TippetsSnippets

Our first stop was in Holley where we stayed at Hickory Ridge Golf and RV Resort. We were about 45 miles from Niagara Falls so we booked a tour of the falls. Our tour included a ride on the Maid of the Mist, which takes you by boat to see the falls. It’s a good thing they included some rain ponchos, because you get pretty wet from all the mist coming off the falls. Then we visited DiCamillo bakery and had a pot roast sandwich for lunch. The next stop on the tour was to see a whirlpool that is created down river from the falls. It flows counterclockwise as long as the US and Canada are not diverting more than 50% of the water from the falls for hydroelectric (in the summer) and it flows clockwise in the winter when they are allowed to divert more than half. The final destination on the tour was the Cave of the Winds. They give you another rain poncho and you really need it here. The walkway takes you right next to the falls, it was pretty amazing to get that close. Fun fact about the stairs/walkway is that they take it down every fall and build it all again in the spring. Niagara Falls was a great experience, and we were so glad we took the time to see it. Although, our 45-mile drive back from the falls in the Smart car was not fun. It was dark and pouring rain and we could barely see the road in front of us, but he got us home safely. David was able to get in a round of golf the next morning. It was a decent course although a little wet, but he really enjoyed himself. We also did some exploring around Holley and found the Holley Canal Falls, which was a very cool park that is part of the Erie Canal.

Next, we headed to Hector, NY where we stayed at Finger Lakes RV Resort near Lake Seneca. Wow! That area was truly breathtaking. It had all the important things; waterfalls, a beautiful lake, a racetrack, breweries, and lots of good wineries. We went to the vintage car races at Watkins Glen Raceway. It wasn’t very crowded, so we were able to explore everywhere including the pits where we got to see the cars and drivers up close and personal. It was a great day! We took a hike through Watkins Glen State Park, which was absolutely beautiful and well worth the 3 mile hike that included 832 stone steps. This park is a must see if you are ever in the area. Then we went to Lodi Point State Park on Lake Seneca. It really made us realize how much we miss being on the water. We did look at a few real estate listings in the area, haha. We also stumbled upon the yearly bluegrass music festival in Lodi, called Pickin’ in the Pasture. It literally was in a pasture at a local farm. We listened to some great music and had a good time. Last but not least, we went to several wineries (2 were within walking distance of the RV park) and restocked the “wine cellar”. It actually might be a little overstocked now. We also fit in a few breweries.

Our last stop in upstate/central New York was in Fort Ann, which is near Lake George. We stayed at Moose Hillock Camping Resort. This resort had a huge pool and water slides for the kids along with large secluded campsites which filled up with tons of campers over Labor Day weekend. We did some exploring around the lake, which is another really pretty area. The highlight of our time here was hanging out with Paul and Sue. They were Kim’s neighbors in Washington from 25 years ago. They now live in Connecticut, but have a seasonal camp site in the Lake George area. They had us over for a BBQ and had a great time catching up and visiting with their family. Then we spent a day with them on their boat out on Lake George. It was so great to be out on the water and we had a blast exploring the beautiful lake with them. We sure enjoyed our time with Paul and Sue and really appreciated them taking us out on their boat and telling us all about the Lake George area of New York.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in New York and it has made the short list of places we need to revisit. We are now in Vermont and have started our foliage tour of New England. The leaves are just starting to turn.

And of course, weird things in our travels….All along Interstate 90 in New York they have “text stops”, to help curb the texting while driving. We also saw a fence made out of old snow skis, a very interesting superhero picture in the men’s bathroom…What are they all looking at? and we had to stop in the middle of the road for a large bird chasing a frog. The frog got away.

We stayed at The Resort at Erie Landing in Port Clinton, which was a very big park with lots of full-time spaces. There was one section for us short time visitors. Almost everyone had a golf cart at this park to get around. We attended a concert at the park one evening and everyone showed up in their golf carts and we felt out of place arriving on our e-bikes. The band was a decent 80’s rock tribute band playing during the park’s Christmas in July celebration.

Port Clinton is right on Lake Erie, so we did some exploring around the town and checked out some of the sights on the lake. David booked a charter fishing trip and spent an evening on the lake fishing for walleye. He was the only person on the trip with the captain, it was really slow fishing, and those walleyes do not fight that much this time of year. He did end up catching is limit of 5 fish.

We jumped on a ferry and took a day trip over to Put-In-Bay on South Bass Island in Lake Erie. First, we spent a little time walking around the main downtown area visiting lots of shops. Then we rented a golf cart (this is how almost everyone gets around on the island) and headed out to explore the island. We had a nice lunch at Goat Soup & Whiskey and then headed downstairs to visit the Chocolate Museum and have an after lunch chocolate. Then we drove around the rest of the island with a couple stops at their two wineries, Heineman and Put-In-Bay. We stopped along the way at a bar that was made from a fire truck. All the stools were mounted on fire extinguishers. The drinks were not very good, but the concept was really well done. Glad we were there under cover when a big rainstorm went through because our golf cart had no front windshield. We would have gotten soaked. Then we went to the top of Perry’s Victory & International Peace Memorial, a 352-foot-tall monument that was built to commemorate an American victory during the war of 1812. The next stop was at a bar that had live music, sand floors, and swinging chairs at the bar. We ended our day on the island with a nice dinner at Hooligans, an Irish Pub for those of you that can’t figure it out by the name. Then it was back on the ferry for a beautiful sunset ride back to the mainland.

