Today we left Lake Catherine State Park and headed West again. Actually, we started out heading East on I-30 towards Little Rock and picked up I-40 and started heading West. We decided on our last trip that we would never take the hilly twisting turning back-roads to/from Fort Smith again. We departed at 9:00 AM CDT and arrived here at the Lazy 8 RV Park in Henryetta, OK (where Troy Aikman attended high school) at approximately 3:15 PM CDT.
We stopped for lunch at the Ozarks Rest Area just East of Fort Smith, AR and ate sandwiches. I opened a bag of Doritos which may be the first ones we’ve had since staying with my parents last summer. It’s a good thing we don’t buy Doritos very often because they are truly addictive. Beth (the proverbial queen of “Gas Buddy”) found diesel fuel at the Murphy USA in Sallisaw, OK for $1.84/gal (yet another new record). It’s fun filling the RV up on the first try (no breaking out another credit card when reaching the $100 limit). Since we were at a Walmart, Beth ran in and grabbed some groceries.
This is a “no frills” RV Park just off of I-40. There are only about 8 or 10 sites, but they are all pull through and have full hookups (with 50 Amp electrical service). We are adjacent to a BBQ restaurant which the park owner also owns. The reviews say that the BBQ is very good, but unfortunately they are only open Thurs – Sun, so we won’t get to try it out. The park has very good Wi-Fi access and free laundry (so Beth is knocking out a couple of loads).
Today we migrated to one of our favorite all time campgrounds, Lake Catherine State Park. This is our third stopover here and the first on the way out to Denver. We are in Site #64 which is right on the lake and this is the first time we have been here during the summer when we could actually get in the water (which was like bath water). It’s a hopping place this time of year. We will be here three nights.
Tomorrow we plan to hike the 4.5 mile Dam Mountain Trail and then put on our swimming trousers and jump in the lake. Tuesday we will hike the 2 mile Falls Branch Trail which we hiked on our previous visit. Beth also plans to get some kayaking in during our visit.
We departed today at 9:15 AM CDT and continued West on US-82. We spent the entire day on US-82 other than a short bypass around Tuscaloosa, AL. Don’t get me started regarding the Tuscaloosa bypass and both my Rand McNally GPS and Google Maps on my cell phone routing me to it even though I had the “No Tolls” setting enabled on both. It cost us two whole dollars (and we’re on retirement income). I can only imagine how frustrating bad GPS routing must have been for the pioneers traveling the Santa Fey and Oregon Trails.
The first 43 miles of US-82 were two lane and a bit winding and hilly and I started to question my decision to take that route, but once we reached the four lane section it was smooth sailing and minimum access for many sections or road. It only narrowed back down to two lane for a couple of short sections. However, the last sixty miles in Mississippi tended to be rough (but nothing like traveling on interstates in the Northeastern states of the US).
There were very few towns along the way so we maintained a good average speed. This made it difficult to find a place to stop for lunch, but we were able to pull into a Pilot Travel Plaza near the intersection of US-82 and I-55 and make some sandwiches (no fuel required at their prices).
We stopped in Greenville, MS at a Murphy USA for $2.00/gal diesel fuel and then headed on across the mighty Mississippi to Pecan Grove RV Park in Lake Village, AR. We arrived at 3:30 PM CDT and were placed in Site #C5 which is about 100 yards away from US-65. Lake Chicot is just across US-65 and we can see it from our camper (as long as we don’t get any new neighbors). This is a fairly large campground and we have full hookups (so no Navy showers). We are staying here two nights because we couldn’t get into the Lake Catherine State Park campground (near Hot Springs, AR) until Sunday afternoon. Tonight we are watching this season’s first Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball game (the summer seems a bit more normal now). Due to COVID-19 the season started late.
Pecan Grove RV Park – Site #C5Pecan Grove RV Park – Site #C5Pecan Grove RV Park – Site #C5
Today we left the campground at 9:15AM EDT and continued West on I-10 for roughly 90 miles and then headed North on US-231 towards Montgomery, AL. We stopped for lunch at a great little Rest Area (which included an RV Dump Station) just a few miles past Dothan, AL. Day two of PJ’s sub sandwiches was also delicious.
We stopped for fuel at a Murphy Express near I-65 and US-82 and paid just $2.02 for diesel (second lowest price with this RV). We then moved down the road about half a mile to the Walmart and Beth went in and purchased some grocery items that we discovered we needed.
