We took a different approach today, where we stopped for a good break around lunch time.  This gave Francie a bit of time to come out from the back bedroom and tell us exactly how unhappy she was at the situation.  Oh, and to get a bite to eat, drink, and make a couple deposit’s in the stinky kitty box.  Nice. It seemed to make her happier for the rest of the day, as there was less complaining later on during gas stops.

We had a bit of a mission to get a little something for the little human at a Cracker Barrel, so we stopped for dinner just north of Tucson.  I had told Diane about “chicken fried chicken” during dinner the previous night, so, had to have some.  Also, could be the last chance for a while, so I also had some fried okra. Mmmmmm.  Diane opted for more French Toast, and got just what she ordered, eventually. Fun times.

After dinner and some brief shopping, we used the iPhone apps and found Valley of the Sun RV Resort in Marana, AZ.  It is an interesting place as you pull in, and see that it is a mobile home park up front, but all RV park in the back.  They had a nice setup with laundry, clubhouse, showers, etc.  Hookups were excellent.  We had called ahead just to make sure they had space, and were told that we’d likely find the office empty, and to just take any space on the right.  They were nice long pull through’s.  At the office, I found a do-it-yourself sheet and envelope for getting them payment. Love the trusting RV gang!

Tomorrow will be a SUPER early departure.  It’ll be Diane’s birthday, and she really wants to spend time with Molly and Megan, so I’ll do my best to give her as much time with them as possible.

We left Livingston around 8:30 in the morning today.  A little later than I’d hoped, but Escapee’s do things a tad different.  You pay on your way out.  I guess you don’t have to worry about paying up front when you might just leave, but, it means my departure was delayed.  Also, the electricity was metered here, so you pay for that too.  Still, a very nice place to stay, and was less than $20 a night in the expensive spot. 🙂

So, Diane was up most of the day today.  It’s just the two of us and Francie (cat) and we’re getting back into the groove of rolling down the road.  Nice flat drive, with no winds / tail winds, and 70 mph speed limits.  Got some good gas mileage, and still made great time.

Our overnight is in Fort Stockton, TX, at the well named Fort Stockton RV Park.  Inexpensive, nice people, and an onsite cafe!  We made it 15 minutes before the cafe closed, and had a great take-home dinner of chicken fried steak, barbecue ribs, green beans, mashed potatoes, and drinks.  All for $6.00 each.  Oh, plus a slice of pound cake for desert.  Excellent!

Off to bed.  Will be an early out in the morning.

We’ve now used our recent Thousand Trails membership purchase, and we’re parked at their Lake Conroe facility in Willis, TX (about an hour north of Houston).  The drive from Louisiana was filled with LONG flat bridges over the bayou’s and such.  Lot’s of signs for Boudin and Cracklin, but we didn’t stop.  The GPS and other sources for directions suggested taking the non-Interstate route, which provided for some adventure and scenery, and did get us there in a timely manner.  Probably saved $20 or more in gas due to it being shorter.

This place has an interesting procedure for check in.  You start at the gate, and give them your member card.  For that, you get a map, and instructions to go pick out a site.  Not good after a long drive, with the sun about to set.  We found a spot, and then had to deal with the CRV having a dead battery.  Need to solve that one, as the towing setup was supposed to feed DC power back to the car so it wouldn’t drain the CRV battery.

Anyway, got a spot, got setup, got all the paperwork sorted, and found where the Laundry facilities are located.  Today is work, and investigation into the possible Texas drivers license and such.  Fridge needs some restocking too.  Oh, and there’s a place nearby that has BINGO… We might have to check it out.

Diane is still trying to recover from her cold.  Molly reports that she is much better, and enjoying her time with friends and grand-parents in California.  I’m just pushing on.  Hope to get the dash shelf, WiFi link, XM Radio, and CB Radio setup while we’re here, or at least as much as possible.

We left Sunday morning for the trip from Heiskell, TN to Cumming, GA.  I was being lazy and slow this morning, which led to a wet environment for me to deal with while hooking up the car, and disconnecting shore power.  Also made for a SLOW drive down.  It finally started to calm down about 30 miles into the Georgia border.  The GPS kept trying to take me down some “shorter” 2+ lane highways across Tennessee and Georgia, but I wasn’t falling for it.  Stayed on 75 to the loop, then 400 up.  Worked out great, and still came in only 10 minutes after the predicted GPS time from before my detour.

We pulled into the Twin Lakes RV Park with no issues, and found our name on a map and a spot set aside for us.  It is quite full here right now compared to the other times I came by to check it out.  Should be just fine.  We’ll hang out here this week for me to work in Alpharetta, and for the girls to explore and learn new stuff.

Well, we arrived at Chellie’s in Morgantown near sundown on Veteran’s Day.  A fairly nice state/county highway drive up from Evansville.  We’ve got a level spot here with electricity.  The facilities are really nice, with clean bathrooms and shower, and even a kitchen to use!  Best RV park ever! And so Exclusive!

We’ll have Thanksgiving at the clubhouse near Mom and Dad over in Terre Haute.  We saw them a couple days ago, and left Molly there for some Granny and Poppi alone time.

