Lazydays

Settled in to Lazydays resort.  This place has everything.  Pool, Jacuzzi, plenty of room between sites, restaurant, lounge full hookups with cable, free coffee and newspaper and my favorite amenity, my own personal grapefruit tree outside my door.  I pick a fresh one every day!!

Sahuarita, AZ

Woke up very early today (truck stop and highway noise is better than an alarm clock). That worked out well for an early start on the road. Eagle mission number 2 accomplished. Missed the Pats game but we arrived in Tucson at 5:00 local time!!

 Hours of being road numb were so worth it just to see these two and get my super big Cassidy hug!!!

Pecos, TX

We made it to the Arlington Elks in time for Chicken fried steak and chicken fried chicken night.  Good parking spot and electrical hook up, 5 bucks!  We were so rung out from the road and the night before that we crashed right after dinner.  Got an early start in the morning and drove about 450 miles today.  We stopped at an ugly BBQ shack in Merkel where I had the best brisket I ever tasted (smoky and fell off your fork tender!!)  Made it as far as Pecos, restocked supplies at Wal-mart and are spending the night at a Flying J truck stop.  We’ll see how close to Tucson we can get tomorrow.

Gas prices have been pretty steady since we left.  2.96 to 3.34.

Shreveport, LA

We both woke up with serious Shreveport hangovers. They know how to party here!

They taught us the Texas 2-step but I sure don't remember it now. We drank their signature drink, Yager and local root beer. It wasn't Karaoke night but they cranked it on anyway. They gave us everything but a key to the city as souvenirs. That’s why we got a very late start in the morning so we'll only make it as far as Dallas today. 

 

Bessemer, AL

Well this has to be the friendliest lodge we've seen yet. The ER (Bubba) greeted us at the door and personally introduced me to everyone in the place. Made us feel like celebrities, Massachusetts, Dang your a long way from home! The lodge has electrical and water hook ups, wi-fi and I can get 11 hd tv channels with my antenna. Gonna try to stop back here on our way home (hopefully on a Friday night, that's when they cook some great dinners). 

Due to a camera malfunction, all the pics came out blurred but here's one of me and Bubba,

Johnson City, TN

Johnson City Elks is 20 miles off the main highway in a downtown area with a train that came through 3 times last night (very loud whistle). I still got a good nights sleep, didn't even need to turn the heat on ! Although there were no hook ups, it's great to have a safe and welcoming spot to spend the night. We got into town early enough to find a place to refill our propane tank and wine supply. Everyone we've met has been super friendly, makes the trip so much more fun.

Lexington, VA

The ride down 81 thru the mountains was beautiful, Great vistas and lots of cattle.

We had an ambitious agenda for yesterday, over 500 miles but we wimped out at 300. Lexington, VA has a large truck stop with a campground in back. We stayed here will full hook-ups for 35.00. We filled the water tanks this morning and took nice hot showers (aah!). Today we'll only drive 200 miles to Johnson City, TN.

Ephrata, PA

Well it took longer than I thought to squeeze  everything in  my house into the RV so we left on Sunday.  This post would have been made sooner but we lost the modem yesterday.  Almost bought another one today but it turned up in the seat cushion!  So far it seems to work great, Sprint has a good signal everywhere we've been.

The ride to PA went smoothly except for the GPS bringing us on a parkway with low bridges. The RV needs 10' 6” to clear, I got a little concerned when we passed one that was 10' 9” then we went under one that said 10' 3”!! Luckily the center was higher than the end near the curb. That freaked me out so I pushed the detour button and got off that road, could have been a bad end to day 1.

So that's where they keep them!

The Elks here is in Amish country (didn't see any horse drawn carts but on advise from the locals we stopped at a country store for homemade soup and jelly!). They call themselves the lodge in the woods. They had a couple of spots with 30 amp electrical hook ups, no charge, just leave a donation if you like.

    

 

Almost Ready

The Rv has been given a clean bill of health and we addressed the 2 major issues we had last year.  We got a mobile modem for better on road internet connections and we purchased a 150cc scooter for better mobility once we get to where we are going.  The route to Tucson is mapped out, everything is on track for a Saturday takeoff! First stop Ephrata, PA, its in Amish country but they have electricity at the Elks there.

This should be fun, just got it registered and inspected today!  Its a 150cc Motofino, the finest Italian scooter that's made in China???