Tag: RVing

Historic Lynchburg, Tennessee & the Jack Daniel Distillery

October 31, 2023  – Traveling with Rich & Julie

The Jack Daniel Distillery is the oldest registered distillery in the United States and among the most prestigious listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

We drove thirty miles south to Lynchburg while we were camping in Tennessee.

The first place we stopped was the Tennessee Whiskey Trailhead & Lynchburg Welcome Center which is just across the street from the distillery.

This place provides additional parking for the distillery and a free shuttle service.

Two of the nicest men greeted us and told us all about the small town and told us where everything was. We visited with them for quite a while.

Jeff and Billy get 5 stars from us for kindness and helpfulness!

We hopped on the free trolley which took us on a short ten-minute drive through historic downtown Lynchburg before dropping us off at the distillery visitor center. The trolley driver was fun to listen to as he told us some history.

Despite the operational distillery, which is a major tourist attraction, Lynchburg’s home county of Moore is a dry county. But you can buy a lot of products with whiskey in them. And none of the residents work for Jack Daniel.

Sadly, the old jail museum was closed the day we were there.

Did you know that Davy Crockett lived in this town from 1811–1813? Neither did I.

The next stop was the Jack Daniel Distillery Visitor Center. We did not take a tour.

But we enjoyed walking through the museum exhibits and the bottle shop. Purchasing bottles of the famous whiskey is much more expensive here than at a corner liquor store.

If you want an actual gift shop with all things Jack Daniel, like t-shirts, the downtown hardware store is the place to go.

And finally, we visited the grave of Jack Daniel in the Lynchburg Cemetery. We heard that he was quite the ladies’ man and the chairs were placed here for his lady friends to visit him.

If you are ever in the area, Lynchburg is definitely worth a visit.

Thanks for reading and coming along with us as we see America.

How to Keep Your Home on Wheels From Falling Apart

November 1, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

RVing on BUMPY roads

RVing is a great way to see the country and explore new places. You have the freedom to travel wherever you want, whenever you want. Life on the road in an RV can be a dream come true. But there’s one downside to RV life that can be a real pain: bumpy torn-up roads. They can be extremely tough on your RV home.

If you’ve ever driven an RV down a bumpy road, you know how jarring it can be. Everything inside and outside shakes and rattles, and if you’re not careful, things can fall and break.

We know this firsthand, because we live in an RV motorhome, and have driven on some of the roughest roads in America. Many highways and roads are in poor condition and are constantly under construction. We’ve had things fall off the shelves, break in the cabinets, and had nuts and bolts come loose. We’ve had drawers fly open while driving down the road and one time the refrigerator door wasn’t properly latched and it flew open spewing all its loose contents onto the floor.

Over the years, we’ve learned a few things about how to keep our moving home from falling apart because of bumpy roads. How do we do it? Here are a few things we have learned over the last two years.

Secure everything.

This includes cabinets, drawers, shelves, furniture, and appliances. Use bungee cords, straps, and latches to keep everything in place. Put away all your dishes, pots, pans, and other loose items. Put locks on your cabinets and drawers. This will prevent them from opening accidentally while you’re driving down the road.

And store fragile items in padded containers. This will help protect them from all the bumps and shocks. If you don’t secure everything, it’s likely to fall and break when you hit a bump.

Slow down

Drive slowly and carefully. The faster you drive, the more likely things are to come loose and break. The slower you go, the less damage the bumps will do to your RV. Avoid driving over potholes and other large bumps. If you can’t avoid them, try to drive over them carefully and at an angle. The faster you’re going, the harder the impact will be when you hit a major bump. So, it’s important to slow down when the going gets rough.

Inspect your RV regularly

Check your RV for damage after driving on a bumpy road. This means looking for loose nuts and bolts on your furniture and appliances, cracked caulking, and other signs of wear and tear. Check your nuts and bolts regularly. Make sure that they are all tight and secure. Inspect your RV regularly for any damage. Look for cracks in the walls and ceilings, in addition to loose nuts and bolts.

