TippetsSnippets

We are starting this one off with our time in Montana. We stopped at four different places in Montana. Our first stop was at North American RV Park in Coram, MT just a short 6 miles from the entrance to Glacier National Park. We made reservations for the Going-to-the-Sun Road and made the trip on the motorcycle. David has done this ride a couple of times, but this was the first time for Kim. What an absolutely beautiful road with breathtaking views along the way. The sheer cliffs along the road can be a little frightening but still well worth the trip. We also spent a couple days driving around this area of Montana exploring some of the local towns and Flathead Lake. We got in one hike through the woods, armed with our bear spray. It was good to get out for a hike and thankfully we didn’t find any bears. The highlight of this stop was floating down the Flathead River on a 4 hour guided fly-fishing trip. The river was crystal clear, and we had perfect weather. The scenery was amazingly beautiful! We learned a lot about fly-fishing and once again Kim caught more fish than David.

Our next stop was at Bernie and Sharon’s RV Park in Garrison, MT. There was another semi truck, 2 sites over from us and we spent quite a bit of time with the owners, Bob and Lisa. Great people! We went to Deer Lodge where we toured the Montana Prison Museum and then went to the Cell Block Tavern. Kim overheard some handsome young cowboys talking about a rodeo happening later in the week. The rodeo turned out to be lots of fun, especially the mutton busting event. That’s where they put the little kids on the backs of sheep and turn them loose. It was very entertaining. We spent a day visiting Phillipsburg where we explored all the shops in the downtown area, had a nice dinner, and then enjoyed some music at the Phillipsburg Brewery. One of Kim’s old coworkers started the Phillipsburg Brewery and once again we did not see him while we were there. He has now sold the brewery but still lives in town. We hear that he is typically “gone fishing”. We also drove to Helena where we visited the capital, drove through some of the historic sections, and enjoyed a nice lunch at a brewery with a roof top view of the town. We ended the Helena visit with a stop at Costco to restock the RV.

Our last stop in Montana was at the KOA in Big Timber. We discovered they like to spray their weeds with diesel fuel in this park. It took both of us getting headaches to figure that one out. We ran into someone local, who was as appalled by this as we were and said that she would “take care of it”. We went to the Greycliff Mill right down the road which was a really cute place with lots of little shops. We did a little exploring around the town of Big Timber (not much there) and visited a prairie dog park. The highlight of this stop was going to Natural Bridge Falls on the boulder River. The river flows through a hole in the rocks and then goes underground. We hiked down to the bottom of the falls, which was quite a steep hill, but it was worth the views. Then there was the climb back to the top… let’s just say we both need to be in a little better shape. On the way back we stopped at the Boulder River Roadkill Bar and Grill. We were pleasantly surprised at how nice this place was.

We were sad to leave Montana because it was one of our favorite states so far. Next, we stayed at a couple Harvest Hosts, Tilt Wurks Brewery in Mile City, MT and Phat Fish Brewing in Dickinson, ND. We managed to check North Dakota off the list with that stop, YAY! We also stopped at Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the way to Sturgis where there were amazing views.

Next, it was time for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. We stayed at the KOA in Spearfish, SD which just happens to be where David has his residency set up. Welcome Home David! We had a couple of days to get some shopping and pickleball in before Tangy, Rick, Sandy, Robert, and Matt showed up from Washington to do the rally with us. We went riding somewhere different every day. We explored downtown Sturgis, hiked around Devils Tower National Monument, visited the endless number of motorcycle vendors at Black Hills Harley, rode Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road, and rode through lots of other towns along the way. There is a picture above where you can see 2 people climbing Devils Tower. We did not attempt that! Everywhere we went there were thousands of motorcycles and some of the best people watching around. We spent numerous evenings cooking together at the RV. It is so nice to always have our home with us. Thanks to Tangy for all her help with everything! One of David’s high school friends also stopped by for a visit one afternoon. Thanks for stopping by Jeff Oliver, it was great seeing you and catching up.

Then we were off to Cody, Wyoming where we stayed at Yellowstone Valley Inn and RV Park. It was a nice park, about 30 miles from the East entrance to Yellowstone National Park, with a restaurant and bar, which was convenient. They also had cabins, so the whole Sturgis group of friends stayed there too! Yellowstone is huge! We spent two days on the motorcycles and put over 200 miles in each day and did not even see all of the park. It is an absolutely gorgeous park with so many things to see. Next time we will just camp inside the park so we can see more and have the chance to get some hikes in. Then it was time for the Washington motorcycle friends to head home. We really enjoyed our time with them! It was great having Tangy and Rick stay with us the entire time. They are such great RV guests! Then it was just the two of us… we went to The Cody Cattle Company for their dinner show and then to the Cody Rodeo afterwards. We had a great time and would highly recommend it, if you are ever in the area. The rodeo was one of the better ones we have been seen. We especially enjoyed the calf run where they have all the kids 12 and under get in a line in the arena and then they release a couple of calves with ribbons tied to their tales. The first kid to get the ribbons wins. We spent another day at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. It is a huge building with several different museums inside including Buffalo Bill, Plains Indians, Draper Natural History, Cody firearms, Whitney Western Art and several special exhibits. The firearms museum is the biggest gun display we have ever seen.

We are now headed towards Elkhart, Indiana for the Luxe rally in September and then spending the winter at the house in Florida. We have some more stops along the way, so look for one more post before we take a break from RVing.

And of course….. weird things along our travels. Drove through Paradise; saw the horse hotel; there is a different speed limit in Montana at night; went through Emblem, WY which had a population of 10. Unfortunately, two more prairie dogs are in heaven, thanks to Matt and David.

We are way behind on our posts; we have just been going nonstop and have not had time to put a post out. So, we are going to try and catch up with a short post.

In northern California, we stopped one night at a Harvest Host in Lodi; Klinker Brick Winery. We enjoy a great tasting followed by a couple glasses on our favorite wines. Then we had a peaceful evening next to the vineyard. You just can’t beat the views. Then we were off to Corning, where we stayed at Rolling Hills Casino. We made this stop to see Kim’s daughter and her partner Annica and David’s brother Alan and his family Julie, Devin and Jared. Unfortunately, this was the closet RV park we could find to them, which put us two hours away. Our RV is just too big sometimes… actually most of the time. David and Alan got in a round of gold at the Casino, the wind was crazy, but they really enjoyed getting out together. Then we met for dinner in Chico at Sierra Nevada Brewing where we enjoyed some good beer, great food and awesome conversation. Then we had dinner in Sacramento and went to a Mariners vs A’s baseball game. We spent the night in Sacramento at a hotel and then spent the next day with Brianna. We had a great breakfast with Brianna and Annica. We walked through some shops in downtown Sacramento. Brianna showed us around the Ford dealership where she works (she is doing awesome in her new job). We got to see Brianna and Annica’s house, then we had an awesome dinner where Annica works. We all got together for dinner and beers one evening at Green River Brewery in Winters. Then we all met at the RV on Mother’s Day for mimosas and a brunch buffet at the casino. Sometime during that stop, we also managed to fit in a couple more wineries that were close to the RV park. It was great seeing our Northern California family!

