Our Second Travel Day—The Longest!
We woke up at 6:30 a.m., on June 16, 2017, to eat, shower, and break camp for our second travel day. We left Cottonwoods RV Park, in Columbia, MO, about 10:30 a.m. Our goal was to reach Timberline Valley RV Resort, near Anderson, IN, which is northwest of Indianapolis. I do not recommend going that far in one day. That is just over 400 miles! That is roughly 8 hours of driving—pulling an RV.
We stopped at a truck stop, near Greenville, IL, about 40 miles east of St. Louis, for fuel, lunch, and a quick nap. Then, we were back on the road again. We were making good time until the GPS told us there was a road hazard ahead and to take Exit 1, as we neared Terre Haute, IN. Traffic came to a complete stop before we could exit. Somewhere, we saw a sign which indicated a vehicle fire up ahead.
Slowly traffic moved until we could make the exit. However, we could not make the turn back towards the interstate. We had to take the road into Terra Haute and, finally, found our way back to I-70E, again. By this point, we were about one and a half hours behind schedule. Ugh!
Another fifty miles down the road, we stopped in Cloverdale, IN, for a shared dinner of a hot beef sandwich with mashed potatoes. It was not that good, but filling! It was after 7:30 p.m. by then.
We reached Indianapolis around 8:30 p.m. and, finally, arrived at Timberline Valley RV Resort at 9:30 p.m. It was dark. The office was closed but they had left our paperwork on the office door. The camp host noticed us coming in and came in a golf cart to lead us to our site, thankfully.
I had an issue with the auto leveling system as we set up. I still have to get used to that. We were very tired. I had a PB and honey sandwich and a glass of milk. Connie had a margarita! Now, we are ready for bed! That was our longest travel day…never to be repeated!
Settling into New Surroundings
Connie woke up by 8 a.m. I slept in until 9:30 a.m. That was a long day of driving for an old man. Coffee and cereal for breakfast and doing a few chores took up my first hour of the day. As we took in our surroundings on this sunny day, I noted a pond that needed to be tested. We had a fire ring. And, there was plenty of room between RVs.
Connie tried the shower house but found there was a push-button to start the water, a conservation method, which turns the water on for a very limited time. She was not impressed. I showered in the RV after a short time fishing. No catch. We needed a trip to the closest town of Chesterfield to get supplies.
We ate lunch at El Rancho Pablamo. The food was good but the sauce was too hot for Connie! We got groceries at Harvest Market. Then, we found a DQ to cool down the hot sauce from lunch.
Back at the RV Resort, we started a fire and sat near the ring in our new lawn chair rockers. However, it was not long before we were driven inside due to a downpour! The conditions were ripe for me to nap. Connie was able to take a short walk when the rain let up. After my nap, we went to the pond to try fishing again. Still no luck.
We had a late supper of leftovers and missed our run for firewood. So, we settled on a movie given to us by my brother, Bill, to watch on our first week on the road, “The Long Long Trailer”, with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. It was a hoot!
Happy Father’s Day!
I woke up to breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. That was nice. Even nicer was the fact that, as full-time RVers, we had opted to not move on until Monday. So, we had another day of rest and seeing the local sights. The “week-enders”, the RV owners who are still working for a living, were busy packing up to go home. The RV Resort would be pretty quiet this evening.
We had to make a trip into Anderson to shop for totes to get more organized. Things are scattered all over inside the RV and the underbelly, better known as the “basement”. That is the area near the front of the Fifth-Wheel RV, which is why there are steps up to the bathroom and bedroom, in our RV design. The underbelly is a storage area that has a lot of room to store the things you will need on occasion, like the grill, the chairs, the fishing equipment, the power cable, the sewer connection hose, the fresh water hose (kept separate from the sewer hose!), etc.
Organization if VERY important to make use of the many storage areas in the RV. It is important because there is NEVER enough storage area. You will have to be very judicious about what you really need to get by. There is not a lot of room for buying things along the way and hope to be able to move around them as time goes on…
We had a sandwich from Jimmie Johns for lunch. Then, back to camp to do some packing. Rain interrupted us again. That made for good nap weather for me!
Later, we treated ourselves to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. We had up a coupon for DQ Blizzards, 2 for 1, for dessert. We were able to sit in our rockers and enjoy the nice evening before our final packing to leave in the morning. A much shorter travel day was planned…
A Short View of Belleview
We talked over our morning coffee and finally got packed up and ready to roll by 11:55 a.m. We had to be out by noon. Wow! We are slow! We will have to work on our camp breaking procedures.
Our destination was Gotta Getaway RV Park, near Belleview, OH. It was not on the Interstate. So, we got concerned as to how the GPS took us to get there, which included my turn into a farmer’s driveway. The RV Park was fairly new and there were not many RVs on site. And, since we were just staying for one night, we did not unhook the truck. We took a nice long walk around the Park after dinner.
A Quick Note About the RV
When you first step up into our Keystone Cougar Fifth Wheel RV, you enter into the kitchen area, which has an island sink. The table and chairs are on the far side. To the left is the rear living room area, where we have a hide-a-bed couch in front of the large rear window. To the right of the couch are two connected recliners, with a cup-holder set in the seam between them. Across from the recliners is a nice TV and entertainment center, with a radio and DVD player, which we later learned was NOT Blu-ray. Below the TV, there is an electric fireplace heater. It has the look of flames in a fireplace and the blower of a space heater.
Completing the circle back to the door is the refrigerator, the stove, the cabinets and counter. There is more counter and cabinets on the wall towards the upstairs area. You go up two stairs to get to the bathroom, with a shower. There are sliding doors on the bedroom area up front to separate the bathroom and the rear living areas.
We have three slide outs. One for the bedroom closets. One for the dinette and recliners. And the third for the entertainment center and kitchen appliances. The HVAC and tank controls are on the wall by the stairs.
That was not a lot of detail, just a general layout. Connie would have given you a lot about colors and finishes but I am slightly color-blind!
In my next blog, I will get us closer to Niagara Falls with our stay at Camp Chautaugua, our base camp in New York!