PART 1: Lewis & Clark RV Caravan - Getting There & Getting Ready

Our organized RV caravan starts on Memorial Day 2021 in St Charles, Missouri, which is near St Louis. Having just enjoyed a month in Raleigh visiting family, it is time to hit the road to get there for the start of this adventure.

5/17-18: Hickory, NC

Our drive to Hickory is uneventful as long as you don't count the huge speed bump in the RV park we left. It was only a few feet from our site and Jeffrey was forced to hit it on an angle as we pulled out, really giving Max a "rocking" for a few seconds. While he hooked up the car I went inside and inspected everything and was grateful that we had big safely bands around the upper cabinet doors or some heavy things would have taken a big 6 foot drop. Here's hoping the washer and dryer are okay when we go to use them next! Well, any good adventure starts with some type of OOPS, right? 😂

Thinking we might someday replace our two dining room chairs, we spent the biggest part of the next day looking at Hickory's large selection of furniture stores. Jeffrey is no doubt secretly thrilled I didn't find something that would fit our lifestyle better than the 10-year old chairs that we own already. We also drove by the movie set where part of Hunger Games was filmed, but sadly the gates were locked and we couldn't get in.

To cap the day, there is a farm next to the RV park that hosts barrel racing competitions on Tuesday nights, so we grabbed our camping chairs and walked the connected trail to see some fun entertainment after dinner!

5/19-21: Knoxville, TN

Driving over mountains with a 32,000 pound vehicle towing a car is always a bit stressful, but in today's case, we encountered construction delays that made our steepest descents just crawls. No extra drama, just normal drama 😏

Okay, spoke too soon. Not 10 minutes after I wrote this the car reported some type of regulation malfunction fault as we were driving it to Walmart. It behaves just fine, so we get up early in the morning to take it to the local Ford dealership. They try to "read the codes" and find nothing. They clear the fault and send us on our way with a shoulder shrug. Something tells us this isn't the end of this story. Side Note: The new car lot at the dealer was almost empty. Chip delays due to Covid have left dealers with very low inventory.

Next stop -- Zoo Knoxville! (don't ask me why Zoo is the first word in their title... seems to be the latest craze). We are early enough to beat most of the crowds and see close-ups of lions, tigers, and bears. Oh my! 😁 We also see lots of other animal ambassadors, including a cute giraffe baby (JJ). I got to feed the giraffe bull (Jumbe), who apparently won't let any of the other giraffes near the feeding deck. Nice big zoo though lots of construction underway. 

    Jumbe puckering up for lettuce

    Jeffrey and the elephants

    Baby JJ playing with his food

    Well fed bear 1 of 3

We spent our last day in Knoxville mostly doing a little "personal maintenance". First up was a 3.3 mile hike at the Ijams Nature Center. It also gave us a chance to break in our hiking boots and my new hiking poles -- things we will use on the caravan. By the way, while hiking we could hear the buzz of those recently emerged cicadas that have been underground for 17 years!

I also got a haircut. Actually, I GAVE myself a haircut with Jeffrey's help on the back side. This is a new skill we developed during our "Covid"  year. I love getting a trim whenever I want without having to find a hairstylist wherever we are (so be nice when you comment on the pictures of us -- assuming you see one without hats!)

    The quarry at Ijams Nature Center

5/22-24: Nashville, TN

Drove a few hundred miles to Nashville today, discovering along the way that a cicada makes a very loud and big splat on Max's windshield 🙄. Clean up on aisle I-40! Surprised when we passed into Central Time Zone -- for some reason we thought it was further west. Ended the day discovering that we may need to replace the kitchen faucet and that Jeffrey can actually fit under the kitchen sink... sort of. Deferred that project to another day, though I foresee a trip to a hardware store to look at faucets. The campground had live music in the evening for us campers. In fact, they have live music EVERY night. We are obviously in Nashville! 

Woke up early on Nashville day #2 so we could enjoy breakfast at the campground cafe (bribed Jeffrey out of bed with the promise of chocolate chip pancakes) before heading to our entry timeslot at the Nashville Zoo. Lots of animals and LOTS of people too. The path through the zoo was still somewhat "one way" from Covid protocols, but it helped keep everyone moving. Over 3.5 miles of exercise, plus bonus calories for the rolling hills 👍

    The closest we could get to their Masai giraffe

    My favorite big cat, the Clouded Leopard

    One of 4 African Caracal kittens being hand

    raised in the zoo veterinary center

As predicted, we stopped at a few hardware stores on the way home and picked up a new kitchen faucet. With a little muscle (and a really long ratcheted socket wrench), Jeffrey got the old one out, discovering that there was a minor leak inside the mechanism that left a fatal buildup of scale, making it impossible for the faucet to pivot properly. The new faucet made its debut and fit perfectly. Thank you Winnebago for plumbing for a standard residential faucet! Also, thank you for making the cabinet beneath the sink Jeffrey sized (barely!). 