You should also have your RV inspected regularly by a qualified mechanic. This will help identify any potential problems before they cause a breakdown.

Additional tips

Use a heavy-duty hitch and tow bar. This will help keep your tow vehicle attached to the RV and prevent it from swaying back and forth. And check the connections every single time you stop at a gas station or rest area.

Be prepared for flat tires. Bumpy roads can cause your tires to wear out more quickly and increase the chances of a flat tire. Keep a spare tire and jack on hand and know how to change a tire. Check the tires every single time you stop to make sure they are properly inflated.

Conclusion

Living in an RV and driving on bumpy torn-up roads can be challenging, but it’s also rewarding. Despite the challenges, we love living in the RV. It’s a great way to see the country and experience new things.

By securing everything ahead of time, slowing down, and inspecting all your connections regularly, you can help to keep your RV from falling apart on bumpy roads and enjoy your RVing experience to the fullest.

Be patient. Driving on bumpy roads can be frustrating, but it’s important to keep your eyes on the road, slow down, and drive carefully.

Camping at Whispering Oaks Campground

October 30, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

A quiet retreat in Manchester, Tennessee

We set out from Kentucky and drove south on I-65, eventually arriving at Whispering Oaks Campground in Manchester, Tennessee. The campground boasted a reputation for peace and quiet, and it didn’t disappoint. The only sounds we heard above a whisper were the acorns pattering on the roof of the RV.

The wooded area was lush with beautiful oak trees decorated in the colors of fall. Squirrels scampered about gathering the nuts for winter. Our spacious gravel site offered a picnic table, rug, and campfire ring.

We had beautiful weather at the end of October. We did a little sightseeing, but mostly we sat outside in the lawn chairs listening to the breeze knock the acorns off the trees.

Our pull-through RV site was large and equipped with 50 amp electric, water, and sewer. The water pressure was good and we had no problems. Neither one of us checked out the public restrooms, laundry, or game room facilities so I can’t speak for those amenities, but from our experience, this was a nice relaxing place to spend our three days in Tennessee. And all at a reasonable nightly rate.

Whispering Oaks Campground gets a thumbs-up from Rich & Julie. Thanks for coming along with us as we travel south for the winter.

(all photos were taken by me)

Welcome to Tennessee

October 29, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

We headed a little further south today.

After just two days in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and visiting the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site, we left Longview RV Park this morning and headed further south on I-65.

I made Rich pull into Mammoth Cave National Park so I could get my stamp and sticker in my National Park Pass Book. We explored the cave a few years ago, and I took a lot of photos then. Any of you who regularly follow me know that I tore a meniscus in my right knee while crawling through a cave in Ohio a few months ago, so cave spelunking is out for me. I wasn’t writing about every place we visited back then. I will write about it soon. Stay tuned.

Today was just about the fact that I have this new national park book, and I wanted to stamp it. The park is only a mile off the interstate, and the visitor center is only 8 miles away. We enjoyed the eight-mile drive through the park and explored the visitor center, checked out the gift shop, and then headed back to I-65.

We drove I-65 into Tennessee, and around Nashville and got on I-24. The Nashville skyline is cool to see.

(Rich wants me to tell everyone that the interstates in Kentucky were a lot better than Ohio or Tennessee.) As soon as we got to Tennessee, we hit construction. Do you see the orange roadwork sign in the top photo above?

I also did not realize that we would enter Central Time Zone.

We made it to our new home in Tennessee and will be here for three nights. Isn’t our campsite beautiful? We are on our way to Alabama for the months of November and December. We can’t afford to winter in Florida. Too many people are going to Florida and the prices to park the RV for a month are too expensive. We don’t need luxuries, just the basics are enough for us.

Stay tuned for the adventures. I am excited to show you all the places we visit.

Thank you for stopping by and reading about our journey.

 

 

Longview RV Park in Elizabethtown, Kentucky

October 27, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

I do a lot of calling around and researching when I’m looking for places to stay as we travel around America. I have always been fortunate enough to find some of the best places at the most reasonable prices.

