2013 Big Truck across the Southeast, Day 2

Day 2 started with a grand plan, a local mountain bike trail within riding distance of the campsite - until I woke up hearing something we haven't really encountered in 2+ years of doing this. Rain. Since the trail here is basically a red clay base, things were not looking up.  I hoped it was just a sprinkle, so I checked the weather.  Not a sprinkle. We're the blue dot.

 

 

So instead of completely dominating the trail with some Michigan fatbike-ness, I milled around the campsite waiting for the female contingent to wake up.  Even in the rain, the view & setting was great, just a few early morning fishermen and some ducks. I imagined they were Loons just so I could put this link in (just for you, Cliff).

 

 

After some stirring in the Big Truck, we were on our way to Mammoth Cave - normally I can be pretty frantic about getting the maximum possibly efficiency out of a National Park visit (see Kimberly for elaboration), but today we had no agenda other than a reservation for the New Entrance tour in the afternoon.  The way there proved to be adventure enough.

 

We're camped about 15 min away from the park, so we assumed the drive there would be uneventful, especially since we were detached & running with just the Jeep.  At the first intersection, we encountered this.

 

 

 

After reading the sign, I immediately thought of Quagmire's RV.  Read that thing! There are unlimited jokes there.  I can only assume that the store was run by this guy. 

 





 

With the local flair behind us, we made a few comments about the road being similar to yesterday's, then we encountered this sign.

 

 

I can only describe my reaction by this video clip.

 

 

Around the next bend, we saw this scenery enshrouded in mist, and you may be able to predict the next reference...

 

 

 

....no idea if a spoiler alert is necessary for a novella that was written by Stephen King in 1985 and adapted into a crappy movie in 2007, but regardless, this is what I thought of...

 

 

 

Anyway, back to the story at hand. Strange road sign, misty road, then we crest a hill and in unison say "Is that a..."

 



 

while we are both terribly vexed, the nice GPS lady says something a GPS shouldn't know.  She says "In 500 feet, board the ferry".

 

 

So we sit there for what seemed like 5 minutes, until finally I managed a "well, I guess we just board the ferry then."

 

 

The ferry operator was really cool, we asked him if the get much traffic, and he checked the log and said we were the 65th since 6am.  It was 9am. Just a strange experience all around, not something I was prepared for, although now the sign made a lot more sense.

 

Finally we arrived at the park, snapped the obligatory picture (Kimberly hates these, but years from now it will make a cool book that Jordan will look at for 5 seconds), and headed into the vistors center.

 

 

 

We checked out the display/self guided tour inside, and had one of those old age moments.  Jordan picked up this and said, "Dad, what is this?"

 

 

I simply explained that it was an early version of a telephone.  Upon further reflection, I should have told her that it was one of the instruments I used as a 6th grade pasty ginger to arrange a trip to see Rocky IV and Spies Like Us in the theater with the woman I am currently related to via marriage. Not sure if she would have understood.

 

Next up - the New Entrance Tour of the Mammoth Cave system.  I won't bore you with tons of underground cave pictures, but there were a few that stood out.  Jordan started out a bit nervous, as you may be able to pick up on here.

 

 

 

 

 

once we worked our way downward, she got a lot more comfortable and of course wanted to climb on everything. This particular tour takes you 252 feet below the surface, to the point you see here.

 



 

 If you look up from that point, you see a ceiling full of stalactites.  All I really saw was the inside of the mouth of this guy*

 

 

*why yes, huge nerd, that is the Exogorth from The Empire Strikes Back attempting to eat the Millenium Falcon.  "This is no cave!"

 

Our tour guide Terry was an interesting fellow, he stated that he is an original SE Kentucky resident, a 5th generation tour guide of the cave system, and that his Great Grandfather was a part of the Eminent Domain campaign to establish the park's existence.  According to him, the terms of the Eminent Domain were $28 (yes, 28 bucks) for the land and 16 months to vacate it.  His story seemed genuine, and he claimed that the cemetery up on the hill contains most of his lineage.

 

On the way back to the campground, I couldn't resist a pic of this sign.

 



 

Once we returned, I started to battle with some hopelessly waterlogged firewood, then saw a lightning flash so we quick ran down to the lake to see this.

 

 

That pretty much sent us into the Big Truck, and as I type this we are getting pummeled.

 

 

 

Tomorrow brings a visit to the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN (Kimberly doesn't drink often, but when she does it's Jack & diet), then on to Chattanooga to check out the Tennessee Aquarium on Wednesday.

 

Day 2 is just about enough into the trip to feel like we're really on vacation.  Looking forward to the rest...



