Another Travel Day

 It was REALLY windy last night.  When we went to bed, it felt like we were trying to sleep in a small rowboat in the middle of a tempestuous sea.  The wind direction was such that it buffeted the RV broadside, rocking it severely (or at least that's how it felt).  It howled through the open windows and rattled the roof vents. Deb asked me several times if we were in danger of tipping over.  I reassured her that we were not.

After an entire winter of sleeping in a space that is often just above freezing, trying to sleep in a rocking bed in nearly eighty-degree temperatures was a bit difficult. I wonder if the three other RVs parked here had the same problem.

A front moved through at about 1am and brought rain and cooler temperatures, so we were able to sleep.  The wind also died down.  Early morning was blessedly quiet.

After breakfast it started to rain.  We were just leaving our parking space when we spotted a vivid rainbow. We stopped to observe it and it disappeared just as fast as it had come.  It was beautiful for a short time, though.

Since we were right next to Georgetown, we drove through town, just to see the architecture of the stately old homes and the downtown businesses.  Always neat to see the ornate buildings.

We left the prescribed path and headed toward Cumberland Gap National Historic Park.  Probably added an hour or two of drive time, but we wanted to see this and we were not in any hurry.  We arrived at the park just before noon and Google Maps, probably in an effort to save thirty seconds of drive time, routed us to the back entrance of the park along some very narrow and twisty roads.  An enjoyable drive but it took a lot of concentration to keep the RV on the road.

The road to Pinnacle Overlook was limited to vehicles under 20 feet long so we hiked the trail suggested by the ranger in the visitor center, starting on the Object Lesson Trail, going by the historic Cumberland Gap Pass, and climbing steeply for nearly two miles to the peak.  This has been a popular view point for many years, and offers a commanding view of three states.

Daniel Boone spent a lot of time here, blazing a trail and building a road that hundreds of thousands of settlers used to cross the Appalatian Mountains in their push westward.  The road was eventually removed and US-25E was routed through a tunnel under the mountain to restore the beauty of Cumberland Gap.

Cumberland Gap was also a strategic location during the Civil War, changing hands between Union and Confederate armies several times as it was the only way across the mountains.

A few miles up the road was a parking area next to the Wilderness Road State Park Bike Trail.  We parked here, made dinner, then unloaded the bikes and took a 15-mile bike ride.  This trail parallels the Cumberland Ridge and is very picturesque, with farms and pastures having the mountains as a backdrop.  We saw a few buffalo in the state park, grazing in a small pasture.

Back in the RV, we headed south on US-25E a very scenic road which winds through the mountains on its way south.  Finally stopped for the night in Morristown, Tennessee, in a Cracker Barrel parking lot.

On Daniel Boone

The visitor center had the journal of Daniel Boone.  One of the pages highlighted on the wall talked about his impression of the mountains.

At a vast distance I beheld the mountains lift their venerable brows, and penetrate the clouds.  All things were still. I kindled a fire near a fountain of sweet water, and feasted on the loin of a buck, which a few hours before I had killed.  The sullen shades of night soon overspread the whole hemisphere, and the earth seemed to gasp after the hovering moisture.  My roving excursion this day had fatigued my body, and divested my imagination.  I laid me down to sleep, and I awoke not until the sun had chased away the night.

We were then in a dangerous, helpless situation, exposed daily to perils and death amongst savages and wild beasts, with not a white man in the county but ourselves.  Thus situated, many hundred miles from our families in the howling wilderness, I believe few would have equally enjoyed the happiness we experienced.

Such eloquence.  Too bad this kind of language is not taught today.  I would imagine today’s description, sent via text message, would look something like this:

we r like lost in the mts had 2 kill a deer for food got like too dark to see so we slept on the ground i wanna go home

On RVing

Our step quit working today.  Made a couple clunks and now the step just hangs loose halfway down.  Another thing in the growing list of things to fix, which includes a partially plugged faucet aerator and a computer charger.  Part of the charm of putting a house on wheels and driving it down the freeway, right?  The maintenance issues come along.

