Wednesday May 9th 2018

Today’s weather was the long lead up to a cold front passing trough the area. The day started cloudy and never improved much. As of ten in the evening we have had three lines of thunderstorms pass through. Each line was a little more intense than the last. The first line was around 11am, followed by a little clearing. The second line was at six in the evening and the third around 9PM. None of the storms were particularly sever, but the one after dark put on a real interesting light show.

First line of thunderstorms approaching the campground from the west.

This afternoon I visited the RV/MH Hall of Fame.  Their web site defines the organizations mission as “Dedicated to preserving the history and honoring the pioneers and individuals who have made significant contributions to the RV and Manufactured Housing industries …” I was interested in the museum. It has artifacts on display manufactured from 1913 to 1985.

Overview of part of the exhibits in the museum.

1930 Ford Model A and a 1946 Kit Teardrop trailer

1958 Airstream

1962 Apache Chieftain trailer. My parents had a similar 1962 Apache Scout trailer.  I don’t think it was setup very well. 

42 foot long 1954 Spartan Imperial Mansion pulled by a 1946 Studebaker 1 ton truck.

The inside of the Imperial Mansion even had a sewing machine.

This Elk statue greeted you in front of the hall of fame.

Tuesday May 8th 2018

It was a warm day in the mid eighties with low humidity and very little wind. Overall, it was a good day to travel. I got packed up and ready to hit the road without any of the drama of the last move. The Honda hooked up and towed without complaint this time around.

My travel day wasn’t too long at one hundred and seventy miles but it was more stressful than usual. I was traveling on several different route numbers and navigating city traffic at each end. To avoid problems I programmed the GPS to guide me or so I wished. For some reason the GPS directed me on miles of city streets with traffic lights and many left and right turns. This might have been shorter mileage wise, but slower with a higher aggravation level. Strike one for the GPS. Next I missed a turn because it wanted me to turn south to go north. While that was the correct turn, I don’t trust the GPS. If I’d have actually reviewed my route and known the routes it would have happened. Strike two for the GPS. The third strike came when I got on a ten to fifteen mile stretch of new road. The older GPS maps didn’t know about the new road. I was in recalculating hell. Once I turned off the GPS, my only problem was ending up on a road that said no trucks allowed. Legally I was OK, but feared I might come to a low bridge or a bridge with a low weight limit as the reason trucks were prohibited. I made it to the campground successfully, but it was a tense couple of miles. The GPS wouldn’t have directed me on the no trucks road.

The other complication to today’s travel was the quality of the roads. Some of the road surfaces were a patchwork of repairs. Every little bounce translates to something moving around that ideally shouldn’t. I found more stuff on the floor of the RV than usual and my body wasn’t all that happy either. I need to crawl under the RV to check the suspension. I’ll also recheck the tire inflation. I don’t think there’s an issue, but better safe than sorry.

Site 740 at the Elkhart Campground.

My stressful drive started shortly after ten and ended around 1:30 in Elkhart Indiana. I’m still in the Eastern time zone part of Indiana, and I’m within a few miles of the Michigan boarder. I want to explore some of the RV related industry in this area. Elkhart is the home to many RV manufacturers and their suppliers.

Today is primary election day in Indiana. They seem to think the candidates need six months to campaign and the electorate needs to be tortured by political ads for the six months also. There is a US Senate race that has national interest. Three republicans are competing to take on the democrat incumbent. Whoever gets the republican nomination gets help kicking off their campaign on Thursday by a visit from the President and Vice President. Unfortunately for me their coming to Elkhart where I’ve setup camp for the next week. Who knows what kinds of road closures and traffic will result.

Monday May 7th 2018

Yesterday afternoon’s thunderstorms foreshadowed a cold front passed through the area last night. Today’s high temperature was ten degrees cooler than yesterday. It barely made it to 70 degrees late in the afternoon even though it was a bright sunny day all day.

Field prepared for planting in front of my RV. The Interstate highway is in the other direction.

The daylight hours are a little odd around here. This is one of those areas you run into around the country that is on the far western edge of the time zone. The consequence is that the sunset is later than you get accustom to in more eastern parts of the timezone. Tonight’s sunset was at 8:44PM. It was still light after 9PM. When you factor in my changes in location, it makes it difficult to judge time in the evening.

