The end

August 22 2012

Millies thoughts:

All during our cross country adventure I kept a daily diary. Usually I wrote late in the evening while Larry was on his laptop diligently entering daily blog information. I tried to document the most memorable things that happened in our travel for the day. Sometimes it was a couple of paragraphs and other times it amounted to quite a few pages of data. In the future I hope to compile a memory book along with pictures to remember this special time of my life.

When we were planning our trip, three months seemed like sufficient time to see everything we wanted to see. However, we soon found out we constantly had to make choices regarding the most important things we wanted to see and do in the different areas. In our estimation it would have taken at least six months or longer to view all the
natural wonders in the over 10,000 mile route we traveled. Regardless of all the things we missed, what we experienced was a motor trip of a lifetime.

I loved the excitement of “breaking camp” each morning, getting on the road by 9:00 am and seeing the open road in front us. Usually Larry would go on line the previous night and together we planned our route and what we might want to see. Sometimes our planned event didn’t work out; sometimes something else might catch our attention. Regardless, in my estimation being flexible is part of what made our trip fun and exciting.

Now that our motor trip has come to an end and Larry, Maggie, Dixie and I are back home in beautiful Myrtle Beach, I’m sure I will reminisce often of our adventure as I stroll our golden sands. These memories will encompass many things, however the rapport and kinship between Larry, myself and our girls is my utmost treasure.
The end of my babbling, until the next roadtrip!


Larry's closing comments:

We’ve been home a week and neither Millie or I have written any kind of conclusion to our trip. Millie hasn’t written a final chapter to her diary in part she thinks, because she doesn’t want the trip to be over and writing a closing would in effect end the adventure. My excuse is I’ve been too busy. With my granddaughter Delaney here last week I wanted to do something vacation like with her every day. I also had some things to do in preparation to getting the motorhome delivered to the body shop. To be totally honest, while my excuses are valid ones, I think my ego was traumatized by the accident.

After 10,000 miles of safe driving I ended on a bad note and haven’t wanted to relive or write about it. After thinking about it some I realized that my summary should be about my feelings of the entire trip and not the ending.

The best way to start is to repeat something I’ve said many times since my 2006 cross country trip, “Everyone should drive across this great country of ours!” And I do mean drive, be it in a car, RV, or motorcycle, the journey is a big part of the adventure.

Driving the open road you see the real America. We stayed off the interstates as much as was practical. The small towns and out of the way communities were some of our best discoveries, life just seemed so much more sane in the small rural areas.

We also stopped for several days each, in selected large cities. In most we did the standard visitors tour and always then explored attractions specific to our interests. We favored museums, gardens, aviation and engineering marvels when in the population centers, but the variety of things to see and do are endless.

Back on the highway, the grander of nature is around every bend and always changing. You never tire of the scenery; it’s all magnificent, we can’t name a favorite place but some of the really spectacular are, the Grand Canyon, Highway to the Sun in Glacier National Park, and the Pacific Coast Highway.

Another question we have been asked several times is, how well did we get along for 3 months in the relatively small confines of an RV? Your millage may vary, but for us, being together made the journey as pleasurable as the destinations. Driving along the highways and byways together we marveled at whatever was passing by. Conversation on the road included everything from music trivia to world peace. We kept advance planning to a minimum and stopped whenever we saw something interesting. We never lost the feeling that it was a grand adventure and got along so well during 10,000 miles on the road that we were reluctant to see it end.

I hope y’all have enjoyed traveling along with us and if you ever get the chance to take a journey like our roadtrip or a dream adventure of your own...... just go!

 

Update: 

It is May 2015 and a lot has happened since the circumnavigation of the continental US. The biggest event is Millie and I got married. The wedding took place April 13 2013 on the beach were we met. Afterwards we celebrated our union at a poolside reception with family and friends. In the finest southern tradition we had Sticky Fingers BBQ cater the party. It will long be a memorable event because we had Dave Chaney, a local Elvis impersonator as the entertainment.

Millie has sold her house and we live at the Cane Patch, our ocean view condo. The ocean is a short walk down the block, I can ride my bicycle along Ocean Boulevard and all the amenities of the city are close by. Even after two years we still sit on our balcony and tell each other how lucky we are. Of course the best part is having Millie as my wife, she has made me happier than I ever thought was possible.

We spend winters in Florida in our motorhome, not the one we had for the big trip, sadly the insurance company totaled it. We replaced it with a 2000 Winnebago and it is working well for us. It is probably for the best, the old one was mine from a previous life, the Winnebago is ours.

