Planning Our Return to the Donut Shop

Well, even though migrating birds are starting to show up, it is time to think about our return home. We've had a couple of objectives: celebrating Easter with our Mississippi friends and seeing Rich, Lydda, and grandson Bronson in Ohio. I want to take our time and check out the birds that are migrating with us.
So we will say goodbye to Goose Island this weekend. I like to go through Houston on a weekend so we'll do that Sunday stopping at Viilage Creek SP north of Beaumont. It's a small park with some nice trails and a river where we may be able to kayak. ( It was too high on the way through in January.)
Then to another park we've enjoyed, Natchez, for a few days. We stay at Clarko in Quitman, MS while visiting our friends in Laurel.
Two years ago, we stumbled on a coffee/donut shop outside Alexandria, LA while heading home. It was a beautiful morning and we ate outside in the springtime air just enjoying the moment. It was one of those "remember that place we had donuts?" that we mentioned when recalling our first trip.
Then last year, on a different route home, things suddenly looked familiar and I said to Mary, "I think our donut place is up ahead." Well, we drove and drove and I was starting to think I was wrong ( for the first time all trip) when sure enough, up ahead was the place. The tables were gone and a new building next door but the people were friendly and the coffee and goodies as we remembered. And it was another nice day to sit outside a while.
Well, in planning this trip, I realized that the shop, if still in business, is right on the route from Natchez to Clarko.
We'll head north the Monday after Easter, probably stopping in Alabama and Kentucky for a few days, arriving in Xenia on Thursday. We'll park beside the house for a few days and then, Monday the 16th head east toward Vermont, arriving Tuesday night if all goes well.
So, I roughed out the segments and made the mistake of adding up the mileage, saying to Mary, "Do you know that it's 2216 miles home the way we've planned?" it's a good thing we want to see friends and family -otherwise she'd be tempted to fly to Dayton, then Albany.
But then, she'd miss the donut stop.
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Ready To Go

Today has been a real work day, starting with plowing the driveway with the Kubota and then shoveling sand -- it's a long driveway when you are lugging pails of sand.  Then, going up to the Town garage to refill the buckets for tomorrow.

I worked on loading the truck with bikes, kayak, solar panel, and an assortment of books so that I can run Vitesse Press while on the road.  Meanwhile, Mary made dozens of trips from the house to the Airstream and got clothing and food in place.

Then I hooked up the rig and with some maneuvering, I got it around the ledge outcrop (which I hit last year while leaving) and straightened out so that I could back it up to the garage for final loads.

We'll see what the morning brings -- more snow is forecast and it's going to be frigid and windy.  Both Mary and I remarked that this preparation was tougher than the last couple of years -- we're pretty tired but planning to launch early dark thirty.

Hunkerin' Down for a day or two

I had planned our departure for tomorrow, Friday, so that we could hit the Tennessee's Sandhill Crane Festival on Sunday but the winter storm, coming up from the south and also in from the west, has made us delay for a bit.  So, all the sand I lugged in buckets from the town pile and carefully spread on the driveway are buried under four or more inches of new snow with more (snow) on the way.

We had a busy early week with medical appointments and a trip yesterday Burlington to donate Mary's Subaru to the Good News Garage so this hiatus is giving us a chance to pack and check things off more carefully.  It is fun to organize kayak gear while watching the snow fall.


The back side of the storm is going to have some stiff winds and very cold temperatures so I expect that the first several nights in the Airstream are going to be a bit challenging.  First to plow out, sand, and get the rig down the driveway.  Probably Saturday but we'll keep a weather eye out.


It was nice to have a nice wood stove fire going last night and watch Syracuse demolish Villanova on the big screen TV.  I'll miss that on the road -- but the sleet, snow, and chill -- not!

We Don't Carry Hitchhikers

As we approach departure date (1/13 or 1/14), I'm getting serious about planning the route and possible stops -- looking at a couple of new options in Louisiana before we head over to Texas.  We have gathered a lot of information and it is fun to look over used birding checklists and campground maps -- and to read Mary's diary for the highs and lows of past trips.

Today, I am working on the Airstream a bit -- got the heat on this morning and decided to move it into a better position in the driveway with my Kubota tractor.  Not the brightest idea I've had this week.  After slipping and sliding and making thing worse, I got the truck set up and gee's and haw'd around the icy driveway, getting the trailer positioned for loading.  Our driveway is tough -- steep, little room for turning, with a ditch on one side and ledge outcroppings on the other.  It's one reason we stay with a 25 foot trailer and even then, it's quite a challenge.  I ripped a long pipe holder off the bottom departing last year when I cut a corner too tight.

