Kentucky to Florida 2013

As the saying goes, we should usually avoid the topics of politics and religion. Yet these are the two topics I find most interesting. After my very active stay at River Expeditions in WV (horseback riding, class 5 rafting, & ATV'ing) I was looking forward to my Kentucky stop. Passport America had a participating campground in Ravenna, KY, with full hook ups, for only $12, at just about the right location along my route south. The cg is a Methodist Revival camp and the pastor/director actually has my same last name spelled the same way (Cohn). I was looking forward to some interesting discussion over meals and exploring a mutual family heritage with the pastor. My expectations were heightened when the cg called me back to confirm my reservation and mentioned that the pastor was also looking forward to my arrival. My problems began when the cg directions brought me up to an 11' 2" train trestle (my rig is 12' 8") and I'm not ready to turn my RV into a convertible (lol). Making a "U" turn on a two lane road pulling a fifth wheel, even with the shoulders, doesn't count as one of my most fun experiences! The round about river road I then took was so narrow it required total concentration and didn't allow me to enjoy the mountain foliage. The left turn onto the camp road from the mountain road was a very sharp turn that, while I made it, I doubt I could make the right turn upon leaving. The cg road was about as bumpy and rutted as any I'd previously been on. The actually site has a short, concrete pad which looked good. It looked good until I went to back in. Both sides of the pad were mud pits about 6" to 8" deep. The rig was backing in fine until the trucks rear wheels hit the mud. I was stuck and spinning my tires. I tried rocking back and forth but only got my self deeper in the mud and almost jack knifed the rig. Another camper came over and then got the pastor who had a winch on the front of his F150. It took a little while and three different positioning's of the winch until I was finally able to get my rig situated. It was an auspicious way to meet the pastor and most of the seven other campers.

The other campers turned out to be from a group called NOMADS.  They work for mostly Methodist causes, building and repairing whatever needs to be done all over the country. I set up, chatted a bit with a few of the NOMADS, and walked up to the office to check in. The camp is just that, a camp which hosts kids in the summer and religious retreats the rest of the year. The grounds are within the Daniel Boone National Forest and on land that was once the town of Fitchburg. In the 1880's this was a thriving town of over 2,000. They operated the largest coal burning furnace in the world and one of the top 25 dry stone masonry structure in the world. When better quality coal was found elsewhere, the furnace operations went bankrupt and the town disappeared. There are lots of trails now maintained by the camp and old structures throughout the property and surrounding woods. I strolled around the camp till dinner and then joined the NOMADS and a group of pastors here on a retreat for a pulled pork meal. All the conversation was about RV's and the NOMAD organization. The camp doesn't have any meals on weekends so this was my only meal with them. The NOMADS seemed tired from their weeks work so I walked the camp trails the next few days with very little conversation. While the trails and old structures were interesting, it wasn't why I had chosen to stay here. The pastor never came by and I left early on my departure date, very disappointed.

The Tennessee cg was a very pleasant surprise. This is the former Cordell Hull Army Corp of Engineer location whom Guy & Jean Harden were able to obtain a permanent lease from. Apparently the location had fallen into disrepair and the Harden's proposed to renovate and run it. They had help obtaining the lease from Al Gore (yes, the former VP) who has a house on the lake. While Jean Harden runs the cg, her husband Guy sings and sponsors karaoke on Friday nights. He was a regular on the Ralph Emory TV show and formally toured with Alabama, Jim Reeves, and many others to numerous to list. The site I took had been vacated earlier that day by some regulars you may have heard of, Amy Grant and her husband Vince Gill. The cg is very well kept with a pretty beach & boat launch area. They even have row & paddle boats for rent. Several seasonals were already putting up elaborate Halloween displays. At $13/night (Passport rate) I heartily recommend this little jewel of a park to all you RV'ers.

