CuRVWander

We arrived at our new volunteer position a couple of weeks early.  The repairs to our camper that we went to the factory in Kansas for were not as severe as anticipated and completed much quicker than allowed for.  We had planned for the worse and hoped for the best, we definitely got the best.  But getting to Chattahoochee Bend early was an adjustment for us and the park. With a couple days to ourselves we used the time to scrape off 2,000 miles of bugs and road grime. In an earlier post it was mentioned that the park staff were all new.  Of the seven-person staff (this includes park management, administrative and maintenance), the longest service time was six months, and that was the administrative assistant.  Everybody else had been here only 2 weeks to two months.  The park manager was one of the two-week term people and the assistant manager's position was vacant.  She (the park manager) was on duty as the sole ranger in the park, 7 days a...

Here in the first days of April we have been getting oriented to our new home for the next several months.  Chattahoochee Bend State Park (CBSP) is a name that is descriptive of the park's location.  Situated alongside the Chattahoochee River, the park encompasses a large horseshoe-shaped "bend" in the river to the southwest of Atlanta, near where the river becomes the border between Georgia and Alabama. Within the bend and five and a half miles down the river is the park, a total of 2,900 acres.  At the apex of the bend is a haul-out for people paddling the river.  There are platform campsites for an overnight stay in these piney woods that were once part of a managed forest operated by Georgia Pacific or one of its kind.  If you are of a mind to, these back country campsites are available as a hike-in too.  For backpackers it is an easy, flat 5.5 mile walk (one way). The bend in Chattahoochee Bend State Park While the "bend" is relatively remot...

I know I am sounding like a broken record but, it is a wet morning at our Arkansas campsite.  Once again we expect to dodge rain on our drive today.  But today it looks unlikely that we will stay dry, the rain coverage is pretty heavy between Tennessee and northern Alabama. Normally when we are coming east on I-40 and make the transition south to I-20 on Highway 78 between Memphis and Birmingham, the timing works out for an overnight stay at a favorite campground in Tupelo, Mississippi.  But yesterday's destination of Village Creek State Park in Arkansas put us a little farther along than normal, we'll be skipping Tupelo this trip.  Besides, we are really getting anxious to get back to the Atlanta area and see the grandbaby.  Anniston, Alabama, just east of Birmingham, will be our goal for today. Anniston has a Camping World Store that also operates a campground about a block away.  This place is convenient, just off I-20 and right on our route.  W...

It is not raining but everything is wet and cold on this March morning in Branson, Mo.  The cold is preferred on a travel day as engine and transmission temperatures stay in a much more preferred range.  Wear and tear is greatly reduced when high temperatures can be avoided.  Only a little ways out of Branson and things dry out, specifically the roads, but temperatures stay cool and the skies gray. Cyndee started looking for possible places along our route to pull in for the night but was not finding anything we really wanted to do.  They were mostly commercial campgrounds in and around Memphis so they were either Elvis or Mississippi River themed.  The Elvis ones were right in the city and a little too cramped for our equipment and we had stayed on the Mississippi one once before.  It was nice but with all the rain we expected it to be just one big mud pit. It was not directly on our path but Cyndee found an Arkansas state park, not too far from Memphi...

It is a soggy morning after last night's rain.  We have to thread our way between mud puddles to get out of the campground.  Some of the camp sights that border the little river that runs along one edge of the campground are beginning to flood.  Glad we are in the section that is at least twenty feet higher. Today's adventure centers on a scenic railway ride followed by a late afternoon meal of all you can eat ribs at Famous Dave's BBQ.  I think we have only had BBQ three times since arriving at St. Simons Island 5 months ago, we are both overdue for some 'Que. Our train will do an out-and-back, going south into Arkansas, reversing and returning on the same track.  Timing of the departure and return is coordinated to use the scenic section of rail so as not to hinder freight trains on this active line.  When it is all said and done, we'll cover 40 miles that include winding through wooded mountains, river crossings, tunnels and high trestles. ...

We texted with friends in Texas about going to visit Branson and one of them replied; "What do you want to go to Branson for?  It's for old people."  I'm not sure where our friend got his information from but I do know it was not from first-hand experience as he had only been on a vacation once in his life and we were with him when it went down at the beginning of the 1980's.  And it was just a day at Six Flags Over Texas. We knew where we wanted to go today based on our scouting expedition in yesterday's afternoon rain.  There was a main drag in the old, original part of downtown.  It had the obligatory ice cream and fudge shops but it also had an incredible general store, Dick's 5 & 10.  This place was amazing, to begin with it was huge, but even being huge the isles were narrow and every square inch of the place was crammed full of so many things that your head needed to be on a swivel to take it all in.  Many parts of the store were locked in...

