May 29 – Hampton to Cape Hatteras

Gosnolds Hope Park in Hampton was a real bargain. $10.40 for the night gave us a site with 30-amp electricity and water. Free showers with hot water are available as is a dump station. The showers are large and tiled from floor to almost the ceiling. They are relatively clean but that is hard to judge since we were there on Memorial Day and since the park is city, all the workers were on holiday. The only odd thing is they won’t take cash. Check or credit card only.

We picked up a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for the road before filled the Roadtrek’s gas tank at $2.999 per gallon.

We stopped at a roadside fruit stand and picked up a few peaches and plums. It’s nice to have a selection other than the apples and bananas offered at grocery stores.

There was little traffic as we drove I-664 across the James River to I-158 and on to highway 12. We have seen very few RVs on the road at anytime during this trip and again, this area follows that pattern. The staff at the Nags Head Visitors’ Center said the Memorial Day Weekend was crazy but now it is quiet. RV parks we passed were not more than one-half full.

We arrived at the Fresco campground on Hatteras Island around noontime and had a wide selection of sites. Of the 127 campsites, not more than 15 are occupied. We selected site P-57 because of its view over the entire campground and the Atlantic ocean.

We had lunch at Fish House Restaurant. Mary had the Crab Cake and I had the special, Clam Fritters. Both were good and reasonably priced. Mary thinks the crab cakes we had in West Monroe, LA are still the best ones.

We climbed the Cape Hatteras lighthouse for exercise. There are 269 stairs to reach the top of the 198.49-foot lighthouse. The view of the ocean and beach was spectacular. Several years ago, Mary and I watch a TV show where a lighthouse was moved from its original position. This is the lighthouse that was moved. It was an amazing feat to see on TV and is even more amazing when standing next to the lighthouse.

It has been 2-months and 1-day since we left Redding and today we stuck our feet into the Atlantic Ocean. The water was much warmer than we had thought it would be. This is great.

We stopped for coffee and WiFi before returning to camp. A local amateur radio operator, W4ALG, saw our APRS transmissions on his equipment and stopped by to say hello. We talked about all the normal amateur radio topics including equipment and local repeaters.

Given everything we eaten today, we just had yogurts for dinner.

May 28 – Shenandoah to Newport News, VA

We started our day at 5am. Our drive along Skyline Drive was slow in order to avoid any of the little critters that like to play on the roadway in the early hours. We only saw a couple deer grazing along the side of the road and managed to pass them without incident.

We followed highway 33 out of the park towards Newport News, VA. One deer avoided a big rig by doing some fancy footwork while crossing the highway. Otherwise the drive was uneventful.

Our detailed planning only carried us as far as Dayton. We have our list of places we wish to visit on the remainder of our trip but we haven’t research nearby attractions so I feel we are going to miss things we would have liked to see. We are also feeling a little rushed because we want to be in New York next weekend. Rides at Coney Island are only open on weekends until summer, so we can’t delay a day or two. For example, this morning we passed near James Madison’s Montpellier but didn’t feel we could stop.

Our planned stops at Agecroft Hall and Maymont in Richmond were bypassed because we read they were closed on Memorial Day. Had we know that when we were near Montpellier, we would have stopped.

We spent two hours at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News and it wasn’t nearly enough time. The displays about life in and around Chesapeake Bay depicting fishing, boat building, and maritime activities were all well done. The USS Monitor salvage and restoration project showed large and small items recovered from the wreck site. Reconstructed of sections of the Confederate ship Merrimack showed the skills practiced by ship builders more than 100 years ago.

(USS Monitor Anchor)

We did grocery shopping for our trip down the outer bank. It’s becoming hard to choose the foods we’d like. The selection of fresh fruits and vegetables is extremely limited compared to what we are accustomed to in California.

We had an early dinner at Harpoon Larry’s. Mary had the Crab Cake with red potatoes and I had scallops with a baked potato. Both meals were served with Hush Puppies and coleslaw although I requested the mixed vegetables. Otherwise, the food was unremarkable. The price seemed high given we both left feeling hungry and a little disappointed.

We spent the night at Gosnold’s Hope campground in Newport News. This is a city owned park with 15-sites that provide water and electricity for $10.40 per night. Even showers are available. Given the heat and humidity, air conditioning provides welcome relief. This is a great alternative to spending the night at Walmart.

May 26-27 - Shenandoah

We just hung around camp Saturday and Sunday trying to avoid crowds more than anything else. The campground filled up Friday afternoon but the spacing and the courtesy of most people didn’t make the place feel as crowded as it could have felt. The limited number of bathrooms did cause some queues but thanks to being self-contained, we always had an alternative.

The larger battery I installed before this trip is paying off. We’ve been running the overhead fan for at least 8-hours every day and have watched television two or three hours every evening during our 5-day stay at Shenandoah. Sunday night the battery voltage finally dropped below 12-volts.

No newspapers are sold in the park. I miss not having a Sunday paper to read before breakfast.

We decided to take showers Sunday Afternoon. Somehow, everyone remaining in the campground had similar ideas. The ladies facilities at the camp store were queued three long when Mary took her positions. A queue didn’t develop at the men’s facility until after I finished.

Mosquitoes haven’t been much of a problem on this trip except in Mammoth Caves and the Great Smoky Mountains. We each got a couple bites while hiking in the Shenandoah’s but surprisingly less than we had expected. We talked about using a repellent but sometimes the bites are not as bad as the stickiness of the products we’ve tried. Off has a new product that isn’t supposed to be sticky. It’s on our shopping list.