We also visited Marblehead Lighthouse State Park and climbed the stairs to the top of that light house. Beautiful views and some interesting history at this state park. We also fit in some stops at a couple more wineries and breweries while we were in Port Clinton. Rocky Point Winery was a quant place with decent wine. Twin Oast Brewing was one of the better breweries we have been to so far with live music, beautiful grounds, and of course great beer.

Then off to our next stop in Erie, PA. We stayed at Presque Isle Passage RV Park. This park was a little tight getting into our site, but once we got parked, it was not too bad. We did end up with an entertaining neighbor for about 5 days while we were there. They were with two other couples and had a total of 7 kids running around. They introduced us to a new game called Kubb. It is lots of fun and everyone can play. We spent a couple evening chatting with them around the campfire.

The first day we were in Erie, Nancy and Dave came and picked us up and took us on a tour around the area. Nancy and Kim worked together many years ago. We had a wonderful time with them having lunch at a nice BBQ place on the water, exploring Harpersfield covered bridge, a tasting at a winery with live music, and then finishing off the day with dinner at another winery. They also sent us a lot of information on things to see and places to shop, while we were in the area. The following weekend we had them over for a BBQ at the campsite. We enjoyed some of David’s smoked ribs, fresh corn and great quinoa salad that Nancy made. We really appreciated all the information they gave us and the time we spent with them.

We did some exploring around the town of Erie. The downtown area had some pretty cool historic buildings, murals, and great views of the lake. Believe it or not we also found a couple of breweries to check out… The Brewery at Union Station was our favorite in a very cool building with good food, and great beer. We also visited Lavery Brewery (nice place with good food and beer) and Erie Brewery (no good… wild kids, bad bathrooms, nothing good for Kim to drink and sticky tables). We also visited the Sloppy Duck Saloon, which was an interesting place with great views of the marina. We did some exploring around Presque Isle State Park and discovered they had some excellent bike trails… now we just needed to get our e-bikes to the park. David stuffed those two e-bikes into the back of the Smart car and off we went. We had an excellent 10 mile ride and now we have figured out a way to transport the bikes to some other trails along our travels. Ever wonder how we get the Smart car on the truck? Check out the videos we did on Our Vehicles page.

One of the highlights of our time in Erie was the sunset dinner cruise on the Victorian Princess. The dinner and wine was not very good at all, but there was an entertaining captain and absolutely beautiful views of the sunset. In the end we were glad we took the cruise and spent a wonderful evening together.

We are now in upstate New York working our way to see the fall foliage in New England. Don’t forget to check out the captions on the pictures which you can see if you look at them from a computer.

And of course, weird things in our travels…..The speed limit in the RV park was 7.5 mph and for some reason the 5 in 7.5 was backwards on the signs. A dessert vending machine, David bought a chocolate covered piece of cheesecake, it was very good.

We arrived in Seattle at 11:30 PM and headed straight for our hotel to get some sleep. The next day we picked up our rental car and headed to Jeanna, Evan and our Granddaughter Jolie’s house. Jolie has started walking since the last time we saw her in April. You can sure tell how much she loves getting around on her own. We got a chance to attend one of Jolie’s swim lessons and watch her go completely under water for the first time. Then we headed to Chelan Falls to spend the 4th of July weekend with the Axtman clan. We had an awesome weekend hanging out with Evan’s family on the river where we enjoyed the view, boat rides, and their new pool. We are so appreciative of Ryan and Marci always welcoming us into their home and making us feel like part of the family. There was a little excitement one day while we were sitting by the pool…A paraglider landed across the street from the house after clipping a power line on the way down. She was fine, just didn’t make it to the landing place at the park. We also got a chance to visit a couple wineries in Chelan, Cairdeas and Amos Rome. Both had excellent views of Lake Chelan and great wine. At Cairdeas, they age their wine in concrete vats, a process we had never heard of before.

Next, we headed to Kitsap County. They didn’ t know what hit ’em! We stayed at Leon and Vicki’s house. It was so nice of them to put us up, while we were back in Kitsap. We caught up on all of our appointments; haircut (Kim not David, hahaha), Kim eyebrow wax, Kim dentist, Both, annual physicals/bloodwork, mammogram (Kim not David, LOL), Kim Chiropractor. We got in lots of pickleball with all the people we used to play with. We had a meet up with old friends at our favorite winery, State 42, in Poulsbo and a nice dinner out afterwards.

The next weekend David, Jenna, and Jolie flew to Boise for a get together with David’s family. Jolie got to finally meet a lot of her Boise/Vacaville relatives and they all had a great time. Thanks to Keith and Diane for hosting a BBQ. That same weekend, Kim drove down to Portland to see her daughter, Hailey. They went to a very large street fair and went out to dinner the first day. Kim also got to watch Hailey play soccer that night. Go Hailey! Kim chickened out of going to Hot Pilates, but joined online for slightly cooler pilates, where she could see Hailey the entire time. It is always great to have one-on-one time with her.

