Tuesday, January 24, 2012

OnThe Road

OK, well this is not going as I had planned, but I am going to post anyway.
My intention was to use my new Samsung 3G fancy shmancy tablet to post as we traveled. I thought it would be fun to report on the trip, roads, routes, stops and campgrounds. The good, the bad, and the ugly, uh, not so good.
Well you know how it goes with the best intentions. I composed several blog entries and to my complete frustration could not get it to post, it simply disappeared into cyber space.
So, here goes.

Our intention for our first trip of some length and distance was planned to leave our home on Nov 28, the Monday after Thanksgiving. Again, good intentions. However, we had been discussing the Ford F250 which we have had for several years and it's ability to tow our camper fully loaded into the mountains and somewhat questionable terrain. My hubby has been looking for something with a little more muscle, but not in any real rush, this trip would not really require an extreme amount of towing capacity.
On the Saturday before we left on our trip, my hubby and son were working on the truck, shining it up, painting the bumpers, general maintenance and then someone, the shop owner's uncle, actually called and said I am looking for this exact truck, find me one. FOUND. SOLD the F250. Now, no truck.

The boys started looking and found a newer model Ford F350 on Craig's list only this truck is several hours away, but this never stops us, no way.  So Monday morning, departure day, they go on the road to find the truck and it is nice. Huge Super duty, turbo diesel, dually, crew cab. It has a factory installed towing fifth wheel hitch. It is a beauty, charcoal grey and goes beautifully with the camper graphics. BOUGHT it.
So our first travel day was busted, and of course we needed to have it gone over and oil change, junk like that, so, second travel day was busted too.

Wednesday morning 6:30 AM on the dot we pulled off down the street with Max and camper on the way to how ever far we felt comfortable for one days drive.




I love it, it rides so nicely and there is so much room inside. It's really pretty too. We all know it's really all about how you look. We looked great.

So day one: We headed east never really expecting to get further than Paducah, KY. But we made excellent time and we were able to keep up with traffic beautifully. So we kept on going, and going, and going. We never intended to stay on the road so long, but since we had lost a couple of days we decided to go until we felt like stopping.
At around 5:30 pm we were in the Nashville, TN area. We stopped for dinner and played with the idea of just pulling into a truck stop for the night, since we wanted to make it to Cartersville, GA the next day. But the truck stops were a little yucky so I got out my notebook and found a KOA campground at the next exit in Manchester, TN.
We pulled into the Manchester KOA around 8pm, found a lovely pull-through site close to the front and we were situated and comfortable in a flash. I wished we could stay here for a little longer.
The place was so clean and they even had a doggy play yard. Max didn't get to spend too much time there.
This was the nicest place, and the owners were wonderful hosts, and their dog Honey was so sweet. If you're in or near Nashville, I highly recommend this campground. manschesterkoa.com, check it out.
We were back on the road by about 9am.
We found ourselves about an hour from our next destination, the Cartersville  KOA.
I'll fill you in on day two tomorrow.


Max and me.

2 comments:

Deb from WhatsInMyAttic said...

OK, so proud of you for finally posting about your new adventure. You'll need to figure out how to post from your tablet (I still can't do it from my iPad, but manage now and then from my iPhone). You, though, have adventures waiting for you and will need to keep me up to date!! Love the pics...nice coordination of color and style on the truck! And aren't you and Max just as cute as bugs standing there all ready to set out on your fun! Did you let Bill go??

donna said...

Yes Deb, Bill was there. He's the driver for goodness sakes. Can't wait for you and LT to join us.