The End of This Journey

Well, now that we are back in Nashville, I guess that means our West by Southwest journey is over.  Looking back over what we did and comparing that to what there is to do, we’ll be making that loop again some day.  You just can’t get it all done in one trip.

That was our second trip to Washington (having stopped there for a few weeks on our way home from Alaska in 2004), but we love it so much, we’ll definitely be there again.  Even though we weren’t thrilled with south Texas, we certainly want to investigate the northern portion of that huge state.  By no stretch of the imagination can you say we did Arizona justice so we’ll definitely have to go back there.  Seems like Gene and I have this conversation about every place we visit.  It is a testimony to this great country we live in and the innumerable places to see and things to do.

I have struggled over the past couple years with the format I want for our journal.  Being the type A personality I am, I like the idea of each destination being neatly catalogued in its own journal.  However, I am also envious of those many friends and acquaintances who have started a journal and continue to post to that journal as the years go along.  That method seems to depict our lifestyle better.  We’re not on vacation to a particular destination.  Rather for us full-time RV travelers, we’re wanderers following the sun in the winter and seeking those cool climes in summer, with a visit to our hometowns periodically. We go where the notion sends us generally without a firm agenda or time restraints.

Therefore, beginning with a post for today, I have started a new journal--Scratchin’ the Itch--which I anticipate will go on for some years.  We sincerely hope you will follow our journey, wherever it may lead us, and for however long it takes to get that itch to travel out of our systems.

Scratchin' the Itch

With this first post of this journal, I will briefly recap who we are and how we got this itch.  As a blog reader, I always like to go back to the first few posts to see how things got started and hopefully get a little history about the blog authors.  So here we go.

As is stated in the short intro paragraph of this journal, we are full time RVers.  Gene’s parents had several small RVs and eventually bought a park model in Florida where they would spend the winters.  I am from a military family traveling from base to base as the Air Force saw fit.  I guess that wanderlust is just in our genes.  How else can I explain this itch we both have to travel?

As we turned 50 and could actually see retirement down the road, we started talking, almost nonstop, about traveling.  It didn’t take long as these discussions intensified, for us to came to the conclusion that full-time travel was our ultimate goal.  In 2003, we saw our way clear to “semi retire” and started taking 6 months off from work each year.  Without completely jumping off the deep end and investing a ton of money into an RV without having any experience at that sort of thing, we decided to take our trusty tent and just go on a looooong camping trip.  We loved the whole experience of wandering around foot loose and fancy free without a deadline except to be back at work in the fall.  We spent that first summer in Colorado visiting the National Parks and doing what we love to do--hiking.

Since that turned out so well, we bought a pop-up camper.  Boy, was that great with a tiny refrigerator and a sink and a table that wasn’t out in the rain.  We were completely hooked on this nomadic lifestyle.  That summer, with the pop-up, we went to Alaska and the following summer we spent several months in Michigan.

Since that turned out so well, we bought a Montana 5th wheel and moved in on Thanksgiving weekend 2005.  We could hardly wait until the end of our 6 months of working to get on the road in our home.  The summer of 2006 saw us on a fantastic learning experience in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.  This was every bit as good as we had imagined.  That is not to say that it was easy to give up our home and most of our worldly possessions, but that is a different story.

The second summer on the road in the Montana was to take us to the Oregon coast and Washington state.  However, Gene got a call from the boss just as we were ready to leave town, asking if he would consider helping out in the Knoxville office for a little while.  Of course, he said “yes, sir”.  I suppose he could have said, “no thanks” or “I quit”, but the time wasn’t right for us to completely retire.  Off to Knoxville we went in our Montana.  After nearly a year there, the boss was generous enough to allow Gene to work via computer and cell phone and we were on the road again.  We immediately headed to the east coast near Charleston, SC for the remainder of the winter and then headed to New York for the summer.  Even though Gene was on the phone or otherwise working much of the time, we were still able to enjoy being away from the stresses of the office and seeing a different part of the country.

That was a great gig, but our goal was to be fully retired and fully traveling.  As soon as we felt we were able financially, Gene retired from his job of nearly 30 years and we hit the road finally full-time.  2008 was our first year to be totally free of job restraints.  We left Nashville on December 26 to start a large loop around the US that took us across the desert southwest, up through Nevada, along the Oregon coast to the Pacific northwest before turning east and heading back to Tennessee.

We will soon celebrate our 4th anniversary living in an RV.  The learning curve has been steep at times and there have been numerous days of frustration, but we still love the lifestyle and see no end in site.  We just keep scratching that itch to travel.

Beaman Park Hike

After having done only about 3 hikes so far this month and really beginning to feel out of shape again, we decided it was high time to get back with the exercise program in earnest.  There are several city parks in Nashville, as well as one state park and a rather extensive greenway system.  We have no excuse for not getting out for a nice walk or hike at least three times a week.

This morning we chose to go to Beaman Park.  It is the newest of the city parks and happens to be the closest to our campground.  The land (some 1600 acres) was donated to the city by the Beaman family several years ago.  A “friends” group was promptly established and through their diligent efforts and the help of Tennessee Trails Association, they now have a new visitor center, two paved trailhead parking areas, and three trails on the ground.  Having been involved with a few outings organized by TTA long before the park was opened to the public, it does our spirits good to see how much progress has been made over the past 10 years or so.

We enjoyed a quiet walk today, only seeing two other hikers and a jogger on the trail.  The hardwood forest is still green, but has put on that yellowish cast which signals the beginning of the fall color change.  We saw far more mushrooms than wildflowers.  There were a few purple asters around and one bursting heart.

About the end of our hike, we happened up 4 mounted metro police officers.  Boy, was that a surprise.  Talk about patrolling the trails.  We’ve seen park rangers on patrol, but never the city police.  We chatted with them for several minutes, before heading on to the truck.

We were home in time for a Whitt’s turkey Barbeque sandwich for lunch.  This is a local barbeque favorite and I just love it.  Available in pork, beef, or turkey, we usually get turkey.  It somehow makes us feel we are eating healthy.  Now that I have a larger freezer, perhaps I can remember to stock up before leaving town on our next journey.

Jack and Ansley are coming over to see our new home on wheels.  Like nearly everybody else, they’ve only seen it through the few photos posted on the blog.  We’re anxious to show it off to them.

So far, we don’t have a plan for tomorrow.

Home Again

We arrived in Nashville, the city we consider “home”, about noon Monday.  We are parked, at least for this week, at a small campground just off I-24 in the community of Joelton located at the northeastern edge of Metro Nashville.  This campground is certainly nothing special in appearance, however, it has two major drawing points for us.  First and foremost, it is very convenient to Ansley and Jack.  Normally, we try to leave them in peace to go about their own lives when we are in town.  This year, however, we anticipate lending a helping hand for household chores and cooking after the baby is born.  The second drawing point for this campground is the fantastic monthly rate of just $400.  That is unheard of in this area.  With our plans for Florida this winter and spending some time in the D.C. area next summer where campground rates are higher, saving a little now will come in handy in the future.

With that being said, we still only rented for a week.  We just couldn’t make the full commitment without testing ourselves first.  Our other options were the three campgrounds on Music Valley Drive near Opry Mills Mall.  In the past, we have stayed at both Two Rivers and Yogi.  Of these two, we like Two Rivers better because that campground gets a lot of snowbirds traveling to Texas and Arizona.  We really enjoy meeting these folks.  However, Two Rivers does not offer a monthly rate which makes the overall cost pretty expensive.  Yogi has a monthly rate, but electricity is extra making  that campground almost double the cost of this one.

