Category Archives: Western RV/Alpine Coach

Gray Water Drip

Amarillo Ranch RV Park was nearly filled to capacity over the Labor Day weekend (map). Lots of grills were cooking on Sunday although most people stayed indoors to beat the heat. We didn’t grill on Sunday – Donna made shrimp fra diavolo on the induction cooktop instead. Served over whole wheat angel hair pasta mixed with zucchini noodles, it was outstanding.

Shrimp fra diavolo over angel hair pasta

On Monday morning, we saw rig after rig pull out of the park as people headed home and back to their workaday lives. We started the day with a treat. Donna cooked up a frittata – which is an Italian egg dish similar to a quiche without the crust. Donna filled it with bacon, potato, mushrooms and green onions and topped it with extra-sharp cheddar cheese and fresh basil. Yummy start to the day.

Frittata for breakfast with fresh cantaloupe

A while back, I noticed our sewer hose had damage. It looked like it had been stepped on or maybe hit with a mower. The three-inch hose is reinforced with a steel wire coil inside the polyolefin hose. The steel wire was kinked near the end. I use Camco Rhinoflex sewer hoses because of the heavy-duty construction. Anyway, when I dumped the gray water, the hose had sprung a leak near the end where it had been kinked.

On Monday afternoon, we rode the scooter to Walmart. Donna bought groceries and I bought a new Rhinoflex sewer hose. We had a full load on the scooter coming back home. I took the old hose to the trash dumpster and set up the new one. I opened the gray water valve and saw water dripping from the fitting on the RV end of the hose. I closed the valve and disconnected the hose. I loosened the locking ring on the bayonet fitting that attaches the hose to the RV drain. I made sure the bayonet fitting was fully seated in the hose end, then tightened the locking ring. I opened the gray water valve again and saw water dripping from the fitting. I looked closely and saw the problem. The fitting is made from two pieces of plastic swaged together to allow the fitting to swivel. This one was defective and leaking where the two pieces are joined together. I’ll have to return it and try another. I’m not having much luck with sewer hoses.

Later, I fired up the Traeger while Donna marinated chicken thighs in sriracha sauce and lime juice. We had plenty of open space around our rig as the park had really emptied out. I cooked the bone-in thighs skin side down for 45 minutes on the Traeger wood pellet fired grill/smoker. When I took them off the grill, Donna basted the chicken with equal parts honey and sriracha and let them rest for a few minutes. This was a new recipe and it was very tasty – you have to like spicy for this one though. Donna served it with a side of colorful cauliflower rice, another new recipe.

Honey-sriracha chicken thighs

Speaking of eating, Ozark the cat has an incredible appetite. We put nearly a quarter cup of dry food in her dish in the morning. We refill it in the afternoon. By bedtime, she’s crying for more food. Donna is concerned about her getting fat. I think she’s still a growing and developing kitty – she’s about nine months old now.

Does she look fat?

We had a few raindrops overnight – hopefully it knocked some of the pollen out of the air. The ragweed pollen count has been very high and I’m feeling it.

Today I’ll return the sewer hose and run a few errands. This afternoon, I’ll take Donna to her hair appointment and have a look at the RV museum at Jack Sisemore’s Traveland.

Just Another Day

I mentioned the wind in my last post. There was a comment questioning the decision to relocate on a windy day. I’d like to clarify the situation.

We were heading west and there was wind out of the south at about 20mph. This isn’t extreme, but it’s noticeable for sure. When the wind is moving perpendicular to the direction of travel, the driver of a high-profile vehicle needs to continually adjust and compensate for the force of the wind. This can make driving mentally and physically taxing. That was my point. Twenty miles per hour wind didn’t keep truckers off the road and we saw other motorhomes traveling as well.

At this time of year, high wind seems to be typical for the area – we’ve had 15-20mph wind every day since we arrived in Amarillo. Along the north side of I-40, east of Amarillo, we saw wind turbine generators. These are usually placed where there is sufficient wind on a regular basis to power the turbine.

Google file photo of wind turbine generators

On Friday, I did some maintenance on the coach. I sealed the seams in the living room slide-out. I sealed the driver’s side bedroom slide a while back. I still have one more slide to seal to complete the job. Over time, the caulking can crack – this can allow moisture to intrude behind the fiberglass. It’s an item that needs to be checked occasionally – just like caulking windows in a sticks-and-bricks home.

Donna prepared a whole chicken by lightly coating it with olive oil, then spiced it with salt, pepper and granulated garlic. I cooked it on the Traeger wood pellet fired grill. A five-pound chicken usually takes around 70-75 minutes to cook. I was inside the coach when I saw a neighbor standing in front of the grill. I got up to see what he was doing, but he walked away and went inside his travel trailer before I got out the door. I’m not sure, but I think he may have opened the grill to see what was happening inside. I went out and saw the temperature had dropped about 50 degrees, so I’m fairly certain the door was opened.

The dry climate here allowed the chicken to cook a little faster than I expected. It came out fine, but I’ll have to adjust my cooking times for dryer climates. Donna made vanilla-maple-bourbon acorn squash mash to go with the chicken along with asparagus. She picked up the squash while out walking in Gettysburg one morning after spotting a pile of squashes with a “Free” sign out at the end of someone’s driveway. (She also grabbed a pumpkin and still deciding on its fate.)

Roasted chicken with maple-bourbon sweet potato mash

Roasted chicken with vanilla-maple-bourbon acorn squash mash

On Saturday, we rode the scooter to the Golden Spread Farmers’ Market at Sunset Center. Most of the produce there is grown on family farms within 70 miles of Amarillo. It was smaller than we expected, but that may be due to the time of year. We kicked around and bought sweet corn, fresh basil and miniature yellow squash.

