We have arrived in Florida

We made it to our campground yesterday afternoon around 3PM. Nice campground but in the boonies. This is in the National Forest so we get in for half price.
Wanted to post a picture but service is poor.I was finally able to attach a picture of us. Clicking on the picture will enlarge it.

2nd day of travel

We have landed in our second Walmart stop for the night. We are in South Carolina, it's 7:30PM and it's 65 degrees outside.
Today was a long day because I had to make up for our early stop yesterday. Tomorrow we have about 385 miles to get to our final destination in Florida.
Mac is still not feeling well and will only eat if Joyce hand feeds him. If he is still sick when get to Florida, we will take him to the Vet for a check.
Well that's about it for today, time to rest!

On the road again!

Heading out for our next adventure. We are spending our first night in a Walmart parking lot in Hagerstown, Maryland.
This place looks more like a small campground, we are surrounded with seven or eight other motorhomes.
We did about 425 miles today, would have liked to have done about 500 but we were in a traffic jamb for a while which had us driving in the dark. It was still about nine hours of driving so I was ready for a rest.
Mac is behaving a bit odd, he doesn't want to eat his food from a strange bowl. We had to put his food on the floor in order for him to eat, I think he's loosing his mind like me!

Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving with the family. So much work and preparation, for such a quick meal. They came, they ate, they left, all in about three hours.
Now we get to eat leftovers for a while, and watch the Pats get beat by the Steelers.
Joyce goes back to work tomorrow to make us some gas money. I already worked a couple of weeks but I had to travel to Houston, Tx. to do it. The money we both make, will pay for our upcoming trip.
Hopefully we will get some work in the spring which will help finance our summer trip which will take us across the upper states.

Winter is coming!

The sky is gray, the trees are bare, and winter is just around the corner so we are doing the countdown to departure. We really don't enjoy the cold weather anymore although it is nice when it comes to sleeping.
The motor home is prepared and has all new tires plus three new house batteries. Whereas I had to replace the two house batteries, I decided to add another for a total of three. This will help when we boondock.
We are not sure where our travels will take us this year but we will be starting in Florida at Salt Springs Recreation Area which is part of the National Forrest.
From Florida we will continue along the same route we traveled last year until we get to Houston, Tx. At that point we plan to follow the coast of Texas then up to San Diego.
We will be visiting new places and discovering new sights so we hope you will follow along with us and enjoy our travels.

Sooner or Later, You Have To Go Home!

Well we've traveled 7,469 miles in 15 weeks, seen a lot of the country and met a lot of nice people but it's time to go home for a visit. We do miss our family and friends.
I say a visit because we have enjoyed this trip so much that I'm sure it won't be long before we are heading out again.
But first we will have to do a plan on where to go on our next trip. We did see a lot on this trip (15 states) but we didn't stay long in any one area other than Utah.
On our next trip we hope to extend the trip and spend more time in the areas that we visit.
I did a budget prior to leaving for this trip, I estimated we would travel approx. 7600 miles. I also estimated gas prices at $285 per gal. and campgrounds at $25.00 per night. Well as you can figure, my fuel budget was over but we were able to average our campgrounds at just over $12 per night. We were able to do this by purchasing a federal "Senior" card that gave us a 50% discount at all federal campgrounds. I also purchased a years subscription to Passport America which has a book that list participating campgrounds that offer 50% off their regular prices. Because of the campground discounts, we came in on budget.

Joyce and I were concerned about being together so much in a small area, but I am happy to say that we are still taking to each other and the dog is still alive.
We would like to thank all the people that have viewed our Blog, and it was nice getting the feedback and comments. We hope you enjoyed viewing the pictures and videos, and I wish I could have added more detail but due to time restraints and poor Internet connections, that was difficult to do.

We will be doing short trips during the summer months but don't plan on any long trips until after Christmas, at that time I will be doing the Blog again so until then, enjoy your summer and we will see you soon!

Paul & Joyce
and Mac

Still in Intercourse

There is a gift store across the street from us, and in the back of the store there is a fish hatchery that has trout and bass more than a foot long.
There are also two swans here that are looking for a handout all the time. For a quarter, you can get a handfull of fish food from a vending machine.

Why is it that birds don't like me! After feeding the swans, this one tried to take my toes off.
I took this picture from a parking lot across the street from the campground. You can see the Jeep, it's parked in front of the motorhome.

On her way home from working in one of the small shops in town.
We took a ride around to look at homes. This farm was picture perfect so I had to take the shot.

One of the homes that was open for viewing. This was located in a 55 + community. We did the tour and was impressed with the quality of the finish. The frame was all 2 x 6 construction on the exterior walls.

I like the old stone construction homes.

This home is a duplex, there is another front door behind the tree.

We're moving right along!

Said goodbye to my friend the bird this morning, she was still not too friendly.
Crossing over the line into another state that is bringing us closer to home.
We have arrived in one of our favorite places. The town sign is just on the other side of the rode from where we are parked in the campground. I took this picture from inside the motorhome. We watched as some people stop their car, and everyone jumped out to take pictures in front of the sign. One couple was imitating the description. Disgusting!!
We are at Beacon Hill Campground, this is where we always stay when we come here. There is a working Amish farm directly in front of us.