I had planned to go to the museum at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today, but it was not to be. I got involved with various chores around the RV. One thing lead to another and before I knew it the afternoon was well underway. The museum is across the city from my location and I didn’t want to get stuck in rush hour traffic. The museum becomes one more thing on my wait until next time list. I plan to continue traveling for years to come, so there should be plenty of time to really visit this and other areas.

The other major plan for the day was to stock up on food. That task got done. I found a Super Walmart a few miles east on the Interstate to fill my needs. I think a sociologist could generate some interesting theories about an area by the differences in Walmarts. At this Walmart the bakery section was smaller, there was an extra frozen food aisle, and there seemed to be a larger sporting goods section. Other things were more subtle. The amount of product and varieties stocked seem to be different than at Walmarts in other areas. Given that they stock what people will buy, it could lead to some interesting conclusions. Now you know some of the strange areas my mind wanders into while I’m going up and down the aisles of the store.

I’m moving north again tomorrow. My destination is Elkhart Indiana about one hundred and seventy miles away. I’ll be there for a week before I move further north into Michigan.

Sunday May 6th 2018

It rain hard during the night. I wasn’t looking forward to a rainy travel day, but it stopped around 8AM. By the time I left the campground the sun was trying to break through the clouds. It was a sunny day most of the way north and west to Indianapolis. The last few miles were race with the afternoon storm front. A wall of black clouds was on the western horizon for the last half an hour of my journey. I was mostly setup before the full force of the thunderstorms arrived.

Site 32 at the Indianapolis KOA.

This wasn’t the smoothest of travel days. When I hooked up my Honda to be toad the car was on a down slop. Normally as I pull forward the tow bars lock into place, but because of the slop the passenger side tow bar didn’t lock into place. As I turned right out of the site I saw the tow bar compressed and start to bind in the rear view camera. I had to stop in the middle of the campground road and disconnect and reconnect the car. This is the first time in over 20,000 miles of towing that I’ve had this kind of issue.

The second issue was probably caused by hurrying to reconnect the car. The toad car brake monitor on my RV dashboard displayed an error code before I even reached the main road from the campground. I had to pull into a parking lot and reposition the brake box in the car. This issue has happened before, so I didn’t panic. It was just another hurdle in the day’s travel.

Next up on the annoyances of the day was passing the exit I had planned to stop at for gas. I had used Google satellite view to checkout the access ahead of time. That meant I’d have to take my chances at a station at another exit. I picked an exit with several choices and managed to get in and out successfully. It also turned out to be a very good price for gas. I paid $2.60 a gallon. Once I got to Indiana, I was passing billboards advertising gas at $2.83 a gallon.

The area south of Lexington Kentucky where I spent the last three nights is heavily tree covered mountains. Once I got north of Lexington the terrain turned into more open pasture land on rolling hills. This is more like what I thought Kentucky would look like. I even saw a few horses in the fields. When I got further north into Indiana the rolling hills continued, but the fields switched from pasture to growing crops. Most of the fields were either getting prepared for planting or had just been planted, so I have no idea what crops were being grown.

I arrived at the Indianapolis KOA shortly after 3PM. It was close to a five hour drive with only one stop at the gas station. I should have stopped at one of the Indiana rest areas. When I climbed out of the RV at the end of the journey, I was very stiff.

Saturday May 5th 2018

It rained off and on all night and into the morning. The middle of the day was mostly rain free, but it looked and felt like it could start any minute. Around six in the evening a line of thunderstorms moved through the area. It rained very hard with plenty of flashes of lightening and thunder. The wind didn’t blow very hard, but we did loose power. It was more than an hour before the power returned.

View out the front window as the thunderstorm opened up.

Today’s storm hasn’t been particularly worrisome, just annoying. What I am concerned with is the potential for sever weather in the area I’ll be traveling through over the next few weeks. The tornado season is starting to ramp up in intensity and I’m moving closer to the middle of tornado alley. I have only limited experience with tornadoes. The batteries in my weather radio are fully charged and it will be getting a good workout in the coming weeks. I plan to be overly cautious.

