TravelStream™ news feed for member eightydaze on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/eightydaze en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:40:59 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eightydaze/1/1213041600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eightydaze/1/1213041600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eightydaze/1/1213041600/tpod.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:40:59 -0400 80 Days Around the Country - Adventures in a Motorcoach

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Lafayette, Louisiana, United States

We woke up early to call Monaco 1-800 tech line. They connected us to a Camping World in Baton Rouge. They said to come along and they would see if they could fit us in. Clark didn't want to ruin the kids vacation, so he left with the RV to go get it fixed and mom took the kids to an Antebellum home named the Rosalie. It was simply fascinating. The kids enjoyed themselves. Ellen was afraid it might be too much history and boring for them, but they liked it. We moved forward to the Longwood House. That was even more interesting! We wished that Clark had been there to enjoy them too. He is the the history buff. Even though photography was not allowed in most of the Longwood, Ellen secretly turned the movie recorder on so that Clark could at least get a glimpse of the inside.

Clark said his drive was scenic and he especially enjoyed the men cleaning the trash in the green and white and striped jumpsuits. Clark needed to fuel the RV. I am not sure if we have mentioned how difficult of a process this is. Most of it ends up spitting back out onto the pavement. Anyway, as Clark was going through this process at a place called Roxy's, he noticed he was being sized up by the locals and decided to leave before his tank was full and was happy to have gotten away with his life.

Just after lunch the troops heard from Clark. He was fixed! It was just a sensor causing all the trouble. He was sitting in the parking lot (and had been trying to reach mom for 45 min) waiting to see where to go next. We decided to meet in Lafayette. Clark found a KOA to make a reservation and was only moments behind the kids and mom. A very crowded park and not much to look at right along the highway. The kids liked it though, as they had many activities like putt-putt golf. We found our spot and started to set up. Took showers and started to get dressed when we realized we didn't have power! AAHHHHHH!!!!! Not again! Well since we have limited sources we decided to go taste Cajun food as we are in the heart of Cajun country! We had a delightful dinner, tasting various Cajun delights such as fried alligator, shrimp bisque, craw-fish etoufee and numerous other Creole creations! Jenny was splendid and the perfect waitress for these parts. After dinner, we drove around the area. Very interesting.

When we came back to our temporary home, we played a game of Clue. The frig went on alarm again, so we decided to turn everything off again, get up early and run to the nearest RV repair shop.


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Nachez, Mississippi, United States

So it is Sunday morning....Clark can't make this journey without coffee so we brewed a pot outside the RV. Since we didn't have power again, but it is Sunday and nothing is open we thought we would continue down the road to our next location.

We made our journey early as we were headed to Vicksburg to tour the Battlefield. It was a nice drive. Who knew that armadillos lived in Mississippi? Lots of road kill. When we got to town, most of it was closed, but it still had gas lanterns on the street corners that still use gas and had Dixieland music playing along the streets. It was very period and very quaint. We moved on down to the battlefield where they do a re-enactment of setting the canons off. Very authentic and loud! We unhooked the PT and proceeded to do the driving tour which shows how the Union soldiers advanced upon the Confederates. It was very interesting....we were half way through when we realized we were on E. We had to cut through the park and go get gas. We decided to move on.

We arrived in Natchez at about 4pm. It was a nice RV park right on the Mighty Mississippi with an awesome view! We hooked up and since we didn't have power decided to go out to eat at Mammy's. They weren't open. So we moved on to Fat Mama's Tamales. We ate Fire and Ice pickles and gringo pie! It was delicious! Oh, did I mention the margarita that will knock you naked? Drove around town and looked at all the antebellum homes in the area. A lot of them! How wonderful they all are! We went back to camp and decided to do laundry, write in the blog and play board games. Ellen doing laundry and blog received a call from Clark that the frig had an alarm going off. It appears that the frig isn't getting the appropriate juice from the batteries. Decide to shut it all down and go into New Orleans area early in the am to get this fixed once and for all!!!!!!!!!! We are so paranoid that we won't be able to start this, that or the engine and all are on edge. We have to get this taken care of!
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Memphis, Tennessee, United States