We headed West from the Walmart on US-82 about 14 miles to our campground Kountry Air RV Park and arrived at 2:45PM CDT (time zone change #1). It’s a beautiful park on the side of a hill. Both of the owners were super nice. They sell propane, so we decided to top off the LP tank since it was only 98 degrees out. To access the propane we had to come into the park in the wrong direction which in turn required that we disconnect the Tahoe so that we could back our way out. Needless to say, by the time we unhooked, procured propane, parked in our spot (Site #D in overflow), and reattached the Tahoe it was shower time. The overflow sites are near the top of the hill, huge, and beautiful. There was a row of trees to our right that blocked the setting sun (providing some appreciated shade), but far enough away that they didn’t block our satellite access to the first Major League Baseball game of the year (Yankees vs Nationals). Due to COVID-19 the season started late. We couldn’t access their Wi-Fi signal (too far from office), but the Verizon LTE signal was excellent. Because we are in the overflow section we don’t have sewer hookups (which we won’t need for one night), but we do have 50 Amp electrical service and water.
Kountry Air RV Park (Overflow Site #D)Kountry Air RV Park (Overflow Site #D)Kountry Air RV Park (Overflow Site #D)
We started heading West today towards Denver (COVID-19 be damned). We got started at 8:45AM EDT and stopped off at the Sam’s Club in Gainesville, FL. Beth switched this year from injecting insulin to address Type-1 Diabetes to wearing an Omnipod Pump. Because of the change she had plenty of her previous insulin leftover and wanted it to go to a good cause. She found out that Insulin for Life had an office just off I-75 in Gainesville. The office area didn’t look like it would accommodate parking for our RV and towed vehicle, so we elected to stop at the Sam’s Club located at the exit and unhook the Tahoe so she could use it to deliver the insulin. Meanwhile, my feline copilots and I whipped into the Sam’s Club fuel station and purchased diesel fuel for $1.97/gal (our all time low with this RV). By the time we were fueled and back in our parking spot(s), Beth was back from her delivery. We reattached the Tahoe and went back inside the RV for lunch.
The day before we start any long road trip we zip back down to Parrish, FL to purchase subs from our favorite sandwich shop (PJ’s Sandwich Shop) and we did the same again this year. Today for lunch we consumed the first half of our subs and we were not disappointed. I don’t know what it is that they do different than everyone else, but the subs were delicious. We both can hardly wait for tomorrow’s lunch stop.
We pulled into A Stone’s Throw RV Park (just East of Tallahassee) at 2:50PM EDT (270 miles). This park is definitely built for quick overnight parking along I-10. We are right at the intersection of I-10 and US-19. The sites are all pull through and they prefer that you deal with the online (we haven’t seen any employees). The park is nice with full hookups and long pull through sites that aren’t too close together. The park Wi-Fi is pretty decent (about 3 to 4 Mbs download speed), but there are only about 4 campers here, so it might be worse when full. The price is right at $28/night (Good Sam’s Club discount) and we got an additional $5 off from American Express for frequenting a small business. We will definitely stay here again, but try for a site that doesn’t face directly West like ours (Site #17). Sites 18-20 face the opposite direction and sites 7-10 face due South.
Last year we decided that our 2004 motorhome was getting old enough that we should consider taking it to the customer service center for the Freightliner chassis in Gaffney, SC for our annual service. We tried to make an appointment to have the service done as we passed by on our way to upstate New York but quickly learned that the slots fill up quickly and you have to make your appointment months in advance. So we scheduled an appointment for 3/20/2020. We decided that I would go alone and Beth would stay home and enjoy her solitude and take care of the cats.
When we brought the RV home from the storage lot the day before departure the house batteries were dead. Charging the house batteries once they get too low is difficult because there’s no enough voltage available to start any of the electronics used to charge them (even when connected to shore power). I had to hook them up to an external battery charger to charge them up enough to get the onboard charger going. This also prevented us from starting the refrigerator early so we could get it cooled down enough to put food in it. After several hours we were able to get the onboard systems running and start the refrigerator. The next thing we discovered was that the air conditioner wasn’t working. The blower would run, but the compressors never started. I called around, but with it being March in Florida there was no chance of getting an appointment for a repair locally before I needed to leave for my appointment, so I decided I’d just live without air conditioning. It was hot in Florida, even for March, but it looked like once I got out of the state the temperatures would be more acceptable. So we packed up the RV and I planned to leave the next morning.