Amarillo farmers’ market

Lots of fresh melons

We rode through the historic Route 66 section of downtown. This area is about a mile long and has many antique shops. It was quiet on a Saturday morning and we didn’t stop to shop.

Last night, I grilled bacon-wrapped petite filet mignon on the Traeger along with fresh corn on the cob. Donna served it with baked potatoes. What a yummy meal for the Labor Day weekend.

Speaking of Labor Day, tomorrow is the holiday. Labor Day is a working man’s holiday, first celebrated in New York on September 5th, 1882. The following year, it was again celebrated on September 5th. In 1884, it was decided the set the Labor Day holiday on the first Monday in September and that tradition has held for 131 years.

Other than watching the Formula 1 race and making a run to the store, I have no plans for today or tomorrow. I hope your Labor Day weekend is a good one. Since I’m no longer a member of the workforce, Labor Day is just another day for me.

Against the Wind

We pulled out of Time Out RV Park around 9:30am yesterday and left Chickasha, Oklahoma heading west on US 62. Our route took us on US62, then north on US281 and west again on OK152. These were two-lane highways through cattle ranch and oil drilling country (map). The narrow road surface was mostly smooth with a few rough sections. The hard part of driving this route was the wind. We had wind coming directly from the south. On the westbound highway, I was buffeted by strong crosswinds. This is very tiring in a high-profile vehicle.

We hit I-40 after two hours in Sayre, Oklahoma. I topped up our fuel tank at the Pilot/Flying J travel center there. Diesel fuel was $2.31/gallon with my RV Plus discount card. I was already tired but had a few hours of driving ahead of me to get to Amarillo, Texas. The wind was relentless as we headed west into Texas.

The surroundings changed as we moved along. All day we were going up and down short, rolling hills. The net result was a gain in elevation as we went uphill more than we went down. In Texas, we were no longer looking at trees in the landscape, we were on the short grass plains now. The rolling hills disappeared and we gradually climbed all the way to Amarillo which sits 3,600 feet above sea level.

Our original plan was to stay in a RV park east of town that had a Passport America rate of just $12.50/day for an unlimited stay. Further research on Google Earth and RV Park review sites changed our mind. The place was basically an open dirt lot with hook-ups. We booked a week at the Amarillo Ranch RV Park. This place looked pretty good online – I’ve found that online pictures tend to make places look better than reality (map).

When we checked in, I was pleasantly surprised to find the park is nicer than it appeared on the web. We’re in a level, gravel pull-through site. We’ll spend a week here recharging after being on the go since we left Lake George, New York. Donna has a hair appointment next week with a stylist that was recommended to her. We have some important mail sitting in South Dakota that will be forwarded here. I also have a few maintenance items to attend to. We’ll take in a few sights while we’re here and get some of the local flavor.

After a week here, we plan to head into New Mexico where we’ll explore and kick around for three weeks before we go to the annual balloon fiesta in Albuquerque.

Onward to Aux Arc

It was very quiet overnight at US Army Corps of Engineers (COE) Cherokee Park. I slept soundly and we were up early. Ozark the cat was a ball of energy by 6am, racing around in the coach and finally climbing over Donna for some morning snuggles.

The wasp stings Donna suffered on Monday were red and swollen Tuesday morning. I rubbed Benadryl cream on them and she took a Benadryl tablet. She went out for a walk while I finished my blog post. I looked at routes for our short relocation. We wanted to go to another COE park near Ozark, Arkansas (map).

We programmed a route in our Rand McNally RVND 7720 GPS affectionately known as “Nally.” She rarely steers us wrong and I like the feature that allows us to input details of our rig such as height, length, weight and propane capacity. Our routes are calculated to avoid any restrictions due to size, weight and propane.

We chose a route that kept us off I-40 and we followed Arkansas State Highways through rural countryside and small towns. We were only going 80 miles, so the extra time wasn’t an issue. Once again, Ozark the cat traveled peacefully, sleeping in her crate.

As we drove through Morrilton, Donna spied a liquor store and asked if we needed to stop. I didn’t see any convenient parking and passed it by. I didn’t have any beer in the refrigerator, but I thought we would find a place to buy beer along the way.

We drove through stretches of hay fields and small towns with populations of two to three thousand. I didn’t see any stores that sold alcoholic beverages. As we approached a much larger town, Russellville, we saw convenience stores but none of them had beer signs. I was beginning to fear the worst – could we be in a dry county?

We found a Walmart in Dardanelle and stopped. Sure enough, no alcoholic beverages there. I asked a guy in the store and he said we had to go west to “Nublin” or get on I-40 toward Little Rock to exit 101.

I don’t get the dry county concept. It seems everyone knows exactly where you have to go to get alcoholic beverages and the dry county loses out on the sales and tax revenues. When people have to leave the county to make a purchase, who knows how many other purchases they make in the adjoining county?

Our route was taking us west, so I kept an eye out for the beer store he mentioned in “Nublin.” We were on AR22 driving next to Dardanelle Lake which is a reservoir created on the Arkansas River. We crossed into Logan County from Yell County. A few miles later, I saw the New Blaine beer store. In Arkansas, apparently New Blaine is pronounced “Nublin.” We made a quick stop and I have beer on board.

As we drove along, we saw areas where people appeared to be living on the brink of poverty and then occasionally, we would see well-maintained homes on estate-type properties. As we approached the town of Paris, Arkansas, I was astounded to see the Subiaco Abbey and Academy on the hill to the north of us. It looked like a medieval castle. It was built by Benedictine monks in the late 1800s. Here’s a link to a Wikipedia page.

