We travelled farther than expected today.....

Our Location: Richard's Park, Brady, Texas

 

When we woke this morning in Marshall, Tx it was coolish at about 60F/15C with a bit of humidity in the air already. Our plan was a regular 4 to 5 hour travel day. We pulled out of the park at 8:32 am, I know because I glanced at the clock. 

 

Somewhere between Tyler and I-35 South.

Confusing the number of highways here.

 

The route we chose had us taking I-20W to Tyler, TX and then once again catching Texas 31 West. We took this route before and enjoyed it. We did so again today. For those that are interested, the beginning of the route is a bit chopped up with lots of lights and slow downs but after about 30 minutes it spans out into a 4 lane semi divided highway for most of the way to I-35 South near Waco. I say MOST not all, a few slow downs here and there in a few of the towns but it rolls along well and the road is in pretty good condition. The only thing is you have to pay attention to direction changes as I don't feel Texas advertises some things well. That being one of them. However we managed to make our way through Tyler, Athens, Corsicana, and Hubbard, we eventually entered into Bellmead and popped onto I-35S which carried us through Waco to Hewitt our planned stop for today. . 

 

Course pavement but the bridge joints are good.

 

 But as the clock was just hitting high noon we kept going. We followed I-35S to Temple and hung a right onto I-14/TX 190 toward Kileen and Fort Hood. This road was also a nice 4 lane road for a long way but it eventually narrowed down to a regular 2 lane road with a few passing lanes when it turned to just Tx 190. We ventured through Lampasas, Richland Springs, Rochelle, San Saba and eventually we ended up here at Richard's Park in Brady, Texas. The road was decent overall with a couple of humpy bumpy spots but not many. 

A river we crossed.

I paid this price today.

A retaining wall on Tx 190.

Beauty wise it is definitely worth the drive but I think sand fleas may make it seem less so, however we shall see. The RV park is past the baseball fields and is situated near a very large pavilion. A bathhouse, play ground, disc golf and a number of other things make up the park. I'll post more tomorrow. 

 

A beautiful home we passed today.

For our friend Jim...the hunt is on, tools vary as per the hunter.

 

I called my dad upon our arrival and set up which was around 4 pm ct, 5 pm his time. We chatted for a while and he told us the weather there is down right summer like, and we are so happy to hear that. It's about time they had some nice weather. 

 

Some Texas country side...

The reason we came to this park is odd maybe. My late husband's name was Richard. Richard's Park is on Memory Lane. Our middle daughter's name is Bradey. About a half hour or so out of town we passed Riley Road. Only Courtney and I are missing representation here, perhaps I'll find the connection tomorrow. Although I did chat with Courtney last night. It just seemed to me that Richard's Park on Memory Lane in Brady, Texas was a place we perhaps should visit and so we have. 

 

Our spot in site # 8. 

 

Temps were warm today here, 85F/28C with very strong winds, of course they were side and head winds all day. The Big Dog was thirsty doing all that work. Diesel has been steadily going down and we are now looking at $4.35 to around $5 +, with most in the range of $4.75 or so. 

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

 

Until next time..

 take care, be safe, 

 

Deb

Rain, windy, back in Ontario.......

Our Location: ONroute, Tilbury, Ontario

 

(No pictures today, they just won't upload)

 

It was very warm last night when I went to bed but by morning it had dropped 30 degrees staying steady at 47F/ 8C with over cast skies. At 7 am my dad called to ask what kind of weather we were having and telling us they were having snow, high winds, and it was very cold. We chatted for a few minutes before saying goodbye. Riley and I were quick at getting everything secured and ready to roll just at the time the rain started to fall. 

 

We didn't have to go very far for our first stop, only a few hundred feet to the dump station. I will be honest with you, we made it up the first hill okay until I tried to turn to the right then we had a problem. The washed out hill, the new gravel and well you get the idea. For a few feet we were chattering sideways until I stopped, popped into 4x4 and with a little bit of a heavy foot we managed to get up the hill. I left us in 4x4 until we had arrived safely on the very top ridge at the dump station. 