The next morning I went out to the RV and discovered that for some reason the refrigerator had shutoff overnight. I still have no idea why, but assume that it had something to do with the house battery voltage being so low when we brought the RV home. I started it back up and it ran fine the rest of the trip. The COVID-19 epidemic was quickly approaching shutdown, so we had packed all the food I would need for all meals on the trip. Fortunately, the refrigerator didn’t warm up enough to ruin any of the food we had packed. We threw a cooler in the camper and loaded it with ice in case the refrigerator acted up again and I hit the road.
Country Oaks Campground, Kingsland, GA – 3/17/2020
My first stop was at Country Oaks Campground in Kingsland, GA. We had stayed there last year on our way to upstate New York. They had one pull through site available (Site #5). The campground has a lot of trees, but this site was perfect for accessing the Dish Network satellites with the roof mount satellite antenna. The campground manager gave me the name of a mobile RV repairman and he was able to come investigate my air conditioning issue. I also had an issue with the rear slideout going out crooked when I arrived a the campground. He was not able to resolve the issue with the air conditioner and figured it was probably a capacitor which he did not have in stock. He also told me that I probably just had air in my hydraulic lines for the rear slide and that it should work itself out with usage. I later learned that he was completely wrong on both counts. On a positive note, it did rain quite a bit that evening which cooled things down enough to make sleeping comfortable without air conditioning.
Barnyard RV Park, Lexington, SC – 3/18/2020
On day two, when I stopped for fuel I discovered that the awning over the rear slideout had torn and was flapping in the wind. I didn’t have a ladder so I had to just let it flap. I stayed at Barnyard RV Park just outside of Columbia, SC. We had also stayed there last year on our way to upstate New York. I had left them a message the previous day asking for a reservation, but never heard back. I arrived just in time to get the last spot in the park because all of Canada was heading home due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Apparently they had been told they had to be back in their country by the end of the weekend. I passed one rest stop on I-95 that was so full the cars were being parked along the exit ramp.
Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the campground kept their office door locked and yelled to me through the glass to go park in my spot and then call them to make my payment. I stayed in Site #K9. All the sites there are pretty much the same (pull through with minimal trees to block satellite reception). The temperature was perfect and I sat outside and enjoyed a refreshing beverage until it got dark out.
Freightliner Customer Service Center, Gaffney, SC – 3/19/2020 – 3/20/2020
I arrived at the Freightliner Custom Chassis Customer Service Center in the early afternoon on the day prior to my service appointment. The facility has 20 spots for motorhome parking with 30 Amp electrical hookups in the parking lot and a dump dumpstation. After parking I went up to the office to register and the door was locked due to COVID-19. After I knocked on the door, one of the office workers slid a clipboard containing a COVID-19 form out the partially cracked front door. Once I confirmed in writing that I hadn’t been sick recently or traveled abroad they let me in the door and they had me detail the services I wanted them to perform on the motorhome.
On the morning of the appointment, one of the service technicians wearing a full face gas mask with dual filters knocked on my door shortly after 8AM. We reviewed the services I wanted performed and he sent me up to the waiting room in the main office. The waiting room is setup nicely with five or six recliners, a large TV, and laptop stands for each recliner. There was also a break area with microwaves and vending machines.
After a couple of hours a service advisor presented the issues they had discovered and the estimated cost of repair. The air bags needed replacing. The front passenger hub seal was leaking and needed to be replaced. The radiator needed a good steam cleaning (I had told them we were experiencing high engine temperatures on grades on hot days). The air tank drain was leaking and needed replacing and the front track bar needed to be replaced as well. Once I recovered from the sticker shock I signed off on the repairs along with standard annual service on the engine and generator. This was a lot of work to complete in one day and they only allow you to be there one day in order to remain committed to their appointment schedule. Fortunately, it wasn’t a busy day and most of the other customers were only there for standard annual maintenance (they all had fancy new rigs), so by noon some of the other service technicians had finished working on the other customers’ rigs and jumped in on ours. At one point they said they had four people working on it. The work was completed around 4PM. They took it out for a test drive and then parked it back in my overnight spot and called me out to the motorhome (after they collected my money). The service technician reviewed all the work performed with me which included removing the torn rear slideout awning. He was very knowledgeable and professional. He also confirmed that I could spend another night there so I wouldn’t have to hit the road in the evening. Overall it was a great experience and makes me feel a lot more confident about heading West again this year with our 16 year old motorhome.
