Cross Country Road Trip - May 30

We are now in Scottsburg, IN, which is apparently the famous home of Yogi and Boo-Boo and Jellystone Park, because that's where we are! There's even a statue of Yogi out front! Weather has been pretty hot, and in Elkhart, our next destination a big storm came through and they had lots of power outages.Today we traveled here from Mt. Vernon, KY

and came through Harrodburg, KY. We stopped at the cool Old Fort Harrod, the first permanent settlement west of the Alleghenies ... whatever those are... Very well done wooden fort with people in various cabins explaining the way people lived back then.

Then we traveled on to the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. Upon arriving into the parking lot, I smiled because I remember coming here with good friend Eric Rosebrock last year, when we went on a very important maintenance conference, then took a hooky day to tour the Bourbon Trail, and apparently, the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. In any event, we took a nice wagon ride and the guide explained the village. Apparently Shakers join the "family" after giving up all possessions (kids, spouses, money, land etc), and become a celibate brother or sister working on the farm. Since no kids are being born and since the civil war, nobody wanted to work that hard, the families eventually left of dies and the village ended in 1910. Now it is a non-profit and universitied and helping to restore the buildings. Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill is the largest

restored Shaker community in America. With 3000 acres of bluegrass farmland and 34 restored buildings, this National Historic Landmark is the only living history site where all services are provided in original buildings.

And now we're at Yogi's house!. Tomorrow we're off to Elkhart/Shipshewana lend to RV tours and Amish country.

Cross Country Road Trip - May 28

We are very pleased to be able to report that we are now in Asheville, NC, after having made a successful 4 1/2 hr/250mi drive over significant passes without any engine trouble!:) (knock knock) Asheville it at the base of the Blue ridge mountains and home of the Biltmore Estate, Vanderbilt's massive 'summer home' which is supposed to be the largest home in the US. But it costs $45 each to tour it, so we'll watch the moving instead and move on.

To catch up ... we had the RV at Mick the Mechanic in Charleston for two days. He replaced both fuel pumps, cleaned out the fuel tank, and checked for codes. He never found a "smoking gun" per se, but hoped that one of the fuel pumps were bad, or intermittant. So far, so good.

But the 7 days (3 were planned) in

Charleston gave us a good opportunity to see the city, including touring the historic homes and buildings and waterfront. Charleston was also having record hot weather, which we got to enjoy:( , of temps near 100. We visited Patriots Point and saw the USS Yorktown Carrier, and Clagamore Submarine, the Fort Moultrie which played a significant role in the civil war along with Fort Sumpter across the bay.

We visited Drayton Hall, the oldest preserved plantation building in the country, built in 1765. We remember that homes of that era followed the four B's rule...big, bold boxy and bilateral. We visited Summerville's historic homes, and visited two RV dealers to look at new trailers. In the midst of all that we had some excellent seafood, sampled several home town breakfast/lunch places, and enjoyed the pools and bike trails at the campground.

So, while the RV trouble was a bummer (especially the "paying for it" part), we got to see sights and parts of Charleston we never would have otherwise.

We have abandoned the original plan of visiting Great Smoky Mountain and Mammoth Caves National Parks because our reservations ran out. We are planning on visiting the Amish country of Shipshewanna, IN and will tour at least two RV mfg in Elhart, IN in a few days, which is our next destination.

Cross Country Road Trip - Days 51-53 May 24

We are still in Charleston, NC and have greatly enjoyed the area. Yesterday we took in Charleston itself, which has a great amount of colonial homes and buildings. We mostly walked but also rode their free trolley. We had a great meal at a seafood place and I had a crabcake sandwich and Deb had cajun catfish. Today we explored Patriot's Point which has the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown and submarine USS Clamagore, both open to explore at will. We then went to explore Fort Moultrie, which is one of the two forts protecting the harbor, the other being the famous Fort Sumpter (1st shot fired in the civil war).

Tomorrow we're off to visit Summerville, which is supposed to be a pretty cool little town.

We're staying one extra day while a local Ford dealer replaces the fuel pump... hopefulle it resolved the issues.

Cross country Road Trip - May 22- Days 47-51

Hi y'all!

We are currently at James Island County Park near Charleston, SC. It is a very nice park with lots of bike trails, lagoons for kayaking, and a water park, which we visited today. Kyle loves the water slides.

Weather is warm in the low 90's. Yesterday we arrived here from Savannah, GA and stayed at

Skidaway Island St Pk. We took a trolley and walking tour of the town and saw a lot of history.

The RV is still having the stalling/hesitation problem which we now believe is vapor lock. So tomorrow, we hope to take it back in to have it looked at again, possibly to replace the fuel pump. We'll tour the town while it's in the shop. The good news is that while the RV eventually stopped running entirely, it started right up and ran flawlessly after sitting for 1/2 hr.

We've decided to change routes and travel through Elkhart, IN which many RVs are made. (It is also home (or thereabouts) of a good friend of mine, Eric Rosebrock. We decided that we're going to sell ol' betsy and buy a travel trailer, and pull it with the tundra, which is more comfortable to drive and should get better mileage than 8mpg. We're going to take a couple of RV factory tours in Elkhart, probably Keystone and Thor.

We'll

be there in a little over a week.

Cross Country Road Trip - Days 44-46

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

We are currently on Jekyll Island in Georgia. This is near the southern tip by Brunswick and Jekyll is part of the "Golden Isles of Georgia". After arriving today, we explored a bit and strolled the neato seaside village on St. Simons and had an ice cream. Tomorrow, well ride the bikes around the island and explore the village and historic areas. The island is 7.5 miles long and has 20+ miles of paved marked bike trails, so that will be fun.