After staying in the parking lot at Nascar....I mean Wal-Mart we headed out at about 6 am towards Memphis. Kids kept sleeping until we arrived at Graceland. As we approached Memphis, we noticed the signs on the bridges read "Bridge Might Ice In Cold Weather". After fueling (an hour later), we found our way to Graceland. We got cleaned up a smidge and went right over to the "King's" house. Pretty impressive person when you see all of the gold, platinum, etc records all in one place. The house itself he bought for $1,000 and is about 5,000sf with 3.5 acres and a pool. Nice place. It was kept as it was when he last updated it in the 70's. Perfect retro. The kids really got into this Elvis craze. His airplane and cars were a hit. We returned to our temporary home to clean up and get ready for the pink limo to pick us up and bring us to Marlow's (free service) best BBQ in town (aren't they all?) But this one really did have some of the best BBQ we have ever had and possibly the best waitress we ever had! We tried fried green tomatoes for the first time....very tasty! The limo brought us back to our RV and we hoped into the PT to find Beale St. Stopped into Peabody's hotel to catch the ducks, but we missed them. Nice hotel though. Had some ice cream @ Hard Rock and went home to watch an Elvis movie we had bought earlier in the day. Wamoo! The TV shut off and we had no power! Again! Went to bed and decided to wait and see what we wanted to do tomorrow.
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Centennial, Colorado, United States

4 days ago, lifted the bed (engine compartment cover/storage) to retrieve 2 chairs. The hinge broke. Spent the day disassembling, repairing, and reassembling the bed. When Clark went to lower it, the gas support shocks were locked in place, wouldn't retract.

3 days ago, Clark spent the day looking for the support shocks at every auto parts, rv parts and marine store in town...unsuccessfully. Need to be ordered. No time, We'll do with out.

2 days ago, Clark bought $15 plastic pocket door tie back strap opened it up to install and it broke. spent the whole day looking for another...unsuccessfully.

Yesterday: Clark broke off a tooth- Muscled my way in for a repair.

The day of departure. Ellen said, while getting ready, "Day one." Clark replied "Who won?" Ellen "DAY ONE" Clark "WHO WON" Ellen "Who's on First?" Clark "What?" Ellen "DAY ONE"

Supposed to leave today 10:30am

Just before hooking up to leave, ran an errand in the PT (tow car) and it stopped dead cruising down the road. A tow to the repair shop......we need a timing belt. 5 hours of labor and lots of $$$$$! We're still waiting. It'll be end of day today or tomorrow am.

Can't really stay at the house - toilets are shut off, frig & freezer are shut off. No dry food.

5 pm WE HAVEN'T EVEN LEFT YET!

It is now 7pm. We have the PT, it is hooked up and we are on the road! Against Clark's father in-laws best wishes to leave tomorrow due to the eminate thunder heads and nightfall.

8pm This is kind of fun!

9pm Passing all the truckers @ 75mph. Loving it!

Ellen looking for Wal-Marts on the computer. Yes. We are connected on the internet and have had a connection the entire time. Can you hear me now? Verizon rocks!

Found website that shows all Wal-marts that do and don't allow overnight camping. We're in luck. Hays has one and they allow.

12 midnight arrived in Hays Kansas. Stayed in Wal-Mart parking lot. Are we really sleeping in a Wal-Mart parking lot? Clark has spent the night in some odd places in his time, but certainly not by choice.
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Centennial, Colorado, United States

So today we decided it would probably be the last day of our journey. We woke up and made coffee in the Walmart parking lot just like the good ole days. We thought we would try and make it to the the Gateway Arch, also known as the Gateway to the West, which stands 630 feet tall, and is 630 feet wide at its base, making it the tallest monument in the United States. We were looking forward to adding this to the list of the monuments we would climb this summer or get to the top of. Unfortunately, Rusty had other plans. Although he was willing to make a concession, we weren't able to make reservations for the time we wanted to go. It all seemed too much work for everyone involved including finding a place for Monica to live during the adventure. Clark and Ellen will just have to come back without the kids some day. We drove past the enormous arch all the while Ellen was hanging out the windows trying to get a decent picture of the structure whizzing past at 75 miles per hour! We continued on our path home only stopping for gas. Ellen finally (the last day of the trip) got her RV legs under her enough to cook while on the run. Not just sandwiches, but eggs for breakfast and Mac N Cheese for lunch. HOT FOOD that wasn't microwaved!!! The kids were pleased but made it known they were disappointed it took her that long.

Clark had one more stop up his sleeve. We arrived in Colby Kansas around 6pm....just in time for dinner. "Welcome to Steak Country kids!!!" "Oh, boy" rubbing his hands together, "there is nothing like a steak from Big Montana Mikes! I can't wait to sink my teeth into one of the best tasting, biggest, and cheapest steaks in America!" We entered the restaurant and were seated in a booth that could seat 12. Clark couldn't decide between the 24oz Porterhouse or the 22oz. Sirloin. He ordered Mike's 22 oz Big Montana Steak. A sirloin to satisfy a Clark-sized appetite and it was only $16.99. WOWEE!! The kids thought Ellen and Clark had lost their minds until they too tried the infamous steak. They too were believers!

