Archive for the ‘RV Travel & Lifestyle’ Category
September 3rd, 2010 | 
Author: Walking in the rain…..In our case shopping in the rain was the way to go when looking for a used RV. It is the perfect time to see any leaks that may have appeared around the vents and side walls of the vehicle. I recommend that you take time to look inside every upper compartment for evidence of current or prior leaks and pay close attention around vents and windshields. Keep in mind that just because a vehicle leaked in the past, it does not mean it leaks now. An owner may have had a roof resealed and the stains are the only reminders of the leak. Roof leaks are a common problem. After all, an RV gets baked in the sun, frozen in the winter, damp in the rain and is then driven down the road over all the bumps. No wonder leaks happen. Maintenance is the key to keep your RV dry, but don’t forget that RV shopping in the rain can be rewarding.
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HEADING HOME.
Well, it’s about over. This has been a fabulous trip and we are sorry to see it come to an end. But when the filly is headed toward the barn, she’s hard to hold back. We have learned to seek out Corps of Engineers campgrounds when we can because they are always neat and well maintained as well as well-appointed. Here is our campsite last night at Jenning’s Ferry campground on the Black Warrior River (has a macho ring to it, doesn’t it?).
The view across the water. Kayaking was good here.
We were gone 7 weeks, drove 5000 miles, and traveled in 16 states. What a trip!!
We’ve had many positive comments about these trip reports and we appreciate them and are glad they are well received. We don’t have the next trip planned yet, but until we do, ‘Stay tuned’.
Chuck
Our trip is winding down. We’re camped below the dam of Lake Dale Hollow, near Celina, Tennessee. We’re here to visit ML’s cousin. The camp is a Corps of Engineers camp on the bank of the Obey (oh-bee) River. We’re adjacent to a fish hatchery and there are a couple of water discharges from there flowing into the Obey.
We drove to the other side of the dam to kayak in the main lake. Houseboats are a big thing here.
I can’t say that Celina would be a destination for any purpose if you didn’t have a reason to come here. It’s probably the largest town I have seen that didn’t have a stop light that we saw. Anyway, after two restful day (nights) here, we down the road to another COE campground on Lake Center Hill, east of Nashville. We’re here for two nights on our way to Huntsville, Alabama for ML’s family reunion this weekend. We were able to get a prime campsite ‘on the water’.
We did a lot of kayaking here. It’s a beautiful spot.
We paddled to a very large marina with many big houseboats. Here’s the biggest we saw.
That’s a Tennessee Titans flag on the back. Oh and by the way, we’ve see a couple of commercials for Gallery Furniture with Mattress Mac up here. Go figure.
The shores of this lake are mostly rock formations – steep and making the lake very deep.
We really hated to leave this place, but we had to move on. There was one more stop to make before reaching Huntsville. I mentioned we had been ‘immersed’ in airplanes, RV’s and tanks. In Lynchburg, Tennessee, we were immersed in Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey. Well, umm,,, you know what I mean. Since we had been ‘sampling’ cheese, cherries, wine, etc., I thought we might get a sample here, but no, it’s a dry county!!
Our tour guide played the hillbilly part really well.
One of the critical ingredients is iron-free water from this ‘cave spring’. It’s very cool here.
Here are the other ingredients.
And the finished product.
So now we’re in Huntsville, immersed in in-laws. We’ll be home next week.
Stay tuned.
Chuck
These cute little birdhouses are made by a Kiki Neumann, local Houston Artist and avid RV enthusiast. The license plate teardrop camper is a great addition to my RV collection. If you simply can’t live without one of these, contact Kikki Neuman at 281-289-2893 or via email to kiki5353@aol.com!Finally done with our objectives in Louisville, we leisurely headed south to Fort Knox, Kentucky. Now everyone thinks of Fort Knox as the place where the nation’s gold is stored. Well, that’s correct, but tours of the bullion depository are no longer allowed. The reason we went to Fort Knox is to see the Patton Museum. This is about General George Patton, who commanded armored units (tanks) in WWII. (If you haven’t seen the movie, Patton, you should.). So after being immersed in airplanes and thoroughbreds, we were now immersed in tanks and Patton memorabilia.
