LA, AR, MS, AL TN, and GA, almost home! - Trip Home

No pictures, just a quick check-in. We stayed in Greenwood, MS and Russellville, AL before stopping last night just outside Chattanooga, TN (we are actually in GA). The weather has gotten quite cold for us, nights are dropping into the upper 20's and lows 30's. Today the high in Jamestown is forecast for 48...nope, not going there. LOL! We extended a night and will make the last leg on our trip home tomorrow when it's due to be in the upper 50's. Much better for us, even with electric gear.

Our conversations are filled with thoughts of our cruise and move to Ecuador. Much to do before then but will try to drop a post here once in a while. Oh, for those that wonder - Miss Sadie is loving her new home and her kids to watch over. In return, they love her and take her camping with them whenever they go. They also gave her a Halloween costume. LOL!

Thanks to everyone who has bought and read "Barely a Spark". I hope to have the print copy available in a couple more weeks as well as making it available on Smashwords. The reviews have all been positive and I appreciate each and every one! If you have read and enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review on Amazon and PLEASE tell your friends. The best marketing is word of mouth!

Where did the warm weather go?

We left the Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale a little later than we had hoped but at least the sun was shining. For whatever reason the day ended up being long...might have been the late lunch stop at a truck stop mixed with the constant rest areas "I gotta go" stops and topped off with the longest one at Cabela's in Baton Rouge. LOL!

We had hoped that the Cabela's there might have overnight spots with hookups but they didn't, we didn't want to backtrack to the KOA on I-12 (we had already done that bypassing New Orleans on I-12 and backtracking on I-10 to Cabela's) so we passed over the Mississippi and stopped at the Cajun Country Campground. It was dark, the office was closed and the park looked full (lots of workers, but looked okay). We finally found a spot, a long level pull-through. Plugged in the power and snuggled in for the night.

The weather has been going below freezing for the last three nights and that means no asphalt parking for us. Worse, the forecast calls for the same up to and possibly through the weekend...even as we continue west. We planned to spend several nights in Marathon and visit Big Bend National Park. Think we will be passing on that, only staying long enough for our mail to arrive. Looking forward to getting to southern AZ and hoping the temps there will finally warm up!

We're cutting our days shorter, only trying to do 200 or so miles and going to try to get parked well before dark.

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu

On the road, southwest USA in our sights

We finally got on the road late morning on Wednesday. Our route was easy, north on I-75 to I-10 and then west until we hit Quartzsite, AZ....LOL! Don't think we'll get lost.

Our first stop was at Camping World in Tallahassee. We had several items we wanted to pick up. We have two wonderful Fantastic Fans with rain sensors...that means they close automatically when it rains. We finally decided to get MaxxAir vent covers for them to eliminate that issue. We were thrilled to find them on sale.

We picked up several other small items and got permission to use their "first come, first serve" hookup sites. Yup, got a night of free parking WITH power. Nice!! Thank you to CW for continuing this wonderful service in these hard economic times.

We got on the road by 9:00 and headed west. We made a stop at Sam's Club in Pensacola and then found a VERY busy Wal-Mart Supercenter for the last few grocery items. Nice to not have to rush through the day...we easily made it to the Rainbow Plantation in Summderdale, AL where we planned to spend a couple of days.

We love the Escapee Parks that we have stayed in but have to admit that our last two check-in (Bushnell and Summerdale) seemed very impersonal. No offer of hugs, no mentions of social gatherings, no real welcoming feeling. Guess everyone feels stressed? We did find the social calendar in the clubhouse in Bushnell, thus we made it to the Christmas Pot Luck. No mention was made of anything here last night so we just relaxed in the RV.

Today is a veg day...I did get the laundry done and some online catch-up reading done as well. It's supposed to go down below freezing tonight and from what we can tell, all the south is pretty much the same. Our next stop will be at Cabela's in Gonzales, LA. Not sure where we will spend the night, if they have hookups and if one is open, we'll stay there. Otherwise we'll look for a Passport American campground.

We had originally planned on spending a couple of days around New Orleans but the current temps are discouraging us. We would normally ride the bikes (or at least the trike) and rain & cold are not our favorite riding conditions. Most of TX looks cold as well unless you go down towards the Rio Grand Valley area where we spent last winter.

So, we will meander onward on I-10 west, stopping when & where we feel like it. We have two weeks before the big show starts in Q. No rush, and that's a good thing.

