As I said in yesterday’s blog, we weren’t sure if we would leave Saturday or Sunday to begin our trip south, depending on the weather. There were a couple of systems coming through the region that were going to bring some rain, but none of them looked to be very large.
It started raining hard about 5 o’clock yesterday morning, and when we got out of bed a little after eight it had dropped off to just a sprinkle. For the next three hours or so it would rain for a few minutes, then stop, then rain again. Watching the Weather Channel on TV and looking at the radar maps online, we decided we would go ahead and take off, knowing we would get wet for at least part of our trip.
Before I started unhooking all of our campground utilities, I walked down to the dumpster to throw away a bag of trash, and I’ll be darned if we didn’t have a Bad Nick episode. Some clown in a pickup pulled up near the dumpster and threw his bags of trash out on the ground and started to drive away. How lazy is that? I yelled and he stopped his truck and asked what the problem was. I told him the problem was that people like him just tick me off. Was he incapable of getting out of his truck and walking five feet to throw the trash away instead of just leaving it there for somebody else to deal with? His response was that for what he paid for a campsite, they should come to his rig and pick it up. We won’t get into what my response was, let’s just say he saw the error of his ways and got out and put his trash were it belonged.
Terry and I went up to the office to say our goodbyes to Bob and Gita Patel and to thank them for their hospitality in the four months we were at Elkhart Campground. These folks are part of our extended family and we love them, and saying goodbye is always hard. Gita made it a little easier by bringing Terry a plate of just made homemade tortillas, spicy rice, bitter vegetables, and an eggplant/potato combination that Terry said was out of this world. I don’t eat veggies, so I just settled for a hug.
While we were in the office we ran into Bob Lopez, whom we met last year in the Rio Grande Valley. It’s like I said folks, if you hang out at Elkhart Campground long enough, sooner or later you’ll meet every other RVer in the world. They all pass through at one time or another.
We left the campground a little before noon and got onto US Highway 31 and took it south toward Indianapolis. Most of the way it was divided four-lane highway, with a few rough sections to keep you on your toes. It sprinkled a couple times before we got to Indianapolis, and then as we were taking the 465 loop around the east side of the city it began to pour. We got onto Interstate 74 and followed it southeast.
Whenever I’m planning a trip I always like to select two or three places where I can stop for the night, depending on weather, traffic, and how we feel as the day progresses. Our first possible stop was at the Thousand Trails near Batesville, Indiana. That was about 235 miles, a decent driving day. In spite of the rain we had made good time, even though we pulled off at a rest area near Batesville for a little bit to make a potty stop and let the worst of the rain pass over us.
Back on the road, neither one of us really felt like stopping, so we just kept right on rolling. We crossed into Ohio, then picked up the Interstate 275 loop, which took us south, then crossed back to Indiana for a handful of miles, and then across the Ohio River into Kentucky. And I just sniveled a little bit going over the bridge. But it’s still better than dealing with all of the traffic in Cincinnati.
It rained hard again for about five minutes, and then it was just more of the same, on and off showers that lasted a short time and then cleared up.
At 6 o’clock we pulled into Kentucky Horse Park Campground on the north side of Lexington. We know this place well because we stayed here many times back when I was getting my medical care at the VA hospital in Lexington. The place was filled with campers, kids, and dogs, all having a great time in spite of the on-again off-again rain.
Once we were parked and hooked up, we grabbed a bite to eat, spent some time checking email and things like that, and by then we were both tired and ready for bed. We had covered 350 miles, which is a long day on the road, but that’s okay. We’re not in relaxed travel mode, we are in “get there” mode. We have an appointment in Florida in just a few days and we want to be there in time for it.
On another note, just before I shut the engine off here in our campsite I noticed that our Winnebago’s odometer is reading 94,600 miles. That’s no big deal for a diesel, it’s just getting broken in. Our rig is a 2002 Ultimate Advantage, and when we bought it in August of 2010, it had 33,600 miles on. So we have put 61,000 miles on it in the last six years. It has served us very well, and I’m sure it will carry us for another 60,000 miles without even thinking about it.
Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an audiobook of Chase the Rabbit, the first book in my friend Steven Thomas’ Gretch Bayonne action adventure series. To enter, all you have to do is click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening.
Thought For The Day – Sometimes you just have to wait for fate to make its move.
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