The usual Data and Statistics

I like numbers...so we try to keep decent records for each trip we take.

Our total trip was almost 4700 miles, 4691 to be precise. We used 267 gallons of diesel fuel for an average of 17.6 mpg. We drove the speed limit when we could, average of 65mph.  The price of fuel is significantly less in the south, the cheapest being $2.57 in Florida, with the most expensive being $3.11 in good ole Vermont.

We covered a good portion of the east coast.  Did you know Google tracks your every move...kind of scary, but it can be kind of neat.  You can export your archive into a huge KML file, then edit it down to something google maps can handle. In my case I had to break it into  three files and then import them as layers...but it gives a good map of where you have been. Pretty cool..IMHO.

Here are the detailed Stats:

Day 20 - Enough Fretz'n around...heading for Home.

Friday we, I mean June, made a good breakfast in the RV and then made our way to Fretz, which is just west of Philly.











Fretz is an interesting place. RV dealers today are all about presentation, fancy show rooms and camping stores. I give Camping world and Pete's RV as examples. Fretz on the the other hand is like the place has not changed in 30 years. It is kind of dumpy, the store is pretty disorganized, they even have a section in the store where they sell cowboy boots.  The service area is across the street and is just an office with desks for the service attendants and three or four service bays attached to the office. That being said, it was a positive experience.  They jumped in our RV and took it away, they must have more service areas off site. We were there 3.5 hours in all, but they took care of the bad sofa switch and cleaned the orifice on the propane stove so both work as designed now.   Since the tank sensors were working again when we came in for service, it was hard for them to diagnose, so they checked and tightened all the connections, but I suspect I will see this problem again. Overall, I give them good marks for customer service so far and their inventory and pricing is the best in the northeast, in my opinion.

We departed Fretz about 13:30 for home, traffic in the Philly, NJ, NYC area is what it is...it sucks.  We hit two traffic jams, one for construction and one for an accident. Despite what my buddy George says, given a choice...I will take I81/I88 versus I95/I287, it is farther, but just less stressful.

After all that traffic and driving, we were thinking we would be hungry, so we called June's cuzs Keith and Deb to get some pizza lined up...gawd we are good at this...another free meal. We stopped and had a nice visit and dinner in Hudson Falls around 7PM.

After dinner with the Pattisons, it was an uneventful drive home on familiar roads with almost no traffic. Our traffic is something we don't think about day to day but after driving up and down the east coast, one gains an appreciation of where we live. We arrived home about 23:30, it was just about 32F, but after this trip we are kind of used to the cold.

Overall it was a good trip, the weather could have been better but we still enjoyed getting away for a bit and getting a bit of sun.

It is always nice to come home after a long trip.

Day 19 - Pointed North

Today we drove from just south of Roanoke, VA to Souderton, PA, roughly 450 miles.

We stopped in Fairfax, VA and had lunch with the Malloys, always good to see them.  They got about 6 inches of snow and Bob was sliding in the back yard with their friend's 6 year old son.  Bob will never grow up, and that is why the Malloys are so much fun.

We like Cracker Barrels for stop overs and that is where we are tonight.  We always buy either dinner or breakfast, it just seems like the right thing to do for allowing RVers to park overnight.  We got dinner this time, the place was crowded, we ordered and waited almost an hour before our dinners came.  The manager eventually brought out our meal. Our waitress was a pistol, she came over and said "what did he say?", I said not much...she was miffed and said, "he may not know it but he is buying your meal", and she refused to give us a bill.  We put down a good tip and left, and we still like CB, other than they don't serve adult beverages.

We are here because I have an appointment with the service department at Fretz RV where we bought our RV. This was the first big trip in the new unit and there are a few things that need attention.  One of the electrical switches for the fold out bed works some of the time, only one burner on the propane stove works and the tank level gauges have been intermittently throwing error codes. I am certain I could fix the switch and stove, but the gauges might need replacing..so we are taking the time to get it looked at.  I called Fretz this afternoon and explained that we are passing thru, they were very accommodating and got us in for 10AM tomorrow. Frankly, I was surprised, the RV industry has a reputation for very poor after sale service....so far so good with Fretz. We will see.