In Paris, we turned north and made our way on CR309 to the COE Aux Arc Park. The name is interesting. It’s near the Ozark National Forest and across the lake from the town of Ozark. Early French explorers noted this area as Aux Arc on their maps. Historians differ on their opinion of the origin of this name. Some say that Aux Arc means Big Bend and it refers to the bend in the Arkansas River. Other say it translates to Big Bow and is a reference to the Quapaw Indian tribe in the area that carried exceptionally long bows. The name became anglicized as Ozark as that is how the French pronounced Aux Arc.

When we pulled in, we found this COE is run much more like a commercial RV park. There was a check-in lane and office where we paid $20 for a 50 amp electric and fresh water site. They had site maps and gave us a choice of sites. Since we’ve never been here before, they advised us to go to the “E” section and choose a site, then call and let them know what site we’re in.

We’re right on Ozark Lake which is a reservoir created by the COE Ozark Jeta-Taylor Lock and Dam – it extends 36 miles and has shoreline which includes bluffs and tree-lined beaches. Down river from here is Dardanelle Lake. We are loving the COE experience. The US Army Corps of Engineers owns and operates more than 600 dams in the USA and provides recreational access – including camping – at many sites.

The campsites here are all paved and mostly level. There are 64 sites, some with 50 amp power service, others with 30 amp.

Our shaded and spacious site

The sites are well-spaced and offer easy access to the lake and views. Some of them are open and sunny, others shaded by trees.

This is tonight’s windshield view

Speaking of windshield view, I noticed just before we left Tom Sawyer’s that our windshield has a large crack on the left portion of the driver’s side. I’m guessing that the pounding we took on I-40 east of Memphis started the crack and it grew from thermal influence or when I leveled the coach. The crack is about four feet long now, but doesn’t hinder my vision. When we’re stopped in one place for more than a week, I’ll see about getting it replaced.

Donna’s wasp stings seemed worse after we set up. I applied more Benadryl cream and she took another tablet. I’ll keep an eye on it. The Benadryl tablets make her drowsy. With the heat and humidity here – the temperature hit 91 degrees with more than 50% humidity – we weren’t up for much activity. This is not a comfortable climate for us. Neither of us like high humidity – we can stand the heat when it’s dry, but humidity is hard to take.

View northwest of the Arkansas River - lake

View northwest of the Arkansas River/Ozark Lake

We’ll continue west through Oklahoma and take a week’s break in Amarillo, Texas where the overnight temperatures are lower and the daytime humidity is bearable. Donna has a hair appointment there with a stylist who was recommended to her when we were in Mesa, Arizona. We also need to request mail forwarding.

Alternate Route Across Arkansas

Donna didn’t sleep well Saturday night and woke up not feeling so great on Sunday – she thinks she may have overdone it in the heat on her bike ride Saturday. She managed to go out and visit with our neighbors, Lester and Jo Ann Foreman – the people with the Vixen I wrote about in my last post. Then she pushed herself to take her a walk through the trails surrounding Tom Sawyer’s RV Park.

When she came back, I noticed a barge tow slowly making it’s way upriver. The tow was only four barges lashed together, but it was being pushed upriver by the smallest tow boat I’ve seen on the Mississippi. I wrote about the Mississippi barges in this post. The small barge tow was only moving at walking speed – in fact, I think I walk faster than it was moving. With the water level of the river so low, most of tows have been smaller than what we saw in the spring.

Donna pointed out another small tow boat, identical to the one pushing the barge coming downriver. I went outside and snapped a few photos as the new arrival made a 180-degree turn and lined up next to the tow boat to help it upriver through the bend.

Smllest tow I've seen on tahe Mississippi

Smallest tow I’ve seen on the Mississippi

Helper tow boat making the turn around

Help has arrived

I organized the trailer and loaded the Traeger smoker/grill and scooter. Later I watched the Moto GP race from Silverstone in England. In typical English summer weather, rain began falling on the track just as the riders went out for the sighting lap. The start was delayed as everyone came back into the pits to switch to a wet set-up motorcycle. The race was very entertaining, but I won’t spoil it in case a reader has recorded it for later viewing.

When we were here in June, I meant to take a photo of the high water mark from May 2011. In April of 2011, storms in the Mississippi watershed had the tributaries flooding and filling the Mississippi River. Spring runoff from snow melt also contributed to second highest water levels recorded on the Mississippi in the last 100 years. The river crested at 48.7 feet in Memphis. This building in Tom Sawyer’s RV Park, which sits on higher ground than our site, shows just how high the water was. Here’s a photo.

That’s how high the park was flooded

On Sunday night, it was my turn for a fitful night trying to sleep. The pollen levels are so high, my allergies kept me awake much of the night. On Monday morning, we packed up and pulled out of our site a little before 10am. I had mapped a route to take us west on Broadway in West Memphis. This road becomes highway 70. We turned north at AR147 to get to US64. I wanted to avoid I-40. We knew from our trip last June that I-40 from West Memphis to Little Rock is horrible.

Just before we reached US64, we stopped as a train slowly crossed in front of us. I saw it slow down, then stop. There were two tracks, but the engines were stopped 150 yards past the switch. We wondered if he was waiting for another train to pass, but it didn’t make sense. With the engines and several cars past the switch there wasn’t a way for another train to reach the second track. I shut off our engine and Donna and I talked to while away the time. After about 10 minutes, I heard the train cars banging and jolting. The train was reversing back the way it came. The engine came past the switch, then cleared the road. I started our engine just before the barrier rose in front of us and we were on our way again. I have no idea what the train stopping where it did was all about. Train transportation logistics are a mystery to me.

US64 was a mostly smooth road with only a few rough sections. Again, it was slower going as we passed through small towns. Most of time we were in farm country with lots of soy bean fields and sorghum. We were only going about 200 miles. Our destination was an Army Corps of Engineers (COE) park near Morrilton, Arkansas (map).