Next we stayed in Trinidad, CA at Elk Country RV Park. This park is right on the California coast with some pretty narrow and winding roads getting there. We enjoyed some walks on the beach, hiked through a redwood forest, found another winery, watched the elk that hung out in the campground, and truly enjoyed a sunset on the coast.

Next, we were off to Oregon, we drove another 100 miles or so up the coast on Highway 1 before heading inland toward Eugene. The views along the coast were amazing. We did experience our first break down. While getting back onto the road after stopping for a bathroom break, we heard a very loud bang and immediately pulled the truck over to the side. We both thought we had blown a tire, but alas all the tires fine. Then we looked under the hood and discovered that we had blown off the charge pipe that runs from the turbo to the intercooler. It was held on by these solid band clamps and there was no way to put it back together using those. Luckly, we had some spare hose clamps and were able to get it back together ourselves. Our roadside repair held until Eugene and our RV park just happened to be less than 2 miles from a Volvo dealership. We picked up some replacement parts and got it put back together better than new.

We stayed at Eugene Premier RV Resort, where the staff said that RV is huge and it’s not going to fit where we had you. So, after lots of discussion and a ride in the golf cart, we found a spot. We ended up backing into a spot right on the pond. Our time in Eugene was spent playing pickleball, exploring the area, catching up on some shopping, but the highlight was spending a few days with Kim’s daughter Hailey. We went to King Estate Winery where we had some amazing wine and fancy hors d’oeuvres. Then we went to Sarver Winery where we enjoyed some music and more great wine. We had a great time with Hailey! We included some pics of Suttle Lake in Oregon.

The next month was kind of a blur! We headed to Boise, ID where we had a family reunion with David’s family. Jenna, Evan and Jolie drove down from Washington, Alan and Julie drove in from California and we were there for a HDT (heavy duty truck) rally. David’s brother Keith planned several fun activities; golfing, a car show, concert and BBQ. We were able to see David’s parents, Keith and Diane, Alan and Julie, as well as Uncle Larry and Mardel, niece Katelyn and nephew Kyle. Jenna and family stayed with us, which gave us more time with the granddaughter! She is at such a fun age!

The HDT rally lasted a week with 30 rigs like ours in the RV park. The week was filled with lots of seminars, potlucks, a massage for Kim and a very fun wine tour (Kim may or may not have danced to YMCA in the aisle of the van). We were also in a smart car parade on the way to a steak dinner with the whole group. We met a lot of great people! Shout out to Heather and John who gave us an idea for another adventure (more to come on that). Thanks to Jen and Chad for organizing the whole thing and of course thanks to Roger for all the desserts!

We then got on a plane to our house in Florida. We spent the next 8 days putting furniture together, buying more furniture, installing ceiling fans, installing shower heads, setting up the bathrooms and the kitchen. I had been shipping things to the house for months! Gigantic thank you to Jamie and Erin for putting all the deliveries in the house and waiting for furniture and appliances to be set up by Costco. The house was full of boxes when we got there, so of course, we stayed up until 2 am after flying all day unboxing everything because the next day was trash day. After flying back to Boise, we had a very nice Father’s Day brunch with Wayne and Deanna before getting back on the road toward Poulsbo, WA. We stopped at another Harvest Host winery, Anelare in Benton City, WA. We arrived in Poulsbo, did a quick setup and then hit the local breweries where we saw Joe/Katie, Dave F./Jessica and Gary. Joe and Katie came back to the RV for wine and games. We always seem to have a hangover after hanging out with them! The rest of the week was very busy seeing everyone, playing pickleball, walking Bloedel Reserve (thanks Jane!), doing some shopping for the house, lunches, dinners, State 42 winery and an ice cream social at the yacht club. We really miss our friends in western Washington!!! We saw a lot of people but missed a few. We will catch you next time around or you can visit us in Florida 🙂

This one was supposed to be short, sorry, it is difficult! Some weird things: Bates Motel in Yates, OR; Met people at the HDT rally from the North Pole.

Finally made it to Moab and the weather was great! Warm and sunny. Shorts weather again finally! When David walked to scope out the RV site at Village Camp RV, he was greeted by the cutest little girl ever! It was great to see Jolie, David’s granddaughter, and of course her parents, Jenna and Evan. 🙂 We want to make a special mention of Evan’s parents, Marci and Ryan! They made the very long drive from Washington with Jolie, Jenna and Evan. It is always great to spend time with them. Evan and Ryan took us on a couple of side-by-side rides over rocks, through riverbeds and sand. We rented one ourselves one day and Kim had fun driving fast through the dirt trails. David took it out in the afternoon with Evan and Ryan in theirs and David managed to break it. They were pretty far out, so they had to limp it back, put it on the trailer and take it back to the rental place. It was a bummer. Jenna and Evan took Jolie with them almost every day on the side-by-side. She had her own special seat and safety helmet. She was a real trooper! We had dinners together, went to the pool, took walks, played games and played with Jolie. OMG, Jolie was so much fun! We also all went to a very nice dinner one night to celebrate Evan and David’s birthdays. It was a great restaurant on the side of a mountain. We also went shopping for t-shirts one day and the last day everyone was there, we went to the Moab Brewery for dinner. After the family headed home, David and I drove through Arches National Park, which was soooo beautiful! We also took a bike ride along the Colorado river and stopped by the Proper Brewery which was conveniently on the way back to the RV park. We closed on the house on the 16th of April! The notary at Wells Fargo was a godsend. It was nice to have all of that done. We played a little pickleball, but it was pretty windy there. Glad we got most everything on our list checked off before David woke up in the middle of the night on his birthday with pretty bad pain in his toe. When it didn’t get better after 2 days, Kim took him to urgent care and turns out he had gout. I guess turning 58 and getting gout officially makes him an old man! While he was recovering, Kim spent an afternoon shopping in downtown Moab and attempted to take a hike to a waterfall. She made it most of the way and chickened out crossing the river on slippery logs and rocks by herself. We can only handle one injury at a time.