 

Of course, it started to rain again as soon as my feet hit the grass outside the Dogsled door. No worries I'd donned my bright yellow rain slicker and proceeded to sweat as the temps were too warm for a none breathable coat, but the air was wet and the rain drops cold. Oh well, it's only a short time outside, then I'll head inside, change my shoes and sweater, coat, and be ready to the hit the road. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get the water to come out of their hose. They had some kind of valve after the handle on the faucet but the valve just spewed water everywhere except out the end of the hose to rinse the sewer hoses. So I simply turned on the pump and used our own water, a quick rinse, put the hoses away, changed into dry clothes. We were heading out the driveway at 8:10 am. Of course the rain has been coming in waves at this time, now it continues but with a bit more gusto. 

 

Our RV GPS had us wandering around the back roads like two lost sheep. She was basically having us go west for a mile, go north for a mile, go west, go north, etc. I mean really? The Interstate it 12 miles that way, lets just go that way. Finally I just ignored her and off we went finding the Interstate just where I thought it would be, it hadn't moved since last fall. That added at least 30 minutes to our time. I wasn't impressed. I'm going to be chatting with Garmin in the near future, I am not happy and for the price I paid for this thing, it should damn well work properly. 

 

So we finally climbed onto the interstate near exit 103 north, and pushed the Big Dog toward Lima, only 21 miles/ 33 km away. For the entire morning we rolled along at 55 mph/ 88.5 km through the nearly flat state of Ohio. The wind wasn't bad at all when we started out, the rain kind of came and went, never very hard though, I think I only had the wipers on full once due to spray from the truck ahead and beside that seemed to be just sitting on my front bumper and my side door. Not sure why they do that but oh well. I will say the roads were pretty good until we reached the upper edges of Ohio and in to Michigan. It was here that the winds started to be noticeable as well. Michigan is always a nightmare for that stretch around Monroe. I thought for certain I drove over another 5'er that was lost in the hole with just his A/C sticking out. Turns out I didn't, it was just my imagination, but a couple holes were deep enough to get lost in and I was lucky to avoid those ones. I will be driving the middle lane in that stretch from now on though, they'll have to pull me over to give me a ticket before I start driving in the slow lane again until they fix that particular piece of roadway. It's insane. We pulled off at Luna Station for a fuel stop as the prices seemed to be steadily rising, we were seeing only numbers right at or above the $3 per gallon mark. We filled the Big Dog's bowl for $3.09 a gallon. The Big Fella took 22 gallons, or approx 83 liters (1 US Gallon = 3.79 CDN liters). Couldn't squeeze in $50, stopped at $49.50 USD.

 

We reached the area of construction, which of course were shut down today and motored right along. As we approached Dearborn exit the traffic suddenly came to a very fast slow down, a creep along. Within 15 seconds of the slow down I could see the problem ahead. A big rig had jack knifed in the 'fast' lane into the construction lane and just his back bumper was sticking out a bit into the next lane, he wasn't impeding traffic by more than 6" -8". The driver was out walking around but no one else was on scene so it had literally just happened. We didn't see or hear any evidence of law enforcement, medical or fire aid of any kind. We were past the end of his truck within 30 seconds and on our way. Sorry for his troubles but we didn't see it, he wasn't hurt, we couldn't help, so lets get out of the way. No need to gawk, big deal his nose is kissing his A**, he's fine, keep driving. 

 

We pulled up to the Canada Customs lines which are confusing in that they now have lots of truck lanes open but no arrows pointing you to the car lanes, nor is there an RV lane, which there is going the other way at this crossing. I checked the time, 12:15 pm. We found our way to the car lane, 4 folks ahead, we rolled along and were at the booth within probably 4 to 5 minutes. Nice lady asked us a couple of questions and told us to have a nice day. We were across in a little more than 5 minutes. Yeah us!! Welcome to Canada. Home of the Maple Leaf, Tim Horton's, and $1.25 per liter diesel. So that $49.50 fill up would have cost me $103.75 here in Ontario.

 

We immediately began seeing the overhead signs warning of freezing rain in Ontario. The temperatures by this time had reached 37F/2.7C and were staying steady. We discussed a few options and Riley checked out the local forecasts. We decided we'd pull in at the first ONRoute (rest area) in Tilbury/Chatham-Kent. Which is where we are right now. We pulled in against the grass edge, but are leaving the slides in to help keep us warmer and in case we receive some freezing precipitation overnight, it won't stretch the slider topper and we won't have to go up there and knock it off. Plus with the slides in we don't rock and roll so much in the wind. We had our heater going within a few minutes (which requires us to run a hose in the window), and the Igloo is nice an toasty. 