In 2013 we did two summer trips, first we met friends at a RV Rally in Syracuse New York and then we toured all of the New England states. The area is rich in Early America history and we stopped at many of the sites. In addition to meeting our friends at the rally we then stayed on their New York farm for a few days. Lake George was also on our itinerary as was, New York City, Newport RI, Hyenas Port, The Kennedy Library in Boston, On Cape Cod we felt like visitors to another planet when we drove thru Providence, In Salem we took a Segway tour, on the way to Bar Harbor Maine we stopped and visited an army friend and also took in the scenic splendor of Arcadia National Park. We spent 47 days on the road and traveled 3500 miles. We visited family on the way up and also on the way south. One last stop on the way home was at Pigeon Forge Tennessee where we attended several musical venues. It was a good trip.

After a brief stop at home in Myrtle Beach we used the motorhome to pull a U-Haul trailer to Los Alamos New Mexico. It was a five day drive straight to New Mexico with the trailer. After delivering the heirloom furniture to Millie’s daughter and visiting them for a couple weeks we enjoyed a leisurely paced trip home which we called “The road less traveled tour.” We found Jesse James grave in New Mexico, We stumbled upon the Waylon Jennings RV Park in Littlefield Texas, dug for diamonds in Arkansas and also visited the Clinton presidential library. We stopped in Memphis and toured Graceland and stayed at a state park in Georgia named for the vise president of the confederacy.

In 2014 We stretched our winter sojourn by leaving Florida in the spring and traveling a route that followed the gulf coast to Mexico, then on to west Texas, and up thru New Mexico before turning east for home.  

Along the way we strolled the French quarter of New Orleans, Biked the beach front promenade in Biloxi, toured the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island, took the motorhome on a ferry boat across Galveston Bay, rode the gondola 700 feet to the top of the St Louis Arch, saw four musical shows in Branson Missouri, Crossed the border and spent a day in Mexico, Climbed to the ruins of an ancient Indian community on top of a mesa in New Mexico, toured the corvette factory in Bowling Green Kentucky, visited big bend National Park in Texas, played the ponies at Churchill downs, went to the Grand Ole Opry, climbed the dunes at the White Sands National Park, explored the caves at Carlsbad Caverns, visited the Angel Fire Vietnam Veterans Memorial in northern New Mexico, in San Antonio we stood in the shadow of greatness at the Alamo.

  It goes without saying that Los Alamos is an important part of every trip out west and this time we spent two weeks camped in Dave and Rae Anne’s driveway. We got to see the grandkids everyday, Millie got to spend time with her daughter and the dogs and I got to do a lot of hiking in the National Forest that adjoins their house.

 Our 6000 mile road trip lasted four and one half months and took us thru fifteen states. Whenever we could we traveled on secondary roads, that’s were the real America is. It’s the best advice I can give about Rving in the USA, get off the interstate and take the road less traveled. 

We did two more short trips in 2014 both large loops stretching up to Delaware and west to southern Virginia. On both trips we visited family, did some sightseeing and even attended a wedding.

At home we did a few projects around our home, we also did some work for the Cane Patch HOA and generally just enjoyed life at the beach.

Here in 2015 we were home for most of April and May. As I write this we are in Martinsville Virginia for a week. We go home for two weeks and then depart for our Middle America tour. It’s open ended, we’ll be back when we get back, probably sometime in August. Looking ahead to 2016 we’re signed up for an RV caravan tour of the Canadian Maritime States.

We’re still marvel at how lucky we are, for having found one another, for being able to travel in our motorhome and for living at the beach.  Life is good!

See you down the road!

 

Home

August 9 2012

We arrived safely in Myrtle Beach on Wednesday afternoon. The motorhome is parked at Briarcliffe RV Resort here in MB. After we get it cleaned out it will go into storage until I choose a repair facility to do the repairs from the accident.

Millie and I have moved back into our BIG houses and are busy settling in. We will write a road trip closing report as soon as we get time.

Wreck on I-64

August 8 2012

On Monday August the 6th, eighty nine days and 10,161 miles into our road trip we were involved in an accident. A sudden and severe thunderstorm rolled down the interstate towards us. I was told later that it blew a tractor trailer over on its side on the exit ramp about a ½ mile ahead of us. Anyhow visibility dropped to near zero, traffic ahead of us all hit their brakes, a bunch of commuter compacts all stopped as quickly as they could. Our motorhome and towed vehicle weigh 26,000 lbs; the newly wetted road was as slick as ice, it was impossible to stop in the same distance as a 3000 lb compact car.

