Baton Rouge

Our first "Walmart" stop and it was not to bad, we know why they do it we spent four times as much as a park would have been! To be honest we were nervous to start with until four other RV's pulled up. We bought a fresh pizza from Walmart and just put it in our oven, it was real nice, nothing like you get back home from Woolies. So we heated our pizza and turned all the lights off opened all the blinds and had a red wine as we people watched, you have to remember Walmart is open 24 hours so we also had a security guard to keep us safe. So a free nights stay and only a 15 minute drive to the dealer to get the shower fixed.
Me taking Rose out for pizza in a Walmart car park


We pulled into the dealer right on opening and were first in line, we explained the problem and they were onto it. In the meantime we checked out all the other new fifth wheelers, mmm they were great next time I could be tempted to go bigger! They had a special on to install some Maxair vent covers which had been recommended to us so we got them installed while we were there, now we can leave the roof vents open even if it rains and no panicking if the weather changes while we are out.

We arrived at New Orleans just on dusk and our first impressions of the park were a shock to say the least. We thought our GPS had taken us the wrong way as we headed down a bumpy concrete road into what looked like a disused industrial area, well it was, my first thoughts, bloody GPS, second thoughts where can I turn this thing around! So we kept going and found the entrance to the park, very nice indeed, but still nervous. We go to the nice new office, raised of course as the park is on the "other" side of the levy. We were met by a very cheerful and lovely girl who welcomed us, now we are thinking, this will be ok. We got the full run down of the park and we were impressed, security gates, a restaurant and bar and a shuttle bus to the French quarter. We booked in for 3 nights.

We were guided to our site by a young bloke Sean, he said to let him know if we needed anything as he would be around. We set up and start planning what we would do for the next 2 days.
The view from our lounge room


Next morning a quick walk around the park and we bumped into Sean, I asked about filling our gas bottle, no worries before we got back he had picked it up, filled it and returned it to our site, what great service, this bloke loved his job and was great to chat to. Sean even picked up our garbage, you just put your trash out by ten and he picks it up and takes it away, a first for us in and RV park.


I wanted to go to Baton Rouge to see the home of the show called "Sons of Guns", this is a show on Foxtel where they do stuff with guns, they are armourer's by trade and my son who is also an armorer and I watch this show. Well we set of on the 60 mile trip along the interstate through the middle of New Orleans, just past peak hour and we are doing 60 mph through the city, keep up Ron, I'm doing 60 and I am the slowest truck on the highway! The drive was amazing, one section of the road is actually 22 miles of raised road, like the Hornibrook bridge in Brisbane but it goes for 22 miles crossing the low swampy land of Louisiana.

We found Red Jacket Firearms and met a security guard who quickly told us no one was around as production was finished but there was a shop front two doors up. We looked around the shop and who walks in but Kris and his wife Stephanie from the show, a quick intro and a photo and I am happy.


We jump in the truck and two seconds later Rose says, hey isn't that Will Hayden the owner, quick as a flash I am out of the truck and ask for a photo.


Photo done and I am real happy, even have the T shirt to prove it! So we drive around Baton Rouge for a bit then head back to New Orleans.

Driving home we are met with a traffic jam due to an accident on the "high rise" we think this is the highest part of the freeway, nothing to do but plod along.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Louisiana

White Sands Part 2

So yesterday or was it the day before I can't remember, I don't even look at the our day clock anymore a fellow camper mentioned a place called Morrison Springs.
Yep, we have a day clock!


His comment was you will see plenty of white sandy beaches but not to many fresh water springs, fair cop, so we ask where it is and how far?
So we set off for Morrison Springs about an hours drive away, we leave and the rain starts coming down, in fact it buckets down but we push on. Finally the rain goes and the sun pokes its head out, thank goodness, we did not have our jackets.

We arrived to see several "divers" preparing for dives. There are many fresh water springs in Florida and its a big attraction for divers. Morrison Springs reportedly has caves ranging from 100 ft to 300 ft deep. We were not sure what to expect but we were not disappointed! The water was crystal clear, it was just amazing. We watched for several minutes and saw bubbles rising to the surface not sure if it was the springs or the divers? Finally we saw movement and realised it was the divers far below.



We watched and were truly amazed that the water was so clear, so clear we could not gauge the depth further out. As the divers came to the surface they would pull the respirator out and we could hear the excitement in their voices saying how clear and fantastic the dive was. It was truly an oasis in the middle of the swamp.



Next stop was to be Panama City which was in a south easterly direction from where we were, we jumped into the car and off we went. Driving the country roads was a great experience, the Interstate roads are wide and efficient but to do the country roads gets you into the "other" places. Feeling hungry we stopped at a local place for some lunch, just what is termed a "ma and pa" type place. The southern deep fried chicken had just been cooked so we opted for it, one to share with two sides, we chose green beans and baked beans for $6.99 glad we chose to share there was plenty.



So back on the road to Panama City we followed the road along the Gulf and there were some amazing houses to see complete with grandpa's whiskers by the tonne hanging from the trees. We did a drive by tour of the city did not find anything big to make us stop so we headed back on interstate 10 back to Destin.


It was a great day and we saw plenty. The next day our new found Canadian friends, Jon and Eileen were heading of, a sad day for us but that's RVing, people come and go and your friends accumulate, we swapped Facebook pages, emails etc.
The next day was a slow start and a late walk on the beach with the monotony of the walk broken by a stop at the beach bar, what a relief, we ordered two "grasshopper" cocktails and sat and watched the sunset across the gulf.


Tomorrow we set off to Pensacola to get the tap leak fixed in our shower, we will drive till we are close, then park in a Walmart car park for the night, that way we can be there for their 8 am opening.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Miramar Beach, Destin Florida

White Beaches

Due to our late departure from Oak Mountain we did not arrive at Destin until dark. Tom the owner of the park gave us great directions and we were glad he did, if you blinked you would miss Arnett Lane which is where the park is located. We signed in and using our Passport America card we got a 50% discount straight up, we paid for 3 nights but Tom blocked out 5 as we indicated we might stay longer, and of course we did. Other parks in the area were charging up to $120-00 a night we were in for a quarter of that. The park even has concrete slabs for your trailer and annex and of course 30 amp power, water and sewer.

For those of you that remember Tom Cruise in Top Gun he was stationed here and there is an Air Force base close by, in fact those typical water tower with the county name is close by.



We backed in and did our set up in the dark, we must be getting better as it was quick and efficient with no hiccups, so we were happy. We fired up the BBQ and yes a red wine in hand and had dinner ready in no time at all.

We awoke the next morning to a cool wind but we were only two blocks from the beach so a walk was in order, we needed it! We walked for about 90 minutes and checked out what was around.

As we were sitting right on the Gulf of Mexico we were keen to try some seafood so we headed to the local seafood place called "Shrimpies". We came home with a box, yes a box of fresh oysters, on ice. We got 4 dozen for $18-00, ok, we had to shuck them ourselves but hey that's part of the experience, I had never done it before so we bought a "shucker" and home we went to indulge ourselves in these tasty morsels.



By late afternoon we had met our neighbours Jon and Eileen and their dog Monty, and were sitting outside (yes it's now warm enough to do that) having a drink and talking. Come dinner time we were informed by Jon that Eileen had organised dinner for us also, we were very appreciative of the gesture and had a great night talking. They are from Canada so we, of course had many questions to ask and they asked many about Australia.