 

I called my dad, we chatted for a bit, he's glad we're off the road for the day and I'll let him know tomorrow what we plan on doing. I don't believe the roadways are the issues. I'm pretty certain they will be sanding, salting and doing all that good stuff over the next two days. The issue I believe will be when one is getting off and on the roadways, ramps, side streets, parking lots, etc will not be as well  maintained as the major road ways will be. So we're going to sit here until late tomorrow afternoon or Monday late morning before heading out to Hamilton. By then every thing should be cleaned up, salted or melted, as the temperatures will rise a bit in the next day. 

 

So there you have it, we are safely back in Canada, although we will be conserving our battery power a bit as there doesn't appear to be much sun in the forecast for a few days.  The temperatures are above the freezing mark and in this area there are no freezing rain warnings posted on the web. Just a bit further along there are of course lots of warnings posted. 

 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. I hope you've had a wonderfully safe and productive day. Thanks again for following along. Please feel free to leave a comment if you like, I read them all. For those don't wish to leave a comment, that's quite alright too, I'm honoured that came by to read! 

 

Until next time  ......  take care, be safe, 

 

Deb

 

 

 

A quiet day here in Cave City, and some campground notes.........

Our Location: Singing Hills Campground, Cave City, Kentucky

(4110 Mammoth Cave Road)

 

A coolish night last night for sure. We needed the heater this morning for a bit but it warmed up nicely through the day and the sun made an appearance for the most part until late this afternoon. 

 

Couldn't get the building without the pole...

 

Over our hot chocolate we discussed plans and  while it would have been nice to actually do something in the 'attraction' area we opted instead for a few things of a  more practical nature. We needed fuel as the big Dog was showing at only a 1/4 bowl full, so that was first on the agenda. Next we needed a couple of grocery items, nothing major just a thing or two.

 

Thought this was an interesting looking trailer....

 

Those things off of our list we proceeded to at least tour the village of Cave City and have a look at what we might see for another time. We found some interesting sights and even managed to stop for a walk around in a couple of locations. 

 

Notice the handle for GASOLINE is green, and the DIESEL is black. If one weren't paying attention it would be easy to make a mistake. Prices weren't too bad. Loved the big chicken in the ad.

 

We headed out to the Mammoth Cavern but didn't actually go into the building as the lot was pretty full and we already knew from the lady in the office that the tours were full. We did however want to have an idea of what to look for in our future visits. 

 

The Old General Store is more just a junk place but the prices are outrageous.

We did stop at an interesting amusement type area. Their activities included ziplines, a chair lift, a mountain slide, bumper cars, go-karts, a trampoline with harness, mini golf, and horse back riding and something called Outlaw Cave. We didn't partake in any of the activities although I offered Riley a chance to do them, she had no interest. We did manage to see off in the distance a few people coming down the slide on the mountain. You take the chair lift up to the mountain top for either the slide ride or the zip line ride, or you come back down in the chair lift. Interesting place. 

 

Some of the 'goods' outside on the front porch.

 

Back home at the Igloo I parked the big Dog and proceeded to clean him up. He's been dirty for a while and I truly couldn't take any more. I pulled out the wipes, vacuum, etc and gave him a pretty good cleaning. He's not perfect but he's better. It took me about an hour to do the clean up, then we had a nice relaxing lunch and I continued doing a few chores. It took about a  half hour to do the chores and tidy a bit in the cubbies. After that a quick walk to the main office with a bag of books to exchange worked out great. I left a complete bag and came home with not quiet a complete bag. Fair trade in my opinion. After that I settled down to read one of the new books. 

 

I'm not sure who painted the Indian but I've never seen ANYONE with a face like that....

 

The day has slipped past and it's already 5:30 pm CST. I was sure we would cross into a new time zone yesterday but apparently not yet. We must be pretty close to the change and tomorrow we will definitely be back to Ontario time. The skies have darkened some and the weather was calling for rain to change to flurries over night. I hope that doesn't actually happen but we'll see how things look in the morning and go from there. No use worrying about it tonight, nothing we can do anyway. 

 

More of the Old General Store merchandise.

