Carthage, MO and Route 66

Last February, at a Newmar Kountry Klub luncheon in the Rio Grande Valley, we were the lucky winners of a door prize donated by the owner of CoachLight RV Park. We won a free week's stay at the RV Park, plus 2 breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for 2 at local restaurants. So we were looking forward to enjoying several meals and a free week in Carthage while we explored the area.

We visited the Carthage Chamber of Commerce to get some tourist maps. Among them was a guide to following Route 66 through the Carthage/Joplin area.

From Norcold to Samsung - What an Improvement

We arrived in Nappanee, Indiana around noon on Sunday and got set up at the Newmar factory with full hookups even in the overflow area.  Last November when we arrived, they had turned off the water in the overflow area, but this year we were in luck! 

We had an appointment on Tuesday at Master Tech RV in Elkhart, IN to have our Norcold (aka Not-cold) refridgerator removed and a residential fridge installed, and also to have our water pump replaced.

So on Tuesday, we packed up and drove about 20 miles north to Elkhart. They took us right in at 8:00 and started checking out the wiring, inverter, batteries, etc., to make sure we were all set for our new fridge.  We spent the day running errands, eating out, and just killing time in their waiting room with other customers.  We were prepared to be spending the next 2 or maybe even 3 days doing this.  To our surprise, around 4:00, Master Tech Salesperson, Jack Harris, came to tell us they were finishing up and we'd be in our coach that night enjoying our new Samsung refridgerator!!

From this....                                                   To This.... in ONE DAY!!!

Thank You Master Tech RV !!!  Their foreman, Joe, and his crew did a great job!  I walked into the coach and one of the workers was on his hands and knees wiping down the floor, making sure everything was spotless.

Now we have hard ice cream all the time, and don't have to worry about not having enough room in the freezer or the fridge.  Better yet, no more Norcold recalls or safety issues to worry about. 

We spent the next two nights in Master Tech's parking lot and even unplugged the coach one night to duplicate dry camping. Everything was fine in the morning, our batteries powered the inverter and fridge all night and the fridge was 36 degrees and freezer was 0.  Just what we were hoping for! 

On Our Way to Warmer Weather (?)

We left Indiana on Thursday morning and headed south, hoping to leave the cold windy weather behind.  As we drove through Nappanee, I was able to snap a photo of a sign that we've seen posted in an Amish farmer's field for at least a couple of years. One side says "Son, Please Come Home to Jesus" the other side says "Son, Jesus Still Loves You." 

  Main Street, Nappanee, Indiana

We traveled a familiar route, Hwy 31 south, then US 24 to cut over to I-57 in Illinois.  This took us past Rantoul, IL, where we were stationed for about 4 years when Dennis was in the Air Force.  It looked very familiar - fields that go on forever, corn on one side of the road and soybeans on the other.

We stopped in Effingham, IL around 2:30 at Camp Lakewood RV Park. Easy on/off from the Interstate, nice level sites, Passport America Park, and the owner was also Retired Air Force. Maybe that came into play when we gave us a great site right next to the office. 

It was a nice park, but the weather was still pretty chilly and windy.  Paddington and I both bundled up to go for our walk.

We were on the road by 8:30 the next morning, headed to Carthage, Missouri and CoachLight RV Park. 

Off to a good start

Our first day on the road was smooth going.  We left just before 9:00 a.m.

Once we had been on the road an hour or so, I think Paddington got the idea that this traveling thing was going to last for awhile. She kept giving me the look of 'are we there yet?'

As we drove along I-91 and I-84, through Massachusetts and especially in Connecticut, the damage from last week's snow storm was very apparent. Trees were down all over and you could see where many of them had blocked at least one lane of the highway.

Luckily, we only ran into one traffic backup and it was, of course, due to crews clearing the highway of downed trees.

We had a short day planned today - a little less than 300 miles. We are stopped for the night at a Wal-Mart in Fishkill, NY.  Good parking spot, we even have a little pond to the right of us.  Great Verizon service here in the parking lot, not much traffic, nobody close by so we're running our generator. Life is good.

I plan our travels using Microsoft Streets & Trips (plus a Garmin GPS) as you can see here. Double coverage never hurts (well, most of the time...)

Tomorrow night we should be in either western PA or eastern OH, again parked courtesy of Wal-Mart. 

P.S. check out "my hobbies" tab for a sweet baby sweater I just finished.

Fall in New Hampshire - Part 2

Well, we didn't quite make our getaway before the snow hit. This October snow storm dropped about 14 inches of heavy, wet snow on us. Guess we'll have to leave earlier next year!

Fall in New Hampshire

We took a day last week and played "leaf peepers" along with many other locals and tourists.  The trees didn't disappoint us one bit.

The "New" Old Man of the Mountains

The favorite tourist attraction in New Hampshire when I was a kid was always the Old Man of the Mountains.  Located on Cannon Mountain, it was always a great site to see the Old Man sitting on top of the mountain, watching over New Hampshire.  On May 3, 2003, the unthinkable happened - the Old Man was no more.  Sometime during the night, he slipped away, falling into the rubble of rocks hundreds of feet below his perch. 

There is a new monument to the Old Man, a series of projections on an iron rod that, when viewed from just the right angle, makes it looks like he still lives up on that mountain peak.