The next morning was a bit overcast so we decided a drive into Destin proper to check it out. We had a look around went to the "boardwalk" which was very quiet. The the usual little ticket offices selling dolphin tours etc but we were not interested, a dolphin is a dolphin and we were not into forking out big dollars to see one swim by the boat so we drove home by the beach. The Destin beach area is lined with numerous high rise apartments which seemed to be empty, well it is winter here after all. We are informed come summer it's full and very busy.



So by the afternoon it was once again "happy hour" and we were having a beer and gas bagging to Jon and Eileen. Eileen was cooking a chicken and needed a baking tray, ha, we have one of them so we offered up ours. It was then promptly followed up with another invite for dinner, yep we are in but we will do the veg, deal, so another night of fun. We were introduced to Canadian "ice" wine, very expensive but very nice, it's things like this that make meeting people such a great experience.

We had spoken to another couple who said there is a place called Morrison Springs nearby which is worth a visit so tomorrow that is where we are off to.

- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Miramar Beach near Destin, Florida

Alabama And Still Heading South

Our drive to Oak Mountain was uneventful and we arrived mid afternoon, we checked in at the entrance and the bloke says, I would recommend these 3 sites so drive around and take your pick, so we did. It was like goldilocks and the three bears, that one is to remote, that one is not level but this one was just right, so site 48 was ours, we just had to let him know which we took.

So we are into it, first , levelling the trailer side to side, then front to back, I get the satellite dish up, Rose is busy putting slides out etc, then a 30 foot RV pulls up and a woman gets out and scratches her head, Rose and I both looked at one another and thought the same thing? Did we tell them we took site 48, and were these people looking for the site we were in? I asked them were they looking for site 48?,yep they were, bugger! Much apologies offered on our part. The site was a pull through site which was their preference as they were towing a jeep and they could not back up we felt really bad. Offers to drive them around in our truck to find an alternative site
was greatly appreciated and taken up. We were so lucky these ladies were great to talk to and understood what had happened, and of course they were interested in our journey as we were with theirs. We found another site and off they went, phew, I suppose if they really pushed it we would have had to move, but these two lovely ladies understood and worked with us.
Oak Mountain site



There were plenty of tracks in this park, something for everyone, walking, mountain biking and horse riding. We were obviously going to do some walking but we needed to get our truck serviced, yeah I know the dealer was supposed to do it but not sure if they "really" did it so for peace of mind we would get it done. That was the first thing to be done plus a visit to Camping World to get our surge protector. So off we went and no trip would be complete without a stop into Walmart. As we left Walmart Rose spotted a "drive through" oil change place, yep drive through. We have drive through ATM's, drive though pharmacies so why not a drive through oil change place. So we pulled in, picked a lane and within 2 mins they were dropping the oil, including the transmission. We had the fuel filter replaced plus the usual minor things they do in a service. We sat in our truck and chatted while all this was being done, it felt weird! We watched him put nearly 12 litres of oil in the engine! Ok service done we did not even have to leave the car, cost $241-00 we were happy with that.

Next stop, Camping World and as previously stated its a great place to spend money. Whilst we were there we met the Camping World "ambassador" these are people who represent Camping World at rallies and other functions, sounds like a dream job for a retired couple! I quickly pointed out how happy we were with all our online purchases. She was greatfull for this positive feedback. Whilst there we made arrangements to return and have one of the technicians to check our electric brakes I still was not 100% confident they were correct. A quick stop at Lowes, similar to Bunnings for some silicon and back home.

The next day was bush walking day so off we went, not to early but it was light and not to cold. We settled on a 5 mile walk which was great it circumnavigated a lake which was beautiful and still. It's funny the places you meet people and our walk was no different. A bloke heading the other way with his dog stopped to chat. Once he realised we were from Australia he said, "Well welcome to the USA I hope you have a lovely time here" and this is not the first time we have heard this, the Americans we have met have all been very friendly and welcoming.
It was so calm we could not resist throwing a rock in.





So our walk complete and as its a travel day tomorrow Rose will catch up on the washing as we prepare to hit the road once again. We do the usual of pre packing to save time the next day as we have to stop at Camping World and drive about 230 miles. Will, the tech checks our trailer brakes and calibrates them and we are on our way, thanks Will I feel more confident braking now.

Florida here we come.



- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Oak Mountain State Park, Alabama

Ever Evolving

We have been in our trailer for a month now and it's surprising how much there is to learn and do. The last time we hired an RV here for seven days, its pretty much you get what you get, use what you have and hand it back in, that's it, no real work or maintenance to be done from a personal point. For us now it's different we must learn to care and maintain our trailer to get the best out of it.

Fellow RVers are a great source of knowledge and ideas, remember some of these people have been traveling the country full time for years, and I mean years, one couple we met have been on the road for 12 years! After several discussions with people we realised we were missing a vital piece of equipment, that is a surge protector. This sits in line between your power pedestal at the park and your 30 amp lead to your trailer, this way the whole trailer is protected. Now I had read about these items but I just baulked at the cost, close to $300-00, however as someone put it, you get just one surge or brown out of your power from the park and you could burn out your, fridge, air conditioner, TV or any other electronic equipment. Ok, point taken its first stop Camping World the best one stop place for any, RVing equipment, not so much camping equipment as we know it but more like RV gear.
The surge protector is not small


Camping World is just like a Bunnings for handymen, you go in to get one thing and you come out with a trolley full, even Rose is getting into it! So where do we start. Ok Rose see's a dust pan, in the trolley it goes, next was some anti freeze, no not car stuff this is specially made for putting through your RV water pipes to stop them freezing. Next, oh look a small foot stool for Rose, why? So she can see in all the cupboards, yep they are that high. Next some spray on stuff for all the rubber seals on the slide outs this will keep them soft and pliable, and then came the big ticket item, the surge protector. We grabbed someone to explain the different types etc. Basically he said if you don't have one your mad! In the trolley it goes. So all in all another few hundred dollars lees a $90 discount for being Good Sam members and we are away. Oh I forgot, some 100% silicon to fix a small wound on the trailer I caused by catching the trailer on the truck tool box, ok not big, but don't want any water ingress problems. I reckon before we even left Australia we were one of Camping Worlds best customers, now we don't have to do it online we get to do it in person.

So I have installed the surge protector, I have been on the roof to apply the slide out rubber protectant. Rose has re stacked the cupboards now she can see in them.

Two things I forgot to add is, a tyre pressure gauge and some fuel stabiliser. Ok, tyre pressure gauge, its much easier to check the tyre pressure on the trailer here in the park than attempt to manoeuvre the trailer into a garage just to check the pressures, so a must have. Because they use ethanol in the fuel here it tends to go "off" after about 30 days so to counter this you add fuel stabiliser to it, not a problem for our truck it's diesel, but the generator fuel is unleaded so we need to add it.

So we are really building up our maintenance tools, we now have a tool box which keeps growing but it all helps us to be more self sufficient. Other things to do is run the generator regularly to keep the battery charged, yep we opted for the electric start generator, it's better than yanking on a pull start! We have also invested in a torque wrench and socket, it's vital to keep an eye on the wheel nuts on the trailer, why? Because its a four wheel trailer tight turns puts a lot of stress on the wheel hubs so for $20 cheap insurance, we don't want to be remembered as those dumb Aussie's that watched their wheel fly down the highway!

We have also been to a lumber yard to get wooden blocks, these make stabilising the trailer easier and saves you having to run out your jacks to their full extension.