Freightliner Custom Chassis Service Center
Freightliner Custom Chassis Service Center
Lake Tobesofkee Recreation Area – Macon, GA – 3/21/2020
I decided to head home via Atlanta in order to hit some steeper grades to see if I experienced any increases in engine temperature after having the radiator cleaned. It was a cool morning so I can’t confirm the issue is resolved, but the engine did seem to run a couple of degrees cooler than it had been running and never budged off of that temperature (192 degrees).
I stopped at the Lake Tobesofkee Recreation Area Campground which is located just a couple miles West of I-475 in Macon, GA. This is not only a convenient place to stop, but it has full hookups at each site and great views of the lake. When I reserved the spot, I had intended to get there as early as possible and fire up the satellite dish so that I could spend the day watching March Madness. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 epidemic had cancelled March Madness and I was forced to lounge outside and enjoy the perfect weather. The only negative I could come up with at this campground was that the sewer connection on my site (#44) was on the passenger side. I think this was because the site, although level, was on the side of a fairly steep hill. If the sewer connection had been on the driver’s side, it would have been an uphill climb. Fortunately, I had just purchased an extra section of sewer hose and needed it.
The next morning as I was preparing for departure I moved both slideouts in and then went outside to disconnect at which point I discovered a large pool of hydraulic oil under the rear of the motorhome. I assumed it was related to the issue with the rear slideout I experienced on the first night of the trip and headed home.
I arrived home safely that Sunday afternoon. For those keeping track at home, we took the RV in to repair the air conditioner and awning over the rear slide. The air conditioner turned out to be due to a breaker located inside the panel attached to the air conditioning unit in the basement of the motorhome. I can’t believe the mobile repair technician I hired in Georgia didn’t figure that one out. It would have made my trip a bit more comfortable. I think it more than likely popped due to the issues with the house batteries being low when we picked up the camper from storage. It worked flawlessly all weekend on our next camping trip. The technician in Georgia was also wrong about the rear slideout. The reason the room had slid out crooked was because the hydraulic synchronizer had failed. Fortunately the manufacturer had it in stock so we didn’t have to wait for them to manufacture it. Regarding the awning over the rear slideout, since the camper is so old, we went ahead and had both awnings replaced over the two slideouts.
I had heard from some fellow campers that Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park is a great place for stargazing and decided to give it a try this year. Last year when we were reserving our site I checked the lunar calendar to ensure that we picked a weekend with a new moon so that the moon’s light wouldn’t prevent us from seeing as many stars as possible.
We arrived early Friday afternoon and our friend’s Mick & Heidi and their girls Haley and Lola arrived shortly after we did. The park is literally in the middle of nowhere (no stores so pack accordingly) and the last few miles to the campground are on a dirt road. When we were there the dirt road was fairly smooth and it wasn’t a rough ride. We stayed in Site #30 which is on the northern side of a grove of trees making satellite setup difficult. I accepted the challenge and managed to find a spot in the woods where there was a slight gap in the overhead branches. I placed our portable satellite antenna (R2D2) there and was able to pickup all three of the DISH Eastern Arc satellites (61.5, 72.7, 77).
Site #30
Site #30
Cat Playtime
It was a cold and extremely windy day so we spent all of our time inside that afternoon and evening. We knew it was going to be cold so Beth packed the ingredients for chili and we had a delicious supper. Mick & Heidi came over after dinner for cocktails.
On Saturday morning we all took the 8:30AM two hour swamp buggy tour. It was a bit cold at first but there was plenty of sun and we didn’t suffer too much. The tour went straight west for 7 miles to the Kissimmee River. By the time we got there it had started to warm up enough that the ospreys and eagles were able to start riding the thermals to circle above us searching for prey.
Saturday night Mick, Lola, and I took our lawn chairs, telescopes, and spotting scopes to an open area in front of the campers to stargaze. Although we never felt like we saw the Milky Way, we had an incredible view of the stars. I spent a lot of time tinkering with my camera trying to get some decent long exposures. Later on Heidi and the girls went up to the Astronomy Pads and got to look through some of the HUGE telescopes.