On to Salt Lake City and Sun Outdoors RV Park. It was a pretty nice park, but they had a lot of RVs packed in there and the sewer hookup was as far away from where we needed it as possible. The speed limit in the park was 5 1/2 mph. We can’t even go that slow on our e-bikes. Speaking of e-bikes, we took a 14 mile bike ride on an awesome bike trail that we could get to from the park. Kim has had a problem with 5th gear on her bike for a while, so she took it into Salt Lake Ebikes and the people there were great and squeezed her bike fix into the schedule before we left. David took Kim to a lovely wine bar called Melancholy for drinks before taking her to an amazing dinner at Urban Hill restaurant on her birthday! The hosts and servers wished Kim a Happy Birthday as soon as we got there and our menus said “Happy Birthday Kim!” on them. The food was amazing and we got a free dessert in addition to the one we ordered, oops! We were leaving the parking garage and after we paid, the arm went up and we proceeded forward only to have the arm come down on the car and break into pieces. No damage to the car, but it was everyone’s lucky day that left after us!

A major update on the minor accident we had over a year ago in New Orleans. In case you don’t remember, we scratched another car going 2 miles an hour. It cost $1200 to fix their car, so there was very little damage. The husband and wife in the car hired a personal injury attorney and went after money from the insurance company. All involved know that neither of them were actually injured, but they still managed to get just under $300,000. The attorney for our insurance company said that the only reason they didn’t get more or go after us personally is because we had the entire thing on video. People like that is why everyone’s insurance rates are so high!

We did run into some snow coming across one of the passes in Nevada. We stopped two different places in Nevada. We stayed a couple nights in Elko where we enjoyed a nice dinner out at Machi’s Saloon & Grill and did some exploring around town. Then we spent a night in Reno at a Harvest Host, Schussboom Brewing. We had one of the best pizza’s ever, get the Boom Chicky Thai Pie if you are ever there. We are now in Northern California visiting family.

And of course, weird things along our travels….. either there weren’t any weird things along the way, or we are just getting used to it.

Our first stop on our way toward Moab was in Hope Hull, AL, where we spent three nights at Montgomery South RV Park. The RV Park was decent, and they had lots of wild rabbits running around the RV park every evening. No rabbit dinners for us, we just enjoyed watching them. We did venture into Montgomery to see what kind of sights we could find. The downtown and riverfront areas were pretty interesting with lots of history including Rosa Parks and Hank Williams museums . We also found an interesting tap room to have lunch. It was self-service for all their taps and then you just paid by the ounce when you were done. Not much else to talk about here except Kim spent lots of time doing paperwork and setting up utilities, etc. for the house.

Next, we were off to Vicksburg, MS where we spent four nights at Rivertown Rose Campground. Vicksburg is right on the Mississippi River, so we headed to the downtown area to do some exploring. There was a huge wall of murals along the waterfront that depicted the extensive history of the town. It was also interesting to see some of the high-water marks along the waterfront from the floods throughout the years. That evening we enjoyed a nice dinner at 10 South Rooftop Bar & Grill, where we enjoyed some amazing sunset views. We also stopped by the local Elks lodge and got some pointers on things to do from the locals; the Elks is always a great place to stop and get good information. We visited the Coca-Cola Museum where they had a lot of memorabilia. Vicksburg was the first place Coca-Cola was bottled. Our visit to the Old Court House Museum was very cool. That’s about it for Vicksburg except for more house stuff.

Then we headed up the Mississippi River by land of course, although getting on a barge would have been a better option. We stayed in West Memphis, AR at Tom Sawyer’s RV Park right on the Mississippi. It was really neat to watch all the barges going up and down the river. Our big highlight on this stop was going to Graceland… a must-see place when you are close to Memphis. It is a huge place, so plan for several hours. The Elvis history and memorabilia was absolutely amazing. We really enjoyed seeing his house and learning so much more about him. It was huge! We also got in a Costco run and other grocery shopping along with once again, more house stuff.

Our next stop was in Hot Springs, AR where we stayed at Cathrines Landing RV Park. Very nice park and it was close to downtown Hot Springs. Our excitement here was that Kim booked us a private bath in one of the bath houses in downtown hot springs. It was super relaxing to enjoy a nice hot bath, that is sure one of the things Kim misses about RV life. We also explored some of the shops and downtown area along with checking out some of the natural hot springs. We found a nice wine bar that evening and enjoyed some live music from the parking lot, so we didn’t have to pay the bands cover charge, haha. We ended up leaving a day early to miss some bad weather heading with high winds in Texas. We suspected that this trip was a bad plan, but after having to check the weather almost hourly, we now know that it was a bad plan to head right through tornado alley this time of year, in addition with trying to do all the house stuff on the road. We should have stayed in Florida until after the closing on the house.

Our next stop was just for one night in Whitesboro, TX at the Whitesboro RV Park. Pretty much nothing here, we just hunkered down for the night. Then we headed to Amarillo, TX where we spent four nights at the Big Texan RV Ranch. We went to see the Cadillac Ranch with all the Cadillacs buried in the ground that people stop and spray paint. They spray paint everything including the road and highway barriers. There is even a booth to buy spray paint there. We finally went to a Buc-ee’s, if you have not been it is a must stop. They have just about everything you can image for a convenience store/restaurant/home goods/clothing store. The RV Park had a shuttle that went to the Big Texan Steak House, so we headed there one evening for steaks. Neither one of us attempted the 72-ounce steak challenge, although we did watch three people attempt to eat it. None of them finished it, but they made a valiant effort. The couple, Doug and Florence, that got seated right next to us, ended up being our next-door neighbors at the RV park. They invited us over to their RV later that evening for some cocktails. The neighbor on the other side of us was our neighbor in West Memphis. It is such a small world sometimes because we seem to run into the same people on the road pretty frequently. That’s about it for Amarillo.

Next, we did a one night stop at a Harvest Host, Sierra Blanca Brewing in Moriarty, NM. We set up in their dirt parking lot and then headed in for a couple too many beers and conversation with some of the other RVers hanging out for the night. Then we just cooked a meal at home and hung out in the RV for the evening. Good news our batteries made it through the night with no problem running the furnaces.

Our final stop before heading to Moab was in Gallup, NM, where we stayed at USA RV Park. We ended up staying two nights waiting for the snow to pass, so we could get on the road again. We only ventured out once to get more propane, so we could keep the RV heated. We just hung around watching the snow fall and working on yet more house stuff. David has officially let Kim down on the “we are going to be in shorts year-round” promise. It is cold and neither one of us like it.

We are running behind on our posts, between the house and the time and effort required to put these posts together we have just not had time. Hopefully we can get our next post about Utah finished in the next couple of days to get us caught up.