We will learn much more as we go, that I am sure off.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Oaks Mountain State Park, Alabama

Day Trips

Our first night was going to be a cold one, confirmed by George, I was worried about our pipes freezing. I had read on forums that by putting a high wattage light in the basement area (where all our water pipes are) that it would keep the area warm enough to stop the pipes freezing. I was discussing this with George and he asked if we had lights to do the job? Umm no we don't, he then offered one he had but it was a tad large. He then said he was going into the hardware store to get paint, I quickly asked if he would grab me a light for our basement area, no worries, thanks George he was onto it. He returned with three options for us, I used two 75 watt lights that night and it worked, that and my previously impromptu insulating job had got us through, no frozen or broken pipes that night.

Insulating our pipes in the basement area.


Our first day and first visit was to Nashville, that's why we were here, the country capital of the USA if not the world. So we headed into Nashville and headed for the old downtown area as this is where it all happens. Parking was easy and what we thought was pretty cheap so we headed off to the visitors centre. We walked around the area and past the many bars with budding musicians playing in them, and it was only 11am. We "happened" upon a bar called "Layla's" the music was playing and beer was a dollar a can, I'm in! You have to remember these are not some hip night clubs, but what appear to be rather run down shop fronts, bare bricks, graffiti on the tables and in the loo, but it had a good atmosphere so we went all out and grabbed two beers. We enjoyed it so much we were there almost two hours.

The Jones's were playing


We then went to another "World Famous" bar called Tootsies, I kid you not it was around well before Robin Williams made the movie. We had a beer and nachos, $20, if we were staying we would have gone back to Layla's better prices, better band, and better atmosphere in our opinion. Ok we were done home we go.

The next day was a visit to the town of Franklin in TN, and of course first stop is the visitors centre, there we met a delightful young girl who on hearing us speak said, "keep speaking I love your accent". We said what accent? We were informed that there was a plantation house called Carnton built in 1815 nearby, which played a significant part in one of the deadliest battles of the civil war which occurred on November 30th 1864 at 4pm, exactly 148 years to the day and we were doing our tour on that day and hour! John our guide was the best guide I have ever seen or heard, he was so passionate and knowledgable I didn't wander from a single one of his words.

The part this house played was it was converted into a make shift hospital and they crammed upward of 300 injured soldiers into its 8 rooms, including a number of operating tables, planks on trestles! Outside was teeming also with wounded and many died of exposure over night. The battle ended up with 9,500 casualties, 2000 dead, 6,500 wounded and a 1,000 missing all in five hours of battle. There are still blood stains on the floor near where the operating table was.
Carnton Plantation House



The Slaves Quarters




We really enjoyed our tour and Nashville visit but we must move on, yesterday we had our hosts, George and Jane over for a BBQ as a way of saying thanks, and today, Sunday we are off to Birmingham Alabama for a few days.



- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Nashville and Franklin Tennessee

Boondocking

Before we left on our journey we had spent many hours on the Internet checking out forums etc. Rose came across one forum which got a referral to a site called "Boondockers". Boondocking is best described as free camping and this new site was designed to connect fellow RVers. The site puts like minded RVers in contact with one another, that is I have a spot in my yard that I am willing to let you use for free. Length of time, age group, generators etc are at the discretion of the person advertising. We signed up and our Nashville stop was to be our first time at this type of boondocking.

We checked out spots around the Nashville area and came up with a town called Pegram, about 20 miles out of Nashville which was ideal. Through the web site we emailed our prospective landlord and within a day we had a phone call and arrangements were made including some great directions as the GPS route was rather narrow, great first hand knowledge from George our host. We arrived mid afternoon met George and Jane and he showed us the site, it was beautiful he was on 5 acres of tree studded land. He has a 30 ft RV and is able to turn around on the site so I figured I could, wrong! There was no way I could do it so I backed up the 200 metre, tree lined driveway, I must say I impress myself sometimes, with expert guidance from Rose on the walkie talkie we had it done, and to top it off and to confirm my expert reversing skills we backed the trailer back down again to our site. We set up and we were done, boondocking here we come.




As Rose and I sat and had a drink, I said to her "this feels funny, I feel like we are squatting" we laughed and agreed it was weird. We then went up to the house to better introduce ourselves to George and Jane. We were their first guests and they were nervous just the same as we were. I know what they were thinking, what if these Aussies are strange, what if they have two heads, well justified as we were thinking similar things, hey we could just pack up and leave, they would have to front us and say, "hey we don't like you, so pack your crap get get off our property". Anyway our first sit down and chat was great George and Jane are lovely people and as they didn't say "see ya" we assumed we had passed muster.

The idea of this process is that they are not our local guides or babysitters, it's just a place for us to park for free. We are very mindful not to interrupt their day and to be considerate and respect their hospitality. We were so lucky, we were provided with water and power for which we were truly great full. We had struck gold on our first boondocking experience, thanks George and Jane for trusting us and inviting us into your home.



- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Pegram, Tennessee

Pigeon Forge Part two

Our decision to not go into town on Sunday was a good one but we decided to do a couple of other things, firstly we went to the Great Smokey Mountains National park to check out what walking tracks were within our fitness levels. The other thing for us (Rose) to do was the clothes washing, I am no chauvinist but my sweet Rose has taken to feeding quarters into the washing machine and dryer with such zeal, I dare not interfere!

We went to the National Park and the Ranger station has the usual displays and it's interesting to see they have similar problems to what we have in Australia, that is introduced pests. One of the big ones is a bug that has all but wiped out the "ash" species of tree, such a shame. As its winter most of the trees are bare of leaves and we always comment to one another how beautiful it would look in summer and autumn.



We got the information we needed on walking tracks and would return on Tuesday to do one.

Monday we went to a place within the National Park called "Cade's Cove", we had heard about this place from a number of people and wanted to see it for ourselves. On bloke even said he had seen a bear! We set of at a reasonable hour and it was truly a beautiful drive up, we stopped many times to take photos and admire the scenery. You must keep in mind that the temperature is only just above zero so every exit from the truck required a fleece to be put on.



This next photo was taken at 11am and the ice was still there in the afternoon when we returned. The longest one was about 40 cm long.




We arrived at Cade's Cove to find its a one way loop road with many signs saying "if you want to pull over be considerate and use the lay bay spaces", well obviously no one reads them, this was going to be a very slow 9 mile drive with people stopping randomly in the middle of the road. Now we have not been here to long and we have seen our fair share of dear, they are like kangaroos, they pop up everywhere, including in your headlights towing a 30 foot fifth wheel! Anyway we are in this Congo line of cars and they keep stopping to look at these dear, not on the side of the road but half a mile into the distance, so small in fact you almost needed binoculars to see them. This goes on for miles and I keep saying to Rose I hope this stop is for a bear, nope another dear! Then salvation for Ron a sign saying basically a left here will shorten the drive by 4 miles, a quick turn of the wheel and we are out of the Congo line, yeah ha!

Another left and we are back on the main loop and yep you guessed it in another Congo line of cars which are stopped in the middle of the road! I said to Rose I hope this is for a bear and not another dam dear! Bingo the bloke in front says there is a bear in the woods walking towards us, fantastic I am like a mad tourist swapping lenses on the camera for that all elusive "bear"shot.



Here we see our first wild bear and to be honest he didn't seen to give a toss that there were 10 cars of people snapping his photo, he was more interest in the walnuts that had fallen on the ground, that good for us.

Ok we got our bear shot let's go, yep a few mores stops to look at those lovely dear and we are free to head home. All in all a great drive and we got to see what we came for.