We’ve been using a Benadryl Itch Relief Stick on our bites and it seems to provide a little relieve from the scratching. I think we’ll try an alternative product next time to see if something better exists.

May 25 – Shenandoah

We bought two grapefruits a while ago. This morning was to be the morning we had them. After careful preparation, we both decided they were uneatable. One was fibrous and the other was so bitter it would have made a good lemon substitute. So, breakfast was Grape-Nuts with banana.

We hiked 6.1 miles from camp to the upper and lower Doyle falls. One problem with having a camp at the top of a mountain is that most things, like waterfalls, are downhill. That makes for somewhat easy hiking to get to where you are going and a bear of a hike getting back out.

The Doyle Falls are reached by hiking 1.2 miles along the Appalachian Trail to reach the Doyle Falls trail. The Upper and Lower falls are then 1.5 miles downhill from that point. The hike down was relatively easy. The broken trees of the upper mountain gave way to trees that were undamaged by the harsh mountain top weather.

Upper falls is the tallest at 63 feet. That’s not all that much given the waterfalls of California but for this part of the country it is considered high.

Lower falls is only 28-feet but appears taller because the fall is almost continuous rather than in the three steps that the upper falls takes.

The return trip is all uphill. This is probably why the trail is rated moderately strenuous.

Lunch was the last of our Costco sushi and yogurt followed by a much-deserved nap.

May 24 – Shenandoah National Park

Morning started slowly with a breakfast of French toast, coffee, and orange juice.

Mary has a National Park Service passport and collects stamps at all the parks we visit. The campground store didn’t have a stamp but we were told that the wayside store does. That store is only about one-mile down the road. We hiked the trail that connected the two stores and Mary was able to get here passport stamped for Shenandoah.

The Chevron gas at that store is selling gas for $2.999 per gallon. It seems every station in West Virginia sells gas for the same price.

Our return hike took a longer route. We followed the Frazier Discovery loop to the Appalachian Trail. Then hiked about 1-1/2 miles back to camp. Along the trail we saw plenty of bear activity. From bark clawed off trees, rocks overturned, and ground digging. We also discovered what we believe to be bear and coyote scat.

We met a hiker that was doing the Appalachian Trail alone. He had already covered several hundred miles and only had 1400 miles to go before winter sets in. Oh, to be that young.

The afternoon was spent reading. Dinner was a large salad and a sushi. The Costco sushi is pretty good and travels well in the Roadtrek’s refrigerator.

We were able to watch CSI this evening. The TV coverage from the top of this hill is fantastic. Most of the station signals are strong and clear.

May 23 – West Virginia to Shenandoah

The facilities at the Seneca Shadows campground were better than any we’ve experienced at other forest service campground. Flush toilets have become a welcome standard but we have never had hot, spacious, free showers at a forest service campground before. It was nice and I hope that will become a standard at all forest service campgrounds.

The countryside is green and lush. Diary, cattle, goats, and sheep are everywhere. We started seeing long barn structures. We believe these may be chicken producers but we weren’t interested in finding out. Sometimes its best not to know.

We crossed into Virginia around noontime and found Harrisonburg to be a wonderfully clean and modern city. Our first stop was the Costco for gas and to pickup groceries for our stay in Shenandoah. The price of gasoline was a surprising $2.999. In Ohio the price had ranged from $3.30 to $3.40. This was especially nice since the Roadtrek’s tank was nearing empty and took 29.3 gallons to fill.

We found all the stores we needed within 1/2-mile of the Costco. We replenished our camping money stash at the local Bank of America, bought groceries at the Kroger grocery store, and exchanged the microwave we bought a few days ago at the Walmart. There was even a Panera Bakery for lunch and WiFi access.

Shenandoah National Park is only 50-miles from Harrisonburg. Of course, our GPS tried to route us via a short cut that involved fire roads. We quickly changed our route and arrived at the Loft Campground around 2pm.

We did laundry at the camp store Laundromat. While the laundry was doing its thing, we toured the camp store and shared a pint of very good vanilla ice cream. We discovered one reason gas price was so low in Virginia is that the sales tax rate is only 2.5%.

The Loft campground is located at the very top of Loft Mountain. The mountaintop is not as green and lush as we found in the Shenandoah Valley. The trees appear broken and bent by snow, ice, and storms. One benefit of being so high is that we can pick up television station from many regions including Washington DC which is 100 miles away. We were able to watch the NBC nightly news from stations located in 3 different places.

May 22 – Parkersburg, WV

We crossed the Ohio River into West Virginia this morning. The flat Ohio countryside quickly turned into rolling hills. The road would run along a valley floor for 5 or 10 miles, then turn and rise over a ridge and drop into the next valley floor. This process was repeated time after time. The climb and decent over each ridge was a steep 9-percent grade most times.

The West Virginia highways were interesting. We would be driving a small 2-lane road that passes through an equally small town. Then, all of a sudden the roadway would turn into a 4-lane concrete super highway. We rarely saw another car. There were few off-ramps. After 10 or 20 miles, the road would once again shrink back to a small 2-lane road. This happened several times. These are truly roads to nowhere.

Mary read about the Fenton Art Glass factory tour in the Redding newspaper months ago and added it to our itinerary. It was interesting to walk around the factory floor watching molten glass being turned into vases, bowls, and figurines. Very few machines and no automation are present. This is almost all the handwork. Our guide talked about the processes involved and the way different minerals, including gold, are fused onto and into glass to achieve the colors, patterns, and textures. The tour ended in the gift shop. I’m not much on little pig figurines covered with flowers images. Some of the bowls were nice but they would have been difficult to carry in the Roadtrek.