The next stop was at The Ranch at Arcadia Palms on 2/10. Kim’s friends Tammy and Steve came to see the RV. They live in Cape Charlotte. We had a nice dinner and gave them the full tour of the rig. There was a small pickleball group, so we played daily. Our friends, Andy and Katie, brought their Luxe from Okeechobee and stayed for a couple of days. It was great to see them again. We watched RC car races and Kim took line dancing lessons at the RV park. There were really nice sunsets from our RV site. However, the site was so short that the truck was right next to the front steps and we could only put out 1 awning, because the truck was in the way in the front and the back one stuck out into the street. While we were there, David fixed the HD antenna, which has been broken for over a year. We went to visit the Sunseeker resort in Charlotte harbor with David’s friends, Mary and Lindsay. We spent most of the day with them, which was fun! The next day, we went to Siesta beach where the sand is soft and white, like Charmin. However, we could not put our feet in the water because there were a lot of dead fish due to the particularly bad red tide this year. Another neat attraction was Solomon’s castle. It is the creation of renowned sculptor, Harold Solomon. The castle was built in 1972 and he worked on it for 14 years. It was built out of various materials including printing press aluminum sheets for siding. His art was quite large and he made all his sculptures out of junk basically; oil drums, car parts, household appliances, etc. He was very innovative. He built a boat on the property, which is 3/4 the size of the Santa Maria. It did sit in a little bit of water because the whole place is built on swamp land. He also had a nice car collection. There was live music, a restaurant and gift shop. All in all a fun day. We did a poker run at the RV park, where a number of RV sites put on themed stops. We didn’t win the poker part of it, but we won $50 in the raffle. There were also cows everywhere. It was like they built the RV park in the middle of a cow pasture.

The next stop was Oak Alley in Webster. Great pickleball courts and the people were a lot of fun. David did knock a woman’s earring right out of her ear with the pickleball during one game! Turns out we were 16 miles from the villages again, so we went to look at houses again with Jamie and Erin (our realtors and now friends) and actually put in for one. There might have been wine involved, Hahaha. We did not get it because it is a lottery when there is more than one offer and our number didn’t come up. We are looking at several others that haven’t been released yet. We took a manatee boat tour in Crystal river. We did get to see some Mamas and babies. They are incredible creatures. It was in King’s Bay, which is beautiful! You can actually live on a boat in that bay for free and they have a poop boat that comes and pumps your tank out. I was kicking that idea around for a bit. We could store the boat during hurricane season. We saw the house that John Travolta built for his son before he passed away. There was also a house that was built by NASA engineers to withstand the hurricanes and it wasn’t until the storm surge from the most recent ones that they got water inside only because it came in the roof vents. We also went to a great restaurant on the water called Waterfront Social. We went because it has been there for a long time and it is scheduled to be torn down and replaced with Marriot. So sad… We also went to the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park where we saw alligators, fish, hippo, deer, flamingos, eagles, pelicans, wolves, fox, turtles, owls, bear, bobcats, cougars, snakes and various other birds, Oh My! These are all animals that have been injured and can’t go back into the wild. We did stop at the Copp Brewery on the way back, which was a very cool building with great pizza and beer.

Our next stop was in Mayo at Suwannee River Campground. Not a lot going on in the surrounding area. We played some pickleball, but there wasn’t a lot to do, so we jumped on the motorcycle and headed to the Villages (about 2 hours away) again to see Kim’s cousins, Brenda and Steven, Roxanne, and Cheryl. Kim hasn’t seen Roxanne in many, many years. We had dinner together twice and played pitch in the evenings. What a great time! We reminisced about how our parents hung out together the same way. Our realtors/friends Jamie and Erin graciously let us stay at their awesome house for 2 nights while they were in Michigan. The only problem is that we didn’t get to see them. It is always nice to get out of the RV once in a while. The HD antenna fix did not work, tech support told us it was a bad motor, so we replaced it. Neither one of us thought it was the motor, and we were right, still giving us the same error code.

Our final stop in Florida was in Eastpoint at Coastline RV resort. What an awesome view of the Gulf of “Whatever they call it now” from the RV. Although it was another tight fit on the site for the RV and the truck, but we made it work. We worked on our generator that has been having fuel delivery issues and successfully fixed the problem…Finally! We added another inline fuel pump at the fuel tank, and it fired right up. One of the drawbacks to being on the gulf… we endured an awful storm while we were there. Both of us were up all night watching the weather and listening to all the thunder. The amount of lightning and heavy rain was absolutely amazing. We were more concerned that we were in a tornado warning all night. Our house on wheels would not fare well. After the storm passed, we went out to St George Island and took a 6-mile hike through the state park there. Part of the trail was a fit trail where they had workout stations all along the route. Kim got in some sit-ups and various stretches. It was nice hike and had some beautiful views along the way. After our hike we enjoyed an early dinner at Paddy’s Raw Bar where the food was a little spendy but was very good. One of the last nights we were there, we spent the evening around a bon fire on the beach with a group from the RV park. We really enjoyed everything about this RV park except the pickleball court. Absolutely the worst designed court we have ever played on. The concrete stopped right at the edge lines. Which made it very slippery from stepping on the gas and then back onto the court.

Now for the big news…. Kim bought a house in The Villages!!! She put in for the one she really wanted and got it. Although the financial end of a home purchase has been really stressful for her, this will be a really nice place to spend the winters. We probably won’t stay there every winter; we still want to spend some winters in the Southwest.

We are now headed West to meet David’s Granddaughter (Jolie), daughter (Jenna), son-in-law (Evan) and Evan’s parents in Moab.

We moved to Silver Palms RV Resort in Okeechobee a couple days before Christmas. We had our Christmas dinner of prime rib on Christmas Eve and then spent Christmas just watching movies. The RV resort was really nice, and they had 12 pickleball courts. We ended up being parked right next to the pickleball courts, although the truck would not fit on our site, so we had to park it at the office. We met some really great people on the pickleball courts and really enjoyed playing with all of them. We did meet some fellow Luxe owners one afternoon (Andy and Katie) and ended hanging out with them quite a bit for dinners, golf, and afternoon drinks. The RV Park also had a really nice pool with a poolside bar and live music most afternoons. The RV resort put on a lot of fun events for the campers. Most RV sites had very cool tiki huts, some with TVs! We attended the RV parks New Years Eve celebration and really enjoyed welcoming in 2025.

Then we celebrated our 5th anniversary by going out for the evening in Stuart. We went to three different restaurants (one for appetizers, one for dinner and one for dessert). This is how to do it when you won’t be back in that area any time soon. We did some experimenting with our Drinkmate that we got from Brianna and Hailey for Christmas. We made our own seltzers with some flavored vodka we purchased. Then David decided he needed to carbonate a bottle of red wine which turned out a little different to say the least. Then we headed to Riviera Beach to do some more exploring of the coast and some of the shops and restaurants in that area. Kim joined Tina for delicious ice cream at Milking R Dairy Farm. But all in all, there really isn’t that much to do in Okeechobee itself.