We awoke the next morning to pouring rain and a quick look at one another said no bush walking today, we pulled the doona up and went back to sleep. We can't help the weather. Tomorrow we head off for Nashville Tennessee the Capitol of country music, we are wondering if we should drop in on Keith and Nicole?



- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Pigeon Forge Tennessee

Pigeon Forge Part One

We arrived at Pigeon Forge in the mid afternoon after a slight detour to Camping World at Knoxville TN, and yes i missed the entry, BUGGER! I will have to stop missing turns! So we checked out the parking lot at the local church a couple of miles up the road and back to Camping World we went. At Pigeon Forge we were met with a massive traffic jam! Although it was Friday, the day after thanksgiving there was lots of traffic in Pigeon Forge. We picked Pigeon Forge because it was close to the entry to the Great Smokey National Park, that was about all we knew about it. As expected people made a long weekend of it and took Friday off to. After attempting to book into one RV park with no luck we found one a little bit further down the road called "Eagles Nest". It's part of the Passport America club so five nights with full hookup, power, water and sewage, Wi Fi and cable TV for $97 for 5 nights including tax, great value.
All set up at Eagles Nest


Now Pigeon Forge is not what we expected. With the opening of Dolly Partons, "Dollywood" many years ago, Pigeon Forge has been transformed into a tacky strip of theatres, amusement centres, $10 gift shops etc but the people love it and flock here annually. We were amazed at the amount of traffic and the number of people here. The Main Street through Pigeon Forge is 6 lanes wide so it's not a small road by any standards. We found out that they run a "trolley" bus covering most of the places of interest so for a mere 50 cents you can get to most places of interest. So Saturday we decided to make use of this service so we drove to the Old Mill which is the terminus for the trolley service. We got on the trolley bus, paid our money and then the driver announces that due to traffic the round trip will take upwards of 2 hours! 4 people got off, they had a show to go to in an hour. The driver said the trolley was a great way to see things, and we agreed especially since I did not have to drive, but sitting in the one spot looking at the same thing for extended periods of time was not what we had in mind! Several hours later we got back to our trailer and said, we are not going into town until Monday when every one has gone, so Sunday would be a catch up day doing not much except going to the "Dixie Stampede" show.

The traffic was bad



Saturday night was the coldest night we have had so far, a low of minus 4c to a high on Sunday of plus 3c. We were somewhat unprepared for it but did what we could, I drained the fresh water tank completely, left a tap on a fast drip to help stop the pipes freezing but to no avail by 2am all was frozen including the water supply from the park. We were lucky that we did not burst a pipe, so we will be making better preparations for the next time. The next morning talking to others around the park also said it was a very cold one and many had made more preparations than so I picked their brains for some tips. Dwight next door had even gone to Walmart on Saturday night and bought insulation to put around his water pipe but the hose still froze solid!
Even the taps froze solid


We went to the show which is pretty similar to the "Outback Adventure" on the Gold Coast, it follows a them with horses riding in and out of the arena. It was fun as it just been reformatted with a Christmas theme added. Dinner was eaten with your fingers, a whole small chicken each, piece of pork, potato, corn cob. It was a good night entertainment. The street outside was alive with Christmas lights as well.






- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Tennessee

Cumberland Falls

We only had to drive an hour and a half to our next stop so a real easy run. We followed our trusty GPS but had been informed by the park staff most GPS's get it wrong so follow their directions, so we did. One thing I am mindful off is missing a turn off as its not the easiest to do a U turn when your 48 feet long, well bugger me I missed the driveway into the park!! So we had to drive another couple of miles down the road to find a spot to do a U turn and back we went again. We got to the park and set ourselves up all OK , fired up the heater and thought about what we would do over the next few days. We were the only ones in the park so Ron won't be chatting to fellow RVers.

The next day we went to Cumberland falls and did I check of what walking tracks were around, we found 2 that we were keen to do, one of 4.5 miles and one of 1.5 miles so about 9.6 Klm all up and that includes hills! We decided we would start fresh tomorrow morning giving ourselves plenty of time to appreciate the walk.

Cumberland Falls


We then went to a town called Corbin the home of KFC, this is where the Colonel opened his first shop and made his millions, he obviously did not leave many of this dollars in Corbin it's seemed like a rather modest place.

Tomorrow is thanksgiving, so in keeping with the when in Rome do as the Romans do we decided to have a roast chicken and vegies not a 20lb (9kg) turkey, so it's of to Krogers. So thanksgiving for us will be roast chicken, roast vegetables and a glass of select red wine from a box.



The next morning at 6.30 am it's still dark and I motivate Rose to get out of bed and be ready to leave by 8 am. We have breakfast of porridge and a cup of tea and we are off. It's only a short drive to the "trail head" and by 8.30 we are on our way, the first mile is all up hill! Being new to bear country we attempt to keep one step ahead of them by frequent stops to listen (catch our breath) and then keep going.




We completed our first walk and headed straight to the second one at 1.5 miles to Eagle falls, not as spectacular as Cumberland but a nice walk all the same.



Our walks completed and its back to our trailer for a hot shower and our roast dinner, the sun was warm and enjoyable, we sat and moaned to one another how sore we were but what good athletes we were. I put the Weber on and got our dinner going, poured a red wine and sat in the sun and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.

Next morning up at a reasonable time as I wanted to visit my favourite store Camping World at Knoxville.



- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Kentucky

Renfro Valley

Our first destination was Renfro Valley in Kentucky and we chose this rather than heading easterly as the highway seemed a bit better than heading east. We did this mainly as a precaution due to my lack of experience with fifth wheel driving. It did not take us to long to get there which gave us plenty of time to set up etc. The park was just off the interstate so it had easy access, as we we were booking in we were advised the water in the park was off as the pipes had been freezing and bursting, great we now had to find someplace to top up our fresh water tank. We went up the road to a "Wendy's" restaurant found a tap and topped up.

We then grabbed a "sandwich" which is a burger, not sure why when you buy a "burger and chips" it becomes a burger but by itself it's a "sandwich" I'll leave that alone. As always the young girl behind the counter was encouraging us to speak as she stated "I love your accent" followed by say this and say that, all very nice but also funny. Especially funny when she said say "Samantha" (her name) I said "Samantha" she was so disappointed it was the same.

Ok to the park, we got our levels set, dumped our black tank after swishing it around for the last 150 miles, sounds rather gross but it helps break it all down and hence easy dump and flush when the time comes. We are lucky in that we have a black tank flushing system which makes it easier. Then drop the grey water and that's the dirty bits done. Next plug the 30 amp power in, put the satellite dish out, power it up, 2 mins later we have satellite TV. Rose is so glad we got the self locating dish, me to. In the mean time Rose has the slide outs extended, un strapped the chairs and we are about done.

Renfro Valley is home to the Kentucky music hall of fame and its pretty quiet this time of year, as with most things they tend to shut down during the winters, this was no exception. So not much to do but rest and relax.

We woke to one of the thickest frost I have ever seen, in fact a water bottle we left in the truck had half frozen! We then put our trackies on and went for a walk around the area for about an hour.

Our day trips included the town of Berea, famous as being one of the first mixed race campus's in the country, it is still unique in that students do not pay but must work 2 hours a day to fund their degree. It could be working in the craft shop, to cleaning but that's the way they pay their way.

Our next stop was the civil war battle field of Richmond which had a great display in an old building built in 1810?,that was used as a hospital during the battle. It seems to work like this, the owners flee the battle, the army moves in, the battle moves on the army leaves and the owners return to pick up the bits of their house that is left. Just amazing to walk on the floorboards that have seen so much history in their time.

