Living Our Dream

Franklin, KY to Lower Alabama

Summerdale, AL - Events of Wednesday, October 19 to Friday, October 21, 2016

As we said in our last post, we had to expand our travel time to Lower Alabama from 5 days to 6 because we had to stop short on day 3 due to the bearing failure. After the bearing was repaired on Tuesday, we started out on leg 4 on Wednesday morning. We pulled off twice during the three-hour drive for Paul to check hub and brake rotor temperatures using his infrared thermometer. The temperatures on the wheel that had been repaired ran about the same as all the others both times we pulled off and when we made our final stop for the day at Cullman Campground in Cullman, Alabama.

Cullman Campground has about 75 sites, most of which are pull-throughs, all with full hookups and 20/30/50-amp electric. Although the paved roads are narrow, there seems to be enough room to maneuver just about everywhere even though you may end up driving on the grass here and there. The sites are gravel. Our site was not level side to side and it was narrower than most.

Our site at Cullman Campground

View down the row behind our site

Cullman Campground is located about 1½ miles from the interstate at the end of a dead end road, so it is very quiet - at least it was when we were there during the week. There are a lot of seasonals so it could be noisy on weekends.

When you call Cullman Campground for reservations, they warn you to follow campground signs after you make the final turn off the main road and NOT to follow your GPS because most GPS systems take you down a gravel road. Although the so-called main road is quite narrow and bumpy, the gravel road is worse, and it also has numerous low-hanging tree branches.

There is free Wi-fi, but it was useless when we first arrived in the afternoon even though the campground wasn't anywhere near full. We had a hard time even connecting to it, and when we did, websites either wouldn't load or we would get dumped off again. The Wi-fi was okay up until about 7:30 the following morning, but then it bogged down again. Obviously, their Wi-fi is woefully inadequate for more than a few users. Fortunately, there is a good Verizon signal at the campground. Our cost at Cullman Campground was around $25 for the night.

We pulled out of Cullman on Thursday morning for a drive of about three-hours to our next overnight stop at The Woods RV Park in Montgomery, Alabama. We made a couple of extra stops on this leg to monitor temperatures again, and the hub and rotor on the wheel that was repaired was stayed about the same as all the others.

The Woods has somewhat dusty gravel roads and gravel pads. The sites are all long, level pull-throughs, and the spacing is pretty decent for a private campground. All the sites have full-hookups with 20/30/50-amp electric. There is free cable and free Wi-fi that was fairly fast and reliable, and there is also a good Verizon 4G signal. The Woods is no longer honors the Passport America discount, but they do offer 10% off for Good Sam members so our final cost was about $31 including tax.

Our site at The Woods

View down the row behind our site

On Friday, we headed out on the last leg of our journey to Lower Alabama. At about 3½ hours, this leg was a little longer than the first two. We again monitored temperatures along the way, and everything was fine.

We used to always stay at the Escapees Rainbow Plantation when we went to Lower Alabama, but the last couple of times we stayed at Coastal Haven up the road. We like Coastal Haven because of its paved pads and somewhat more convenient location, but this time we decided to go back to Rainbow Plantation because it was a little less expensive for our 10-day stay, especially after our expensive RV repair, and because it's a little quieter.

In addition to the RV campground that has about 100 sites with full hookups and either 20/30-amp or 20/30/50-amp electric ($2 extra a night), Rainbow Plantation also has co-op sites and deeded lots. The campground sites are all wide, unpaved back-ins. There are live oak trees between most of the sites, and the trees have gotten pretty big over the years and now block satellite reception on many of the sites. The heavy shade also means many sites have little or no grass where the RVs normally park, and the sandy dirt outside your door can get quite messy if it rains. Fortunately, there was no rain in the 10-day forecast. Our cost at Rainbow Plantation was around $21 a night including tax.

Our site at Rainbow Plantation

View down the road to the right of our site

After we arrived and got set up, we went out to lupper at LA Barbecue. We usually like to relax and not do much on the day we arrive at a new location, but we have so many favorite places to eat in Lower Alabama we figured we had better get started. Not only that, but the fact we enjoyed the barbecue so much at Wildfire BBQ in Franklin a few days prior made us hungry for more.