Orion
Mick & Heidi’s crew had to head home on Sunday, but we stayed until Tuesday. On Monday we hiked the 4.5 mile Prairie Loop Trail. It was a nice hike through the prairie on a beautiful day.
Our original plan today was to spend the night at a full hookup campground in Lake City, FL so that we could dump our black and gray tanks before arriving home. Unfortunately, Tropical Storm Nestor was forecast to pass right through Lake City, FL during the night so we decided to drive straight home in an attempt to avoid encountering it on the road.
Since I had driven nearly 12 hours the day before and we had a long drive ahead of us again, Beth took the early leg of driving while I napped on the couch. A couple of hours into my nap I felt us hit a large bump followed by hearing lots of profanity coming from the captain’s seat. Beth immediately pulled off the road and so did the large semi truck behind us. The fifth wheel trailer we were following suddenly swerved to miss a large metal ramp laying in the road and by the time Beth saw it there was no time to swerve. She managed to straddle it in front, but the inside dual wheel on the back driver’s side of the RV must have hit it. I climbed out and started inspecting. There were no signs of damage to the RV, but both driver’s side tires on the Tahoe were destroyed. We called for a tow truck and started waiting.
Ouch!
The semi truck behind us had no time to swerve either and the ramp took out his braking system and actually impaled itself in the lowest portion of the lowboy trailer he was towing (carrying a very large Komatsu excavator).
Ramp
Ramp Impaled in Lowboy Trailer
We were towed to the Mavis Discount Tire in Cordele, GA. There we discovered that the front wheel was also bent. The tires had over 60K miles on them, so I had them replace all four (throwing the tire for the bent wheel in the back of the Tahoe) and place our spare tire on the driver’s front. This allowed us to tow the Tahoe home (thank goodness).
There was minimal body damage to the Tahoe (just the front bumper cover), but quite a bit of structural damage. One of the locations where the control arms attach to the frame was damaged so the frame had to be replaced. It took seven weeks to get the Tahoe back from the local Chevy dealer.
We traveled a total of 7,730 miles on this year’s trip.
Today we departed from the Casino Queen RV Park and had planned to stop prior to Chattanooga, TN, but we arrived there by 3:30PM and didn’t want to sit in the Cracker Barrel parking lot for a full evening shift, so we kept on going. As we got closer to Atlanta, all I could think was that we might as well get South of Atlanta so that we don’t have to deal with the daytime traffic rush. So we didn’t stop until we reached the Morrow, GA Cracker Barrel. We are watching NFL football, the MLB playoffs, and the Weather Channel (because it looks like a Tropical Storm is going to impact tomorrow’s travel plans).
We started the day with a delicious breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Beth decided to try something new and is now in love with Eggs-In-The-Basket which is two slices of Sourdough bread, each grilled with an egg in the middle. I stuck with my standard Old Timer’s Breakfast.
Eggs-In-The-Basket
We were on the road by 8:30 AM CDT. Since we had another long drive ahead of us I decided to test my professional napping skills so Beth drove through Topeka, KS and Kansas City, MO. We switched drivers at a Rest Area just East of Kansas City. We stopped to top off the fuel tank at the Sam’s Club in Wentzville, MO so that we’d have plenty of fuel to avoid the high fuel prices in the next blue state (Illinois) tomorrow.
We arrived at the Casino Queen RV Park in East S Louis, IL (just across the Mississippi River from the Gateway Arch) at 3:45 PM CDT. We stayed here last year on our way out to Colorado, but were too tired to check out the casino. Tonight we gave it a try. We ate dinner at their sports bar Sevens. We shared an appetizer of chicken fingers with buffalo sauce and split a Philly Cheese Steak. Both were good (not great), but the price was definitely right.
After dinner we tried out the casino and weren’t that impressed. I was excited when a waitress offered me a drink before I could even sit down at a BlackJack table, however I was extremely disappointed when she returned and charged me $5. Whoever heard of paying for your drinks in a casino? So now I’m not only losing money gambling, but I’m losing money drinking too? On a positive note, the same gaming commission that allegedly requires them to charge for drinks also prohibits smoking. This wasn’t enough for me to overcome the $5 drinks, especially since there was no one else playing BlackJack which just increased the speed at which I lost my money. So I was ready to leave shortly after I started and Beth felt the same way about the slot machines. We returned to the camper (via the free shuttle) and enjoyed a couple of semi-free cocktails before going to bed.