With our tummies full we headed over to the gas station. Two reason.....of course gas and yes, the last key chain. We didn't get one for Audrey on the way out.....so naturally we had to do it now! Not as easy as one might think. We had to go to the station across the street. We found one that suited her wants and almost bought Clark a magazine with who on the front? Yes, Paula Deen! We can't get away from the woman.

It felt good to be heading home, yet there was a sadness. The trip of a lifetime had come to an end. In fact, when we pulled up to the house around midnight, Ellen wanted to sleep in the RV!
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Nyack, New York, United States

Our first day in New York started with a trip across the Hudson River on the Tappan Zee Bridge to White Plains where we dropped the car and boarded the commuter into the city. 50 minutes later we were in Grand Central Station. As we stepped onto the street and pulled out the map, just to get our barrings, a very friendly New Yorker stepped up and asked us where we were looking to go. This was reminiscent of the last visit we had here 10 years ago when Ellen was 8 months pregnant with Rusty. We've always thought the "rude" New Yorker's get a bad rap, and once again, we're proven right.

We walked the streets of mid-town with the first stop at a corner stand for a swamp dog. The best hot dogs in the country can be found right on a New York City corner. "Four Please with the works!" Cheap too. Off to Rockefeller Plaza were they were changing the look of the set of the Today show. Out with the old and in with the new furniture right in the middle of the street. We walked through the tower and considered having an NBC tour and decided the kids didn't know any of the shows they would be touring. The Today show, the Nightly News, SNL,and Conan O'Brien. We headed of towards the Neil Simon theater where our matinee show was. Once we had tickets in hand, we realized that we had just over an hour to kill. So off to Time Square where we wondered into a souvenir shop so Audrey could pick up her key chain. She had to spend 3 - 4 times as much here in the Big Apple to get her key chain and this became quiet a big deal. She tried to negotiate with her parents and did a pretty good job at it. The streets were packed with tourists and theater goers. It was an amazing sight with the lit buildings, signage, traffic full of yellow cabs and people, lots and lots of people. The energy was good and high, everyone in anticipation of something good. We decided we would make our way back to theater where we went to a matinee of Hairspray. It was the best theater Clark had ever seen and was enjoyed by all the Griswolds so much they wanted to see another show that night.....but didn't.

Finally, off to the Empire State Building for an hour on the observation deck, guided by Tony, via a hand held audio tour. It was somewhat of a cloudy day providing for limited viewing, but fortunately that meant there were no lines. Up top, Tony told us about buildings and neighborhoods such as Chelsea, shrinking Little Italy, and the ever growing Chinatown. He gave us perspective on West side verses East side and Uptown and Downtown (never North and South). Tony was a wealth of information and kept the kids engaged so that they learned a lot about this little island of Manhattan.

We slowly walked back to Grand Central Station where we picked up a famous dessert, Juniors Cheesecake, for our hosts, and boarded the express train back to Nyack. We found ourselves rolling into the neighbor's in the middle of the night in just over an hour from the time we left NYC. What a town! We thoroughly enjoyed our day in the city.
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Nyack, New York, United States

We took the train into the City again today with plans on going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rusty was very excited since he had missed the other art museum. We walked down 5th Avenue marveling at all the fall fashion and the window dressings of the designer stores. "Sachet Audrey....work it girl." Audrey was intrigued and wanted to shop, but we kept her out of the stores as best we could. We got to the Trump Tower where the kids wanted their picture taken where all the Apprentices had left the show. We wondered in the front lobby for a moment and the kids had hopes of catching a glimpse of the Donald. No such luck. We made it to the Plaza Hotel where across the street a line had formed down and around FAO Schwartz. We thought it was for the famed toy store, but it was for the Apple store. I guess the new I-phone was just released and hundreds of people had nothing better to do with their time or their money than stand in line for a new phone. We on the other hand had to show the kids the biggest toy store. They seemed unimpressed, so we moved onto the destination of the art museum.

The kids wanted to take a cab and not walk the 23 blocks, they had just finished walking 18, but I think it wasn't really the walking as much as it was the fact they thought they would be on Cash Cab. I have to admit it would be fun to be on Cash Cab and Clark is the perfect contestant, but we needed the exercise. Clarkism, "kids did you know that 20 NYC blocks equals a mile?"