We spent our last week in Kitsap getting together with friends and playing lots of pickleball. We had a lot of fun at a marina party, with all the pickleball friends. Thanks to Sally and Fleeta for hosting on their boats! Just like old times! Had another meet up with friends at Rainy Daze in Poulsbo. It was nice to see Brownsville folks, SWFPAC folks and other awesome friends there! Then we had three lunch dates with friends, Sue and Dave, Anne and Dave, and Deana. Kim’s long-lost friend, Jane was gracious enough to have us over for dinner with great food, wine and conversation. We were also lucky enough to spend an intimate singer/songwriter evening with Matt and Amy! Thanks Tammy and Glen for hooking us up! It was great to see Kim/Kevin and Rick/Tangy for a BBQ at the lake. Each couple just got a new RV and we got to see both of them. Lots of great storage ideas. It was so nice to be back with friends in Kitsap. Now you all just need to come see us on the road. We really can’t thank Leon and Vicki enough for letting us stay with them.

Then we got back on a plane at 12:30 AM and headed back to our home on wheels. We were quickly reminded why we never take redeye flights… we were so tired after doing that. We got back to the RV right at our scheduled pickup time and it was not ready. We ended up getting a hotel for the night and then returned the next day to get the RV. Still not done, so the manager took us out to lunch while we waited. We didn’t get out of there until after 4:00 pm and headed straight for the Elkhart campground to put our home back together. Well… our new shower door leaked all over the floor the first night. It turns out you do have to caulk that bottom track. So, we fixed that the next day ourselves. Then after doing some more checks, we discovered three of our six wheels were loose. They did not tighten the bearings down properly. We had them come to the RV park the next day and fix that problem. Overall, it was not a great experience getting the work done at Certified RV. We do understand their staffing challenges, but they really need to get better at timeframes and checking their work. In the future we are going to try and do as much as we can ourselves. Like the old saying…If you want something done right, do it yourself!

We forgot what a pain flying is…airport security, packing, delays, and thousands of people in the airports. Although, we did run into a former co-worker in Dallas/Fort Worth. We have developed a real love for traveling around this country in our house on wheels. We are now off to Ohio and then headed to New England for the fall. Don’t forget to check out our travel plans page and see if we are going to be anywhere you want to visit. We changed our comment settings, the log in prompt will still come up, just skip the log in and add a comment.

No weird or crazy things for this post. There might have been some in Kitsap County, but everything seemed normal to us. 😉

This is probably our shortest post so far. We made 2 stops in Indiana. The first was just a midway point between Kentucky and where we had to drop off the RV for some repairs. It was Muncie RV Resort (resort is questionable) in Chesterfield, IN. Kim did feel like she was in Massachusetts because there was Chesterfield, Goshen and Westfield in that area. We had a great site on the end next to a fishing pond. There wasn’t much to do in the area, but we found 2 wineries and 2 breweries, because that’s what we do. At Creatures of Habit brewery, David was able to get his name all the way across the menu screen using the Untapped app. We walked 2-3 miles a day while we were in Chesterfield and discovered a number of things along the way including an interesting Spiritual Camp. On one of our winery excursions, we came across a concert in the park in Anderson, IN.

The last stop was in Elkhart, IN where we primarily got the RV ready to drop off for service. We thought it was a good time to go through all of our belongings. We had a whole pile of stuff for Goodwill again. Amazing how quickly you accumulate things you don’t need! We tried to go to the RV museum one morning, but as we entered the parking lot, we saw a rig that belonged to Ray and Sue. We met them in Kansas last October when they were getting their semi-truck. It was great catching up with them! David did go to the museum the next morning. We did find a cool brewery in Elkhart called Westwind Brewing. They were super nice people and gave us 2 beer glasses and a sticker to take with us.

We are all packed and ready to fly to Washington. Can’t wait to see everyone!

And of course, weird things in our travels…Apparently, there is a town called Uranus and there is a fudge factory there, so of course the billboard reads…The best fudge comes from Uranus! Sign for Affordable Septic with the phone number 254-POOP. All the Dove products in CVS were locked up??? In front of a liquor store there was a sign that said…Exercise makes you look better naked, so does tequila…Your Choice.

Pigeon Forge, TN was an interesting place. We stayed at the Pigeon Forge Landing RV Resort right on the Little Pigeon River. The campground was nice and had 2 pickleball courts.

While we were nearby, we took a day trip to the town of Gatlinburg, TN and took a chairlift up to The Gatlinburg Sky Park, where we walked across the pedestrian cable bridge (it’s the longest one in North America). The middle of it has a glass bottom which makes for an interesting walk. There were some amazing views of the Smokey Mountains and Gatlinburg from the Sky Park. Downtown Gatlinburg was very touristy, with lots of sweet wine and sweet moonshine to be sampled.

In the town of Pigeon Forge (which is like one big amusement park), we went to the Titanic Museum, which we could see and hear from our campsite. They blew the ship’s whistle every day at noon. When you check in, they give you a card with the biography of one of the actual passengers and at the end you find out if your passenger survived. It is an audio self-guided tour and very well done. Neither one of our passengers survived. 😦 We did do some exploring in the area trying to find some good wine. No luck with the wine, Tennessee is all sweet wine.

David got to ride the tail of the dragon road, a famous motorcycle road. There are 318 curves in 11 miles, most of them were 25 mph or below. It was beautiful ride.

The next day, we both took off on the motorcycle and visited the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley, NC. There are over 300 antique motorcycles that all run. One of the curators actually walks around and starts various motorcycles throughout the day. The highlight was the 1916 Harley Davidson that we watched him start. It is amazing that they have all these antique motorcycles in running condition.

Then we did some exploring in the gorgeous Smokey Mountains. We walked up to Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the Smokey Mountains at 6,643 feet. The walk was challenging as we gained 330 feet in elevation in 1/2 mile. We picked a perfect weather day, so the views were spectacular!