This is what enables us to 'see' him again.

The Countdown Is On...

The days are getting shorter and soon we'll be off for another winter of (hopefully) warm temperatures and lots of sun. 

Our migration to Texas is only a couple short weeks away and as we count down the days until our departure, the checklists only get longer.  So many things to think of, things to do before we leave, clothes to pack. What to pack?? Last year I brought way too many cool-weather clothes. The year before I brought too many hot-weather clothes.  Mother Nature is too unpredictable!

Paddington takes everything in her closet - a sweater and a hoodie. Here she is last year in windy Indiana, wearing her hoodie.

A Memorable Thanksgiving Day

We left Memphis on Thanksgiving morning, heading due south into Mississippi. This route was about 1 to 1-1/2 hours longer than our original plan, but it was just far enough east to keep us away from the strong storms predicted for Little Rock.

Paddington was a little disappointed about having to travel on Thanksgiving Day, she was looking forward to Turkey!  She settled in between Dennis' seat and the slide-out wall.

We made a good choice and stayed clear of the storms by going south on I-55 to Winona, Mississippi and then taking Route 82 across southern Arkansas. It was sunny and in the 80’s most of the day and we enjoyed seeing families gathering in their lawnchairs, sitting outside after their Thanksgiving dinner.

One town we passed through in Arkansas had a drive-through liquor store called the Buzz-Thru.  We thought that was appropriate.
We were headed to Texarkana, TX and finally made it there around 5:00. By the time we got checked in and set up at the RV park, Thanksgiving dinner sounded pretty good to us. We went out in search of a restaurant that was open. Nothing!! We had been on the road 10 hours and now couldn’t even find a McDonald’s that was open. We stopped at a gas station that had a little deli in it. I asked the lady what was the best thing to choose. I told her that this was going to be our Thanksgiving dinner and that we’d been on the road all day. She looked at us with an apologetic look and said, ‘Well, honey, I guess the catfish is the freshest thing I’ve got.’ So catfish it was, along with hush puppies, fried okra, and some things like corn fritters. She gave us a wink and whispered, ‘I gave you extra but don’t say anything.’ I guess she felt sorry for us. We’ve had some memorable holiday meals on the road before, so this one just adds to our list.

We stayed in Texarkana for several days, not wanting to travel on the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We tried to visit a couple museums but because of the Thanksgiving holiday, they were closed.  We did visit the Post Office in Texarkana, which is the subject of many photographs because one side is in Texas, and one side is in Arkansas.  State Line Avenue was interesting to drive on, as one side (Texas) was dry (no alcohol), but on the other side of the street (Arkansas) bars were plentiful.  This photo was taken in front of the Post Office. Dennis has one foot in Texas and one foot in Arkansas.

It's Always Something...

Finally it was Friday of our second week in Indiana and our coach was ready! We picked it up in Bremen and were on the road by 11:00, heading south toward Kentucky.  We drove about 225 miles and found a campground about 30 miles north of Louisville, KY that was semi-open.  We stopped there for the night, got some groceries at a nearby Wal-Mart and settled in for the night. Life was good!  The next morning when we brought in the large living room slide - - life was not so good!!  It’s a flat slide and it wouldn’t quite make it up the ramp to close.  Many tries, many angry looks, a few angry words, but nothing worked.  Finally, with the help of a prybar, we got the slide in and instead of heading south to Kentucky, we had to backtrack to Bremen to have this problem fixed.  We were not happy campers!!  To make matters worse, it was Saturday, so they wouldn’t be able to work on it until Monday.  So it was back to our Indiana ‘home’ – parked at Newmar again for the weekend.  We could have parked at Precision Painting in Bremen but it’s nicer at Newmar.  We had to spend the weekend with the large living room slide retracted because we didn’t want to have to use the prybar again to get it in. We have two living room slides, so we weren’t too cramped, just a little inconvenienced.

On Monday we were at Precision Painting bright and early and they did some adjustments and modifications and again sent us on our way around 11:00 again.  That night we stayed at the same RV park we had stayed at on Friday night. (Didn’t want to be too far away from Bremen – just in case.)  So on Tuesday morning, with fingers crossed, we closed up the slides without a problem and 3 days and 450 miles off our schedule, we finally crossed into Kentucky.

Our original plan was to spend 3 or 4 days touring the Bourbon Trail, a part of central Kentucky where there are several bourbon distilleries not too far from one another.  You pick up a Passport at the first distillery and have it stamped as you visit each one. Once you have visited the distilleries on the Trail, you get a special T-shirt showing your accomplishment.  Sounded like fun to us!  Some of the distilleries are large and modern, others are small family-owned ones that haven’t changed much over the years.

 Unfortunately, because of losing 3 travel days, we were closing in on Thanksgiving and also cold weather was closing in on this region – fast.  So we readjusted our plans and decided to head south and hit the Bourbon Trail in the spring.

We stopped just north of Memphis at the Mid-South Regional Naval base, where they had a small but nice FamCamp.  After checking the weather, we decided to spend Tuesday night and Wednesday here and travel on Thanksgiving day, when the traffic should be light.  Bad weather was predicted for Little Rock, Arkansas, which was to be our travel route.