Just a few miles south at Parkersburg are the Blennerhasett Island and museum. A small paddlewheel ferry provides transportation to the island. For $8 you get a roundtrip 20-minute ride. We were told that the next ferry was full and would have to wait 1-1/2 hours for our trip over. After buying tickets, we walked to the ferry dock and managed to get onboard. Not exactly stowaways. Sometimes it’s nice not to follow instructions.

When the park service decided to create this park, only the outline of the foundation remained. So a new house based upon a few surviving pictures and the foundation outline was constructed. We decided not to take the house tour.

In Parkersburg, the Blennerhasett museum contains a nice collection of items of the times when the Blennerhasett’s lived on the island. Also, a 15-minute film about the Blennerhassett’s life and history was shown. The Blennerhastt family was involved with Aaron Burr and ran into trouble for that political activity. After watching this film, I cannot figure out why this is a National Park. I think it is just another example of the power Robert Byrd had in the Senate, just like the major federal highways that connect small towns throughout West Virginia. The island was a nice place to walk for a couple hours but it seems unconnected to the historic development of the United States.

One interesting thing to note is the Blennerhasett island is only about 5 feet above the Ohio river level. The town of Parkersburg sits on higher ground and is surrounded by a 15-foot high floodwall. This would indicate either the floodwall is not really needed or the Blennerhasett mansion is going to run into trouble someday.

We planned to spend the night at a Walmart in Grafton,WV. After a few wrong turns and other questionable decisions, we decided to drive on a few more miles. We had dinner at a nice family diner in Philippi, WV and continued driving. As night fell, so did the rain. Buckets of rain covered the highway making driving slow and difficult. We stopped at a few RV parks but signs saying “No Vacancy” greeted us. I think that’s just a polite way of saying, “Don’t bother us”. At 9:30 at night, we found the National Forest Service - Seneca Shadows campground and stopped for the night. At least the rain had nearly stopped and our Golden Age pass worked its wonders.

May 21 – Departing Dayton

We spent a few hours at the Hamvention Saturday. That was the only thing spent. I continued to resist buying anything else. We picked up a replacement microwave and installed it in the afternoon. I think we’ll replace it at the next Walmart we find on our trip.

We stayed around the campground all day Sunday. We had breakfast at the camp buffet and spend a quiet morning reading the Sunday newspaper. I installed the new 2-meter antenna bought on Friday for the APRS transmitter. I'm hoping that helps increase the range.

This has been a very enjoyable campground. The staff has been friendly and helpful. The facilities are clean and fresh. We’d stay here again if we were ever in the Dayton area again.
Tomorrow, we continue our travels. We hope to spend the Memorial Day weekend at Shenandoah then drive down to Cape Hatteras for a few days. I’m not sure when we will have WiFi again.

May 18th – Hamvention, Dayton OH

The morning started at the KOA campground All-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. Biscuits and Gravy, eggs, sausage, and bacon was piled high. Coffee and orange juice was included in the $5 price. Good food at a great price made a nice start to the day.

The $3 all day shuttle bus ticket from KOA to the Hamvention at the Hana arena was a real bargain since parking near the arena was anyware from $5 to $10. Although a little late getting started, the 20-minute ride to the arena was easy. It was nice to have a day without driving.

We started in the swap meet area. It was one of those swap meets where you are glad other people own most of this stuff. I did see on Azimuth – elevation antenna rotator I liked but was able to resist.


It looked like a good crowd was attending this year. The TV news reported that the attendance was better than last year. That was surprising given the price of gas.

Vendors were doing a brisk business inside the halls. Bud, W3FF, from Redding appeared to be doing well selling his Buddipole antenna system.

Byon, of Byonics, had the beta version of the Tinytrak4 available. This I couldn’t resist. It’s a kit, so I won’t be able to play with it until we return home. I also picked up a new antenna for our APRS tracking unit. I’m hoping it will improve coverage in remote areas. I’ll install in Sunday.

We attended the HF Digital session at 2:30. Mary fell asleep during the presentation. Sadly, I stayed awake. The session was about the AOR digital voice unit. I wish they had titled the session HF Digital Voice. That way I wouldn’t have attended.

We got back to the Roadtrek around 4:30. After resting for a couple hours, I made Spaghetti for dinner.

Our microwave oven finally quit. It has been a problem for about 2-weeks. We plan on replacing it Sunday. Guess I’ll have to do some driving before Monday.

May 17th – Dayton, OH

We enjoyed our stay at Grandpa’s Farm RV park. The park was comfortable and the facilities nice. The drive to Dayton was uneventful. A little rain and a lot of clouds helped keep the sun out of our eyes this morning.

Our first stop was the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Base. The displays are housed in four huge structures that appear to be overgrown Quonset huts. Each hut contains an aviation era: World War I, World War II, Korea, and the Cold War. There is a section for space and missiles but after touring two space museums, including the one at Alamogordo, this section wasn’t all that impressive.

Just think, Yesterday we were looking at models of some of these airplanes, today we are looking at the actual airplanes. This is a great vacation.

It is just to difficult to pick a picture that represent each area so you will have to go thru all our pictures on the Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/WA6MUU/20070517DaytonOH
The museum was very dark so the pictures are also dark.