David’s mom flew in to visit us and get out of the cold in Idaho. We all went to breakfast at Nutmeg’s and then took her for her first airboat ride on Lake Okeechobee, where we saw lots of interesting birds and a few very large alligators. We then took her to West Palm Beach to explore some of the shops in that area and had a wonderful dinner at Avocado Grill. We really enjoyed our time with David’s mom and are thrilled that she came to visit us. After we dropped David’s mom off at the airport, we headed back up to The Villages to spend the weekend with Kim’s cousin Brenda and her husband Steve. We had a great time further exploring The Villages, listening to music, playing pickleball, seeing their new house, looking at new homes, and golfing. We also got together with Toni and TraciAnn again while we were there.

We also put new rubber mats on our steps to the RV. Andy and Katie gave us an extra set they had, and we liked them so much that we ordered another set from Luxe for the other steps. Thank You so much Andy and Katie! Then before we left Okeechobee, we went out for a steak dinner with a couple of the women we met from pickleball (Pam being one of them). They took us to OK Corral Gun Club where we enjoyed an amazing dinner.

Next, we were off to Upriver RV Park in North Fort Myers. It was a pretty nice park with pickleball courts and a great group of people at the courts. We met Cindy (Lady in Pink) and Bill on the pickleball court, and it turns out they are friends of Tony and TraciAnn. It is truly a small world. Once again, the site was not quite big enough for our truck to fit, so it ended up in the boat storage yard. Are you starting to see a trend here between pickleball and the truck not fitting? We search for parks that have pickleball on purpose and they just don’t make most sites big enough. This park also had a produce and meat vendor that showed up every Tuesday. They had a great selection of fresh produce, and the meat turned out to be awesome. It was so nice to just walk from the RV to go shopping.

Our big highlight while we were in North Fort Myers was taking a passenger ferry from Fort Myers to Key West. We caught the ferry at 7:30 in the morning and enjoyed breakfast and mimosas during our four-hour ride to Key West. We dropped our bags at the hotel and then headed out to explore Key West. We checked out a bunch of the shops and then had lunch on Sunset Pier while enjoying the live music. Then it was time to check into our hotel at Simonton Court where we found out they had upgraded us to a cottage. Wow! What a nice place! We had our own cottage and could walk right out the side doors to the semi-private pool area. Then David saw on Facebook that one of his old coworkers and friends was in Key West on a cruise ship. So, we met Aaron, his wife Renae and some of their friends at Hemingway Distillery for a couple of drinks. Always so neat when we run into people we know in random places. That evening we had a great dinner at One Duval which was right on the water and had amazing food. After dinner we headed back to our cottage and enjoyed an evening swim in the pool. We didn’t have to catch the ferry back until 5:00 pm, so we spent the day going to more shops, finding the Southernmost point, visiting the Hemingway house (lots of 6 toed cats there) and checking out the light house. We had a nice ride back on the ferry that evening. We had an absolute blast in Key West.

What else did we do while we were staying in North Fort Meyers? We got together with Kim’s friends, Tammy and her husband Steve. We had a great day at their house. They took us on a boat ride, spent hours talking about all the good times they had together when they were younger and then had some excellent salmon for dinner. We forgot to get a picture together again, but will hopefully see them again while we are in Arcadia. We also visited the Manatee Park, where we listened to a presentation all about Manatees and then looked all over for a Manatee, but could not find one. That night we went to dinner on the river in downtown Fort Myers and saw our first Manatee. We also visited a couple breweries in Fort Myers although to our surprise, one of them turned out to be a nonalcoholic place that just served plant-based drinks. When in Rome…the drinks were actually pretty good. We also visited the Elks in Cape Coral where some nice people shared their pizza with us. Thats about it for North Fort Myers. Sorry Upriver RV Park for driving on your grass but you really need to make your roads wider around the RV sites.

No unusual stuff for this blog, just really nice weather and lots of palm trees. And one final note… do NOT talk politics in the RV parks after drinking (especially when you are outnumbered), it isn’t pretty… Bad David!

We headed to Titusville, Florida a couple of days before Thanksgiving. We were supposed to stay in Christmas, FL, but we heard some unpleasant things about the RV park, so we called The Great Outdoors RV Park and were able to get in. The site was pretty tight, but we squeaked the 5th wheel into it. There was no room for the truck, so we had to park it in a lot by the office, which was 2 miles from our site. The park was built around a golf course, and our site was on the 15th fairway. Unfortunately the course was closed for repairs, the entire time we were there. They did have 6 pickleball courts, so we got a lot of pickleball playing time. The pickleball group was great! We had a lot of fun! We were close enough to Cape Canaveral that we could hear and see the launches. Our first night, we were woken up around midnight to the sound of a launch. Luckily our neighbors were not home and there were no visiting alligators, because David went out in his underwear to watch it. We got to see lots of wildlife from our RV site, including an alligator in the pond behind us. The birds there are very cool! We enjoyed this park and the surrounding area, so we would return if we find ourselves back in that area.

Kim’s former coworker, Sandy (and her husband, Dave), invited us for Thanksgiving with their whole family and another coworker, Diane. Kim made her awesome lemon meringue pie and delicious chocolate pie to take with us. They put on a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, and we really enjoyed ourselves. We were very appreciative for the invitation. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Diane (who we are apparently now calling Neva), put on a BBQ at her house and invited all of Kim’s former coworkers. We had a great time catching up with everyone and Kim finally got to meet her DBA replacement in person. We were able to host some of Kim’s former coworkers at the RV while we were their also; Tracey and Bill stopped by for wine and cheese, Spiro popped in for breakfast, and Neva and Vinnie enjoyed some ribs and wine one evening. Kim had a girls’ night out with a bunch of her former coworkers and other coworker’s wives. She also got together for lunch one day with Sandy and Neva. Kim was able to fly back to Portland, OR for a few days, to help her daughter, Hailey, who broke her ankle a couple of weeks prior. Hailey’s father had been on duty since it happened and took really good care of her. Kim really enjoyed spending time with Hailey and she flew first class both ways for the first time. Pretty sure this is going to be a regular occurrence going forward. We were able to make it to Orlando to visit Kim’s cousin Caren and aunt Diane. We had a nice lunch at Caren’s and spent several hours catching up.