As we approached the museum they had several artists outside selling their creative works of art. There was an artist who was sketching people's portraits in 15 minutes and she was good! Audrey has wanted her portrait done ever since we were in Sea World. We were unwilling to do it in the theme parks because they never look like the subject, but this we were willing to try. And it was pretty good.

Ellen brought the troops into a side entrance that was for groups as well as a public entrance. Somehow after going through security we waltzed by everyone and went straight into the museum. Not a word from anyone. We started in Africa which the boy loved. We made our why through Greek and over to the Egyptian and realized we had about an half hour before we needed to leave. The girl wanted to see Modern art so we whizzed over to that section where a large section was closed off, but they had a special exhibit from Jeff Koon on the garden roof top, so up we went. Boy we were glad we made the trip up there. Unbelievable views of NYC and some great sculpture we liked and enjoyed.

It was about 4pm and we knew it was rush hour, so a cab might be slow going and we had to walk further up to get on the subway, so we decided to walk back to Grand Central Station. Walking down the other side of Fifth Avenue we ran into another line that looped around the building. People were standing in line to enter Abercrombie and Fitch. Once again, we weren't sure how so many people had so much time and money to stand in line for something in a retail store.

We made it Grand Central with enough time to catch the 5:19 express train. Somehow at that point we knew we wouldn't make it back in time. We were supposed to be home by 6pm to go to dinner with the Smithersteins. They had hired a babysitter to watch the kids while we went to dinner. We were back by 6:30 which left us a little time to get ready. We were brought to a quaint little restaurant in a small nearby town named Piedmont. We enjoyed a nice bottle of wine, a very lovely meal and laughter with great friends. Meanwhile, the kids had taken the babysitter for quiet the ride. I hope she wasn't very tired, because my kids weren't about to slow down now. New blood! After jumping on the trampoline they had her play every board game in the house and were on Monopoly when we got back. They insisted upon bringing her over to show her Monica before she left.

It was late and we were all tired and we had an early day the next day.......we were going to drive in Manhattan.
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St. Louis, Missouri, United States

We left early this morning with the intentions of getting to Sandusky Ohio. But there was nothing now that could keep Rusty from getting home early. He was determined to get there as fast as possible. Even Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio couldn't lure him to stay on the road one more day. This coaster junkie gave up the world's largest roller coaster collection including 7 thrill rides and 16 roller coasters where more than half of them were rated as aggressive thrill rides, the highest extreme rating.

He was home sick and had been insistently working on getting there for the past week. Even though we had already been shortening up the trip, it just wasn't quick enough for Rusty. He was willing to skip Niagara Falls, but Ellen put her foot down. Rusty was glad that was over! So we zoomed right by Sandusky and instead of Ohio as our destination, we drove through Toledo, Indianapolis with our sights on Effingham, Missouri. We decided to put an end to Rusty's misery and head for Missouri. We would not only skip Cedar Point, but Chicago and Branson Missouri as well. We were high tailing it home! Ellen had one last hope of possibly seeing the Arch. So we pulled into a Walmart parking lot at about midnight. The kids had been asleep for hours. When we pulled into the parking lot, we found this to be quiet the hot spot for truckers. The trucks were pulled in tight to each other and had made two full rows of 30 trucks....we were the beginning of a third row. Who knew we would find ourselves in "truckers row". Feeling safer than safe in "trucker land" we went straight to sleep.
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St. Michael's, Maryland, United States

In an effort to avoid traffic, we left our campsite a little later in the morning. At least we tried to avoid the traffic, but there is just no getting around it in DC. Anyway, we made our way next door to Maryland where we took a scenic detour to St. Michael's. A small town along the coast of Maryland where blue crabs are plentiful and an Eastern delicacy sought after by people worldwide.

We dropped Monica off at a wayside rest area and made our way to St. Michael's in the PT. It was a quaint town with numerous shops and restaurants. It was way past lunch time and we had decided to eat some blue crab as Ellen promised her dad she would try them when they got to Maryland. This was a new adventure for both of the adult Griswolds and the children wanted nothing to do with it. We got a dozen to split and had a lesson on shelling them from the waiter. It was an extremely unpleasant task to shell the buggers and when all was said and done the amount of work involved to get to the meat of it was only a small part of this dissatisfying event. The small wooden mallet used to crack the shells did a nice job of spraying the kids with crab juice and the morsel of crab meat that one gets from the hand sized crab just didn't seem worth the effort of removing guts, lungs and other smelly things that were otherwise disgusting. The kids were so horrified with the pile of shells and guts on the table they wanted to move to another table to avoid loosing their lunch.