We hope to get home tomorrow afternoon.

Day 18 - Lazy morning..then drive North

Today we were lazy, slept in, showers and a late breakfast. We were staying in a KOA, but never left the Falcon, it seems we just have everything we need in the unit.

We hit rain almost immediately after we left and as we headed east we climbed to about 2500ft and yes..snow and high winds...again.








While fueling up in Wytheville, VA our cell phones lit up with high wind warnings...well they were not kidding, some 18 wheelers slowed and put on their flashers...we were getting rocked... We went another 40 miles to the next Cracker Barrel in Christainsburg, VA.  We got in about 400 miles today, considering our departure time and the weather that is reasonable.

We plan on 400 to 600 miles today and should be home Friday afternoon, unless we find another reason to stop.

Day 17 - JD and GOO

After Monday night, a cloudy Tuesday morning seemed quite pleasant.  The weather improved, no storms but not really warm either and the forecast continued to forecast rain by noonish.

We surveyed the damage from the storm and to our surprise the Falcon had no visible damage, apparently the damage from hail was very localized. We went into the Cracker Barrel for a good breakfast and one of the workers said that her husband's car windshield was smashed. We were lucky, 4 miles away at Mitch Smith Chevrolet an entire lot of cars was pelleted by golf ball size hail and they got it on surveillance video. 

Car Dealer lot getting hail

After breakfast we headed just about 100 miles north to drop in on Jack Daniels.

When we arrived there the parking lot was completely empty, when we came out to leave about 12N, it was full, it is quite an attraction for the small 'dry' town of Lynchburg, TN.

The JD story is quite interesting. A very interesting account of how the business started is told by Mike Rowe in a podcast, it is episode #93, I highly recommend you listen to it.

http://thewayiheardit.rsvmedia.com/episode-93-as-long-as-its-legal

We took the tour and learned a bit about making Whiskey, JD is not bourbon because it is made in TN and uses a bit of a different process.

They have several tours, we took the basic walking tour of about an hour and a half, the guide was very entertaining. Much of the tour walking from building to building of that actual operation, we noticed the trees were all black. Apparently the distilling vapors combine with air pollutants that feed a fungi that sticks to just about anything. During prohibition, moonshiners had to keep moving their operations due to this tell tale sign of their business.

On the grounds there are wild turkeys everywhere, they smell the grains and come to try to get some...the guide said "they are spies from Wild Turkey".

Jack himself was about 5' 2" tall and had a size 4 shoe, the statues are a bit taller...funny how that happens.

The tour includes the original office building that Jack used, including the original furnishings. It even has the safe that is said to have caused his death. He came to work early one day and when unable to get the combo right for the safe, he kicked it.  He did not tell anyone his toe was broke and got infected.  For the next six years he had toes, then leg etc. amputated to try to stop the infection. Eventually the infection killed him at 61, but not before he turned the business over to his nephew, he had no children.

We ended the tour in the factory and then the tasting room, that was fun! That is an Indian behind the table, there were several custom Indians in the visitor center.  We later found a Harley in their gift shop in the market square, but I think Harley needs to step up their presence.


We then walked to the town square in Lynchburg, it really is a small town, and had lunch at one of the local BBQ places. We never had BBQ brisket pizza, but it was pretty good.

From JD's we drove a few hours north to Nashville, we debated on what to do since the weather was forecast to rain, and it did. We drove downtown and found a place to park, it took some looking but we did find a place the Falcon fit into, I guess it is not that big.

The visitor center is in the Predators Arena space, kind of weird but they were nice and told us what we could do in the few hours we had, which is basically walk the strip with all the Honky Tonks and listen to some live music.









