Thursday, May 14, 2015: Heading for “B” Rally in NC and Wedding in CA
We are heading to North Carolina for the B12 Blue Ridge Rally, southeast of Asheville, and from there to a wedding next weekend in Napa, CA. It’s a lot of miles to cover but we are looking forward to a road trip. We pack up Candy, an Advanced RV rental we have used several times. Candy quickly feels like home, and even with clothes for the wedding weekend, we have plenty of storage space.
We leave home near Cleveland, OH about 11AM and eat our packed lunch on the road. Taking I-77 south, we arrive at 6:30PM at the KOA at Fancy Gap, Virginia, off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our friends, Fred and Michelle, recommended this campground and we quickly learn why. The host is welcoming and the park is built on gently rolling hills, with each site tucked into its own private green space. For dinner, we microwave asparagus soup, made from our home garden, and add a salad. We get a good walk in on the ups and downs of the campground roads. We turn in early and don’t plug the RV into the power or other utilities.
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| Asparagus Soup Dinner at Fancy Gap |
Friday, May 15, 2015: Blue Ridge Parkway
At departure in the morning, we are happy to see how little power we drew. We did not need heat or AC, but with lights, microwave, hot water for dishes, computer and phone charging, plus coffee making, we have 70% of the 400 Amp Hr Li battery left.
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| Hiking at Blue Ridge |
We head southwest on the two-lane Blue Ridge Parkway with little traffic, and enjoy vistas of green hills and valleys, and rhododendron in bloom. Near Galax, Virginia we stop at the Blue Ridge Music Center. Although it is not open when we arrive at 8:30AM, we hike their well-marked trails through meadows and woods, enjoying rhododendrons blooming in the sunny spots. By 10AM, opening time, we arrive by trail at the Music Center, several grey, wooden buildings tastefully set on the crest of a hill, dedicated to North Carolina and Virginia country music. There is a large modern amphitheater for performances and an interactive museum with history of the area’s country music and a listening area. We buy two CDs, Carolina Chocolate Drops and The Lonesome River Bend. We learn from the National Park naturalist that the rhododendrons we were seeing were pink Catawba and orange Fire, two early types, and other types bloom later. Apparently, like the word snow for Alaskan Inuits, “rhodies” for Virginians is only a general term for many different types. A volunteer at the Music Center estimates that it will take us six hours on the Blue Ridge Parkway, with detours for construction, to reach the B Rally site. We head out at 12:30PM, snack in the camper and skip the cute restaurants along the way. Mid afternoon we stop at the Cascades Trail overlook for a sandwich. Two bikers from the trail join us at the lone picnic table and tell us about biking around here and that Lake Lure near where we are heading was the filming site for Dirty Dancing. We push on quickly.
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| "Rhodies" |
At 5:30PM we arrive at the B12 Rally at Four Paws Kingdom Campground west of Rutherfordton, Virginia. It is 80 degrees and cocktail time is well under way. Dinner at the pavilion is a 50’s diner theme: hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and fixings; black and white checked picnic table covers; and, the movie Grease playing on the big screen. Our campground hosts, Birgit and Meik from Germany, switch from cooking and serving dinner to performing early rock and roll songs, with a Karaoke machine. We dance and then collapse early.
Saturday, May 16, 2015: Lake Lure and B12 Rally
On an early morning hike around the Four Paws campground we feel that we should have brought our dog. The whole park is geared for dogs: dog walks, dog swimming pond, dog agility course and cutesy dog signage everywhere, even in the bathrooms. After a continental breakfast with the group of about 60 people attending the B Rally, Mike and I drive west on Rt. 64 for a hike at Chimney Rock State Park. The narrow, windy road with Saturday morning traffic makes the drive longer than we expect. Finally, we come to Lake Lure with Chimney Rock Mountain behind it. This could be Bavaria: a pristine lake, set in the mountains, with charming cottages dotting the shore. In Chimney Rock Village there is a parade so we cannot get through to Chimney Rock State Park. Instead, we go back and park along Lake Lure, across from the large resort hotel that was the filming site for Dirty Dancing. In front of the hotel, two white Percherons are being harnessed to pull a wedding carriage. With the growing crowd of tourists, we walk the boardwalk along Lake Lure, cross the Flowering Bridge, and wind through the harbor. The sun is getting high and hot.
