Ken and Karen’s travel adventures
tirp to WA, Canada, and back to FL
Saturday we had a looooong day to drive to Macon Georgia. It was about 350 miles, but it seemed like it took forever plus we lost that elusive hour again when we fell back into the Eastern time zone. Getting to civilization out of the forest going south was much shorter, easier, and better roads than getting in from the north was! Before long we were passing Chattanooga, and that meant we were about to plop into Georgia.
Friday morning was very wet outside. It rained quite a bit last night, but the forecast this morning was revised to say that most of the rain was done and there would only be a bit more before noon. YAY! We waited until about noon and headed out to see how soggy the trails would be. The gravel road leading to the trails was just beautiful. We hit Tennessee just right for fall colors!!
Wednesday we took our time preparing for departure. We had a 200 mile day ahead of us, with about half of it on I-75 and the other half would be over the river and through the woods, to Pickett Forest we go. It is right on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee, out in the hills, a perfect place to ride Kawi. I hope. I consulted with the Google and our RV Life Safe route planner which takes the size of Nitro into account, and planned our route. I also contacted the campground where we’ll be staying and asked for a recommended route from the north and also roads to avoid. They gave me both, so that was very helpful too. We really are going into the middle of nowhere, at least it seems so when coming from the north. So away we went!
On our way out of Carrollton we looked for the local road crew (turkey vultures). Each morning that we’ve driven this road there’s been several dozen of these big birds. I finally captured a picture of some of them. There weren’t as many today – they must have had another job somewhere else and split the crew up.
Tuesday our first order of business was bourbon tasting. Say WHAT?! Yep – a month ago I made a reservation for the only tour available today at the Woodford Reserve Distillery at 11:15. Kenny’s favorite bourbon is Woodford Double Oaked, so this is a treat for him. We were camped about 1.5 hours away from the distillery, and we were supposed to be at the distillery just before 11:00. Our plan was to peel out of here by 9:15 or so to make sure we got there in time, since our route would take us over the river and through the woods.
On our way, we saw a variety of large open barns/sheds. At first we thought they might be bourbon ricks, but looking closer revealed stuff hanging inside.
Sunday – Woah! The Seattle Seahawks were playing the Cincinnati Bengals HERE in Cincinnati! And WE are here in Cincinnati! We should have bought tickets to go see the game. The stadium was nowhere near sold out. And hey – these people know how to do some serious tailgating! This was what we could see as we went by on I-75. This parking lot is on the west of the freeway, the stadium is on the east side. As it turned out, since the game was not sold out, it was not on local TV either, so we didn’t get to watch it. Just as well… the Bengals won. 🙁
Saturday morning everything was wet, wet, wet outside. Kenny swept all the tree debris off of our roof and slides before we put them in, we hooked up Nitro and hoped we didn’t peel out in the mud. This little campground has a lot of muddy spots! Then we loaded Kawi inside our house, leaves and all, and away we went to head SOUTH finally. We got to drive on Interstate 75, which is our hometown freeway in Sarasota, and it was in much better condition than the highways we drove to get here. Kenny said, “can we just stay on this road til we get home?” But no- we have stops to make along the way. There was a sign along the freeway somewhere that said Tampa is 1107 miles away. But first…. Ohio.
Wednesday we headed out for a very rough ride to Frankenmuth Michigan. Boy howdie are Michigan’s roads rough! Yikes! At least they welcomed us and I got the picture and we didn’t have to pay tolls. Our mission today was to go visit our very good friends Mike and Patty, who we met in 2018 on our first Great Loop. They have been very special friends ever since.
Tuesday – Today we had to get through Chicago, UGH! so I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to do that. There are all kinds of toll roads in the greater Chicago area, and I always try to avoid those because it isn’t always easy to figure out how to pay them. Plus with Nitro behind us, we have four axles and it can be very expensive. (Four axles is WAAAY more than twice the price of two!). We could go way south past Rockford and then east, but that adds a couple of hours to the drive. So I had the Google set to make a route without tolls and we headed east towards Milwaukee. Then as I was looking closer at the route, I could see that there were several places where we had to take surface streets because all of the freeways have tolls. Crap. So I got on the Illinois Tollways website and it had a route planner through the tolls roads, and it came up with about $30 for our route with our four axle vehicle combo. That’s better than the headache of surface streets… in CHICAGO! So I quick got signed up on their system with Nitro’s license plate and changed our route to stay on the Interstates. I had to use Nitro’s license plate because it is the only one visible. (Florida does not issue license plates for the front of the vehicle.). Whew! Now – let’s hope I did it right! Since we were already headed towards Milwaukee, here is what our route looked like to get to the dot at the bottom of Lake Michigan. (The rest of the yellow going northeast is for tomorrow.)
Sunday morning was a normal get up and go without much hurry kind of a day. We only had about 180 miles to go to our next destination in Wisconsin! Neither of us have ever been to Wisconsin, so this will be a new state for us! Here was our short route today.
Friday: Last night was a very rough night at the dock! Yikes! It felt like we were on Island Girl the way the wind rocked us! We didn’t sleep well as the gusts would come through, and then rain, more gusty winds, and more rain. Wow!
We knew we were going to have another windy drive today, so we took our time getting ready to go since we weren’t looking forward to the journey. At least we were only going about 260 miles to our next camping spot, which is going to be another location without electricity. This will make seven nights without power and with our nights in the 40’s, I’m glad our propane furnace works good!
We waved good-bye to the giant pieces of art as we drove by on I-90. What an interesting stop.
