On The Road Again - Westward Ho!

"Goin' place that I've never been,

Seein' things that I may never see again,

I can't wait to be on the road again. (Willie Nelson)

We are now back on the road again and heading to Wyoming for the spring, summer, and fall.  Over 1900 miles are ahead of us and we have to travel quicker than usual in order to arrive in time.  

Our resident volunteer friends at Ding Darling held a nice going away dinner for us at Grandma Dot's.  We will miss them very much and plan on keeping in touch.

We use Microsoft's Streets and Trips to help plan our route.  It's SO helpful.  In the route planner you can enter where you want to start and end.  Then you add start and stop time for each day, how often you want to stop for a rest/meals, mileage per gallon and it then shows you on your route where an estimated stopping point is for each day, mileage, and total cost for fuel for the trip.  I use these breaking points to help find nearby places to camp.  

Here is an outline of our trip and stops.  

What I really like is the ability to import pin sets for all types of options.  For instance, you can drop in a pin set which shows you where the nearby Passport America discount campgrounds are located.  Or, I can drop in Elks Lodges which offer camp sites at their lodge.  Some of the other options are Military Campgrounds, Walmarts, Escapee Parks, Casino's with RV parks. Flying J's, and all kinds of restaurants. The software comes with many campgrounds and National Parks already built in but the additional pin sets are easy to add on and so helpful.  

Here is an example of Passport America campgrounds near one of our stopping points.  You just pick one of the locations and  the software puts your route together.  It has helped us find so many great campgrounds.  I have found campground guidebooks to not be very helpful because they are organized by a city.  It's very hard to know the exact city where you want to stop and many great campgrounds might be nearby with a different city address.

I use Streets and Trips for planning only.  You can also buy it with GPS navigation, but I find the navigation with my Smartphone and paper maps are a better option.  

I keep a map of our route each year with all the campgrounds.  It's a great reference for finding a campground you really liked in the past.  There is a bit of learning curve involved with this program and I found Geeks on Tour tutorials to be very helpful.  Geeks on Tour offer quick 5-7 minute how to videos which walk you through how to use this program and add additional pin sets.  If you don't know about Geeks on Tour, be sure to click this link.  I have learned so much from them and it keeps me up to date on blogging, Picasa, cell phones, and technology of all kinds.  

Another great tool I use for planning and finding campgrounds is Allstays.  It's an app on my IPad and its has filters which help you find your favorite type of campground. We tend to like state parks, county parks, and Corp of Engineer Parks. How about you?  

Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway

We're the best of friends,

Insisting that the world keep turning our way.

Our first stop after leaving Sanibel was to have some RV repair done.  Our lock to our door was not working properly and was getting harder and harder to open.  John had looked at the mechanism and decided it was above his pay grade.  A mobile RV repair person recommended Alliance RV repair in Wildwood Florida.  They have a free campground in the back if you are having repairs completed.  They quickly diagnosed the problem and replaced the lock and cable.  We were very impressed with them and would stop there again if needed.  

This facility is outside a very famous retirement community called the Villages.  We drove through parts of it while we were waiting on our repairs.There is housing of all types and price range and it even has it's own zip code.  Golf carts were zipping around everywhere. and some of these were pretty amazing.  There were some beautiful golf courses and homes.  

Alliance RV Repair

Our next stop was in Ocala at the Cummins South facility.  We stop here every year to have routine maintenance for our diesel engine.  They also have a free campground in the back.  We met Leonard and Sondra who are considering the full timing lifestyle.  They had lots of questions and the time flew by quickly as we waited for our service to be completed. We wish them success in selling their home this year and getting on the road soon.  

Getting ready to leave Ocala

Georgia was our next stop.  Spring was in full tilt and the flowering dogwoods were lovely.  We stayed at a military campground called Navy Lake Site in Allatoona.  It was NOT big rig friendly.   I had read the reviews and website and John had talked to the staff.  No one mentioned how difficult it would be to stay here in a big rig.  The roads were very steep, windy, and there were lots of over hanging limbs.  John is a great driver but he found it very stressful.  The site we were assigned was basically along a steep hill and impossible to level. We did not extend our slides.  We arrived after the office was closed, however, there did not appear to be an alternate site which would have worked  It was a very pretty campground but not for rigs our size.  At least we were only there for one night.  Our usual length of stay is at least a week.  

Our site at Navy Lake

The next two nights were spent at Passport America campgrounds.  Do you use them?  We have found them to be great when you need a quick over night stay.  The price is reasonable (usually around $15-20/night) and the campgrounds are usually a nice place to stay.  

Little Grassy Lake Campground was located near Carbondale Illinois in the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.  It was very nice and the campground host was so friendly after a long day of driving through four states.  We would have liked to have stayed longer due to great kayaking opportunities.  

Little Grassy Lake

Missouri was our next state and we stayed at Lake Paradise Resort in Lone Jack. It is a large campground with five lakes and the largest pool in Missouri.  It was pretty much empty this time of year but it looked very nice and well kept.  Our pull through site along one of the lakes was very pleasant.

We are making good time and on average have been driving about 400 miles a day.  We try to always be in a campground by 4pm.  Driving into a unknown campground at night is not a good idea.

So check back soon as we continue to travel  down the highway.  Thanks for stopping by.

and our way is on the road again!"