Here is a little two man tank that seems overkill since it only carries a little ‘pop-gun’ 30 caliber gun. It never saw combat.
Patton created the image himself: pearl handle pistol, hard charging, ramrod straight, mainly to inspire his troops and apparently he did.
Here’s his mobile office, much like an RV in that he had a bed and lavatory.
Inside
Here’s his personal jeep. Notice the single seat in the back.
Patton died following a car accident in Germany shortly after the war in 1945. He suffered a broken neck and died a few days later. This is the restored car, a 1938 Cadillac ‘limousine’.
The museum also features the head of a Saddam Hussein statue that was toppled in the Iraq war. (the museum acquired it thru Army clandestine channels, if you get my drift)
There were model tanks, this was made from 45 pounds of sterling silver. Go figure.
Here is a model of the Bullion depository. You may recognize it from the movie ‘Goldfinger’.
Here’s a photo on the fly as we drove past the real thing. We would have thought it would be deep in the military reservation, rather than this close to the road.
From here we stopped by Lincoln’s birthplace. Remember we saw such good history of Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois. Not much to see here, however, so we moved on to Mammoth Cave. Late afternoon the place was crowded and the tours sold out, so we moved on. We elected not to stay and go back the next day. We had been in a cave earlier on this trip, and for me, ‘you see one cave, you’ve seen them all’.
I realize this report may be of more interest to the guys, but ML actually was pretty interested in the tank stuff and the history that went with it. As of now, we’re back in the country at a really nice Corps of Engineer Campground outside of Celina, Tennessee, where a cousin of ML lives. We’ll stay a couple of nights here to relax after the bigger cities.
Stay tuned,
Chuck.
Louisville, Kentucky.
Leaving the pastoral serenity of Lexington, we arrived in the hubbub of Louisville. We got there in time to visit Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby for over 100 years.
Some of the Derby winner’s (the horses) are buried on the grounds. 
In the Museum, some of the hats that ladies wore on Derby day were displayed. (as well as some dresses).
Kids could actually participate in a video game-type horse race.
Our main purpose of this whole trip has been to attend ‘The Rally’, the largest RV rally in the country, and yea, maybe even the world. We would attend the next day, but following Churchill Downs, we drove by the rally area and saw about 4 parking lots filled with the RV’s of the attendees. I heard there were about 4000.
We were able to see the outdoor exhibit of ‘vintage’ RVs.
The first 5th wheel!! Or call it a gooseneck (1938)
The next day we attended ‘the Rally’. BAD NEWS, FOLKS: Our camera acted up that day and we got NO pictures. We’re disappointed but I’ll try to fill in. Use your imagination.
There was a Motorhome priced at $1.9 million, on sale for 50% off at the rally. We passed on that one. In addition to all the new models of RV’s, there were many vendors for parts, accessories, and various RV unrelated stuff.
We finished up our visit at the rally in time to make the tour of the Louisville Slugger bat factory. Again, no pictures, but interesting. Some pro ball players order up to 100 bats per season, made to their own specs. The company makes about 1.8 million bats per year, with the .8 mil being the miniature bats they give away at the factory tour. The factory is still located in downtown Louisville and has a 120′ replica of a bat outside the building. Here’s a ‘stock’ photo. (best I can do)
You’ll notice the camera is fixed again. There is the miniature bat!
Tomorrow we’re heading south for more adventures. Stay tuned.
Chuck
We parked at the barn (there is a 30 amp outlet there) on my cousin’s 50 acre farm outside of Lexington. The barn is the structure barely visible on the far left. The house is on the right. (stable in the middle.) 
Being a veterinarian he had access to all the LARGE farms in the area so he took us to one for a private tour. It is called the Vinery (google it if you like.) A farm like this has separate barns for mares, stallions, mating, foaling, and rehab, and others. Here is a foaling (birthing) stall (notice the nice woodwork).
This is a type of ‘whirlpool’ bath for horses much like athletes use to soothe sore muscles. 
It’s hard to imagine how pampered these horses are. Some are worth in the millions. And of course the farms are multi-millions. This one is . The guest house is in the middle and the barn is on the right.
