Coralville Lake, Iowa City Iowa

Iowa seems like a fun place. The billboards advertised seeds and farm equipment. We crossed I 80 today so we are pretty far north. The crummy thing about being so far north is it's hot as hell up here. I think today was our hottest of the trip. We have an appointment to have our leveling jacks fixed in a town 35 miles from here tomorrow at 12:30. There is a fossil bed in the park that we walked through. That fossil by my foot is a coral. We are here for 3 nights. They have disc golf and mountain bike trails. Of course, tropical temperatures will probably mute our enthusiasm.

Long Branch day 2

This state park land is leased from the COE. The lake and dam is maintained by the Army. I went out for a ride this morning and I'll be dammed if there wasn't a 'for real' bike race going on. These people are streaking by me on their racing bikes wearing their spandex bike outfits and I'm in shorts and a T-shirt with a baseball cap. I was friendly enough, saying howdy and stuff but it was a little awkward. After they cleared out Jenny and I did a bike/hike park tour. The lake is 8 feet above its normal level. Stuff is underwater. There are things out in the lake that you used to be able to walk to that are now only accessible by boat. We leave tomorrow, heading further north.

Long Branch SP Missouri

We are pretty far north I think. Its hard to tell since we don't look at maps too often. We did drive on I 70 for a little while and I  know that road goes through Denver. Today's drive was our longest yet. Something just shy of 6 hours. We are working our way to Moscow Iowa. We have an appointment on the 1st of July with the manufacturer of our leveling jacks. I'm pretty sure we would have never visited Moscow Iowa had it not been for this needed repair. Maybe its serendipity at work. We are here for 2 nights.

Last day at Wappapello

Last night was a lightning and thunder show that lasted all night. Jenny said she thought it was way worse than my snoring. There were some breaks today. I got out on my paddleboard for some upper body exercise. Jenny stayed behind and did laundry using our portable washing machine. There is a pretty impressive super spin cycle on the washer but no drying cycle. With the humidity so high we turned down the thermostat on the AC And dryed things mostly inside. The downside to that was that it was cold as hell in the RV. The weather seems to be a little more settled now but there is an occasional distant thunder clap. We move tomorrow. Mostly north. We are headed to Iowa to visit the manufacturer of our leveling jacks. We have an issue. It might be starting.

Wappapello lake day 2

This is a COE Campground. We have had consistent good luck at recreation areas developed by the Army. This morning we got out on the trails, some paved, some dirt. That took a couple of hours and produced copious amounts of sweat. The afternoon adventure tooks us to the town of Sikeston, the home of Lambert's restaurant. In 1996 it was named the best small town restaurant in America. It's the home of "Throwedrolls." What ya do is raise your hand and someone on the wait staff will throw you one. Let me tell you, they are frigging delicious. There are also people roaming around with "sides." These people are called, pass arounds.  The fried okra was spectacular. My chicken fried steak was almost as big as my plate. I brought some home. We are here one more night. It's currently raining. Weird huh?

Wappapello Lake southeast Missouri

We had a short drive today, 120 miles or so. We crossed the Mississippi just below Cairo Illinois. That is the location of the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi. There is a park at the confluence where I stopped during my 2011 paddle. That park was underwater. Just the tops of the trees were visible. The flood that has been occurring the last few weeks has dropped off of the news but it is far from over. I did my typical exploration bike ride after we got set up. I'm still working on my knee rehab so bike riding is important. My knee wasn't the issue today. My stamina/aerobic capacity was taxed. We are here for 3 days. There is a lake so we might get our paddles wet. The pics are our campsite and the lakes outflow.

Columbus-Belmont day 2

We found a place with some coverage. We are currently sitting on a bluff, 140 feet above the river. The river is a monster. All the rain in the midwest is headed for the gulf and things are overflowing. (Subject change) This park was the sight of a Civil War battle. General Ulysses Grant fought his first battle here. There are extensive earthen fortifications built here by the confederates to house gun emplacements. The object was to close the river to those damn Yankees. They even strung a humongous chain, supported by floats, across the river. That was a pretty neat idea but the chain ended up breaking because of the strong current. I bet that bummed them out. Anyway, the war developed in such a way that this fort no longer made sense for the Confederacy. They left and the Union immediately moved in. The river has changed course some since the 1860s and it's hard to imagine how this must have looked. We move tomorrow.

