Eldo has the Hitch Itch, Travelin' Time!

After spending many weeks in Texas, Eldo was ready to move! (and so was Sparky.) In the full time RVing scheme of things, RVers refer to "hitch itch" as the urge to get going and see some new areas and experience new things. We were blown out of Harlingen finally, (after going thru the Texas freeze and almost daily winds of 20-30 mph, and a slide out problem) then we headed to Spring to see Sparky's daughter and grandson and got some great quality time in there, so no surprise that all good things come to an end, and it was time to move on, and move we did!

Eldo used to not mind driving at all. He LOVED our Tiffin Phaeton motorhome that we used to have ten years ago, and for him a 400 mile day was a piece of cake.  Now that ten years have gone by, a 300 mile day with the fifth wheel would be about tops. Yet, he had the hitch itch pretty bad, so he drove 430 miles the first day out from our park in Spring, TX to Carriere, MS. Whew! Especially since there was construction after construction project on I-10 headed east. (And construction cement barrier after cement barriers on the sides only inches from the rig. THAT is an RVer's worst nightmare...Concrete barriers on the right and semis passing you on the left with concrete barriers on THEIR side.)

Clearwater Park in MS

We spent the night at Clearwater RV Park in Carriere MS. What a delightful park! Not the most big rig friendly, but we were guided into our spot which helped, because there was one tight turn in the mix. Ducks greeted us as we were setting up. Sparky thought that was delightful, Eldo not so much.

Beautiful park with azaleas blooming all over the place, and a paddlewheel mill turning creating a peaceful babbling brook sound. Many long term residents stay here, but there are also quite a few open spots for people passing through. Unfortunately, there are only two pull thru spots. Fortunately, we got one of them for the night and it was right by the pond. It's about 5 miles from I-59, so NO ROAD NOISE. What a peaceful place and we loved spending the night here. Note that the internet signal is terrible here.

The next morning, off we headed for Alabama, and our favorite Corps of Engineer park, Gunter Hill, a distance of about 289 miles. You'd think we would think twice about coming back here, because of the humongous tree limb that fell on our awnings and took both of them out back in August, but nope, here we are...We love this place. Sites are AMAZINGLY spacious in the Catoma loop, and tight and narrow in the Antioch loop. Here's a site bordering on the lake in the Catoma loop.

Campground is in the Alabama Lakes system, and part of the lake system is right in your backyard, practically. Beaucoup room between sites...Price is 15.00 a night with senior pass for FULL HOOKUPS. We had a campfire and although it was a cold spring night, Sparky just HAD to have a campfire!

An added bonus to this area is the excellent shopping and restaurants in a nearby town, but it's about 8-10 miles from Gunter Hill campground to the restaurant mecca of Prattsville. We LOVE Jim 'n' Nicks, a fantastic brisket/BBQ restaurant with the best little mini cheddar biscuits and sweet butter along with the brisket and pulled pork and potato salad with a little kick! 

Site 26 at Texas T Campground

And, back out on the road again...this time a drive of about 270 miles to TN, to a great overnight park stop, Texas T Campground, right off of I-65 in Cornersville, TN. And when Sparky says "right off I-65," it's RIGHT OFF I-65. The highway is right next to us at our site on 26. All pull thrus, which is nice, but the highway noise is not. Sites are gravel and level. ATT speeds for internet service are great. We stayed for two days and got a visit in with Eldy's daughter and grandson. Sparky likes to walk the county roads next to the park, and there is a beautiful little farm right next to the park. Sparky would have loved to have grown up on this farm as a child. It's got woods, rolling hills, this cool barn, and looks like a wonderful place to grow up or even be a grown up living there.

This is just the barn!

The countryside in Tennessee sure is pretty...Here's another farm Sparky walks by on her daily walks while staying at the Texas T park.

And, off we go again...this time we are heading for Cave City, KY, and much to Eldo's relief, we will be staying for three weeks at a Thousand Trails park called Diamond Caverns. We hope we like it well enough to stay three weeks. It's free with our membership, so we like that part for sure! We'll let you know what we think of the area and the park once we get there. Sparky is excited to be back in the Mammoth Cave area, and the temperatures are going to be perfect--highs in the 60's and 70's, and lows in the 40's and 50's.

We'll see you soon again.....Safe travels to our RVing friends who are following along with us, and blessings to our readers who are following us from home and near and far. We love sharing our experiences with you and thank you for reading!

Our Second Mishap....

They say things happen in threes....Was that supposed to be good things? Sigh....We got our awnings taken off at the Alabama COE park and we were on our way the next day.

We get to Tennessee and unhitch, and here we go with the leveling system. It's automatic leveling on a Jayco Pinnacle 5th wheel....not a problem until today...Front jacks down? Check. Rear jacks down?  Check. Middle stabilizer jacks down? Nope. Three times we tried, and kept getting blinking code red flashing on our leveling system pad. Did the old "if all else fails, reboot" too. Calls in to Jayco and Lippert (the manufacturers of the jacks) and it looks like it's repair time. Jayco is in Middlebury, and we are headed to Indiana at the end of the week, so we will try to get our jacks straightened out and the awnings replaced. In the mean time, we can have our slides out as the front and rear jacks are ok, so we are settled in for two nights at the Texas T Campground in Cornerstone, TN. Great reviews for this park and really nice staff.

It's a small park,  40 sites, gravel and level, and big rig friendly. If you are over 40 feet like we are, you are automatically assigned to a premium site which is longer and a little more money. Nice spacing between the sites. Nice picnic tables, great, friendly staff. We are here for two nights while we visit with Eldy's daughter and family. They have several discounts available, and with Good Sam's discount, we paid 67.43 before sales tax and occupancy tax, which is charged in TN. (Our campground goal is under 40.00 a night or lots better.) We used to be able to stay in decent campgrounds easily for under 30.00 a night, using commercial campgrounds and our Thousand Trails membership package as much as possible, but campground costs have increased in the last few years since we were full timing before, 8 years ago. (For anyone new to RVing, electric/water and sewer are part of the campground site charge.)

There is decent wifi, too! A little road noise from I-65 behind us, but no problem with AC's running plus a small fan we always have running all night long. They have a tiny laundry room--one washer, one dryer, and the dryer wasn't working very well while we were there. 2.00 to wash, 2.00 to dry. We don't have a washer/dryer on board, even with this size rig, so we are at the mercy of campground laundry facilities.We don't mind, rather, SPARKY doesn't mind, because the laundry cabinet sans washer and dryer, is her craft storage. Isn't Eldo a nice guy for not minding? Everybody nod their heads, please. :-)

PS. We are winning the war with the ants. (see previous post about ants marching.) We left the Alabama campground yesterday, haha!

See you next time at the Jack Daniels Distillery for a tour!