We asked about seeing a show at the Grand Ole Opry (GOO) and were directed to go to the Ryman Theater (former location of GOO) and see if there were any left.  When we asked the woman at the window was not optimistic, but to our and her surprise, we got great seats due to a cancellation.

So after strolling the strip we headed for GOO with tickets in hand, we even found a KOA about 3 miles from GOO, so we secured a parking spot for the night before going to the show.

GOO is definitely a bucket list kind of place, it was very cool to be part of the on air broadcast and the performances are run like a fine tuned clock. The big event for the night was the induction of Chris Janson into the GOO, the presentation was done by Garth Brooks.  All I can say is that boy is talented, especially on a harmonica (Bob Kitchin). The only bummer was Charlie Daniels was on the billing but apparently became ill.




After the show we walked over to the Gaylord Opryland Resort Gardens, the lady at the visitor center had told us about this.

The place is worth the walk, I would say it is a combination of what you see in Vegas and the botanical gardens in Montreal. It is huge and free if you park in the mall and walk over.

The gardens have canals with boats and several water falls, pretty cool.












It was a pretty good day despite the cold temps and rain.

Today we really don't have a plan, it is 10AM and we are still sitting in the van having breakfast, so it will be a late start to say the
least.










We do know we are headed north..so let's hope it warms up.

Day 16 - Rain, Wind, Thunder, Lightening, Hail and Tornado Warnings

After enduring Sunday night's storms we had hoped we could get to the Emerald Coast and enjoy walking on the beach in the sun....well that was not to be.

We drove thru more rain getting to Okaloosa Island and when we drove across the bridge to Mirimar Beach, the fog was so thick you could not see anything. None the less, we pressed on..when we arrived at Okaloosa Island, the rain was coming in sporadic down pours. 

We decided to have lunch and hope the weather would pass, and chose a place on the boardwalk called, Angler's Beachside Grill.  We pretty much had the place to ourselves, but the food and beer was satisfying. 

The weather did not improve, but I did walk the beach for a bit but June stayed on the board walk. 

I have never seen better sand, it is absolutely white, without rocks, shells or anything else..just perfect.

We will comeback sometime when the weather is better. 

From Okaloosa Island, we headed north towards Alabama...well that was pretty stupid.  June and I listen to podcasts when we drive, had we had the radio tuned in, we might not have driven into the path of a Tornado. 

We had picked Cullman, Alabama as a stopping point, a Cracker Barrel restaurant. It had started to rain before we got to the CB, but we had barely parked when the town Tornado sirens started.  It was pretty much Mayhem, it turned dark, the wind rocked us, rain came in sheets, our cell phones were blowing up with tornado alerts, etc...we are in an RV..what do you do.  We decided to make a run for the CB.  We got in the CB and they hustled us into the kitchen with about 50 of our new friends. What was funny is the staff never stopped cooking, I can't say I always wanted to see a CB kitchen in action..but I did. 

In all honestly, it was not fun, but we learned a few things...like new words.. Tornadic and that you really don't want to be in the Polygon...we were. 

Eventually, it was declared that that Tornadic part of the storm passed, there was still rain, wind and hail, but no danger of Tornado.  June and I made a run for the RV, we might as well jumped in a lake we were so wet when we got in the RV.  The storm was not over, and the hail came, I think we were lucky, no sky lights broke and I think it was generally pea sized. It was deafening and June retreated to the bathroom, but I don't think there was any damage, I will verify tomorrow in the daylight. 

We finally got to cook our dinner about 9PM and have a drink!  Glad it was over.

We will drive to Tennessee tomorrow, maybe look in on Jack Daniels and a few others. 

Day 15 - Manatee Springs

Sunday morning we took the short drive to Manatee State Park.

Driving into the park, there were deer grazing by the road, they clearly are comfortable with people.