As soon as we pulled into Longview RV Park we were greeted by a nice man on a golf cart who led us straight to our site. We would much rather stay in a smaller campground than a larger one. The people are so nice and glad to have you.

The lots are decent length, with room enough for the tow dolly to remain hooked up and park the car in front of the RV.

The only complaint Rich had is that the sewer dump is up by the front of the RV so he will have to wait and dump when we pull forward to leave.

There is a nice pond in the rear of the campground. The water level looked low. They must need rain. They said they had seen bald eagles here. Wish we would see one.

With it being the weekend before Halloween, it was nice to see the decorations.

They even had a bowl of free buckeyes! We are from Ohio, the Buckeye state. Of course, I will take a free buckeye!

The laundry facility was extremely nice and clean and just look at the wonderful private bathrooms!

Another important factor for us RVers is the water pressure. Great water pressure here and the water tasted really good to us. That is a big plus for us.

Longview RV Park in Elizabethtown, Kentucky gets 5 stars from us. If you are ever in the area, we highly recommend it.

Thanks for traveling with us.

Driving From Ohio to Kentucky

October 26, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

RV Life on the road

We pulled out of our familiar spot in Ohio and headed south today. Hwy 30 to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, 469 South to 69 South around Indianapolis to 65 South.

Most of 69 South to Indy is under construction and bumpy as heck. The RV has new tires and shocks and we still jiggle nuts and bolts loose all the time.

The trees displayed a gorgeous array of colors including red, gold, rust, brown, dark green, light green, yellow, and orange.

I hope to take more photos of the leaves, but we saw a lot of them blowing off the branches.

I’m so glad Rich enjoys the sights as much as I do. Once in Kentucky, we saw some beautiful hills covered with fall trees and he said, “Wow, look how pretty that is.”

The Louisville skyline is shown in the photo above.

We drove as far south as Elizabethtown and stopped at an RV park for a couple of days. From where we were in Ohio we drove over five hours. We have no set schedule. Five hours was long enough.

Stay tuned for the adventures! I can’t wait to show you a tiny piece of Kentucky.

(all photos were taken by me unless otherwise noted)

Living Our “Dash” To the Fullest

October 25, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

In an old RV

Richard Keirns born 1960 — ?

Julia Keirns born 1964 — ?

We are both still living the dash.

Life is short. It might be a cheesy cliché, but it is so very true. And it’s something that Rich and I have come to realize more and more over the years. People our age are dying including friends from high school and other acquaintances.

That’s part of the reason why we decided to sell our house and buy an RV to travel around the country full-time. It is something we always talked about doing and didn’t want to have any regrets. We are living our dash to the fullest, and we are loving every minute of it. If either one of us dies tomorrow, we will be so glad we spent this time together traveling around the country.

Of course, full-time RVing isn’t for everyone. It takes a lot of planning, hard work, and flexibility. It takes a lot of patience to put up with each other 24 hours a day in a small space. But for us, it works and it is the best way to live our lives right now.

The road is long before us and infinite. We love seeing new places, meeting new people, and experiencing new things all the time. And we love doing it together, as a couple.

We are definitely seeing the country. We’ve been to all but 8 states since we started full-time RVing, and we’ve seen some of the most amazing places in the country.

From the lush forests of the Pacific Northwest to the Rio Grande in southern Texas, and into Maine, we’ve been blown away by the unbelievable beauty of this country.

We love meeting new people. One of the best things about full-time RVing is that we meet people from all walks of life. We’ve met other RVing couples, families with children, and solo travelers from all over the country. We’ve made some great friends along the way, and we’ve learned a lot from these people.

Of course, full-time RVing isn’t without its challenges. It seems like there is always something that needs fixing. There are times when we miss our family back home but Skype is a wonderful tool. And if we get tired of being on the road we can just go home to Ohio and park in our daughter’s yard for a while. But overall, we wouldn’t trade this lifestyle for anything.