 





 

 

 



2013 Big Truck across the Southeast, Day 1

Today marks day 1 of the 2013 excursion.  Things went off pretty smooth, with only 1 trip back into the house needed after we were all ready and locked everything up (forgot the GPS, relatively minor convenience item...).  Here's the setup, all ready to eat miles and collect bugs, and convert Big Oil into gas station receipts.

We didn't get far and Jordan dropped right back into her routine.  If you've followed previous versions of these trips, you know Walter and Giraffe (still has done nothing noteworthy enough to earn a real name - not exactly expecting much effort now) have been her companions on every trip.  Here they are helping her play with Mom's phone.  I'm fully expecting a $15k iTunes bill now.

 

Once we got moving, we started settling into our roles (mine is to never, ever leave the driver's seat) and before we knew it we saw this sign...

 

 

...and immediately thought of this.

 

 

A slight digression (yeah, this whole blog is one of those, bear with this one) - as a Michigan grad I did a horrible job of planning this trip.  Not only did we drive straight through South Bend, but our return trip has us crossing through the worst state ever. As a countermeasure, I may pick one of these up and wear it as we pass through.

 

The next few hours were flat, boring, one of the worst stretches of road around.  US31 to 465 to 65S is a mind-numbing route, but the most efficient for us.  Would it kill the state of Indiana to fill in a pothole every few decades? One suggestion would be to recycle all of the foreclosure signs and use them as a filler (too soon???), but needless to say there wasn't much to see from Michigan to Kentucky.

 

Once in Kentucky, zany hijinks ensued.  We hopped off the highway to start heading toward our Nolin Lake State Park destination, and immediately thought we had made a mistake.  The road was one of the narrowest I have ever driven, and had speed limit signs that made us laugh out loud - I nearly went off the road at the first curve marked '45 mph' when we realized it was actually this.

 

 

 

After meeting a few trucks/trailers nearly head on, we quickly learned that the preferred tactic on this road is to drive down the center until you encounter traffic, then slowly meander toward your lane just prior to breaking each other's driver side mirrors off.  Here's a shot that doesn't do it much justice...

 

 

...but you can probably understand how we picked up a few souvenir branches on the mirror stalks.

 

 

 

 

After this things got weird.  We were following this winding road all through the scenic (hilljack - more on that in a minute) backcountry, when the GPS lady kindly suggested we take a right at the next insection.  This one.

 

What may appear in the photo to be a road felt like a cart path at the local municipal course.  It was about a foot wider than the motorhome, and around 2 more bends there was a STREAM RUNNING ACROSS the road.  Sorry to go all bro-caps shouting, but this made no sense to us.  The pavement on this 'road' was maybe a year old, no lines, and yet here's a stream running across it - it may as well have been a driveway.  Here are a couple of shots - there are no shoulders, so we went about 10mph wondering what was going to happen when Tickle from Moonshiners wandered into the road.

 

 

 

Following one of the hills, we roosted a pack of turkey vultures that looked a little larger than a St. Bernard.  I was only quick enough on the camera to get a pic of the last one*.

 



*why yes, nerd, of course that's the Witch-King of Angmar from the assualt on Minas Tirith, not a turkey vulture.

 

Finally we made it to the campground, and what pleasant surprise.  This place is very well maintained, huge sites backing up to Nolin River Lake (not kidding - they couldn't decide), and perfectly level!! No one wants to screw with leveling a motorhome after battling goat paths and the Nazgul, so little things like a level site are worth mentioning.

 

A quick shot of the site and it was off to the playground.

 

 

 

To top it all off, I found out this park has a mountain bike trail right near the entrance of the campground, so if anyone else is dumb enough to be riding the trail at 7am on a Monday, they're going to get this move (hyperlinked for the mobile crowd) pulled on them. Or not.

 



 

Then we're off to Mammoth Cave, or as Jordan said, "are we going to the mancave tomorrow?"

 

More to come, hopefully the humidity tomorrow is less than the current 100.1%.

 

2013 Big Truck across the Southeast, Day 0

It's finally here - can't wait to get on the road again. The 2013 version of our annual Griswold vacation is going to cover some territory in the southeast, or mid-Atlantic, or SEC country, however you want to look at it.

Trip planning is complete, save for a few details on the final day or two. Some upgrades to the rig from last year, most notably in the A/V system.  We finally ditched the sweet VHS/DVD/TV combo, featuring tube technology (sorry, if you don't get the Tenacious D reference there I can't help you).  Other organizational updates have helped us be much more efficient on the road & during setup/takedown.  Kinda feels like this now.