Park entrance

We followed a narrow, winding road through a residential area, then found ourselves at Cherokee Park on the Arkansas River at Arthur V. Ormond Dam and Lock. The dam is operated by the COE and they also provide a recreation area including campsites. There are 32 paved sites with electricity and water. The water quality is questionable. I ran water from our spigot and saw pieces of vegetation coming out of the tap. Good thing we left West Memphis with a full fresh water tank. The cost for 50 amp electrical service is a reasonable $20/night.

We circled the park and chose site A15 at the east end of the park. This site is a long, level back-in site next to the river. There was one problem though. They placed the power pedestal at the extreme rear of the site. I worked around it by backing the trailer to the end of the pavement, centering the short concrete stop barrier and putting the trailer onto the grass. Having done that, I still needed the full 35′ length of our 50 amp cable to hook up to power.

50 amp cable fully extended

Donna and I walked through the park back to the entrance. We didn’t see any check-in instructions or way to pay for our site when we arrived. We couldn’t find anything on our walk either. After I came back to the coach, Donna decided to walk another lap. When she came back, I saw her by the picnic table outside. Suddenly she was screaming and calling me for help. She was being swarmed by wasps nesting under the table and got stung twice before I could get her into the coach. I had one hit me in West Memphis last night.

View from our doorstep – watch out for wasps

O dam - lock on the far side of the river and the power generator is out of view to the right

Ormond dam floodgates – lock on the far side of the river and the power generator is out of view to the right

Arkansas River on the edge of the park downstream from dam

This was our first time staying in a COE park and we didn’t know the procedure. About an hour after we set-up, the camp hosts drove up and greeted us. They took down all of our pertinent information in a log they keep and gave me an envelope to pay at a drop box when we leave. So, that’s how it works at a COE park.

While we were driving down the road this afternoon, Donna had jambalaya cooking in the slow cooker. It smelled so good! It was an amazing dish that Donna said was quick and easy to prepare with wholesome ingredients.

Jambalaya from the slow cooker

Once again, Ozark the cat traveled peacefully sleeping in her crate. We’ll move on today to another COE park in her namesake town – Ozark, Arkansas.

Vixens and Brisket

While Donna was out on her 28-mile bike ride yesterday, I saw a unique motorhome arrive near our site at Tom Sawyer’s Mississippi River RV Park (map). It was a 1986 Vixen. I’ve only seen this model coach once before. After they set up, I walked over to their site and asked if they minded me taking pictures of their unique coach. They were happy to have me take pictures and even gave a tour of the rig.

The owner’s name is Lester and he told me the engine was bad and not running when he bought the rig. The original engine was a turbocharged 2.2 liter BMW diesel. Lester says the coach is underpowered with that engine. He replaced it with a 3.9 liter Isuzu diesel. He says it has plenty of power now and it gets 22 miles per gallon. When I saw one of these in South Dakota, I didn’t realize the roof pops up. I said at that time that the low ceiling would be a deal breaker for me. These coaches were built from 1986 to 1989 in Pontiac, Michigan and were ahead of their time. The design was refined in a wind tunnel at the University of Michigan. This link has a complete description.

1986 Vixen with roof popped up

Lester’s 1986 Vixen

Lester is an active member of the Vixen owners’ club and attended their national rally in Frankenmuth, Michigan last year. He organized this year’s group rally which will take place beginning September 15th at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.

My big project yesterday was an attempt to smoke a Texas-style beef brisket. I looked at a lot of recipes and information online. It seemed like everyone has their own unique way of making a perfect brisket. A lot of the information was conflicting. I combined some of the common themes and adjusted a recipe. One of things I had to account for was the fact that I was cooking a three-and-a-half pound hunk of flat (HOF) brisket, not a whole packer brisket. This site will tell all you want know about brisket and more.

I started by placing the brisket on a rimmed cookie sheet and seasoned it with Stubb’s Bar-B-Q spice rub.

Dry-rubbed brisket

I let it sit for one hour, then I fired up the Traeger wood pellet fired smoker/grill. I had the Traeger set to the smoke setting and filled it with hickory pellets. The smoke setting is different from the thermostatically controlled temperature settings. The smoke setting is a timed release of the wood pellets. The auger feeds pellets for 15 seconds then stops for 65 seconds before it feeds pellets again. This creates smoke and the temperature runs about 200 degrees.

I left the brisket in the grill on the smoke setting for three hours. I made a mop baste by combining a cup of beer with two ounces of apple cider vinegar and a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. I put the baste in a spray bottle and sprayed the brisket every hour while it was smoking.

After three hours, I wrapped the brisket in foil, spraying it liberally with the mop baste before I sealed up the foil. I set the Traeger at 225 degrees and left the lid closed for the next three hours. After six hours of cooking time, I took the foil-wrapped brisket off the grill, rolled it up in an old towel and placed it in the microwave oven. I didn’t turn the oven on – I let the brisket rest in the oven. By wrapping it in a towel and confining it to the microwave, it continued to cook as it slowly cooled. After 30 minutes, I took it out of the oven and unwrapped it.

Brisket revealed with a nice, crusty bark

I sliced the tip off it and saw a quarter-inch smoke ring. It was very tender.

Nice, pink smoke ring

I cut the brisket across the grain into 1/4″ thick slices. Donna served it with garlic smashed red potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Tender, moist smoked brisket with garlic smashed potatoes and brocolli

Tender, moist, smoked brisket with garlic smashed potatoes and broccoli

The dinner was delicious – the brisket came out better than I imagined it would. Now I have a new favorite to grill up.

It was hot and humid out yesterday, so I spent most of the day indoors reading. Today we expect the temperature to reach 90 again with high humidity and thundershowers around noon. Hopefully it’ll cool off enough for me to get started on loading the trailer. We’ll continue heading west tomorrow.