We also hiked to Spruce Flat Falls which is about a mile hike to get to the falls. The hike was considered moderate, but all the giant steps proved challenging for Kim’s little legs, but she persevered. The falls were amazing and well worth the hike. The rivers running through the Smokey Mountains were so beautiful and just up the road from the campground was an Orvis store where Kim signed us up for a fly-fishing class. They taught us how to cast, tie knots and all about the different kinds of flies. Kim was a natural at casting; David took a little more time to get it down. We both really liked it, so this is going to be something we take up in the future. We really, really enjoyed the Smokey Mountains and plan on returning.

Our next stop was at Cummins Ferry RV Park in Salvisa, KY. Wow, getting to this park was quite the experience! The last 6 miles is down a narrow country road with the last mile being just one lane down a huge hill with lots of sharp turns. The park definitely did not go on our short list, but we had fun while we were there. A half hour after we pulled in another Luxe RV pulled into the spot right next to us. David and our new Luxe neighbor Geoff spent quite a few evenings talking about RVs and sippy bourbon together. We were right in the middle of thoroughbred country and the bourbon trail.

We took a tour of the Keeneland horse racing and training facility. We learned a lot about horse racing and the history of the track. We then found The Kentucky Castle and had a nice brunch and then toured the grounds.

Now it’s time to talk about bourbon… Wild Turkey where we ran into Jimmy Russell who has been their master distiller for 70 years. David got a bottle signed by him and got a chance to chat with him. We also met a great bartender who gave us a list of places we needed to visit in Kentucky. Lawrenceburg Bourbon Company which is the only veteran owned distillery on the bourbon trail. We got to meet the owner who actually served in the military in Australia and then transferred to serve in the US military. Castle and Key Distillery, where we took a guided tour of the distillery. It was originally started in the late 1800’s and then closed during prohibition. It changed hands a couple of times, fell into ruins but has now been almost completing restored. They are still using some of the original equipment and the grounds and buildings are beautiful. We made a quick stop at Woodford Reserve Distillery to check out their grounds and gift shop and have a cocktail/tasting at their bar. Buffalo Trace Distillery was not originally on our list, but we went on a recommendation. Here they release one of their rarer bourbons each day and limit you to one bottle per person every 90 days. During that 90 days you are in bourbon jail and cannot purchase that particular one again. We each got a bottle of Blantons, one with a T initial and one with a B initial. Again, we did not plan to return, but we heard that they were releasing Colonel E. H. Taylor the next day, so of course we went back. We purchased both of these bourbons for significantly less than you can buy them anywhere else. A fun fact that we learned there, was that the black “stuff” all over the buildings at all the distilleries, is a fungus that feeds off the alcohol. Whiskey Thief Distillery was a really neat place, down a long dirt road. They do not distribute and use many different mash recipes, so that every barrel is different. Also, 2 out of their 3 distillers are women. Here they put out put six different barrels of bourbon and let you taste each one straight from the barrel using a whiskey thief to fill your glass. Then if you what a bottle to take home, you can fill it yourself from whichever barrel you want. Of course, David had to get a bottle and enjoyed filling it himself. They also had live music and a food truck. That’s it for the distilleries, David is now stocked up for a while. We also found two great wineries while we were here, Lovers Leap and Wildside. This was a very pleasant surprise as we were starting to think that there were no good wineries in this part of the country. Lovers Leap had beautiful grounds and an amazing staff in the tasting room. Wildside had an excellent outside area where we enjoyed our tasting. This is where we learned about those special releases at Buffalo Trace. It was nice to be able to replenish our wine cellar.

At the campground, we met Tony and Traciann, who are also full time RVers. We spent a couple of evenings chatting with them and playing games. We also enjoyed a night of live music at the campground where a special guest showed up… Sasquatch.

We made a day trip to Frankfort where we saw the state capital (it is currently being renovated), found Daniel Boone’s gravesite in a really neat cemetery, and explored the historic downtown area.

Also, Kim got us tickets to see Tim McGraw in Lexington. He put on an amazing show, which we really enjoyed. This is a great area to visit, but we will definitely be finding a different RV park next time.

Last but not least again, the unusual things we saw at this stop: Kid in a stroller telling his dad to go faster up the hill at Clingman’s Dome; someone in Tennessee asked us if we drove the smart all the way from South Dakota; we saw wild turkey and elk in the Smokey Mountains; Guy in the RV park swinging his sewer hose over his head like a lasso, trying to dry it; The happy cows in Kentucky get the used mash as feed (4% ABV); Squirrels daring each other to sit on the yellow line until the last possible moment; Phuq U Farms in Pigeon Forge; Huge lawns, black barns and double fences in Kentucky

We spent four weeks in Nashville and had an amazing time, so this post may be a little longer than usual. We started at the Nashville KOA, which is next to the Grand Ole Opry and very close to the downtown area. It was a nice park with live music by the pool several times a week, which we had the chance to enjoy multiple times. They also had a shuttle bus that ran from the park to downtown.