    A tight but successful fit

    The new faucet! 

Our final day near Nashville was a quiet one. We stayed home and did a few loads of laundry, worked on the computer, and defrosted the freezer. The on-site cafe offered a great lasagna dinner and we capped off the day with another few hours of live music in the comfort of our folding chairs. 

5/25-26: Paducah, KY

Fairly easy 125-ish mile drive into the west end of Kentucky today. Distance may have been shorter than usual but the road conditions were rough. Lots of bumps and road seams. In a few places they were kind enough to actually put up a sign suggesting we move over a lane 🙂

After a late lunch and a few hours of decompression, we hopped in the car to head downtown and see the famous Paducah wall murals at the riverfront. We decided it was too hot outside to walk them, so we deferred the activity to tomorrow morning and instead went to the Dry Ground Brewery -- named by the man who built a bottling plant there after the 1937 flood. When he was rescued from his old flooded plant, he reportedly said “If I ever reach DRY GROUND, it is there that I will build my new bottling plant". He was a man of his word 👍

As I write this, we are both beached on the couch in Max, having enjoyed a flight/sampler of their craft beers (okay, Jeffrey mostly had an orange cream soda, having tested the beer samples and wrinkling his nose). The beaching is probably more because of the homemade parmesan topped pretzels dipped in red sauce that we consumed at the same sitting. Carb overload for sure! 

Our remaining day in Paducah was a mixed success. After the morning drizzle event stopped, we made the short drive to town and had a quick sandwich at the famous Kirschoff Bakery/Cafe. We then found ourselves disappointed that the William Clark Market House Museum was closed and doesn't open until tomorrow when we'll have already left town☹️. Phooey. 

We finished our sightseeing by walking down the amazing Paducah wall murals along the riverfront and reading all of the nearby historical markers. This town was founded by William Clark a few decades after the expedition was over. Here are the pictures of the two murals and markers about him.

5/27-30: St. Charles, MO

With big storms moving into the St. Charles / St. Louis area from the west today, we got on the road early to try to beat them to the next campground. We made it by just a few MINUTES! RVing lesson #1045, always watch the weather.

Even though the caravan doesn't officially start until Monday, several other members arrived today too. Our 2 leaders have already been here for 5 days finalizing and confirming plans for the 45-day trip. It is very nice to have someone else managing the logistics for a change! Other than a few errands after the big storms went through, we went for a short walk and started meeting the other travelers in our group. Six down, 40 to go 🙄 This is really going to test our memory for people's names. Pretty funny that we keep them straight based on what they drive. Pets help too 😉

Our morning started by finding a decent sized frog in one of the bathrooms. It is a mystery how in the world he got inside as Max is generally pretty sealed up. He didn't look very well, perhaps because it is a cold day and he was sitting on the cold tile floor. We relocated him outside and hope he makes it. Then it was off to get Jeffrey his "every 6 weeks" allergy injections. It was one of the oddest allergy appointments he's ever had with a new doctor. The doctor himself wasn't there as he'd gotten called away, so the nurse talked through the shot protocol with him on the phone based on the records we had brought. Jeffrey never got to speak to him directly except to speak up the background when the doctor didn't want to give him the full dose of his vials! Thankfully he changed his mind. When all was said and done they didn't even want any money. We wonder if they just wanted deniability if there was any issue.

Our afternoon visit to the St Louis Zoo was punted out a day because it was cold, windy, and rainy outside. This morning it is still chilly so we bundle up and head out and hope the sun pokes through soon. Some of the other zoo visitors are in shorts and t-shirts, so we stand out a bit in our heavier jackets, jeans, and gloves.

The St. Louis Zoo was really amazing -- probably the largest variety of animals we've ever seen and the exhibits were top notch, plus it was FREE. The food we had for lunch was good quality and reasonably priced. The only negatives were the long parking lines and the 7998 other zoo guests. That said, the property is huge, so there was enough room for everyone.

    Me with the  3 giraffe residents

    Very active red panda

    Jeffrey with one of the elephants

    Great pose from the grizzly

    Just the polar bear gliding by

We got back to the campground to find quite the influx of RVs arriving for our caravan. The "Wagonmasters" (leaders) and "TailGunners" (assistants) were getting all of us registered and supplied with materials. We spent most of the afternoon and part of the evening walking around the campground and meeting each other. The majority of the rigs are Winnebagos as this was originally a brand-specific trip, but others are included as well. It looks like a great group of fellow travelers!

Our last pre-caravan day started with more  introductions and a visit to the Lewis & Clark Boathouse Museum with RV friends, Tom & Liz Peacock. We met them on our first Fantasy RV caravan seeing the Canadian Martimes 3 years ago and are so glad to spend time with them again.

The museum had a nice inside exhibit display area that covered the timeline of the trip Lewis and Clark made as well as the types of things they took with them. It also had reproductions of several of the boats that were used. With the exception of the spider that got under my shirt and required Jeffrey's help to extricate, the short film about the expidition was interesting too.

    Boathouse Museum

Our day ended with a "meat and greet" casual dinner as all of the rigs have arrived at the campground -- bring your own meat to grill and salad/rice was provided. There was a birthday in the group so we enjoyed his cake for dessert. We went for a short walk after dinner and spent several hours chatting outside. One thing about RVers is that there are endless stories about places seen, broken things fixed, foul weather encountered, and future destinations.

This concludes Part 1 as the caravan formally starts tomorrow, May 31. The story continues in Part 2!

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Sliding and "Masking" into 2021

First of all, let us apologize to the people we normally visit during our winter months in Florida.  Because of the pandemic and vaccine availability for our age group, we skipped visiting with many friends AND family this year because the risks were just too great. Because of that isolation, we felt much better risking visiting the few we did see; even if just across a table outside.

We really hope to visit with everyone next winter, fully vaccinated... maybe even awaiting time for the booster?

January finds us in the usual Florida campgrounds we like. It is getting harder and harder to get reservations as more people are interested in camping during the pandemic as an alternative to hotel rooms and airplanes. You would think campground reservations were the hottest rock concert ticket as they disappear in seconds as soon as they open up on the internet.

A photogenic pelican at one of our Florida RV parks

Normally in mid January we would be in Tampa for the Tampa RV SuperShow working the Escapees RV Club booth. We assumed an event with 70,000+ attendees over several days would be cancelled during a pandemic as it gets very crowded in the vendor areas and inside the latest RVs on display. But because this is Florida and the "powers that be" don't always follow common sense, many months ago we advised the Escapees Club show team we weren't comfortable working the show during a pandemic (just in case the "show must go on"),  Well the show did indeed go on and the Escapees Club, smartly, did not attend.

As we follow the mild temperatures in our travels, especially in the wintertime, we spend as many days as possible getting exercise walking around each campground. Often our walks get interrupted with stopping to talk with other RVers, but this year we (and others) just waved.

The good news is that, because of our isolation and sanitization protocols all year, neither one of us got sick or got anyone else sick; as far as we know. With that, we felt safe spending March near Gainesville visiting with my dad. Thankfully, he was fully vaccinated, but we were still too young to get ours. With 3 to 4 weeks between injections, our situation was complicated because we thought we would have to plan to be in the same area for both injections. Not so easy when we move around so much.

As March was winding down, the age requirement in Florida was getting lower and the J and J (one) shot vaccine became an option, so I was able to get vaccinated before we started north. Maren's doctor only supported an mRNA shot series for her and luckily North Carolina was willing to let Maren get her shots there, so as we set off on this year's adventure, we are both much happier that we are vaccinated -- especially because fewer and fewer people seem to be wearing masks.

Our dash to North Carolina had a few short stops -- 2 for zoos (no surprise!), a visit with niece Anna, and Max's annual oil/filter changes in Gaffney, SC. 

Maren getting a giraffe fix at Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC

2-month old baby giraffe at Greenville Zoo

Us with niece, Anna in pretty downtown Greenville, SC

If you recall, last year's RV caravan from Missouri to the Pacific, following the Lewis and Clark expedition, was cancelled. This year we are making that up, but I bet the fuel prices will not be as good as last year! We still have about 200 pages of the Undaunted Courage book to finish reading before the caravan starts.

While we visit with our Raleigh family, we have been madly working on Max so he is in tip-top condition. Washing, waxing, lubing, sanding/painting, refinishing/retreading our entry steps, flushing the water heater, cleaning vents/drains, applying protectant to roof, and replacing roof antennas, rusty screws, window gaskets, leveling boards and batteries. Whew! That last item was over $1000 for the 4 "house" batteries. We had to hire a handyman to help Jeffrey lug them in and out of the Max because they are so heavy! There are 2 separate "chassis" batteries that thankfully didn't need replacing yet. 

One of our Max project days

The hole in the basement floor where the 4 - 60+ lb house batteries live

We hope you are finished with winter and spring is in the air! We also hope you are safe and life gets back to normal for all of us sooner rather than later! With luck (and hopefully no new pandemics), our next posts will be covering our Lewis and Clark adventure.

Us posing with Maren's blooming Valentine's Day waxed ball amaryllis

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Goodbye 2020!

Our October time in Austin/Georgetown this year flew by, with less socializing than usual and only a quick trip to Estes Park, CO, to break up the series of annual doctors visits and self-done motorhome maintenance. Leaving Georgetown for Florida, we took a different path this year as the hurricanes were particularly hard on the RV parks on our regular route. The new path avoided recovering areas and, to Maren's delight, allowed a couple of new small zoos. We still stopped near Gainesville to spend a weekend visiting my dad as we entered the state.

Wild elk greeting us at the Estes Park condo. 

Us on one of the walks we took in Estes Park.

