The Journey Continues

I left you in Louisville, KY. And now I am finally telling you about the rest of the journey, three weeks later? What’s with that? I have no excuse.

After two days of driving more than we like, our trip today would be light and easy. Sunday driving normally offers light traffic until later in the afternoon when weekenders are hurrying back from their busy weekend away from their homes. Since we only had 141 miles to travel to our destination, we took our time getting going. Traffic was light as expected on I-65 South. We pulled off I-65 at exit 104 as instructed by GPS. We were looking for Nashville North KOA. Signage for many KOA parks is generally pretty good. Many have signs on the interstate exits and at intersections that help guide travelers along the way. I thought it was odd, that we saw no KOA signs leading us home for the night. Nashville North KOA is not a typical KOA in that it does not have the common A-frame office. This park (formerly known as Nashville Country RV) recently joined the KOA family. About the time I started to get a little concerned that our GPS had led us down a dark hole, I saw the familiar KOA sign. Home was in sight.

We registered and we given directions to our site – a PUB (pull in, back out) site. That was a first for us. The only stipulation was we had to get Cramalot Inn and the small cargo trailer completely off the road. I was more concerned about that than back out of the sight. We managed to get everything nestled in place.

Not only did we have a short trip and a cool site, we were back in Central Time Zone. Having lived in Central Time Zone all our lives, our body clocks have difficult adjusting when we are in other time zones.

I took the fur babies for a walk around the park and found this place pretty full. The park was clean and people were friendly. The interstate was close by but not so close that highway noise would be a problem. I liked the 10 x 16 wooden patio which would make it easy to keep mud and rain mess outside. The only dislike about this park was the dog run. It seems like many RV parks place their dog run in the least desirable section of the park. The dog run here was very narrow and very long, placed along a creek trail. I know dogs don’t mind where they do their business, but their people do. We’ve encountered a few dog runs that were easy to find and will kept – this one was clean but pretty rough.

After a short nap, we decided to head to Hendersonville for dinner. We picked a place called The Lost Cajun. This is a regional chain that started in Colorado and is spreading its wings. (For our Texas family and friends, there is a location in Odessa, and will soon be locations in Midland and San Antonio.) Food was good, facilities are clean and staff are friendly and knowledgeable about Cajun style foods.

After a good meal, it was time for a restful evening. Monday we would have our windshield replaced.  Monday morning we enjoyed a home style breakfast at Liz’s Kitchen. We thought about taking a shuttle into Nashville for the day but since we did not know just when the glass folks would be out to replace the windshield, we just hung out for a lazy day at the rv park.

The glass guys came out and had no problem pulling the old windshield and getting the new one installed.

Our installer arrived with struggled a bit with the old windshield. Our pull-in, back-out site did not make it easy for them as they had no spot to park the work truck in front of the RV. I loaned him our ladder so he could climb up to get to the top of the glass. After removing the old glass, he and his buddy fixed a rust area at the top of the window frame. Apparently this is a typical spot for rust and leaks in RV windshields. Their work was quick yet thorough. After getting the new windshield installed, they cleaned up around the RV and headed to next stop. Thanks fellas – you done good.

We made dinner plans to meet my nephew and his family at Barefoot Charlie’s in Hendersonville. The place had an island/beach sorta of decor. We enjoyed our short time with my nephew and the girls enjoyed their ‘drink’.

Carol keeps her focus and Carlotta’s eyes tells the story.

We enjoyed the conversations and short time with family. It was time to call it a night as i was beginning to turn into a pumpkin. (That happens to me around 9PM). After taking the fur babies out for their nightly walk before bed, we crashed. Tuesday would be a long day (83 miles).

We opted for a light breakfast Tuesday morning. My neighboring RVer watched me back out of our sight and gave me a thumbs up as we headed our way. I guess he was amazed that I could back a 38 foot motor home with the 8 foot utility trailer attached. We left late enough to miss the morning rush hour traffic in Nashville, and arrived at our target destination around noon. Because our back-in site had a privacy fence in the back, we disconnected the trailer before backing into our site.

Next we returned the unloaded trailer, and stopped for lunch at Subways. When we got back, we spent the rest of the day getting the RV nested into our site. The park owners took us to dinner at Logan’s Roadhouse where we had a ‘get to know you’ chat.

