Run and Rest

Today is Wednesday, August 29th. We are now farther up the road. In Clarksville, TN to be exact, just 1.9 miles from the Kentucky boarder, one of our short stopovers on our way west. In two more days we will have been on the road for three solid months. Can you believe it! Would you like to take a guess as to how many miles we have logged on the fifth-wheel in this time. Sorry, I didn’t hear you. Anyway, we have traveled over 3,000 miles. Yep, that’s right, and we haven’t been anywhere yet. According to our truck log, it has gone 6,000 miles in the same time period. We have kept the road hot. So far, we have been in five states.

Nothing special took place while we were at the State Park in Cordele, GA. We just had a rest from the drive and the two weeks we acted the tourist in Florida. The Cordele park was very nice and roomy, but again plagued by those nasty little black gnats that are common to south Georgia. They did have a nice museum of military history from the Revolutionary War to the Gulf War. They have a number of typical aircraft and other military equipment exhibited from the various wars. You see pictures here of a B29 Super Fortress from WW II and Tanks.

We pulled into the Trav-L-Park in Chattanooga that we stayed in on a previous jaunt south. You remember, the one that is on the Civil War battle field. This was just for a one-night stay. It was hot. We were tired. It took a while to get the trailer positioned level. On the boards. Off the boards. On the boards again. The sweat was poring off us and we were ready for some cool air. I plugged in our 50 amp land line (our electrical cord for those of you not in tune with RV talk) expecting the air conditioner to give that special “kick on” sound it makes, already anticipating the cool air to come. Nothing. No reassuring air conditioner sound. Carolyn went into the trailer to check if anything else was on. Nothing.

In situations like this we have another card to play. I slipped on the adapter and plugged into the 30 amp socket. Bingo! That welcome sound of the air conditioner was heard. But wait, we are paying for 50 amp service. We complete our set-up operation, and I call the office. I tell them the problem and they say they will send someone. In a while, a knock on the door. I open the door and a guy with a white mustache and a cap to match said, “You got 50 amp.” “Can’t be”, I say, “it’s not working.” “Yes it is”, he says. We went outside to the utility post. He had some sort of gage plugged into the 50 amp receptacle that had two red lights glowing. “See, you have 50 amp”, he assures me. I am not convinced. I unplug from the 30 amp and plug into the 50 amp. “Your air conditioner won’t come on now. It will take five minutes to recycle.” “It doesn’t take that long”, I tell him. We wait. Nothing happens. I unplug the 50 and plug in the 30. Bingo! Again. I could not convince him that the 50 amp was not working. He says there is something wrong with my system.

We cooled a little while and I decided I was not happy with only 30 amp. With 30 amp, when we try to use the microwave, it trips a breaker. The site next to ours was empty and that utility post was in reach of my electrical cord. I unplug from the 30 amp, drag the cord to the next site and plug into the 50 amp. Bingo! Air. I went to the office and told them that I was using the service from next door since no one was there. “We have someone coming into that site later,” they tell me. We discuss the situation and they say it will be OK, they will put the new arrival in another spot. Problem solved.

We did our usual for the evening and decided that we were tired and prepared for bed. We are getting into bed around 10 pm when we see lights and hear noises from the site next door where we are plugged into the service. We raise a shade. Sure enough, there is a large motor home setting up next door. I had better check this out. I pull on something presentable and go out side. I speak to the guy who just climbed down from the Motor Home with two dogs, a woman and another male. He says they have the site reserved. I say the office said no one would use the site. They have to have 50 amp. I want to have 50 amp. In a nut shell. I went back to 30 amp and called it a night. We were leaving early the next morning anyway.

So, we arrived in Clarksville. We rest a couple days and continue on our way. Next stop is Edwardsville, IL, close to the Saint Louis area. Rest a couple days and move on. Booneville, MO; Lyndon, KS; Russell, KS; Colby, KS. It is our “run” and “rest” period until we reach Colorado. When we get to CO, we will have sat down in nine states. I’ll get this posted to the blog before I run out of WiFi somewhere up the line. You’ll hear from us again down the road.