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A New Adventure - September 2024

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      Jodi and I have been busy getting everything ready for our next adventure. We are loading the Pink Piggie and getting it ready for our trip starting 31AUG24.      We'll boondock somewhere in Alabama for our first night on our way to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. It's one of the few places in the world where the public is free to search for and keep natural diamonds. In a recent find a visitor from France found a 7.46 ct. wt. diamond ( Visitor finds huge 7.46-carat diamond in Crater of Diamonds State Park | CNN ). After a four days there we're headed to Golden CO for four days.     Jodi has found a motorcycle ride from Golden CO that will take us to Breckenridge, Red Rocks and back to Golden through the Rockies. Then from there we're going to drive to Vernal, UT and stay for three days at Dinosaur National Park . This looks really cool and similar to the Bad Lands in SD that we stayed at last year. But with more fossils. From th...

July 4th at the USS Alabama

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      Since I had a five-day weekend this year for the Fourth of July, we decided to head to Mobile and stay at Historic Blakely State Park in Spanish Fort, AL.     Blakely was the last major battle of the US Civil War fought on the same day that Robert E. Lee surrendered, April 9th, 1865. Roughly 3500 Confederate troops stood between more than 16,000 Union troops and Mobile, AL. At the end of the day, as expected, the Union had broken the Confederate lines and then moved into Mobile. The park encompasses the battlefield, preserving the lines and providing a glimpse into the past. It's hard to imagine almost 20,000 men facing off to do battle. The roar of the cannon, the sound of black-powder rifles. The clash of troops in such a beautiful area. And then, it was all over.      We drove up on Wednesday, It was a nice uneventful drive towing the motorcycle. Traffic was light so we made it in about 6 hours. After getting camp set up and having dinner...

Lake Lanier and North Carolina

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  Jodi's niece was getting married in in mid-June in North Georgia and since we were already halfway there, we decided to go the rest of the way to North Carolina to see Jodi's mom.  We left out on Thursday with me driving the RV and Jodi following in the car. We had decided not to tow the bike since we were going to have to get dressed up for the wedding and riding the bike wouldn't have been a good idea. It was an easy drive with me leaving it on cruise control at 70mph for the majority of the trip. However, once we hit Atlanta at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, it took us almost 3 hours to drive the last forty miles or so to the campsite.  What a sexy backside     Jodi books our campsites and as usual she did an amazing job getting us a great site at  Shoal Creek Campground . We were lake side with a great view of the lake and fairly quiet.  We probably wouldn't book this site again, but site 6 next to it was nice. Campsite 5 After we got in and g...

Bus Maintenance

      One of the least favorite things about owning an RV is the maintenance that has to be done on it from time to time. Well, our time caught up to us.      The first thing that needed to be done was new batteries. Similar to a larger diesel truck RVs have two coach batteries that have to be replaced at the same time. However, unlike a truck, most RVs have house batteries that have to be replaced as well. These aren't the same type of batteries as a normal truck battery. The house batteries are designed to be charged and then slowly discharged multiple times so that you can run most of the inside electrical items in the RV such as the light and TVs when not plugged into shore power or running the onboard generator.      Swapping out the coach batteries was fairly simple. Undo the connecting cables, pull the old, put the new ones in. Twenty minutes and done. The house batteries were a different story however, First, I wanted to document how ...

Days 26 - 31: Fredericksburg, TX

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    Heading out early to make the run to Fredericksburg. Along the way Jodi made arrangements for us to meet a young lady who is essentially an adopted daughter and her three boys. They were heading east as we headed south and as luck would have it, we were crossing the same point at roughly the same time. PERFECT. Lunch was on.  Jodi and two of the boys. Look at those smiles.     On to Fredericksburg. Home of WWII hero Adm. Chester Nimitz, as well as being the heart of Texas wine country and to meet up with our friends, Dave and Barbara and to make new ones, Byron and Lynn.      Now I knew a bit about Adm. Nimitz from my studies of history and WW II, but I wasn't that familiar with his background. Until we got to his hometown. The house where he was born has been turned into a wine bar, but it at least from the outside it hasn't changed much from when he was born.  Plaque right outside of Adm. Nimitz birthplace House where Adm. Nimitz was bo...

Days 23 - 25: Amarillo, TX

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      We woke early and headed out on the long drive to Amarillo, TX. Our destination,  The Big Texan RV Park . Getting into the park the navigation had us taking some back roads that seemed a bit shady and I was nervous about what we'd gotten ourselves into. But, as usual, Jodi had picked a great spot. The park was big and accommodating and we had no problems pulling into our spot even with the bike trailered behind us.     Once we got settled in and had a bite to eat, we decided to go for a walk. As we walked towards the front of the park, we could hear music coming from across the street and decided to go investigate. As we got closer, we discovered that they were having a concert at  The Starlight Ranch Event Center . We walked up to the gate to see who was performing and discovered that none other than Mark Chestnut was playing. Well, we weren't going to pay to go in, but the woman in the ticket booth asked if we were staying at the RV Park. When ...

Days 16 - 22: Canon City, CO

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      Off to Colorado. We drove most of the day into Canon City, CO and got set up in our campsite. It was fairly quiet as it was the end of the season, and most people weren't camping anymore. That's ok, I like it when there are less people around. Jodi and I headed out to grab dinner. Again, since it was the end of the season the only place open close-by was 8 Mile Bar and Grill . Sure, I could stand a burger. Well, it was worth it. It was their last night open before closing for the season and they had a local musician in singing. He was really good, and the place was packed. We ate and stayed for a while to listen before heading back to get a good night sleep.     The next morning, we got up and headed into  town to explore. On the way in the previous day we had passed a winery,  The Winery at Holy Cross Abby , so we swung in. It was a cute little winery, and we grabbed a couple of bottles for some friends we would see later in our trip. One of the...