2021-07: The Final Week of Our 5300 Mile Road Trip from Texas to Indiana to Florida and Back to Texas

In todays edition of the AwayWeGo's Adventures Blog, we're winding down these last few days of our 5300 mile road trip to purchase our motorhome. These last 2300 miles went by much faster than we would have gone in the past. Driving the big RV we stuck to the Interstates for the most part. I gotta learn how to route plan better so that we can still do some sightseeing and geocaching. We did stop to see a few things on some overnight stops. So climb onboard the big Eagle Bus and let's go for a ride...

After leaving the Cummins shop in Cincinnati, Ohio on Wednesday we jumped on I-75 and headed south. About an hour later getting through the Cincinnati traffic, I pulled into the I-75/I-71 Rest Area in Kentucky to park for the night. Thursday we drove nearly 400 miles into North Georgia and stayed the night in the I-75 Southbound Rest Area near Resaca, GA.

Friday is here and on the way down to Florida, I did stop at a rest area about halfway near Sycamore, GA to stretch my legs and grab a geocache (GC89X9V). We ended the day at a Cracker Barrel in St Augustine, FL along I-95. While there we had dinner with Candy's mother and brother.

On Saturday we drove down to Umatilla, Florida, where my mother lives, and stayed there two nights at the Olde Mill Stream RV Resort. This gave me a chance to spend time with my mother as well as see my two sons down in Orlando on Sunday. But alas it's never long enough time as we had to get back to Texas and back to work. I did manage to grab a geocache (GC46KYD) there in Umatilla before taking off.

Monday morning we said our goodbye's and drove 382 miles up to Troy, Alabama. We boondocked for the night in a Walmart parking lot. I did have some daylight left and drove over to the Bicentennial Park to grab a geocache (GC1C6D5) for Pike County and take these next few photos.

From there I drove the GeoJeep over to Crenshaw County. I stopped at the crossroads of US-331 and CR-50 at what seems to be an old abandoned gas station / country store. Nothing to buy anymore but I did find the geocache for the county (GC55ZNK).

Continuing north on US-331, there was another geocache stop that caught my interest. It had some recent DNF's so I didn't even bother looking for it. But I did want to stop for the photo opp. It was another Veterans Memorial (GC2W9EC) and I took the photo of the GeoJeep underneath the F-16 fighter jet you see at the top of this page. With more DNF's to follow the geocache was eventually archived, but I still added the GC link so you can find this memorial park.

And finally just one more quick geocache (GC5M26B) stop at a fireworks stand on the way back to the RV.

We noticed that the refrigerator had stopped working so I went into Walmart and bought a cooler and some ice. Most of our food went into it. Now I have to figure out where and when I can find a place to get it checked out.

Tuesday morning we left Troy, Alabama driving north on US-231 into Montgomery. There we turned west onto US-80. Arriving in Selma, Alabama, I stopped at a small Sunoco truck stop to fuel up. Not being very busy, we decided a good place to stop for a few while I took the GeoJeep to pickup some breakfast at Hardee's. This also gave me a chance to grab a geocache for Crenshaw County (GC5PYDF).

Continuing westbound on US-80, we eventually picked up I-20 westbound at the Mississippi state line. I eventually stopped again at a rest area in Scott County to stretch my legs and grab a geocache (GC7JVWB). With just over 500 miles of driving for the day, we finally made it to the Texas Welcome Center on I-20 and parked it for the night. I got out to stretch my legs and grabbed another geocache (GC6Z4ZB).

On Wednesday we arrived in Killeen, Texas where my Candy's daughter lives. It was the house my wife lived in for a few years before she started traveling with me. If you've been reading my blogs for a while, you might remember most of my blog posts were about the long drive on Sunday back from Killeen to a jobsite somewhere in Texas.

Candy's granddaughter is now home after her three week road trip with us around the country. And we are able to gather much of our clothes, dishes, and other items we still had stored there and load them into the motorhome. Now our new home-on-wheels feels more like our home.

I did find an RV repair place nearby in Harker Heights to finally get our refrigerator checked out. We boondocked in the parking lot of the old shopping center which they occupied the end of. While waiting, I did drive over to the Pleasant Hill Cemetery and grab a geocache (GC6G1Y5). It is one of the oldest cemeteries in Bell County and dates back to 1855.