LA Barbecue has all the usual goodies - pulled pork, smoked chicken, ribs and brisket, but we always get pulled pork. In addition to sandwiches with one side for around $6, there are lunch plates for $7.29 and dinner plates for $9.99 that include two sides. We both had dinner plates with cole slaw and potato salad. Everything was yummy.

Paul with his pulled pork plate at LA Barbecue

We relaxed over the weekend, and prepared to hit some more restaurants the following week. Stay tuned.

A Stop in Knoxville, TN

Heiskell (Knoxville), TN - Events of Thursday, October 1 to Sunday, October 4, 2015

We were hitched up and on the road by 8:40 on Thursday morning headed toward Knoxville, TN. That was earlier than normal because we had a fairly long travel day (for us) of over 5 hours for an overnight stop at Fort Chiswell RV Park near Wytheville, VA.

We actually left a little earlier than we had planned because packing and hitching took us less time than we thought it would thanks to the practice we had gotten moving to a new site at Scenic Hills the Sunday before. Readying the 5th wheel for travel will probably always take a little longer than the motor home did, but we're happy to see the time for the 5th wheel getting shorter as we get better at it.

The temperatures in the Berlin area had been in the 70s, which is warmer than normal, but there was definitely the downward trend. That downward trend became a precipitous drop because the highs for the day we left and for the next several days were predicted to struggle to get out of the 50s.

It got a little warmer as we drove south, but not much. It was cloudy the whole way, but at least it didn't rain.

Fort Chiswell RV has 80 or 90 sites, all of which have full-hookups, and most of which have 30/50-amp electric. There is free cable and free Wi-fi. The Wi-fi was fairly fast, at least until the campground filled up. There is a good Verizon 4G signal in the area.

The roads are paved, and most of the pads are gravel. We got one of the few sites with a paved pad.

Our site at Ft. Chiswell RV Park

Although the RV park is conveniently located less than half a mile from the interstate, there is little or no traffic noise because there is a good-sized hill between the RV park and the highway. The nightly cost was about $34.

Most of the sites are pull-throughs, which makes Ft. Chiswell RV a good spot for an overnight stop. The RV park is located near a place where I-77 and I-81 run concurrently for a distance of about 10 miles, so there are a lot of overnighters. Every time we stay there we are amazed at the steady stream of RVs arriving in the late afternoon. When we got there around 3:00, there were only a few sites that were occupied. By early evening, the campground was almost full. The next photo shows the rows of sites behind us filling up about an hour after we arrived.

View of the sites behind us

On Friday morning, we headed out on the next leg of our journey south. There was a light rain when we pulled out of Ft. Chiswell, and the rain continued off and on for the three-hour drive to Heiskell, Tennessee, which is just to the north of Knoxville. We got another relatively early start and pulled into the Escapees Raccoon Valley RV Park around 12:30.

We stayed in Heiskell last year on our way south because we were RV shopping and there are several RV dealers in the area who sell brands of RVs we were considering. This year, we planned to do a little visiting, a little sightseeing, a little eating out and a little relaxing.

Raccoon Valley RV Park has 68 full-hookup RV sites with 30/50-amp electric. The roads and pads are gravel. The sites are about evenly split between pull-throughs and back-ins. The sites are a little close together, but they're not awful, and there is a small strip of grass between most of the sites. Wi-fi is available for a fee. Our cost was around $21 a night including tax.

Our site at Raccoon Valley

View down the road at Raccoon Valley

As you can see from the puddles in the photo of our site above, it had been raining in Heiskell, too. The rain finally stopped by evening, but it started up again the next morning and rained off and on all day Saturday.

On Saturday, our friends, Darrell and Judy, drove two hours from their home in Crossville, Tennessee, for a visit. Darrell and Judy, who used to be full-timers, recently bought a sticks-and-bricks house in Crossville.

We offered to meet Darrelll and Judy at a restaurant half way between Crossville and Heiskell, but they wanted to see our new rig. After they got the 50-cent tour and after we visited a while, we headed out to have lupper at Buddy's Bar-b-q. Buddy's has about a dozen corporate and three franchise locations in and around Knoxville. One of the franchise locations is located just off I-75 one exit to the south of where we were staying.

Buddy's Bar-b-q

Buddy's has pork, chicken, ham and ribs. Sandwiches range in price from as low as $3 for regular ham to $4 for large pork and large chicken. Dinners are under $10.

We both had pulled pork dinners with two sides (potato salad and cole slaw) for $6.39. The pork had a nice smokey flavor and it was very tender and moist. The sides were good, too.