I spent most of the day watching TV and reading with some travel planning thrown in for good measure. My campsite is under the trees so my satellite TV dish can’t receive a signal. I’m at the mercy of the campgrounds cable TV hookup. It has a good selection of channels, but they aren’t all clear. I ended up watching a few things that I wouldn’t normally watch.

During the dry time between the showers, I walked around the campground. Many of the weekenders have packed up early. Riding off road motorcycles in this weather probably wasn’t fun. I saw one rider return to camp completely encrusted in mud. My neighbors didn’t even take their motorcycles out today. They kept them loaded in their trailers out of the rain.

I’m moving on tomorrow. I have about two hundred and sixty miles to travel to the Indianapolis area.

A reminder that spring is here.

Friday May 4th 2018

I woke up to a cloudy day and it went down hill from there. Around new a light rain started to fall. It has continued to rain off and on since then. Tomorrow is forecast to have more rain with the possibility of over two inches of rain falling.

Green hillside behind the campground that I was getting ready to hike into when the rain started. These green trees are far more familiar to me than the woods out west were last summer.

This campground has a number of hiking trails to explore. I was heading for the trails when the rain started. Not prepared for a walk in the rain, I return to my RV home and have remained there since the rain started. I’ve watched the campground fill up for the weekend. This park seems to be a base camp for dirt bike riders. The majority of the RVs arriving for the weekend came with off road motorcycles. A little internet searching shows that there are several trails in the nearby Daniel Boone National Forest and an organized race this weekend. I hope it’s not too noisy in the morning. There has already been some motor noise as people prepare their machines.

When I was planning my route north I avoided the Louisville Kentucky area this weekend. It is Kentucky Derby weekend. I should have realized it is a big deal throughout the state. The celebration has been going on all week. Today’s series of races at Churchill downs concluded with the Kentucky Oaks Race. This is nick named the fillies for the lilies race. The Lexington based TV stations had their news anchors broadcasting from the grounds all day. They were all properly dressed for the occasion. They interviewed a few equally well dressed people in the paddock area that were also well lubricated. Proof that the celebration has been going on all day.

If the current forecast holds, I’ll probably stay at home tomorrow too. Hiking in the woods on a rainy day doesn’t strike me as a good idea. Sunday is forecast to be a little better in the morning, but thunderstorms late in the day. I’m moving on Sunday. Hopefully I’ll get an early start and be off the road before the bad weather arrives.

Thursday May 3rd 2018

It was a little bit warmer and a little bit more humid with a little bit more wind today. The wind wasn’t something I wanted for a travel day, but it only got in the way a couple of times. The heat and humidity were only a problem setting in the afternoon.

Renfro Valley KOA site 41.

I got on the road just before 10am. The trip came in three parts. The first part was traveling north on Interstate 75 toward Interstate 40 in the Knoxville area. I’ve traveled this road once before when I brought my brand new RV home north to New Hampshire in the fall of 2015. It’s a hilly winding road with only light traffic overall. The down side is the truck traffic. They travel at the 70 mph speed limit in the flat areas and slow to near fifty on the hills. I try to maintain a steady pace around 65mph, but closing on slowed trucks cause me to loose momentum and bog down as well. I don’t like playing hop scotch with the trucks.

The second part of today’s trip was along Interstate 40 west of Knoxville. Traffic on this stretch was heavy. It’s a four to five lane wide road with traffic in all of the lanes and plenty of trucks in the right most lanes. I had more than one car weaving in and out of traffic cut right in front of me. This was the most urban area of today’s travel. Shops, factories and other businesses lined both sides of the road.

The last part of the trip was on Interstate 75 north of Knoxville. This is all new territory for my travels. The terrain rapidly changes from Knoxville suburbs to green mountains and valleys. The road passes through parts of the Appalachian Mountains. A lot of the land along the road is national forest and state park land. I couldn’t really enjoy the view. I had to concentrate on driving. There were two significant construction zones where they were blasting ledge to widen the road. The truck traffic continued on this part of the trip too. Getting stuck in a line of trucks climbing a hill in a construction zone is a real trifecta of hard driving. This leg of today’s journey brought me into Kentucky. Prior to today the only time I’ve been in Kentucky was to change planes at the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Airport.