Back to the trailer and have a wine with our neighbours, Tom and Anne from Canada and listen to their adventures after 8 years of full time RVing then a simple dinner.

We new the next morning would be a slow start and it was, as we were packing up another RV er came to chat, and chat we did, nearly four hours, lucky for us our next stop was not far down the interstate. Jim wanted to know about Australia and we wanted to know about fifth wheeling and the USA. Jim had what I would call the "Rolls Royce" of trailers it was impressive indeed. Full size double fridge doors, LED "mood" lighting, walk in wardrobe, island kitchen bench, yep I was impressed! We swapped business cards and left on a high, with an invite from Jim if we are in Michigan to stop by, I might keep him to that. As expected we are meeting some really fantastic people and our journey has only just begun.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Kentucky

Things learnt so far

Each day brings a new learning for us so some things learnt so far;

Even though the trailer has a furnace buy an electric heater, why use your propane/LPG when you can use the RV parks electricity which you have paid for.

When a circuit breaker goes you need to push it even further to the left to reset it, then switch it back to the right hand side. This stops Ron having a mild panic!

When your ready to head out with the trailer in tow do at least two walk arounds to ensure you have closed, locked, latched, pushed ,shoved and any other action you can think of to make sure you are stowed correctly. The first drive out we left the handrail out, lucky we only went 20 metres before we realised.

Never run the landing gear past its end stop, even a second over will blow a fuse. Yep left the rocker switch on to long and blew a fuse.

Buy extra fuses, but ask if there are any different sizes that you may need. Only one fuse is a mini fuse and we blew it! Walmart trip required.

RV toilet paper is single ply and must be treated with caution! Just an observation so far.

Ensure the black tank valve is fully closed otherwise the "poo" sits in the drain pipe so when you take the end cape off you get a little surprise.

Have a piece of string handy with knots on it designating the width of your slide outs so you know where they will extend to, this stops you having to re hitch and move 6" to clear a tree. This tip was provided by our neighbour in our Renfro Valley RV park.

A satellite dish works great when you put it on the roof of your Trailer, just don't forget it's there.

Blocks of wood are handy for putting under the jacks to supplement levelling and stabilisation.

Leave your taps dripping in sub zero temperatures to stop the pipes freezing.

I am sure we will find out many more tips as we go.






- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Renfro Valley Kentucky

Bardstown and the Jim Beam Distillery

Some shots of our first destination
Even minus 3 could not deter two Aussies from having a BBQ.



This is single batch bourbon


This is the "distilled" spirit, 300 gallons an hour.


What more can I say.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Bardstown Kentucky

Shake Down Trip Complete

We are now back at John's place after our short trip to Bardstown Kentucky and we are pretty pleased with how far we have come.

The drive to Bardstown was a bit nerve racking due to the fact it rained most of the way there, in fact it poured so hard we had the wipers on fast at one point. I was glad we put new wiper blades on last week. So my first drive with the trailer was in the dark, my second was in the rain and we have arrived at both destinations safely.

We programmed our "RV" GPS for our destination and it worked great, it did not take us anyplace where a rig our size should not go so we were glad of that.
As expected the roads are wide here and accommodate our rig easily enough, although I am sure we will hit some tight spots in the future. One thing we have noticed is that roads don't really have a name it's all basically by numbers which works great once you get used to it. For example we travelled on "68" south. It's not unusual to pull up at traffic lights and see six or seven signs showing route numbers going in all directions, confusing yes for a while anyway but it works.

Once on the main highway the posted speed was 70 mph or 112 Klm per hour we sat on 60 mph or 96 Klm per hour. I must admit the fifth wheel trailer is fantastic to tow, no sway it just tracks perfectly behind our truck. Braking is as expected even though we have trailer brakes, just make allowances for stopping distance and all is fine. Our truck has plenty of power being a 6 litre turbo diesel and pulls the trailer up most hills at a comfortable 50 mph without much trouble, I am glad we went diesel and not gas oops petrol.

Bardstown is famous for its bourbon and the many distilleries that dot the countryside. We have been told there are more barrels of bourbon than there are people in Kentucky! Many of them run tours so we went with the Jim Beam tour a steal at just $8 for an hour and a half. You're tour includes seeing how they make small scale bourbon that is one barrel making one batch of bourbon. We then saw the large still, it's about 5 stories high and puts out 300 gallons an hour of spirit and Jim Beam have three distilleries in Kentucky, I'm impressed! We saw the bottling line in production and it can do something like 20,000 cases a day! There are plenty of stats to be quoted, bourbon must contain 51% corn and be made in the USA not just Kentucky and so it goes on. Finished the tour with a tasting not a large taste due to Kentucky laws.

We did a trolley bus tour around town which takes you to all the points of interest, and at $5 each is great value, we were the only one on the bus so we got the VIP treatment. We went to the "drug" store and had lunch, yep drug store, they have milkshakes to and down the back is the pharmacy area.

We stayed three nights in Bardstown and then headed back to Johns place. The trip home was pleasant, no rain although we had to take a detour as the highway on ramp was closed, so we had to go right through the centre of Lexington. A funny thing happened at this point the GPS was giving us directions, we turned down a street and there was a group of un savoury characters sitting on the corner, I looked at Rose and said "I hope we don't end up like that scene in in that Chevy Chase movie where they steal his hubcaps". We navigated our way through town ok, I kept to the centre lane to avoid all the low tree branches, made wide turns around corners just like a truck, hey I'm getting used to this.

We arrived at John's safe and with no damage, we backed up and set up even better than last time so we must be doing something right.

The next thing to ponder is what can we improve on?




- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Manchester OH

A cold sunrise

Our first morning in an RV park.









- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Bardstown KY

Setting up our trailer

- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Manchester OH

Bourbon

Well today we set of on what we called our shakedown trip, a couple of nights not far from Johns, 180 miles in distance. The purpose of this trip is get ourselves sorted in towing, setting up, the roads and many of the other things we need to learn. Firstly the trip, it rained most of the way so challenging to say the least, our RV sat nav worked a treat no wrong turns. We arrived at our RV park to find out a fuse had blown on the landing gear, so unable to un hitch, so into Walmart again to get a fuse, I did buy fuses last week but would you believe this was a small type fuse, so much for being prepared! The upside of this was we found a better park to stay in so it worked out for the better.

Our park is about 500 metres from the Heaven Hill Distillery so we will be checking that out tomorrow. As for the trailer it went great, truck pulled it no problems. We spent the last week preparing our trailer and it has paid off, no breakages or cupboards wide open when we stopped. We have lined all the cupboards with none slip stuff, including putting it in between all the plates. So all in all our trailer preparation has been good.

We arrived at our alternate park to a chilly 4 degrees Celsius, jackets out! No pull through spots here so I did my first reverse park, and we did well, I say we because it takes two to back this thing. One of the best tips I read was to get walkie talkies, we did, and it was great to speak normally to one another rather than yelling to an unseen person. Instructions from Rose were great we were in with minimal problems, I gave my self a 7/10. Not a harsh word said was said between us in this process.

Setting up for the first time was slow but that said it was our first time and we took our time so we could think about things and not make to many errors. The next problem we had was as this is a State Park things are a bit sparse, including the hookups! Bugger our power lead and water hose were just to short, so set the trailer up and off to Walmart again to get extensions for both.