We head back to the campground for the afternoon B12 Camper Crawl, or “kicking the tires”, where the participants get to view and talk about each other’s campers. By 4:30PM, inside the camper it is 86 degrees. We turn on the air conditioning for one hour and still have 91% battery left. After another early and long cocktail time, we head to the dining pavilion, which Birgit and Meik have transformed into a Bavarian Haufbrau House. Each person gets two paper plates loaded with knockwurst, bratwurst, purple cabbage sauerkraut, German potato salad and spaetzle. More singing, jokes, games and dancing. Jackie and Harold Delk did a great job with this Rally. Harold had burned two CDs of Virginia country music for us to listen to on the road.
Sunday, May 17, 2015: Blowing through Tennessee and Arkansas
We leave Four Paws Campground by 7:30AM and take a windy, slow but beautiful Rt. 9 up to Rt. 40 West. Between Nashville and Jackson, TN we meet my sister and brother-in-law for coffee. Just west of Memphis, in Wynne, AK, we camp at Village Creek State Park, a lush green spot. We set out for a hike up the steep hillside to Dunn Lake, but half way there, a downpour sends us jogging quickly back down to our camper. The rain then stops, so we loop to Lake Dunn along the windy park roads.
In order to get to Napa in six days in time for the Friday night party, we calculated that we needed to drive an average of 450 miles per day. Today, we felt ahead of schedule by logging 625. Also, we are testing how many days we can go without “plugging in.” Tonight will be the fourth night without shore power and we are finding that we easily recharge with a couple hours of driving.
Monday, May 18, 2015: Oklahoma and Texas
Continuing on I-40 W, we stop in Oklahoma City to visit the National Memorial dedicated to the victims of the bombing, now 20 years ago. The Gates of Time, the reflecting pool and the field of 168 empty chairs are simple and moving. We meet Mike and Charlotte for a late lunch a few blocks from the Memorial at Kitchen 324, an excellent café and bakery. Late in the afternoon, we take a break at the Rt. 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma, and enjoy learning the history of Rt. 66 and seeing the posters and artifacts. We drive until 7:30PM, stopping about 50 miles into the Texas panhandle at McClellan Center National Grassland. We walk the road around the large lake, spotting several Redheaded Woodpeckers. We see only two other campers, single tenters.
Today, we log 630 miles; night 5 of no plugging in.
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| Oklahoma City Memorial |
Tuesday, May 19, 2015: Texas Panhandle and New Mexico
We wake to heavy rain and 50 degree temperatures. We hope the tenters stayed dry and warm. We drive across the Texas panhandle into New Mexico and stop on the east side of Albuquerque at Perea’s New Mexican Restaurant, which Yelp yielded on my search for Albuquerque “best Mexican restaurant.” The chili rellenos were delicious and we were delighted by the unexpected sopapillas with honey for dessert. Northwest of Albuquerque we drive up to the Petroglyph National Monument and hike the Rinconada Canyon trail. Along this 2.2 mile sand dune trail at the base of an ancient volcano, we see about a hundred petroglyphs, carved 4 – 7 hundred years ago into basalt boulders by the Ancestral Puebloans (formerly called Anasasi).
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| Petroglyphs |
In Holbrook, about 75 miles into Arizona, we stop at the Holbrook Petrified Forest KOA. We walk the short distance up to the Historic Route 66 All-American Rd and do a quick stroll of this section of Rt. 66 that is being restored with classic one-story motels, drive-in restaurants and memorabilia shops.
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| Historic Route 66 |
Today, we log 570 miles; night 6 of no plugging in.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015: Arizona and into California
Today is sunny but cool. On the recommendation of last night’s KOA host, we drive to Walnut Creek National Monument, east of Flagstaff, arriving at 8:15AM. We park at the Arizona Trailhead, eat breakfast in the camper, and do a 3 mile hike, enjoying blue lupine and red Indian paintbrush. We chat with two local men out walking their golden retrievers. At Walnut Creek National Monument, we hike down one mile into the canyon and see the many cliff dwellings formerly housing Ancestral Puebloans. We have lunch in Flagstaff, guided by Urbanspoon to Jitters Lunchbox on Rt. 66. Although it was farther off I-40 than we wanted to go, it is worth it. The homemade soups and sandwiches are so good that we buy more soup to take with us, along with homemade cookies. The owners, near our age, are friendly, and the wife is from Cleveland Heights, OH where we lived for 20 years. By evening, we cross into California and stay at the KOA in Barstow, CA, in the Mojave Desert.