A few other things are different this year, Jordan's a year older and now has her 'white tire bike' for big girl rides in the campground.  She is also tall enough to touch the floor when she's swinging on the loft, I'm positive you'll see pics of this once we get on the road.  I've also added the Fat Bike to the stable, so we'll be swinging through the Dupont State Forest area for some trail rides as well as a lot of beach riding along the ocean.

Final prep is happening as I type, we're saying goodbye to Reggie for 2 weeks (Thanks Takas family!), giving everything a once over, and reading up on details for some off-the-beaten-path adventures along the way.

Here's the rough trip route, as always subject to change.

I've also been informed that while we pack the final items, we're going to break in the A/V system watching this, which has become a staple in our household lately.

 

 

Tomorrow's post should be far more interesting, as we should be at Nolin Lake State Park and may even get a sneak peek at Mammoth Cave National Park before sundown.  Til then, root for this guy tomorrow in the PGA Championship. Finely tuned athlete.

 

2012 Big Truck Across the Northeast, Day 13

OK, this may be the shortest post of the entire trip, and rightly so.  Our agenda for day 13 - get home.  Because of that, there is one picture, but it is rather fitting.

We spent a fair amount of time at these fine establishments, which leads me to the trip stats.

I'll keep these brief, as they are likely of little interest, but I'd like to capture them here for future reference.

Total miles                           2,843

Flat tow miles                      2,395

Dinghy (Jeep) miles                448

Avg gas price                 $3.88/gal

Avg mileage                    7.71mpg

National Parks - 1

State Parks - 3

RV Parks - 3

Total micro/regional breweries visited - 7

Trips to hardware store in 2 weeks prior to leaving - 8

Pictures taken - infinity

Near misses - 1 (thank you elderly FLA driver)

Incidents - a few, like forgetting to put the Jeep in gear before unlocking the towbar arms, or leaving the valves open on the gray/black tanks and screwing the cap on (you RVers will know what that could have led to had I not realized it before removing the cap...)

Problems - zero.  Extremely fortunate here.  I would like to believe this is due to extreme levels of preparation, but realize that can't prevent everything.


Our setup:

2002 Coachmen Catalina Sport, Triton V10

2009 Jeep JK Unlimited Rubicon 6spd

Ready Brute towbar, Ready Brake cable actuated braking system (Craigslist find)

Roadmaster tow cables

Warrior products D-ring adapters - custom rigged to PureJeep bumper, no tow plate required

Cooltech JK Wrangler-specific wiring harness (pull the IOD fuse + M1 fuse)

 

Final note - thank you to our family & friends for the prayers, thoughts, emails, comments, phone calls, etc.  We couldn't have done it without you. 

One final pic to sum up the vacation, it captures the spirit of our trips, we just happen to be sprinting toward a bigger playground.

2012 Big Truck Across the Northeast, Day 12

Day 12 started pretty early, as we had a bit of a drive to get to our intended destination.  We had the Big Truck/Jeep combo hooked up and ready to go before 8am, but of course the dreaded visit to the dump station took its toll.  At Button Bay the station is in the 2nd loop of the park, and since everything is One Way and 5mph, it is a bit of a ridiculous proposition.  If you have ever seen the Kevin James bit (from Don't Sweat the Small Stuff) about the bank teller line,

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAUZl1tdlis&feature=player_detailpage#t=93s

you would then understand the slow crawl through the campground, especially dragging the Jeep behind us.  Button Bay is worse, because once you finally reach the dump station, you are forced back around the same loop in order to exit the park.  Once again, you are giving the same nods to campers who are assuming you have no idea where you are going, since they just saw you a couple of minutes ago.

Anyway, after getting out of the park, we must have mistakenly set the GPS on Max Difficulty, Mininum Achievable MPG, or Least Straightaways, because the next 4 hours involved more elevation change, 25mph zones, and roadside streambeds than I have ever seen.  We followed the southern shore of Lake Champlain (No, E - we didn't see Champy)

until we crossed over into upstate NY.  Ok, a few things about upstate NY.

1.  The gas pumps - the powers that be have removed all latching mechanisms from the pump handles, and have slowed the pumps down to the point that you can watch the thousandth (3rd decimal point, for those of you who really, really want to be precise about how much gas you use) digit climb from 1 to 9.  Since the pumps also limit out at $125, I spent 13 minutes (yes, I timed it) holding the pump handle for one fillup.

2.  The red traffic lights - perhaps those same powers that be have altered the red lights to include a seizure-inducing white LED strip across the center of the red light, as shown below.


OK, maybe that's not it, but that's exactly what it reminded me of. And for those of you that don't immediately recognize that (shame on you), it's the Cylon helmet from the original Battlestar Galactica series.  I know, right?  Who doesn't know that...

