Category Archives: Missouri

New England RV Trip 2015

We left for our tour of New England with no travel itinerary. We chose to follow our whims as we went. I highly recommend this approach to RV travel “off season”. Up to Columbus day, we had no trouble finding open campgrounds with available campsites. In fact the campgrounds were practically empty, with some notable exceptions: Normandy Farms Foxboro discounts Columbus day and was booked the weekend we left, the Keene Pumpkin Festival moved to Laconia and campgrounds fill for the festival. On a day we relocated, we would look for campgrounds in the area we expected to stay and called ahead. We had no problem finding a number of possible campsites. All this changed after Columbus day. In New England, Columbus Day marks the end of “the season”. Though some campgrounds close Sept 15th, most close after October 15th and practically all are closed by November 1. We had some trouble finding campsites after November 1. Things close earlier in Maine where we boondocked two days in mid-October.

By having no plans, we could stay as long or as short as we liked. We enjoyed visiting family and friends where we stayed a few days. We used Foxboro Ma as base camp for exploring Boston, Concord, Lexington, Arlington, and Cambridge in a rentall car and Mountain View Campground in Morrisville Vt to explore Stowe. We were not sure how we would do on an extended RV trip. Before we left, friends would ask, “How long will you be gone?” I’d answer, “six to eight weeks” to which Ellen would retort, “we’ll see, four weeks maybe six”. We both agreed as we buzzed home driving 500+ days that we could have been on the road another month. There were so many places we skipped with “limited time”. If we had it to do over, we would have left mid-August. It is great having tourist destinations almost to yourself, as we did on Cape Cod or in Maine. The down side? Practically no shops are open. Those that are open display a huge 10 foot flag stating “OPEN” in huge letters. So much of the charm of small towns on the cape are the people and the seasonal food. Both become scarce off season.

We skipped visiting Yellow Springs and Write Patterson in Ohio, spending more time on The Cape, exploring Moosehead Lake and northern Maine, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, Gloucester, and Salem. We drove past a great number of those brown signs marking points of interest. We simply did not have the time to do “everything”. There were a number of museums we drove past.

We also had three system failures on our trip: 1. hot water running cold with the water heater working fine, 2. central locking crapped out, 3. the refrigerator refused to run on 12 volts. We also had the engine start hard and run very rough with the inverter on. Restarting with the inverter off solved that “problem”. The hot water issue was caused when a campground ran high pressure air thorugh their lines to clear them ahead of a freeze. We were attached. The pressure forced the check valve into the sleeve effectively blocking hot water flow. The check valve is $9 part at camping world. Central Locking and the Fridge are yet to be fixed.

We had a phenominal trip, made more memorable by our daily log. We revisit the blog to relive our trip.

Here is our timeline. I’d say “itinerary”, but that suggests pre-planning, something we assiduously avoided. We had a want list including Stowe, the White Mountains, Cog Railway, Franconia Notch, Smuggler’s Notch, Conway, Hampton and Rye Beach, Martha’s Vineyard, Boston, Arlington and surrounds, the North Shore, Zip Lines, a moose tour, New York City, Long Island, Mystic Ri, Groton, Crowly RV, the Inner Harbor Baltimore, Washington DC; some we skipped, others we did.

 