There must have been hundreds of miles of black, brown, and white fencing.
Most of the roads in the area are what I call 1-1/2 lanes which is pretty hairy in an RV.
We got to watch some ‘jump’ training.
We learned a lot about thoroughbred horses and will have more interest in the big races like the Kentucky Derby from now on.
Next stop, Louisville.
Stay tuned.
Chuck
Next stop, Louisville.
Stay tuned.
Chuck
After the hubbub of Dayton, we spent a couple of days relaxing at a lovely state park on Brookville Lake, near Brookville, Indiana. During a little side trip, we discovered the little tourist town of Metamora. It is such a tourist town that it entirely shuts down on Monday and Tuesday. The shops are in individual buildings of the original town.
We were there on Monday and the only shop open was ‘Grannie’s Cookie Jars and Ice Cream Parlor’. Her husband makes the waffle cones on a little waffle iron. She has over 2400 different cookie jars and 1000 salt and pepper shakers.
Built in the 1800′s, the Whitewater Canal connecting Hagerstown, In, to Cincinnati ( approximately 101 miles) runs thru the town. A water-wheel powered grist mill that is still in operation, selling it’s corn meal and flour only to tourists, once produced goods to be shipped via the canal. A horse-drawn canal boat now takes tourist on short rides. 
There are two interesting features of the canal. One is an ‘aqueduct’ which carries the canal water over a creek. I don’t know why it’s covered.
The other interesting feature are the ‘locks’ required to compensate for different levels in the terrain, much like the Panama Canal locks. Except that these locks are very simple and hand operated by two men. They merely move the long ‘bars’ (heavy beams) to swing the lock doors open or closed.
Tuesday we travelled thru Cincinnati to race horse country of Lexington, Kentucky, to visit my 2nd cousin whom we haven’t seen in many years. He’s a veterinarian for the race horses here. We’re parked on his property amid gorgeous horse farms (his 50 acres fit right in). It’s raining this morning but we’ll get out and take pictures later. The countryside is breath-taking, but you’ll have to wait for the next report. Meanwhile, here’s a couple of bonus pictures.
Stay tuned,
Chuck
At last report we were in Millersburg, Ohio, in Amish country. The next morning we took a side trip to the little town of Berlin (Burr-lun) where we visited yet another ‘cheese house’.
We watched them make cheese and heard about the whole process. (other cheese houses we’ve been to didn’t show it as well). The photo below shows the long stainless steel vats (one with cheese curds in it) and a big stirring ‘fork’ that moved up and down the length of the vat.
The store of course had samples of the 35 cheeses they make there, plus about 15 others, making it hard to choose. And they sold all manner of jellies, pie fillings, soup and dip mixes, candy, fudge, etc., etc.
As we travelled we were able to get a good view of those non-baled shocks of hay that I mentioned in my last report.
We finally pulled ourselves away from this pretty land and headed for Dayton, Ohio. We were on freeways for awhile and somehow the countryside is not as pretty as on the backroads.
DAYTON OHIO: the Birthplace of Aviation.
We spent all day Saturday immersed in aviation and were really pooped at the end of the day. We started at 9 am at the National Air Force Museum.
This consisted of six huge hangars, all connected, and nicely laid out with literally hundreds of airplanes, on the floor and hanging from the ceiling, from the beginning of flight in balloons to the space age. They had other exhibits as well, such as something about the holocaust, prisoners of war, and more.
From the huge B-52 bomber,
To some midget planes.
On the floor and hanging from the ceiling.
Here’s an astronaut!! (look closely)
We left the museum at 2:30 pm. That’s 5.5 hours on these old legs and we were dragging. We pressed on, however, and drove downtown to the Wright Brothers bicycle shop.
Then we drove back past the Museum (we left the RV there) and visited Huffman’s Prairie where the Wright Bros. perfected their aircraft and really learned to fly it. The flights at Kitty Hawk were the first, but those flights were just getting off the ground. At Huffman’s Prairie, they developed the ‘plane’ to the point that it could stay aloft and learned to turn and land. They also began a flying school to teach others to fly, therefore this place is known as the world’s first airport and flying school.