Margery, Darrell and Judy at Buddy's

We chatted for a while after we ate, then Darrell and Judy dropped us off at our 5th wheel before heading back to Crossville. It was good to see them again and to catch up.

Sunday finally brought sunshine and temperatures back in the mid to upper 70s. Ahhh, that's more like it. We relaxed around the rig all day. The weather forecast for Monday was for sun and a high around 80º. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and did some sightseeing. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

Pittsburgh to Knoxville, TN

Heiskell (Knoxville), TN - Events of Wednesday, September 24 to Thursday, September 25, 2014

As we said in our last post, we pulled out from Lora and J. Michael's driveway on Wednesday and headed south. Our destination was Knoxville, TN with an overnight stop at Ft. Chiswell RV Park near Wytheville, VA. At 5½ hours, Ft. Chiswell RV is a bit farther than we usually like to drive in a day, but it is an excellent place for an overnight stop because it's a nice campground and essentially all their sites are pull-throughs. We looked for a campground a little closer to Pittsburgh, but we couldn't find anything as nice as Ft. Chiswell RV.

The 5½-hour drive was lengthened to over 6 hours by a traffic slowdown due to an earlier accident on I-79 just south of Pittsburgh and by a fuel stop at a very crowded Flying J. With diesel at $3.50 a gallon, the place had trucks lined up wall-to-wall waiting to get to the truck pumps. The line was long enough to block the entrance to the RV lanes. But we can't complain too much because gas was cheap, too - $2.99 a gallon plus a 3-cent a gallon discount for the Flying J RV loyalty card. With the additional delays, we didn't arrive at Ft. Chiswell until around 3 p.m.

Ft. Chiswell RV Park has about 90 sites with full hookups and 30/50-amp electric. There is free cable and free Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi had a strong signal, and it was pretty fast, at least it was when we first got there. It did bog down a little in the late afternoon and evening when the campground filled up. There was a strong Verizon 4G signal, but it also slowed somewhat later in the afternoon.

The roads at Ft. Chiswell RV are paved, and most of the pads are gravel; but there are about 20 sites that are all grass and about 10 that have paved pads. We lucked out and got a site with a paved pad. The sites have decent spacing for a private campground, although the ones with paved pads are a little closer together than some of the others. The rate at Ft. Chiswell RV Park was around $33 a night with a Good Sam discount.

Our site with paved pad

The section behind us had gravel pads, trees and a little wider spacing.

Sites in the row behind us

In spite of the fact the traffic is very heavy on this section of road where I-77 and I-81 run concurrently for several exits, and in spite of the fact Ft. Chiswell RV Park is only a short distance from the exit, there is surprisingly little traffic noise. That's because there is a pretty big rise between the RV park and the highway that blocks a lot of the sound.

We got on the road around 9:30 the next morning for the second leg of our journey to Knoxville. The drive was about 3 hours to the Escapees Raccoon Valley RV Park in Heiskell, TN, which is located a short distance to the north of Knoxville.

The sites at Raccoon Valley are much closer together than those at our favorite Escapees RV park - Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL. However, it's hard to beat the Escapees parks for price. With a weekly rate, our cost for a full-hookup site with 50-amp electric was less than $17 a night.

The roads and pads at Raccoon Valley are gravel. All sites have full hookups. Some have 30-amp electric, and some have 30/50-amp electric for an additional $1 a night.

Our site at Raccoon Valley

View down the road past our site

Our original plan when we left Pittsburgh was to head east to Pennsylvania Dutch country around Lancaster. However, we weren't sure of our departure date from Pittsburgh until right before we arrived, and we weren't sure how long we wanted top stay in the Lancaster area once we got there. Therefore, we held off making reservations until the last minute, and by then it was too late to get a site. Like Berlin, OH, the campgrounds in the Lancaster area book up pretty far in advance for fall weekends.

Since we couldn't get a site in Lancaster, we went to Plan B, which was to head south. That actually turned out to be a good plan because, not only are the campgrounds in the Lancaster area very expensive ($40 to $60 a night), the weather was turning cooler faster than we expected. We went from a high temperature one day near the end of our stay in Pittsburgh that didn't get out of the 50s to highs in the 80s in Knoxville. Now, that's more like it!

We haven't been to the Knoxville area for quite some time, and we're looking forward to exploring. Look for our next post to see what we found.