What else did we do while we were there?? We had new front tires put on the truck, which was just a little expensive, lol. We did our normal exploring the area and eating at the local restaurants. There was only one brewery on this stop. We walked around downtown Cocoa, went to Coca Beach, and drove around Merritt Island. We met Jason and his girlfriend, Debbie, for dinner one evening at The Garlic (excellent restaurant) in New Smyrna Beach. Kim and Jason really enjoyed catching up. We also took a drive to see our fellow RVers, Tony and TraciAnn, in The Villages. They bought a house there this past year. They took us all over the place in their golf cart, and we really enjoyed the time we got to spend with them. The Villages are very cool. We loved the planned community concept. It might be a winter possibility for us someday. We are now in Okeechobee for the next month.

Once again, we forgot to take pictures of everyone, so if you want to be represented in our famous blog, post one of yourself in the comments, so we don’t forget what you look like, hahaha.

Weird Florida things…sign for BBQ place that said, “Vegetarian Recovery Center”; a quarter mile of nonstop No Parking signs, with a semi truck parked in front of them; Santa with his pants down, hanging from a house gutter.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and wishing everyone a Happy New Year! We hope to see you all in our travels this next year.

We stayed at Salem Breeze RV Park in Winston-Salem, NC. It’s a smaller park with no amenities but it was well maintained, and the rates were low. We visited a couple local distilleries, Broad Branch Distillery and Old Nick Williams Farm and Distillery. Old Nick Williams was on the show Moonshiners Whiskey Business. It was decent place, but we preferred Broad Branch as they had a great bar and there was a brewery right next door. We did find a local bike trail (Muddy Creek Greenway), so we loaded up the bikes and headed out for a bike ride. It was a really nice ride until we got to the trail closed sign halfway down the trail. We still managed to get in 6 miles though. We enjoyed an afternoon of live music and good wine at Old Homeplace Vineyard. We also visited Childress Vineyards which is owned by Richard Childress, the race car driver/manager. We were really impressed with both vineyards and had a great time visiting them. We also went to Salem God’s Acre Cemetery, which was very interesting and has been in continuous use since 1771. The last highlight of our time here was visiting the Richard Childress Racing Museum. It was very well-done, with a lot of the original race cars. Interesting fact… Richard Childress bought his first race car, an old 1947 Plymouth previously used as a taxicab, for $20.

This leg of the adventure started in Mount Pleasant KOA, near Charleston, SC. On one of the first days that we were there, we took a drive out to Isle of Palms where we walked on the beach and enjoyed seeing all the waterfront homes. We had a nice sunset dinner in Mount Pleasant that evening at Tavern and Table overlooking the water. Next, we headed into Charleston to do some exploring. We walked through the Charleston City Market, checked out some of the historic buildings downtown and then had dinner at The Dewberry Hotel rooftop restaurant where you could hear Amazing Grace being played on the bells (It happens every day at 5). The views of Charleston from there were outstanding. The next day we headed to Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens. Boone Hall Plantation is one of America’s oldest working plantations, continually growing crops for over 320 years. It was a beautiful property. We learned a lot about the Gullah Culture, the different crops they harvested over the years (including pecans), and what life was like on a plantation (interesting, yet disturbing). The avenue of the oaks leading up to the mansion is absolutely amazing. Our last adventure in Charleston was a food tour. We looked for a guided tour and then finally decided to just do our own. Kim did a great job of putting our food tour together. First we headed to Hannibal’s Kitchen where we had crab rice and okra soup. The crab rice was great, but the okra soup was pretty nasty. Apparently Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden have eaten there according to the pictures on the wall. Then we had a little time to kill before our next stop, so we got in on a tour of the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, well at least Kim did, David had to move the car because it was parked illegally and missed the last tour of the day. Then we headed to Husk to find some shrimp and grits but unfortunately, they did not have that on their menu, so we tried some rabbit spring rolls and had a couple of their specialty drinks. Turns out the place next door, 82 Queen, had delicious she crab soup and shrimp and grits. We really enjoyed our food tour around Charleston and have decided that Kim will be picking all the restaurants in the future.

Next stop, Savannah, GA. We stayed at Creek Fire RV Resort. It is a pretty nice resort with a pool, lazy river, a huge kids pool, lake side bar and restaurant, and the most importantly, a pickleball court. The pickleball court wasn’t great but we did get in some games with some other RVers. Our first stop while exploring Savannah was at the prohibition museum. The museum was very well done and the tour was very interesting and informative. The only issue was that our tour guide spoke soooo fast. Then we headed down to the river front and took a walk along the river. We went into the JW Marriott on the recommendation of our tour guide from the prohibition museum and we were absolutely amazed at all the geodes, fossils, and the huge dinosaur skeleton hanging from the ceiling. We also explored some of the shops and sights along the river and stopped at 208 Wine Bar. Then we had a wonderful dinner at B Common, where we had oysters and a couple of shrimp dishes. We also walked through Forsyth Park, which is a beautiful park with a number of statues, large fountain and huge trees. The last night in Savannah, we took a ghost tour. They say it is one of the most haunted cities in the U.S. We enjoyed the tour and our guide did a great job. Although we never saw any ghosts and we could only stand outside of the cemetery (it’s illegal to go into cemeteries at night in Savannah), we did find the bench Forest Gump sat on in the movie.

We decided to take a little detour on the recommendation of our good friends Kim and Kevin. We headed back North a little bit and spent 4 days at Hilton Head National Golf and RV Resort in Hilton Head, SC. Wow! What a great resort. It is very well kept with pools, hot tubs, lazy river, poolside bar and restaurant, huge sites, and a golf course. We did some exploring on Hilton Head Island. We walked on Burke’s Beach, which was quite nice, then we explored the shops in Harbour Town. There was a great bar on the water where we had drinks and snacks. Another evening, we had dinner at Burnt Church Distillery. The food was great and David got to sample some of their whiskeys. We finally got a chance to watch the Seahawks at R Bar & Grill (another recommendation from Kim and Kevin). David did get in a round of golf one morning. He really enjoyed chasing that little white ball around. This resort is definitely a place we will stay at if we are ever in this area again.

Our final stop for this post was in Woodbine, GA, where we stayed one night at Walk About Campground. Very interesting campground… lots of animals and chickens walking all over the place, and the sites were very small. The highlight of our stop there was having Zonda over for dinner. It was great to see her and catch up. We forgot to get a picture with Zonda though, sad… we used to be better at remembering to take photos. We think that means that we are living in the moment and just enjoying our friends and family. We are now in Florida where we plan to spend the winter.