Ok we are done all hooked up, furnace is on, expected temp is -4 Celsius tonight, brrr. Only two things left to do, dinner and a red wine, cheers till next time.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Bardstown KY

How to park a fifth wheeler

- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Mt Orab Ohio

The Journey Starts

Our plane takes off on schedule from Dallas, and thanks to the concierge he takes our bags from our room straight to the baggage check in and advises us we have priority status with American Airlines, this is due to Roses frequent flyer status. This allows us priority check in, baggage and boarding all rather mute when there is only 30 people on a plane that holds 100, with this amount of people on the plane everyone is pretty much priority status.

Dayton is a 2 hour flight and John is there to meet us, we grab our bags and its off to meet our truck. It's parked on the top level about the only place it would fit it was huge! John throws the keys to me and said let's go. A quick walk around and off we go, my first drive, a pretty daunting experience let me tell you it's big. We get to the park and pay station and the first thing we have to do is pull both side mirrors in so we can fit through, now I am worried, that coupled with driving on the right hand side of the road has my head really going.

So it's off to meet our trailer, are we excited, or nervous, in fact both. We arrive at Holmans and meet all the great people I have spoken to on the phone this last several months. Bad news, a slight technical hitch and our trailer won't be ready till the next day. Our hearts sank, however there is nothing that can be done about it, we are offered a hotel but we choose to stay at Johns for the night and will be back tomorrow.

Next day we are there ready to take possession. We spend a couple of hours doing our "walk through" learning as much as we can. I must tell you when we went inside my jaw dropped, it was everything I expected and more! We were over the moon! We are shown how to hitch up and we are ready, oh one more thing, the keys and a $100 fuel voucher for any inconvenience, got to be happy with, thanks Chris, cheers.

So we turn onto the highway in our 48 foot rig or 6.4 metre long vehicle and away we go, am I nervous, you bet and to top it off its dark so this adds to my nervousness. Our truck pulls it with ease steady as you go Ron. Driving down the highway we remember that we will need wine to celebrate the trailer, so now I have to drive into a car park, great nothing like jumping in the deep end. I find a spot furthest from the entrance, no one bats an eye lid as we park taking up numerous spots, it happens all the time as fifth wheelers are pretty common here.

We arrive safely at Johns place and I reverse park it, yep reverse it up close to the house in the dark! I get out of the truck and relax finally, its been a big day to start with.



- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Dayton and Bativia Ohio

USA Arrival

Well we have arrived in the USA, whew! Only one minor incident with our flights. On our day of departure from Brisbane we received a text message at 3.30 am in the morning advising us our flight from Brisbane to Sydney had been cancelled! After rubbing the sleep from our eyes it was onto the phone to Qantas to see what was going on. They attempted to book us on a much later flight saying you will still make your connection, yeah right, a quick calculation in our heads said we would be rushing it to connect, no way were we going to start the trip running from one terminal to another. In the end we got a flight 30 mins later than our original flight. Our first hurdle, and we have not even left Brisbane.

A couple of red wines in the Qantas club Sydney and we were ready for the "long" flight. All the usual departure procedures and we were heading down the runway for our 15 hour flight. As we had booked many months prior we booked our seats after a quick check of the Seat Guru web site. We chose the seats near the back, only two seats wide but in the area where the plane narrows, much more space, they were great plenty of room and only two seats in the row.

We arrived in Dallas mid afternoon some what weary but we were here that was the main thing, next step entry to the US. Now from what we had been told and researched we had a slim chance of a 12 month entry, forget it, with a five year visa you get 6 months and six months only. We would have to re apply by May 2013 no worries it was half expected. The only exception according to the immigration officer was a work visa and it had to be authorised by a supervisor. All our paperwork and preparation to plead a longer stay was wasted effort, oh well we might need it for the re application. One thing to note is when the flight crew issue you with your entry paperwork to fill out make sure if you are using a "non immigrant visa" as opposed to an ESTA visa you advise them, it's another form to fill out and will save you getting kicked out of the long line at immigration to go fill it out.

So now we are in Dallas overnight waiting for our connecting flight to Dayton OH.
Update, waiting for our flight to Dayton, Dallas airport is huge!


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Dallas Texas

The Day is Near for Our Departure

Well after many months of planning and buying online for our trip we are getting down to the actual packing of our bags, I never thought the time would come but it's here. Most of our personal belongings from the house have been packed and put in storage for the next year. Now we are down to clothes for the next ten days and clothes for the next year in America. I am sure we will be buying clothes whilst there but we need to make sure we are not freezing cold from day one.

One final purchase was some plug adapters so we can don't have to keep swapping them around the trailer. A quick check of eBay and there are plenty to buy, just choose one making sure they ship to the USA from China. We figured why ship them here and carry them to the US when we can get them delivered straight to John's, just another package for the mud room.

We purchased our yearly pass to the National Parks, a cost of $80 which is very cheap even includes a hanger thing to clip it on your rear view mirror, very flash.

When we first purchased our airline tickets we were limited to our return date, that is the airlines can only predict so far into the future, so in fact our original return date is Feb 2013. This is a limitation which can't be helped so making an allowance for this, is important as there is a charge to "change your return date". At the present time we are only days away from being able to change our return date to a day in October 2013. I am hoping having this booked before we go will help US Immigration by showing further proof that we in fact will be returning to Australia, not withstanding they won't even let you in the country without a return ticket.

I had read on a forum that having proof of travel insurance for the whole period of travel will help, not that we ever travel without it but important to add this to the ever growing pile of paperwork.

Speaking of which our ever growing list of supporting documentation includes;
Recent bank statements
Rates notice for our house
Travel insurance
Letter of employment for both of us including our position and salary range
Letter from employer showing a breakdown of our leave with our expected return date
A return ticket to Australia
Proof of our money transfers to buy the fifth wheeler, truck and cash for living expenses
Letter from real estate agent showing income from our house
Plus the usual other stuff like photo copies of our passports, international drivers licences etc.

I have also taken electronic copies and put them on the IPad which are then backed up to the cloud so if our Ipad is stolen or misplaced we still have a copy of all our documents, top this off with copies to an USB stick and we are well and truly covered.

The only thing left is our goodbyes to our family and friends and to get on our plane.

My next blog will actually be from the USA, till then watch this space.




- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane

Final Preparations

First week of October and our departure date is nearly here, thank goodness! For the last several months I have spent many hours on the Internet and on the phone to the various people in the USA. One thing I will say, is in every conversation I have had on the phone to someone in the US has always been very pleasant, in fact it's been fantastic. I cannot fault a single one of them, from purchasing our fifth wheel to buying insurance every sales representative has been brilliant. I can't wait to meet them and the many other Americans we are bound to meet.

So now we are counting down the days to our departure not months but days. As expected some final purchases come to mind??

Now we already have a GPS with US maps but Camping World sent me an email with a GPS specifically for RVers. The first question that came to mind is what's so special about this GPS? Well with this GPS you enter your type of vehicle, the length, its height as well as many other details and it will take this into consideration when calculating your route. Now I must admit I am nervous about the size of our rig, and I have a truck licence but I would hate to be cruising along some road and wipe off the top of our 13 ft high trailer (3.9 metre) or having to back up 500 metres to avoid a low bridge, that will not look good for us Aussies. This GPS will also warn you of the many other hazards a large rig must be aware of, so for $225-00 it seemed like a good purchase, thanks Camping World and of course free shipping as we are Good Sam Club members.

So while checking out Good Sam we found a link to a club called Passport America. It was $39-95 to join and you receive 50% off selected RV parks, we figured, use it for two nights and we have our money back in the shopping cart it went.

We also intend visiting the many National Parks around the US and we have used the NPS website on our last trip so now we intend to buy a yearly pass, $80-00 for the year, great value.