Lone Star RV Service eventually was able to check out the refrigerator on Friday. Turned out to be a bad motherboard. Surprisingly there was a recall on it twenty years ago and it had never been completed on that unit. So it would be fixed for FREE! The downside was that it had to be ordered and take a few weeks. But they did show me how to temporarily get it working using a magnet to reset it.

After a few days of boondocking, we needed to dump the tanks and get fresh water. And being late in the afternoon, we decided to wait until morning to get back on the road. So we found an RV park over in Kempner.

Thirty minutes later and about a mile away from the Rocky River RV Resort, the engine temperature gauge on the dash starts to climb and the warning buzzer goes off just as I'm pulling in the entrance. I park in front of the office and steam is coming out the back of the motorhome and the Jeep is covered in engine coolant. The guy from the RV park and myself is looking it over but the Cummins diesel engine is just covered in coolant. He calls a diesel mechanic he knows and the guy is able to come first thing in the morning to check it out. I let it cool down a bit, do our check in, and drive over to our spot for the night.

The mechanic drove over from Waco Saturday morning and was able to diagnose that a freeze plug was leaking on the side of the head. He pulled out the bad plug and drove into town. A couple of auto parts stores later, he was only able to find one of those temporary rubber expandable plugs to install. But it works and that's what matters.

We stayed one more night there in Kempner. Sunday morning came and we finally got back on the road. We headed up I-35 northbound through Dallas and arrived in Bonham, Texas just in time to be back to work on Monday.

Three weeks and over 5300 miles later, this road trip adventure comes to an end. Here's a recap and links to the blog pages if you missed any of it:

06-17-2021: Texas, Arkansas, Missouri
06-18-2021: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana

06-19-2021: Our American Eagle 40' Motorhome

06-19-2021: Fort Wayne, Indiana 

06-20-2021: Lincoln Highway in Ohio 

06-21-2021: Lincoln Highway in WV and Pennsylvania 

06-22-2021: Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut 

06-24-2021: More in Pennsylvania 

06-25-2021: Lighthouses in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio 

06-26-2021: RV Museum in Indiana 

06-27-2021: Michael Jackson Home in Gary, Indiana 

06-28-2021: Noah's Ark, Ohio, Kentucky 

To follow along on our travels and keep up with my latest blogs, you may do so here of course by clicking the "Follow" button to the right. And there's also my main website at AwayWeGo.US for the complete index of my traveling adventures going back to 2005. But also by using one or more of your favorite of these social media platforms: Facebook, MeWe, Gab, Reddit, Twitter, GETTR, Instagram, and TruthSocial. These all link directly to my profiles. Again, please feel free to comment and / or share.

2021-06-30: Visiting Noah's Ark After Our First Day and Our First Breakdown in the Motorhome

On this date of our AwayWeGo's Geocaching and Traveling Adventures, we begin a new chapter. We took delivery of our RV, a 2000 American Eagle 40' diesel pusher motorhome, and begin our journey with our home on wheels yesterday. Now when we drive to a new jobsite we no longer have to stuff our Jeep with all our belongings. No longer do we have to look for a furnished place to rent for the duration of the project. We'll have everything with us and get to sleep in our own bed every night. So climb aboard the big rig RV, there's plenty of room. Today was our first day of driving from Indiana, to Florida, and then back to Texas for the next project.

Leaving from the north side of Decatur, Indiana yesterday, we headed south on US-27 a few miles to a truck stop to top off the 150 gallon diesel fuel tank. Then a few blocks past that to a Walmart to get some groceries, some basic cookware and utensils to start with, and some new linens and pillows for the queen bed as well as the foldout couch for my wife's granddaughter. The queen bed still had the original comforter and pillows which looked like they were brand new. But they didn't look very comfortable. So they'll stay looking new because we soon put them underneath the bed in the storage compartment.

Now if you have been following along reading about our travels, you'll notice that I usually like traveling the backroads. It's much easier to pickup new geocaching counties in the GeoJeep. But kinda hard pulling into rural cemeteries and outta the way ghost towns in a 40' motorhome. I'm gonna have to practice some serious route planning to accomplish that. But for now I take US-33 south over into Ohio to jump on I-75 south to Florida.

