Thursday November 5 2015
As a light fog was lifting this morning
we departed Whitten Lake Corp of Engineers campground in Fulton,
Mississippi. Back on route 78 (future I-22) we soon crossed the
Alabama border and were on our way to Birmingham. I had an interesting
experience there in the 1960's as a pallbearer in a military funeral.
It was my first exposure to a black Southern Baptist church service.
As if that wasn't cultural shock enough for a white boy from Delaware
this funeral service had a reverend very much like Martin Luther King
who really fired up the congregation. Who knows, maybe it was MLK?
Today's Birmingham visit was smooth
sailing with light traffic and a quick fuel stop at Flying J. We
picked up I-20 in Birmingham and continued on it though Alabama and
soon crossed into Georgia. Our next obstacle was Atlanta, notorious
for heavy traffic. Halfway through the city it started raining, I
dropped back waiting for the inevitable traffic jam. The once smooth
flowing traffic became a little erratic but we only slowed way down
once and never stopped. East of the city the volume diminished and we
again were rolling steadily in moderate traffic. The rain slowed to a
nuisance drizzle most of the way to our last overnight stop of this
trip, A.H. Stephens State Park. The park is named for the last vice
president of the confederacy and it is a convenient stop between
Atlanta and Augusta Georgia.
Friday November 6 2015
We woke early and quickly started for
home which is only 272 miles away. Having fueled last night we ran
all the way to Myrtle Beach without stopping. Back in the city, we
disconnected the jeep at a convenient parking lot, Millie took the
car to the post office to pick up our mail, Maggie and I drove the
motorhome the short distance to our home.
Saturday November 7 2015
This trip was different than all the
others we've taken. Even though I like to travel with a loose
itinerary and no RV Park Reservations we usually have a general idea
which direction we are going. We did have a event filled route for
the original summer plan we called the “Middle America Tour”,
unfortunately we had to cancel when I needed shoulder surgery. This
trip had two hard targets, Los Alamos and Las Vegas, how we got 2300
miles across the country was wide open.
Our meandering path west was planned
one day at a time and ended up being a pretty cool trip. We enjoyed
it and that's all that really matters. My only regret is not stopping
in Branson Missouri for a few days. We had hoped to stop there on the
way home but commitments mandated we come straight back.
We did get to mark off some items from
our M.A. Tour itinerary like Yellowstone National Park, Durango
Colorado, and Big Brutus in Kansas to name a few. We got to spent a
total of 16 days with the family in Los Alamos and went to the
Special Operations Association Reunion in Las Vegas which I haven't
attended since 2005.
Our 15 year old motorhome performed
admirably with no major problems. Any RV that bounces down the
highways and byways while you're living in it is going to have things
fail, we had nothing break that we couldn't fix ourselves. I did make
a project list that I would like to complete in the near future, some
are improvements, some preventive maintenance. We have a fun filled
2016 planned and don't want any surprises from the bus.
This trip is also the last planned
outing for 2015 and I will send the complete blog to the printers
soon. This will be our fourth book printed from our yearly blog.
Millie and I enjoy looking back at our journeys and we hope you have
enjoyed traveling along with us through our dispatches from the road!
Just the facts:
Average miles per gallon=7.1
Total Trip Mileage=6000+/-
Range of fuel cost per gallon= $1.80 to
$2.99
Estimated total fuel cost=$2200
Note: Out west a lot of the fuel
stations sell 86, 89 and 91 octane gasoline, but no 87 octane.
Neither our jeep or motorhome will perform well with 86 octane. In
these situations I had to upgrade to the 89 octane fuel.
RV Park cost per night ranged from $10
to $43
We spent a total of 58 nights on the
road
We spent 16 nights at Kamp Kolman for
free
We spent 12 nights at Thousand Trails
for $15 per night
We spent 5 nights at Corp of Engineer
CG's for $10-$12 @ night
We spent 4 nights in county or state
parks for $16-$27 @ night
We spent 21 nights at commercial
campgrounds for $12-$45 @ night
Our total cost for lodging=$1179
I have not kept track of our other
expenses; food is about the same as we spend at home, eating most of
our meals in the motorhome. Likewise with fuel for the jeep, it's
about the same driving we would be doing at home.