About half way through the process, after a lot of jostling with the tractor, I spotted a little deer mouse departing from underneath and scurrying across the frozen ground to under the front deck.  "Well," I thought, "one less traveler to take along."  I went on with my business but just as I finished unhitching the truck, another mouse did the same thing. 

So, it's time to set the mouse-traps.  I hope they like Smucker's peanut butter, even if it is low fat.

Waiting to Launch

For the first time, I've had our Airstream at an RV dealer for repairs and maintenance -- in the past I've done it myself.  However, with cold temperatures, the prospect of repacking wheel bearings lost any appeal it might have had and I also knew that I needed to get the unit inspected.  So I dropped it off at a local outfit, Mekkleson RV in East Montpelier, VT who service a handful of Airstreams out of the many hundreds of RV's they handle each year.

To make a long story short, they did a fine job.  They found problems in the electrical system which they fixed through better grounding and work on the plugin -- and more importantly, found that one set of brakes was not working.  An electrical line had parted, probably in the awful trip up our driveway last March, so they got those working and a fresh new inspection sticker in place.  We are ready to go.

A full moon sets over the snowy/frosty Airstream as the winter sun rises behind us.

We've got a month to go before departure and we are starting to gather gear and think through our trip options.  I'm thinking of hauling both or one of the kayaks this time since we are so often near water.  Given the need for a dog-sitter, it's unlikely that both of us would paddle together so I think we'll end up taking Mary's boat, which I can cram into and take both sets of paddles.

It's not too early for me to start worrying a bit about the first couple of days of travel -- getting below the snow zone.  I just sent Mary a picture of our final day last year during our return, and I can hear the groans from the other room.  We need less excitement this trip.

Planning The Winter Trip

As the trees lose their leaves here in Vermont, we start thinking about heading out once again this winter to the Southwest. So it's time to crank up Google and Mapquest and lay out some options.

This year, I want to head toward Pensacola first to revisit the place I started my flight training decades ago. The Naval Air Museum, which I visited briefly many years ago, is high on our list of must-see places. I was in the NAS Cubi Point Officers' Club in the Philippines during several Vietnam deployments and the Cafe at the museum has a replica of the bar and many of the hundreds of squadron plaques.

The start of the trip, now planned for early January, is probably the toughest part of the journey. Not only will the Airstream be winterized with anti-freeze in the systems, the weather is often dicey. There are some high spots on I-88 between Albany and Binghamton and the stretches of I-81 until you drop into the Harrisburg area can get a lot of wind and snow. We're planning to watch for a weather opening and drive to Harrisburg the first day -- perhaps the longest drive.

Right now, I've got stops planned at state parks at Warrior's Path State Park in Tennessee and Oak Mountain State Park in Alabama. We're planning to stay for a while at Fort Pickens campground on the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Weather and conditions permitting, we'll use that as a base for visiting Pensacola sites. With a wood fire going behind me, it's kind of nice to think about -- three months from now.

Recycling on the Road

The truck and airstream are nearly loaded for our SW trip. As I moved recycling materials to be picked up yesterday, I got thinking more about where our paper, cans, bottles will go while traveling. I know Vermont and New York have recycling at their state campgrounds, but beyond that, I don't have a clue. Anyone got any tips on good ways to recycle on the road?

I know that you can use Google Maps to find recycling centers in the area your in - but driving around with a travel trailer looking for a center is just not going to happen.

Here's some information I found on a Utah state website:

While you're on the road, pack drinks, sandwiches, and snacks in reusable thermoses and containers. If you dine at carry-out restaurants, take only the condiments, napkins, and utensils you need. If you are at a visitors' center, take only the brochures you need and recycle the ones you don't keep. And above all, don't litter-carry your trash or recyclables with you until you find an appropriate waste or recycling container.

So hopefully, we won't have an Airstream filled with paper bags of newspapers and cans when we return to Vermont in six weeks. Recycling options is something I'll start checking more closely as we plan our stops.

Got any ideas for us?

photos by recyclethis

Weather Worries

A little over a week to launch and I'm starting to worry about the weather -- even though I know long-range forecasts are notoriously unreliable. It reminds me of many times I've planned VFR cross-country flights, looking for that weather window that allows you to "get out of Dodge." Here's what Accuweather is saying right now:

So, while it's too early to worry, but I'm a Vermonter. Let's worry about getting up over Mendon Mountain hauling an Airstream. It will take a day or two to get out of the ice/snow zone heading south.