At the visitor’s center I tried a ‘flight simulator’, simulating the Wright’s plane. It wasn’t easy and served to illustrate the difficulties these men overcame with persistence.
It’s awesome to consider the achievement of these two men.
That ended our ’immersion’ into aviation in Dayton. We retrieved the RV and headed west a short distance to Eaton, Ohio, where we overnighted and attended a small church the next morning. Afterward there was a group selling fresh sweet corn, just picked that morning, and we finally got some and it was goooood. We’re now in a state park near Brookville, Indiana. We came here just to be in Indiana. Tuesday we go to Kentucky.
Stay tuned,
Chuck
BACK IN THE USA!! Even though Canada is so similar to the US, it’s still a good feeling to be back in this wonderful country of ours. Crossing the border was a bit more time consuming than going into Canada. We were questioned mostly about fruits and vegetables, of which we had none. We must have looked suspicious however, because the agent came in and looked in our refrigerator. Not finding any lettuce or terrorists, we were allowed to go.
We skirted around Buffalo, NY, and headed west along the coast of Lake Erie. We overnighted in Erie, Pa, and then on to Geneva State Park in Ohio where we were able to complete our goal of paddling our kayak on all five of the Great Lakes! Leaving our tree-shaded campsite, we headed south into Ohio’s Amish country. We enjoy the more leisurely pace of the backroads as well as the beauty of the countryside. One problem with these roads is that for many miles there may not be a place to pull over to stretch or take pictures. So many of the pictures are taken as we drive along, and may not be of the best quality.
We began to see the Amish buggies on the roads.
We had passed through many acres of vineyards, and some Christmas tree farms, but now we were back in dairy country with pretty farms on rolling hillsides. There are also many Amish furniture and woodworking shops and some big furniture operations. As we drove in around 4:30 pm there were Amish on bicycles, probably heading home from their ‘day jobs’.
We had been briefed on how to tell an Amish house and found it to be true. First, there are no electric lines to the house, and second, the window curtains are pulled to one side only. We also noticed that they had clothes lines with laundry hanging outside.
We just had to stop at another cheese factory (called ‘cheese house’) and this time they actually made the cheese there, and they did have a nice film about the process. They made only Swiss cheese in 5 flavors. Our fridge is now quite well stocked with cheese!
To illustrate the size of this operation, there must have been at least 4 large milk tanker trucks come into the weigh station. They drive onto the scale and send samples of their milk via pneumatic tube to a place where it is analyzed for quality. If it passes, the truck then goes and unloads the milk. 
In between trucks, I drove the RV onto the scale and ‘stole a weigh’. (get it? stole away?)
We found the Walmart in Millersburg, OH. and parked to spend the night with some mountains in front and a wide paved trail behind. The trail apparently follows what used to be a railroad and connects several towns and is used by bikers and buggies. This parking lot is an access point. Soon we heard the clip-clop of horses hooves and an Amish buggy with two young girls came in right past the RV.
Then another buggy with an older couple came in from the trail access. 
This looks like such a nice way to travel, particularly in nice weather. Anyway, we discovered that Walmart is not only RV friendly, they are also Amish buggy friendly. These buggies went and parked in the covered hitching post!!
These girls had driven about 5 miles to get here.
These people were the Millers, and were very gracious to spend time talking with us. (I think he looks like a leprechaun.)
They said the only difference between us and them is that they don’t have cars or electricity. They can travel in motor vehicles as long as someone else drives. They have machinery to work the fields, but mostly horse-drawn. They do have a power lawnmower. I asked because all the lawns are neatly mowed. We have seen literally thousands of round and square bales of hay in the fields on this trip, but here we have seen some fields with stacked hay bundles. I thought they must have been cut by hand, but Mr. Miller said there was a machine that cut and tied the bundles, but the stacking was done by hand. One bundle is placed over the stack as a ‘roof’.
As I write this early in the morning two buggies have already come in, one from the street and one from the trail. This is a fascinating bit of Americana to be in the middle of.
Stay tuned,
Chuck