Outside, they had a World War II control complete with instruments and personnel facilities that included a bar that actually was used in England during WWII. It and the building was shipped to Dayton and reassembled.

It was cold and looked like rain when we left the museum. We decided to have soup for lunch. The California Café served a nice bowl of cream of broccoli soup and garlic bread. A chocolate malt was on the menu, so I couldn’t resist.

We picked up our Hamvention tickets at Will Call in the Hara arena then made our way to camp. This KOA is nicer than many campgrounds we’ve stayed at. The grounds are well tended and trees are everywhere. There will be a shuttle bus that runs all day between this campground and the Hamvention, so we won’t have to drive again for a few days.

May 16th - in and around Muncie, IN

We left the comfort of our Flying J campsite and drove the 30 miles to Muncie, IN. We drove around areas of Muncie looking for a breakfast restaurant. Many of the ones listed in our GPS were vacant. Finally, in frustration, we stopped at a McDonalds. Well, we tried.

Our first stop is the National Model Aviation Museum. This place will make anybody feel like a kid again. The history of model airplanes from control line thru radio control is presented thru text and flying models. Every model airplane on display, except one, has been flown. The craftsmanship shown in these models is outstanding. They are nothing like the models I built as a teenager. Wingspans ranged from about 8-inches to over 12 feet.

Hundreds of engines are on display. I didn’t realize some airplanes were diesel powered. One display cabinet had Cox engines. These were the ones that I remember.

An old model shop, circa 1950, was setup. I can remember spending my $1 weekly allowance at a shop just like this one.

A bank of flight simulators was setup in one room where you can try flying airplanes and helicopters. I did ok on the airplanes but definitely need to work on trying to keep the helicopters from becoming a pile of rubble. Thankfully the flight simulators are computer based so a tube of glue isn’t required after each flight attempt.

Our next stop was the Wilber Wright Birthplace. This site has both the house Wilber was born in and a large museum building. Both buidings display memorabilia of the entire Wright family.

A reconstruction of the first Wright flier is housed in the museum. You can’t touch the flier but are within inches of most control surfaces. I found the linkage between the rudder and the wind warping mechanism interesting. This is the type of detail you just can't see in pictures.

We checked into Grandpa’s Farm RV Park in the early afternoon. This is a comfortable park with free WiFi, god site spaces, and good facilities. I may try my hand at a few of the video games they have in the game area.

Tomorrow, it’s on to Dayton and the Air Force Museum. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is the Amateur Radio Convention. We have reservations at the Dayton KOA and will have WiFi.

May 15th – Indianapolis, IN

The Indiana Sate Fairgrounds campground didn’t improve overnight. We found the showers interesting this morning. The shower building is constructed of cinderblock. Even the shower stalls are cinderblock. There is one drain in the middle of the common dressing area. The water runs out of the shower, across the room, then down that one drain. The room was clean appearing except for the crud that had built up in the common drain. It reminds me of the accommodations the Navy provided back in the early 60’s. I don’t want reminders of that time. We were both thankful when we drove out this morning, not to return --- Ever.

Our first stop after breakfast at McDonalds (we are in a rut) is Indianapolis International Speedway. There are so many things we wanted to do here. For one, I wanted to take the drive around the track. But that wasn’t to be. Guys in yellow shirts were everywhere, limiting access to almost everyplace that would have provided a vantage place to the track. It’s just too close to race time to continue some of their tourist activities. We parked in the infield parking area and walked along gasoline alley.

The Indianapolis 500 museum is located in center field and was open. For $3 we got to see an amazing display of racing cars dating back into the late 1800’s. We both had the same favorite car, the Stoddard Dayton that was the pace car for the first 500 mile race in 1911.

This year’s pace car was on display; a shiny new Corvette. The guard near the car told us that the pace car is no longer given to the winning driver because it has a high performance engine and therefore is not street legal.

The Roadtrek was just about running on fumes by the time we left the Speedway. We stopped at a station and pumped 24+ gallons. The pump cut off at $75, the limit for credit card purchases. The price was $3.089. We went to the post office a couple blocks away and when we drove past that same station, the price had gone up to $3.399 over that 10-minute period. Good thing we got gas before going to the post office.

We had lunch at the Panera Bread in 86th street. We find if we want a good lunch with good coffee and have WiFi thrown in, we just search for Panera in our GPS and press the go button. This Panera was comfortable and the food was good.

Ken and Dee have been following our blog and when Ken saw the tracker indicated we were in Indianapolis, he called our cell phone to arrange to get together at lunch. Ken and Dee arrived in their 1999 Dodge 190P. We talked for an hour about Roadtreks, travel, and life in general. It was a nice afternoon. Ken and Dee are both hams and we hope to get together again at the Hamvention in Dayton this weekend.

We did a little shopping at the Traders Joe’s next to the Panera and Dee told us about a Costco a few blocks away. We picked up a Caesar Salad for dinner at Costco and headed to a Flying J’s a few miles to the east.

At the Flying J, we topped off the gas tank and had our propane filled --- better make that overfilled. The attendant was training another person and wasn’t paying attention until the propane tank gauge peaked at almost 98% full. I bleed off some of the excess and now have both stove burners on hoping to bring the tank level back to a safe point.

We are spending the night at the Flying J. It has much better facilities than the campground we woke up in this morning. A thunderstorm arrived with a good display of lighting. We went to sleep to the sound of rain falling on the Roadtrek’s roof.