9/16/2015 Truckee Ca Coachland RV 10873
9/17/2015 Austin, Nv Pony Express RV Park 11083
9/18/2015 Salina, Ut Butch Cassidy RV Park 11452 Cindy recommended Pony Espresso Deli Eureka Nv
9/19/2015 Parachute, Co Battlement Mesa RV Park 11718 Duayne @ Ace; Jenny @ campground; Green River State Park
9/20/2015 Woodland, Co Diamond Campground 11955 Vail; Breckenridge; past Cripple Creek; John and Rona
9/21/2015 Woodland, Co Woodland RV Park & Campground 11958 Visit with Rich, Alea,
9/22/2015 Woodland, Co Woodland RV Park & Campground 11958
9/23/2015 Woodland, Co Woodland RV Park & Campground 11958
9/24/2015 Oakley, Ks High Plains RV Campground 12218 Capt’n Jack’s Pub, Kobe Beef, Crab Cakes, great showers
9/25/2015 Danville, Mo Lazy Day Campground 12743 Lazy Day great campground. Skipped Chrystler Museum, Oz museum, Totoz Taco, Dinosaur Museum
9/26/2015 Mansfield, Oh Walmart Boondock 13298 Skipped Yellow Springs, Dayton Museum, Cincinnati
9/27/2015 Grand Island, Ny Cinderella Motel and Campsite 13598 Niagara Falls
9/28/2015 Syracuse, Ny Visiting Carol, Paul, Dylan, and Jameson 13688 Empire Brewing
9/29/2015 Syracuse, Ny Visiting Carol, Paul, Dylan, and Jameson
9/30/2015 Syracuse, Ny Visiting Carol, Paul, Dylan, and Jameson
10/1/2015 Syracuse, Ny Visiting Carol, Paul, Dylan, and Jameson
10/2/2015 Tivoli, Ny Visiting David,, Chris, Danny, & Erica 13966
10/3/2015 Tivoli, Ny Visiting David,, Chris, Danny, & Erica
10/4/2015 Tivoli, Ny Visiting David,, Chris, Danny, & Erica
10/5/2015 Tivoli, Ny Visiting David,, Chris, Danny, & Erica
10/6/2015 Fort Ann, Ny Moose Hillock Camping Resort 14114 Near Lake George, Adirondack outlet mall most extensive for miles
10/7/2015 Ticonderoga, Ny Brookwood RV Resort 14172 Lake George
10/8/2015 Lake Placid, Ny Cascade Acres Campground 14246 Fort Ticonderoga in the afternoon, Ellen:”There is literally no other RV @camp tonight”
10/9/2015 Winooski Vt North Beach Campground 14342 Mirror lake & Lake Placid in the morning, Ferry to Burlington VT, North Beach is right on the lake.
10/10/2015 Morrisville, Vt Mountain View Campground 14395 Near Stowe Vermont
10/11/2015 Morrisville, Vt Mountain View Campground
10/12/2015 Morrisville, Vt Mountain View Campground
10/13/2015 St Johnsbury, Vt Moose River Campground closed the campground
10/14/2015 Littleton, Nh Crazy Horse Campground 14708 closed the campground, search for Cherry Lake a bust.
10/15/2015 Lincoln, Nh Country Bumpkin Campground White mountains, cog railway, smuggler’s notch, the Flume
10/16/2015 Lincoln, Nh Country Bumpkin Campground Closed the campground
10/17/2015 Woodbury, Nh KOA Woodbury Nh Closed the campground, expensive but very nice campground, drove the Kancamangas Highway
10/18/2015 North Conway, Nh Eastern Slope Campground 14918 No hot water in the AM (they blew out their lines)
10/19/2015 Portland Me Elks Lodge, electric hookup ate at Bea’s Café recommended by gal at camping world, purchased check valve
10/20/2015 Portland Me Walmart Boondock drove Old Orchard Beach & north along the coast. Gave up install of check valve
10/21/2015 Meredith, Nh Meredith Woods Campground 15220 Beast serviced @ Prime Motors Portland Me, Indoor heated pool, Full resort style glamping
10/22/2015 Meredith, Nh Meredith Woods Campground
10/23/2015 Meredith, Nh Meredith Woods Campground 15310 James ordered an electronic switch to fix our hot water problem, Part & Jim never arrived, left late afternoon
10/24/2015 Shelburne Falls, Ma Country Aire Bridge of Flowers, pedestrian bridge Brookline, NH; West End Café; The Best Pizza in New England
10/25/2015 Shelburne Falls, Ma Country Aire
10/26/2015 Hatfield, Ma Ed & Jean Parked The Beast and stayed with Ed and Jean for five days!
10/27/2015 Hatfield, Ma Ed & Jean
10/28/2015 Hatfield, Ma Ed & Jean
10/29/2015 Hatfield, Ma Ed & Jean
10/30/2015 Hatfield, Ma Ed & Jean
10/31/2015 Hatfield, Ma Ed & Jean
11/1/2015 Bourne, Ma Scusset Beach State Park Campground Closed the Campground, Marconi Station & White Cedar Swamp
11/2/2015 Foxboro, Ma Normandy Farms Family Campground Resort
11/3/2015 Foxboro, Ma Normandy Farms Family Campground Resort Enterprise Rental and trips to Boston, Concord, Lexington, Arlington, and Cambridge
11/4/2015 Foxboro, Ma Normandy Farms Family Campground Resort
11/5/2015 Foxboro, Ma Normandy Farms Family Campground Resort Brad’s RV Service fixed our hot water problem
11/6/2015 Foxboro, Ma Normandy Farms Family Campground Resort
11/7/2015 North Stonington, Ct Mystic KOA Campground Mysic Ct, Mystic Old Town, Mystic Seaport
11/8/2015 North Stonington, Ct Mystic KOA Campground steamers on the half shell (errr)
11/9/2015 Clarksboro, Nj Timberline Campground Ferry Monmouth-NYC financial district, world trade center, central locking fail
11/10/2015 Dumfries, Va Prince William Forest RV Campground 16487 Fort Mercer & Valley Forge
11/11/2015 Hilton Head, SC Jessie & Ryan 17016 Savannah, fishing, oyster toad fish,
11/12/2015 Hilton Head, SC Jessie & Ryan
11/13/2015 Hilton Head, SC Jessie & Ryan
11/14/2015 Moton, Ms Roosevelt State Park 17609 surprisingly, we stumbled upon Roosevelt State Park, on of our favorites from our first X-country trip!
11/15/2015 Vidalia, La River View RV Park & Resort 17795 Natchez Trace, Nathez, camping on the Mississippi
11/16/2015 Abilene, Tx Buck Creek RV Park 18353 Tornado watch, high wind, rain, hail, stopped at Buck Eez bbq brisket was forgetable
11/17/2015 Alberquerque, Nm High Desert RV Park 18873 Billy the Kid’s grave, heavy X-winds, Trouble with fridge not running on 12 volts.
11/18/2015 Kingman, Az Sunrise RV Park 19357 warming as we drove through Arizona, T-shirt weather @ petrified forest & painted desert
11/19/2015 home 19999 Total of 9,126 miles driven 66 days on the road.