Final preparations, mmm not to sure about that. There will always be one more thing?




- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane

Generators

Well we have decked out our trailer with what we think we will need and I am positive we will find more gear to buy but for now we are focused on "power". Our trailer has a 50 amp and 30 amp connection as well as the basic battery system. It has propane (LP gas) hot water,fridge (refer) and stove but we will need batteries for lighting and the furnace fan, and of course there is a limit to the batteries. We have never boondocked before however we are keen to try it once our confidence builds. So this begs the question if we boondock how long will it be for? Our understanding is that the on board batteries will do the basics but for any long term camping we will need a generator. So after much discussion we decide that we will purchase a generator. We are sure we will use it and of course we could wait to buy one later but we do not want to be in the position of "let's go Boondocking" and then spend many hours and countless miles looking for a generator. So let the search begin!

So where do we start? Well first you need to know how much power you need to run things in your trailer. The most power hungry item is the air conditioner on start up, this is the watts needed to "kick" it into gear, but once running the power needed drops significantly. This of course will not be running all the time but it's important to know what size generator you need, my thoughts, plan to need as much power to at least start the air conditioner, after all we do plan to stay at Big Bend National Park. Then of course there are the usual items, microwave, lights etc. There are sites which have tables to advise you of how many watts your appliances will need and in our case we new our air conditioner was 13,500 BTU or 2500 watts at start up.

Camping World was a good place as well as John who provided us with a brand that a friend of his uses, then of course there are forums a plenty. So in the end you have three choices, cheap, middle of the range and of course top shelf! Top shelf are the Honda's and Yamaha's and of course they are great generator's, and there is not a bad word about them, but for us price was a concern.

For us we had to weigh up the cost versus the time of our trip, and to be honest at this point we are not sure if we will sell it all on completion or go back (I like the go back option). So as usual I spent many hours researching generators and to find out some parks won't allow generators over a certain db rating was significant, we don't want to be known as those dam Aussies with the loud generator!

For the Honda we could have gone the companion set, two 2 thousand watt generators linked together for about $2000-00 they run at 58 db. The cheaper what I call the bangers run at 78 db, keeping in mind db has a doubling effect so they are quite loud. Then I came across a generator called the "Boily", now I know it's not made in the good old USA but its price, output of watts and low db made it a good proposition, not to mention it was getting good reviews on forums. I rang Tommy from Bottom Line Trading and he was very helpful, had a brief chat and it pretty much confirmed which way to go, as with all things you have to trade off. We spent twice as much as you would on a "banger" but half as much as the cost of a Honda and at 3300 watts it suited our needs.

I payed by pay pal and the generator was delivered in three business days! How is that for service and that was from Texas to Ohio so from the bottom state to the top, UPS what a great service.

- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane

Satellite TV

Ok so we have now purchased most of what we think we will need for our twelve month trip, my poor brother in law John cannot use his dinning room as its now full of boxes which we have had delivered to his place. He is even storing stuff in the "mud room"!

In the course of looking at communication type gear I came across satellite TV subscriptions, you can actually do a pay by the month plan, so now I was interested. I have no doubt Rose will get sick of me gas bagging and just wish that we had history channel to shut me up! Our trailer after all comes with a TV that pops out of the bench and yes we can watch local channels but us blokes are never satisfied with the simple gadget options, we want the top shelf stuff. I asked John his thoughts about satellite TV and of course he said a must have, I was sold, I then proceeded to sell all the benefits to Rose, ha she bought it!

So off I go researching satellite TV antennas and of course they start at base price which requires manual alignment up to auto locating they even have satellite dishes that you can use in your RV while driving. A check of You Tube and there are plenty of videos and of course a check on google gets plenty of hits.

For satellite antenna's in the US they must point south. The satellite sits some 20,000 Klm in space, so if your off by one degree you could miss the satellite by a thousand kilometres! Anyone who has put an antenna up will relate to yelling down to the wife, "left a bit", "how's that?" and this then all ends up in tears. Of course being a gadget man I had my eye on the deluxe model, that is, it finds the satellite all by itself. Now as usual I had to sell it to Rose, I had no sooner opened my mouth about the pro's and con's and she said, "it will be me outside in the cold moving the antenna don't even ask Ron get the auto locating model!" Have to be happy with that outcome.

So onto Camping World again, and we bought a Winegard GM 1518 satellite antenna, and as always Camping World had the best price, shipped!

Now onto the Pay TV subscription, I spoke to John and he said "hey I have a spare receiver (in fact he has 3 receivers in the house) in the spare room you can use". Now the US is not like Australia where they charge an arm and a leg for a second satellite receiver, in the US it's about $5 a month. I offered to pay for the 12 months, that was the least I could do.

So now we have satellite TV to keep abreast of the goings on of the outside world.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane

More Preparations

So now we have the basics for the inside of our trailer but what about the camping parts? We all know that you need someplace to sit outside to relax or read so that got us thinking about "what do we need for outside"?

It just so happens that that great brother in law of mine sent out a Camping World catalogue, well it is now showing signs of wear as we have flicked through in many times to see what was available. Yes we could and did look online but sometimes you just can't beat paper and killing a few trees in the process. I remember looking through catalogues as a kid and looking in awe, well I was just like that again even highlighting the must have items. Of course we did price comparisons online but in the end Camping World got our business for most things.

So chairs, outdoor table, and many other smaller things that we came across, paper towel holder "trash"bag holder right down to a toilet brush all found their way into our shopping cart, lucky it was a big cart!

But by far the largest item we got was a Weber Q200 BBQ, we anticipate cooking outside most of the time weather permitting so we figured this was a good buy, under $200 US, delivered in 4 days, I have to give it to them they have online shopping down to a tee. The price is half of what we paid for our one here in Australia.

One of the unexpected benefits of online shopping at Camping World is if you are a Good Sam club member you get free shipping on all your items, yep that includes the BBQ! The cost to join Good Sam is very reasonable and we reckon we saved hundreds of dollars in shipping.

We actually did our shopping over a number of weeks which equated to 3 orders, but this does not mean all your items are shipped together, sometimes they are, it seems to depend on what part of the country the items are stored at. At one stage John remarked "what the hell are you guys doing, I have not had a parcel for two days!" he cracks us up. We are sure the UPS driver is well acquainted with Johns long driveway and being greeted by 13 dogs, yep 13 dogs!

As luck would have it, a friend of Roses, who just imported a fifth wheel from the US, was passing through Queensland, so we headed to Tin Can bay to "tyre kick" their rig. Given their trailer is longer than ours but it was great to see it and get our imagination going. Rose walked in and could not stop smiling, it was fantastic. We spent the weekend getting as many tips from them as we could and yes they confirmed the BBQ is a must. Some things we did not have but by that weeks end it was being shipped.

We think we have all the "must haves" for now but I am sure we will find more, so in the meantime we are thinking of the luxury things.

Satellite TV mmmm makes a man think.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane

Preparation to Live in Our Trailer

So now we have a trailer and a truck to tow it, these two purchases are the biggest of our trip, and by far the most expensive. Thank goodness we sold our investment unit. I look back at all the research I have done and the hours on the Internet and it has been truly worth it, we are very happy so far. John is driving our truck to work on Saturdays to keep it running so another bonus. Another thing I would recommend is starting a spread sheet to track your costs. I started one to track everything, costs, days in the US, fuel costs and park costs, and anything else I needed to track, of course i can only average expected costs but it at least gave us an idea of what to expect. I also figured that come entry into the USA I can prove that we spent money and are paying our own way.