 

So there you have it, our pretty quiet day here in Cave City, Kentucky. With a few things accomplished I feel better now. Just a few notes about the park for my own future reference or if you're interested. Sorry I didn't take any pictures. Singing Hills Campground is a nice park, but very tight spaces, hard getting into back in spaces. Drive thru's don't look much bigger but might be okay. Hook ups on the back in spaces are too far from the actually place they need to be. They are located at the front of the site, not in the middle or back. So we couldn't park all the way to the back of the site and still reach the electric. Therefore that makes it difficult to park the truck and be off the road due to not being able to park fully back and also because of the facilities locations, parking is very difficult, they make backing into the spot also very difficult. These back in sites don't have sewer but the pull thru's do. We didn't check out the bath house but it is a cement block building that is the strongest building on the property in case of a storm. Not all roads in the park are 'thru' roads, and don't have an extra lane for exiting, so if all of the spots are full, you are in trouble and need to back out. The office staff is very helpful, supplying directions to grocery store, Walmart, restaurants, attractions, cave tours, etc. Also supply directions to laundry, hospital, police, etc. Advise putting a card in your wallet in case you get lost or forget the name of the place. Great book exchange. Would stay again but get a pull through and be prepared for tight, noisy spaces. 

 

You ride this sled down the mountain slide....

 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. Feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate hearing from you. 

 

Can you see the white line down the mountain, that's what you ride the sled on. The chair lift takes you to the top to get on the slide.

 

Until next time.... take care, be safe, 

 

I think the carpenter wasn't having a good day when he put these windows together.

 

 

Deb

 

 

 

 

A full travel day, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky....

Our Location: Walmart front yard, Carrolton, Kentucky

Woke this morning ( I'd just dozed off from being awake since 2 am) in the early wee hours just before dawn to the sound of rumbling thunder, police sirens, and flashing lights, along with the sound of hard rain pouring down. It was torrential, you couldn't see anything outside. It sounded as if it were going to pound it's way inside. ~laugh~ The cop was sitting beside a big rig a few rows over from us but I don't know what the issue was, he never came by our door but the big rig left within about 5 minutes of the cops noise makers going off. 

Rainy start to our day

The temps were warmish, in the mid 60 F range, that's about 18.3 C for the Canuckies in the crowd. The rain was wet, I know hard to believe but it's true. It stopped long enough for us to get ourselves into the Dogsled and headed out. It started raining again when we got on the Interstate. Not much, just enough to have to use the wipers on about mid delay. Pretty soon it was just sloppy from the road and not falling from the sky any longer. Not long after we just ran right out of it, the roads dried up, the sun came out, the skies turned blue, the temps were soaring and leveled off at 82F/27.7C. Not too shabby at all even though we were driving. I can tell you that we wrestled each other for the control of the AC, Riley was cold and I was hot, she would turn the blower down and the heat gauge to half blue, I would sneak it back to ALL blue and inch the blower up a notch or two once in a while. Finally she just put her sweater on. ~laugh~

Starting to brighten up

We left Alabama behind for Tennessee and then later in the day traded that in for Kentucky. The vistas were beautiful, the early morning fog truly was like smoke wafting thru the trees, over the road and along the hill tops. Spring has reverted to it's pre green stage the further north we come. Here in Kentucky some trees are out in bloom and just a few hints of green can be seen around. We chatted off and on about the things Riley has experienced during our travels, the different people, the different cultures and mannerisms of those she met and those she just observed. She made some very astute observations, connecting the ideas of why she enjoyed some parks more than others and why she truly enjoyed some areas more than others. Her favourite parks were easy to guess and she enjoyed them because of the people and the experiences. It was an interesting conversation.

Look where we are now.

We managed to contact Miss Laura at Southern Chevrolet in Foley, Alabama this morning to work on our issues with the truck papers. She is a fantastic lady and I truly appreciate her assistance in this task. I'm hopeful we can have it all straightened out in time for us to cross by Wed or Thursday next week. A case of one hand not telling the other what needs to be done.

Could that the smoke of the famed Smoky Mountains we see ahead?

The Customs Brokers have been in touch giving me information about what I need to supply and will then give me more detailed instructions about how and what to do when I cross. I'll be honest, it's not a day I'm looking forward to except that when I leave the border area it'll be all behind me. Yeah!!!!! ~laugh~ 

Look at all that green on the hillside.