We have had to learn to be flexible. Things don’t always go according to plan when you’re full-time RVing. We are prepared to change our plans at the last minute if we have to and we have learned to not be upset about it. Everything always seems to work out for the best.

We are enjoying the journey and living our dash to the fullest. Full-time RVing is a great way to see the country, experience new things, and meet new people.

If you’re looking for a way to live your dash to the fullest, I highly recommend full-time RVing. It’s not for everyone, but it’s the best way we have found to live our lives.

Thanks for reading and coming along on our journey. Comment to let us know you stopped by.

(all photos are taken by me unless otherwise noted)

The Geese Are Heading South and So Are We

October 24, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

Off to warmer weather

My knee is healed. I am walking decently with little discomfort, and we are biting at the bullet to head south.

The days are cooling off and the nights are too chilly here in Ohio. When the outside air begins to cool our bones on the inside and the inside heat begins to dry our skin on the outside, it is time to move to warmer temperatures.

Rich works a lot harder than I do preparing to move.

I basically take care of closing up the inside and he takes care of closing up the outside.

Closing up the inside consists of picking everything up and putting it away so it doesn’t fall over, break, or rattle while we drive down the road.

And making sure the television is strapped, drawers are locked, counters are cleaned off, and nothing is going to go flying around if we hit a bump.

Together we dismantle the outside displays such as lights around the awning, picnic table, bug spray, lawn flags, and chairs. But Rich puts it all away in the outside compartments.

He takes out the leveling blocks, dumps the tanks, puts away the cords and hoses, brings in the jacks, hooks up the tow dolly, gets the car loaded up, checks all the lights and turn signals, and locks all the cabinets.

Yes, I help when I can.

Last, but not least, is cleaning the windshield and side windows so we can see good.

I don’t have great balance. I fall easily and break bones, so he doesn’t let me on a ladder much.

We are both excited to be back on the road and in our happy place. I can’t wait to see new places, take lots of pictures, and write all about it.

And of course, take you along for the journey. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.

 

Have You Seen the Yellow Rubber Ducks in Jeeps?

October 12, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

So what do they mean?

Traveling around the country as we do, we have noticed some of the other people in RVs that tow Jeeps behind have their Jeep windshield dashes covered with little yellow rubber ducks.

I’ve never asked anyone about it before, but often wondered what the reason and significance of it is.

We had to make a trip to the Newmar Parts and Service Center the other day and I immediately saw these little rubber ducks for sale all over the store.

We don’t have a Jeep, but I wanted one anyway, mostly because it says Newmar on it. I have a Newmar. If you are going to collect something as you travel, why not cute little yellow rubber ducks?

I decided to research and find out more about this strange infatuation.

Duck, Duck, Jeep

According to an article at parade.com, Jeep Ducking was started by one woman in Canada in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. She just wanted to spread some kindness and put a smile on a stranger’s face.

She placed a cute little rubber duck on the hood of their Jeep with a note that said, “Nice Jeep,” sat in her car, and watched their reaction. Sure enough, they smiled, took the duck, placed it on the dash, and drove away.

She did it again, and again, and before she knew it, other Jeep owners were doing it too. It took off like wildfire.

They began “ducking” other Jeeps and also spread the word through Facebook and Instagram. The trend took off like wildfire and now there are over 68,000 members in her Jeep ducking Facebook group. The trend has spread now all throughout Canada, all 50 states, and even countries like Spain and Australia. It just shows how easy it is to get on board with a simple act of kindness! — parade.com

You’ve been ducked

Evidently, Jeep owners are a tight community and are “ducking” other Jeep owners. Some have their own “duck pond” on their dash. They keep all the ducks they get and buy new ones to give away.

Do a Google search for “Duck, Duck, Jeep” and you’ll get more than 20 million results!

And it isn’t just Jeep owners anymore. Everyone else got jealous and wanted to collect cute little rubber duckies on their dashes too. According to Car Talk, ducking has become very popular and widespread.