Just East of Morgantown West Virginia

Yesterday, (Friday) while we were at the Horse Park, we were able to watch a Polo match. Pretty impressive what the horses can do, let alone the riders!
During the match, a ball was hit over the side lines of the playing field. Another ball was thrown in and the game continued. After the game ended, no one came for the fouled ball so Joyce picked it up to save as a souvenir.
We got up early this morning and drove all day, and through most of West Virginia.
We got off the highway for a short time and while Joyce was driving, I took the two pic's below of a great old farm house. Wonder if it's for sale???? I could really live here!!!!
A shot of the side of the house as we were driving by. There was a bull grazing in the front yard.

We are now in the parking lot of a strip mall under construction. The only other thing in this area is a Walmart across the entrance rode. We found this just off an exit on route 68.

We pulled in and parked and as soon as I opened the door to get out, a bird was waiting for me. This bird was in attack mode Do you know what kind of bird this is??? We have run into this type a few times during our trip.

Tennesee to Kentucky

We have moved along to Kentucky and we just pulled into the Kentucky Horse Park Campground. Will be here at least till Saturday and then we have to either leave or move to a no hookup field. There is a dog show this weekend and everything is taken. The last time we stayed here there was a dog show and we stayed in the field. The field is nice but it is suppose to be over 100 degrees and with no electric hookup, we would have to continuously run the generator so we could run the AC.
This place is beautiful and I will follow with pictures tomorrow.

Tuesday and Wednesday we stayed at Cumberland Mountain State Park in Tn, for two nights. It was so hot, we pretty much stayed in and kicked back.
This pool is in the park, and it is a huge pool but we didn't have the ambition to go in.

I'm Late, guess we're having too much fun!

Well I'm a little late on my post, we got caught up talking to people within the Tiffin campground and I didn't have time to post at the end of the day. I wanted to get as much feedback from people that own a Tiffin coach to see what their complaints were. Joyce also had a chance to talk with the women to see what they like or didn't like. The whole experience was very informative and will be of great help if we decide to move up in the future.
We also did the company tour, the woman below is assembling the components of the cabinet that is located over the dash.

Below, this is a total floor assembly complete with ceramic tile being lowered into position. The tile is glued to plywood using a flexible adhesive to allow the floor to flex without damage to the tile. The plywood is then glued to the sub-floor.
This is a picture of the front end of a diesel pusher motorhome, how do they know where all those wires go?
Cabinets are being installed prior to the sidewalls being installed. You can see the waiting sidewalls on both sides.
This is one of the two side walls being manufactured. Large sheets of two inch thick styrofoam are cut and notched to create a path for the wiring and the installation of the square aluminum tubing that gives the walls their strength. Once the aluminum tubing is installed, all the seams are welded The wall assembly then travels into the lamination press where the inside and outside finished panels are glued, positioned, then sandwiched in the press while the adhesive cures.
In this picture you can see the roof assembly being lowered into position on the coach.
This worker is preparing to install one of the slide-outs with it's components installed.
Work going on inside as the cabinets have their doors installed.

As the motorhomes are completed, they arrive at final inspection where all systems are checked and any defects are corrected.

Remember the other day I had mentioned the Coon Dog Cemetery, well at that time we did not find it so I did a little research and guess what.

The sign says it all, these people seem to have a lot of time on their hands.

Some of the "lucky dogs" pun intended!

A trip to Tuscumbia, Alabama

Joyce had read an article about a gentleman named Harvey Robbins who grew up in the town of Tuscumbia which is close-by. After many years, he returned to his home town only to find that the town was dying. Most of the stores on Main street were empty and the old buildings were deteriorating. Mr Robbins had sold his business National Floor Products in 1995 for $120 million so he had the resources to help the town.
It sounded interesting so we took a ride to Tuscumbia and to our surprise, the town had another surprise in it's past that we weren't aware of.

Mr. Robbins was instrumental in creating the Falls, the Water Feature, and the Train Ride.

The train travels around the entire parks, crossing two of the roads into the park.

Upon leaving the park, we ran into this sign, WOW! another historic stop only 3 minutes up the rode. Do you know what Helen Keller's favorite color is???? Answer at the bottom of this Posting!

We always seem to run into something interesting everywhere we go.

I took this shot of the front of the home and later noticed a figure sitting on the bench under the Magnolia tree. Could it be the spirit of Helen????


A memorial within the grounds, there were numerous memorials from all over the world positioned around the grounds.
The Trail of Tears also came through the town of Tuscumbia, Alabama.
We were on our way back to camp when I saw the sign and took the rode, but no Coondog Cemetery!
The Magnolia trees are in bloom, some of the trees are huge and the flowers are the size of your fist. I had to pick this one for Joyce!

ANSWER--- Corduroy