May 14 – Louisville, KY to Indianapolis, IN

We had a nice night in the Louisville Wal-Mart Superstore. This store had a McDonalds inside, so morning coffee was just a short walk away.

Churchill Downs was just a short drive away and morning traffic was a breeze. If you ever want to know about the working day of Jockeys, Trainers, Grooms, and all the other people that make horse racing possible, the tours offered at Churchill Downs is a good place to start.

We took the Backside tour that covers the stables area. We are not horse racing fans but found the information about trainers’ colors, and ponies interesting. We spent 10-minutes at the backside rail watching horses during their workout. The horses only workout in the morning so make sure you get on an early morning tour. I couldn't resist taking a picture almost every time a horse went past us.

Our second Churchill Downs tour was the Insiders tour. This tour took us thru the press area, track announcer booth, Millionaires Row, Turf Club Lounge, and the other areas in the expensive areas of the track.

(Mary in the track announcer's booth)

The lunch tip we received from our first tour guide, Travis, brought us to the Wagner’s Café across the street from the backside of Churchill Down. This place was filled with the people who work at the track. We split a chicken salad sandwich and each had a chocolate malt. The food was good, but what food isn’t good when served with a chocolate malt?

We drove to Indianapolis, IN and camped at the Indiana State Fair Grounds. This has to be the worst campgrounds we’ve stayed at. The cost of $16 per night dry, $25 with full hookup, and they want $15 for one day of WiFi. There are no shade trees but the weeds are kept mowed. We both commented that we’ve stayed at better Wal-mark parking lots.

May 14 – Louisville, KY to Indianapolis, IN

We had a nice night in the Louisville Wal-Mart Superstore. This store had a McDonalds inside, so morning coffee was just a short walk away.

Churchill Downs was just a short drive away and morning traffic was a breeze. If you ever want to know about the working day of Jockeys, Trainers, Grooms, and all the other people that make horse racing possible, the tours offered at Churchill Downs is a good place to start.

We took the Backside tour that covers the stables area. We are not horse racing fans but found the information about trainers’ colors, and ponies interesting. We spent 10-minutes at the backside rail watching horses during their workout. The horses only workout in the morning so make sure you get on an early morning tour. I couldn't resist taking a picture almost every time a horse went past us.

Our second Churchill Downs tour was the Insiders tour. This tour took us thru the press area, track announcer booth, Millionaires Row, Turf Club Lounge, and the other areas in the expensive areas of the track.

(Mary in the track announcer's booth)

The lunch tip we received from our first tour guide, Travis, brought us to the Wagner’s Café across the street from the backside of Churchill Down. This place was filled with the people who work at the track. We split a chicken salad sandwich and each had a chocolate malt. The food was good, but what food isn’t good when served with a chocolate malt?

We drove to Indianapolis, IN and camped at the Indiana State Fair Grounds. This has to be the worst campgrounds we’ve stayed at. The cost of $16 per night dry, $25 with full hookup, and they want $15 for one day of WiFi. There are no shade trees but the weeds are kept mowed. We both commented that we’ve stayed at better Wal-mark parking lots.

May 13th – Louisville, KY

This morning was spent with Krispy Kreme Raspberry filled donuts and the Sunday Newspaper. Add a cup of coffee to make the morning perfect.

It was almost noon before the tanks were dumped and our showers complete. This KOA was ok but would not have selected this one if not for there 2-for-1 offer. The showers were nice but with a full camp, Mary had to wait for a shower both days. I never had a problem. I’m not sure is that’s because guys don’t take as long in the shower or don’t shower as often.

We took a 2-mile hike in the Jefferson County memorial park south of town. It was a nice little hike along a trail running over some moderate hills. The trees and undergrowth was thick away from the trail. We meet a couple good-sized frogs along the way.

Today was laundry day so we drove 12-miles back into town. We ran into the information person we meet at the park just a few hours before.

We selected the Olive Garden for dinner; both opting for the soup and salad combo. Olive Garden is another one of those consistent quality restaurants. We didn’t feel like discovering something new tonight.

We spent the night in a Wal-mart parking lot just south of town. We always try to select Wal-Mart super stores and never have had any trouble spending the night. The security truck drove around the parking lot all night with his yellow light flashing but never said a word about us being there for more than 9-hours.

May 12th – Louisville, KY

We spent the night at the South Louisville KOA. I wish campgrounds would not encourage people to build fires when the RVs are so closely packed into parking spots. At least one-half of the RVs have campfires and the smoke flowing thru our Roadtrek is almost unbearable. I think I prefer the diesel exhaust we had at a Flying J.

Our first stop was the Thomas Edison Museum in downtown Louisville. Edison rented a room in this house for a short time while he worked as a telegrapher. The house was saved from the wrecker’s ball some years ago and is restored to the period and condition that represents the time Edison lived there. Our tour guide had great stories of young Tom’s life. Whether they are true or not doesn’t matter, they were entertaining. The collection of items displayed included several phonographs, Dictaphones, movie projectors, and an assortment of old light bulbs. This is well worth the $5 admission price.

Next stop, the Louisville Slugger factory and museum. This tour takes you thru the small factory in downtown Louisville that manufactures all professional and commercial Louisville Slugger baseball bats. There are only 5 steps to convert something that looks like an oversized dowel into a finished bat. It was interesting to see a small shop continuing to produce a product here in America. A small bat was given to each person on the tour.