After two hundred miles and around four hours I arrived at my destination for the next three nights in the Kentucky’s Renfro Valley. This KOA is up a steep hill on a one way road from the main road. It was quite a surprising approach.

Wednesday May 2nd 2018

Today was my third and final full day here north of Chattanooga TN, so it was my last chance to do some touring. The weather continued to be perfect. The temperature started around sixty and climbed into the low 80s in the afternoon.

Around noon I got on the road south to Chattanooga. I was still not fully committed to being a tourist today. My destination was the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway. The Incline Railway is a one hundred year old funicular railway up the side of Lookout mountain at a grade of 72.7% around a mile long. The trolley like rail car had just arrived at the bottom station as I arrived. It wasn’t much to look at sitting in the station without anyone inside. This is when my not being fully committed to tourist mode came into play again. A round trip ticket was fifteen dollars to ride up a mountain that I could just as easily drive. I decided to drive but made a wrong turn somewhere along the way. When I was back at the interstate, I just headed back to my RV home. It wasn’t a total washout. I got to see some of the city and have a better idea where to go next time I’m in the area. I really should have done more upfront research on the Chattanooga area to get my excitement for touring ramped up.

You can’t really tell from the picture exactly how sharp a rise it is. I believe the 72.7% grade claim.

At the campground this evening I watched today’s set of overnight guests arrive. Every afternoon and evening the park fills with travelers. By eleven or so in the morning they are all gone. Tomorrow I’ll be gone with them. I suspect the trailer that pulled in next to me tonight will still be here. It is very clearly the first night out for the three people in a brand new trailer. Watching them learn about their rig as they setup was entertaining.

Tomorrow I’m traveling two hundred miles further north. I’ll stop until Sunday in the middle of Kentucky. On Sunday I’ll navigate the cities of Lexington and Cincinnati Ohio then proceed west toward Indianapolis for a couple of nights.

Tuesday May 1st 2018

Today was a repeat of yesterday in many ways. The weather just as beautiful and my motivation level for tourist activities was just as low.

I spent much of the day researching places to stay and booking a few. I’ve ranted before about not liking the need to make reservations. Some of that is caused by the number of people competing for a limited number of sites in a particular area and some is caused by the need for decent access for my size rig. Being a solo traveler also complicates the process. I can’t really make a lot of calls while on the road to check availability. Navigation to the campground is also easier if I can research the route ahead of time.

Nice tree lined view of some of the roads in this campground.

This campground is a nice place to stay for an overnight up to a few days. Since it’s a KOA franchise campground its basic rate appears high in comparison to other campgrounds, but it suites my needs for several reasons. First you know that a certain level of amenities and quality is required by the KOA organization. That cuts down on the research on the campgrounds suitability a little. There can still be issues, but your odds are better. Perhaps the most valuable characteristics of KOAs are there online presence. It is easy to learn about the campground on the internet and the online reservation tool is one of the best I’ve used. Those items are worth a couple of extra dollars on the nightly rate. When you make use of a KOA Value Card the rate is reduced my ten percent and you earn points good toward future stays. Once factored into the nightly cost, the rate is only a couple of dollars higher than comparable parks in the area.

In destination areas I prefer to stay at state parks or other public parks. They take even more research to identify. First, there are fewer parks to chose from and more people trying to stay at them. The second issue is access for my RV. Many parks in this category haven’t been updated to fully support larger RVs. I also need an electric hookup for a stay of more than a night or two. Many state parks are more focused on tent camping. To fully research these parks I need to use the online review sites.

The RV park review sites like RV Park Reviews are often difficult to interpret. You have to deal with the standard problem of reporting the negative not the positive that most review sites exhibit then you end up reading between the lines. What were the reviewers needs and what were the reviewers expectations relative to my needs and expectations. In the long run I find the review sites more valuable as a source of possible places to stay and as a barometer of how often people stay there.

The bottom line is that unless I’ve seen the place for myself, it’s a gamble. When I return to an area I find myself returning to the campgrounds I know. The longer I live this lifestyle and the more areas I travel in the less research I may have to complete.