We have done a little tally of what we accomplished on our West by Southwest journey this year.  We have put a total of almost exactly 20,000 miles on the truck; 8,500 of that were towing miles.  We drove through a total of 20 states with lengthy stays in 7 of those states.  We added to our “See all of America the Beautiful” map Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, South Dakota, and Iowa.  Among our goals when traveling is to visit National Park units, state capitol buildings, and state high points.  On this trip we visited the capitol cities of Montgomery, Alabama, Austin, Texas, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Carson City, Nevada, Sacramento, California, Salem, Oregon, and Des Moines, Iowa.  In the National Park category we saw Tuskegee, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Lassen Volcano, Bandelier, Carlsbad Caverns, Fort Clatsop, Crater Lake, Badlands, Mt Rushmore, Wind and Jewel Caves, LB Johnson Ranch, San Antonio Missions, Guadalupe Mountains, Big Thicket, Padre Island, Rio Grande, Big Bend, Olympic, Fort Vancouver, Mt Rainier, and Devils Tower.  Of that group, I think we both enjoyed Mt. Rainier and San Antonio Missions above all others with a close second being Olympic National Park.  Although Lake Tahoe doesn’t fall in the “National Park” group, we certainly enjoyed it immensely and already have plans to return.  I got to add Florida, Oregon, Washington, Texas, and South Dakota to my high points list.  Not a bad year.  Of course, we also got to purchase one new 5th wheel which was nowhere to be found on our list of things to do.

This morning, Gene is off to have the truck serviced and this afternoon we have a little shopping to do as we get settled into to our Nashville routine.

Galesburg, Illinois

Another day on the road has brought us to the east side of the Mississippi River and the small community of Galesburg, Illinois.  This is just about 40 miles west of Peoria.

The campground is an old KOA so it has that look--long pull-thru grassy sites, big trees, A-frame buildings and camping cabins.  It is now a Holiday Trav-L-Park.  We didn’t even unhitch; we want an early start tomorrow.  Two more days and we should be pulling into our site in Nashville.

You may be wondering why we are making such a mad dash to get back to Tennessee.  The answer is simple--daughter Ansley is expecting our first grandchild in November.  We want to be there for her and Jack.  So, we’ll keep those wheels a turning.

Des Moines, Capitol of Iowa

Des Moines, with its population of almost 200,000 is the largest city in the state.  It is located just about in the center of the state which made it the choice for the founding fathers when they were deciding where the capital should be.  The first capitol building was located in Iowa City then moved to Des Moines in 1856 as population grew. The second capitol building was an old brick building and not very well built.  Fearing that building would collapse in the near future, the present, much more elaborate structure was built in 1886.  That building, although renovated in 1905, still serves as Iowa’s capitol building.

It is an impressive building with its hand-carved wooden doorways, decorative marble, and immense chandeliers.  Its gold dome is the largest in the nation.

We wanted to do the tour since they are usually very informative and we learn so much more than wandering around on our own.  However, the mid-morning tour was filled with a large group of 7th graders from a neighboring county.  We finally decided to join the group anyway.  As it turned out, we had a great experience.  Because the Governor was not in his office at the time, we got to go in.  We have never been on a tour where we were allowed in the Governor’s office.  We also got to go in the old Supreme Court Chamber.  Perhaps the most awesome thing was the dome.  The guide took us almost to the top.  I don’t know if these areas are normally included in the tour or if we got to go simply because we were with the school group.  In any case, it was pretty fantastic.

Spiral staircase in the 5-story law library

After our tour we had our picnic lunch under a big oak tree on the east lawn.  On our way back to the campground we stopped at Wal-Mart for a few grocery items and filled up with fuel.  We are ready to hit the road again tomorrow.

On To Iowa

The grasslands and cattle ranches of South Dakota have given way to the slightly rolling hills and farmland of Iowa.  It’s greener here and, just to emphasize our progress east, we started out in rain, then heavy fog which lasted most of the morning.  The humidity inside the Everest reads nearly 90%.

Today was not as long and drawn out as yesterday.  Surprisingly, we were pulling onto the interstate shortly after 8 AM.  We only stopped twice to torque the tires and would have stopped anyway for a potty break and lunch.  We were set up in our campsite a little after 3 PM.  Not a bad day in spite of the weather, heavier traffic, and nearly continual road construction on I-29.

We are at a very nice campground just west of Des Moines and plan to stay two nights.  Since this is the capital of Iowa, we thought it would be a good place to take a day off from driving and do a little sightseeing.