We drove across the Ohio River into Indiana for lunch at the Kingfish restaurant in Jefferson. This restaurant sits on the shore of the Ohio River and the view across to Louisville is nice. Normally I only talk about outstanding restaurants but this restaurant was so outstandingly BAD I have to say something. The crab cakes were without texture and very bland. The clam chowder was served cold and when heated tasted like something directly out of a can… maybe not even that good. The gumbo was watery and without flavor. It’s amazing that a restaurant that serves food like this can stay in business.

We stopped at a Dairy Queen for Blizzards to wash down the residual taste of our lunch. I had an excellent Hawaiian Blizzard made with Banana, Pineapple, and toasted coconut. Mary had her normal Blueberry blizzard.

We returned to the KOA around 4pm. Tomorrow being Sunday, we’ll have a down day, read the newspaper, and prepare for the coming week. Monday is a tour of Churchill Downs. Tuesday, we are going to see what kind of trouble we can get into around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I wonder how fast of a lap I can turn in our Roadtrek?

May 11th - Lexington, KY

Kentucky is known for its horses and the best place for a tourist to experience Kentucky horses is at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. The place is massive. With white fences, green pastures, and horses, horses, and more horses everywhere you look.

Have you ever wondered where champion horses retire? One place is here. They have a Hall of champions where several living champions are stabled. The history of each horse is presented while the horse is being shown.

Statues and monuments dedicated to past champions cover the grounds. We watched as trainers worked with horses. We even took the 10-minute horse-drawn trolley ride.

We spent 3-hours here and we would have spend several more hours just wondering around the pastures and fields but we had to leave because we had reservations for the Toyota plant tour.

The Toyota manufacturing plant tour in the Lexington facility is great. This facility is more than 7-1/2 million square feet of buildings on I don’t remember how many acres. Thankfully we didn’t have to walk for this tour. Tour trolleys carry you from one manufacturing process to the next. The shop floor is filled with robots that weld, paint, punch, and place all the parts necessary to build a car. Little robot carts automatically carry parts from the storerooms to the line, guided by wires embedded in the floor. This is truly a site to see. I wonder if American auto manufacturers will ever be able to catch up with the Japanese manufactures. Sorry, they don’t allow pictures except in the visitors’ center.

In keeping with our decision to always have reservations for Friday and Saturday nights, we are staying at the KOA in Louisville, KY. What can I say… it’s a KOA. They are consistently mediocre. Kind of like the McDonalds of RV Campgrounds.

May 10th - Mammoth Caves to Georgetown, KY

We climbed out of bed early so we could both shower before getting on the road. The campground doesn’t have showers but the service center adjacent to camp does. Two-dollars gets you 10-minutes of hot water in what we consider a standard configuration shower arrangement.

Kentucky is Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home. We selected three places to stop as we inched our way toward Georgetown.

Our first stop was the Lincoln Birthplace at a farm called Sunken Springs. The story of this site’s constriction is more interesting that the fact that Lincoln was born here. This cabin once toured the country on a wagon and was stored in a basement on the East coast when the tours ended. A Kentucky group bought the cabin, built the monument, and shipped the cabin parts back to Kentucky. Seems the inside of the monument was too small to hold the cabin, so the logs were cut to make the cabin fit. As it turns out, this is not the original Lincoln cabin and Lincoln never lived in it. So, now they call it a symbolic cabin.

Our second stop was Lincoln Museum. It was closed. Oh well, it didn’t look very inviting from the outside.

Our third stop was Lincoln’s boyhood home. It was also closed. That’s the end of our Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky tour.

Next up is the Marker’s Mark distillery. This is a great tour. The grounds are immaculate, the people are friendly, and the history is interesting. The tour takes you thru the various steps required to manufacture Bourbon Whiskey from grinding the grain, fermenting, distilling, aging, and finally bottling. In their oldest fermenting building, we were able to actually taste the brew in the vats at several different ages. It starts out tasting sweet and progresses to a somewhat bitter brew.

The bottling line was operating during our visit, so we could see the bottles getting their distinctive red wax seal.

Next up was the Kentucky Railroad Museum New Haven, Kentucky. Their weekday train rides had not started so we walked around a bit before heading to Bardstown, KY.

Bardstown has a Historic section with many preserved buildings. Unlike many places, the old buildings of Bardstown have not all been converted into tourist shops selling the standard assortment of cups, pictures, and little items you can but on a shelf. We had lunch at a converted drug store – it has been converted but the lunch counter is still a lunch counter. We split a good BLT and each had our very own old fashion chocolate malt and watched the town pass outside the front window.

We arrived to Georgetown, KY by late afternoon. Our dinner was salads at the Lock and Key coffee house in downtown Georgetown. The coffeehouse is housed inside a building that once was a bank. The vault has been converted into a room that is available for meetings. Good food and friendly service plus free wifi. We spent almost 2-hours in a front corner enjoying our meal and coffee.

We spent the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot with a couple other RVs. I was doing a couple last minute things on the computer before turning in and found an open wifi site available right there. Free overnight camping and WiFi. Life is good.

May 9th – Mammoth Caves

This morning we decided to take the tour we were bumped from yesterday. Originally we were going to take the longer tour but it would have been a repeat of most of yesterday’s tour. The historic tour is a two-hour, two-mile tour entering the cave thru the historic or original entrance. I like this tour because it told and showed the history of the cave… at least, this area of the cave. The primary focus was when the cave was used as a saltpeter source for the war of 1812. Pipes made from drilled out logs remain as historic markers to that time.

