Wednesday, July 19, Day 1

Starting trip meter: 0
Starting time: 9:45 AM
Starting location: Jacksonville, FL
Starting odometer reading: 142775

We left home 45 minutes later than we had planned but that wasn’t a big problem as we have lots of time to make our goal of reaching western North Carolina tonight. The weather was hot and muggy in Jax as we pulled out. The forecast was for 96 degrees today.

The first thing we discovered was that I had forgotten to put our trip log outline onto this laptop. So I am recreating that even as I write this. Also forgotten were blank gasoline purchase slips for our records. I’ll create an Excel spreadsheet to replace those.

We also got a scare as we thought the power transformer for the laptop was not working! Scary because that would limit us to battery power only. Turning the fitting at the computer plug-in end 180 degrees fixed that problem. We are not sure how that thing was turned around in the first place but no matter, it is working now!

Today’s meals will consist of things we had as leftovers at home. Sandwiches and cheese for lunch and Texas roast for dinner. The roast was prepared on the grill at home last Sunday and we will reheat it in Carl & Betty’s microwave at our camp tonight. Mmmm mmmm!

We spent the night at a National Park Service campground located just west of Highlands, NC on route 64. No electric or water hook-ups were available. At first this seemed to be a major disappointment, however as we improvised, all worked out extremely well and we ate our great hot meal warmed on a charcoal fire, and struck up an evening of conversation with our next door camper, Toby, from Ft. Myers Fl., who invited us over later to enjoy his campfire.

The elevation at Highlands is about 4200 ft, so the evening was clear and cool, in fact almost too cool for just a sheet. During the night we started shutting the windows one by one.

Today’s weather: Hot and muggy until we were in the mountains of NC. Then nice & cool.

Miles driven today: 499

Thursday July 20, Day 2

Starting trip meter: 499
Starting time: 8:40 AM
Starting location: Campsite west of Highlands, NC

Our daily disaster happened early. A guide cord for the window shade on the right rear door broke as the shade was being lifted. Efforts to fix it were futile, but we patched the problem by tying the cord back. Now we can still use the blind, but it is much more effort and when tied in the up position, the blind lists a little to starboard. Oh well, it could be worse.

Our entire day was driven on scenic highways and we saw some incredibly beautiful country. The Cherohala Scenic Skyway had an elevation of 5400’. We ate lunch in an overlook that must have provided of a view of a hundred miles, or so it seemed. We happened upon one of the nicest camping facilities we had ever seen, the Edgar Evins State Rustic Park, 60 miles east of Nashville, TN. The grounds were well maintained, deer were everywhere, it had a large marina and restaurant on Center Hill Lake, hot showers, clean restrooms, cabins, and unusual camp sites that had power, water, and a picnic table.

The camp sites were built on the side of a steep mountain, they were outward extending platforms built up off of the slope 15 to 20 feet from the ground at the high end. The platforms were wide enough for three of our vans and deep enough that we had the van with the gazebo behind it and lots of room to walk around the front end of it all. The platforms were made of steel I-beam frames with a parking surface made of 6 by 6 timbers. They were very sturdy and some people had huge RVs parked on them.

We were surrounded by trees and were suspended with a view overlooking the expansive lake below us. The gazebo worked wonderfully well, it was everything we were hoping for. We had a little problem again with the assembly, but once up it provided the shelter that we needed from the rain that fell that evening. It provided us with a nice place to sit and allowed us to heat up the last of our stew (in the micro-wave since we had electrical power) and have a dry place to eat dinner. The rental for the night was $17.50. What a deal!

Today’s weather: Nice all day but we got at shower at our campsite. It lasted about an hour and a half.

Miles driven today: 309

Friday July 21, Day 3

Starting trip meter: 808
Starting time:9:30 AM
Starting Location: Smithville, TN

We awoke around 7:30 AM and were surprised at how long we had slept. The temperature during the night was very pleasant. We started out with our fan going for the first time, and the side windows open. Since we had showered the night before, all we had to do was break camp but neither of us were anxious to leave our site. Before leaving the park, we drove around and saw the rest of the facilities and had breakfast at the marina restaurant.