Yesterday we explored the town of St. Augustine whilst the RV was at the Ford dealer for the intermittent missing problem (more later). St. Augustine is supposed to be the oldest town in the US, Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. The pix above is of Castillo de San Marcos, a Spanish fort built in 1672 to help protect it's sea trade. It is built from a stone called coquina, which has a high shell content, so the rock is soft enough to absorb cannon balls rather than have them shatter the walls. We tool a 3-hr historic trolley ride about town and saw quite a few nice sights including the fountain of youth (huh?) and a lot of more serious landmarks.

The campground we stayed at in St. Augustine was Anastasia State Park, with a very 'jungly" feel to the sites and a great wide beach on the Atlantic. (This is the first time I ever body surfed the Atlantic!)

OK - the RV repairs ... So the Ford dealer had it all day and could never find anything wrong. It's a pretty intermittent problem that seems to happen when the RV gets real warm and the AC is on. Kind of hesitates and surges going up hills or accelerating hard. But, it hasn't occurred the last two drives and of course it wouldn't happen for them either, so they didn't charge us anything. If it gets to be a problem, we find another dealer, but for now, it's not really a big problem for us.

Cross Country Road Trip - Days 32-43

May 15, 2011

It has been a while since I have been able to update the blog. We were at St. Andre

ws State park, FL through May 5, then an overnight stay at O'Leno State Park, then 6 days and 7 nights at Fort Wilderness at Walt Disney World, which we were sorry to leave behind yesterday (May 14). It is a very cool campground with a very "Disney" feel throughout. Well finished trails, signs, shops, restaurants and great pool with a spiral shaped water slide.

Our campsite was at the "

Settlement" end, so we were walking distance to the boat dock to Magic Kingdom, and the Settlement store, Trails End restaurant and Hoop Dee Doo review, which we did the first night. Unfortunately a spotlight on Kyle about 3/4 the way through freaked him out and he was bound and determined to leave before we could finish watching the show or eat dessert. The show is similar to (but not as good as) the Calif. Disneyland Billy hill and the Hillbillies show, which is free.

We had a 6-day park pass, so we did Hollywood studios and epcot once each and Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom each twice. Animal Kingdom is extremely well done. Beautiful setting, well designed and really make you feel in the boonies. Some great new rides too including a Himalayan roller coaster, a dinosaur ride (like Indiana Jones at DL) and a safari bus ride. Also a water ride in which we all got totally wet. Kyle typically doesn't abide by shows and movies but we all really enjoyed a Lion King presentation at animal Kingdom. It is a singing, acrobatic, music, huge puppets thing. Really well done.

We had some great food too. We ate a really nice dinner at the Wilderness Lodge which looks just like Yellowstone Lodge, we ate at the Biergarden in Germany/Epcot, and had a country buffet meal on our last night at the Trails end in the campground.

My humble opinion is that the LA Disneyland is better than Magic Kingdom at Disney World. the Calif version has the matterhorn, Indiana Jones, and a better Pirates. Although being able to go there from the campground by boat was very easy, as is the bus system to all the parks and resorts at disneyworld.

Alas - but yesterday we left and stopped at Kennedy Space Center en route to our current campground Anastasia State Park in historic St. Augustine FL. We took a go=uided bus tour at KSC and we able to get as close as possible (1-1/2 miles) to the shuttle which is schedule to launch tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow we need to take the RV into the local ford dealer to have them check an intermittant missing problem we've had recently. I replaced the fuel filter and have been using fuel injector clean in the gas but that didn't fix it. more ter ...

Cross Country Road Trip - May 10

We have wrapped up day 3 of 6 at Walt Disney World. The first night we arrived, we went to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Review dinner show here at Fort Wilderness. Ben and Jason probably don't remember coming to this show the last time we were here as a family 18 years ago. Kyle didn't particularly like the loud music and bright lights, so we didn't enjoy the show as much as we could have. On the first full day we went to Magic Kingdom (aka Disneyland) and had a great time. Yesterday we did Epcot and went to the Biergarden restaurant - same as we did with Ben and Jason, but Deb and I remember lots of polka music and german dancing. This time is was mostly a band on stage. Today we did Hollywood Studios, then came back to the campsite and went to the pool for a couple of hours - very relaxing. Kyle really liked the slide. Also today I replaced the fuel filter as we had some hesitation and jerkiness when goosing the gas the last few drives. Tomorrow we're off to the Animal Kingdom park.

Funny thing - Disney has a wifi hotspot at the Settlement trading post nearby, but charges $10/day to use it. Crazy - so I'm using the cell phone.

The weather has been beautuful, although warm - around 90.

Cross Country Road Trip - Days 30-32

May 3, 2011 - We are now at St. Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach, FL. We’ll be here a total of 5 nights. Most campsites are right on the shore of a bay, and across to the other side of the park is the Gulf of Mexico. We take about 6 steps to a nice little private white sand at our

campsite, and can watch the dolphins playing in the bay. Yesterday we explored the park, taking a long bike ride and sitting at the beach (gulf side) and played in the water and did some body surfing. We saw quite a few dolphins there too.

Today I did some minor maintenance tasks – replaced that water pump head, filled the RV batteries, and wrapped some presents for Kyle and Deb’s b-days. Deb filled the inflatable Kayaks, as we plan on taking a paddle this afternoon. We also plan on going into town for groceries and the RV supply store. We have issues with the fridge warming up while driving (like 60 deg) and people say a little battery powered fan helps in warm climates – we’ll see. We’re also going to try running it on propane versus AC to see if that helps.

The weather is mid-upper eighties and slightly breezy.

Trip factoids: Been on the road 32 days, traveled 3836 miles, and used 430 gallons of gas.