Day 6

We left out about 11 am, our standard departure time.   We dropped down on Hwy 23 to US Hwy 58 and headed east.  I remember taking this route once heading west coming from Virginia Beach.  But, that was about 40-45 years ago.  Funny, it didn’t look the same.

It was a fairly relaxing drive today.  We didn’t get lost and the GPS remained civil.  Joyce did complain of the fresh water smelling.  I smelled it and, sure enough, it had that familiar rotten egg smell.  Time to freshen up.  So, we stopped at a grocery and I bought some chlorine bleach.  A little dab will do ya.  I drained the water tank and hot water tank while back on the road.

We stopped for the night at  Goose Point Park on Phillpot Lake.  It’s a nice Corp of Engineers park that had been recently redone.   

I added about ¼ cup of bleach and refilled the fresh water.  I’ll let it sit overnight then drain again and refill.  In the meantime, drinking, cooking and teeth brushing water will come from a bottle or directly from the faucet outside. Otherwise, it’s like drinking from a swimming pool.

Day 5

Well, that didn't work.  Oh, the GPS worked fine after the overhaul, but our route plan didn't.  My goal was Salt Fork Creek near Wytheville, Va.  However, along the way, we were looking for a place to stop for lunch and a rest when we spotted a sign for Kingdom Come State Park and since we'd always heard of Kingdom Come, but never been there, we decided to stop.  Of course, it was a lot further off our route than we planned, but it was worth it.  Now we can say we've been there.

There was one small problem.  After leaving Kingdom Come my will was not done, but maybe His was.  We got lost.  Here we were in the middle of Kentucky coal country - where many mines have closed and left a lot of folks in dire straits.  Folks who some reminded us a little of Deliverance, although we saw no banjo players.  The GPS did not break down on me.  It just plain ol' lied.  We were tooling along up a narrow valley.  It was beautiful but kept getting narrower with steeper sides.  Finally, the GPS gave up.  It didn't crap out, it just didn't know where it was.  The road finally came to an end at a played out coal mine loading conveyor.  So, we turned around and headed back out.  Gypsy finally got her bearings and led us out.  We made it out to civilization but had lost too much time to make it to Salt Fork as planned.  So, we're at a private campground in Big Stone Gap just past Appalachia, Virginia.  What a day.  I'm bushed.  Oh, yes.  For anyone keeping score, it’s Jessie Lea RV Park.  Nice park.

Day 4

Well, there goes the quiet.  A tree trimming crew pulled in around 9 am and set up shop right behind us.  They’re trimming trees now and another truck just rolled in with a big wood chipped.  Things should be getting real noisy shortly.  Get we’d better get breakfast and morning chores done and get out of here.

We were headed for a campground just over the line into Virginia, but I started having trouble with my GPS and realized the campground was too far for one day.  So, after dinking around with “Gypsy” for a while, I gave up and we settled on the Levi Jackson State Park near London, Ky.  It’s another nice, well run campground and busy, too, like the one at Ft. Knox.  So, what going on?  There are even a lot of kids camping here…on a school day.

After we got set up I found a way to reset my GPS back to factory settings.  So far, so good.  If it still has trouble, I’ll have to find me a new one.  I’ve gotten to where I really depend on it for locating campgrounds so I’d hate to have to make this trip without one.  Ain’t technology wonderful?

Tomorrow I plan to camp at Stony Fork Creek Campground near Wytheville, Virginia.  I had to load GPS coordinates for it since none of my campground data had it listed.  So, tomorrow should be a good test of old Gypsy.

Day 3

Woke up early this morning (early at least for me).  The sun is bright and everything is very wet from dew.  I took Ditto out for her walk and she got a surprise.  Right across the road were two horses munching on the grass.  At first, I thought they may have gotten loose, but then I saw the hobbles they were wearing.  As we walked along the road past the horses, I noticed Ditto had gotten on the other side of me so I was between her and the horses.

Good morning!

I’m not sure yet where we’re heading from here.  My original plan had us stopping at Fort Knox.  Pumpkin has a few cargo carrying weight to spare and I thought I might just top it off with a few gold bullion ingots.  But, that would mean we’d have to carry that excess weight a long ways.  That would be a waste of diesel.

