We wanted to get more testing in with the new camper and managed to score a site at Jetty Park Campground. This is a county campground that is directly on the canal that all the cruise ships use in Port Canaveral. The weather was great the entire time. Our only complaint was that it didn’t get cool enough any of the nights to test our heater. We did discover one other issue to address under warranty. Our black tank flushing system does not work. I believe they have the back-flow prevention valve installed backwards (preventing water from entering the black tank), but I’ll let Camping World confirm that.
Our friends Todd & Melissa have a condominium in Cocoa Beach that was just a few miles down the road from the campground. Todd was in town to coordinate maintenance on the condominium on our last two days and we managed to get together for lunch at Long Doggers. This restaurant specializes in Hot Dogs so I had to try one. It was pretty good, but not great. Beth had the chicken wings and they were incredible.
On our last night we met Todd at Grills Seafood which is located right on the water at Port Canaveral. We ate at this same restaurant with Todd & Melissa back in 2004 when we had a Time Share in Port Canaveral. On this trip I had the Cheese Steak (which was excellent) and Beth had a Filefish special (which was also excellent).
We wanted to take our new camper out for a good test run so we took it to Alafia River State Park for three nights. We stayed in Site #21 which we also stayed in back in January of 2011. Florida was still experiencing summer temperatures so we were pleased to verify that our rig’s two air conditioners had no problem keeping us cool inside. We only found a few minor warranty issues (microwave door not opening, solar panel not working, and a power outlet with only one screw).
We had dry weather until it rained the last night (most of the night). Due to the summer rains, out site had a lot of standing water in the morning. We packed to leave in a wet and muddy mess.
After selling the motorhome it didn’t take us long to lock in on our requirements for the next RV. We decided that we were probably done with the 7 to 8 thousand mile circumnavigations of the country and therefore didn’t require another motorhome (not that you can’t go on a long trip with a trailer). We also decided that we didn’t want a pickup truck as a tow vehicle because we have 3 grandchildren and a German Shepherd grand-dog to haul around when we visit them. We’d rather have an SUV with three rows of seating. This ruled out Fifth Wheel campers.
We also knew that we definitely required a king size bed. It didn’t take us long to determine that whatever we would purchase would be in the 28′ – 30′ size range and weigh over 7,000 lbs. That eliminated our current tow vehicle (2012 Tahoe). Tahoe’s are capable of towing over 7,000 lbs, but only if you purchase one with the Heavy Duty Towing Package which ours did not have. While we were in Wisconsin this summer we ran across a neighbor that had a 2018 Ford Expedition (and he was towing a decent sized Travel Trailer). We really liked the looks of his Expedition and he said that he was very happy with its towing capabilities. The same situation exists with the Expedition in that you have to make sure you purchase one with the Heavy Duty Towing Package in order to tow more than 6,000 lbs. Those are hard enough to find new, even harder used. Fortunately, the Queen of Gasbuddy is just as good at finding vehicles as she is fuel. After a few weeks of searching she found a 2018 Expedition at the AutoNation Ford in St Petersburg. She saw it online in the late afternoon and made an appointment with a salesperson to see it the next day at 11AM. The next morning while we were getting dressed we even got a call from the sales manager to verify that we would be there at 11AM to see the vehicle. We arrived at 11AM and they could not locate the vehicle on the lot (even though the salesperson had seen it in person the night before). It turned out that some customer in their Brooksville dealership had requested to see it and even though we had an appointment to see it they shipped it to their Brooksville dealership overnight. We were NOT happy. By the time they finally found the vehicle the customer had not bought it (we don’t know if they ever saw it). Because it’s so hard to find used Expeditions with the Heavy Duty Towing Package, we put $1,000 down on the vehicle (sight unseen) and had them ship it back. We put it on the credit card so we could cancel it if the vehicle turned out to be a dud. Then we went to the beach for lunch and took our time. When we returned from lunch the vehicle had just arrived and looked excellent. With only 29,000 miles on the odometer and 7,000 miles left on the bumper to bumper warranty we didn’t hesitate to complete the purchase transaction. Because it was Missing In Action upon our arrival at the dealership, Beth named it “Mia”.
Mama and Her 2018 Expedition (Mia)
Shortly after purchasing the SUV we found a Travel Trailer floor plan that we really liked. It was a Keystone Cougar 25RDS which Camping World sells. We just had to find one with the right options (two air conditioners, refrigerator with 12 Volt residential compressor, and theater seating). In our initial searches there were none in Florida with all of those options, but once again, the Queen of Gasbuddy eventually discovered one that had just arrived at the Camping World in New Port Richey. We went up and looked at it the next day, were very pleased with the floor plan, and after some haggling purchased it. Because the model name is Cougar, Beth named it Kitty.