A couple of days after we arrived, Kim’s daughters flew into town to celebrate Kim’s birthday. We had dinner at an amazing local restaurant called Husk. We all ordered different things, so we got to sample a large selection of their menu. It was by far some of the best food we have ever eaten. The next item on the birthday agenda was Kim getting her first tattoo (and probably her last). It took almost three hours to complete and was much more painful than she expected. Thankfully Brianna and Hailey were there to comfort her through the process. David was fired from the job halfway through because shockingly he doesn’t talk enough to take someone’s mind off the pain. Sarah (the tattoo artist) did an amazing job of recreating the boathouse. Now Kim will always have a part of her boating days with her. Brianna and Hailey also snuck in another tattoo each while we were there. David is the only one left without a tattoo… maybe someday he will get one. Then we were off to the Grand Ole Opry. This is an absolute must if you are ever in Nashville. Ricky Skaggs was among the artists playing that night. We were all really impressed with show and got to go on the backstage tour afterwards. We learned about the history of the opry and got to stand center stage in the infamous circle. In the next few days, we tried some of the local BBQ at Peg Leg Porker, had hot chicken from Bolton’s, found the wing mural, and partied on Broadway. Broadway Street is about 4 blocks long and is lined with bars owned by some of the top music artists. Most of them have multiple floors, rooftop bars, food, and different bands on each floor. It is the best live music area we have experienced. We had a great night together enjoying the music, drinks and dancing. Hailey was on a mission to find a cowboy, but sadly she did not find a suitable one. The next day we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame, where Kim got her 1st real senior discount. It is very well done and worth the visit. Thanks to Brianna and Hailey for taking the time out of their very busy schedules to celebrate Kim’s birthday with us. I hope they know how much it meant to Kim.

We had some time before our next visitors arrived, so we headed out to see Andrew Jackson’s home, The Hermitage. What a beautiful homestead with lots of history. In 1835, president Jackson was the first and only president to ever get the US completely out of debt, which, of course, Kim appreciated. We also visited the old Marathon Motor Works building, which now houses multiple shops and distilleries. They have kept a lot of the old machines in place and have some of the original cars. It was very interesting to learn some of the history about Marathon Motors. The next day, we took a double decker bus tour of downtown Nashville. We learned more about the history of Nashville and saw lots of the sights around town. We also went out to dinner at the Jack Daniels Restaurant in The Gaylord Resort. That is a huge hotel with a massive indoor atrium. We now understand why they give you a map when you check in. We attended the Whiskey Jam, which was on a rooftop of the Assembly Food Hall, and we ate at the 60 Vines restaurant with Randy Travis (it still counts even if he was not at our table).

Then our next visitors arrived, Kim’s brother Keith and his wife. Jenn is an amazing trip planner. She had a complete schedule of fun things to do lined up for us. They picked us up on Broadway (we were there watching an artist (Jason McPhail) that played for us the night before on the shuttle bus back to the RV park) and we went to The Parthenon, which is an exact replica of the original temple in Athens, Greece. It was very impressive. The next day we did a walking food tour in East Nashville. We got to sample food from five different restaurants. This was a great way to get to know the area. We also walked by Oprah’s High School during the tour. We had BBQ chicken at the RV and then took a two-step dance class that Jenn had lined up for us. The instructor spent quite a bit of one-on-one time with David 🙂 We all went back down to Broadway to check out some more of the bars and listen to music. Jenn also planned an agave tasting/class for us. We never imagined there was so much to learn about tequila! Then we topped it all off with another visit to The Grand Ole Opry with them. We really enjoyed our time with Keith and Jenn and hopefully they will track us down during our travels again sometime soon.

Now it was time for us to move to our next RV park. We moved to Four Corners RV Resort in Antioch, on the J Percy Priest Reservoir and only about 20 miles from downtown Nashville. We had a back in spot right on the reservoir, with an awesome view from the right side of our 5th wheel (that is the side with the majority of the windows). That spot only lasted two days, before we got a call from the office that we needed to move. They were opening the upper dam, due to all the rain and the reservoir was expected to rise by six feet. So, we moved to higher ground and within two days, our new spot was waterfront also. All of those lower spots in the campground were now under water. The reservoir receded after about five days (because they opened the lower dam), so we moved again to get back on the water. We sure miss living on the water. This campground turned out to be awesome despite the flooding and has definitely been added to our short list of places to revisit. We also met some fellow Luxe owners (Michelle and Traci) in the park. We got to spend some time getting to know them and sharing maintenance knowledge of our coaches. What great people! We hope to meet up with them again sometime. We did venture out on the motorcycle and found the largest privately owned civil war cemetery in the town of Franklin. We also took the time to explore the downtown area of Franklin. Franklin is a nice little town with lots of shops and restaurants along their main street. We enjoyed a night out at The Tasting Room, where we got to do a wine tasting and a food tasting. David also found the house he lived in as a kid. He lived in SW Nashville for about 18 months when he was in grade school. He also found the drainage ditch he and his brothers use to hike down. It sure was a lot smaller than he remembered.

We had a couple more visitors while we were on the reservoir. Joe and Katie, our LM friends, stayed with us in the RV. We spent the first evening relaxing at the campground around the fire, BBQing and roasting marshmallows. We also discovered that Joe likes to drink his wine out of our new salt and pepper grinders (we do have plenty of wine glasses). Who knew there were more things we hadn’t discovered in Nashville. We toured the Ryman Auditorium while Joe and Katie were in the Country Music Hall of Fame. We also found Printer’s Alley and listened to some blues music there. Joe and Katie loved the live music (as do we), so we spent the evening listening to music and dancing. Their last day, we made another trip to downtown Nashville and toured the Johnny Cash Museum. We tried to visit the Bourbon Steak rooftop restaurant at the Marriot, which was closed, but we did take in the spectacular views from the 34th floor. We really enjoy having visitors during our travels and so everyone knows, we have updated our travel plans page on our website through March of 2025. Check and it out and come visit us. The next stop is Pigeon Forge…

Last but not least again, the unusual things we saw or did at this stop: Guy walking a large stuffed horse on Broadway; bathroom that was labeled “whichever”; guy on Broadway with a sign that said, “Will feed your ex to the alligators for $5.00”; Fit 4 of us (Brianna, Hailey, Kim, David) in the smart car to go a mile down the road.