The first few hours driving the RV down the highway went really well. This diesel pusher motorhome drives, rides, and handles so much better than my gas motorhome I had back in 2005-07 when my AwayWeGo Adventures began. (Click here and scroll to the bottom to start from the beginning.)

But when you purchase a 20 year old motorhome and start driving it down the road, there's sure to be some little bugs pop up that didn't show up on a test drive or the dealer inspection. I also see others online buying brand NEW RV's with pages of items that need to get fixed too. 

So driving down I-75 south and approaching Cincinnati, the engine temperature gauge starts jumping from normal to hot and back. I don't get any warning lights saying that it's actually overheating. Plus the gauge is moving too fast. I pulled into a rest area just to check it out and make sure. Don't see any leaks. I Googled and found a Cummins dealer on the north side of Cincinnati just 10 miles further down the road and they could get me in first thing in the morning.

Waking up today we head straight down to Cummins to be there when they open up to drop off the RV. The three of us then piled into the GeoJeep and crossed over into Kentucky to the town of Williamstown. There we visited the massive Ark Encounter theme park and tourist attraction.

The Ark Encounter was opened on July 7, 2016 by the Answers in Genesis organization.  It is a full-sized replica of Noah's Ark built according to dimensions specified in the Bible. This massive structure is 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high. Approximately 3.3 Million board feet of wood was used in the construction of this project.

The Ark contains 132 bays that are eighteen feet high and arranged into three decks. Visitors enter through the lower deck and move up via a ramp in the center. There were mini cages for various birds, but mostly chickens for food. Another area held large liquid containers for drinking water and oil for lamps.

Just a few photos of various bays representing different animal types gathered upon the Ark. There were no live animals inside the Ark, but there was a petting zoo that you could walk through on the outside.

Located throughout are scenes of Noah's family as they would worship and work at various activities within the Ark.

After touring the Ark and the zoo, I did manage to grab one geocache (GC7NAPC) near the entrance out by Highway 36 for Grant County.

Arriving back at Cummins to pick up the motorhome, it turned out to be a loose wire behind the temperature gauge on the dash. So hooked up the GeoJeep and continued on home to Florida for a couple days before heading to Texas.

To follow along on our travels and keep up with my latest blogs, you may do so here of course by clicking the "Follow" button to the right. And there's also my main website at AwayWeGo.US for the complete index of my traveling adventures going back to 2005. But also by using one or more of your favorite of these social media platforms: Facebook, MeWe, Gab, Reddit, Twitter, GETTR, Instagram, and TruthSocial. These all link directly to my profiles. Again, please feel free to comment and / or share.

2015-06-26: Road Trip Day #7 Geocaching Kentucky and Tennessee

Hello again. We started out in Bowling Green, KY this morning and a few local Geocaches planned locally before hitting the road again. First up on the list was a web-cam cache at Western Kentucky University. These used to be a LOT harder to get because you had to have to coordinate your visit with somebody near a computer to take a screen shot while you're standing in view. Now with smartphones, you can do it yourself.

It was summertime and this was the only student we saw on campus.

There was another virtual on campus at a memorial plaque talking about the occupation of Bowling Green of the Confederate Army before leaving Kentucky. A few blocks away was the next earthcache at the Historic Railpark and Train Museum, formerly the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Depot. Built in 1925 replacing an older facility, the depot was made from local limestone.

One last historic virtual cache before leaving Bowling Green was the Riverview House at Hobson Grove Park. Construction began on this house in the late 1850's, halted by the Civil War, and finally completed in 1872.

Moving on down the road to Glasgow, KY was our next stop at this First Responders Memorial next to the Glasgow Fire Department.

From Glasgow heading SE on Hwy 90, we grabbed a quick cache at a cemetery and new county in a little town called Summer Shade. Then taking some back roads down to Tompkinsville, KY, we found Old Mulkey State Park. Located within this historic park is the Old Mulkey Church. The church was founded in 1773 by Philip Mulkey and the building constructed in 1804. Daniel Boone's sister, Hannah, and Revolutionary War soldiers are buried here in the graveyard.