On the final drive home Beth and I began to discuss the age of our motorhome, how fortunate we were not to encounter any major failures during our retirement travels, and the amount of money we had spent on maintenance in the last several years. We decided to see what the market would bear if we put it up for sale. After we unpacked all of our travel supplies and cleaned the rig up I called a broker I had met in the past to setup a time to discuss our options. Before we knew it he was at our home and paid cash for the motorhome. It’s possible we could have done better on price, but when you consider that it needed new tires, a couple of repairs, he paid in cash, and what little effort we exerted to sell it we were pleased. However, we will definitely miss the motorhome.
After thoroughly flushing our black tank this morning we departed from Southern Retreat RV Park in Brunswick, GA at 8:18AM EDT. We had enough fuel to make it home so our only stop was at a Rest Area (couldn’t sully the freshly cleaned black tank). The drive was uneventful and we arrived home at 1PM EDT and commenced unpacking. Our final tally was 6,902 miles on our 3 month and 8 day trip.
The cats were happy to be home and returned to their regular routines including an afternoon nap on our bed. They are definitely happy to be able to hang out on their porch.
We arrived at Southern Retreat RV Park in Brunswick, GA just after 4PM EDT. We stayed in this same park this spring when we brought Aunt Jo up to visit her family in Savannah, GA. We were in Site #28 on that trip and Site #17 on this trip. We made reservations to stay here because it’s a Friday and we were afraid it might be crowded on a weekend. The campground is not even close to full, so reservations definitely aren’t required this time of year.
We plan to be home shortly after lunch tomorrow. The kitties and the humans will be very happy.
We’re ready to arrive home and decided to break our 250 mile/day rule and went for 411 miles today. Therefore, we got up at 7AM EDT and departed from Twin Grove RV Resort in Pine Grove, PA by 8AM EDT (crazy!). Because we got up so early, we didn’t want to mess around with making breakfast, so we stopped at the McDonald’s at our campground’s exit. It was the coolest McDonald’s we have experienced in an RV. They had a whole parking lot set aside for Trucks and RV’s. No parking concerns whatsoever.
Since we knew we would be on the road for close to 9 hours we pulled into a Rest Area a couple of hours down the road and switched drivers. As always, I took advantage of the opportunity to display my napping skills. I woke up about an hour into my nap to our big grey cat Kirby getting sick (vomiting) in our kitchen area. Beth then pointed out that he had been sick (both litter box and vomiting) all night and became concerned. We stopped and swapped drivers at the Rest Area where we had originally planned to eat lunch. We skipped lunch and I started driving again while Beth started calling Veterinarian Offices near the campground where we had tonight’s reservations. She contacted one that was open until 6PM EDT and they said they fit us in once we arrived.
We stopped for fuel at the TA Travel Center in Lexington, VA where we purchased diesel fuel for $2.79/gallon. While I was fueling up and washing bugs off the front of the RV, Beth went inside and purchased Chappy’s Deli Spicy Chicken Sandwiches which weren’t bad at all for truck stop food. Another notable point regarding this TA Travel Center is that it also had an attached campground with full hookups for $37.50/night.
We ate our sandwiches on the road, drove a bit harder than we usually do and arrived at the Carroll Veterinary Clinic in Hillsville, VA by 3:30PM EDT. While Beth filled out the paperwork, I disconnected the Tahoe because the parking lot was too small to turn around in with the Tahoe attached. We only had to wait about 20 minutes after we got the Tahoe detached and the RV turned around before Kirby had been taken in, treated and returned to the RV (owners could not go inside). Just when you wonder if there is still goodness in the world, you come upon a place like this that confirms it. No qualms about not having an appointment, etc. We’ll bookmark this place (in terms of RV parking and emergency vet care).
After our Veterinarian visit, my varmints and I headed on to the campground (about 10 miles away) while Beth stopped at the Food Lion grocery store for supplies. Utt’s Campground is a beautiful Virginia hillside campground in Fancy Gap, VA with full hookups and decent Wi-Fi (7Mbps/2Mbps download/upload speeds). We were able to get 18Mbps/4Mbps download/upload speeds on our AT&T hotspot. My Tracfone got 9Mbps/1Mbps download/upload speeds on the Verizon infrastructure. There are no trees here, so DISH Network satellite access was no issue from the roof mounted satellite antenna. The temperatures at this elevation (roughly 2,700′) were delightful at 81 degrees for a high (we traveled through mid-90’s all day) and no humidity.