After making it through all 12 crabs (thank goodness for the pickles and cheese) we went to the water's edge and found some jellyfish moving about as well as some large yachts. It was a fabulous area where restoration of old buildings was clearly important to the people there, which made for a nice walk about town.

We found our way back to Monica (which sounds easier than it was....couldn't remember where we left her) and decided to head towards Philly. Ellen realized after looking at the map that there really weren't any campsites near Philly so she started to call some that appeared to be close....and they were all full. So we decided to stay at Roamer's Retreat outside of Lancaster County, which happened to be a back track for us. Not only was it a back track, but the only direct way to get there was on small roads that wind through the fields and woods of PA. The roads seemed to get more narrow, more curvaceous and thick with trees that overhang and scrape the top of the RV the further we went. We also missed a turn and had to disconnect the car and turn Monica around in some farmer's driveway. The roads had become so unbearable to travel on, we decided to bail on the direct route and get to a larger road, but we still had to get to the bigger road. Our first bridge that we couldn't fit under....11'10" (we happen to measure 12'6"). Thank goodness for the truck route and awareness, which added an additional 30 minutes onto this excruciating drive through the twists and turns of PA roads. What should have been a 2 hour drive via mileage became a 5 hour thrill ride that neither Clark or Ellen would volunteer to take again. It literally left both of them in a cold sweat.

On Highway 30 we found our campground and setup in the dark (now 9pm). We were never so glad to be in a campground before.
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Fredericksburg, Virginia, United States

Once again we got up early to get into to DC early enough to stand in line to get tickets to get into our Nation's Capital. We left at 6:45am with the intention on being in line by 8:30. It was a good intention, but by 9:15 everyone in the car had to use the restroom and we had only gotten to the King St exit for Alexandria 15 miles from our camp site. We had missed the one entrance to the HOV lane and were stuck in rush hour traffic and the line for entrance to the Capital. After the Griswolds clan relieved themselves we decided to take the Washington Memorial Parkway in to town. At least it was more interesting. We got there in the normal amount of time, parked the car and got in line for the National Archives.

After about 45 minutes we were allowed in the Rotunda to view the original Constitution, Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. The documents are kept under dim lighting, sealed cases and armed guards. They were very cool to see, but there wasn't much that was legible on most of the documents. We did however find a carrot with a change to make the sentence correct on the Constitution.

After viewing the Hall of Records, we decided to walk over to the Capital to get a closer look of it from the exterior. We found that there were still tickets available to get in. We had enough time to get some lunch over at the American Indian Museum where Clark enjoyed the Great Plains menu and the others found the Meso-American cuisine to be interesting. We watched a movie about various cultures from the Eskimos of Barrow Alaska to the Puebla natives of New Mexico before heading off to a world of politicians and law making.

Absolutely no food or beverages or anything that could be used as a weapon are allowed into the building. Even if the food is prepackaged and in your backpack, you must throw it out. Unfortunately, they just have large trash bins where you dump everything and no one would want to retrieve anything from there after the tour. After going through a metal detector we were paraded across the front of the building into the rotunda where there were several impressive paintings and sculpture steeped in history and symbolism. They then moved us into the original House of Representatives where it houses statues gifted by various States. The statues represent a person of significance for the state in which it was gifted from. They also have golden squares in the tile floor where men of significance sat.

We then were led into the center of the capital were a star in the floor represents the intersection of the four quadrants of the city as well as where Washington was to be entombed. It was designed for onlookers to look down from the second story to see Washington's grave, therefore those paying their respects would have their heads bowed with respect for the General. This however is not the case as they found in Washington's will that his wished were to be buried at Mt Vernon. In this same area, there were several press people waiting outside an elevator with numerous cameras waiting to snap a shot and get the news breaking story (maybe on the Fanny May and Freddie Mac situation).

As we left the building, there were dozens of suits on their way into the capital heading in to take a vote. Who they were and what issue they were voting on we weren't sure, but it was interesting. We encountered a sitin against the Iran controversy where he was playing music the went something like this "He Lies, He Lies, He Lies." We walked from the capital over to the White House area and met our friend Craig for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. While we waited for a table we were entertained by some man who appeared to have been drinking there most of the day. He was temporarily very happy. We had a great time with Craig again catching up on old times and returned to his home to see the puppies one last time before calling it a day.

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