The morning I left TN I broke camp in a light rain. The drive began pretty easy with nice back roads leading to I-40 towards Nashville and then I-65, south towards Birmingham, AL. The rain cleared and the day turned pretty, thankfully for what happened later. A rest stop magically appeared just about the time I was looking to take a stretch break. I-65 through Birmingham was a rough road with the typical big city congestion. I found some inexpensive gas when I was less than 30 miles from the cg. The fun began only a couple of miles after getting back on I-65. I was felling great, realizing I would arrive a little before 2pm with plenty of time to set up and go out exploring, the day was sunny and in the mid-60's, just beautiful. Suddenly, a loud "BANG" quickly took me out of my day dream. I grabbed the wheel with both hands and gently slowed, trying to figure out what happened. The truck wasn't pulling left or right, didn't feel like a tire went. I stuck my head out the window a little and quickly realized a trailer tire had blown. I was able to move onto a wide shoulder, stop and check. Sure enough, one of the two remaining original trailer tires had blown, but no other damage was apparent. I've heard of trailer tires taking out huge pieces of the RV when they blow. I was standing on the side of I-65 almost feeling lucky. This is a chance to find out just how good my Good Sam roadside assistance plan really is. They answered on the second ring, were very polite and sympathetic, and knew my exact location from the phone GPS. They both gave me the name & phone number of the company who would be responding and texted the info as well. In a little over 30 minutes a truck pulls up and the two young kids merrily jack up the 12,000 lb rig, change my tire, confirm that no damage is visible, and give me the name of a local tire store. From my initial call to Good Sam till I was on the road again was barely an hour, amazing! Good Sam has me for a lifetime customer. I got off the next exit, found the tire store, and had two new, upgraded tires put on the axle with my spare replaced and the blown tire, along with the remaining original tossed. I arrived at the cg two hours later than I originally thought, none the worse for wear.

The cg was old, with tight sites. In fact I couldn't open my slides all the way without hitting a pole, or tree, or electric box. I set up and began to walk the park, immediately meeting a couple from Oklahoma. We walked the park together, along with their two little schnauzers. The park does have a pretty little lake with a nice big deck overlooking it. The owner, William, is an interesting guy. He's in his early 60's, must weigh easily 400 lbs, and at 5' 8" is very round. He has almost shoulder length, pure white hair, but none on the front half of his head, He also has a pure white beard and a very jolly face. It's not a difficult guess how he dresses around Christmas time. He went to college for law, didn't like it, and so got his masters in theology. He didn't like full time ministering and so bought the cg, although he still preaches part time for free at a couple of the poorer local churches. Interesting guy!

Fairly easy ride to Marianna in the Florida Panhandle. The park is a little old but nice enough with a site that was perfectly level and the sat. dish got reception. As I strolled the park, checking the road to head out in a few days I met a couple plated out of Alaska. Joe and Judy live in Wasilla, are new to RV'ing, hanging out here for a month to visit their kids. Both recently retired from hospital work, Judy as a nurse and Joe from managing a lab. Joe served in Viet Nam as a recon sergeant, pretty close to my ranger activities and was there the same year as me, 1968. We hung out all afternoon chatting about Alaska, health care, Viet Nam, and life in general. Next day we also spent sitting around chatting. The time passed very quickly and pleasantly. On to Jacksonville and a couple of months with lots of get togethers.

Heading South Yet Again

The drive to Lake George was a peaceful one. No hurry's, no worries! I had registered very early at the campground, before they worked out the bugs for the Loners on Wheels negotiated rally rates. I knew they had overcharged me but wasn't concerned and figured we would work it out when I got here. They surprised me by having the appropriate credit waiting for me when I arrived. A few of to LoW campers were already here. They had apparently come early for a Good Sam rally and simply stayed on. The site was tight but it was a pull through and pretty level so it was a quick set up. After several hugs and hello's I was asked to drive to a rental place and pick up five 8' folding tables. Mo came with me to pay for the tables from the Yankee LoW funds. The guy at the rental place helped load them. When we got back to the campground there weren't any other men able to help so I unloaded them by myself, dang they were heavy (lol). The rental place let me drop them off on Sunday even though they were closed. Roger Smith came with me, helped unload them and leave them stacked behind the rental building. Over the week of the rally I: walked around town with Barbara Smith once and the SE-LoW's another time (Bobbi Harden, Linda Kendall, Daryl Spoonseller, Roger, and Martin Smith (no relation)). Wow, there were so many Smiths it could have been a family reunion. The Smiths included: Barbara, Carolyn, Marge, Martin, and Roger (I think that's all).  There weren't as many attendees as we originally hoped for but with about 35 it was a nice gtg. I managed to unload lots of stuff by donating them as door prizes and/or for the Chinese auction. I'll bet I lightened the rigs load by quite a bit. Among the stuff I gave away were: an unopened 5 gal jug of anti-freeze, an unopened 5 lb box of fire starters, a set f heavy gauge jumper cables, two boxes of Christmas lights, a full box of Christmas cards, two laundry bags, an unopened set of levels, an unused 1 lb citronella pail, a hand painted glass jar I'd won on a Murder Mystery train ride, and a few more miscellaneous items I hadn't used in almost three years on the road (lol). Other than some electrical problems at the pavilion where the rally set up for our meals I think the gtg went well. The main entertainment was a guy who billed himself as the human  jukebox. He was very good and even seemed to look like some of the singers he mimicked like Tony Bennett and Dean Martin. The second entertainment of line dancing didn't seem to go over as well, possibly because it had gotten a little cold. The "Human Jukebox" and I chatted a bit and before he left he gave me a free CD of his songs, very nice of him. About 20 of us took the two hour cruise on Lake George. Prior to the cruise about six of us walked around a bit and had some lunch. Since we sat at two adjoining tables they agreed to give us two checks but wouldn't give us individual checks. A bunch of us had gone out to lunch earlier in the week and sat at one large, round table. That restaurant wouldn't give anything but a single bill. It reminded me when I had munch with Barbara that third restaurant wouldn't provide separate checks either. Must be a Lake George thing (lol).