They have some pretty extensive elevated walks that follow the Spring with observation points along the way.

At the end of the walkway it comes out onto a pier that reaches out into the Suwannee River. When we arrived it was guarded buy a flock of Black Vultures.


They are the size of chickens or bigger and really did not want to move.

We walked the boardwalks in the morning but did not see any Manatees, but we did come by the spring where there were scuba divers. I vaguely remember this from 1979 when Aunt Joyce took us here, or some place very close, I will have to verify from pictures when I get home.







We decided to take a nature hike of about 4 miles, all flat.

We came by this guy, a black racer snake, he was good sized, over 3ft in length. June did not initially see him and when I pointed out she was about to step on him, she let out quite a squeak.. :-).  I tried to move him with a stick and he struck, so I felt it prudent to get a bigger stick.  Once I flipped him off the trail, he zipped off into the brush...it is obvious why they are called racer snakes...pretty fast.

The hiking trail has 19 markers that identify different things of interest, #7 was the state tree, a Sabal palm or cabbage palm. It has a heart like an artichoke that is edible, but once harvested the palm will die.

After our hike we decided to walk the board walk one more time, just to see if there were any Manatees about.  I talked to a ranger and he said there were some sleeping near the pier where the Spring feeds into the Suwannee.  We were lucky, there were 7 Manatees just loafing about.  One of them swam over to the pier like he was saying good morning and then returned to the others.  There was a couple in a canoe and they had to be careful not to hit them with their paddles.

It was cool.

We saw this unit in the parking lot, all the way from Germany. I also spoke with a couple from Ontario that were full timing in a 1975 Toyota class C, amazing what you see on the road.










We returned to the Falcon and both took showers, with only a 6 gallon hot water tank, amazingly there seemed to be plenty of hot water.

Our next destination was planned to be Okaloosa Island, so we headed that way, stopped at Walmart again to get a few things and to park in the shade to make lunch.  As we made our way west we ran into very very heavy rain, driving visibility was very bad, so we decided to find a place to get off of I10. We found the Hitching Post Corral and RV Park with our Passport America card (from Fretz), it was only $25 for the night...so we took it. It was a pretty awful night, it was raining hard most of the night, deafeningly loud, with thunder and lightening, not much sleep. We even had branches falling on the RV, I just hope my antenna and solar panels did not get damaged.

Looking at the weather, we will probably not see much sun on Okaloosa Island, but it looks worse inland, so I think we will make the visit to the coast anyway and hope the weather passes before we start back towards Tennessee.

Day 14 - Sanibel Island

Saturday we left Liz and John and headed about an hour west of Fort Myers to visit Sanibel Island.
Years ago when June worked for Dr. Heisse, he vacationed there coming home with stories that made June want to visit, so it was on her bucket list of places.

We randomly picked Tarpon Beach as a destination and were able to drive right to the beach where  RV parking had reserved spaces and charged the same as a car....score!.

Sanibel and Captiva are known for their shells, birds and beaches, they have plenty of all of those.

We took about an hour walk on the beach and waded in the ocean, it was surprisingly brisk..but then again we were used to Liz and John's heated pool.










After lunch at the beach, we moved on up the west coast of Florida, making our way to the Emerald Coast. 

We picked, Manatee Springs as a stopover for the night, but when we arrived it was booked up, so we went 8 miles up the road and took a spot at the Chiefland Walmart.  (Patti, I know you miss this)









It worked out just fine, I opened the Dunkin Donuts this morning at 6, which is right next door and today we plan to take the morning and go back to Manatee Springs State Park for a tour of the area.

Day 12/13 - Villages to Gateway

On Thursday we left the Pilgers in the Villages and headed for our friends John and Liz who live in Fort Myers. They live in a pretty good sized golf community called Gateway.

The Falcon is 24'6" long and their driveway is about 27'...tight but we can get everything off the street..but our shadow.










