Needless to say, our itinerary is completely different than our original plan. We will clearly not travel as far, and obviously we will not be visiting any people. How quickly things have changed for all of us!
Wednesday, April 8
We hit the road (after 3 long, hard weeks of getting our house ready for sale!) and headed straight down to pick up the RV in Pontiac, IL. With the car packed to the gills, we put our bikes on the rack, and are ready or go. Side note: the bike rack is old, and a bit broken, but we both have given it the OK. Looking good!
About 30 minutes into the drive, we notice that Neil’s bike looks a little funky. We stop on the side of the tollway to just make sure that we are still good. Bike is still on. No problem, but we secure the bike with the bike chain lock as an added measure to ensure the bike doesn't fly off the rack. We are back on the road, and cruising along at a great clip.
Off the exit in Pontiac, and we are both filled with excitement - we are almost home! Pulling of the highway, we take a right turn. We both look back and realize that one of the bikes is missing... EEK! Turns out the bike rack decided to break on us when we were ONE MILE from the RV. AWESOME! Oh well. The excitement of the move is still fresh, s*#t happens, and hopefully we can find a bike shop that is open. Moving on.
We were much quicker getting on the road this time. Anne unpacked the car into the RV. Neil loaded the car on the tow dolly and put the NEW (thanks Suzi & Pritts!) bike rack on the RV. Then it took both of us to load the bikes onto the new rack for the first time. You learn something new everyday! The only thing that is still looming over us is the hot water. We NEED to shower at some point! Not quite sure that we will have warm showers, but we are both confident that we can figure it out with the help of YouTube.
We once again find ourselves in the region near The Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Western Kentucky. We arrived at about 9 pm with one stop at the local Kroger for essential supplies. Anne spent almost $200 on groceries and filled an entire cart, and said she was quite worried that she got too much. But, around every turn, this RV is surprising us with how much we actually can fit. We got all of it in the fridge and pantry - score! We should be set with supplies for at least the next 7-10 days... The initial plan is to stay here on Wednesday and Thursday night, and we will hit the road on Friday with plans to head for warmer weather. Gotta love finding gas for $1.04, though. Wish we had a 250 gallon tank so we could hoard gas, as we are topping out at about 6 miles per gallon!
Thursday, April 9th
It's our first full day in our new home, and we are looking forward to relaxing. But first things first, we need to fix a bike and get the hot water working. The bathrooms are closed at most campgrounds right now, and we wouldn't really want to use them anyway. We really want to be fully self-contained!
We find a bike shop in Paducah that has drive by service, so we park in the lot and call. The technician comes out to inspect the bike and determines that the tire needs to be replaced, but otherwise, the bike looks undamaged. WOOHOO!! Unfortunately, they have a huge backlog of jobs, so he sells us the tire and tube and says that it's something we should be able to easily do ourselves. We agree. Great. Back to the RV to figure out the hot water! After some tinkering and common sense, the hot water is on and working! Both dishes and showering are a real possibility now!
After grilling some great steaks and cooking some potatoes in the campfire - and obviously some s'mores (thanks friends from Exelon), it is finally time to relax. Neil tried the shower (thankfully), and it is really not that bad at all. We are a fully contained unit now, and we are quite confident that we can ride out this stay home order in our new home!
Friday, April 10th
One thing that is nice in our new home is the bedroom. The bed is comfortable, the room is dark and cozy and it sure is easy to sleep... But it's a new day, and it looks pretty nice outside. Although we are on an extended vacation, we are still feeling like we have to organize the new home. After working on the place for most of the morning and afternoon, we are ready to go out and get some exercise.
One of the things we love to do together is disc (frisbee) golf, and it just so happens that there are 2 different 9 hole courses within 10 minutes of where we are staying - hopefully they are open! They are and no one is there!! So, we get 9 holes in on a great course though lots of challenging trees. On the course, we ran into (from a distance) a young girl and her mother and baby "pet" squirrel that followed the girl around and climbed on her head. It reminded Anne of the squirrel they had briefly growing up and how the squirrel would climb on her brother TJ.We decided to try the other course also. Another great course, but some loooong holes. It wasn't our best game and we lost a frisbee, but it was fun.
We decided to take on the job of fixing the bike, and we made some progress. Unfortunately, it looks like we need a special tool to actually complete the job. AWESOME. That was some information that would have probably been useful while we were at the bike shop. Oh well, I'm sure we can order the part we need.
At least we are back at the RV and we can enjoy a little relaxation time - outdoor movie "Dodgeball"! And then burgers on the grill and another campfire... and maybe s'more s'mores (can't get enough). We even got Stella outside for a bit on the leash - She slinks around and eats the grass, but I think she's a fan!! Hamilton begrudgingly approved (notice his stare in the background).
Saturday, April 11th
Hamilton and Stella have made themselves quite at home. At breakfast, they were in the booth, saying where's MY breakfast sandwich??
It's another nice 60 degree and sunny day, so we decide to check out another disc golf course. There is actually a 3rd course that is only about 15 minutes away! We set a plan to try this course and then maybe go out for a hike. But, not surprisingly, the park that has the disc golf course is closed:(.. I guess it's time to find a hike!
We head over to KY Lake and Dam with Hamilton, as we have found a path that goes across the dam. We figure there will be some great views on this dam. But - another closure. On to plan C... After a quick walk around the park and some quick pics, we decide to check out another spot on All Trails. Only 5 minutes away.
At the plan C spot, there are only 2 other cars parked in the lot, so we figure we'll give it a try. It's a narrow and windy 9-mile loop trail that is primarily used by mountain bikers. We hike up, down, and around enjoying the woods, the lake and a deer. Hamilton is a great hiker, until he sees a biker or a deer and then he goes nuts! Luckily, we only saw a few bikers and had the trails primarily to ourselves. We hiked about 2 miles to a view point of the lake (which is hard to see through the trees in the picture below) and turned around.
Back to the campsite for dinner, games and Zooming with friends and family! We are so thankful to have Zoom to stay connected!
Sunday, April 12th
Happy Easter! Nothing too exciting to report today, just a nice lazy day at our new home. A little bit of rain and the threat of some storms, but our new home seems to be holding up without any leaks (knock on wood!). Got a chance to Zoom with Neil's family, and had a nice conversation with Anne's parents. It's a VERY different Easter this year for everyone, but hopefully everyone had as good of a Holiday as possible.
We are planning to hit the road in the morning and head south to another campground. We have decided that we will try to update the blog at each stop. Stay safe, stay away from people, and until next time...
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