Miles today: 446; night 7 of no plugging in.
Thursday, May 21, 2015: Up Rt. 1, CA
Out of Barstow, we take Rt. 58 west to Bakersfield, up Rt. 5 to Rt. 46 to Paso Robles. We buy fresh strawberries and cherries at a roadside stand. An Asian woman waits on us and a Hispanic man brings in the produce. The fruit, fresh from the field, is amazing. We continue on Rt. 46 over to Cambria and start up Rt. 1. We see elephant seals at San Simeon Point and stop at an overview for lunch. South of Gorda, we hike up into the Los Padres Forest on the Cruikshank Trail, two miles up with switchbacks. Back on Rt. 1, at Willow Creek, we drive down to the ocean and walk a bit. After talking to Belgian bicyclists, British newlyweds, and nodding to the picture snapping Japanese families, we begin to wonder if we are the only Americans on this route. We continue the beautiful drive through Big Sur and Carmel and camp at the KOA at Moss Landing between Monterey and Santa Cruz. We walk down to the harbor and eat at Phil’s Fish Market. The halibut tacos are good, but the live band is so loud, we leave quickly.
Today, we only drove 375 miles, but traveling Rt. 1 was worth it. We are proud of how well the Sprinter did on the narrow, curving roads and hills.
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| Travelling on Highway One |
Friday, May 22, 2015: Napa arrival
We do laundry at this pleasant, friendly KOA and set out at 10:30AM up Rt. 1 for the 90 miles to San Francisco. South of Pacifica, we hike Grey Whale Cove State Beach, overlooking the ocean. We lunch out of the camper finishing up our fresh strawberries. In San Francisco, we choose to go over the Golden Gate Bridge, but Friday afternoon traffic before a holiday is at a crawl, all the way up to Napa. We arrive at the Silverado Resort, the wedding site, at 4:30PM, just in time to get ready for the evening party.
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| Ocean View from Highway One |
Monday, May 25, 2015: High desert, NV
Over the weekend, we stayed two nights out of the camper, but last night we could not get a room, so we stayed in the camper in the parking lot of the Silverado Resort. No issue. After getting resort free coffee at 6:30AM, we take off towards home. First stop is in Davis, CA, where Mike’s cousin lives. We call them at 7:30AM on Memorial Day and they quickly return our call and invite us over. After about an hour visit, we load up at Whole Foods and head east on I-80 through Truckee, Reno and then at Fernley, NV, picked up Rt. 50 “The Loneliest Road in the World.” We headed across the high desert through Eureka to Ely and then decided to camp at the Great Basin National Park. At dusk as we are pulling in, an elk crosses the road. We camp at Upper Lehman Campground (about 10,000 ft) and see two black-tailed jackrabbits and what we thought was a large fox, but later learn might have been a coyote.
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| Great Basin National Park |
Tuesday, May 26, 2015: Great Basin National Park, NV
At 6:30AM, at 44 degrees we are driving up Wheeler Peak Scenic Dr. planning to hike part of Wheeler Peak (13, 063 ft), but we soon find the road is closed. A maintenance man comes up who is going to check the road for rocks and snow. We pull off at Mather Creek Overlook. Soon, a researcher on his way to a nature inventory assignment at Gunnison pulls in. He lets us use his binoculars to see a pine grosbeak and a flock of turkeys with a fanning male. In a flash he has a tripod with high-powered binoculars set up and he is calling in birds. He helps us identify chipping sparrows, a pair of red crossbills, a Western tanager, mountain chickadees, a sharpshin hawk and a brown-capped rosy finch. What a good birding day! The road is now open so we drive up to Bristlecone Pine Trail. We follow tracks in the snow, hoping to get to the field of ancient Bristlecone Pines, but we start sinking thigh deep in snow and after about one mile the tracks stop and we have to turn back.