Liz has a golf tournament in the late morning/early afternoon, so we hung for a few hours with John who is recovering from knee surgery. I installed a new kitchen faucet for Liz for something to do, the new faucets are almost too easy these days, that did not take very long at all.

June and I then took about a 4 mile walk and came by an alligator just hanging in one of the ponds by the golf course. He looked at least 6ft long.










We hung out for the afternoon and then the Tobin's friends, Ron and Linda, came over for dinner.  We had a nice time and ended the evening playing a dice game called 'Left Right Center', I made $6 on the evening...oh yeah, high stakes.

We will hit the road again today (Saturday) and will probably visit Sanibel Island and then point the Falcon north and start working our way home.

Day 10/11 - Sister Jane and then the Villages

We had a nice breakfast at Cracker Barrel and headed for  Brooksville, near Tampa to drop in on June's sister Jane. When we arrived Jane took us for a nice long walk around the development where she winters. When we got back from our walk we enjoyed a nice lunch Jane had prepared for us.

Eventually, we said our good byes and headed back west towards the Villages.












We were headed to The Villages to visit our snow bird friends George and Gail. It was an easy drive from Tampa. When you arrive at The Villages, if you don't know exactly where you are going..good luck..we just call George and wait for an escort. I won't even try to describe The Villages, I will just say it is the fastest growing city in the USA, it now has over 100K homes. We were here in 2016 and it is even bigger this year.

We arrived at The Villages right around dinner time, huh..imagine that.  We decided to go out to eat and headed to the water front and had a nice dinner at the Lighthouse Point Bar and Grill.  We then walked and people watched.  At the square a guy named 'DJ Scooter' was leading a group dance. I expected some young skinny dude, but he is middle aged with a pot belly, it was quite a hoot watching people...especially George.

As we walked back to the van we spotted this guy in a tree in the parking lot.
















On Wednesday we goofed off. It was not hot but in the sun it was comfortable.

I have wanted to officially badge 'The Falcon' since I left but just did not have the opportunity and I knew if I could get George to help, it would be done professionally. I think it looks great!

We took a ride in the afternoon and stopped at the Lake Griffin State Park and took the short walk to see the second largest Oak tree in the state.

It is huge to say the least and over 300 years old.

June is holding it up.

















We returned to The Villages around sunset and cooked a nice dinner on the grill. It was a nice and relaxing day.

We will move further south today towards Fort Myers.

Day 9 - Cuzs

Today Randy and I went to Waffle House for breakfast, it is one of the things you have to do when you are in the south. We both got the All American....and wobbled out of the place.

I am sure that Randy and Sue let out a sigh of relief when we left, they have had lots of company for the last 5 days and were great hosts. We said our goodbyes and continued south. 

We drove to Gainesville, Fl and dropped in on my cousin Danny and his wife Rachel. Danny used to baby sit me when I was a kid and doesn't hesitate to remind me. While at Danny's we called cousin Brenda who was on her way home from work and we decided we would all meet for dinner at the Northwest Grill.  

It was great catching up with my cousins and the meal was excellent. 

We are now parked at the Cracker Barrel in Gainesville for the night. Tomorrow we will have breakfast at the CB and then head a bit west to visit June's sister, Jane, who winters just north of Tampa.

When we left Randy's it was in the low 40's, when we got to Gainesville it was in the high 60's, I told June tomorrow I am wearing shorts!! 

Day 8 - Lazy

Sunday, as planned, was a lazy day. We really just hung out and chatted most of the day.  Joe and I did take a trip to Camping World in Macon.  Since I have nothing else to really talk about, I needed to get a few things and make a deposit, dump my tanks.