Closing the Loop

We opted to stay for a second night in the campground at the Meriwether Lewis National Monument. The free campsites are clean and the scenery is terrific with good hiking opportunities. It’s also very quiet. On Thursday, Donna hiked on the Old Trace trail which is part of the original Natchez Trace. The trail took her past the Meriwether Lewis Monument which is his final resting place near the Grinder stand.

Natchez Trace – wide enough for a wagon

Click to enlarge if you wish to read

Fenceline on the Old Trace

Meriwether Lewis Monument in the background

Meriwether Lewis Monument

Click to enlarge

Grinder house

For dinner on Thursday night, I grilled a pork tenderloin on the Weber Q. Donna had marinated it in a mojo marinade. She reserves half the marinade to pour over the meat after cooking. It’s one of our favorite ways to prepare pork tenderloin and, as usual, it was tender and tasty. She served it with brown rice and roasted peppers, onions and zucchini.

Pork tenderloin with rice and roasted peppers and zucchini

Pork tenderloin with rice and roasted peppers, onions and zucchini

On Friday morning, we packed up and headed down the Natchez Trace Parkway about 16 miles, then we turned west at US64. This is a divided highway with two lanes in each direction. I wanted to avoid I-40 and US64 seemed like a good alternative. There was very little traffic and the road surface was mostly good with only a few sections of construction and rough road. It was slower crossing Tennessee on US64 due to all of the small towns. We drove through Waynesboro, Savannah, Boliver and a few smaller villages before we stopped at Walmart in Somerville (map). We stocked up on groceries, then continued down the road.

US64 hit I-40 about 10 miles east of Memphis. It was immediately apparent that US64 was the way to go. It’s an embarrassment and disgrace how our government has allowed the federal interstate highways to deteriorate. The potholes, cracks and uneven surfaces on I-40 make it barely drivable.

We crossed the Mississippi River and entered Arkansas where we had booked a site at Tom Sawyer’s RV Park. We stayed here the first week of June. Since then, we’ve completed a 4,000-mile loop that took us north to Minneapolis, across Michigan’s upper peninsula, then down through Michigan and east to upstate New York. From there we went down through Pennsylvania and Maryland, across Virginia and finally back to Tennessee. Whew – we saw a lot and had some great adventures over the last three months. Along the way, we picked up a stray cat and also added a Traeger grill.

One big difference we found here in West Memphis this time around is the Mississippi River water level. When we were here in June, the water level stage was 15 feet. When we checked in yesterday, the stage was three feet. There’s a sandbar creating an island right in front of the park. This wasn’t there before. There are fewer barges on the river as well. I’m guessing the low water level makes navigation treacherous.

Sandbar in the river

Last evening, I took a walk in the park to look at the river. Our site has us facing the water only a stone’s throw away from the river. While I was out, I saw a 2012 Newell coach. The owner, John, and his son-in-law, Lee, were sitting outside. A 2012 Newell is a million-dollar coach (it was probably over $1.5 million new). I stopped and talked to John. It’s always interesting to hear the success story behind owning a million-dollar rig. John’s story was much like many I’ve heard since we’ve been on the road. He started out 38 years ago as the sole proprietor of a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) service company. He had one truck and one employee – himself. He worked hard and established commercial contracts as well as residential service customers. Then he added a second service truck and employee. He continued to build his reputation and business. Today, he has 66 trucks and nearly 200 employees. He’s enjoying life and seeing the country while his son runs the day-to-day operation of his business. I love hearing how hard work, perseverance and being able to make the most out of an opportunity pays off.

John and Lee sitting outside John’s Newell

Radiused corners on the Newell slides

One of the things that tip off a high-end coach like a Newell or Prevost are the radiused corners on the slide-outs. These rounded corners allow the use of pneumatic slide seals. Once the slide is out, the seals inflate making an airtight seal. Before the slide is retracted the seal deflates and the slide moves freely.

We decided to stay here for three nights before we move on westward. Donna has been mapping routes to keep us off I-40 and finding places to stay as we make our way to New Mexico. She went out this morning to cycle the scenic and quiet 28-mile loop she rode several times earlier this summer.

Last night, Donna prepared pan-seared wild Alaskan salmon. She served it with the left over side dishes from the night before. Delicious!

Pan-seared salmon

Today I’m going to try my hand at smoking a beef brisket. Donna bought one the other day – it’s something I’ve never done before. I’m hoping the Traeger wood pellet fired smoker/grill makes it easy to do.

Natchez Trace

Yesterday morning, we walked across the street to Cracker Barrel for breakfast before pulling out of the Opryland parking lot. We had a quiet night with no disturbances. Our plan was to head south down the Natchez Trace Parkway to the Meriwether Lewis National Monument (map). The monument is operated by the National Park Service (NPS). It’s located just east of Hohenwald, Tennessee and features a free campground with paved roads and 32 paved sites.

Ozark the cat got comfortable on Donna's pillow before she made the bed and we headed out

Ozark the cat got comfortable on Donna’s pillow before Donna made the bed and we headed out

Our route took us around the south side of Nashville on I-440 then south on I-65. We stopped in Franklin at the Walmart to stock up on groceries. Then we detoured west on TN840. This route took us over the Natchez Trace Parkway and we had to loop back to Leipers Fork to access the parkway.

The Natchez Trace is an old forest trail. Some say it’s existed for centuries as a game trail. It was used by native Americans and became a major trail for commerce in the 18th and 19th centuries. The trail runs some 440 miles from Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi and traverses the northwest corner of Alabama.