3.  Tank tops - the only logical explanation I have is that there must be a constant "Buy 1 get all the rest of the stock free" sale on mens tank tops, because that's all we saw.  And at the risk of offending at least one East Coast resident we know who fits into this category, I am willing to wager that my wife Kimberly is taller than 90% of the adult men we encountered in upstate NY.  This may as well be the state license plate:

Now, on to the important stuff.  Brewery Ommegang. We arrived at our campsite (you have to compromise a bit when you're looking for a 1 night stay during Labor Day weekend with about 4 hrs notice.  I won't mention the campground, but suffice it to say the word 'hilljack' was used in our description of it and its inhabitants more than once), set up shop, and motored through roads like these

to get to this place

which revealed this on the other side of the arch...

I won't bore you with the details of the tour, because I may have blacked out in my excitement to be at the actual brewery of all those Belgian Ales that have inspired my beer choices over the past 10 years.  Seeing the brewing, bottling, and packaging process up close was really cool, and our tour guide Rachel (see below)

did a fantastic job of describing the entire process to our group. You can definitely see that the employees here are passionate about their craft.

The payoff after the tour is the tasting, where they take you through the 6 varieties brewed on site.  Here is the tasting room, followed by the cafe, followed by the outdoor seating area.  The whole setting is really cool, set back in the countryside surrounded by woods.



Overall this was the highlight of any of the brewery visits, and even Jordan got in on the action, having a locally brewed root beer out of one of the tasting glasses once we returned to the Big Truck.

Things got a bit quiet for a while after that, then we decided to listen to the Michigan - Alabama football game.  Unfortunately, the signal wasn't very good, and as far as I know all footage of that game has been completely destroyed. No further comment.

This concludes the entertainment portion of the blog.  Day 13 will cover our return trip home from Cooperstown NY to our house, along with a few nerd stats from the entire vacation.  More to follow...







2012 Big Truck Across the Northeast, Day 11

Day 11 started with a pretty laid back morning, in keeping with the countryside around our park.

Button Bay is a very interesting park - it covers a lot of ground and, and the 2 camping loops feel quite isolated and private.  The setting from the road is also cool, the orignal stone gates create a striking image, as well as a challenge for well meaning RVers such as ourselves.

This trip has offered nothing if not variety, and today would be no different.  We decided to check out the nearby Shelburne Museum.  It is a very odd and interesting collection of structures, art, historical references, etc all locating on a pretty sprawling campus right off the lake.  It's a beautiful setting, and it is striking right off the bat with this classic round barn.

The engineering nerd in me was fascinated by the structural details, especially since this thing had an enormous span and was wide open save for the central column.  Here's how they did it.

I found it to be very impressive, especially give the choice of materials and tools available when these things were built. The others in my party were more interested in getting to the carousel and circus figurine exhibit.

I won't go into detail on every single exhibit we saw, but suffice it to say that we burned through 4 hours very easily, and still missed many things.  Here are a few quick highlights:

In the 50's the museum purchased this huge steamship and relocated it from Lake Champlain to the museum grounds.  I can't imagine that was an easy task.

There were ample opportunities for the whole family to get involved, and nobody likes dressup (well, other than maybe J. Edgar Hoover) more than a 4 year old - more specifically, our 4 year old.

A couple more - they actually moved an entire covered bridge to the museum grounds as well.  This thing was cool, especially this sign.

A couple more nerderies - there was an exhibit on robots, toys, and steampunk artifacts. Yup, as always, huge nerd.  But, I'm writing this, so these are here to stay.

Yes folks, that's pure Mimetic polyalloy staring at you. Come with me if you want to live.

...aaaand of course who wouldn't want to see a steampunk rendition of Vader and Boba Fett. Why?  Why not.

And finally, after a visit to the authentic jailhouse, a sight I hope (If we do our jobs correctly) I never see again in my lifetime...

As we worked our way back to the campsite, we stopped at a couple of the roadside tourist traps to snag some Vermont-y stuff for back home.  While Kimberly took 25 minutes to check out at the Vermont Flannel Co (dude was chatty, but super nice), I snagged a couple of shots of his '49 International, which he had just driven to the DMV to renew the tags a few days before.  Pretty impressive.

Just before we got back to the campground, I convinced the family to stop at the public boat launch for a shameless sunset pic, and also because I had vowed to drive the Jeep on a beach somewhere during this trip.  Well, I got my wish for about 30 seconds, but long enough to capture this.



We were pretty wiped out, but still managed a good campfire and cookout of some good old fashioned Maple-cured chicken sausages from right up the road.  Awesome.

Tomorrow - I'm pretty excited, we visit and tour my favorite brewery in the US, Brewery Ommegang.  Should be pretty cool.  More to follow.