Lazy Day Campground, Missouri then Boondocking

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Li’l Beast at Lazy Day Campground

Photos taken around Lazy Days Campground on a morning walk about.

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Lazy Day Campground was comfortable and we would have stayed a second day if we were not on a mission.

Another long “get there” day.   We were on the road for 9 hours and logged 554 miles.  With Autumn arriving in New England any day now, I graciously agreed to forego Antioch, Yellow Springs, the Glenn, and the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum and “keep on truckin'”.

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Crossing into Illinois

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Picking Flowers in Illinois

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Illinois Farmland

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Crossing into Indiana

We’ve pulled off the road and used the inverter to power our “home” opting not to use the generator.  This meant food served up on the stove and the ‘fridge run on LP.

Wineguard HD Antenna and DirecTv In Operation

The Wineguard HD Antenna has worked flawlessly.  Once powered the DirecTV receiver off before the antenna completed setup and I had to reboot the receiver.  Typically the receiver will be powered on while the antenna sets-up and there will be no problem. I am impressed with the simplicity of operation of the antenna.  It does take some time to latch onto the satellites.  I think it goes back to its last setting on the assumption it has not moved, then when there is no signal in that direction it opens up a full sky search which can take some time and whirring and some clicking coming from the Beast’s roof.  I’ve only once not locked onto the signal for three sats.  We were parked with a big pine tree centered to the south of the antenna.  No signal came through the tree trunk.

Funny how the DirecTv system works.  Here we are in the central time zone and our DirecTv guide shows Pacific Time.  This is not a bad thing.  We have a two hour grace period between local time and DirecTv broadcast time.  If we setup “the Beast” at 8Pm after a long day, the DirecTv Guild shows current time as 6Pm.  We will have three hours difference when we hit the Eastern Time Zone.  For tomorrow’s Jets game, We can drive until noon (1 Pm if we cross into EST) and still record the jets game broadcast at 10 AM PST.  I think this would create issues for folks whose home system was EST and they headed west.   They would have to stop early to record or watch programming.  In the best of all worlds, the Guide would show local time.   I’ll have to call DirecTv and sort this out.

We passed a sign for Yellow Springs and Antioch College shortly after passing Springfield Oh.  It felt like coming home, probably because it was. A sign for Xenia zipped by and another for the Mad River which runs close by Yellow Springs.  It was not easy for me to drive by, but we will have more time to explore on our way back home without an incipient deadline (trees wait for no man  err Trees Wait for NoMads)

We plan to get an early start and log some miles before stopping for the Jets/Eagles game.  Watch out Shawn, the JETS are looking healthy and strong.  Then we’ll find a campsite with a view of the coming eclipse.  We’re a long day’s drive away from Syracuse, NY, our next stopover.