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| Hiking at Great Basin |
We continue on Rt. 50 east to I-70 East to the Grand Junction, CO KOA. We tried to hike the Old Spanish Trail behind the campground but ended up mostly wandering through a housing development.
Today we covered 400 miles.
Wednesday, May 27, 2015: Colorado National Monument and Boulder, CO
At 6:30AM, we stop at Octopus Coffee, a funky shack drive through, and head a short distance back west to Colorado National Monument. We enter at the Grand Junction entrance and hike the Serpent Trail, 1.75 miles, 770 ft elevation and 20 switchbacks. This trail was formerly a road, called the “crookedest road in the world” until it was closed in 1950. After this rigorous, but beautiful hike, we continue on I-70 East, stopping at Rifle, CO for fuel and DEF, 2.5 gal from a pump at $6.80/gal. It had been about 4,000 miles since we replenished DEF. We stop at a pull off along the Colorado River, finish our soup and salad from Whole Foods in Davis, and watch rubber duckies paddle the swift current. From the book, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett, I read Mike the story, My Road to Hell Was Paved, about her first RV trip. After several hilarious adventures, she ended up enjoying it.
At 4PM, we arrive at our friends’ Steve and Paulette’s home near Boulder and bask in their spacious home for the night.
Today: 310 miles
Thursday, May 28, 2015: Hard driving across Kansas
After a morning walk, we set out about 8:00AM on I-70 East and end up at the Topeka, KS KOA. We walk the campground and meet our neighbors who are preparing an amazing stirfry on their picnic table. She has a Japanese single propane burner and a wok and she is chopping bok choy, mushrooms, and chicken for a chicken curry. In their tiny VW camper she has a rice cooker going with rice and sweet potatoes. Later, she brings a dish over for us and we return with cookies for dessert. They are traveling from LA to Martha’s Vineyard where she runs an art shop, specializing in calligraphy and Asian art.
Today 578 miles
Friday, May 29, 2015: Kansas, Missouri and Mark Twain
We leave at 6:15AM to get to our friends’ house in Kearney, MO for an 8AM breakfast. After a hearty meal in a friendly place in Kearney, we head N on 35, then 36 W to Hannibal, MO. We visit the Mark Twain Interpretive Museum, the Huck Finn House, Mark Twain’s Boyhood Home, Beck Thatcher’s House, and the Mark Twain Museum Gallery, where we see 16 original Norman Rockwell paintings, used for his illustrations for Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Above the Tom and Huck statue, we climb the stairs to the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse. We thoroughly enjoy all we learn about Mark Twain, a favorite of mine, since he lived summers in my hometown of Elmira, NY and is buried there.
We take I-72 across Illinois, and since it was past 5PM as we pass through Springfield, IL., we miss the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. In Indiana, we leave I-74 and head north on Rt. 25, stopping at dusk in Lafayette, IN at the AOK Campground found on All Stays. It is packed late on this Friday night and the only two spots left are on a steep hill. We park on the grass in the tenting area, no hook-up required, and go to sleep amid a lot of chatter from the surrounding campfires. In the night, Mike is awakened by two women screaming profanities at each other. I sleep through it.
Saturday, May 30, 2015: Green does NOT mean deisel
The AOK Campground looks worse in the morning. To find the dump station, we drive all around and see the old, permanent campers sinking into the ground, surrounded by junk. We shower – not bad – leave our fee and head out at 7:45AM. We have a hard time finding Rt. 25 out of town. It seems we keep crossing the Wabash River. Finally, we are heading northeast on a smooth state road, with no traffic, going through Indiana farmlands. The heavy rain is good for the green shoots and washing the bugs off our camper.
In Peru, Indiana we pull off for fuel. At a BP station advertising diesel, Mike fills up in the pouring rain while talking on the phone. As we pull out looking for a breakfast place, the Sprinter is sputtering. We go a few miles and park on the street across from Gabriel’s. Before we order, Mike goes back to the Sprinter to retrieve the gas receipt. He comes back and says he put gasoline into our diesel engine. He calls Mercedes roadside service and they say they are sending a tow truck. After a few more calls to confirm the size of our Sprinter and our location, they promise a tow in 50 minutes. We walk back to the BP station. There we see the green handle on the regular gasoline and the black handle on the diesel pump next to it. Mike complains to the manager that a green handle usually indicates diesel but she simply says they are about to get new pumps.