On a side note, our New Year's Eve was quiet. We decided that we will try at least one new beer as our new tradition. Stu found some Red Stripe at Wal-mart. You might remember his disappointment at not finding it during our Jamaica excursion. Then we find it at a Wally World in Pensacola, FL. LOL! Anyway, we tried it and both liked it (I think I liked it a little more than he did). We watched a discount Blu-Ray movie - Æon Flux. Neither of us had ever heard of it but figured it was worth grabbing at $10 (less than going to the movies). It turned out to be a pretty good SciFi movie and we really love the Blu-Ray....especially now that Stu has all the surround sound up and working.

Finally, a thanks to all our readers who have put up with a very sporadic year of posting. It's been an extremely busy year with a lot of highs and lows. Here's to a 2010 with more highs than lows, for all our family & friends! You deserve it...

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu

In Texas...FINALLY!

Yup, we made it to TX yesterday....I missed a night blogging mainly because we were cold, tired, in a crappy park with poor power that kept going off. On Saturday we left Alabama, crossed Mississippi and landed in Monre, LA for the night. We made it to the Harley dealer there by 4:00...but they closed at 3:00. Figures....LOL!

There was a Sam's Club but with lows forecast in the upper 20's we thought we'd grab a campground and there was a Coast to Coast park, Shiloh RV & Travel Resort on the same street as Harley & Sam's. So we grabbed a spot for the night....$10. Well, we should have read the reviews at rvparkreviews.com first. Sigh....

The roads were terrible, lots of mud (too close a reminder to our night at South of the Border), a power pedestal sitting in a pool of water with no breaker and covered by a little piece of carpet. We shoulda known....off & on all night the power flickered. Since we use a power surge protector, that meant 5 or so minutes before everything came back up...each time. We were on antenna so that helped (we barely fit in the spot with a foot or two overhang on either end so trying the move forward/back to get the dish to find a signal wasn't an option). Stu sent a note to Coast to Coast and entered a poor review at rvparkreviews.com. One more park OFF our list...

Note - the water cartridge was already there.

We had to use Linx levelers to keep the connection out of the water - it was 6" deep!

Don't you just love the nicely graveled road? That's what their website showed...

We headed out early, finished getting through LA and crossed into TX. An uneventful day of driving, we arrived at the Rainbows End Escapees Park in Livingston, TX around 4:00. This was allowed plenty of time to get setup and attend the 6:30 ice cream social! By the time we walked back the temperature was 35...we were really glad to be in a park with good, clean power. When we woke up this morning it was 27. Good thing Stu unhooked the water last night.

Oh, at the ice cream social we met up with Hank & Patti Landry. I had met them a couple of times before but have to admit to being REALLY bad at remembering people...so everyone who has met me is FOREWARNED! LOL! Great folks, we chatted about traveling and hope to see them again in the Mission area.

We will be picking up a month's worth of mail this afternoon, not sure when we will be leaving but could be on Wednesday. We have an issue with our gas heat (either the regulator or the thermostat...again) and looks like the KZ dealer that can work on the rig is kind of on our way.

As we've said before...we'll hit Mission eventually!

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu

On the road again....left NC and now in AL

Just a brief catch-up post so I can spend more time on one about the new (to us) motorcycle trailer. We finally left New Bern, NC yesterday morning under overcast skies. Our initial route was a repeat of what we took to get to New Bern but next thing we know, BIBS (our GPS) had taken us off on some more rural roads. Nice quiet drive on a two-lane road. The skies had cleared and the day warmed a little so we really enjoyed it. Found a neat little side of the road combo gas station, convenience store and cafe. We grabbed a quick sandwich, took a few sips of our tea (having forgotten that if they don't ask, it WILL be sweet tea...LOL!) and continued on.

We stopped in Goldsboro, NC at Shelton's Harley-Davidson. What a treat! This was the first dealer to actually have some reasonable sales and I picked up (thank you, Stu) a new textile jacket, a Hawaiian style shirt and a Taz t-shirt all at 50%. WOW! Even better, the shop was open & airy with a terrific motorcycle collection up above. I highly recommend their shops if you are in NC (we were told there were three of them).



The sky darkened once more and I grabbed a few shots. Before the end of the day it partially cleared and gave us a glowing sunset. More photos on SmugMug.



We spent the night in a Flying J around Columbia, SC and hit the road at 9 am. The weather was perfect, sunny & cool, traffic was minimal and we made good time...Just under 400 miles (a LOT for us...especially with Harley stops...LOL!). We're now in a Flying J just outside Birmingham, AL and hope to make Livingston either late on Sunday or mid-day on Monday. Phew!

Oh, almost forgot one little incident from yesterday's drive...a large heron or crane flew up from the side of the road, narrowly missing the front of our truck. Our backwash dragged him down and he BARELY missed the car rapidly passing us on the left. Just glad we all made it out without incident....

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu