Summer of 2015 - NC to Tucumcari, NM - RV Cruise Number 2 Begins

July 8, 2015

As of July 4^th we are on the road again for our second annual summer RV cruise! I hope to do a  better job of blogging this year as we should have good WiFi this summer.  For those interested in learning more about the campgrounds we are staying in I will be reviewing them in RV Park Reviews. Our bucket list is to visit and stay in each of the 49 states while enjoying the sites and then take a cruise around Hawaii.  Last year we stayed in 15 states and 2 Canadian Provinces (they are just a bonus).  This is not a short term project !

In my last update I told you about Ernie, our new to us, Holiday Rambler Endeavor.  Ernie was our home away from home while Wayne worked a contract job in NC from September until June.  On June 18^th,   Wayne retired for the 7^th time, will this be the real retirement?  Only time will tell if he will go back to work, but he has no plans to work for the rest of 2015, of that we are sure.

We have made a few improvements to Ernie in the last 9 months.  We added a new faucet at the kitchen sink and also installed a water filter with a dedicated spigot for the filtered water.  Most of the light bulbs have been changed to LED bulbs.  Shelves were added to several closets to improve storage. We also replaced the toilet. The biggest addition was 4 – 120 watt solar panels and a controller.

Over the winter Wayne studied destinations and campgrounds and routes.  He planned a great trip and has it all organized on a spread sheet.  Our theory for this year is to pick a central location to camp and stay there for a week to take advantage of discounts and this will also put less miles on Ernie and more on Bert, the Jeep.  Bert gets much better gas mileage. This week after starting our trip we have also decided to limit our travel days to 300 miles or less. 

July 4^th we left Chapel Hill, NC headed west on highway 40. (Note: It has been 4 days and we are still on highway 40 headed west!)    The night of the 4^th we stayed at Tana See Campground in Newport, TN. (State number 16.)  It is a small family owned campground.  It used to be called TMC. The new owners have done a lot of work since buying it and have made a very nice family campground. It is near the highway so an easy stop.  We just missed the bluegrass band and hamburger cookout they had that afternoon.  That evening they had fireworks and did a great job.  The most exciting part of our stay was getting permission to wash the RV.  Ernie was in desperate need of a bath.  It is good to be clean.

July 5^th we drove to Columbia, TN to the home of our friends Ken and Carolyn McArthur.  I joked that we were staying in McArthur Park.  They have a beautiful home with a REALLY long driveway that was great for parking Ernie.  It was a fun evening catching up with friends and making plans to get together again, next time at our home in Florida.

July 6^th we stayed in the Downtown Riverside RV Park in North Little Rock, Arkansas. (State number 17). This was an unplanned stop on the trip and was added when we decided to keep our days to 300 miles.  We got lucky and found a neat place.  The park was just gravel with hook ups but the area was great.  The park was just across the Arkansas River from the Clinton Library and Museum and The River Walk Park.  A railroad bridge that was scheduled to be demolished was revamped into a pedestrian/bike bridge.  It led from the edge of the RV park over to the museum.  The area is full of bike/pedestrian trails.  The Riverwalk area included shops, restaurants, an amphitheater, trolley stop and on a Farmers Market on Tuesday and Saturday.  We walked the bridge Monday afternoon to explore.  We will come back to this area when we can have longer to explore.  Tuesday morning we rode our bikes over the bridge and bought fresh veggies and some blueberries from the Farmers Market.  After dark on Monday we expected the bridge to be lit.  We were very surprised when it was actually lit with red, white and blue lights that scrolled along the bridge.  A friend told us that they change the lights for the seasons and when they were here it was purple for ovarian cancer awareness and also pink for breast cancer.  It was a nice surprise.

July 7^th on to Oklahoma.  It was a pretty miserable day for driving because of the rain. So we did not really see much of Oklahoma.  We spent the night in Seminole, OK (state number 18)  in a place called the Catfish Roundup.  It was really just a place to pull off the road and park that had hookups.  It was next to a restaurant called the Catfish Café.  If you like fried catfish it is supposed to be the place to go.  We did make a trip to Walmart.  This seems like a poor area. Maybe it would look better without all the rain.

July 8^th.  So good to see the rain had stopped!  We were still on Hwy 40.  All along the way Hwy 40 needs repair.  They are working on it but most of it is sad, especially around Memphis.  Today in Texas it was improved and with no rain it made driving so much easier.  The original plan was to stop in Amarillo for the night but we made good time and decided to go on.  We are in Tucumcari, New Mexico at a place called the Cactus RV Park.  It is on Old Route 66.  After dinner we walked down Route 66 for about a mile.  It is sad to see the buildings and motels closed up.  There are a few that continue to stay open but not many.  The shops and motels that are open have murals painted on the sides of days gone by.  I guess many towns have been bypassed by the super highways.