Thomas Jefferson wanted to connect the Mississippi River frontier with settlements to the north. In 1801, the US Army began blazing and improving the trail. Early settlers in the north referred to as Kaintucks would float their goods down the Mississippi River in flat boats to sell in Natchez. They would sell their goods and their boats and walk the 440-mile trek on the Natchez Trace back north. In 1810, it’s estimated that 10,000 Kaintucks walked up the trace to start another river journey. This led to commerce on the trail. Trading posts commonly called stands appeared. Settlements formed along the trace.

The development of steamboat traffic on the Mississippi river made it easier and cheaper to transport goods. In the late 1800s, the Trace lost its importance as a trade route.

In 1809, Meriwether Lewis, who along with William Clark explored the upper Mississippi and the Northwest, was governor of the Louisiana Territory. He was traveling up the Trace to meet with Thomas Jefferson when he died near Grinder’s Stand. There’s much controversy surrounding his death. It was officially ruled suicide but many believe he was murdered. I read a great historical novel – a work of fiction that incorporates factual history in the story – about the Lewis and Clark expedition and Lewis’ death. I read the book about 20 years ago. I looked for it online but can’t find it. I think the title was Who Killed Meriwether Lewis.

The Natchez Trace Parkway is a paved two-lane highway that follows much of the original trace. There’s limited access – only about 50 access points along its 444 miles. We didn’t realize that at first, but found the access points on the Tennesee map we picked up at the visitor center. The road is operated and maintained by the National Park Service. No commercial vehicles are allowed and the speed limit is 50 mph. The road surface is in great condition. It’s a scenic drive with many historical markers and scenic overlooks. We saw a few gangs of wild turkeys along the road and had two whitetail bucks run out in front of our rig, requiring me to brake hard.

Overlook on the Natchez Trace Parkway

I had looked at Google Earth the night before to see what the Meriwether Lewis National Monument looked like. I was leery of pulling into a park that wouldn’t allow us to get turned around and back out again. The satellite view of the campground was obscured by trees but I could see the main road had a turnaround loop at the end. We pulled off the parkway and entered the monument. When we reached the campground entrance, Donna suggested pulling over in a turnout by the entrance and walking through the campground to check it out before pulling in.

The paved roads through the campground are tight with lots of trees along the sides. There are 32 paved sites, some back-in and some pull-through. Most aren’t level. The sites are well spaced with lots of trees and vegetation separating them. There are two loops. The first loop has 13 sites and was totally unoccupied. The second loop is larger and has a bathroom (no showers). There were only a few campers there. After looking around, we thought it was doable and liked the look of site 8 which is a back-in and site 14, a pull-through.

I backed us into site 8 with Donna directing me with a handheld Cobra CB radio. The site was too short for us by a few feet – once I backed in far enough to clear the road, our slideouts were too close to trees. We pulled out of there and moved to site 14. We easily fit our 56-foot overall length in this site.

Site 14

Donna went out for a hike on a trail that leads from the campground to the original Natchez Trace. She was out for about 90 minutes and said she would not recommend the trail for inexperienced hikers or anyone nervous about being alone in the woods. It had a few water crossings and seemed to vanish in the underbrush at times. She returned covered in cobwebs as well as scratches on her lower legs from prickly vegetation. But the trail did lead to some beautiful stretches of river. Here are a couple of pictures from her hike.

Water crossing on the trail

Little Swan Creek

A park ranger came by later and stopped to chat with us. The park is very clean and quiet – it’s hard to believe it’s free. There are no hook-ups although there is a water spigot between our site and site 15. A reader commented on yesterday’s blog that they had just pulled out of this campground and said the water is really good here.

View from our doorstep

I grilled turkey burgers on the Weber Q for dinner. With the special sauce, they were very tasty on toasted onion rolls.

Last night was very dark and quiet. I slept soundly. We’ll hang out here for another night before we head west.

Nashville Talent

On Monday morning, Donna went for a power walk from our site at Nashville Jellystone Park (map). While she was out walking toward the Two Rivers Campground and the Nashville KOA, she saw the downtown shuttle pass by and came up with a plan for the day.

She thought we should roast a whole chicken for a late lunch – kind of a dinner for lunch plate. Then we could take the shuttle to downtown Nashville and see the sights. Sounded like a good idea to me, so I unloaded the Traeger wood pellet fired grill and found a problem. We had traversed some rough roads, especially on I-40 through Knoxville. The Traeger had obviously been bounced around and one of the door hinges came off. The screws had vibrated out and the door was askew, the other hinge was loose. Luckily no real damage was done. I found the screw and nut and reassembled the door.

Donna prepared the chicken by rubbing it with olive oil, salt, pepper and granulated garlic that she bought at Brooks BBQ in Oneonta, New York. She went to the pool for a quick dip while I fired up the Traeger and roasted the chicken. It comes out so moist and tender on this grill – it makes the best chicken you’ll ever have.

Roasted whole chicken hot off the Traeger

Earlier I had scootered over to the Opryland Resort and Convention Center. I wanted to get a look at the bus/RV lot that Donna found mentioned in the Escapee’s Day’s End Directory. The directory said that free overnight parking could be found there. I rode all the way through the lots at the Opry Mills Mall and back through the resort. I saw dedicated bus/RV parking near the Mills, but it was clearly marked “no overnight parking.” In fact, every lot I looked at was posted. On the way back to the campground, I saw another lot at a strip mall that had two RVs and a couple of tractor trailer rigs in it. It looked like it would be fine for dry camping – a big lot and no signs prohibiting overnight parking. The downside was the slope of the pavement and the lot was empty during the day, but there were several bars, restaurants and the Willie Nelson museum in the area. I didn’t know what it would be like at night.

We had reserved two nights at the Jellystone Park for half price on our Passport America discount rate – two nights for $75. A third night would cost another $75. I’m trying to average my costs down by finding free or low-cost sites as we move west. Our trip through the northeast was expensive – we’ve been spending like we’re on vacation. But we wanted to stay one more night in Nashville if we could.

