Author: Easin' Along

In our post last week we asked readers to tell us about your favorite U. S. travel destination or give us the name of a destination on your bucket list. You responded and we’re eternally grateful. The suggestions you provided are awesome and some even awe-inspiring. I lost myself in research on each of them and compiling the photographs made me genuinely giddy with excitement at the prospect of visiting each of them. I hope it happens.

Listed below are a few of your suggestions. Most of the text came either from an official website such as a Visitor’s Bureau, The National Park Service, or from reference material like Wikipedia. All of the photographs came via Google Images. Therefore I say upfront that corrections are welcome and anyone claiming copyright infringements will prompt us to print proper credits or retractions. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this online tour as much as Helen (adorable wife) and I did.

Chattanooga, Tennessee

I wanted to start close to home. This suggestion came from a high school classmate and good friend who makes his home in one of America’s great cities. David recommended a visit to the famous Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel as a base of operations. From there, visitors can enjoy a meal at the nearby Terminal Brewhouse before visiting the Tennessee Aquarium featuring fresh-water species from all over the world. Next, take a walk along the 13 mile Tennessee Riverwalk, and finish the day with an Oyster Po’-Boy at the Boathouse Rotisserie. Sounded good to us!

Horseshoe Bend, AZ

Ingrid, an online friend and blogger (Live, Laugh, RV) that we hope to meet on our trip to the southwest, suggested visiting the Horseshoe Bend overlook which is 1,000 feet above the Colorado River near the town of Page, AZ. While in the area, Ingrid also tells us that a guided tour through a slot canyon is a must. Thanks Ingrid, we can’t wait. 

New Bern, NC

A trip to the coastal region of North Carolina ranks near the top of the list for Nancy, creator of the very interesting blog, Defining Third Age. Nancy is an avid sailor so her choice is understandable. New Bern is 87 miles northeast of Wilmington and sits at the confluence of two tidal waterways. Within walking distance of the waterfront are 164 homes and buildings listed on the National Register. Helen loves it that there are over 2,000 Crape Myrtles in the city. New Bern is also famous as the home of Pepsi-Cola.

Newport, RI

Jeanne, a friend from Knoxville, says that Newport, RI is one of her favorites for its rocky coastline as well as the magnificent homes built by some of America’s wealthiest families. Helen and I stopped there once for a meal of fried clams and took a quick glimpse around.  We both agree with Jeanne that this beautiful city deserves a long, second look.

Sawtooth Mountains, ID

Shelia, a westerner, tells us that the beautiful western lakes are always worth a visit and lists the Sawtooth Mountains of Central Idaho as a treat for the traveler. I am in her debt because I am not familiar with this portion of the Rocky Mountains and it took only one peek at a photograph of these rugged peaks for me to add the Sawtooths to my bucket list. These mountains range in height to over 10,000 feet and, within the Sawtooth Wilderness, a visitor can find over 400 lakes 350 trails for day hikes. Let’s go!

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

The only National Park named directly after a single person is recommended highly by Mary, an experienced traveler who writes about her visits to state and national parks on her blog, Reflections Around the Campfire. National Parks are a national treasure and Helen and I love to visit them.  Mary described her time at Theodore Roosevelt NP as “superb.”  This park, located in the Badlands of North Dakota is known for wildlife viewing with bison, cougars, feral horses, badgers, bighorn sheep, and 186 species of birds found there.  The park also boasts of over 100 miles of foot and horse trails for backcountry hiking and camping. I’m all in!

Thousand Islands, Canada

Although we still have only scratched the surface when it comes to traveling the U.S., Canada is still a draw for me, so I included the Thousand Islands in this little travelogue. According to Wikipedia, Thousand Islands, also suggested by Nancy, constitute an archipelago consisting of 1,864 islands that straddle the Canadian-U.S. Border in the St. Lawrence River. The Canadian Islands are in the province of Ontario and the U.S. islands are in the state of New York. To count as one of the Thousand Islands, land in the river channel must consist of at least one square foot, be above water year-round, and must support at least two trees. The pictures I found online show some extremely picturesque scenery and are truly worthy of an in-person view.

Thanks to all for these fantastic suggestions. There is a lot to see on the road less traveled and I am certain that readers and travelers alike will find your contributions both interesting and helpful. For me, this exercise was a large amount of fun and made me very eager to start…Easin’ Along.

 

I’m sitting here in the Man Cave thinking about what’s next for Easin’ Along. Helen (adorable wife) is in Charleston which leaves me alone here in Knoxville.  I’ve gone totally Bohemian this week, (pizza boxes all about, clothes on the floor, TVs on in every room, etc) but I’ll get my act together before the boss returns and the rules go back into effect. Lucy, our new fifth-wheel is in her home at the storage facility after her initial shakedown trip. The plans and reservations for our trip west need just a few final touches and will be complete. I just returned from exercise class on a cold, blustery day, full of energy and thinking about warm places on the road less traveled.

