We were so happy to pull into our driveway yesterday afternoon. This year’s travel from the south took us longer than we had planned. Everyone must know of the big rain storm that crossed the United States causing floods in many areas that also seemed to never end.
We left the RV Park in Florida on Tuesday April 1st and had good weather. In the evening we parked for the night at the Valdosta, Georgia, Camping World Store’s parking lot. They allow overnight parking and we have been there before so knew it would be a good place to stay. For part of the evening we ran the air-conditioning to keep the travel trailer cool enough so we could sleep as it was still 30C outside at 9 p.m.
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| Camping World store in Georgia |
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| The rest areas were busy most of the time |
The next day’s travel was equally good. As usual we make pit stops to stretch our legs and of course the fill-up stops for fuel keep us delayed a bit. In the late afternoon the I-75 got heavily congested and instead of crawling on, we just pulled off the highway to the Bass Pro Shop that looked very inviting across the highway in Chattanooga, Tennessee. There are lots of parking spaces available and in short order several other RVs pulled in keeping us company. There was a good breeze blowing and we decided to sleep with the windows open. Big mistake! In the early morning it became so humid with a heavy fog outside and because the blinds were up the bright light bothered me from the parking lot as well as some music that played somewhere all night long.
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| Bass Pro Shop, Tennessee |
So far we had been travelling behind the weather front but knew that we would probably catch up to it the next day. Hoping the weather would move ahead of us we left the parking lot a bit later than we normally do in the morning so we could stay behind the rain. However, eventually we caught up to it in Kentucky. We had stopped for lunch in Williamsburg Kentucky and treated us with a chicken burger at the Burger King there before moving on.
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| Lunch break from Burger King at shared parking lot with Walmart |
The mountains held onto the clouds and rain and the driving became dreadful with a horrendous amounts of water gushing from the sky. We did not want to drive in that! I’m glad Benno has nerves as steel but it was the kind of nail biting drive when you cannot see the car in front of you in mountain terrain with steep incline roads. There were tons of bad accidents on both sides of the highway, never saw so many blue flashing lights before on a trip. Benno said we have to get quickly off this damn highway, this is hell and high water! We took refuge at the side of the parking lot of a Walmart Superstore in Berea, Kentucky and just sat in our truck as the rain came down in buckets. It was actually a good spot and we considered of staying the night until I looked up and saw the sign at the light pole next to us saying no overnight trailers. Well, just around the corner was a Cracker Barrel Restaurant that has trailer parking, but we found that we did not fit into their too short trailer parking lots. Some Motorhomes were already getting comfy there.
With no place to stay, we reluctantly got back onto the I-75 in the rain. The next 50 miles were terrible, but we knew we could park at the Camping World store in Georgetown, Kentucky that is just off the I-75 (we’ve been there before) and that is where we went and were able to finally relax for the evening. However, because of the heavy rain we could not run the generator, so no TV watching. It poured all overnight into the morning. The weather radar showed a clear spot from 8 a.m. to midday along I-75 towards Cincinnati, Ohio and we made a run for it. Wow, we made it ahead of the storm and it stayed dry and became sunny for most of the afternoon drive, but the temperature kept dropping.
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| We are making a run for Cincinnati |
Surprisingly there was hardly any car traffic at the border control. Of course the other side was packed with transport trucks. The customs attendant was super friendly and to our surprise we did not have to pay any taxes for our purchases. :-) What a nice welcome to Canada!
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| Driving over the Ambassador bridge into Canada |
From the border crossing to our home it was only another 45km/30 miles, but having outrun the weather for several hours we wasted no time to unload and unpack as much as we were able to before collapsing in our chairs yesterday evening to finally put our feet up. Today it is raining here and the temperature is only 9C/49F back to sweaters, I guess.
Thank you Linda, our RV neighbour, for your goodby gift of a little elephant that was to keep us safe and sound during our travels.
So the only mishap this trip was a broken coffee carafe. At every trip so far I have been sticking this Krupps coffeemaker carafe into the cupboard for safe keeping during our travel so it won’t hop out of the coffeemaker. However, mysteriously the cupboard door opened this time and the glass carafe and a package of crackers ended up on the floor. There were a million tiny sharp glass pieces all over the floor and carpet. You would assume those glass carafe pots would be made from tempered glass, but I guess not. Oh well, it’s time I shop for a new coffeemaker.
Thanks for following along.