We walk back to the camper in the rain. Mercedes calls us back to say the first tow truck won’t be big enough, and it will be 2 ½ hours before another tow truck arrives. Mike says this is not acceptable. Mercedes calls back again to say that another tow truck is on its way. About an hour later, a tilt bed tow truck shows up but it is too small. This driver goes back and gets a bigger tow truck, but he has to go back again to get tools to disconnect the drive shaft under the Sprinter. After working on the drive shaft about 15 minutes, he says he can’t do the tow. We call Mercedes again and they promise to send another tow.
While we are waiting for a tow, we explore Peru in the rain. We see circus wagons, murals of circus animals and performers, and finally, a large white building patterned after a circus big top. Mike remembered a reference to Peru, IN on our visit to the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum in Sarasota Springs, FL. We learn from a few locals that Peru was the winter home of several circuses in the 1920’s and that, in the late 20’s John Ringling bought them all. Then, to avoid competition, he burned them all down. We visited the Miami County Museum and saw more circus memorabilia and learned that Cole Porter was from Peru.
Finally, about four hours after our first call, ProTow shows up with a tilt bed tow truck the same size as the first one. This guy works around, lays 2 X 6’s and wenches the Sprinter onto his tilt bed. We hop into his cab and are off down a bumpy but straight two-lane road, with the Sprinter extending off the back of the truck. The driver veers into the opposite lane to avoid low hanging trees. We finally reach the state road and he slows down to go under bridges, while Mike stands on the running board to make sure we have enough clearance. The driver keeps laughing and thanking us for giving him the challenge of the day. With a few questions Mike gets him talking about his days as a repo man. He quit after a guy stabbed him with a knife and he had to “shoot him dead.” Fifty miles later, we arrive at the Mercedes Benz dealership in Fort Wayne, IN. Using his 2 X 6’s, chocks and his hydraulics, he gets our camper off the bed with only a bent hitch step and one blown hydraulic hose. He chuckles again and says this took “hillbilly ingenuity.” It is now 4:30PM Saturday and Mercedes service is closed until Monday morning.
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| Towing the Sprinter |
We “camp” on the dealership lot and walk in the pouring rain about two miles east on the four-lane W. Jefferson Blvd. to Scotty’s Brewhouse for a beer. On the other side of W. Jefferson we have delicious sushi at Asakusa Japanese restaurant. We walk back, still in the rain, turning into the strip malls as often as possible to avoid walking along the highway.
Sunday, May 31, 2015: Hanging Out in Fort Wayne, Indiana
This morning we decide to walk in the opposite direction towards the I-65 interchange, hoping for a better selection of restaurants. It is raining harder and colder than yesterday. We are almost there when we realize the highway interchange is too crazy for walking and we don’t see any restaurants. We head back, now into a stiff, cold, wet head wind. We pass Mercedes and go on to I-Hop where we have a good breakfast and enjoy the friendly service. We both work on our computers for a few hours and then walk back east on W. Jefferson to Covington Plaza and Woodhouse Day Spa. There we warm up in the steam room, enjoy showers and massages. A few blocks farther we go to Cebolla’s Mexican restaurant for a good meal and walk back again. By the time we get back to the motor home, we've walked eight miles today.
We are comfortable in our camper although we are low on fresh water. The toughest part of this lay over day is walking on the highways. There are no sidewalks and people seem so unused to walkers that they don’t slow down or move over. It is scary. Despite the 50-degree temperatures, wind and unceasing rain, however, we are warm enough and grateful that we are healthy enough to walk. I remember my Mormon friend telling me about her grandmother pulling a handcart across the plains and mountains. I am grateful not to be one of those women. I’m sure none of them had a good rain jacket like mine.
Monday, June 1, 2015: Finally, to home
At 7:30AM Mercedes service is figuring out what to do with our Sprinter full of gas. After draining the fuel tank, changing the fuel filter, checking to make sure the fuel pump is not damaged, and taking it for a two-mile test drive, we are assured that everything is good. We are on our way at 12:30PM. Shall we publically confess to our big mistake of putting gas in the diesel engine? We decide to be humble and confess and not let that mistake spoil a great trip.