While sitting here staring at the keyboard, I take a break to go through a few pictures from trips taken over the past three years with the thought that some of my favorite photos might add a little bit of warmth and sunlight to this dreary day. I’m grateful that I took the time to do this.  Not only did most of them help to brighten up the day, but they also served to remind me that, while we have seen a lot of the country since we retired, there is a whole lot more to see.

 

This week I’m going to approach our blog a bit differently. Instead of me telling you about what we have been up to lately, I want you to share with us two pieces of information. We know that there are a lot of seasoned travelers out there who have visited interesting and beautiful places throughout the U.S and would share that information with others.  We also know that there are readers who have heard of interesting places and have them saved on their bucket list. So first, we are asking you to tell us about your favorite place and what made it so special. Second, we would like to know about a place you want to visit at some point in the future and why.

Please use the comments section below to share your thoughts and some of your memories. Take as much or as little space as you need.  We love getting comments and, over the past three years, have met and made many online friends by way of the comments section. Readers may also send us an email (and pictures) to easingalong01@gmail.com.  We will review the comments, suggestions, and any pictures we receive in next week’s blog post and share them. I hope you will take the time to reach out to us.

In the meantime, I have put up a few pictures below from the trip file and a few words about what made these places special.  I hope it brightens up your day…they always do that for me.  

So, tell us, if you were Easin’ Along, where would you go?

Last week we posted an article about our new RV and that we would be taking her on a “shakedown” trip to the North Carolina mountains to work out the kinks and familiarize ourselves with her features.  We just returned from that trip on Friday morning. Helen (adorable wife) and I were unsure about a name for our new home away from home, so we temporarily referred to her as Gracey II until we found a name that suited her.  After some head scratching and a few test names, we settled on Lucy just before we left and we’re excited to tell everyone that we LOVE Lucy!

A trip to our mountains this time of the year can present a few challenges with the weather, so we kept an eye on the Weather Channel earlier in the week hoping that things would turn in our favor.  Finally, we got a favorable forecast with no temperatures below freezing during our camping trip.  We loaded up more than enough stuff for two nights at the Happy Holiday Campground in Cherokee, NC. I towed Lucy with Butch (our truck) while Helen drove her car. She would leave from Cherokee for a week of babysitting our granddaughters in Charleston.

Although the weather was cloudy and overcast for the entire stay, we didn’t mind a bit. Our campsite backed up to the creek, and the campground was nearly empty. The stream to the rear was calming though swollen somewhat from all of the recent rain. The view to the front (shown below) was equally serene. Views like these are the reasons we love RVing.

Good weather might have given us a few more options during the time in Cherokee, but we were there to work on our new trailer and will save the hiking for Arizona. I went to work as soon as we unhooked because Lucy needed de-winterizing.

Helen started on the interior doing “nesting” things.  She is a pro at organizing a kitchen and the cabinets.  Most of the things we brought over from Gracey were still in boxes and crates and needed a permanent resting place.  Lucy is six feet longer than Gracey with so much more cabinet, closet, and storage space that we found plenty of room for everything we brought. Nevertheless, I’m confident that we will push it to the limit when we leave on a three-month journey in March. This trip gave us plenty of ideas on how to organize and store additional food and clothing.

By the afternoon of the next day, with much of the interior organized, we planned to work on the storage space underneath the trailer.  This area we refer to as “the basement.” As luck would have it, the rain fell in buckets mixed with heavy, wet snowflakes. Neither of us felt motivated to work outside in that mess so we did what anyone would do in that situation.  We decided to go to the Casino.  Maybe bad luck with the weather meant good luck there.

In the end, our luck wasn’t exceptional, but we did do well enough to pay for dinner. We returned to Lucy with a bag of KFC and watched the Lady Volunteers lose a basketball game. Helen and I did have a better evening than the Lady Vols.

The next morning, I was up early to prepare Lucy for the trip home and cook up a stack of pancakes for Helen before she left for Charleston. The rain had turned to a foggy drizzle, then moved out as she was about to go. I had plenty of time to clean up, hook up, and hit the road.

 

The shakedown trip helped out a lot. Lucy needs a few items tweaked back at the dealership, but nothing major.  The thermostat for the HVAC acted up a bit and probably needs replacing, and some of the door locks are way too stiff for old hands like ours, but that’s about it. I’m grateful we had this opportunity instead of discovering these problems somewhere on the road less traveled.

The pictures scattered throughout this show some the interior of Lucy.  We are very excited about her, the coming year, and the trips we planned. I hope you’ll join us on the journey.  We love Lucy and can’t wait for her to begin…Easin’ Along.