We are all ok, everyone else appeared to be ok, there was no blood, no trauma, no paramedics called to the scene, everyone was walking around talking afterwards. Of course, at that point no one had been given advice to the contrary, so that may change. I imagine it will get ugly.

We are presently camped at a truck repair facility. They are doing mechanical repairs so that we can drive the motor home to Myrtle Beach. We will get the fiberglass and RV related equipment repaired there. We hope to be on the road early this afternoon.

3 days at the old homeplace

August 5 2012

It has been 3 days since I have written to the blog, I don’t know why this stop has been different than all the rest, this whole trip I don’t think I’ve gone more than a day without posting something. To make matters worse I didn’t even take any pictures the last three days. I guess my only excuse is the only campsite I could secure is at least fifty miles from everyone we planned to visit, which made for some long days. I didn’t see everyone I had planned on seeing; here is a brief tour of our weekend.

We visited my friends Stan and Barbara Crisco. They are renovating an old log cabin in Kent County Delaware. They have it done enough that they have moved in, but have a long way to go before it’s finished.

Next we met some old boating friends (aka The River Rats) for dinner in North East Maryland. I had told my Brother in Law Rock to meet us there as he lives nearby. He brought his two daughters, Casey and Kiley, Caseys Husband Bill and several youngin’s. I must say I was a bit surprised that all these folks came to greet me, but it was good to see them, the are all good people.

The next day we went to my parent’s house in Newark Delaware. This Wednesday is my mothers 88th. Birthday so we had a cookout and cake in her honor. My son and his family, Sallie, my brother Dave and his family and Millie and I were there to sing to the birthday girl. Afterwards I gave Millie a tour of Newark, the town I grew up in.

On Sunday we drove to Rock Hall Maryland to visit my brother John and Sister in Law Sandy. They didn’t make it to my parents the previous day because John is laid up with a bad back. In the afternoon we had to meet my Daughter in Law Kristie and Granddaughter Delaney back at Killen’s Pond State Park. Delaney is riding with us for the rest of the trip and staying with me at the beach till school starts.

Tomorrow morning (Monday) we depart and point the bus toward home. We will stay overnight somewhere along the way and arrive in Myrtle Beach on Tuesday.

Killens Pond State Park, Delaware

August 2 2012

We have moved south again, we are now in Killen’s Pond State Park in Delaware. Delaware/Maryland is my old home place and the plan is to be here for three days. We will visit with a few folks and when we leave my granddaughter Delaney will travel with us on the last 500 miles of our journey.

For about the third or fourth time this trip we stopped at a Blue Beacon Truck wash and had the motorhome cleaned.

It was almost three months and 10,000 miles ago when we passed by here at the beginning of our road trip. It been a great vacation, and we’re a little sad to see it end. But going home isn’t so bad; we do live at the beach!

Harley Davidson Plant tour

August 1 2012

We are still in Hershey PA at the Thousand Trails Campground. Today we drove down to York and toured the Harley Davidson motorcycle plant. It was very reminiscent of the Chrysler factory I worked in for 36 years. They used a lot of the same processes that are used in the automotive industry. The big difference is the Harley plant is 250,000 square feet of manufacturing space and our plant was 2 million square feet.

I also purchased the part for the jeep; I installed the relay today and will run the jeep with the old fan and see how it goes. The fan shroud has four attachment bolts, one of which is very difficult to get to, I don't want to change it if I don't have to.

Tomorrow will be notable for two reasons, we will pass the 10,000 mile mark on this trip and we will close the loop we started when we passed thru Maryland back in May.

Hershey, PA

July 31 2012

This morning we moved to Hershey PA and will be here for two nights. The trip down from Milton was mostly along the banks of the Susquehanna River. It is still a free flowing river here above the dams and very scenic. After settling in we drove to Hershey and visited Chocolate World. While its target customers are kids, we took the simulated factory tour anyway and even learned a thing or two about refining chocolate. As usual you exit through the gift shop; this one was about as large as your average grocery store. It was teeming with kids, and parents in tow, buying small fortunes worth of chocolate stuff.

Later I did some troubleshooting on the Jeep and must now order parts to repair the overheating problem. I am going to replace the fan relay. It must be a fairly common failure as there are youtube video's detailing an easy way to access the relay.

The almost international incident

July 30 2012

On Sunday we traveled across the border to the Canadian town of Niagara Falls. The Canadian side is much nicer than the American side; it is clean with flower gardens and parks all along the road that runs along the gorge. We enjoyed the head on views of the falls, did a little souvenir shopping and had an excellent meal while over the boarder. We also visited a beautiful old park honoring the defenders of Queenston Heights who on 13 October 1812 defeated an invasion by some of those pesky Americans.