The Dogsled was running in fine form again today. The route was very different than yesterday with many more rolling grades, hills and even bigger hills at times. We also had the rain to contend with which makes it difficult to use the cruise. We had more cities to get thru today as well, plus many interchanges to connect with, all of those things combined to make the gas mileage a little bit less than yesterday but still very good. I used the engine brake today and it works amazingly well. I think the Big Dog was feeling pretty proud today when he was rolling along and not making any effort at all in the hills and the downgrades, he was just running along nice and easy. A steady sure pace all day long and not once did he seem to struggle or pant, hell he didn't break a sweat. ~laugh~

This big T-Rex fella was starting at us as we hurried past

We travelled 420 miles today, a total of 9 hours but that included about 6 or 7 stops along the way some for as long as a half hour at a time. The time was 8:30 am CDT to 5:30 pm CDT but when we stopped for the night we were in EDT so it was actually 6:30 pm. That would be 10 hours but due to the time zone change it was actually only 9.  Did ya get all that? ~laugh~  We are now back in our own time zone. Last fall we travelled 'back in time' for a total of 2 hours getting to do ONE hour over again when we left Eastern Time for Central Time plus another hour when we moved the clocks back when daylight savings time ended ( we were in South Carolina at the time). Now heading home according to Riley we've 'gone back to the future' losing those 2 hours....we've already lost an hour when we changed to daylight savings time and today when we crossed the time line we lost another one. No wonder we're tired and have no idea what time it is. ~laugh~

Home state of the famed Kentucky Derby, not just Honest Abe.

Diesel food for the Big Dog ran the scale from $2.29 to $2.59 per gallon according to the signs I noticed. I managed to squeeze a fifty dollar bill into the tank around 12:30 after running approximately 5 hours this morning. That's about $10 more than yesterday but the gauge was lower today too. So the Big Dog is eating at a consistent rate if I keep him checked in at about 55 mph. I think he's found his groove. ~laugh~ 

A Mercedes motor home towing a Saturn.

We settled in for the night on the front yard of Walmart in Carrolton, Kentucky on I-71 North between Louisville and Cincinnati. Lots of others around tonight but we're parked with the big rigs due to the tip in the landscape where the other RV'ers are parked. It all slopes down to the drain and I was worried Riley would roll to the back of her bed and not be able to get out so we opted for the company of the Really Big Dogs. ~laugh~ It rained when we were just arriving, then stopped and has once again sprinkled while I write this post, but can you believe it's stopped again? 

Pretty shades of green on the hillside.

We strolled over to Subway for dinner in a bag. Riley ate her whole foot long, I managed to eat half of mine which I'm sure will be all I get of it because I could see Riley eyeing it up thinking about lunch tomorrow. ~laugh~ We also headed into Wally's to pick up a few munchies for the road tomorrow. They help to keep the sugar levels from getting too far out of whack. Of course we always have lots of water available too but that causes other issues such as having to potty break often and toss a coin to see who gets the first seat. ~laugh~ We even give the kitty a potty break when we have one, of course we have to leave the Igloo for her to do her business after coming out of the Dogsled. She's not happy about having to leave her home and be seen in the company of a DOG!!! ~laugh~ I think it's truly embarrassing for her. Oh the shame of it all. 

I love the contrasting colours.

So after dinner I did some emails, some work for the broker, checked in on facebook, called my dad, and managed to write this post. It's now pushing on toward 9 pm and I'm getting pretty tuckered. I think I may just fall asleep early tonight. Hopefully I stay asleep which seems to be my problem of late. I'm tired and fall asleep only to wake up in 2 hours and not be able to go back to sleep. It's so frustrating when that happens. Makes for a long day the next day.

I believe this might be Louisville, Ky (it may not be though ~laugh~)

We're hoping to check into a state park near Cleveland, Ohio tomorrow and stay there a couple or three nights, depending on the border situation or we may find a campground closer to Buffalo for a night or two just because it will make the day we cross shorter without having to drive from Cleveland first. Anyway, we'll see how it goes tomorrow and the next few days. Hopefully everything works out according to plan, if not we have a back up plan. Always good to have a back up plan, don't ya think? I even have a back up to the back up. Damn I'm good, huh? ~laugh~

On that note, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed your visit to my little neighourhood. Feel free to leave a comment. Until next time.....be safe, take care...