This morning we left Speculator, NY at 9:15AM EDT. Last year we headed towards Albany and picked up I-87 to head South, but encountered significant tolls. Therefore, this year we elected to retry I-81 through Scranton, PA. We stopped taking that route years ago because I-81 through Scranton was awful. Google Maps wanted us to take NY-8 West out of Speculator and several other back roads to get to I-88 and then I-81. We’ve done that in the past and found it to be a bit too winding and hilly. So, we took NY-30 back to Amsterdam (the route we always take to get to Speculator from Albany) and then continued South on NY-30 to get to I-88. NY-30 South of Amsterdam was definitely more winding and hilly than North of Amsterdam, but we were only on it about 16 miles. The only issue we ran into was that we hit the intersection of NY-30 and US-20 at about 50MPH and there was a significant dip in the road at the intersection. I realized it at the last second as we approached the intersection and slammed on the brakes, but it still felt like the RV left the ground enough to make Evil Knievel proud. We pulled over as soon as we could find a spot and inspected the RV and the Tahoe. We couldn’t find any signs of damage.
We stopped in Binghamton, NY at the TA Travel Center for diesel fuel at $2.91/Gallon. After filling up we parked in the parking lot and made sandwiches for lunch. After lunch we headed South on I-81 and other than very heavy traffic the remainder of the trip was uneventful. I-81 through Scranton has definitely improved. Not once did we think the TV was going to fall off of its wall mount. The only rough area we encountered was probably the first 30 miles entering Pennsylvania and it wasn’t unbearable.
We arrived at Twin Grove RV Resort in Pine Grove, PA at about 4:15PM EDT. This campground is HUGE and it has lots of amenities. Beth said the campground store was ginormous. Our site has full hookups. We have a nice pull through site, but it’s not very level from front to back. We were able to level the RV without using our ramps, but we had to put down multiple boards and several plastic jack pads to lift the front. The passenger side front tire came off the ground so I had Beth (Bubbles) lift it enough to get a board under the tire and then had her lower the tire back down on the board. We have a very nice view of the Pennsylvania mountains from our living room.
We haven’t tested the campground Wi-Fi, but our AT&T Hotspot got 82Mbps/20Mbps download/upload speeds. DISH blacked out the Rays game because we are parked in Pennsylvania and the Rays are playing Philadelphia, but we were able to stream the game no problem with our Hotspot.
Twin Grove RV Resort – Site #A21 – Front Passenger
We headed up to Beth’s hometown, Speculator, NY, on Sunday (8/22) to visit her brother Dick and his son Lou. I guess technically we were also escaping impacts from Tropical Storm Henri. Shortly after arrival, Beth and Dick headed off to Charley Johns Store for groceries. They came back with hamburger meat (Yay!). We were just pulling the burgers off the grill when the sky opened up and it poured down rain while we ate dinner. That was just about the only rain we got from the Tropical Storm.
On Monday morning, Beth and I walked up to the Sunrise Diner for our annual “breakfast for gluttons” (they have incredible Biscuits & Gravy). Breakfast there was delicious as usual and we moaned the entire walk home about how we shouldn’t have eaten so much. At least this year we were wise enough to share a Hungry Man’s breakfast which comes with all that you see below. I can’t wait to go there again next year.
Today Donna, Terry, Kathy, Beth and I ate Lunch at El Loco Mexican Cafe in downtown Albany. It is located across the street from Washington Park, so on a Saturday with a Farmer’s Market parking was difficult to find. We ended up parking about 3 blocks away which was a good way to walk off excessive consumption of chips and con queso cheese. Beth had Enchiladas. One beef and one turkey (the beef was better). I had 3 tacos (1 soft) and they were pretty good.
August 17, 2021 – Dinner at Kay’s Pizza
We decided that we wanted pizza for dinner one night so today we headed out to Kay’s Pizza on Burden Lake for pizza and wings. Beth and I ate there a couple of years ago with the family and wanted to go again. Due to COVID they’ve added outdoor seating so we were able to sit right along the water. Our pizza and wings were delicious.
Brian, Lori, Terry, Donna, Beth, & Beverly at Kay’s
Kay’s Warning Sign
August 12, 2021 – Travel to Albany
Today we completed the last Eastward leg of our trip. We left Lebanon Reservoir Campground in Hamilton, NY at 9:30AM EDT. We stopped for fuel at the Stewart’s in Esperance, NY and topped off for $3.19/gallon. We arrived at Beth’s sister Kathy’s house shortly after Noon.
