Month: March 2017

As this is written, Easin’ Along has been off the road for one night after a tremendous experience of traveling across the country in a rented RV we named Sherman.  There will be much more to follow in future posts, but I’m just a little jet-lagged at the moment, so I’m going to hit a highlight or two and tease a few pictures in hopes that readers will return soon.  Please subscribe in the box to the right and you will know when updates are posted. For now, I wanted all to know that we’re ok, and that Sherman has returned to his stable.  We miss him already.

In February of this year, I began looking into the possibility of taking some of our retirement road trips in an RV or a motor home.  My interest was spurred after we spent a week in Panama City, Florida in a cabin that was adjacent to the RV Park on the Navy Base there.  We met several campers who loved the lifestyle and spoke glowingly of the advantages of owning a vehicle that could house them wherever they chose for a vacation spot.

Although I was not certain that I wanted another “house” to look after, I was intrigued by the possibility of taking at least one retirement road trip in an RV at some point in the future to sample the lifestyle and report back to Easin’ Along readers on the results. A friend suggested that I look into renting an RV from Cruise America as a way to do this. When I began the research, I had no plans to take this on until later in the year, but I found a deal on the Cruise America website that I couldn’t resist. The deal was that if I agreed to relocate a new RV from Chicago to Los Angeles, I could do so at a very low cost. The stipulation was that I had to do it soon…as in the next week, and get it there within 17 days.

I was all in right away, but I wasn’t so sure that Helen (adorable wife) would be.  Further research told me that the drop-off point was about twenty miles from our son’s home in Southern California and when I let her know that, she was all in as well. This was a spur-of-the-moment road trip…the best kind.

The RV was picked up in Chicago and driven to our home in Tennessee, loaded up with a few supplies and some cooking utensils and a coffee maker we bought from a thrift shop that we could leave behind. We took off for points west. We named the RV Sherman and Sherman was going to the sea…specifically the Pacific Ocean.

All of the above has been written before on Easin’ Along, but for new readers, I wanted to repeat a few details because over the next several weeks Easin’ Along will highlight much about our stops along the way.  To say that we had fun would be a huge understatement. The road less traveled took us to some amazing places in this beautiful country of ours and we can’t wait to share them with all who care to follow along.

Already we’ve let you in on our good luck in Shreveport, LA where we had complimentary hotel rooms for one night and avoided a big storm. We’re also going to tell you about our trip through the charming Texas town of Corsicana and our tour of the Collin Street bakery and our overnight stop in Fort Worth.  Our visit to San Angelo, Texas was great and we loved the meal we picked up from Packsaddle BBQ (quite the treat). White Sands, New Mexico is both beautiful and fascinating and our trip to the White Sands National Monument gave us many pictures to share. After that, it was on to Albuquerque, NM and a trip up the Sandia Mountains in a tram for astounding panoramas of the city and beyond. We also stayed in the area for the purpose of visiting Santa Fe for shopping and sampling the food—big fun!

Dead Horse Ranch near Cottonwood, AZ was a favorite and the only state park on our itinerary. We learned a great lesson about RV travel and the need to plan for using parks more often on the next trip (and there will be the next trip). There’s plenty to be said about Vegas, our next stop, except that luck was with us again. This is another story that added greatly to the adventure. Finally, we made it to California and gathered the family for a few days of camping on the beach at Point Mugu, NAS which is north of Malibu.  This beautiful setting gave us a beach almost to ourselves (except for the seals) and it was a wonderful way to unwind and share the experience with loved ones.

We’ll fill in all of the details in future posts as well as post some great pictures which will help to tell the story. This trip, though quick, was one to remember and proves once again that retirement is still one helluva gig, especially when you can spend it Easin’ Along…

 

 

To date Sherman, our Cruise America RV, has taken us through Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. Our overnight stops have been wonderful, and the desert southwest is overwhelmingly beautiful…certainly a unique experience for a country boy from the Tennessee mountains.

By the time everyone reads this, Sherman will be California bound. We have had a blessed experience on this march to the Pacific coast, but finding the time (and the Wi-Fi connection) to upload an article has been a challenge. Nevertheless, we have stored a motorhome full of adventures and photographs to share and will be uploading all of them as soon as possible. At this moment however, we have a good Wi-Fi connection and I want to share a fun story as well as a surprise during our second night on the road.  

We were heading to Barksdale Air Force Base where we had planned to spend the night in the RV camp.  This camp does not take reservations so we called ahead to see if any spaces were available. The camp hostess told us that she would do her best to “work us in”.  We were not encouraged. On top of that, it was getting late and my experience with the procedures involved with hooking up the utilities for Sherman was in the novice stage at best. I did not want to continue my “on the job training” after nightfall.  Of even greater concern was the fact that we were only slightly ahead of an advancing storm and it was misting rain…time for Plan B.

We knew that the Harrah’s Horseshoe Casino in nearby Bossier City had a hotel attached. We are members of the Harrah’s Rewards Program, having joined on one of our visits to their resort in Cherokee, NC.  Helen (adorable wife) called the hotel and asked if there were rooms available and, if so, what were the room rates.  The reservation clerk asked for her rewards card number, then checked on the availability.  She came back with an unexpected surprise when she politely told us that the hotel would be happy to comp our rooms for the night. Helen’s jaw dropped twice before she gathered herself long enough to ask “what’s the catch?”

“No catch”, she replied in a lovely Louisiana accent as thick as gumbo, “but you will have to pay the room tax of $17.01”. We were high-fiving each other while steering Sherman through the storm.  Our space at the RV Camp would have cost $18.00, so were were now ahead by $0.99! I suppose that even a blind squirrel can find an acorn every now and then…

The suite assigned to us was HUGE! After a lovely dinner in the hotel, we ventured into the casino to see if we could extend our good fortune.  When it comes to casino gambling, I can say with absolute certainty that we are not high rollers.  We’re not even low rollers. We’re more like slow rollers. Others might agree, especially if they saw how long it takes me to open my wallet and pull out a single to feed it ever so slowly into the penny slot machine. By the end of an evening in any casino I’ve ever visited, my results are usually around twenty dollars above or below the break even point. I did win $500 in a casino in Connecticut on our road trip up the east coast, but that was an exception. One this evening Horseshoe Casino received a tiny return on its investment in Sherman and crew but we had a lot of fun.

After a restful night, we arose the next morning and had a lovely Cajun breakfast in the hotel.  With everything loaded back into Sherman, we made our way to Corsicana,Texas. Finding a port in a storm had been a lucky break for us, and as the saying goes, I’d rather be lucky than good. 

We’ll have more to share as we continue on Sherman’s march to the sea.  Please come back.  For now, we’re just Easin’ Along.

One thing we have learned about RV-ing is that Wi-Fi is iffy at best. We have a lot to tell Easin’ Along readers, but I have been unable to upload enough photographs to tell the story as well as I would like. 

We’re having a wonderful trip.  So far we have spent our days in Bossier City, LA, Fort Worth, TX, San Angelo, TX, and White Sands, NM.  Enroute we spent a delightful day touring Collin Street Bakery with a member of Helen’s (adorable wife) family and had a splendid time in the small Texas town of Corsicana.

Sherman, our Cruise America RV has treated us to an experience like no other and the RV life is a great way to travel. As soon as we can get “wired in” we’ll upload pictures and share our trip with everyone.  We have a great story to tell about our night in Shreveport and what it means to be blessed with some “Louisiana Luck”.

Please come back and join us (and Sherman) as we go Easin’ Along.