And of course, weird things along our travels…. a jewelry store with the same name as our RV, an interesting eye glass sign, a vegetable laboratory, automatic mowers that look like a Roomba and you can take your cat to drink wine in Savannaha, GA

We left Maine and started heading South. Our first stop was in Hampton Falls, NH where we stayed at the Wakeda Campground. To our surprise, we ended up in the sight right next to TraciAnn and Tony. We met them at a campground in Kentucky and have stayed in contact, but didn’t know they were going to be there. We were so happy to see them and get a chance to spend some time together. The campground was decent and some sights were plenty big enough for us. They also had a nice pickleball court, so we were able to get in some games while we were there. We took a day and drove up the coast all the way into Maine. We sure miss the smell, sounds, and views of the ocean. Another day we took a drive down to Salem, MA where we took a walking tour of the town. The visitors center provided us with a map and all we had to do was follow the yellow stripe along the sidewalk to see everything. It sure made finding our way around the town easy. We did take in a skit that recreated one of the witch trials and also had a tour of their recreated jail. It was interesting learning about how all that unfolded and how poorly they treated people at that time. We then took the truck down to Brenda and Steve’s house in Belchertown, MA for a celebration of life for Kim’s Uncle Carl. We were so glad that the timing worked out and we were able to attend. It was nice to learn so much more about Uncle Carls life and see family and friends. The highlight of our time in New Hampshire was seeing Patti, Kim’s childhood friend. It was great for Kim and Patti to get together, catch up and talk about all the fun they used to have together. It was also great spending some time with her husband Bob and a couple of their kids and grandkids.

Next, we were off to Foxborough, MA, where we stayed at Normandy Farms RV Park. This was a very nice park with lots of amenities, some farm animals, and a couple of pickleball courts. However, the first site they wanted us in had some low hanging tree branches that we could not avoid, so fortunately they had another site we got into just fine. They had an Octoberfest while we were there, where they had 5 different breweries serving beer and some food trucks. From there we drove down to Newport, RI, where we explored some of the mansions along the coast. We did take a tour of the The Breakers mansion which was built by the Vanderbilt family in the 1890’s. Wow, what an amazing house! It is incredible what they could do with the few tools they had at the time. The craftsmanship was incredible! We also found the Newport Elks Lodge and enjoyed chatting with some of the locals there. We met Kim’s cousin Brenda and her husband Steve for dinner in Cranston, RI and the food was delicious. Then we took a motorcycle ride out to Cape Cod. We had perfect weather and really enjoyed getting out on the motorcycle. We made multiple stops along the way to enjoy the views and the highlight was finding the John F. Kennedy memorial. Then we jumped on the commuter train, which was right down the road from the RV park and headed for Boston. We did some exploring on our own, had lunch at Cheers, and then took a 2 1/2 hour walking history tour of Boston. Wow! This was an amazing tour. It started in Boston Common and ended at Bunker Hill. Along the way we saw the Granary Burying Ground, Benjamin Franklin statue, Boston Massacre site, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere house and statue, and the Old North Church. We learned a lot! We then had a fabulous dinner at No. 9 Park and stayed the night at the Omni Parker House. The next morning, we had a great breakfast at Cafe Bonjour where we found our granddaughters name on all the server’s shirts. 🙂 We did some more exploring, enjoyed an authentic cannoli, then it was back on the commuter train. We had a great time in Boston and really enjoyed the city. This is another place that has made our short list of places we want to come back and explore some more.

Next, we were off to the KOA in Westhampton, MA, which just happened to be right down the road from Kim’s high school. The first full day there, we spent with Charlene and Dave. Charlene and Kim have been friends since high school and were roommates before Kim moved to Washington. We had a great breakfast in the RV, cooked by the fabulous resident chef, David T. Then we headed to Williamsburg, where we stopped at the cemetery on Village Hill to see Kim’s relative’s graves and turns out that some of Charlene’s family is in the same area of the cemetery. Afterward, we went to Char and Dave’s house to see their new deck. They sure created a great outdoor space. Then we all enjoyed dinner together back at the RV and spent the evening sitting around the campfire chatting. It was great to see Charlene and Dave and we really appreciated that they took a day off from work to hang out with us. We also had Brenda (Kim’s cousin) and Steve over for dinner at the RV. David made his famous smoked ribs and we all enjoyed an evening together catching up. If you have not had David’s ribs, you are missing out. We did some more exploring around Kim’s childhood stomping ground, visited with her old neighbors the Pitoniaks (Thanks so much Rich and Mary for the cutting board and coasters), did some tasting at a couple local breweries, and even found some dinosaur footprints. We also got to meet up with Kim’s childhood friend/neighbor, Jim Ouimette, one afternoon at Paisano’s. On our way out of town, we decided to drive through Kim’s old neighborhood with the RV. As we made the turn into the neighborhood, Kim saw Francine Poplawski out in her front yard raking acorns and yelled out the window to her. Then we parked right in front of the Pitoniak’s house and gave a tour of the RV to the Fallon’s, Pitoniak’s and Francine. Kim was so glad that she got to see everyone! We even got lunch out of the deal 🙂 Rich and Mary treated us to a pizza from Paisano’s. We are so glad we took the time to drive the RV there. Although we had a little trouble getting out of there because of a low hanging cable TV line.

Next, we were off to East Lyme, CT. where we stayed at Aces High RV Park. We were only there a couple of days, so we only got in one trip to the town of Mystic, CT. We walked along the Niantic Bay Boardwalk and then explored the town of Mystic. We really enjoyed all the shops and had a good dinner at the local Irish Pub. Didn’t do much more there, but we got a pin in the map for Connecticut.

Next was Elizabethtown, PA, where we stayed at the KOA. This one was a little tricky getting to and then the driveways into and out of the park were really tight, but our sight was plenty big enough. A couple miles down the road was the Northwest Lancaster River Trail, which goes right along the Susquehanna River. We loaded the e-bikes in the Smart car and took a 14-mile ride along the river. It was a beautiful paved trail along the river. The next day, we headed to Gettysburg. We toured the museum at the visitor center which included a short movie about the battle and the cyclorama, which was absolutely awesome! (you should look this up, we didn’t know what it was until we went). After that we went on a self-guided driving tour of all the battle fields. They had an app that narrated all the different locations as you drove around. We were really impressed with all the memorial monuments throughout the area and how well done everything was. This was one of the better museums/tours we have visited. Our next adventure took us to the Hershey Story Museum. It was very well done and we learned so much about Mr. Hershey and how well he treated his employees. Then we had to do a tasting of chocolate… believe it or not, we taste more than just beer and wine. David was the only one that left with some chocolate from the gift shop. Kim had some serious willpower. Our next highlight in this area was a tour of an Amish house and farm. We learned so much about the history of the Amish and how they live. We would highly recommend this to anyone that visits Lancanster, PA. We did manage to fit in a couple of the local wineries and breweries. This was a really neat area with lots of history and things to do.

