Linda and Regis travel...
Enjoying the gifts of the day with two dogs
Adventure 2020 Begins
We started our Adventure 2020 trip on Saturday, May 30. While packing on Friday, the released blue jay showed up and supervised our efforts for awhile. During our final packing on Saturday morning, the blue jay returned and “talked” to us the entire time it hung around. I’m going to miss that bird. I’m glad my neighbors will be keeping an eye out for it. We did not see the mockingbird before we left, but it has been getting more independent, so I am hopeful it is not a bad thing.
When doing the final packing, we ran out of ideas where to put everything and just tossed the final items in the RV in any old cubby hole. We’ll spend the first week sorting things out and reorganizing. Because of the Covid-19 situation, we packed more dry supplies than normal to reduce our shopping requirements. We plan to return home mid-September if our plans hold up, so we have enough dog food, shampoo, toothpaste, etc. to last that long. Since we don’t normally do that, we are finding that we need to rethink how things are packed.
Fortunately, we had an uneventful trip to our first stop in Forsyth, Georgia. The weather was hot but beautiful when we arrived. There was time to sit around after setting things up and enjoy the weather and the birds. The campground pond had more than 30 Canadian geese hanging around. I took some pictures but I did not get the camera settings correct so I’m not happy with them.
When we arrived in the campground, I pushed the button for the RV to level itself. It does a pretty good job when we are in a fairly level spot. We weren’t in a level spot and it complained after it had all the wheels off the ground. At this point, Regis usually comes in with his app and levels it manually (pressing the appropriate up down buttons himself). He was a little lazy and used his gut and said that’s good enough. The next morning I was preparing a perfect egg in my Hestan Cue smart cookware when the pan started to slide off the burner. Regis’ gut needs some adjusting.
We got stuck in bad traffic on Sunday going around Atlanta and got held up for an hour. All lanes were blocked on Route 75 and we had to wait it out. In a situation like that, a motorhome comes in handy. We had access to a toilet and snacks. Fortunately, Regis was driving so I got to read a book. It was my turn to drive before we got to Chattanooga. I thought it would be a breeze going through, but there was a lot of traffic and congestion. It paled in comparison to Atlanta. I was the one to drive through the Appalachians. The scenery was beautiful, but we were the ones chugging up the mountains going between 40 and 50 mph most of the time. I shared the experience with another trucker in the same boat while everyone else passed us off. It’s good not to be in a hurry.
We arrived in our Manchester, Tennessee campground mid-afternoon. We made a dent in the storage organization and Regis hooked up the battery tender to the Jeep. We learned on a prior trip that the battery slowly drains while hooked up to the motorhome. If we don’t disconnect and drive the Jeep for several days, the battery dies. Regis determined the battery was very low this evening and thinks getting stuck in the traffic in Atlanta may have contributed to the problem by having to step on the brakes so often. The Jeep is hooked up electrically to the motorhome so that the tail lights work on the Jeep but there is no charging from the RV.
Linda and Regis travel... 
“Regis’ gut need adjusting” is one of the best sentences I’ve read in a long time. Made me laugh out loud on a day when a good laugh was sorely needed. You’re about 1.5 hours north of where I lived before moving to Maryland – Huntsville, Alabama. Spent a fair amount of time at Tims Ford State Park and of course, as a twenty-something I made a number of visits to the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg. You’re in some scenic country!
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We will have to spend some time visiting these eastern states on a future visit instead of blowing right through. I saw a sign for a distillery, I think at the next exit.
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