This giraffe wasn't interested in eating lettuce from Maren, so this is as close as she could get.

Saying goodbye to our Georgetown storage unit

Greeted by Sandhill Cranes at the RV Park near dad

November is a good time to schedule third-party work done on the motorhome as the bulk of RVers in Florida haven't yet arrived for the winter. We always start at Lazydays near Tampa as they let us "full-timers" sleep in the motorhome in the service bay if it takes more than one day to get repairs completed.

We had been getting a dry toilet bowl more and more lately (RV toilets keep just a small puddle of water in the bottom above the seal), so the toilet seal was number one on the list. This year we only had two items on the list and I could have done both, but since we have an extended warranty, why would I? We didn't need to spend a night in the service bay as they had parts on hand, so we moved just next door to their campground. The next day, the toilet bowl was dry again, so they sent the technician over to the campground to inspect his repair. He hit the seal with some lube and called it fixed. We were doubtful, but had to try it.

Our next stop was to have 4 windows pulled and de-fogged. The window shop lets full timers camp in their parking lot, complete with electricity. The windows weren't that bad, but they were only going to get worse and catching the issue early can prevent the glass from being replaced. They pulled the windows on Monday, put them back in on Wednesday, but there was some unacceptable debris between the window panes on two of the fixed windows. So they re-pulled those on Thursday morning, re-worked them and put them back the same day. We let the seals set overnight and planned to be back on our way Friday except we had -- wait for it -- a dry toilet bowl several times during the week.

We called our great service writer at Lazydays and she said bring it back immediately. This was great as we were planning on driving the opposite direction and weren't sure when we would be able to fit another stop to have the toilet reworked yet again. With Covid, RV parts are getting hard to find. Many manufacturers have "almost complete" RVs just waiting to be shipped out except for a few important parts; like toilets. They replaced the seal again, plus the ball flap this time, and set the motorhome out in the parking lot and told us to check on it in an hour and by then the paperwork would be complete and we could go.

60 minutes later -- Dry bowl! Mad hysteria and RV techs and lead techs scrambled to find the issue (as no toilets are available for a complete replacement).  But now no one could get the toilet to leak, so we crossed our fingers and got back on the road and got to our original destination just as the sun was setting. We spent Thanksgiving week visiting with my dad and the toilet has been working great 98% of the time. Maybe it needs its own vaccine?

December gets us to Lion Country Safari KOA in Loxahatchee, FL where the lions can be heard roaring all hours of the day and night. And occasionally the gibbons get set off too and sound like car alarms -- WooooOOO! WooooOOO! 

As we reflect on 2020, we regret the many friends and family we weren't able to visit on our travels and we regret the difficult year it has been for us all -- but we are grateful we were at least able to flex our plans and salvage some of our reservations. Being able to drive to new places and change the view out our windows helped pass the months, but we'll have to return someday to many of them since we couldn't (or wouldn't) enjoy museums and any other indoor attractions because of Covid19. We are also thankful that I didn't try to fix the toilet myself!

Our path in 2020

The states we have camped in since we started in 2012

Below is our official 2020 Holiday letter which provides the cliff notes of our year, though faithful followers of this blog will probably already know the scoop on everything!
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HAPPY  HOLIDAYS  2020!

Well it was quite a year. It certainly wasn't the one we planned, but it was still a wild ride. Hopefully one not to be repeated any time soon.

January and February were our normal Florida state park camping months. On March 1st we arrived in a private RV park near Gainesville just as they started kicking everyone out of the state parks, so our timing was lucky! Then things really started to get interesting. We continued to visit with my dad in Gainesville until they locked down his retirement community, Oak Hammock. In April, we decided to get to Raleigh a little early just in case they started closing state borders. We rode out the worst part of the lock-downs in a campground near Raleigh and could at least socialize with our safe bubble of two brothers and their families. Maren made us all face-masks and a bunch for local nursing homes too. 

Our big 2020 RV plan to follow the Lewis and Clark path from St. Louis to Oregon (on roads of course) with 20+ other RVers was canceled and rescheduled to 2021. So we stayed in Raleigh a little longer than usual. When Covid numbers appeared to be settling down at least a little, we thought we might hit the road and try to salvage part of our travel year.

The new plan was to just head to the northwest US and catch up to our post-caravan reservation plans. Sadly, that meant doing hardly nothing inside -- so no museums, no visitor centers, restaurants, etc. or much of anything other than outdoor sites and socially distant and masked visits to zoos. OK, just giraffes, but why not see the rest of the zoo too. 🦒🦒🦒

This was our first crossing of the Rockies, but Max made easy work of going up and over the mountains. The downhills are the interesting part, but slow and steady (with exhaust brake and using lower gears) made that very manageable, less stressful and a lot less anxiety. My respect for Max's abilities increased dramatically and the low diesel fuel prices certainly made the trip more affordable than we expected.