Nashville to Crossville, TN

Crossville, TN - Events of Thursday, June 26 to Tuesday, July 1, 2014

We did a few pre-departure chores on Thursday morning, then went to Walmart and Sam's Club to pick up a couple of last minute grocery items before hitting the road on Friday. The Sam's Club was north of Mount Juliet near Hendersonville, TN. Center Point Barbecue is located not too far from Sam's Club, so we stopped there for lupper after our errands.

Center Point Barbecue

Center Point Barbecue was featured on the Food Network program "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" in 2013. They had an autographed poster from Guy Fieri hanging in the dining room.

Triple D poster

Center Point has pork, chicken, turkey, brisket and ribs. We had chopped pork plates with two sides for around $8. Margery had creamy cole slaw and potato salad for her sides, and Paul had sweet and sour cole slaw and white beans for his sides.

Our server at Center Point hamming it up with Paul

The pork was tender and moist, and it had an intensely smoky flavor. They had 5 or 6 kinds of sauce from sweet and mild to sweet and spicy to an extra-hot one called Burning Bush. We liked Wolf Sauce, which is thick and rich without being too sweet. It also had a little bit of a kick.

The pork was served atop delicious flat cornbread, which was a more like a very thin slab of regular corn bread as opposed to the pancake-like flat cornbread at Tom's Blue Moon. The sides were all good, too, especially both types of cole slaw.

On Friday, we headed out on a two-hour drive to Crossville, TN and pulled into Spring Lake RV Resort around noon. Spring Lake has about 60 sites with full hookups and 30/50-amp electric. All but a couple of the sites are back-ins. There is free cable, free Wi-Fi and free firewood. Although they said they were having trouble with the Wi-Fi in one section of the campground, we had a good signal where we were located, and it was relatively fast most of the time. There was also a strong Verizon 4G signal at the campground.

Spring Lake RV is a very nice RV park. The sites are quite large for a private campground, and the grounds are very well maintained. It has gravel roads and pads, concrete patios and nice grass between the sites. The gravel on the roads and pads is nice and fresh with no dust. There is very little traffic noise and no trains. The cost for our site with the Good Sam discount including tax was a little over $31 a night. The photos below show our site at Spring lake and the sites adjacent to ours.

Our site at Spring Lake RV

Wider view showing the sites on either side of us

Spring Lake also has a fairly large lake. There is no swimming, but there is fishing (catch and release).

Sites across the lake

Our friends, Darrell and Judy who used to own a deeded RV lot in Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL, sold the lot earlier this year and took off to Crossville where they bought a house. They still have their 5th wheel and still plan to travel part time, although they may downsize sometime in the future

Darrell and Judy told us to give them a shout any time we were passing through, so we let them know we were heading their way. They ended up inviting us for dinner on Friday evening. We had a delicious meal at their lovely, new home, and we a great time catching up.

We also made plans to meet them for lunch on Saturday at one of their favorite restaurants in town, Forte's. Unfortunately, there was a car cruise in Crossville on Saturday, and much of the downtown area where the restaurant is located was blocked off to traffic and parking. Therefore, we went with Plan B and went to another one of Darrell and Judy's favorite eateries, LaCosta Mexican restaurant. LaCosta is located in a little strip mall adjacent to the Walmart.

LaCosta Mexican restaurant

LaCosta has all the usual Mexican dishes to choose from - fajitas, enchiladas, chili rellenos, tacos, burritos, etc., and they have most of the items available on combo plates that also include rice and beans for $8 to $10.

We started off with the traditional corn chips, which were hot and crisp. They serve the chips with salsa and bean dip, both of which were delicious.

We both had combos with a chile relleno and a chimichanga. The chile relleno was stuffed with cheese, and we both chose chicken chimichangas (ground beef, shredded beef and chicken are available). Everything was yummy!

Chimichanga and chile relleno combo

Margery, Paul, Judy and Darrell

On Sunday morning, we went to church with Darrell and Judy at Cumberland Fellowship where they worship. Darrell and Judy had a birthday party to attend in the afternoon, and we just relaxed around the campground.

We had contemplated doing a little sightseeing while we were in Crossville because there are several things that sounded interesting in the area. Unfortunately, it rained every day we were there. Monday, which was our last day in Crossville, was no exception. Although the forecast said the rain would be over by late morning, it also said it would be cloudy much of the day. Therefore, we decided to just hang around the campground, and we invited Darrell and Judy out to our rig for lunch and a little more conversation.