We now needed to buy all the things we thought we would need for a year. Remember we are not just there for four or six weeks we have a whole year of living in our trailer so taking this into account we started a list of things we will need. There was two ways we could approach this, shop when we get there or do it online. If we it did when we got there we would have to take into account the time both in travel and actual shopping, John does not exactly live in town he is on 90 acres so shopping is not what you would call local. Also we did not want to spend the first week none stop running around, we could be more productive setting our fifth wheel up so as usual it was to the Internet. One of the first things is sheets, doona, towels etc. we already had an account at Target USA so this was the obvious place to start. So off to Target we went and there was plenty to choose from. So in the end we got,
Two Sheet sets, four towels, mattress protector, doona, pillows, hand towels, bath mats, fleece blankets and many other items for $360-00 we had to pay "shipping" $50 but it was worth it, the nearest Target to Johns place is about 50 miles away. The other benefit to buying before we get there is we are able spread the costs, we figured by the time we arrive we will have paid for everything, except for fuel, food and parks.

We also needed to fit out the kitchen with plates, knives, forks, saucepans, cups and the many other things we would need on a daily basis. So I typed into google "starter kit RV" well I got a great hit I found a site that could provide a 139 piece kit for $124-00 delivered, this came with everything. Apart from the above it had, tumblers (glasses), plastic storage set, cutting knives, bread board even a first aid kit. Ok it may not be top quality but it gets us started and keep us out of trouble.

We can now shower and dry ourselves, sleep, prepare food and eat in our trailer, things are looking good.

So the preparations continue....


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane

Photo's of Our Truck

Side steps so Rose can get in, the spec's say our truck is 5.8 metres long!


Now that's a grill!


Rails and toolbox included


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Bridgeport West Virginia

We Found Our Truck!

Well as I searched each and every day, day in day out constantly researching trucks I came across one that really caught my eye! Ok so it was at the older end of the year model that I wanted, that is, 2005 but the photo looked fantastic, in fact the photo backed up the the description to a tee. So I did some more specific research on the 2005 Dodge I had found, I was excited! This truck was looking like a one in a million offer and your instinct kicks in to the old saying, if it sounds to good to be true it most likely is, that said it needed more investigation.
The truck was a 2005 Dodge 2500 Laramie, 26000 miles on the clock, heated leather seats, long bed and as a bonus it had rails in the bed for a hitch and a brake package a saving of around $1000 as I would not have to install these.

The first thing to find out is, how far it was from Johns place, after all he was the one who would inspect it and pay on our behalf. So onto google maps to find out where Bridgeport WV was, WV that would be West Virginia and as luck would have it it was on the border of Ohio in an easterly direction, fantastic, It was some 200 miles or four and a half hours drive. So now I was really excited, breath in breath out Ron think logically. So the next hurdle was would John drive that far? A call to John quickly fixed that, he drives 140 miles each day round trip just to get to work and home again, so this was no problem for him. I sent him the links to the truck, he said looks great when do you want me to go? Hold that thought I will get back to you.

So now it was a phone call to the dealer at Carder Motors Inc in West Virginia early on a Sunday morning. I spoke to the owner Mark and Col his son, Col even provided me with his dads home number so I could get more answers to my many questions, it was late Saturday afternoon there taking into account the time difference and I really appreciated the great service and effort they put in, I would recommend them.

In the USA they have a system called Carfax, it's basically one big data base on vehicles, it provides a total history of the vehicle. It list such thing as, any collisions, if it's been registered as a " lemon", if there is a loan outstanding on the vehicle, the full service history, which verifies the milage, its registration history and many other things. My truck came up as a guaranteed one owner and as such came with a buy back guarantee if any of the report was found to be faulty, I was happy.

The history of the truck was, wait for it, an older gentleman who once a year pulled his fifth wheeler to Florida, in other words a real " snow birder". The Carfax report verified all this so on that basis we bought the truck including a new hitch.

I arranged for John and his wife to drive over to West Virginia, I immediately got onto Ozforex and as always got a great rate and transferred the money, not forgetting sales tax for Ohio which is 7%.

Two days later John test drove the truck and confirmed it was all ok, paid with a bank cheque and the truck was now ours, or technically Johns as we don't have a social security number. The truck came with 60 days tags or temporary registration.

We ok'd for John to drive the truck to work a few times to iron out any bugs or faults, all it needed was new wiper blades, got to be happy with that!


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane

Buying Our New Truck

Ok so I set myself some parameters to search and search I did, every day onto cars.com. I was in no rush to buy, this was an advantage as there was no pressure to have a truck, say by next week I could browse to my hearts content. I saved many trucks in my favourites and as expected many were sold, that was fine, again no rush for me. One thing I was mindful of was the length of the bed sometimes described as the "box". There are many lengths to choose from, not just an A and B. For towing a fifth wheel trailer a long bed is preferable it gives you the room to turn and stops the trailer hitting your cab. You can have a short bed truck but a slider hitch is a must. There are manual sliders and auto sliders it just depends on your budget and how much you have to spend. Having spoken to the dealer that sold us our fifth wheel it was put rather simply, you need a long bed, no long bed then you MUST have a slider hitch, or you will basically void your warranty. Makes perfect sense to me. I am no expert at this so if that's what the advice is I will take with both arms.

Its at this point I will mention another web site I found, called Texas Auto Direct it boasts 6 acres of cars and I liked what I saw and spent hours searching their site. As part of my search I came across a site totally dedicated to "bagging" them, it was a real eye opener so I eared on the side of caution and went back to cars.com, I was amazed at the comments on Texas Autos sales tactics. As I was buying a truck from the other side of the world I did not need any issues with reputation.

So it was back to cars.com and I continued searching, day in day out, poor Rose, I was spending most my life looking at an IPad!

We still had 3 months till we left so again no rush, I just wanted to get the knowledge, I was hungry for it and I figured that if I put the time in now that would mean a good truck and a hassle free trip for twelve months.

Then.....




- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane

Getting the right truck (ute)

Ok so now we have a trailer and need something to tow it with. There are so many trucks in the US that just choosing one can be daunting. Coming from Australian about the only truck we are familiar with is the Ford F250 unless you count the tiny trucks i.e. Toyota and Mitsubishi but we all know these are not "real" trucks. Now we all know that the USA is truck heaven so if you are brand loyal Ford would be the most likely choice. So this is where I started, hit google and start searching. There are so many forums to choose from and lots of opinions from people. I started with Ford because this is all I knew. I read many things including that Ford had some problems with exhaust gases, to technical for me, so I asked my brother in law his opinion. As luck would have it a work mate of his has a F250 and a fifth wheel and in his opinion his advice was go the Dodge RAM with a Cummins diesel engine, I new that cummins diesel is used in heavy machinery and that was about it, so that was my starting point. I new nothing but had to start some place. I down loaded cars.com app to the iPad and started my search. I researched the internet every chance I got, I checked cars.com every second day. Of course that's not the only site I used but it enabled me to save my favourites and compare vehicles. With so many choices I set myself some boundaries.
Brand - Dodge RAM
Model - 2500 RAM I6 Diesel
Body Type - Quad cab (dual cab)
Tray - long bed but open to short bed but a slider hitch would be needed that's more dollars
Mileage - nothing over 100,000
Year - 2004 to 2008
It also let's you set a search area parameter i.e. 30 miles to unlimited miles from a set zip code we used Johns place.

If you don't set some parameters you will be looking forever.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Brisbane