With the cool summer temperatures at our final destination near Anacortes, Washington, I see why people love the northwest this time of year. We had a great visit with Sheila and her cat, Tay. We would have loved to stay longer, but when we ran into an early snow in Wyoming on the way to Texas, I think we left just in time.

After the usual doctor and dentist visits in Austin we headed back to Florida, but this year we sadly skipped most visits with friends and even some family – knowing that the future years are more important in the long run.

At this point we aren't sure we will have a Lewis and Clark adventure in 2021... but we will make the best of what the world throws at us. 

For those of you paying close attention, I have basically used the same closing paragraph for years! It always seem to fit, year to year, but this year it doesn't. So instead...

Stay safe, stay healthy and God bless.

Jeffrey & Maren 🚍           

Blog:  http://marenandjeffrey.blogspot.com

171 Rainbow Drive #7173 Livingston, TX 77399      

512-689-4893:  marenenelson@gmail.com

512-689-4896:  jeffreyjmartin63@gmail.com

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Final Summer Swing

We arrived in the northwest one car short (and we only HAVE one car!) as the power steering had gone out on the new towed car. The correct parts arrived and we were back at 100 percent without any feedback that towing the car had anything to do with the fault. So we will continue as planned and hope that it was just a fluke.

Temperatures in Annacortes, Washington, are wonderful in the summer. Being mostly surrounded by water, wind coming from most directions has to pass over the cool water, resulting in pleasant days and nights. We could get used to this. Next year's plan is actually this year's original plan postponded to next year, so next summer looks to be just as pleasant.

One of our local car trip explorations was canceled due to the Canadian border being closed, so we instead ventured to Moclips, on the southwest Washington coast. We had no idea that Washington had such nice long, drivable sand beaches (somewhat) like Florida. We also did a quick trip to see Blaine, WA.

A foggy beach walk in Moclips, WA

Lovely sunset in Blaine, WA

Us enjoying an outdoor meal with Sheila and her niece, Sarah

After a great long visit with Sheila and her cat, Tay, we picked up Max's anchor (jacks) and headed for our annual stop in Texas. Our only two stops in Idaho were Boise (so we could check out the Boise Zoo) and Twin Falls. The high desert driving through this state was also really interesting.

Sadly this is as close as Maren could get to a Boise Zoo giraffe

Us with the Snake River in Twin Falls

The magnificent falls in Twin Falls

By the time we got to Salt Lake City in Utah we ran into the smoke from California fires. It didn't keep us from visiting the local zoo, but did cause us to limit our outside time (and our view of the mountains in the area.)  In the last blog we talked about how the weather had been "just missing us". Well, we really cut it close in Utah as we were on the edge of some severe winds that were just north of us. If the weather had waited two days we would have been in the middle of it with hurricane force winds, freezing temperatures, snow, and subsequently, closed roads littered with accidents and toppled trucks. 

Thirsty elephant at Salt Lake City Zoo

Another giraffe Maren couldn't get close to

Polar bear doing a balancing act on a rock

We safely traversed a mostly winter-white Wyoming and dropped south to Colorado Springs, which was smoky from both local AND California fires. No surprise, it didn't keep us from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, one of Maren's favorites. We also count this zoo as great exercise as it is built on the side of a mountain, so hiking around and seeing the animals is a workout.

White Wyoming on our drive

Maren with the bronze stature of Penny, a giraffe calf at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo who wasn't able to survive issues after her birth. She won many hearts, including Maren's.

Maren with Bailey, a super sweet gal who gave birth to her first calf 10 days after we saw her.

Our first stop after entering Texas was Palo Duro Canyon where we spent a day driving around the park and marveling at the rock structures. Our final zoo was near Fort Worth, Texas, and that left us with just a one-day drive to Georgetown where we planted stakes for a month and got through a routine list of doctors, dental cleanings and time for hand washing and waxing Max. 

A cave at Palo Duro Canyon -- and a very small Jeffrey inside it

Maren makes another giraffe friend

Sooo close!

The first striped hyena we've seen

This year we regret not being able to visit with all of our local friends and really hope 2021 is a better. Wishing all of our family and friends stay safe! Go Gators!

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Washington or Bust!

As we approached the beginning of June, we had been hunkering down in Raleigh, NC while the pandemic found its legs and took root in the world. After great thought and discussion during our daily walks, we decided life in the U.S. was likely to be same whether we were on the road or sitting still -- so we made a new plan to drive to Washington state, our original 2020 summer destination. 

Since a scheduled RV caravan that would have at gotten us as far as Oregon had long been cancelled due to COVID19, we pulled out our AAA U.S. paper map and started calculating mileage, RV parks, and things to see along the way. Sadly, the "things to see" list was woefully lacking since so many things were closed or were "indoor" things that we felt were too virus-risky. To Maren's delight, the zoos started to open up as we worked on our plan and we decided they would be relatively safe "outdoor" venues to visit. Our path would also take us past Winnebago in Iowa, so we scored an appointment to at least get a routine roof inspection done as we passed by. Surprisingly, we didn't have any trouble getting reservations at RV parks on our chosen path, though some understandably restricted their amenities to comply with social distancing, etc. All that done, we confirmed our plan to leave Raleigh on June 21st.