There are some places in the cave that were fun to pass thru, like Fat Man's Masery. Here is a picture of Mary making her way thru a section of that passage.

Overall, the cave complex itself is kind of boring. It does not have many areas with stalactites, stalagmites, or other cave type decoration. It is an interesting place to visit but it in no way compares with caves like Carlsbad Caverns. If you are in the area and have a day or two to spare, it is worth considering a stop here. The mosquitoes asked me to put in that plug. Mary and I each have over a dozen bites on our arms and legs. We didn't get them all here but the locals contributed their share.

Lunch today was a subway veggie sandwich we picked up yesterday. They hold up well in the refrigerator when you have them prepared without any dressing. Dinner was a slice of Costco Combo pizza we picked up a couple days ago. It stores well and heats up on the stovetop toaster without a problem.

May 8th – Bowling Green to Mammoth Caves National Park

Bowling Green is the home of the Corvette factory and museum. We started our day with the Corvette Factory tour. For $5, you get an hours tour thru the production line. Watching the power train make a turn and see the chassis glide down from the ceiling is something you have to see. Each car passes thru many stations to become a Corvette. Each station only has 2-1/2 minutes to complete their task. At the end of the line, the Corvette is started and driven thru test stations before being prepared for shipment. Sorry, no pictures are allowed on the tour.

The Corvette museum is across the street from the factory. If you every wanted to see a world-class collection of Corvettes then this is the place to come. The Corvette story is told with displays, videos, displays, and cars, cars, and more cars. Engine assemblies, transmissions, chassis, and prototypes and concept cars are displayed. This is another must see.

We arrived at Mammoth Caves National Park in the afternoon. We decided to slip in a tour today and schedule another for tomorrow. We drove to the campground and selected a campsite while waiting for the “Historic” tour to start. We discovered 117 screaming near high school age kids waiting in the tour assemble area when we returned. We would be the only adults on the tour except for a couple chaperons. The tour guide / ranger told us the ticket office would refund our tickets and comp another tour if we choose. That is want we decided to do. We took the “New Entrance” --- the only option at that time of day.

I’ll save my judgment about the caves until after tomorrow’s longer tour.

Dinner was a big bowl of steamed vegetables with a cheese sauce prepared at camp. It was great.

May 7th – Chattanooga to Nashville

We stopped at the downtown Chattanooga post office to pickup a box containing our mail for the past month. It appears all of our preplanning paid off. Nothing requires our immediate attention. Auto-pay and online bill pay is a blessing for long-term travelers.

It is time for the Roadtrek tires to be rotated and balanced. We found a Costco along our route in Brentwood, TN and headed that direction. The Costco staff was nice and efficient. Within an hour, the Roadtrek was again ready to roll. We also had a piece of Costco pizza in the refrigerator for dinner.

We continue to be amazed at the number and size of fireworks shops, or more correctly, stores. Some of these stores are massive. We didn’t realize how big this business this is in parts of the country. We haven’t stopped at one yet but if our curiosity continues I’m sure we will.

We were caught by surprise when we saw 6 guys wearing black and white horizontal “pajamas” cutting weeds on the side of the road. Sheriff deputies were near. We didn’t realize inmates had to wear that horizontal strip uniforms any longer.

Nashville is another town that converted an old bridge over their river into a walking bridge. The conversion was well done with paved surfaces and observation wings added mid-span. From the span, Mary spotted lunch – Joe’s crab shack.

Joe’s was great fun. They have a second floor open patio, good service, and great food at a reasonable price. Mary had the clam chowder and Caesar Salad. I had the Crab Cake sandwich with steamed vegetables on the side. The Crab cake was good but the steamed vegetables were great. Not because of the way the vegetables were prepared, but because it’s so hard to find vegetables served at restaurants. It was more a factor of finding a long lost friend. Did I forget to mention I had a root beer float with my meal.
We walked around the downtown area for an hour, looking at all the tourist shops. The town is clean and has some interesting places. BB King’s Club looks interesting. If we were spending the night I’m sure we would have spent part of our time there.

Nashville is Country music ground zero for many years and home of the Grand Ole Opry. Therefore, a visit to Nashville can’t be called complete without a visit to the Grand Ole Opry. The Grand Ole Opry museum is very well done. Displays of many country stars told of their road to fame. Names like Marty Robbins, Minnie Pearl, Tex Ritter, and Dolly Parton were represented. Many displays were playing their hit songs in a way they didn’t interfere with each other and didn’t distract from the setting. The history of the Grand Ole Opry was also presented. This is a must see museum not only because the price is Free.

We stayed at a Flying J, just outside of Bowling Green.

May 5 – Cades Cove to Chattanooga

It continued to rain thru the night and into the morning. We packed up the last couple of items and started back to Chattanooga. We enjoyed our time in the Great Smoky Mountains. It’s difficult for any mountain area to compare to Yosemite and the Sierra Mountains of Northern California.

Mary and I are both native Californians. One thing we always have questioned is why car manufacturers put a high speed setting on wiper controls. Even in the most severe California rainstorm, we are pretty content with the wiper set to low. Tennessee provided that answer. About half way back to Chattanooga, the sky opened up and the rain poured down. Even on high speed, the wiper couldn’t keep up. I wonder why car manufactures don’t put a hyper speed on wiper controls?

We are now safely back at the Best Holiday Trav-L Park in Chattanooga. This is the park we stayed at last weekend. Time to do laundry, take much-needed showers, and organize the RV for the next leg of our travels.