Meanwhile, it's time to continue to check off items that we'll need, start packing, and remembering that a day or two delay at this point is not the end of the world. Temperatures today in Corpus Christi were in the 70's so we're psyched to leave our snowy world for a little sun and sand.

Natchez Trace option

As we near our departure date for the Southwest, I'm continuing to look at travel routes and potential overnight spots, focusing on Walmarts and Flying J's along Route 81 toward Knoxville. One of the great guides that helping me look at options further south is Marianne Edward's "RV Boondocking in Southern Texas." She has advice about getting south out of the Nashville area and suggests taking the 444 mile Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville to Natchez. I have the feeling that we will be sick of interstates and trailer trucks by the time we get to Nashville. We can thaw out, take it easier, and see a historic part of our country.

Here's what Wikipedia says about the Trace:

The Natchez Trace, a 440-mile-long path extending from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, linked the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippirivers. It was a traditional Native American trail and was later also used by early European explorers as both a trade and transit route in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Today, the trail has been commemorated by the 444-mile-long Natchez Trace Parkway, which follows the approximate path of the trace.^[1] The trail itself has a long and rich history, filled with brave explorers, dastardly outlaws and daring settlers. Parts of the original trail are still accessible.

Edward's has some good ideas on stopping points at free campgrounds -- we'll likely stop near the north end at Meriwether Lewis near the north end at mile marker 385.9 and perhaps then at Rocky Springs near the south end. We may take an extra day and do a little exploring before heading over to the Texas coast.

I'd love to have you comment below sharing any advice or recommendations you might have about driving the Natchez Trace Parkway.

Snowstream

I bought and installed new support rod for propane tanks and after a lot of drilling, was able to paint the parts yesterday -- and install and test everything today before the snow hit. Things are buttoned up, the 'stream is winterized and parked until mid-January, and we're starting to plan the route and stops for our trip to Texas. With a wood fire going and snow falling, it's nice to think of warm desert camping.

Planning our SW trip – medical preparation

As we prepare for our trip and start planning routes and stops, we are also starting to gather ideas on personal preparation for the two months we’ll be traveling. Here are some of the steps we’re taking regarding medical issues:
1. We have advance directives (health care proxy, power of attorney and a living will) prepared and appropriate people have copies. We will take a set with us.
2. Our medical insurance is national in scope and should be fine throughout the U.S. We do not plan to enter Mexico this trip.
3. We use mail order prescriptions which normally are good for 90 days worth of meds. We’ll likely have to set up a mail drop midway. We can order online from the road.
4. We have contact lists for doctors on our iPhones but will print them out with names, addresses, phone/fax numbers and e-mail addresses.
5. Likewise, in the Airstream we plan to carry emergency information including health history, emergency contacts, current medication list and allergies.
6. Mary has a current Medic Alert bracelet.
7. We’ll carry several first aid kits in the truck and Airstream.

Got some other ideas for us? Comment below.

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Getting Out of Dodge

We've had our first snowfall, which melted right away, and the Airstream is perched on the side of our front yard headed toward warmer climes. Even though it will be several months, and several feet of snow to move beforehand, our trip to the Southwest is in our minds. We've got travel guides, vacation material from Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico tourist offices, and the trailer is winterized and waiting.

One of the big concerns is timing our departure and getting south of the snow/slush zone with dry roads and no blizzards to fight. I know too well how tricky winter driving can be -- and as a pilot, also know how unreliable long range weather forecasts are. However, my brother has done it for years -- picking a window of decent weather, and driving long distances until he gets out of snow country.

Getting out of Vermont is not easy hauling a trailer. Getting down our driveway isn't either -- summer or winter. However, if we avoid the passes in the Green Mountains, we can hit Route 7 and take our normal cut-over to the Glens Falls and then take the Northway (I-87) south to Albany.

My thinking at this point is to take I-88 over to Binghampton and head south on I-81, which can be terrible in winter heading down toward Wilkes-Barre. We'll have to stop somewhere north of Harrisburg I suspect, and then head south toward Knoxville. Haven't thought too much about beyond there -- since I may have an airplane to look at in the Knoxville area. (I'm in the market for an old Luscombe)

I've done some online research on Flying J and Walmart locations along the way and need to gameplan as to how and when to activate the winterized systems. As I sit in front of our woodstove, it's fun to think about heading into warm dry desert territory in early 2010. We just have to make sure we get out of Vermont unscathed -- easier said than done in January.

photo from skidrd

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