As sometimes happens in this lifestyle, plans have to change. We barely got into the first week of June before our fridge starting struggling as the temperatures in NC started rising. Since we were really on our own timetable, we decided to make use of our flexibility and leave a week earlier so we could add a loop into north Indiana and get the fine Amish folks who manufactured our cooling unit to check out why it was unhappy. Approaching weather then pushed us to make a last minute change to leave a day sooner. No doubt several campgrounds got tired of us calling multiple times to change our reservation, but this is part of the business to them. As we were prepping Max for travel, we discovered a leveling jack looked "oily", so we added a stop in Moscow, Iowa at HWH to have them check it out. We were somewhat surprised that we were able to get these last-minute appointments for service, but apparently other RVers hadn't yet hit the road in force yet.

We made great time getting to Indiana and it was worth the trip. Several issues were found in how the cooling unit was installed several years ago. They had us fixed up in only a few hours. That gave us some extra time to take the car into Michigan and check out Brands Zoo before backtracking to Dayton, Ohio for a few rest days and visits to Columbus Zoo and Cincinnati Zoo. These two are so large that "timed entry" tickets had to be purchased ahead so they could control the number of daily visitors. Peoria Zoo in Illinois was the next stop and, while not very big, it was cute and good exercise to loop through twice.

Maren feeding a giraffe at the Columbus Zoo

M U S T.   R E A C H.  A.  L I T T L E.  F U R T H E R !

Next up was our HWH stop in Iowa where they proclaimed the leveling jack working just fine and no hydraulic leaks -- and no charge :-) We then spent one night in a state park where good RV friends workcamp in the summer, so we got a chance to safely visit with them. Our visit to Winnebago yielded a nothing-to-do result on the roof inspection, but they replaced our wonky front door step motor and blew out a condensation drain for one of our roof air conditioners. We even had time to swing through CDI, the company who does the exterior painting of Winnebagos, so they could touch up a few clear coat areas and polish our headlights.

Now that Max's spa days were over, we plodded west a little further and spent a few nights on a family farm of RV friends that we have met in 5 different states over the years. We enjoyed a meal at a lovely outdoor lake-side restaurant and were amazed at this hidden gem area of Iowa near the Spirit Lakes. South Dakota provided a nice review of the Badlands area, which is always worth a drive to see the amazing rock formations, bison herds, ground hogs, pronghorn sheep, and even a burrowing owl. We had much better luck seeing wildlife on this visit than we did in 2017.

Revisiting the Badlands of South Dakota

Though we had seen Devils Tower in Wyoming by car back then too, this time we camped at the base of it. It is such an amazing figure on the landscape and there are some fun hikes. We tried to get some good photos of Max with the tower behind him in the hopes of refreshing our RV business card with an updated image showing the new tow car. It was so dark at night here that we had a great view of the Milky Way and even got up pre-dawn to see the Neowise comet. Wyoming was also the start of driving through big hills and mountains, definitely a new experience for us Florida flat-landers! Going up with the diesel is easy, but going down is a careful balance of transmission downshifting and exhaust braking, using the foot brakes only briefly to burn off speed on steeper downhills.

Photo of Neowise comet from my cellphone

Devils Tower with Max and Moby

It was new road for us as we skipped across Montana -- unfortunately not able to enjoy museums and other local attractions except ZooMontana in Billings. Sadly, they don't have giraffe, but the layout and landscaping was great. We even got to see a few new species -- a wolverine and an american badger. We didn't get to camp in Idaho as we really only cut through the skinny panhandle on our way to WA.

The landscape we saw along our route was often amazing. Mountains, rivers, forests, fields of crops, fields of hay and dry arid areas barely suitable for anything to grow or live. The highways were mostly in very good shape, but occasionally rough patches and construction areas kept us on our toes. The country is so varied in its appearance and each area has its own vibe. The states that you usually just fly-over have beautiful flat expanses of land or snow peaked mountains. There is a lot to see and we mostly just passed thru due to Covid19, but we have many years to come back to see what we skipped over this time.

The white bump on the horizon is Washington's grand Mt. Rainier -- from 80 miles away

We arrived in Anacortes, Washington safe and sound, one vehicle short (see below), but having dodged weather issues along our route where storms were just north or south of us, or one day before or after we were there. The temperatures in the Pacific northwest look to be wonderful. Looking at the rest of the country, we are glad we made the long trip here. 