It’s nice and relaxing here, except for the lack of nearby dump site.

Not much more posting till we get going down to GA.  We bought a Thousand Trails membership, and are just waiting for the paperwork.  We expect to hang at many of their sites once we get back to CA/AZ area.

We left Nashville around 7am, and headed up to Evansville, IN, to check out the LST museum there.  My first ship in the Navy was the USS Sphinx, ARL-24.  The Sphinx was originally designated to be LST 963, but was converted after the keel was laid, as World War II was wrapping up at that time, and other types of ship were needed.

LST 325 has a pretty interesting history, and the most recent 10 years are pretty cool.  A group of old Navy guys went to Greece to get it going and bring it back.  You can read all about it here… http://www.lstmemorial.org/ It’s a working ship, and they take it out for a few weeks/months each year, up and down the rivers.

We arrived in time to be able to take part in the Veteran’s breakfast they had going on which was nice, and unexpected.  I’d kept out my USS Sphinx ball cap, so I fit in with many of the other vet’s.  After breakfast, we waited for the cleanup, then joined in for a tour.  It was fun for me, as I hadn’t been on the Sphinx since sometime in 1988 or 89, and it was bringing back some memories.  It is a bit different, but the engineering, birthing, and mess hall space are similar.  The big open area that houses tanks was filled with machinery for us, and some other storage or work areas.  All in all, everyone had a good time, and the girls enjoyed seeing something that was like the Sphinx.

After, we headed on up to Morgantown.

We made it to the KOA in Nashville, TN.  It was a tense drive getting through Nashville with all the road changes and wind, but we made it in one piece.  The CRV had spent too much time in “towed” mode, and so the battery was dead.  The workers at the KOA were kind enough to get our Propane tank filled, and to give me a jump for the CRV.

This KOA Kampground is pretty nice.  You can search YouTube for “KOA Nashville” and you’ll find some video of when the place was flooded out a couple years ago.  No sign of any problem at the campground, but the local mall is still closed.  The Grande Ole Opry stuff is all back up and running though, and the Gaylord Opryland is where the Invensys event was being held.

Overall the campground was nice for us.  Not crowded at all due to the time of year.  The only “issue” we really had was with the showers.  For whatever reason, they use one of the outdoor beach type shower heads.  These are the kind that just spray a big stream at you, and you cannot move them at all.  And, they were pointed right out of the shower into the changing area.  I had soaked shoes the first day before figuring this out.

As a post visit update… We got to eat at some new restaurants, although they are chains.  We’ve now experienced a Waffle House, as well as Bob Evans.  Thanks to Naomi B. for the great dinner at Bob Evans.  We’ll be back there for some breakfast goodies soon… Hold the Avocado.

Very soon, I’ll get Diane on here to share about the visits she and Molly made to the state capital and an Elephant sanctuary.

Well, I’m not going to try to count the days necessarily, but this one is important.  It’s Sunday, October 30, and we’ve parked the RV at Canyon RV Park, just off the 91 between Yorba Linda and Corona.  We’d stayed here a few months back with the Komfort Kruisers, and felt it would be good to use as a local base as we moved out of the condo, and into the RV.

Sunday through Wednesday will be super busy with packing, moving into storage, and getting stuff into the RV.  Oh, and some trick or treating for Molly, and various other activities and good byes.

It’s Friday, October 28, 2011.  All the travel for Roadshows and stuff at work is done.   Today, the DirecTV goes back on, a small dumpster shows up out front, and it’s my last day here at this home office.  We’ll be packing from now till Sunday, and officially move into the RV on Sunday.  Movers are coming Tuesday to get the furniture and boxes, and get all of that over to the storage unit.  There are lots of emotions running around as we get closer.  Hopefully we can all keep it together in these final days, and then start enjoying the new fun and excitement.

We’ve got reservations and locations lined up for our longer stays from now till December.  Working on getting something for about a week in AZ/NM area, then we’ll be in SoCal the second half of December and into January.  Also trying to find/buy a Thousand Trails membership.  I see them on Craigslist and Ebay, and will likely make the purchase sometime after we sell the FJ.  That will just make things easier.  Having the ability to stay 3 weeks and go park-to-park will be awesome.  Given the number of locations they have across California, it will fit in with our late winter/spring plans to try and visit all of the California Missions.

Should start seeing posts from Diane on here soon.  We’ve got the blog linked up to our new Twitter account, @KnightBusAdvntr, and will soon link it to our FB page, Adventures in the Knight Bus.  She was hoping to be able to write up stuff, then have it go out to everyone (that wanted it), and we’ll get that all linked up soon.

Busy times!

We’re heading out three weeks from today.  I have no idea how we are all going to actually get all of our things packed, stored, loaded, etc., let alone deal with all the emotional aspects of what we are doing.  It’s been a trying time for each one of us at different times along this journey.  I’m very proud of all the girls for not letting the sad aspects get in the way of the certain adventure.

We’ve got a storage place lined up, Diane and Molly are packing and picking out what goes in the RV.  98% of all the updates for the RV are done.  We’ve even got movers planned.

It’s almost here.  I for one will be happy to get past that initial departure, and to get to our first destination, Nashville.