Wednesday, I hit the ground running since the fella I was replacing was leaving on Thursday. I’ll tell you about our work and the park on a follow-up post. Meanwhile, here is our trip recap.

		Car	Cramalot Inn
Miles Driven	763.00	920	763
Avg MPG	24.75	24.8	6.4
Avg $/Gal	$1.96
$/Mile	$1.45
# days	7
Fuel $	$307.93
RV Park $	$145.68
Food $	$296.93
Moving Exp	$356.40	U-Haul Trailer
Trip $	$1106.94

By not adding the trailer cost into the mix, our average $/Mile would be $0.98. Since we began this journey in 2012, our average cost/mile has been $0.75 with the fifth wheel and $1.00 with Cramalot Inn.

Thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.

Go West, Young Man!

Washington is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country.  —  Fictitiously attributed to Horace Greeley’s July 13, 1865 editorial in the New York Tribune

So, West we went. Friday’s journey was less strenuous than our first day on the road. Thursday, we dove 300+ miles up and over the low mountains of West Virginia. Friday was a much easier 232 miles due West through the rolling hills of Kentucky. As we continued our westerly trek, the grass became greener and the land began to open up a bit with less dense forest areas and more openness. I can see how many settlers following the “Go West” dream made the decision to stop in Kentucky.

We got on the road earlier on Friday than Thursday so we knew we would have time to rest a little before grabbing a bit of dinner in Shepherdsville, KY. We did take a lunch break at a truck stop along I-64 at Mt. Sterling which just happened to be close to the mid-point between Charleston, WV and Louisville, KY. While we were temped to go into the truck stop and grab a Subway sandwich, we opted to stick with the plan and fix our own lunch, thus saving a little $$.

While Carol gathered the lunch stuff, I walked the fur babies. They were ready for their potty break just as we were. One advantage of traveling in an RV is not having to wonder what surprises may lurk in the facilities found along the highway. Friday’s lunch spot was also off the highway so we were not rocked with each passing truck.

After cleaning up from lunch, we took off. I quickly realized the direction I chose to exit the truck stop led to a dead-end. Because we were in a truck stop, I was able to get turned around quiet easily and negotiated Cramalot Inn back to I-64.

Between Lexington and Louisville, I noticed the traffic began to increase and that we were apparently in the middle of horse country. While the roads were crowded, the surrounding country opened up with sprawling estates configured with horse pastures and buildings looking more like horse stables than typical cattle barns.

GPS routed us around loop I-265 bypassing central Louisville. That was fine with me since we will get back into Louisville with our car on Saturday. We made the connection to I-65 south and made the exit at Shepherdsville on KY-44. As we crossed over I-65 heading east to our spot for the weekend, we encounter a school zone. Kids, cars and school buses everywhere; looked like someone stirred ant mound. It was obvious, the students knew it was Friday.

We pulled into our spot at the Louisville South KOA and anchored just fine. This park is much larger than where we were Thursday evening and there are more people buzzing about.

No one has commented about the ‘band-aid’ on the windshield just yet. This is one reason why we are making a stop in Nashville as we head south Sunday afternoon. We picked up a stress crack in the windshield in 2013 as we left Mark Twain Landing in Missouri. It was a small crack and really nothing to worry about. While we were parked in Virginia, we heard a rather loud pop sound. A lawnmower was in the area so I suspected we were hit by a flying object. We look around the RV on the outside and could see no evidence of a ding or any thing that looked like damage from a flying object. A few days later we noticed the crack had grown significantly and the top corner of the windshield had some small, loose shards of glass. We called around various glass shops in the area and found none that had mobile glass service and none that had any experience working on RV windshields. Closest spot would be Washington DC, Richmond or Roanoke. After going a few rounds with various glass companies and our insurance, we did find a mobile service that could accommodate us in Nashville, which just happened to be along our route. The band-aid is a piece of fiberglass reinforced panel similar to what is found in commercial bathrooms. I cut a piece to cover the crack and secured it with duck tape. The panel distributes the wind pressure to other areas of the windshield. So far it has held just fine. Monday we have an appointment in Nashville with a mobile glass service to replace that windshield. I’ll let you know how that goes then.

Meanwhile, we are on vacation. Today, we plan to visit Louisville and play tourist. We will hit the Derby and Louisville Slugger museums along with a few other spots.

I leave you with a sunrise photo from the dining room window. It is going to be a beautiful day.

Thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.