Anyway, the shuttle picked us up at 3pm. There were two other couples already on board from the other RV parks. We made one more stop at a nearby hotel where three women boarded. The drive to downtown took about twenty minutes and the driver talked non-stop, giving advice on what to see and where to eat. The shuttle costs $10 per person for a round trip. The return trip is actually free – they pick up on the bottom of the hour (4:30, 5:30, 6:30, etc.) at the Country Music Hall of Fame. They don’t issue tickets – they work on the assumption that you must have already paid the $10 if you are boarding to go back to the Music Valley area.

Donna and I wanted to check out the music scene on Broadway. There are a few street musicians and many clubs and bars with live entertainment. Most of the places on Broadway don’t have a cover charge. The musicians play for a small fee paid by the bar and tips. They are hoping to get “discovered” by a Nashville recording studio.

Our first glimpse of Broadway was at the corner of 4th and Broadway at the Honky Tonk Central (map).

Honky Tonk Central

We walked east on Broadway and made our first stop at the Broadway Brewhouse for a cold one. I had a Tennesee-brewed IPA that was pretty good and Donna sampled and then went ahead and ordered a Tennesee-brewed stout that was really good. After leaving there, we continued east on the south side of the street and crossed over to the north side at 2nd Avenue. We saw a man with a trumpet, microphone and small amplifier on the corner. He had backing tracks playing through the amp from his smartphone and was singing “What a Wonderful World.” This guy had Louis Armstrong down. It was uncanny – Donna thought he was lip syncing at first. We hung around for a few songs and dropped some money in his trumpet case. He chatted with us before we moved on. He was a super-nice guy and very talented.

This guy could impersonate Satchmo

We walked back west on Broadway, stopping in a few shops to look at western hats and cowboy boots. We stuck our heads in a few bars to see who was playing but we wanted to get a look at everything before we sat down somewhere.

A friend of Donna’s suggested we stop at an off-the-wall place in Printer’s Alley owned by her friend. It’s an English-style pub called Fleet Street Pub. We found it a few blocks north of Broadway. Printer’s Alley is a little off-beat for Nashville, but it has history and charm. We stopped at Fleet Street but the friend of Donna’s friend wasn’t there. Donna chatted briefly with her husband.

Printer’s Alley

We found a blues club in Printer’s Alley and went inside. A very talented guy was on stage playing Mississippi Delta blues – more specifically he was playing songs by the blues great Leadbelly. He took a short break and came over to where we were sitting. His name is Fritz and he was really friendly. While we chatted with him, a woman who was sitting next to us went up on stage and played the keyboards and sang. It was so cool – these talented musicians are all over the place. After a couple of songs, Fritz joined her and they did some songs together. Fritz was playing a cheap knock-off Chinese guitar, but in his hands it sounded great. Then he picked up a saxophone and wailed on a song accompanying the woman at the keyboard (we didn’t get her name).

Fritz making music

We wandered back to Broadway and started our pub crawl. We would stop in a place that had live entertainment. If the band caught our fancy, we would order a drink and hang around for a few songs. Other times we listened for a few minutes and moved on. In one place there was a duo that shined. One of the guys guitar playing style reminded me of Stephen Stills. Donna put in a request for Homegrown by Zac Brown. They didn’t really know the song, but they looked it up on an iPad and immediately played and sang a very good rendition. I was blown away.

We finally came back to the Honky Tonk Central for our last stop of the night. It’s a three-story building with a bar and stage on each floor. We stayed on the first floor where one of the hottest bands I’ve heard in a while was playing. The guitar player was amazing and the sound he was getting from his Dr. Z amp was unbelievable. I haven’t heard tone like that since the Joe Bonamassa concert we went to a few years ago.

Hot band at our last stop

By then I’d downed enough beer and it was time to find the shuttle home.

On Tuesday morning, I got busy re-organizing the trailer – again. I’ve had the Traeger grill in the very back of the trailer, behind the scooter. Donna thought it might be getting a rougher ride back there than it would in the front. I bought into her logic – I could see how the trailer might whip up and down behind the axle over bumpy sections. I took everything out of the right front, next to my tool chest by the side door. I rearranged that stuff and then lifted the Traeger into that area and strapped it in place. We’ll see if it rides better there.

I took my time – check out time was noon and we were only going a few miles. We had everything packed and I fired up the engine at 11:50am. We drove to the lot I had found the day before. There was a bus conversion RV and tractor- trailer rig as well as another semi-trailer parked in the empty lot. We claimed a space between the tractor-trailer and the semi-trailer.

Donna and I walked to the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. On our way, we saw the lot that was mentioned in the Day’s End Directory. It was marked RV/Bus and Trailer Parking. I had missed this lot on my reconnaissance run earlier. I had passed by it on the west side where there’s a private lot being used by Bridgestone Tire and Rubber Company for high-performance driving classes. I thought the whole area was for Bridgestone.

We walked into the RV/Bus lot and didn’t find any signs prohibiting overnight parking. These signs are posted in all of the other lots on the huge Opryland complex. This lot was level and looked to be very quiet. After some debate and walking back and forth across the lot, we decided to go back to the coach and move it across the street to Opryland. While the lot we were in looked to be a sure thing, I was a little apprehensive about how things might go in the night. It wasn’t level and all the bars in the area could mean lots of noise and the possibility of people getting out of hand in the night.

The RV/Bus lot only had a handful of cars in it and one big truck in our section. The next section over has had a number of tour buses coming and going. It’s very quiet and level.

The Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center houses the largest atrium I’ve ever been in. It has waterfalls and a stream running through it. It’s filled with tropical plants – so many were in bloom that I had an allergy attack. A big New York Life Executive Council meeting was happening there. We wandered around. Donna wanted to take the boat ride in the stream that’s inside the hotel complex, but when she saw it cost $9.50/person, it didn’t seem worth it. I couldn’t capture the grand scale of this place, but here are a few pictures.

Fountains in the atrium

Stream inside the hotel

Boat rides through the atrium

Donna in front of a waterfall in the atrium

We went to John A’s for dinner, it was only average food at best. Then we stopped at Nashville Palace to take in some live music. Once again many people that appeared to be regular customers got up on stage to join in for a number or two. Lots of talent here. Our overnight spot turned out to be quiet with no troubles.

Today we plan a short trip down the Natchez Trace Trail to the Merriwether Lewis National Monument. We found free dry camping is available there and we hope to take advantage of it before we head west to Memphis.

Fill’er Up

In my last post, I mentioned filling our fuel tank with 50 gallons of diesel fuel at the bargain price of $2.22/gallon on our way to Nashville. If you follow this blog, you probably have noticed that I often mention topping up our tank with 40 or 50 gallons of fuel. We have a 100-gallon fuel tank, so why do I top off the tank so often? There are a number of reasons.

First of all, I’m the type of guy that likes to have at least a 1/4 tank of fuel in my vehicles at all times. You never know what may come up and stopping for fuel in an emergency situation – like driving someone to a hospital – doesn’t make sense to me. In our motorhome, a quarter tank of fuel isn’t enough. Our Onan 7.5kW Quiet Diesel generator draws fuel from the same tank that supplies our Cummins ISL diesel engine. The generator fuel pick-up is a stand pipe that extends approximately a quarter up into the tank. This means the generator can’t draw fuel if the tank is less than 1/4 full. This is by design – it prevents the operator from running the tank dry with the generator. That way when you dry camp, you’ll always have enough fuel in the tank to drive to a fuel station.

Another reason is moisture in the tank. Diesel fuel is hygroscopic. This means it will attract and hold moisture. The air space in the tank will have a certain amount of moisture in it, depending on temperature fluctuations and humidity. By keeping the tank full or nearly full of fuel, the air space is minimized and less moisture is present. Our main fuel filter is also a water separator. Water stays in the bottom of the filter where there’s a valve to periodically drain any water collected before it can get to the fuel injectors. I check ours from time to time, but I’ve never had a noticeable amount of water in the filter.

When I fill our tank, I treat the fuel with Biobor JF. When moisture is present in diesel fuel, microbial contamination can occur. There are hydrocarbon-utilizing microbes that thrive in the fuel/water interface. They live in the water and feed on the fuel. Biobor is an economical way to combat this. It also adds lubricity to the fuel. Since Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) was mandated and and implemented at the end of 2010, diesel fuel doesn’t have the same lubricating properties it had before. ULSD has 15 ppm sulfur, previously it was 500 ppm. Fuel companies are supposed to blend lubricating additives in the fuel, but I like the peace of mind knowing that the Biobor adds lubricity.

Most of the time, I buy diesel fuel at a Pilot/Flying J travel center. I like knowing that I can pull into the trucker lane and have plenty of room to maneuver. I’ve read that most RV collision insurance claims occur in gas stations – people try to maneuver a large rig in a tight space and end up hitting something. I also like the high-speed nozzles at the trucker lane. I can pump 50 gallons in less than 5 minutes. I have a Pilot/Flying J RV Plus card that is a fuel credit card. I swipe the card at the pump – it automatically adjusts the price to seven cents below the advertised cash price and I can pump up to $1,000 of fuel. Most fuel stations will only allow $100 on a credit card. It’s a pain when you have the swipe your card, then go inside and give your card to the cashier to complete the fill-up.

Lately, I’ve been planning ahead for fuel stops. I have an app on my phone called TruckerPath that shows me all of the truck stops along my route. I also look at a web site called TruckMiles. This site shows daily average fuel prices by state. We’re in Tennessee now and will head to Memphis in a couple of days. We’ll probably overnight in West Memphis, Arkansas like we did on our way east. TruckMiles shows Tennessee diesel fuel prices average 10 cents/gallon less than Arkansas – so I should fill my tank before I leave Tennessee and enter Arkansas.

The last thing I look at when I plan my fuel stop is the Pilot/Flying J fuel price chart. I look at their prices and I also pay attention to the column showing the intended bio blend. Nowadays, a lot of diesel fuel is blended with bio-mass based fuel – it’s not all petroleum-based. Our generation (CAPS era) Cummins ISL engine is approved for up to 10% bio blend. The Pilot/Flying J chart shows the intended blend ( I think this is lawyer speak as they don’t guarantee the exact percentage). Bio blended fuel is noted with a “B” number – B5 is 5% bio, B10 is 10% bio and so on. Bio content in the fuel adds lubricity, but bio-mass based fuels are less stable than petroleum-based fuel. They also are more prone to attract and hold moisture. My preference is for B5 or less bio content. In some areas, such as Minnesota, it’s hard to find diesel fuel that’s less than B20. Again, by filling my tank when it’s half full, if I have to pump B20 into my tank, I’m cutting the percentage down by mixing it with the existing fuel in my tank.

That’s probably more than you ever wanted to know about filling up with diesel fuel. But if you read this far, it may help you decide where and what fuel to put in your tank.

We’ll head into town today, but first I need to get on the roof and reset my satellite antenna for the western arc satellites. I wrote about that here.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Western RV/Alpine Coach

Gray Water Drip

Just Another Day

Against the Wind

Onward to Aux Arc

Alternate Route Across Arkansas

Vixens and Brisket

Closing the Loop

Natchez Trace

Nashville Talent

Fill’er Up

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