On our return to the homeland the intrigue of the almost international incident begins. As you are probably aware the US and Canada have tightened the security of their respective borders. Vehicles routinely back up for long distances at the security stations. We were well out onto the bridge between countries when I got a check gauges message. The engine temperature was pegged at 260 degrees. With vehicles all around me there was no escape from the bridge, I turned off the AC and opened the windows, no change in temperature. I started turning the engine off and started it only when the line moved forward. The radiator cap started bleeding of pressure and coolant. Just as we got to the international border marker at the center of the bridge, the motor was overheated to the point that I stopped using it to avoid any internal damage.

So here we sit in the middle of a bridge between two countries and I’m thinking, I wonder whose problem we are? Help would most likely have to come from behind, as there were cars all around us, would the Canuck’s drag us back to Canada, would there be a tow truck war between Canadian and US companies? Would the powers that be think we were mad bombers sitting in a powder keg at the apex of the bridge? Where they assembling the anti terrorist commando’s?

It seemed like it took a long time, I guess they were checking with the IRS to make sure I had paid my taxes, but rescue was launched by the US side. Did they send a tow truck? Cops with flashing lights? An assault team? No they sent two maintenance men on a golf cart. They got in line in front of us and towed us up to security and after we cleared customs, they moved us off to the side. International incident averted.

That’s enough about that email me if you want the mechanical details.

This morning we departed the wonderful New York State Park we have been staying in and started the march south. We are night camped in a nice campground in Milton, Pennsylvania.

Niagara Falls, New York

July 28 2012

Well, we have reached another cornerstone of our road trip; we are as far into the upper northeast as we will go, from here we turn south. We are camped at Four Mile Creek State Park in New York. It is located on one of the Great Lakes about 15 miles north of Niagara Falls. From the campground we can gaze upon Lake Ontario and it looks as vast as an ocean except we can see the skyline of Toronto Canada some 30 miles across the water.

Four mile Creek State Park campground is another gem we just lucked upon, it is a very nice campground. It is almost full as this is the weekend but the sites are spaced out and it doesn’t feel crowded at all. Most of the license plates are from New York or Ontario Canada.

After setting up and taking care of the dogs we drove down to Niagara Falls. Being early afternoon on a Saturday it was a sea of humanity. Like many of the popular tourist spots we have stopped at, we found ourselves being in the minority. I don’t mean as old people or southern, but as good old English speaking homogenized Americans. Lots of visitors from India at the falls today, plus several French speaking tour groups, and the usual mix of everyone else. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just different that’s all.

Tomorrow we are going to cross the border and visit the Canadian side of the falls. We could see long lines of cars at the border crossings today so we are going to leave early and hopefully have less traffic waiting at the bridge crossings.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

July 27 2012

I love it when a plan comes together! Our drive into downtown Cleveland with the motorhome and jeep went fairly well. We only had one unexpected construction detour to deal with.We just followed our instincts to get to the city parking lot. The boss who was aware we were coming pulled up just as we got to the ticket booth. He led us to an unused special events lot and said we could stay as long as we wanted at no cost. We parked under a row of trees for shade and opened the roof vents for the girls and walked to the Rock and Roll Museum.

Now I like listening to music, but I’ve never been obsessed with knowing anything about the musicians or even knowing the words in the lyrics, I am just a passive listener. I know that music is a big part of Millie’s life so I’m thinking I’ll be polite, follow her around and we would be there a couple hours. Six hours later we reluctantly left only because we were concerned about the dogs in the motorhome. The Hall of Fame is educational and very entertaining. It leaves you feeling you have been in the presence of greatness, even if it was just a Jimi Hendricks guitar or a Janis Choplin necklace.

The Rock and Roll hall of Fame and Museum should definitely be on your travel bucket list. I would suggest you allot at least one whole day in the museum, two days if you are a big Rock and Roll fan.

FYI: I’m sure most of you know Cleveland DJ Alan Freed coined the name for the new music that was emerging in the 50’s as Rock and Roll. Did you know “Rock and Roll” was used as a code word in Black Blues to avoid censure? And what was the synonym they were hiding from the sensors............intercourse!

We are night camped in Kinesse Lakes Campground. This is hands down the nicest Thousand Trails campground we have been in, ever. Unfortunately we will not be staying to enjoy it. Tomorrow we drive to Niagara Falls New York.

PS: No cameras allowed in museum so only have a few pictures from outside.