In full disclosure, the "full-time RV lifestyle" is far from perfect as we've shared on prior blog posts. You learn to be flexible and always have a list of "stuff to be fixed". To mix it up a little, this time our challenge was the new Ford Escape Hybrid tow car. It had been doing wonderfully for the first 2000 miles and then, at one stop in Montana, the car had a new message on its screen, 'Steering Assist Fault Service Required'. The car starts fine, but no power steering -- making driving it extremely difficult. After several calls to Ford dealers along our route, it was determined that we could keep towing it safely, but that none had an open appointment for several weeks. We finally decided we'd just have to forego any car side trips along the remainder of our path west and just made an appointment at the Ford dealer nearest to our final destination in WA. Since we had to drive Max right by that dealer on our way into town, we pulled up in front of their lot as we passed through and dropped the car off. Luckily they were able to get the car in early, diagnose the issue, and order parts before our actual appointment date. As I write this post, the first part shipped from Detroit was wrong but the right one is hopefully showing up today. And life goes on...

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Can we re-install 2020? This one has a virus...

2020 started fairly normal for us in Hobe Sound, Florida, at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. It is one of our favorite camping spots and we enjoy warm winter weather with some friends and relatives nearby. In mid-January we drove Max over to Tampa for the big Tampa RV Super Show. We always have a good time representing the Escapees RV Club, having unlimited access to the RV show for 6 days, and meeting many fellow RVers.

Back in December we had taken the big step of deciding it was time to buy a new tow car to replace our 2009 white Ford Escape Hybrid. Fewer and fewer cars these days are capable of being towed with all four wheels on the ground behind a motorhome, so after a lot of thought and research, we decided to get the new 2020 (also white) Ford Escape Hybrid. Just to be clear… "Escapees" is the RV Club. "Escape" is the car. Both words seem to fit our lifestyle pretty well!

Ford hasn't made a towable Escape since 2012, so the timing seemed perfect for us. However, the company that makes the "base plate" (attached to the frame of a towed car behind the front facia) didn't yet have a base plate for the new model. That said, if we loaned them our car, they would use it as a template to build and install the base plate for free! Sounds perfect -- but we had to get the car to Nebraska.

After searching our schedule and contemplating our travel options -- one of which was buying the car in Florida, driving to Nebraska in winter, waiting the estimated 5 days for the fabrication work and then driving back to Florida (in the winter!). We decided instead to purchase the car remotely in Nebraska and have the car delivered directly to the base plate manufacturer there. After several weeks of not being sure they could even successfully complete the task, and then some fabrication equipment failure/repair, they completed the work and we had the new car delivered to us in Florida.

We came *this* close to having a car, in Nebraska, that we couldn't tow behind the motorhome. Ugh! We were very glad we didn't opt to drive it to Nebraska ourselves as the job ended up taking 3 weeks. We sold the old car to "Escapee" RV friends we met at the Tampa RV Show, and they were thankfully willing to wait until February when we could confirm we had a new tow car available.

Old and new Ford Escapes

So luckily it all worked out!… and then the COVID-19 hit.

Before they shut down the Florida state parks where we spend much of the winter, we had moved to a private RV park near my dad in Gainesville. We had even embarked on a week-long car trip to meet up with Maren's mom Sheila in New Orleans. We were only there 3 days before the seriousness of COVID-19 became known and everything started to close up, so we cut the visit short. Then our private RV park stopped taking reservations, so we were lucky to have gotten in. We started social distancing, but we saw my dad almost daily and only risked grocery stores and an occasional take-out dinner. His dining room was already closed to visitors, but he could pick up takeout from his dining room for all 3 of us. His facility now has meals delivered to everyone's door.

Dinner with dad at Leonardo's Pizza in early March

Dinner at Antoines in New Orleans (our last meal sitting inside a restaurant in 2+ months)

When my dad's facility shut down completely to visitors and they (briefly) started stopping people at the Florida state border, we decided to go north early. Our backup RV park plan for our Raleigh stay (the county fairgrounds campground) was then closed, but luckily our preferred park (which can never commit to us until a few weeks ahead) finally called to say they had room for us because temp workers left the RV spaces when their jobs when away.

Normally we go thru Gaffney, SC, in mid April to get the major motorhome chassis/engine/generator maintenance done on our way to Raleigh, but we skipped it to get to Raleigh for a guaranteed spot. Gaffney called us a week after we arrived to say they would be closing down for awhile, so we did a mad dash over and got their last appointment. If we hadn't already arrived in Raleigh we would have been too far away to do this. One more thing checked off!

We are still in Raleigh and, other than our dental cleanings being cancelled, Maren was able to get her important MRIs/doctor appointments done and I have been able to my allergy shots. We have risked visits with my brothers and wives while here in Raleigh and consider them our "safe bubble". Everyone is healthy and being very careful. Both brothers already worked from home. Our 45-day, Missouri-to-Oregon RV caravan with 20 other coaches, due to start Memorial Day, was canceled. We have pushed that plan to next year and will try again.