We had a nice time in Crossville visiting with Darrell and Judy, and since we didn't get a chance to do any sightseeing, we have a perfect excuse to go back. The following morning, we hit the road for our next destination. Look for our next post to see where we headed.

Memphis to Nashville

Mount Juliet, TN - Events of Tuesday, June 17 to Saturday, June 21, 2014

We made a Walmart run on Tuesday, then relaxed around the RV park and watched barges on the river the rest of the day. We had planned to do some sightseeing on Wednesday, but we found out what we wanted to see was only open on the weekend. Oh well, maybe next time. We ended up relaxing some more.

On Thursday, we did some of our pre-departure chores in the morning, then headed to Memphis for lupper at the Bar-B-Q Shop one more time. We both had chopped pork dinner plates again with slaw and potato salad for our sides. Yum!

Chopped pork barbecue at the Bar-B-Q Shop

On Friday morning, we headed east on I-40 to Nashville to the Cedar Creek Corps of Engineers campground in Mount Juliet, TN located to the northeast of Nashville. We stayed at Cedar Creek the first time we were in Nashville back in 2011. It was supposed to be about a 4½-hour drive from Memphis to Cedar Creek, but it took us almost 5 hours because of traffic slowdowns for two separate accidents and because we had to stop for fuel. We arrived around 1:30.

Cedar Creek has about 60 sites with water and electric (30/50 amp) only. The sites are a good bit closer together than we usually see in Corps of Engineer campgrounds, but the sites are still bigger than many private campgrounds. There are about half dozen lakefront sites and another half dozen across the road from those that have much wider spacing; but the lakefront sites are hard to get on weekends, and they have too much shade for our rooftop satellite dish. The photos below shows our site and some of the other sites in our circle.

Our site at Cedar Creek COE campground

View of some of the other sites in our circle

The cost for the sites at Cedar Creek is $20 a night except for the ones that are down by the lake. Those are $24. America the Beautiful passes are honored for a 50% discount off the regular rates.

We hung around the campground the rest of the day on Friday and spent a little time on the internet researching things to do. We had a strong Verizon 4G signal.

Margery had made an appointment for a haircut on Saturday morning. Paul dropped her off and went to Lowe's to see if he could get a pin to repair the hinge of the latch on one of our storage bay doors. Getting a haircut at an unknown salon is always a big question mark, but this gal did a good job.

After returning to the campground and successfully repairing the latch, we drove about 30 minutes east to Lebanon, TN to have barbecue for lupper at Tom's Blue Moon Bar-B-Que. We went there the last time we stayed at Cedar Creek, and the barbecue was pretty good.

Tom's Blue Moon Bar-B-Que

Tom's has smoked pork, brisket, turkey, chicken, ribs and bologna. Yes, they smoke bologna and serve it with barbecue sauce. We had a sample once at a barbecue joint in Memphis, and it was actually pretty good. Sandwiches at Blue Moon are $5 to $6 and include slaw. Dinner plates are $9 to $11 and include two sides and flat cornbread or Texas toast. Ribs are $13 for a half slab and $22 for a full slab and include two sides and flat cornbread or Texas toast.

We both had pulled pork dinner plates. Margery had slaw and home made potato chips for her sides, and Paul had slaw and potato salad. We both had flat cornbread, which is a cornbread-type batter fried up like pancakes.

Pulled pork dinner plate with slaw, potato salad and flat cornbread

Margery about to sample the flat cornbread

The pork was not very smoky, but it was nice and moist and tender. The cole slaw was so-so, but the chips and potato salad were very good as was the flat cornbread.

Tom's has "Sweet and Sassy" and "Sweet and Spicy" barbecue sauces. Both are molasses-based, and as the names suggest, both are quite sweet. They also have South Carolina mustard-based sauce that is on the tart side, so we mixed some of that in with the molasses-based sauce to cut down on the sweetness. We always like it when there is more than one type of barbecue sauce because we can blend it to suit our own taste.

With our bellies full, we headed back to the motor home to relax the rest of the weekend. We don't have a lot of sightseeing planned for our week's stay in the Nashville area, but we have a couple of things we are considering doing. Look for our next post to see what we decided on.