Today we continued East 263 miles to Rivers Crossing Campground & Marina on the Erie Canal in Savannah, NY just North of the finger lakes. We departed Geneva State Park Campground at 9:15AM EDT and arrived at the campground at 2:15PM EDT. We decided to pay the tolls and drive I-90 the entire way and stopped for fuel at a TA Travel Center in Corfu, NY where we also ate the sandwiches that Beth had prepared for lunch.
Interestingly, Mom & Dad stayed in this campground over a decade ago on a trip to Maine. At that time the campground had a different name and owners. There are a lot of seasonal campers here, but the campground is well maintained. The new owners purchased the campground four years ago. When we arrived at our site, there was no power at our electrical post and Beth walked back to the office to report the issue. While she was gone, a neighbor arrived home and I asked her if she was aware of any breakers for the electrical post. She pointed out that our power post was previously on the other side of our camper shared by our other neighbor and that I needed to turn on a breaker over there. Once we got the power going and the air conditioners fired up, I noticed that our voltage was very low (110v). It was very hot (91 degrees) and I noticed that the air conditioners on all the campers surrounding us were running. By the time we got setup and moved inside to cool off, our Electrical Management System (EMS) had shutdown our power due to low voltage. This is a built-in fail-safe to prevent us from burning up our AC compressors by running at too low a voltage. This is a difficult scenario to explain to a campground owner/manager. They tend to believe it’s our issue because all of our neighbor’s are up and running and blissfully ignorant of the damage they are doing to their systems. So, rather than waste time reporting it to the campground owners, we limped along on one air conditioner until I figured out how to stop our DC Converter from charging our batteries. At that point we were able to fire up the second air conditioner and just barely get by (our voltage was still very low (108v). Once the sun set, everyone’s power consumption dropped and the voltage climbed back up to 115v. They probably don’t have this problem very often since the temperatures here don’t often get this high.
We have full hookups and very few trees allowing our Dish antenna to pickup satellites 61.5, 110, & 119. Our AT&T hotspot connection is receiving excellent connectivity at 181/25 Mbps download/upload speeds. We didn’t try our TV antenna, but we are close enough to Rochester that I imagine we would pickup a lot of channels.
Today we continued East 150 miles to Geneva State Park on Lake Erie in Geneva, OH. We waited until noon to leave the Toledo East/Stony Ridge KOA since check-in here was at 3PM. We made a couple of stops along the way and arrived around 4PM EDT.
We splurged for a site along the shore with full hookups. Tonight’s sunset was well worth every cent. We have full hookups and very few trees allowing our Dish antenna to pickup satellites 61.5, 110, & 119. Our AT&T hotspot connection is receiving decent connectivity at 25/5 Mbps download/upload speeds. We didn’t try our TV antenna, but we are close enough to Cleveland that I imagine we would pickup a lot of channels.
Geneva State Park – Site #109Post Sunset from our Living RoomPhoebe Enjoying a Cocktail Hour Sunset
Today we began our migration East. It was a short trip (110 miles), but got us moving again after three wonderful weeks in LaGrange. We are staying at the Toledo East/Stony Ridge KOA. We were shocked to get a spot on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, but at least five other transient campers have arrived since we set up camp.
This is a nice KOA with decently spaced sites. We were able to setup our Dish satellite antenna and receive signals from satellites 110 & 119. We are still within the range of the satellite spot beam for South Bend which allows us to receive their local channels (preventing us from being blacked out on today’s Rays victory in nearby Cleveland). They do have Wi-Fi here and it seems somewhat consistent, but only at 1/1 Mbps download/upload speeds. Our AT&T hotspot connection is receiving decent connectivity at 27/0.5 Mbps download/upload speeds. We were also able to receive over 40 channels on antenna allowing us to watch the LSU vs Florida State football game in HD on a local channel.
Toledo East/Stony Ridge KOA – Site #402Toledo East/Stony Ridge KOA – Site #402
While we were in LaGrange, we had my childhood schoolmate Paul and his wife Shelly over for dinner (hamburgers and grilled potato wedges). My sister and brother-in-law (Deb & Roger) joined us as well. We also went to Fort Wayne and had dinner at Bagger Dave’s with my college roommate Barry and his wife Mary Jane. Near the end of our stay, Beth’s brother Dick was on his way back from his epic van journey to Alaska and we invited him to stop in and stay with us as he passed by on US-90. He was able to park in the back yard and spent two nights with us, including another meal with my sister and brother-in-law (taco salad). We think Dick is the first of Beth’s siblings that Deb and Roger have met.