We got on the road around 10:30 AM. Today it looks like we will go through Nashville then north on Interstate 24 through Kentucky and into Illinois. We found gas to be the cheapest yet ($1.299 reg unl), as the State of Illinois has rescinded state taxes on gasoline until December 31, 2000.

When entering Illinois, we remembered that it is sweet corn season so we decided tonight’s dinner would include sweet corn and Ohio river bottom tomatoes. We stopped at a vegetable stand in Salem, Illinois and bought the tomatoes and two Indiana melons. The owner of that stand sent us north of Salem 4 miles to get the sweet corn from a farmer.

At that farm we met Hershel Rose who refused to sell the corn to us. He insisted on giving it to us! After a nice chat, and enjoying the breezes under his large shade tree, we headed on up the road. Hershel was so nice as you will see by his picture.

We spent the night just west of Salem at a Corp of Engineers facility named Boulder Campground. It was located on the shore of Carlyle Lake which we were told is the largest lake in Illinois. The overnight fee was a whopping $3.50 due to a shortage of drinking water (we had our own) and another 50% discount for our Golden Age Passport. We had our corn, tomatoes, wine, cheese, and melon for dinner. We cooked the corn over charcoal in the husk (silk removed) and wrapped in foil, for about 25 minutes and it was delicious! !

Later, both of us mentioned that our experience in finding Hershel and his great corn was something that Charles Kuralt might have found for his show.

We met a widower in the campground named Hank Hartshorn who invited us in and showed us through his large trailer. He also gave us several pamphlets with information about other Corp of Engineers facilities around the country.

The sunset was beautiful, and the stars were exceptionally bright due to the crystal clear night. Almost reluctantly we folded up our chairs and turned in for the night. What a fortunate find.

Today’s weather: High in the low 80’s and lows in the 60’s. We had a little rain shower just after we entered Illinois.

Miles driven today: 371

Saturday July 22, Day 4

Starting trip meter: 1179
Starting time: 9:15 AM
Starting Location: Boulder Campground, Carlyle Lake, Near Salem, Illinois.

We drove the entire vertical distance through Illinois and arrived in Wisconsin late in the afternoon. Immediately the terrain started to change and it became more woodsy and hilly. After getting info from the visitor center, we headed for the campground that we had chosen for the night. Bad news, it was full. The ranger said that there was a music festival near by and everything for miles around was filled.

We headed on north, and found all of the state parks and other facilities full for the weekend. The “No Vacancy” excuses ranged all the way from the music festival to “boat races” and “it is Saturday in Wisconsin” and ” a motorcycle rally”.

Disappointed, we decided that we would have to stay in a motel. Repeated stops found that all motels were full too and for the same reasons. We ended up staying at a beautiful new Holiday Inn in Sheboygan. However, since this Holiday Inn was full too, it was their parking lot that we stayed in! Thank goodness we had all of our comforts available to us in the van, so we parked in the back of their lot, and set up our campsite. We both slept very well, and although it had gotten down pretty cool during the night, we were safe and warm.

Today’s weather: Nice all day. High 75 and low of 55 as a guess.

Miles driven today: 492

Sunday July 23, Day 5

Starting trip meter: 1671
Starting time: 8:30
Starting Location: Sheboygan, Wisconsin

We are a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see more of Lake Michigan either yesterday or this morning. We were hoping to camp on its shore but as we said yesterday, everything was full. Today we drove through Green Bay, Wisconsin and we decided there was nothing to be seen there. At least our little search found nothing but a clean-looking little town.

We are now on our way to St. Paul, Minnesota. In St. Paul we drove the length of Summit Avenue, a street about 4 miles long that is lined with gorgeous 19th century mansions and large homes.

We then headed west to Charles A. Lindbergh State Park which is about 80 miles NW of Minneapolis. The park is located on the Mississippi River. The campsites are in a densely wooded area. There had been about 10 inches of rain in the preceding month and as a result the mosquitoes were everywhere. We had to spray ourselves all over and that seemed to keep them off us. In the end it was a fairly nice campground with wonderful showers. Our evening meal was the rest of our good corn, tomatoes, grilled chicken, and wine.

Today’s weather: Great. High near 78 and low near 63 and partly cloudy.

Miles driven today: 440

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