So, hunkered down in Raleigh, we wait for the country to reopen and work on motorhome projects (currently enjoying our new 43" smart TV). We hope to salvage some of the summer and have been working on a travel plan that will still get us to the NW, but who knows what we will be able to see or do along the way. Maren has hopes that the zoos along our path will start to open up so at least we can see a few of those (we feel fairly safe in outdoor areas). Maren has already sourced some giraffe print cotton to make us zoo-themed masks.

We haven't canceled the late summer and fall plans, yet. Austin in late September through October is still on, hopefully with a dental cleaning. Next winter's reservations are a big concern as big parts of November, January and February are again in state parks and they were pretty quickly closed when the virus troubles began.

We hope you and your families are all safe and sound.

Jeffrey & Maren 

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Tie a bow on 2019!

Our final few months of 2019 were our typical pattern of wrapping up annual doc/dentist visits in Austin, TX, and then aiming the RV toward Florida for the winter months -- with a few exceptions. We enjoyed a lovely long weekend with my college roommate and her husband at their home on Padre Island. Our last visit 4 years ago had been all rain, but this one was great sunny weather and even a Gator football win :-)

We also snuck in a quick visit to Raleigh in early December for one final 2019 visit with my neurologist (all stable and good) with the added bonus of getting in a pre-holiday visit with Jeffrey's brother David and his family. Though we don't do much holiday decorating in the RV, I got my fill helping his wife and my good friend Mary put the final touches on their full-sized tree.

For Christmas itself, we flew out to spend a week in Portland, Oregon with mom, Sheila and her niece, Sarah. This is the first year without my Dad and thus a little bittersweet, but the four of us had a fun time staying at a waterfront resort and exploring the city -- generally eating our way around town, watching holiday-inspired movies, and visiting with my aunt Pat (dad's sister) and my cousin Sean. No surprise, we even managed to get over to the nearby Portland Zoo for their "night lights" event. Sad to say, but the giraffe were already tucked away due to the chilly temperatures.

Buddled up at the Zoo Lights event

All smiles after a great Christmas Eve dinner at Benihana

Below is our official 2019 Holiday Letter which provides the cliff notes of our year, though faithful followers of this blog will probably already know the scoop on everything!

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2019!

Maren and I enjoyed another big RV adventure year with the added bonus of it turning into a giraffe tour. Maren's love for giraffe has started causing minor adjustments to our routes to fit in any zoo she finds. 12 zoos this year and 2020 looks to be about the same. 🦒🦒🦒

Maren's father's health was declining last year and in January he took a turn for the worse, but Maren and I were with him and Sheila at the end. They have included us in many of their travels over three decades and we have had many great adventures together. Rick will be missed.

A few years back, a Norway cruise we had planned with them got canceled when he had a health emergency. After he passed, we were lamenting that we were never able to reschedule it with them before he got too ill. Turns out that the same cruise was being offered this year, so Sheila, Maren and I made some revisions to our respective plans and finally did that cruise with a 3 day stop in Iceland along the way. Both countries are beautiful and breathtaking. We saw stunning waterfalls, geysers, rifts in the earth crust, fjords, glaciers and days that never ended due to the high latitudes. Sheila got to ride an Icelandic horse and experience their unique tölt gait. We even got to Spitzbergen at 78° north, only 800 miles from the north pole. Basically another experience that cameras just can't capture.

Us in colorful Trondheim, Norway

This year's RV plan was to explore a little of Colorado and New Mexico (via Iowa Winnebago service and their national rally). Due to some medical issues and wild weather, our plans shifted a little here and there, but we still got everywhere. Each state was very different and both were beautiful. I got a little practice driving in some mountain passes where often the lowest, levelest route still got steep, both up and down.

The elevation of Denver (5280) and Colorado Springs (6000+) left us occasionally winded. Both are also much drier than the Texas and Florida humidity with which we are familiar. Sheila and brother David with wife Mary (both avid hikers) met up with us in Santa Fe which is even higher (7000+) and drier! I joined David on a hike up Deception Peak climbing to 12,300 ft. Sheila was much smarter and rode a horse. Many interesting and historical things to see in the area.

When we returned to the Austin area, we discovered that our storage unit's monthly rate was increasing again, so we moved to a location cheaper and closer to where we usually stay. It was good practice for when/if we ever move the contents to another state, when/if we know where that might be. Currently we don't know where we would land if we were so inclined. Stop asking... we just don't know. 

Next year's travel plan is a Lewis and Clark adventure with an organized caravan of RVers. We will start in Missouri, go over the Rockies and end up in Oregon! After that we will head to Washington state where Sheila lives, returning to Florida via Austin by November. Lots of miles (and giraffe).

Maren's favorite zoo TShirt booty

As usual, we are ending the year in Florida enjoying the weather and visiting family and friends across the state. Wherever your travels take you in the new year, we wish you the very best and hope you are spending the holidays making memories with family and friends.

Jeffrey & Maren 

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