A funny thing happened late one evening on my way back to my rig. As I neared my RV a deep, gruff voice yelled at me "hey, you, get over here"! I stopped and yelled back in the dark in an annoyed voice "you talking to me"? As I responded the deep voices wife very politely and meekly said "no, no, he doesn't mean anything, could you please come over here for a minute". As I walked over to their rig I saw an older couple and the husband appeared barely able to walk. He asked if I owned the truck with the various army stickers. Turns out he was in Viet Nam the same time as me and even went through airborne school about the same time I did. He gave me a bracelet made of parachute rig cord and we chatted a while.

I took off early for my longest day's drive of almost 400 miles. It's the end of another year of RV'ing and I took my rig into the dealer in PA. I stayed at the dealer over night and spent the next week in a hotel in Edison, NJ about half way between my two sons Alex and Zack (Hi guys!). Over the week the RV was in for maintenance I: spent an afternoon with each of my sons, they also each stayed over at the hotel with me one night, I also had breakfast with my friend John and with my friend Randy. I managed to pick up my mail and even traded in my phone for a new one and a tablet. The hotel had a full breakfast each morning. They also had a pool and hot tub. It was a restful week and it was great to see and spend some time with Alex and Zack.

The RV didn't have any particular problems and it's good to know the brakes are repacked and bearings greased, the roof is sealed well and all systems checked out fine. I stayed over at the dealer one night which gave me time to reload the refrigerator and double check everything. It was a long but easy ride to western PA. I had a full hook up and was able to catch up with my laundry. While walking around the cg I met Doug & Becky out of OH in a cute little Scamp and Ray & Mary, local seasonals. Doug & Becky seemed to enjoy showing all the details of their little Scamp. I thought living full time in my 30' fifth wheel is being a minimalist but it's not even close to two people in a 13' trailer. Ray and Mary invited me to a local, family style restaurant. We spent almost two hours on the very topics most people avoid, religion and politics. It was a very pleasant evening. The drive to WV was very pretty with the Fall foliage in almost full bloom. It was also interesting with the many hills. There were two very steep hills where vehicles over 5 tons (I weigh in at 9 tons) had to get into an extreme right lane, come to a full stop, go into 1st gear while descending and not exceed 10 mph. There were also a few hills where I barely made 20 mph going up! The expedition cg has got to be the single worst cg I've stayed in so far. A narrow, winding road leading up to the entrance, a sharp turn on a steep hill that I barely made, a steep decent followed by a steep ascent to get to the actual site. The site was so sloped I was not able to level the rig even using all of my blocks plus a couple I found in the cg. All week I felt like I was going to roll out of bed. I was expecting a full hook up and there was no sewer, not even a dump station in the cg. The activities I'd booked were fun. I spent one day horseback riding through the WV hills. Really pretty foliage! Another day was spent going down 25 miles of class 5 rapids in a six person raft. The water was in the mid 50's and the air was about 60 degrees. A few people dumped into the Gauley River, but no one from my raft. I was soaked, but not really cold. It was a great day. A third day was spent ATV'ing along the Hatfield-McCoy trail. I thought I was an "experienced" ATV'er having done it once before with my friends in Maine. Wow, was this ever different! The trails were narrow with lots of steep ascents and descents. I did okay, almost lost it only once, got quite muddy, and had lots of fun. The fall foliage was great and I saw some wildlife including: turkeys, deer, a fox, and even a fair sized bobcat. While in WV I also managed to bring the truck in for its normal 5k service. Life is good. My next stop in Kentucky should be interesting but more on that when I next update this blog.