To The Interstate And Beyond

Even in our 4th year of full-timing, we still get excited about travel days and usually don’t sleep all that well the night before. I guess after our time in Red Bay and the anticipation of getting to see many friends, we were doubly excited. Both of us were wide awake sometime around 4 a.m. Thursday morning. As a result, we were on the road by 6:30 (yes, that was a.m.).

We decided to take Highway 24 East out of Red Bay and go directly to I-65 instead of weaving our way north and east across the smaller highways. It meant a few more miles overall, but much more of it on the interstate. So, about 8:00 we went through Decatur, Alabama and turned on to I-65 North:

Very soon we zoomed by this rocket near Huntsville, Alabama. No, we weren’t traveling quite as fast as the rocket might, but we were moving right along.

Onward through beautiful Tennessee, and yes, Jenny, we waved!

Then onward to Kentucky, where we waved at Louisville for Linda and Howard:

Across the Ohio River into our final destination state for this day:

We didn’t have a specific plan as to where we would stop for the day. I know we were both contemplating going the entire 600 miles to Elkhart, but we finally decided to get through Indianapolis and find a place to unwind and rest. Our stopover was the Honey Bear Hollow Campground just outside the small town of Peru, about 60 miles north of Indianapolis. It’s located off the main highway on a very narrow farm road.

Our 30 amp spot, nestled in the trees provided no satellite reception, or phone or internet access either. Now that is what we consider to be roughing it! We can do nicely without many amenities like electricity, water, or sewer hook-ups, but no access to the outside world is kinda hard on us! But it was a beautiful little campground with a very friendly and helpful owner, so we could do this for one night.

We solved one of the problems by getting our our new “Carryout” portable dish. It was a snap to set up, and picked up the satellite signal quickly. Jim was sitting down in his chair in front of the working TV in time for the football game!

Why did we pick this campground? Our first inclination was to park at a Walmart, but when I called ahead, the manager said there is an ordinance against overnight parking in their lot, so we next considered the Flying J, where there are parking spaces for overnight. After we talked about it, the decision was to find a campground where we might have a chance for peace and quiet. Since we were only a few miles away by this time, I checked only the www.rvparkreviews.com website and this was the best looking option in the area we wanted to stop. We both slept like logs and got up early enough to be back on the road towards Elkhart by a little after 7:30 yesterday morning. We had a very short distance to cover, less than 90 miles, so we arrived at the Elkhart Campground before 10:00 a.m.

We were soon checked in and parked in our site next to Dortha and Mark. There were lots of hugs and laughter as we visited while we were getting set up. Jasmine was beside herself when she saw Mark, they’ve always been good buddies.

Dortha tried to talk me into postponing my cleaning and setting up to go with her to the line dancing class, but I promised I’d go next week, and she went off to the class. Mark and Jim went to see what new things they could find at Walmart, so I had the time to do some cleaning and arranging the Castle. After the past 3 weeks of having our home all dis-arranged with boxes sitting everywhere, it felt great to get things put back in place and at least the start of a good cleaning.

Once all of that was done, Dortha and the guys were back. We sat outside for awhile, just relaxing and visiting. Donna and Keith had arrived by this time, parked 2 sites over from us. Dortha, Mark, Jim and I decided to go get a quick lunch. After lunch we returned to our lawn chairs for more catching up.

Soon, it was time for happy hour and we joined a group of new friends who are here for the Gypsy Journal Rally. After happy hour, several of us went to a local Mexican Restaurant for dinner, after which we returned to the campground for more visiting. While we were gathered outside Donna and Keith’s coach, Molly and Bob noticed their jeep coming down the road, covered with TP! Seems Bob left the keys with a “friend” while we went to dinner!

Molly and Bob are staying over in Goshen right now, getting ready for the Escapees Escapade which we’ll attend starting Sept. 10. They are the “Directors in Training” for this Escapade, next year they will be the directors, so they are learning the job.

Here are a few of the women , Kathy, Dortha, Donna, Molly and me all standing in front of Molly and Bob’s decorated car:

It’s been a great start to our new adventures!