Travel Day

 We managed to leave this morning at about 9:15.  I picked up the lug nut and a spare from the Dodge dealer, convinced it to go on to a somewhat rusty stud, and we were good to go.  Packed some of the last minute stuff and we were off.

We didn’t get the promised rain, yet, but it was just above freezing and the Winter Storm Watch was still in effect.

Our first stop was in Ann Arbor, to Zingerman’s Deli, for another fantastic lunch. Deb decided to double down on something she knew was good: the “Mary’s Commute”, a chicken salad sandwich with their applewood smoked bacon.  She said it was just as good the second time.  I went for the Half-Italian Sub.  Equally delicious.  We also stopped at Zingerman’s mail-order warehouse and picked up a pound of their bacon that Deb had pre-ordered a couple days ago.  We enjoyed the sandwiches in the parking lot of the warehouse.  Somehow, parking for an RV in downtown Ann Arbor just doesn’t happen very easily.  We picked up the sandwiches by ordering on the way, then I dropped Deb off at the door of the deli, drove around the block, and picked her up again.

We still had some time for the second stop of the day: The National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton.  We arrived at 4pm and the place closed at 5pm, so we had an hour.  An hour is not enough time to visit this place, so this is on our list of return locations.

The museum is massive, consisting of four enormous quonset-style hangars stuffed to the gills with all manner of flying things.  Things like B-2 Bombers, C-17 heavy transport, and other large aircraft seemed small in these cavernous rooms.

We spent a little time in the early flight section, with some of the Wright Brothers planes and equipment.  Also spent some time in the Leonardo DaVinci exhibit.  I didn’t know that he was the one that invented the ball bearing.  They had several reproductions of his machines there, including a tank that looked a bit like a wooden igloo.  The four wheels that moved the tank were hand-cranked by four people.  Must have taken some muscle to move that thing.

We had dinner in the parking lot of the museum, and watched the last few people leave. The parking lot must be built on an old runway--it was several car-lengths wide and probably a half mile long.

By this time we had shed all the clothing from this morning and were down to t-shirts.  It was 82 degrees and very windy.  We fought this wind for the next two hours,  finally stopping for the night at a Cracker Barrel in Georgetown, Kentucky.

My bride and fellow adventurer, using both old technology (a paper atlas) and new technology (an iPad) to navigate.

Leaving Tomorrow

This is the last post from home. We’re taking off sometime tomorrow, hopefully in the morning.  Our home for the next 3.5 weeks is stuffed to the gills with food and supplies, even to the point of strapping a large cooler to the bike carrier in the back and using it for supplies.

As always, there were last-minute hiccups.  I pulled the rear hubcap to check the tire pressure and noticed a missing lug nut.  I checked at the nearby tire store, they didn’t have one.  I also checked at a couple nearby auto parts stores whose web sites said they had some in stock... nothing.  They told me to go to the dealer.  I asked the guy at the tire store if it was safe to drive with five lug nuts, knowing what his answer would be.  Long distances?  Definitely not.

I’ve had experience with lug nuts before.  Our first motorhome odyssey almost 25 years ago was captured in a series of journal entries spanning over 30 pages and was appropriately titled Road Kill: Revenge of the Lug Nuts.  We nearly lost a couple of rear wheels on that one.  So I would rather have all six lug nuts snugly in place.

I called the local Dodge dealer who told me they didn’t have any, but their Wayland location (about an hour’s drive away) had a few.  And, he could get a couple here by 8:30 tomorrow morning.  Great.  I’ll take two.  One for a spare.  It will join the growing pile of tools and miscellaneous junk in the bottom drawer, just in case.

We’re in that time where everything is packed that can be, but a bunch of stuff needs to go in tomorrow morning.  A lull in which there is nothing really to do.  Both of us were a bit restless so we took a walk while it was still light.  The wind is starting to pick up, perhaps foreshadowing the storm to come.

Seems like there’s always some sort of storm when we leave.  We’ll probably be driving in the rain (hopefully not freezing rain) for a good deal of the first day.  After that, who knows?