Continuing through the backroads of Kentucky and into Tennessee, also Geocaching along the way, we come across "Odd Fellows Cemetery." Located in Baxter, TN, what's strange about this cemetery is a double headstone for Thomas J Stowers. I guess you can say he has a headstone and a footstone! Who's Thomas J Stowers you ask? Well he claims to be the sole survivor of General George Custers last stand on June 25, 1876.

After a few more standard caches and a 23 cache power trail along US-70, we finally got to do a little hiking in Walling, TN. Near the junction of the Caney Fork and Collins Rivers you'll find the Twin Falls and the down river trail. A great moderate trail along the banks of the river with some very scenic views. There were two caches here, one being down the trail. Again not a bad hike until you got to the last few hundred feet it went uphill by a water fall before finding the cache.

We ended the day in Hillsboro, TN. Our Geocaching total for the day is 38, add in some history, a hike, and spending time outdoors with a great lady makes for a fun adventurous day!

2015-06-25: Road Trip Day #6 Geocaching Ohio and Kentucky

Today began and ended with Corvettes. We started out this morning from Findlay, OH and headed over to the Cracker Barrel for some breakfast. In the parking lot was a row of Corvettes. And we finished the day down in Kentucky at the Corvette Museum. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

After eating we picked up a couple of caches there in Findlay, jumped onto I-75 southbound and a couple of new counties before getting off in Dayton, Ohio for a virtual cache and some history. Orville and Wilber Wright had a bicycle shop here in Dayton while designing their first powered aircraft. Outside the Engineers Club of Dayton is this memorial and full-sized version of that aircraft.

Our next stop down the road was in Sharonville, on the outskirts of Cincinnati at Sharon Woods Park. This beautiful park and waterfalls along Sharon Creek was the location of a virtual Geocache. If it not for Geocaching and someone setting up this virtual here, we would never have stopped to see it.

Also located within the Sharon Woods Park was this old neglected cemetery.

Leaving Ohio and driving into Kentucky, we detoured off of I-75 onto I-71 for a different route home. Also the opportunity to see new things and get caches in new counties. We drove I-71 into Louisville merging onto I-65 south down into and stopping in Bowling Green. Bowling Green is the home of the Corvette Museum and Factory. We didn't have time for a factory tour, but we did walk through the museum. While they have many Corvettes on display, I only took pictures of some of the experimental prototype cars. We also got to see the damaged rare Corvettes that were swallowed up in the sinkhole last year. 

Outside the museum is one of Geocaching's "Cache Across America" caches and of course we had to find it! That's it for today. Like I said it began and ended with Corvettes. See you tomorrow.

2015-06-21: Road Trip Day #2 Geocaching in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio

So this morning after breakfast and finding a Starbucks, we found a few more caches around Cleveland, TN before hitting the highway. A couple more quick caches along I-75 to complete the county, we arrived in Knoxville.

While this next cache I had already found years earlier while I was a truck driver, I thought it was cool enough to show Candy. It was located at the Asbury Cemetery on the SE side of Knoxville. The huge headstone is for A. J. Pete Kreis. If you've ever watched the Indianapolis 500 race, they usually play a few scenes from the long history of the Indy 500 and usually a clip showing an old race hitting the wall, flipping over the wall, and bursting into flames. The 34 year old driver was killed in that tragic accident. His huge headstone is a replica of the famous race track and has his car at the spot where he lost his life.

Crossing over into Kentucky and another cemetery cache by this statue of Jesus and a woman who appears to be the Samaritan woman at the well discussing the "living water." The cemetery is the Whitley Memorial Gardens just north of Williamsburg, KY.

Another stop for a new county cache, we encountered a short hike to this tree which after falling over against another decided to change directions. Can you spot the cache in the photo?

A couple of stop, grab a new county cache and go's later, we came upon this historic virtual cache. Located in Richmond, KY, the White Hall State Historic Site was first built in the late 1700's with a major addition constructed in the 1860's. 

The next stop of interest along our route today was this aluminum teepee. Don't know why it was built or the purpose it now serves, but interesting to say the least. The things you see while Geocaching!

Well day #2 is over and we just crossed the border into Ohio and our hotel for the night just north of Cincinnati. We ended the day with 25 geocaches and many new counties on our map. Time for some much needed rest after a great day!