And our final stop for this blog post was in Moneta, VA, where we stayed at Sweet Water RV Park. It is a pretty nice park, but the sights are not very level and the pickleball court is not really a court, just a concrete pad with a portable net (no lines and no fences). We stopped in this area to visit some of Kim’s cousins and finally our timing worked out. We got together with her cousin Cheyrl and her husband Bill and went to nice restaurant in an old train station for Cheyrl’s birthday. The next day, they were having a retirement party for Kim’s cousin Carl. She has not seen Carl in almost 40 years and surprised him by crashing his party. It was great party, and we got a chance to catch up with lots of Kim’s family. The following day Cheyrl, Bill, Carl, and Patty (Carl’s wife) all came to the RV for the tour. Then they took us for a drive to see the Blue Ridge Parkway. Wow!!! The views and foliage were spectacular! We stopped for a nice lunch at Chateau Morrisette and then did a wine tasting afterward. Cheyrl and Bill also took us to Mabry Mill, which was very cool. Kim has really enjoyed seeing lots of her friends and family these past couple of months. We both spent our adulthood living away from our families, so it is always great to see them. We spent the rest of our time in Virginia writing our blog, getting our Flu shots, doing a little maintenance on the RV and visiting another winery.

We are headed to North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia next and then continuing down South to spend the winter in Florida. These past couple of months have been very busy. We have only been staying places for a about a week. We have been going nonstop trying to do and see everything. Our lesson learned is that we need to stay at least a couple weeks at each stop, if we can.

And of course, weird things along our travels….lots of manufactured homes going down the freeway in Virginia (they are difficult to get around), we picked up a tire tread in MA that was wrapped around our front RV jack and we dragged it for 50 miles, a creepy pumpkin throwing machine going down the road and our RV park in PA was very close to 3 mile island. Also, if you are wondering about a couple of the pictures of Kim’s friends and family, we forgot to take pictures when we were with them, so we stole some from Facebook. Sorry!

We stayed in Braintree, VT at Able Mountain Campground, which is in the middle of the state. The scenery was beautiful, but not very much to do around us. We did find a couple of interesting things to explore. We took a tour of Rock of Ages, a granite quarry. It was very interesting to see the production facility where they make mostly headstones. Some of the carvings they do are amazing. Then we saw the quarry and learned about how they get the granite out of the quarry. With all the modern technology used, there are only 13 people working in the quarry compared to hundreds of people years ago. They had a granite bowling lane we had to try; David almost got a strike. We also visited a cemetery that was close by and saw more of their work, which was amazing! We did go to the local Elks lodge in Barre, VT and got a full tour of their historic building. Then we visited a sugar house and learned all about making maple syrup. We took some home with us and also both had a maple creamy (maple soft serve ice cream). Charlene drove up from Massachusetts to visit and bring us some items we had shipped to her house. It was so nice of her to drive up and we had a great visit. Our last night we went to Bent Hill Brewery, they had all kinds of weird beers and meatless food. Unfortunately, Kim got sick from all of it and had a terrible travel day.

Our next stop was in Freedom, NH where we stayed at Danforth Bay RV Resort. Wow, this was probably one of our more difficult sites to get into, not to mention it took us over two hours of maneuvering the RV to get out of the site. Why do they plant trees on either side of campsites? We sure are glad Kim had us get out of the site the day before we had to leave. Now for the fun stuff… We took a cog train to the top of Mount Washington, the highest mountain peak in the Northeast. We got really lucky with the weather, minimal wind and we could see forever. The views were absolutely amazing and it was such a great experience. We then went to Flume Gorge State Park. What a spectacular park! The 2-mile hike to see the gorge is well worth it. We spent some time exploring North Conway, a nice town with a great downtown area (lots of little shops) and also ran into a local farmers market there. Then we took a drive to explore Lake Winnipesaukee. We hung out at Weirs Beach for a bit and had lunch. We were truly amazed with all the boats out on the lake. Also, there just happened to be a biker rally the day we were there, so we got in some live music at the rally. Unfortunately, we were in the smart car, but they let us in anyway.

And our final stop for this post was in Trenton, ME. We stayed at Timberland Acres Campground. On the way, we stopped in Turner, ME at SR1 RV to get our new hitch installed on the trailer. This is the one we tried to get while we were in Elkhart, but they let us down. David ended up ordering one and had it shipped along our route. So far, it is a little harder to hook up, but it does give us more ground clearance on our front jacks. Moving on to more exciting things… We were right next to Bar Harbor which is pronounced Bah-Hah-Bah by the locals. We had a full schedule of things to do during this stop. First, we headed to downtown Bar Harbor and explored all the shops along with a stop for some clam chowder and of course a lobster roll. We also found some live music at the Ivy Manor Inn, right in the downtown area. Then we stuffed our e-bikes into the Smart car and headed for Acadia National Park to ride the carriage roads. This was probably one of the best rides we have been on with great trails and amazing scenery. We only had one small problem… David forgot the bike keys, so the start was delayed by an hour while he drove back to the RV to get the keys. Then we had booked a boat tour of Bar Harbor, where we got to see some of the islands (we had no idea there were so many islands), some wildlife and watch the captain pull a lobster trap. We really learned a lot about the area and lobster fishing during the trip. Then we got on the motorcycle and rode to the top of Cadilac Mountain. Wow! What an amazing ride with some gorgeous scenery. We finished the day with a ride around the scenic loop road in Acadia National Park. Once we were back to the RV park, we naturally stopped at the on-site tavern. We met some of the seasonal campers and they were nice enough to invite us to the local Elks lodge for a BBQ dinner and live music the next night. Then Rob and Terri drove down for the day to visit us. Kim has known Rob (known to her as Bob) since the 80’s. Rob served with Frank and Keith in the Navy. We spent the day catching up and visiting Bar Harbor for some more great food and some great ice cream (Terri had whoopie pie flavor). Earlier in the week, we did go out and eat some fresh caught lobster at Thurston’s Lobster Pound right on the docks. We really had a great time in Bar Harbor and we will be back to spend some more time in this part of the US.

We are now back in New Hampshire (southern) continuing our New England foliage tour.

And of course, weird thing along our travels….another funny bathroom sign about what not to flush (see pics), more bathroom door signs that were labeled inboard and outboard, and plenty of play on words with a restaurant called Chow Maine and another called Mainely beef. There were lots of stands along the road selling camp firewood, but one of them advertised that theirs was organic… aren’t they all??? We also found the Climate Change Yacht Club in Brookfield, VT.