The Worst Road Ever

A word about I-70 Indiana.  I don’t know what’s up with this state but the eastern half of I-70 through Indiana is the worst bumpy pot-holed piece of crap highway I’ve; driven in the past decade.  I-70 in Illinois and in Ohio is great.   There are some long single lane stretches in Illinois, but with light traffic that’s OK.   In Ohio, the road is new and near perfect in most places.

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Crossing into Ohio Today’s Final Destination

 

Kansas into Missouri

This morning our barometer showed dropping atmospheric pressure and the weather was overcast.   Driving through Kansas you’ll see signs saying for weather alerts dial some AM station or 103.3 FM.    Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz would not exist but for Kansas Tornadoes!   The High Plains Campground rules and regulations also states in case of emergency, evacuate to the men’s or woman’s rooms.  They are safe.

Museums along I-70, Kansas

We left High Plains RV Campground late at 11:30. Li’l Beast took nearly a gallon of DES and we were off.  There are a number of museums that we would normally stop for, but we wanted to roll on toward New England.  We skipped the Prairie Museum of Art and History, Colby; the Fick Fossil and History Museum, Oakley; the Chrysler Boyhood Home and Museum, Ellis; the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Hays; the Combat Air Museum, Topeka; the Oz Museum, Wamego; and of course Totoz Tacoz, Wamego.  We flew by all these museums in Kansas.  Oddly we found very little of interest as we buzzed through Missouri. We drove past Mill Creek Campground near Paxico Kansas around 3 Pm.  It was far too early to follow Jim’s advice and stop there.  We were on a roll.

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Kansas Scenery

We drove on and started looking for a great place to camp for the night about 2 hours drive further.   Ellen found a number of two star campgrounds  in Independence Mo.  Driving into Independence we realized it was too urban for us and we skipped them and continued on.  Around  sunset we stopped at a rest area to take some photos.

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Sunset Over Missouri

Lazy Day Campground, Danville Missouri

The rest stop was very well developed with a few RVs parked for the evening.   We drove on thinking we’d camp at the next rest stop and just boon-dock for the evening.  Another hour down the road and we found that the rest stop was primitive, uninviting.  Again we drove on. Ellen searched further down I-70  and the next interesting area was Graham Caves State Park.  We could stay at the park, at Kan-Do Campground RV Park, or at Lazy Day Campground.  Both RV parks were near the park. Easiest off and on the highway was Lazy Day.  By now it was 8:30 Pm and we had driven 515 miles.  Ellen called Lazy Day thinking we’d get a voice message with late check-in instructions. Instead KIm, the owner/manager, answered the line and took a reservation for “the Beast”. Amazing at 8:30 PM.

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Ten miles later Kim greeted us in the driveway and directed us to her office.  She arrived moments later, opened the office, and we registered.  We got to chatting.  I gave her my credit card saying, “I’m glad you take credit”  Kim said, “We take everything but American Express”.  Ron,”I’ve never used AMEX since they turned me down for a card after I graduated college”.    Kim tole me that she never uses K-Mart!  In the massive flood of ’93, her house was flooded along with everyone else in the flood plain.  It was a 100 years flood.  Kim lost everything.  With everything gone,  she opened new account at the Bank and received unnumbered temporary checks.  K-mart and an old crowded wall-mart were the only shops in town.  K-mart refused to honor her checks because they were not numbered.  They wouldn’t call the bank to verify funds,  K-mart just would not take her checks.  She was not alone.  Most everyone else could not buy at K-mart for that reason.  Kim now will never buy from them.  Not surprisingly, K-mart is not in business in the area today.

Kim guided us to our site with her golf cart and waited to be sure we were settled in before heading off.   This is amazing customer service.  From answering the phone late in the evening to ensuring we had what we needed, Kim was wonderful.

I had half-jokingly said what I wanted this evening was to settle into a chair watching Bill Maher with a beer.  The longer we drove the less likely that became.  After verifying level, connecting electricity and water, and raising the antenna, I was surprised to see Real Time with Bill Maher starting in a few minutes!  I grabbed a cold one from the ‘fridge.

Today was a marathon drive through Kansas and into Missouri.   With good weather and traffic we may camp near Dayton, Ohio tomorrow.  Dayton has an aviation museum and Antioch College, Yellow Springs is close by.  It will be fun walking the campus and Glenn Helen Nature Preserve with Ellen.

Life is indeed good.

Ron