It's All About the Food

Maybe we’re becoming foodies.  I looked up the definition of foodie on Merriam-Webster.  They define “foodie” as a person having an avid interest in the latest food fads.

OK, maybe not.  We’re not fad-type people.  We just like good food.  And often the best food is that which is made at home.

There are exceptions to the made-at-home thing.  We were at Palio in Grand Rapids last night with some close friends of ours, and the food was great.  Highly recommended and we will probably end up there again.

But, even when we travel, we try to do the made-at-home thing as much as possible.  Because of the small space in the RV, much of this is prepared ahead of time and packaged so as to (a) fit in small spaces, and (b) go from fridge to table in a matter of minutes.

Today, we did some of that preparation.  While cold cereal is convenient for breakfast, a breakfast burrito is a great hot start to the day.  We assembled several of these for the trip.  A couple minutes in the microwave and it’s ready to go. 

While I was busy assembling the breakfast burritos, Deb was making her famous chocolate chip cookies, which can be seen in the background.  That’s another essential of travel--good snacks.  The best ones have chocolate as a major ingredient.

And, an essential food for any trip is bacon.  As the saying goes, anything is better with bacon.  So we fried up a pound and packed it in containers, ready to be brought out at a moment’s notice for breakfast or to add flavor to a panini sandwich for lunch.  There never seems to be enough bacon.

Mmmm!  You can just smell it in the oven.

In planning our route, we made sure that Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor is one of our stops.  We were there a few weeks ago and had some of their bacon.  Probably some of the best bacon I have ever tasted.  Worth planning an extra half-hour of driving to pick up a pound.

So the fridge and freezer here have been filling with all kinds of good food, some of it coming from meals that were made here at home, with the extra stored in a container for the trip.  On Tuesday, this will all be transferred to the RV fridge, and hopefully it will all fit.  Deb tells me that she is the visionary, with all the food ideas, and I am responsible for making it all fit in.  Could be quite a challenge.

But we will eat well.

Preparations

We leave in six days.  It’s hard to believe that this volunteering gig we signed up for nearly a year ago is almost upon us.

We signed up for the SOWER ministry after talking with another couple last year.  Sounded good to us.  They have volunteer work projects all over the country, and not surprisingly, the projects in the south are very popular in the wintertime.  After looking at all the available projects, we chose the Cove in Asheville, North Carolina in April 2022 as it had the least chance to conflict with other things that were going on.

Hard to believe it’s almost April, 2022, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been preparing.  Deb has been freezing meal portions in Zip-loc bags, which will fit much more efficiently in the very small freezer we have in the RV.  We’ve begun packing dry food in the RV and today we went through the clothing.  Three weeks is a long time to live in just over 100 square feet of space, so we’re making everything count.

The rest of the dry foods can go in over the weekend and anything containing water will go in starting on Monday or Tuesday, when we can keep some heat on.

While Asheville does, in fact, have grocery stores, we usually pack as much as possible as the preparations for these meals are already done and we have found that food on the road is always way more expensive than food from home, so we try to take as much food from home as possible.

I changed the transmission fluid in the RV last week, a messy job which involved a lot of crawling around under the rig.  At the same time I put new struts and new brakes on Abigail’s car and changed the oil on my Honda, so I was really wearing my mechanic’s hat last week.
 
I also had a laundry list of small items to be dealt with in the RV: fixing one stove burner that would only burn on low, replacing a leaky shower shut-off valve, replacing the converter with one that won’t cook the batteries, and a host of other things.  Also tested what I could that didn’t involve water.  It’s supposed to get quite cold over the next couple of days, so I can’t put any water in the plumbing yet. 

I noticed when we were out and about today that the price of diesel fuel went up to $4.99 at Meijer.  When we finished our errands, I took the RV out and filled the tank for $4.69 at another nearby station that I had seen before it, too, goes up.  Just this morning, I saw an article about a diesel fuel shortage in Europe because of the conflict in Ukraine, so I would expect this trend to continue.

I guess I should count my blessings.  My trip doesn't go through Sacramento, California...

So Wednesday, March 30, we hit the road.  We’ve been looking forward to this for quite a while.