Dad, Beth, and Dick Outside the GarageDick’s Van in the Backyard
Rebuilding the Bell Stand
When my Mom’s parents sold their farmhouse they brought their farm bell to town and mounted it on their barn (they lived next door to us). The bell has been in the family for several generations. It was on the same farm when my grandmother was growing up. Based on the markings, the bell was made by C. S. Bell in Hillsboro, OH between 1875 and 1882. When Grandpa sold the house next door the bell was removed from the barn and Mom & Dad took ownership. Dad built a stand for it out of treated landscape timbers nearly thirty years ago and they were rotting, so we tore it down and built a new one.
Mom SupervisingOld Bell Stand RemovedNew Bell StandFinal Result
Testing the Bell
Trip from Cincinnati to LaGrange – 8/13/2023
Today we headed North to Mom & Dad’s house in LaGrange, IN. We left the FMCA Campground in Cincinnati at 9:30AM EDT and arrived in LaGrange at 2:30PM EDT. Mom & Dad, who had been attending a family reunion, pulled in the driveway right behind us. We stopped at the Walmart in Van Wert, OH for fuel and ate the sandwiches Beth had made in the parking lot. Shortly after we finished setting up the camper my sister and brother-in-law Deb & Roger arrived. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the back porch catching up and enjoyed our first Eckrich Hot Dogs in two years for dinner.
Today we visited the Kentucky Horse Park which was established in 1978. Many of the horses here are retired from racing and many are here due to their unique breeds. We learned quite a few interesting facts such as the very unique and rare breed, American Cream Draft, is born a very dark color but as it ages, the coat will get whiter and the eyes actually go from brown to hazel to yellow. Which is unique to this breed. Also learned that the original Clydesdale breed is usually Black/White but Budweiser breeds the Bay color into their line of horses. We saw Connor, a Belgian, which is the largest draft horse breed, who apparently loves food and often breaks out and is found wandering the premises in search of food (or just being a naughty boy). It was a fun day, most of the horses were pleasant and able to be petted.
A Suffolk Punch Draft HorseA Suffolk Punch Draft HorseA Day at the SpaBeth Harassing a Draft HorseShirePercheronShireI’m Shorter Than a BelgianDraft Horse Petting TimeBeth Was Having a Conversation with this HorseA Draft Horse from WalesOne of the Original Spanish Breeds Brought WestThoroughbredPacer/Trotter Champion
Kentucky Horse Park Campground
There was a lot of rain forecast today for the Southeast, but we managed to pack up and leave Yarberry Campground before the rain started, drive through the storm bands, and setup here at Kentucky Horse Park Campground in Lexington, KY after the storms. We departed at 10:40AM EDT and arrived at 3PM EDT. This was our first experience with this rig in fairly heavy winds, but they didn’t seem to push us around too much. We stopped for lunch in London, KY at a Tourist Information Center (which had an RV dump station). After we ate our sandwiches in the car, we pulled into a nearby Sunoco and topped off.
This is a very large campground with paved campsites. Although they are paved, they aren’t necessarily level. We saw one motorhome with its front tires nearly 2′ off the ground. Our site is not level from left to right, so we had our first experience leveling from side to side. Beth, the leveler, did fine pulling the camper up onto our leveling devices. We are getting over 200Mbps downloads and 30Mbps uploads with our AT&T hotspot, but we are starting to reach our limit so we broke out the Dish Satellite for the first time this summer and turned on the MLB package. We are in baseball heaven.
Kentucky Horse Park – Site #14Kentucky Horse Park – Site #14Kentucky Bluegrass Lovers
Today we migrated a little further North to Yarberry Campground in Lenoir City, TN. We left Riverbend Campground at 10:30AM EDT and took GA-17 North to US-64. We then took US-64 West to Cleveland, TN where we took a bypass around the city and jumped on I-75 North. The portion of US-64 that follows the Ocoee River is beautiful according to Beth. I was too busy piloting our way through all the hills and switchbacks to look. It is apparently an extremely popular place for rafting because we’ve never seen so many busses loaded with people inside and rafts on top. The campground is just a few miles South of the Lenoir City exit. We arrived at the campground at 2:30PM EDT.
Kirby Monitoring Traffic
This is a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) campground on Fort Loudoun Lake on the Tennessee River. The dam is just up the road. We have a waterfront site and are quite pleased with our view. It was a bit interesting backing into the site. The pictures don’t really show how steep the hill is coming down into the site, but there were several occasions when the trailer drug the Expedition a foot or two down the hill while I had the brakes locked. We used all four of our wheel chocks before we unhooked and I was sure to leave the safety chains attached to the truck when we removed the trailer from the hitch.