Tomorrow, we’ll read the Sunday paper from cover-to-cover, watch a little tv, and just relax.

Monday morning, we are going to pick up our mail that was packaged and sent general delivery to the Chattanooga post office. Then we are heading north. We are going to see a couple special places, like the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. At one time I owned a 1984 Corvette… but that’s another story. Also, the big annual Amateur Radio Convention in Dayton Ohio runs from May 18th thru the 20th. This afternoon, we made our reservations at the KOA Campground in Dayton for that weekend.

May 3rd – Cades Cove, Great Smokies

This is going to be a day of firsts for this trip. The first first was breakfast prepared on the camp stove. We had not “cooked” a meal on this trip. We’ve prepared many meals inside the Roadtrek; mostly salads and cold cereal. But, this morning I unpacked the camp stove and cooked “Toad-in-the-hole”.

Our second first was to take a real hike, hiking boots and all. It felt good to stretch our legs the five plus mile hike out to Abrams Falls. The trail starts about half way around the Cades Cove loop drive. It was interesting to walk across the log bridges that cross a number of streams as we made our way to the falls. In California, this type of bridge would be nearly impossible because of liability concerns. But here, in the Great Smokies, a log with a handrail along one side is all that is needed. Added a primitive and enjoyable element to the walk.

By Yosemite standards, the falls aren’t spectacular but the water flow was good and they sounded like a locomotive roaring along the tracks. There were a few people at the falls when we arrived and more arrived before we left. We never felt crowded. My only comment is, “Why do smokers feel the world is their ashtray”. Everyone packed out what they carried in except the smokers would not pick up their butts.

The Cades Cove loop drive in 11-miles long with many stops along the way. Each stop is for some older home, church, or mill. Most dating back into the late 1800s. Some were occupied into the 1940s, when the government evicted the last residents to complete the acquisition of land for this park.

The mill is actually in operation grinding corn into meal. We have been to many historic mills in our travels but this is the first one that we’ve seen in operation, still being powered by water. What a great sight and sound.

We’ve decided to stay one more day to enjoy this area.

As always, you can see all of our pictures on our Picasa site.

May 2nd - Great Smoky Mountains

We had a B A D breakfast. Krispy Kreme Jr donuts. The little power sugar ones. I do believe I ate about 2 servings and Mary had at least 1-1/2 services. But I just don’t think 4 little donuts is enough to actually call a serving, especially when those little donuts are just about the best we’ve ever tasted.

We decided to move our camp from Cosby campground on the eastern edge of Great Smoky to the Cades campground, which is more centrally located.

We got underway about 8:30 and drove thru Gatlinburg, TN. This town is call the entry point for Great Smoky mountains. It is really a tourist town with all the normal restaurants, motels, fast food, and souvenir shop but also includes places like a Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum. This isn’t our kind of place so we just drove on thru.

We decided to drive up to the Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the park. A tower with a spiral ramp gives a clear 360-degree view of the surrounding countryside. The steep 1/2-mile trail from the parking lot to the tower was a workout but the view was worth the effort. At least we have the bragging rights to say we've been there.

We settled into our new campsite in the afternoon. We aren’t sure of the actual time because do don’t remember what time zone our clocks are set for or what time zone this part of Tennessee is in. Maybe tomorrow we’ll get that sorted out.

A lady named Betty stops at our campsite to talk about Roadtreks. She is from Alabama and travels to Great Smoky twice each year in her 1999 D190P Roadtrek. According to her, this weekend is “Old Timers Days”. Local and not so local campers come here to play music and sing. We are trying to decide if we will stay the weekend to watch and listen. I was able to resolve the “Door not locking” problem on her Roadtrek by showing her the contacts that need to be cleaned.

May 1st -- Chattanooga to Great Smoky Mountains

Our plans to get started early were almost perfect except for over sleeping, having to put air in the RV tires, and extremely slow service at McDonalds. We had hoped to get underway by 6am but that’s difficult when we don’t wake until 7am. While Mary was showing, I did my walk around and noticed the two rear tires seemed noticeably low. We stopped at the first service station and added some air. Their pump would only crank out about 75 pounds. Every little bit helps.

The neighborhood McDonalds had school kids from two school buses standing in line. We waited about 5-minutes before deciding to try another McD. Before we drove off, we noticed the drive thru was empty and the found the Roadtrek fit under their awning. With two coffees and a Cinnamon Melt we were on our way.

The drive was uneventful. We stopped at the Ocoee Dam, which is part of the Tennessee Valley Authority. I’m still looking for a TVA museum but I don’t think I’ll find one before we leave Tennessee.

We spent a while at the Asheville Botanical Garden. It is a volunteer based garden and it definitely shows. A nice creek runs thru the facility with trails following its banks. The trails were well maintained but all the plants looked tired and very few were in bloom.

We couldn’t find anything to keep us in Asheville. The areas of town we visited were run down and graffiti covered. The only attraction we saw listed was the Biltmore estate. The hefty $38 entrance fee was more than our interests were willing to pay.

We stopped for gas at a TA facility between Asheville and Great Smoky. I was hoping they would have an air pump with some muscle but no luck.

Our next challenge was to find an entrance to Great Smoky Mountain Park. It seemed every road we tried lead around the park, nothing lead in. The GPS was no help. Finally, Mary found a route that got us in to the Cosby Campground. The Golden Age pass got us a nice campsite for only $7. No electricity or WiFi, but its nice to be away from the city. The men’s toilet had an attendant that was busy eating a bar of soap someone had left.