Well as we alluded to at the end of our last post, we got in an accident 1.5 miles from the New Orleans RV Park and Marina after traveling 265 miles that day. Turns out that New Orleans is one of the worst places to get in an accident. Louisiana and specifically New Orleans parish (they have parishes instead of counties) has laws in place that allow people to sue for little or no reason. We were told that it is one of the most litigious places in the country. We only had a little damage to the ladder on the back/side of the RV. David already fixed it. The other party had a scratch/small dent to the side of their car and yup, you guessed it, they got a lawyer and are claiming injuries. It is difficult to have faith in people when they lie to get money out of the insurance company. Sorry to start out on such a negative note, but it only gets better… The second day we were here, there was a really bad storm with 60-80 mph winds, torrential rains (6.5 inches in 7 hours), tornado 23 miles from us and lots of flooding. As you may know, NOLA is below sea level, so you do the math, haha. Of course, during all this, David and I were both sick. We will finish up with the negative things, so we can move on to sharing the fun things. Driving here is a real challenge (thank you David for doing all the driving), between the awful roads, lack of signage and the absolutely crazy drivers. People here park wherever they want, including in the middle of a lane of traffic (to go into a shoe store) or on the median and they drive literally like there are no laws. We also saw a woman get assaulted on Bourbon Street in broad daylight and then somebody decided they didn’t like our Harley Davidson sticker on the smart car, so they removed it for us. OK, we are done ranting….

On to the fun parts…We took several people’s recommendations and found a few new places as well. On the way, in Lafayette, we stopped at “The Best Stop” and got cracklins and boudin balls. Nothing like deep fried pork fat! Here is a list of other places we went… Breweries: Skeetahawk, St. X, Faubourg, Courtyard, Brieux Carre, Second Line, Oak and Ale, and Zony Mash Beer Project. Wine Bars: Copper Vine. Restaurants: Bourbon Heat, Segnette Landing, Lighthouse Bar Grill (at RV park), Ruby Slipper (breakfast), Mother’s, Clesis Seafood (we had crawfish for the first time there, it was awesome), Paladar 511 (Kim had delicious squid ink spaghetti), Frenchman All Day, Marigny Brasserie. We also went to Charlie’s Steak House (the oldest steakhouse in NOLA) for David’s Birthday. There was no menu and hasn’t been since it opened in 1932. Kim had the filet mignon and it was the best she has ever had! Kim also made a lemon merengue birthday pie. Museums: Jazz, WWII (amazing and largest WWII museum in the country) and Southern Food and Beverage. We did visit one cemetery, but the oldest ones require a tour guide. We had to have one hurricane at LaFitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar (the oldest bar in the US) and a craft cocktail at Jewel of the South. We did come across the old Falstaff brewery (Kim’s Dad remembers that beer well). The RV park and Marina was on the edge of Lake Pontchartrain. The lake is roughly 40 miles from west to east and 24 miles from south to north. It was very cool driving across the causeway, which goes right over the lake!

The French Quarter Festival was going on the first weekend we were there. There were 22 stages with live music, lots of venders and of course, food. We had po’ boys, sweet potato filled beignets, red beans and rice, gumbo, hushpuppies and bread pudding. In the evening, we listened to music a few different places on Frenchmen street. The band Bon Bon Vivant was particularly good at Cafe Negril.

We took a very cool swamp tour too! We spent 2 hours on a small air boat with a great guide. We saw turtles, eagles, water moccasins, various birds and lots of alligators. The male alligators all had names. We got up close and personal with Thibodaux, a 12-foot-long male. It was mating season, so the males were pretty skittish, but we were able to feed marshmallows to several of them. We got some great video, if anyone is interested, we can send it to you.

We left New Orleans in the rain and wind (not as bad as when we first got there) headed to our next stop in Mississippi. We stayed one night at a Harvest Host, R & R Winery in Greenwood Springs. It was an amazing property with an outstanding host. Ruth did a wine tasting for us and then served us a home cooked meal (pot roast with potatoes and carrots). We really need to stay at more Harvest Host locations. It was so peaceful and relaxing. BTW, our new batteries performed perfectly through the night. The drive through Mississippi and Alabama was absolutely beautiful, we were on two lane roads most of the way through the rolling hills and trees. We are now in the Nashville area for the next month to celebrate a big birthday for Kim and we also have some friends and family coming to visit while we are here. Let us know if there is something we must see or do in Nashville.

Last but not least, the unusual things along the way…A lot of things were unusual in New Orleans, but things not already mentioned were Fred the gator at the RV Park and Marina, a regular car with a sticker that said “this vehicle does not turn right on red” and a truck spa. Also, in most places, people don’t use their turn signals, but in Mississippi people turn them on and leave them on until they are going to turn in the opposite direction and then they leave that one on.