Yarberry Campground – Site #15Yarberry Campground – View from ReclinerYarberry Campground – Site #15Yarberry Campground – Site #15Bathing with My Ducks
Our AT&T hotspot is achieving 80Mbps download speeds and 60Mbps up. We’ve picked up a bunch of channels on antenna (we are not far from Knoxville, TN). The sites all have 50Amp electrical hookups and water. The sites don’t have sewer connections, but there is a honey wagon that will pump out your tanks for a fee.
Vet Visit and Lunch at Hawg Wild BBQ and Catfish House
None of our road trips would be complete without a trip the the veterinarian. Upon arrival here at the campground last Friday, Beth was carrying Mercury from the car to the camper and something freaked him out to the point that Beth could no longer hold him. When he hit the ground he ran under the first camper he saw (our neighbor’s) and climbed up their entry steps (he’s trained to seek the steps when he gets scared). When they didn’t open their door for him he went on to the next camper down. Fortunately he waited on their steps and let Beth pick him up and bring him back to the camper. In the process he ripped out one of his rear toenails completely. Of course, Nurse Beth has been treating it all week, but yesterday there were signs of infection so she found a local pet clinic that was able to see Mercury today (Thursday) at 11AM. Mercury was an excellent patient and the doctor was thoroughly impressed with Beth’s nursing skills. The doctor gave Mercury a shot with an antibiotic which will actively fight infection for two weeks. She now has cats registered in 3 separate vet clinics across the country (not counting FL). Hopefully that’s all I’ll have to say about that.
Today is a rainy day so we decided to go to town and try out Hawg Wild BBQ & Catfish House. We are very glad we did. The food was delicious. We tried out their smoked chicken wings with mild buffalo sauce for an appetizer. They were excellent and the “mild” buffalo sauce provided heat for several minutes after eating a wing. I’d hate to try their “hot”. Beth had ribs for lunch which were also excellent. They didn’t need BBQ sauce, but their sauce was so good you couldn’t resist dipping the ribs in it. I decided to try their smoked Italian sausage and it was incredible. I now know the first meal I’m going to smoke when I get back to Florida. The waitress convinced me to use their hot mustard BBQ sauce as a condiment and she was spot on. As with the ribs, the sausage needed no condiment, but it seemed a like a waste of the sauce not use it. The serving sizes were huge and we will be eating leftovers for days.
Hawg Wild BBQ & Catfish HouseHawg Wild BBQ & Catfish HouseSmoked Wings with Buffalo SauceRibs, Onion Rings, & Baked BeansSmoked Italian Sausage, Fries, & Tots
Steak Over the Fire
Today (Wednesday) was our coolest day (high = 80) here in Hiawassee so we spent the day outside and built a fire to cook two nice Filet Mignon that Beth purchased at the local Ingles Market. This was also the first opportunity to use our new grilling basket that Aunt Jo got us for Christmas. The steaks were incredible. The grilling basket allowed me to get them close to the fire for searing and then back them way off for a nice slow cook. After dinner I went back out to burn up our remaining firewood. While I was at it Beth had me grill two chicken breasts so she would have meat to put on her salad (and sneak to her varmints). She said the chicken also turned out great.
Riverbend Campground – Steak NightRiverbend Campground – Steak Night
We have friends, Eric and Sue, from Sun City Center who own property just across the state line in Hayesville, NC. I met Eric when I placed him in the storage lot. He had mentioned that Sue is a dental hygienist and we happened to be in search of a local dentist so I asked him if she likes the office where she works. He said, “definitely”. So I let Beth know and next thing you know we both had appointments at that office in Sun City Center and Sue cleaned our teeth. Whenever we’re getting our teeth cleaned we catch up on where each of us has camped or is planning to camp. Beth recently told Sue that we were headed for Hiawassee this summer and Sue got excited and mentioned that they have property nearby. Fortunately for us, our week coincided with time they were spending here and they invited us out for a boat ride on the beautiful lake. Not only did they take us for a very nice ride on the lake, but then we went back to their place and they grilled pork chops and vegetables. We had a great time.
Chatuge LakeChatuge LakeChatuge Lake
Bell Mountain
We visited Bell Mountain which overlooks the town of Hiawassee and Chatuge Lake. You can drive to the top of the mountain and the road is paved, but it is very narrow and very steep. We had to backup to very small pullouts twice on the ascent to let oncoming traffic pass and considered turning around, but when we reached the top we were glad we stuck it out. The view is incredible. They allow graffiti and seem to even promote it provided that it is not vulgar. It detracts from the natural beauty for me, but that’s probably why I’m not an accomplished artist.
