAdviser to find Patches Pub & Grill on Panama City Beach. What a great meal. I had Fish & Chips (Cod) which was great, but Beth had a French Dip made with Brisket smoked on their back lot with Burnt End Baked Beans (she wins!).
French Dip Brisket with Burnt End Baked Beans
Tuesday
We drove to Seaside, FL to see the perfect little beach town selected for the filming of The Truman Show in 1998. We drove by Truman’s (Jim Carrey) home and took a quick photo.
Truman’s Home
Wednesday
Following another fun morning playing with toilet seals, we drove into Destin to eat at Harry T’s. This was by far the best meal of the trip. Beth had a nice Chicken Caesar Salad, but I won again (as always) with my choice of Grouper Strips. There was enough grouper here to feed an army and it had a real light spiced breading that was to die for.
Harry T’s
Beth’s Chicken Caesar Salad and Brian’s Grouper Strips
Beth’s Dessert
Thursday & Friday
We both had to work Thursday and Friday 🙁 However, we did manage to cook some nice Sam’s Club steaks and baked potato over a fire. Unfortunately, Beth started having symptoms of a head cold after dinner and was miserable Friday and Saturday.
Phoebe – Trash Inspector
Baking the Potato
Steak & Baked Potato
Saturday
Beth was still pretty sick for the trip home, but the beauty of a motor home is that she managed to sleep on the couch for almost the entire panhandle. Traffic was pretty heavy due to Bike Week and Spring Break traffic and slowed to a crawl from Ocala to the Turnpike. We departed at 9AM and arrived home at 5:30PM.
We spent New Year’s 2018 weekend at Cypress Glen Campground in the Withlacoochee State Forest at Silver Lake in site #46. This is a nice campground, but there are not a lot of level sites big enough for a 34′ motorhome. We barely fit in our site, had to jack our front wheels 8″ – 10″ off the ground, and our front door barely cleared a large oak tree. It was difficult to enter or exit the camper without making contact with the tree.
We managed to place our portable satellite dish in a spot where we could acquire 2 of the 3 Dish Network Satellites which provided us with every channel we required for New Year’s Day college football. Satellite access from any other site would have been difficult. There was no access to broadcast television via the antenna. We did get good Verizon voice and LTE data coverage as I was “on call” all weekend and unfortunately it was a busy weekend.
All negatives aside, we camped here with friends and had a great time. We took the Weber Bullet Smoker with us and smoked ribs on Saturday. Smoking at the camp site was easy, but cleaning up the mess while camping was not nearly as convenient as at home.