San Antonio was amazing! We stayed at Travelers World RV Resort which was right on the river walk trail. We spent the first couple of days exploring on our own. We rode our bikes 10 miles round trip, from the RV park to the downtown area along the river trail. Along the way, we saw two ducks killing a hawk in the river. A guy stopped and went out in the river to save the native hawk. We found a nice restaurant in downtown along the river walk, where we sat outside under the trees. The wonderful dinner included a giant cornbread in the shape of Texas and a personal serenade. We rented a 4 door Dodge Charger to accommodate all the visitors, but before they arrived, we took a drive to Corpus Christi to find the beach and check out the area. We drove along the Gulf of Mexico, found a spot for possible future camping and enjoyed a dinner at one of the local restaurants on the water. It was sure nice to drive a real car that actually had some room, and lots of power! We also got in some pickleball. The RV park had only one court, but as always, we met some great folks playing pickleball. However, the highlight of our time in San Antonio was when David’s daughter Jenna, son-in-law Evan and grandbaby Jolie arrived. It was so nice to have them visit. We played games (Jenna got us a great new game, Sequence), we rented two additional bikes and baby trailer and rode the river trail. Jolie really enjoyed her ride in the trailer and Evan did a great job pedaling her around. We all went to The Tower of Americas, which is 750 feet tall (that’s 87 feet taller than the Space Needle for you Washington folks). We could clearly see just how flat Texas is and we could barely stand up in the wind out on the exterior observation deck. Jolie took some of her first steps while she was with us and also got a pair of Texas cowgirl boots. We went to this very large outdoor mall, where there was a place called Tapville. You get a card and then you insert it above the tap of what you want to drink and it charges you by the ounce. There were beers, ciders, seltzers and wine to choose from and you could mix and match. Every mall needs one! We all spent some more time exploring the downtown river walk area together. We really enjoyed having them visit and are looking forward to seeing them again soon. The only bad part was that we all ended up with a nasty cold, they came down with it the day they were leaving and we got it a couple days later. After the family left, we took a guided tour of the Alamo. It was very informative.

Off to the next stop… Beaumont Texas. We did finally get the motorcycle out for a ride. We rode toward the coast and ended up in the town of Port Arthur which was not a nice area. Most everything was abandoned in the 1960’s and 70’s. Port Arthur has several of the largest oil refineries in the country. There have been oil spills, toxic chemical releases and general contamination there for many years. Needless to say, we did not hang out there very long. We did ride over a neat bridge, found a cool veterans memorial, and explored some breweries. We met some really nice folks at a brewery in Beaumont, who told us everything to do and see at our next stop in New Orleans. Thanks for subscribing Mike and Nikki! Hope you enjoy our blog. We did stay an extra day in Beaumont hoping to catch a glimpse of the eclipse (92% coverage) with our new fancy glasses we got on Amazon. The weather had clouds predicted all day but we got a couple of short cloud breaks and saw the eclipse. We attempted to take some pictures by putting the fancy glasses over the camera lens on our phones, but it is not the easiest thing to do.

Finally, the unusual things along the way; dead alligator on the side of the road, tree falling across the freeway right in front of us (thanks to the driver helper Kim for spotting that) and unfortunately a fender bender 1.5 miles before the RV park in New Orleans (more to come on that).

We made it to Mesa and stayed at Val Vista Villages RV Park. Wow what a nice park with a lot of activities and events within the park, live music every night with a full drink and food menu, 4 different pool areas, 15 pickleball courts (this was the highlight for us), woodshop, and so many other amenities. Our site was plenty big enough with a fenced in patio area that had a built-in gas BBQ. We only had one small issue… our arrival was a little eventful. We had gotten previous instructions to call right before we got there, but no one would answer the phone. So, we pulled right up to the main gate to get an “Oh My Gosh, you should not have come to this entrance your rig is way too big”. At this point we had no other choice, so we made 4 extremely tight 90 degree turns with our two escorts (one in front and behind) and lots of onlookers clapping and cheering at each turn. Our good friends Vicki and Leon flew down from Washington to get out of the rain and cold and spend some time in the sun with us. We had a great time together! We went to Goldfield Ghost Town, learned all about reptiles at a reptile exhibit, attended a salsa festival, explored some of the different downtown areas which included visiting some breweries and of course we played pickleball. It was so nice to see them and we really enjoyed the time together.

Our next stop was back to Phoenix with an early morning appointment to get the alignment done on the 5th wheel. For the first time we hooked the truck up the night before and spent the night with all the slides in (we don’t run the slides unless we are level). It was a little tight crawling in and out of bed, but it worked and we were able to make our 7:00 AM appointment. Although they were unable to do the alignment, seems the axles have different spacing between them, so this will be something we will get resolved when we are back at the RV Factory in Elkhart this July. We got situated back at Desert Shadows in Phoenix and the next day Rick, Tangy, Kim and Kevin arrived from Washington. For those of you that don’t know, they are the ones that introduced us almost 6 years ago. Rick and Tangy stayed with us and we could not have asked for better house guests. They were such a pleasure to have around. The six of us had a great time together attending Mariner spring training baseball games at three different parks (one of the games did get rained out, but not before we stood in the rain for an hour) and hanging out at the RV cooking meals together. Shout out to Kim Crane for doing virtually all of the cooking! We all spent an evening at Kim’s brothers house where he made an excellent brisket for us all to enjoy. Rick and Tangy headed home and then there were four. David and Kim C. got in a round of golf and we spent a couple nights at Kim and Kevin’s place enjoying the free happy hour. Kim took a private pickleball lesson at The Pickleball Space. She learned a lot and is now trying to incorporate all of it into her game. We had a fun night out to dinner at an authentic Mexican restaurant with Keith and Jenn and then got to play some games with them, Jada and her boyfriend. We did order the two games that we played that night. We also got a project completed on the RV while we were in Phoenix. We upgraded our battery bank! We put in four new lithium batteries to give us a total of 824-amp hours. We previously had 200-amp hours. We made all the new cables and did the install ourselves. It was a fun project that we got to do together with only one minor oops… David shorted a tape measure out on the batteries and completely destroyed it (see pic).