Bell Mountain – Brian Taking a PhotoBell Mountain – View from Parking AreaBell Mountain – Beth Taking a PhotoBell MountainBell MountainBell MountainBell Mountain – Overlooking Hiawassee
Appalachian Trail – Dick’s Creek Gap
The Appalachian Trail passes fairly close to the campground so we decided to visit the nearest crossing which is about 7.5 miles East of our campground. We didn’t go there intending to hike, but we thought while we were there we ought to hop on the trail for a bit. We went about one tenth of a mile, but it was pretty rugged hiking that was rough on the knees and hips. We don’t think we’ll be doing any thru hikes form Georgia to Maine.
Appalachian Trail – Dick’s Creek GapAppalachian Trail – Dick’s Creek GapAppalachian Trail – Dick’s Creek Gap
Riverbend Campground
Today we traveled to the North Georgia mountains and are now staying at Riverbend Campground in Hiawassee, GA for a week. We left Reed Bingham State Park at 9:00AM EDT and arrived at River Bend Campground at 4:30PM EDT (we might have made a wrong turn along the way). In order to avoid getting hung up in Atlanta traffic we took US-129 in Macon, GA to US-441 in Eatonton, GA. We stopped for gas and lunch at the Ingles grocery and gas station in Eatonton, GA. The trip was our new longest ride (7 1/2 hours) with this camper. The Expedition had no issues dragging the camper up the grades we encountered, although we did slow down on one long grade on a four lane highway because our transmission temperature was rising in the Georgia heat (low 90’s). This was the kind of grade where all of the truckers have their emergency flashers on and hang out in the right lane. We just tucked in behind one of them.
Riverbend Campground Site #H3Riverbend Campground Site #H3Riverbend Campground Site #H3Riverbend Campground Site #H3Riverbend Campground Site #H3
This is a very nice campground with 50Amp electrical connections, water, and sewer hookups. We are in Site #H3 which is right along the Hiawassee River. Apparently the campground previously had cable and then the cable companies decided they were no longer interested in providing service to the campground. So the owners managed to implement internet connectivity at each camp site using the old cable infrastructure. Each site has its own individual Wi-Fi connection. Our first and only speed test was 290Mbps download and 30Mbps upload. That’s faster than we get at home. Therefore, we are not setting up our Dish Satellite antenna. We will just stream what we can with our ROKU. We haven’t enabled our Dish service and don’t want to until we need to due to the cost. The only local channel we get on antenna is PBS.
This morning we hiked the Little River and Birdwalk Trails. These were very nice, wide, well maintained trails. The Little River Trail had the longest boardwalk system we have ever experienced (as best we recall). The park brochure stated that the Little River Trail was 1.1 miles and the Birdwalk Trail was 0.8 miles for a total of 1.9 miles. Our hiking apps showed that we ended up walking 2.4 miles which got a little tough at the end in the 91 degree heat, but we survived and lounged guilt free in the camper the remainder of the day.
Little River Trail – Overlook 1Little River Trail – Overlook 2Me Wiping off Some PerspirationBoardwalk
At 5PM when the gnats died down, we took the cats out for play time. They thoroughly enjoyed it and after Mercury and Kirby declared that they were ready to go back in, we let Phoebe roam free. She conformed to her “free roaming rules” like a good girl and when she was done she climbed up the front steps of the camper (where she came out) and waited like a good little girl for Beth to let her back in.
Outdoor TimePhoebe Enjoying Freedom
July 25, 2023 – Arrival
Today we started our summer trip up North. We left home at 9:30AM EDT and arrived at Reed Bingham State Park at 3:00PM EDT. It was the longest ride (5 1/2 hours) that we have taken with the new camper and we weren’t sure how well the cats would take it (they’ve gotten a bit uptight in this setup on some of our shorter trips). Beth bought them a tent to hang out in while in the Expedition and that seems to have made a big difference. They all seemed pretty calm today, even while we were setting up the camper.
This is a very nice campground with 50Amp electrical connections, water, and sewer hookups. We are in Site #35 which is very shaded. The shade is a huge bonus in this 92 degree heat, but it does prevent us from even attempting to use our satellite dish. The internet connectivity makes up for the lack of satellite reception. We are getting over 50Mbps download speeds with our Spectrum phones (which ride the Verizon network) and close to 150Mbps download speeds with our AT&T 5G+ hot spot.
Site #35 – FrontSite #35 – Rear
The 92 degree temperature doesn’t feel too bad due to the amount of shade in this campsite. There were a lot of annoying gnats while we were setting up camp between 3PM-4PM, but they seemed to have calmed down after 6PM.
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.