We have a little break in the weather.  We are going to make a break for Branson and keep our fingers crossed that we can slip between the super-cells that are popping up all over the place. We departing Springfield and heading south into gently rolling hills that soon meld into long, steep grades.  It was not like we were crossing the continental divide, there were no switch-backs or emergency exits for runaway trucks.  But it is still mountain driving.  Even though the roads are pretty straight, the descents and climbs are numerous, I am going to go through a lot of fuel for just a two hour drive. Well before noon we were pulling into our campground, but not before being taken down a rabbit trail by the GPS.  The GPS had us turn down a road that started out looking good but it soon got narrower and narrower with steep little hills that had sharp crests.  If one of these crests were to have been just a little sharper the trailer wou...

Another weekend has passed.  We have been monitoring the weather and road reports almost hourly the whole weekend and it looks like it will be safe to head south Monday.  But it is going to be touchy, there is another giant storm building in Canada and predicted to push all the way to the Gulf.  We are going to go for it.  We are leaving post haste and going to see if we can outrun the new storm. Our intermediate goal is to get to Branson, MO for a few days of play before reporting to our next camp host gig.  The four years that we lived in Oklahoma we were within an easy days drive of Branson but regretted that we never made it over to enjoy what it had to offer.  In those four years I was traveling 200 nights a year for work and we grew our family from the two of us to four.  Most of those four years are a blur of a memory for both of us.  So we have decided to remove that regret and see what Branson is all about, even if it is out of season. ...

Talk has turned to completion of all the repairs that have been taken on and we can begin planning our departure day.  But what a difference a day makes.  We have gone from sub-freezing night time temperatures to the Lion of March rearing its head, spawning a powerful mix of thunderstorms and freezing rain.  Our first opportunity to head south appears it will be blocked by what both the local and national weathermen are calling a "significant and potentially dangerous group of storms stretching from coast to coast." The last thing to finish before we could go is the repositioning and re-cabling of the interior dome emitter for our cell phone booster.  Even with express shipping it took a number of days to custom fabricate the cable and get it to us and then the fishing of the new cable through its route to the new termination point turned out to be a challenge for the service specialist.  But I have to give him credit, he stayed at it and exhibited a...

Yesterday's post left off with a huge sigh of relief.  No beastly killer mold growing in the walls of the rig.  But there was still the water damage to the cedar lined closet, all of which had been stripped out along with wood trim, shelving, sliding full-length mirrored doors and carpet.  Everything would have to be rebuilt.  Plus, we had a few minor things that had come up in the year since we were last at the factory that we wanted fixed.  And none of this was in our warranty, it expired almost a year ago.  I could see the dollar signs piling up. We have spanned a weekend now.  It was a cold and dreary stretch, sitting on the asphalt apron to the maintenance building.  We did a little shopping for food and took advantage of being close to a Redbox and checked out a couple of Blu-ray movies.  According to the weather man, next week promises to be a little more spring-like. Come Monday they were back at it.  One of the fixes I wante...

The customer lounge at New Horizons' factory and service center is comfortable enough.  They have gone out of their way to make it as homey as possible. Overstuffed couches and love seats, end tables with fabric shaded lamps, stacks of magazines and books and one recliner that everyone tries to be the first in each morning to claim for the day.  The people in the lounge with us are mostly brief encounters with couples in for ordering/designing their rig or those dropping off or picking up their rig from the service center.  But then there are those like us, fulltimers in for service, "homeless" during the day while getting repairs or upgrades installed.  We also saw a few couples that were in for the couple of days it took to "move".  They were moving out of their existing RV into their just-built mondo-condo on wheels.  No kidding, these rigs were gigantic.  The shortest one being 42' with five slide-outs.  I don't know where they find ...

Upon our arrival at the factory we were warmly greeted at reception and Ken, the service manager came out to say hello and direct us to where we were to put our rig.  Knowing the work that would have to be done and that it would require essentially gutting the whole interior of the closet and part of the bedroom, we expected that we would have to find living accommodations at a local hotel for the duration of the work.  But to our surprise, and financial relief, Ken said that they would get us hooked up to services and we could stay in our rig while they did the repairs.  The caveat being that we would have to vacate the premises each morning by 7:00 and stay out until 3:00 in the afternoon. Vacating the premises included disconnecting from power and water, pulling in the slides and putting the satellite dish in travel position so that the rig could be moved inside a dry, heated building for them to do their day's work.  It's still winter here, temperatur...

I know, I know it has been awhile since the last addition to our full-timing journal.  From the moment we left St. Simons Island in March we have either been driving or unable to get connected.  And then there is the lazy factor, even the times when I could, briefly, get connected I just didn't get to doing the writing thing. However, Cyndee has been gently encouraging me to get back to writing and chronicling our travels and volunteering adventures.  My last journal entry was just as we were preparing to leave our visitor center host position at Ft Frederica National Monument and our campsite on St Simons Island, GA.  Living among the moss draped oaks and pre-revolutionary war history was a hoot.  Our supervisor ranger was a delight to work with.  The fort is a very small operation and we got to know every single staff member, all seven of them.  With the exception of our supervisor, I have never seen so much office drama in such a small staff ...