Columbus-Belmont State Park KY

We have moved 3 hours west. This campground overlooks the Mississippi river. We aren't too far from Paducah. This plot of land is preserved for 2 reasons. It was a major stop on the Trail of Tears and it was a Confederate fort built to halt Union shipping up the Mississippi. I'll cover the Trail of Tears today. The Cherokee nation was spread over 4 states. The 1830 Indian Removal act required that all 15,000 of them be relocated further west. 4000 of them died as a consequence of the move. This area was a choke point that virtually all of them passed through on their way to Oklahoma.  One issue with this park is cellphone and wifi. I'm not sure about the quality of either. I'll give this a try.

KY day 2

Horrific storm last night. We were debating evacuation to the cinderblock bath house but it was raining so hard we decided against it. Since this is a resort park there is a lodge, a restaurant and a pub. There is apparently a wedding planned today. Let's hope we're in the 20% area of the 80% rain chance.

Barren River Lake Resort Park KY

We are in the eastern part of the state. Now in the central time zone. A large section of eastern Kentucky was kept free of trees by the native americans. They burned it every few years. The open prairie provided attractive habitat for big game which gave the indians something to hunt. When we showed up the land looked barren to us. There was a river flowing through this wasteland (now a lake) that was named The Barren River. The trees have grown back and everyone in the campground is playing Corn Hole. Funny how things all work out for the best in the end. I saw this plant during my bike ride. Any ideas?

Rainy

It started last night. It got worse and then I'm not sure how to describe it. You can hear rain hitting the roof pretty well. At one point it sounded like a herd of monkeys pounding their fists on the roof. It eventually stopped and we were able to get out. I rode around and saw a hiking trail that looked interesting. Jenny and I hiked that trail and got a good view of Cherokee lake. It was built by the TVA and is 59 miles long and 30,000 acres. The dam was finished on Dec 5 1941, 2 days before Pearl Harbor. There will be a test later. I saw that mushroom during the hike and it screamed "take a picture". We move tomorrow.

Panther Creek SP Tennessee

We are a little east of Knoxville. The park is 1400 acres. It has a disc golf course, a bunch of bike trails and we have satellite reception, so it's all good. Our stay with Pat & Steve was productive. Paula closed on her new house while we were there and Jenny and I were able to join the labor force that moved some cardboard boxes from the barndominium, where she has been residing, to her new bachelorette pad. Jenny bought an expensive bottle of Cooks to celebrate.

Weight Watchers?

After our visit to the truck stop weigh station my concerns were realized. With full water and full fuel plus all of our stuff we are about 550 lbs above our max allowable weight. The front axle is OK but the rear isn't. What to do. I drained 3/4 of the freshwater tank. That dumped several hundred pounds but I can't think of much else to do. Oh well. There are some pretty trails behind Pat's house. Jenny & I took a hike this morning.

Chester State Park day 2

We are making progress getting used to our new home. After some biking, hiking and disc golf we visited the local Walmart to get a few things for the new girl. Tomorrow we head to my sister, Pat's house with a stop at Seth's house for lunch. We plan on visiting a truck stop in route because I want to get a weight on this thing. A lot of RVs like ours sit on a ford F 450 chassis, however most of them don't have 3 slides. The max allowable weight on this chassis is 14,500 lbs. The manufacturer claimed it weighed 13,300 when we picked it up. It's loaded now. I filled up the water tank just to see how heavy this thing is going to be when we are maxed out. We'll find out tomorrow.

Day 1 summer 2019 trip

We are camped at Chester State Park in glorious Chester SC. It was only a 3 hour drive. We wanted something close because getting started on day 1 is always a drawn out process. Our plan this summer is to slowly meander westward and eventually end up at Lake Powell in Utah. We will meet our kids and there kids (thats 12 souls) there for a 5 day house boating adventure the 3rd week in July. We are a long way from getting settled into our new RV. We need to establish a routine and figure out where to put everything so that we can find it when we start looking. We are here for 2 nights.