The trend has spread well beyond Jeeps. Drivers of other marques, looking to get in on the fun, have started ducking each other. We have seen examples of Bronco ducking, Mustang ducking, and some particularly inventive Toyota-loving wags are selling green rubber ducks with pointy ears for — what else — Ducking Yotas.

I found several great articles that helped explain the simple concept of Jeep Ducking to me. Car Talk, Readers Digest, and Parade are just a few among the millions.

So, if you drive a Jeep, don’t be surprised if someone “ducks” you.

What a great way to spread kindness in a world that needs it. Kindness is a ripple effect. It spreads from one person to another, and soon it can change the world.

Thanks for reading and coming along with us on our travels.

 

An Excuse To Go For A Drive

October 11, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

To the RV repair store

It was a beautiful sunny morning and I secretly wished we could go venturing out and about. I had surgery on my knee a few weeks ago, and we had to come home to Ohio for the months of September and October. I originally planned on being somewhere else by now.

I am biting at the bullet to get going somewhere, anywhere. The nights are getting chilly in Ohio, and we have had frost warnings with temperatures down in the 30s.

Lately, we have simply been bombarded and swamped with repairs on the RV. It is a great motorhome and I love it to death, but we are both getting sick and tired of things going wrong one after another. It is twenty years old now and it makes me doubt our plans to hit the road and take off. Will we break down again after only 500 miles of travel?

Let’s stay positive and hope not.

Anyhoo —

The last time we put the bedroom slide out, the bottom seal broke loose, and we knew it needed replaced, but it wasn’t a vital fix. We have had several expensive vital fixes lately, and I figured the seal could wait.

I said something to Rich on Monday that when the slide went out and the seal broke, I heard a bang. He heard it too. But something told me we better try to put the slide back in just to make sure it would close ok without a new seal. Good thing I did.

Nothing.

We pushed the button, and nothing happened. There was no click, no motor sound, no movement. Just nothing. WTF?

Uh, oh.

We checked the front slide…nothing there either. Surely both motors couldn’t have gone bad at the same time. We did find one blown fuse, but all we got was a clicking sound that was coming from the slide-out controller box.

We called the Newmar Parts and Service department and found out that a new slide-out controller box was going to cost us $170.00. And while we were at it, I asked about a new seal for the rear slide and that price came to $30.00. Damn, another $200 bucks with no guarantees that it would fix the issue. Once you plug the wires into the new controller it is non-returnable. But at least the new seal was only $30.

The Newmar Parts and Service store is located in Nappanee, Indiana. We could be there in 90 minutes. We hopped in the car and went for a drive to buy our parts.

I was pleased with the service we received and how nice the partsman was. He even gave us an in-store discount for coming to get our own parts, but with tax, and the cute little rubber ducky I purchased, it still came to $200.

We got home and plugged in the new controller box, and it blew another fuse. !@#$%^&. We go through those fuses like crazy. Once we got another new fuse put in, the front slide began working, but the rear one still just clicked.

Ok, a half-fix is better than a no-fix. We always try to start with the cheapest fix and work our way up. Kind of like in August when we just had the throttle body cleaned for less than $100, but then two weeks later had to replace it anyway for $700. 🙁

Eventually, Rich figured out that the rear motor burned up and a new one is going to cost $535. No, thank you, Newmar. Can’t we just manually crank that sucker in?

He found one on Amazon for only $349, but I am still not happy with that price either. At least not today. I’m just so frustrated at the cost of repairs lately eating up our traveling funds.

So today we are attempting to replace the bottom seal on the rear slide. Not a fun or an easy job. I keep telling him there is probably a Mickey Mouse easy way to do this that we aren’t getting, and we are trying to do it the hard way. YouTube Videos were not much help here.

But that’s how we learn.

Five hours later, Rich hollers — “I think I figured it out!”

I love living the dream, even on the days when repairs suck the happiness out of both of our smiles. It isn’t all glamour and fun like most people think it is. But it does have its moments.

PS — I bought a Powerball ticket. Can’t win unless you play.

Thanks for reading.