We then spent 3 long travel days to go 1,000 miles to our next stop in San Antonio. We spent one night in Deming, NM and it turns out the Luna Rosa Winery was right down the street. It was a great winery and they are also a Harvest Host, so next time we go through that area we will be staying there. Then we stopped in Fort Stockton and enjoyed a peaceful evening just hanging around the RV. Now it’s time for a new addition to our blog (thanks for the suggestion, Dad!). We have started keeping a log of the unusual things we see along the road. Here are a few… Big Johnson Creek, car vending machine (Carvana), Ostrich farm (right on highway 10), trucker at a rest stop pulling a traffic barrel out from under his truck, Prius with a solar panel on the roof to keep the batteries charged, frontage road calisthenics (in the middle of nowhere), and a cowboy church.

We are now in San Antonio and are really excited because David’s daughter Jenna, son-in-law Evan, and our grandbaby Jolie are coming to visit us. Thanks to all of you that have been following along and have a wonderful Easter.

Our drive into California was one of the worst ones so far with heavy rain and snow flurries. The roads in California were awful and we sustained our first road damage to the RV on the first day. The truck kicked up something and put a hole in the door of the front generator compartment (damn California roads). We stayed in Hemet, CA at Golden Village Palms RV Resort for 16 days and ended up in a site right next to the 10 pickleball courts. We played pickleball every day that it was not raining. It’s easy to get up and get out on the courts when you get woken up by the sounds of pickleball. The resort was nice and had lots of activities. We went to a Fleetwood Mac tribute band, a super bowl party and an omelet breakfast. There was not very much to do in the town of Hemet. We did find The Maze Rock (which contained a single petroglyph of a maze… hence the name), the Western Science Musuem (all about dinosaurs) and Diamond Valley Lake (you can take a boat on the lake to fish, but the sign said that it was a “No Body Contact” lake, so don’t fall in or there will be a fine). We failed to make reservations ahead of time for Valentine’s Day, so we had a romantic lamb dinner in the RV. We made a couple of day trips to the wineries in Temecula. Our favorite was Oak Mountain Winery and Distillery, where we took a tour that included the cave they built to age the wine, a personal meat and cheese plate and many generous wine samples followed by dinner and craft cocktails. Our underbed RV wine cellar was getting sparse, so these trips to Temecula replenished our collection and then some (the overflow is behind the recliners). We also visited Riverside, which is a great town. We saw their downtown area, visited some breweries, and had a great dinner out at Prohibition. A bonus of the park was that there was an RV repair person in the sight right behind us. He put on a great clinic while we were there and he helped us diagnose a furnace issue, adjust our propane regulator and install some additional tail lights on the RV. Also while we were there, we made use of the venison from David’s friend, Brett (saw him in Phoenix). We made some awesome venison steaks and used the ground venison for burgers as well as for the Super Bowl party chili. Thanks to Brett for sharing!

Next we headed to San Dimas and stayed at Bonelli Bluffs RV park for 10 days. This is a great park with lots of grass, ample space between RVs, and views of the mountains and Puddingstone Lake. This park put us about 40 miles from Kim’s Dad in Long Beach and daughter Brianna in Redondo Beach. Of course, it takes an hour or two to go 40 miles, depending on the time of day. Between the potholes and the traffic, it was a white knuckle ride in the Smart car. It was great to see Kim’s Dad and Bette! We went out to lunch a couple of times with them and got to see their new apartment, which is in a beautiful historic building. It was built in the 1920s and is in a great location by the beach. They also came to see us at the RV park one day and Kim’s Dad tried out one of our electric bikes. We also got to spend some time with Kim’s daughter Brianna. She came to visit us at the RV park the day we got there, went out to lunch with all of us at Sea Level restaurant and cooked a wonderful dinner for us at the apartment that she shares with Annica and their two cats. Their apartment is in a great neighborhood and has off-street parking! It was so nice to spend some time with family. We also found lots of breweries/food trucks around San Dimas and went on a great 5 mile bike ride around Puddingstone Lake. As we prepared to leave, we had to make one last minute repair to the RV. One of the axle dust covers had come off, so we ended up pulling the wheel, adding some more grease and reinstalling the dust cover (that wasn’t on the checklist!).

We are now back in Arizona and staying at the River Sands RV Resort in Ehrenberg, which is right on the Colorado River. Here we spent time creating this blog post and making reservations for this coming winter in Florida. Not much else to do in Ehrenberg unless you want to visit the Dollar General. It was 80 degrees and sunny when we pulled in and we were thrilled to be back in shorts weather. Next we are headed to Mesa, where our friends Vickie and Leon will meet us. Then to Phoenix for spring training with other friends; Kim, Kevin, Rick and Tangy. Stay tuned for the next blog, it is bound to be an exciting one!