Eldo's a Travelin' Man....

We left Indiana on Monday this week....There are several ways to get to Texas, obviously, and some are better than others. With a total of over 990 miles of driving, we decided to split it roughly into thirds. Which route we take depends on lots of factors--the price of diesel fuel (3.99 was the highest we saw during our trip this week), mileage--do we want to take the shortest or avoid some big city traffic? Are there decent campgrounds along the route? Eldo decided he didn't want to drive through the Chicago area even with bypasses but we would drive straight south from Elkhart, cross over into Illinois further south, and make our way through Missouri, Oklahoma, then Texas. We took 31 South out of South Bend, and continued down through Indy, picked up 465 around Indy and then 70 West to Illinois. Last night we stayed at Okaw Valley RV park, a tiny little well kept park off I-70, for a 335 mile drive. 

It's not easy finding parks with decent reviews as you head west towards Texas on this particular highway. But Eldo does a great job of researching thoroughly and manages to keep us out of trashy parks that get one or two stars. Those parks with those kind of ratings are usually 1) not big rig friendly, 2) have lots of trees and low hanging branches, outdated electrical or 3) are overrun with decrepit RV's that need to be towed and the park looks sketchy and run down. One of the apps we use is RV Parky to find our campgrounds. It tells you just about everything you want to know about the campground and some rates people have paid.

Okaw Valley in Brownsville, IL, was a great park, we were just a little big (41 ft) for the gravel site to fit both car and truck so we parked in the extra parking area very close by to our site. The park is quiet although you can hear some road noise. Lots of beautiful trees in fall color, but none in the way of parking. The road noise is not bad at all when running the furnace or if you have ear plugs. (Somebody in the house snores, haha) Be sure you do NOT park sideways or on the grass. Some parks are trying to maintain what little grass they have between sites. Can't imagine how difficult it must be to maintain landscaping in a public RV park!

There's a pretty little fishing lake there and they have a laundry room, too. We would definitely stay there again on our way from Indiana to Texas.

Tuesday we were off again and did a shorter drive of 260 miles. Eldo is having back problems, (aren't we a pair, Sparky with sciatica and Eldo with back trouble!) so we are going long drive, short drive, long drive. This time we stayed at RV Express RV Park in Marshfield, Missouri. The key word is EXPRESS as in you are at the bottom of the hill, directly above you is highway/expressway 44. LOTS of road noise, but again, earplugs, furnace running and it ain't too bad. Cement pull through sites, concrete pads, long enough to fit both the truck and the rig easily. It's clean, 50/30 amp electric, water and sewer, that's the full hookup. However, it's like being in a Walmart parking lot. There is a motel directly behind us, the highway in front of us, and lots of retail stuff all around.

While we were driving, we got to talking about Route 66 and how interesting it would be to take an RV and travel the entire route. The only problem is, it's a decommissioned highway and portions of it are no longer in use. However, you STILL can drive many sections of it and there are some really cool stops along the way. Stand on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, anybody? Sparky found a really cool attraction that she REALLY wants to go see. (UH OH! She's going to bug me for an unscheduled, extremely out-of-the-way stop now for days, laments Eldo). It's outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and it's a portion of route 66 that has not your usual highway driving speed of 55 (speed limit varies from 35-55 along the route), but 45 mph. The speed limit was so unpopular, they had to do something innovative to appease the public. So they put in a buried musical rumble strip that if you go exactly 45 mph, you can hear "America the Beautiful" played under your rolling tires! SERIOUSLY! Google "Musical Highway", then click on New Mexico "Musical Highway plays America the Beautiful" on YouTube. And you know what? There are MORE musical highways out there! Who knew!? 

Which got Sparky thinking about some of the cool, silly, roadside attractions that are still out there. We used to try and research them using the Roadside Attractions Guide or the Roadside America app which costs 2.99. If you are just starting out traveling, these are fun apps to have. Never miss another giant dinosaur, ball of twine, 25 foot muffler man or quirky museum ever again. There's even a special Route 66 section. We made an effort to stop and see some of these wonderfully quirky, silly slices of Americana when we first traveled in our class A motorhome 11 years ago, but we just might get back to some more silly stuff in our current travels with our fifth wheel, you never know! (SIGH.....) That's Eldo worrying about excessive out of the way mileage and fuel costs. He's such a great planner, it's one reason our travels have been kept so affordable because he's always looking for the best price, and the most expeditious way of getting from point A to point B. Sparky, on the other hand, is always looking for the nearest 1. hike, 2. bike trail, 3. craft store or fabric shop, 4. national park, forest preserve or 5. the Appalachian Trail, which gets further down the list, the farther west we go, haha.

So here we go again tomorrow...on the road again. (Cue Willy Nelson). We will be stopping one more night in Eufaula, Oklahoma, and then--TEXAS for two weeks at one of our membership parks, Lake Texoma. See you later!