Since I really don't have much interesting to talk about, I will do a short rant on CW. As a member of CW (~$30/yr) you can dump free at any CW and many other benefits they grossly over sell when they sign you up. As has been my experience with CW, they are really interested in one thing and one thing only...selling new RVs. So when I asked to use the dump, they first said or fence is broken and you really can't get it, but then said if you are good at backing up you can. There is nothing wrong with the fence, it is just that they have so many RVs crammed on the site, you can't get to the dump station, you can only get within about 30ft and it is an uphill dump. So if you had a gravity dump, you are screwed, but luckily I have a macerator pump, so it was doable, but a two person job. One to hold the pipe up and one to hold the macerator switch.  I will just say Joe got his indoctrination of dumping an RV with a worst case scenario.  We got it done but it was good for some laughs and Joe may be scarred for life.

When we got back, Randy, Rich and Mike P. took turns giving me spankings at darts and pool, I need to get better prepared for future visits.

We decided to get Chinese takeout for a group dinner and then watched the movie Daddy's Home 2, it was nice light hearted movie (Sue's quote).

Today, Monday, we plan to work our way south, first stop will be at cousin Danny's in High Springs, FL.  From there we are not sure of our next move.

Day 7 - Little White House

Saturday was sunny and in the low 70's, just what we came for. On the drive down June and I listen to podcasts and one of them was about out of the way places that are worth a visit. The Roosevelt's Little White House in Warm Springs, GA was mentioned and Randy had also mentioned it in one of our conversations.  It is 80 miles from Randy's and the home that Roosevelt had built for when he would visit the warm springs that were therapeutic for his paralysis. He was in the house having his portrait painted when died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945.

The house is quite small but was very comfortable inside.  Boats are everywhere on the walls. 












While in Warm Springs, Roosevelt liked to drive himself around the countryside visiting the locals, they say it is how he became one of the people. His car was custom made with hand controls. 

The Walk of States and Stones is pretty cool, in 1948 all states were asked to contribute a stone for a walkway, but they were so irregular, they decided to put them on pedestals instead.  

I thought Michigan's was especially creative...

Of course VT sent granite, it was the most popular stone type sent. 















The visit only takes about 2 hours to tour the museum, watch the movie, and tour the grounds, but it was well worth the trip. 

We got home just in time for Randy and Sue to put on a feast of ribs on the grill.  Sue does her own dry rub and the ribs were just awesome.  


It was a beautiful evening and no visit to Randy's is complete without a bonfire. 














It was a good day, lots of sunshine, a little education, a great dinner and sitting around a bonfire....life is good.

It is supposed to rain Sunday, so we will likely just hang out and be lazy. 

Day 6, Mayhem

While we were aware of the snow storm back at home, we had a gorgeous day in the Georgia sun. I spent much of the day actually working from my very remote office, our RV, but I had left some things hanging that needed cleaning up.  You can look at it as good/bad that today's technology allows this, but June was only a little annoyed and enjoyed the sunshine without me.

This is my remote office....:-)

June enjoyed the sun walking Randy's estate. :-)



























Randy's good friends Mike and Stefanie arrived later in the afternoon and they will spend the weekend with us.  We last saw them in August when they joined us for the Solar Eclipse in Tennessee, it is good to see them again.

Randy had planned an outing for us to go see the local hockey club the Macon Mayhem.

So 9 of us loaded into the Falcon.

On board we had the Hansen brothers...for those of you who remember Slap Shot, you know what I am talking about.  When we got to the game there was another Hanson right in front of us, of course they had to get a group picture.

We had a great time, the Mayhem got spanked..but we really did not care.  The local pro teams are always fun to watch, there was some good hockey and of course some fighting.

And..we did not go away empty handed..Stef won the 'Dancing for Donuts' competition and June won the 'Screaming for Pizza' contest...so we are flush with Donuts and Pizza....all the food groups are covered...










After the game, we came back to Randy's and put on Slap Shot, the movie with Paul Newman.  Mike M. and I watched it to the end at 01:30AM.  I still enjoy that stupid movie.

Today we plan to go visit Roosevelt's Little White House State Historic Site.  Something to do and I have heard good things about it.