Okay, went to Fort Knox after all.  The Army has a FamCamp (family campground) at nearby Lake Carlson, so that’s where we landed for the night.  It’s a bit crowded, but it’s quiet and well kept.

Day 2

Up and at ‘em…at about 9:30 am.  Actually, I was up at 6 am and walked Ditto, but I went back to bed after that.  Now that we’re up for real, I walked Ditto again so she could chase squirrels.  It was still dark at 6 AM so she had been cheated of that little life’s pleasure.  As we (Ditto and I) returned, I noticed a weird orange stain running down the front of the RV above the windshield.  A huge stain.  I got out some spray windshield cleaner and my squeegee and tried to clean it, but it wouldn't come off.  I hope it will come off later when I get a chance to do it right.  Sure looks awful, like someone sloshed orange Kool-ade on it.

Well, we’re off track.  Can you believe it?  We wound up heading more southerly than my plan.  It’s amazing what a 1-2 hour late start can do to shift the entire plan.  We angled southeast instead of northeast.  A rest stop in Maysville, Ky.  They had a nice city park.  We parked under a tree and watched an old black man slowly working on a smoking pipe while sitting at a nearby picnic table.  I didn’t watch for long, as I soon dozed off.   So, tonight we’re camping in Wrangler Camp on Land-Between-The-Lakes.  It’s a horse camp with several horses and a mule or two in among the camps.  Needless to say, Ditto is very interested.
  

The campground is mostly wide open to accommodate large horse trailers and large 5th wheel campers.  Big dually pickups abound here.  Luckily, it’s a cool cloudy day, so shade is not needed.  That gave me the opportunity to set up my Dish TV satellite and catch up on the news tonight.  What?!  No news?!

Oh, when we first arrived and were assigned a camp spot, we found a squatter on the site.

It was a woman traveling by bicycle.  It sure looked like a lot of stuff to pack on a bike, but she managed to pack it all up the next morning and wave as she pedaled off.  Actually, the campground keepers knew she was there but just forgot to reflect it on their map.

Day 1 - And they're off!

We got away late (surprise, surprise).  My drop-dead departure time was noon.  We left a little after 1 pm.  Joyce said that was “our” noon.  Anyway, we headed east on hwy 60.  I was hoping to get to the Mississippi before stopping for the night, but between a late start and just plain tired, we didn’t make it…by a long shot.  As we approached Van Buren, there was the sign to Big Springs park.  That looked good to me, so that’s as far as we made it our first day.  We got parked at about 4 pm and I laid down for a nap.  I got up about 7 pm.  Joyce was reading.  We kept up that horrific pace until about 10 pm then I went to bed.  I don’t know when Joyce came to bed, but I guess she did as that’s where she was this morning.

Big Springs camp

    

 

Oh, photos...We're operating off minimal data allowance while traveling and I don't want to use up all my data posting pictures.  Instead, I plan to upload photos when we have WiFi access somewhere.  I'll add them to the appropriate post and notify via FaceBook of any photo additions.

Getting excited

Last day home.  We still have to load clothes and last minute kitchen stuff, but we're both ready to see Springfield in the rear view mirror.  It's not that we don't like Springfield.  We do.  But, Lil Pumpkin is getting lazy and out of shape (like me) and needs a good exercise run.  So, our plan is a 6500 mile jog into Nova Scotia.

We're going to head almost due east to Virginia Beach area for a little sentimental tour of one of our "homes" there and then head north up the coast.  I plan to stay as close to the coast as is feasible without having to face big city traffic.  I know, I know.  That's a real trick and I may have to head a little west now and then for a traffic respite.

So, the plan is to drive clear up to Prince Edward Island and see as much of the scenery up there as our eyes can hold.  We're going up in the most colorful time of the year as the leaves turn.  That's good.  But, it also means it will be more difficult to find camping sites.  Those campgrounds that are still open this late in the season are likely to be full.  We could wind up overnighting in a convenience store parking lot.

Another problem with the time of the year is the weather.  So far, it looks good, but one never knows when a cold front might move in and freeze us out.  Oh, we have a furnace to keep us warm, but if it gets too cold, our water tanks and pipes might freeze.  If it does turn too cold, that's where Key West could come into play.

See ya on the road.