Sunday-The Road Trip to Florida Begins

Some time ago, Steve asked me if I wanted to come to Florida for a good part of the summer while he has the kids.  His idea was to travel down with the RV and then spend time camping for part of each week while there.  He will have quite a bit of time off from work so it should be fun.  He loves to RV as much as I do and wanted to share the experience with the kids.  We picked the RV up from storage on Saturday and he was busy checking the tires, etc. that evening.  I started doing a bit of reorganizing.  Toting things out to the RV goes much faster when you have some big strong help to move it.

Sunday morning, the last of the clothes and extras went out.  We had already decided to hold off on a Walmart run until this morning and just load the food directly into the RV. 

Let's hit the road! 

I forgot to mention that Steve and his Dad did some trading which resulted in Steve having a motorcycle that needed transport to Florida.  Of course, the men in the family decided that this was the perfect time to get it there as there would be plenty of travel breaks.

Everybody ready to roll?

Suited up at Walmart and headed out!

We pulled out of the Walmart parking lot at 11:30AM and headed down the back roads to I-10.  Two hours later, we pulled into a rest area and made ham sandwiches for lunch.  Potty breaks for all plus a walk  around with the dogs to stretch the kids legs and we were on the road again.  We had an easy trip through Houston since it was Sunday afternoon and traffic was light.  Just as we were coming into Beaumont, TX, about 6:15PM, we pulled into Hidden Lakes RV Park.  The office was already closed but there were two envelopes with info for #30 and #31 pull-through spots taped to the door.  One of the other campers came up to see if we needed any help (and to ask if the motorcyclist was with me, hilarious as he certainly didn't look like a Hell's Angel).  We got set up in our site.  The propane turned up empty earlier in the day and we were hoping to fill up at the park but no such luck. We decided that we would have dinner out so quickly unhitched and only had to go a mile to find several places.  Cracker Barrel got our business for the night.  Back at camp, we found that we couldn't connect to the free wifi because it asked for a logon and password which was not in our packet of info.  There was not a lot for us to do at the park because the lake was definitely not one that we would swim in and we weren't into fishing.  The park was very clean and quiet though and had great individual bathrooms and a laundry room so not a bad place to stop overnight for Passport America prices ($17.50 plus $2 each for more than 2).  We were already to pull out at 8:30AM when the office manager arrived.  I told her it was fine except for the wifi logon and password we didn't get.  She seemed puzzled and said "you just enter your own" which is definitely not the norm.

3-4 Aug 2010 - Indiana Stops - Elkhart and Fishers

My next stop after bidding family goodbye in Port Huron, was Elkhart.  Elkhart is supposed to be the epicenture of the RV world but I think the population there may have lost sight of that.  I know that the RV industry was hard hit over the last few years but I had to ask about 6 people before I could find anyone that had any idea where there was an RV park.  I know--I should have found McDonald's and hauled out the Internet and done a google search but this was Elkhart.  I finally found the Elkhart Campground, a pretty large and decent place to stay.  Asking for a pull-through, I was sent off to what looked like a field that was only pull-through if no one parked in front of you.  Since the campground was less than half-full and there were plenty of much better sites that were easier to get in and out of and more convenient all the way around, I went back to the office and asked for a different site.  The roads in the new area were gravel and the site had a picnic table and was much better.

Willy, Gretchen, and Harley took me on a tour around the park.  They had the usual amenities but we really didn't get to try them out.  We did have several nice walks before bedtime.  There was storm that night but  we had A/C and none of the branches fell on the truck or RV so we were just fine.  The next morning, the staff was out cleaning them up.

Finding the RV Hall of Fame the next day was equally challenging.  They moved into a new building a couple of years ago and the first 5 people I asked either didn't know anything about it or thought it closed a few years ago.  This could partly explain why they are not getting the visitors they anticipated and need to survive.  If you are in the area with an RV rally or other group, you are fine.  Traveling alone--not so much in terms unless you have all the information before you arrive.  The RV Hall of Fame has parking areas specifically for RVs which was really nice.  I waited out another rainstorm and then headed in for the tour.  The most interesting part of the museum, at least for me, were the RV exhibits.  They have examples from very early RVs to more modern ones and they are laid out along a rambling roadway.  I really enjoyed it and recommend you allow plenty of time to browse.

Once we were on the road again, we let "Hillary" plot a course for Indianapolis, more specifically Fishers Indiana, home of my long-time friend Mary Beth Lech.  Mary Beth met me in a Walmart parking lot and we went off to dinner together.  It was not the greatest Walmart and didn't look like a good place to stay.  After dinner I followed Mary Beth across town to a Super Walmart close to her house.  Unfortunately there were no overnight camping signs posted.  I explained that it is the town rather than Walmart that won't allow parking so Mary Beth had another idea.  She led me just across the highway to a Super Meijers.  Turns out they were across a county line so when I went in and asked the manager about parking, he said sure--just park on the side of the lot and he would notify security to keep an eye out for us.

Mary Beth asked if I would stay long enough to go out for breakfast with her in the morning.  I also got to meet her cousin so we had another great visit.  It is always great to meet up with friends.

8 July 2010 - Overnight in Dalton, GA

The plan was to be off this morning--no rush, not early, but on our way.  Just before I was ready to leave, I decided I should update the GPS since we had had it for two years and updates were in order.  Okay, I was having too much fun earlier in the week and forgot to do it.  I figured it might take 15 or 20 minutes.  lol.  Never, ever do this until you have plenty of spare time.  It took just over 3 hours to complete the update but since I was using "Hillary" to plot all my travel, it was probably a wise decision to wait it out.  Anyway, we were on our way by 12:30 and had no specific stopping points in mind when we left.

We traveled over some of the same ground we covered when we went up to the AFLAC Iron Girl Thiathlon so it was familiar.  The scenery was nice although we did hit rain and fog a couple of times in some of the higher elevations but lucked out when we stopped for a very late lunch.    It rained hard while we were eating lunch in the RV but we didn't get wet coming or going to the truck.

Later in the early evening we began looking for an RV park but didn't see anything along the way.  All of a sudden there was a Super Walmart sign off the road so we found the cut-off and headed in.  I went in, picked up a few items for supper, and asked the manager if it was okay to spend the night.  I was told "no problem, just make sure you are inside our parking lot and not out on the street or the local cops just might give you a ticket."  We had a walk around the parking lot after a late dinner and by then it was late enough to head on to bed.  It was a bit warm but not too bad with some windows open.  A bit later on a number of other RVs pulled in and one parked a bit too close when they were using a generator; however, I found a pair of ear plugs and with the three vigilant guard dogs on duty, we all had a good night.