Williamsburg & Jamestown.

We came here to see some history. Can't get much more than the first settlement in America, Jamestown!

We went to the original Jamestown settlement first. This is an active archeological dig. They have some of the fort rebuilt & were digging up other building/foundations as we visited. The history of Jamestown was really interesting and the boys seemed to enjoy it.

Here was the statue of Captain John Smith looking out over the James River.

We roamed around the dig for awhile and then headed towards the Jamestown Museum.

Prior to finding the original settlement, historians thought the fort was under water and wanted to create a place where people could visit & learn so they built a museum called the Jamestown Settlement. They recreated a Powhatan Indian settlement & the fort. They have actors in them and they recreate the living conditions of the time, a living museum. It's really pretty neat. Plus they have recreations of the the boats the English came over on.

Unfortunately for us a thunderstorm rolled in & they closed the displays & kicked us out. (Rita got rain checks & Jackie took the boys back Thursday)

We hit the glass blowing area on the way out, it wasn't closing & we watched them make wine bottles. They were very informative here & explained every step.

Now to find the filler!!!

We pretty much gave up on the rest of the day & headed back to CC. We stopped for groceries on the way for restocking.

Evening was a washout to so I decided to do laundry. Washout....washing? I'm killing myself here....

Jackie was supposed to fly into Richmond around 10pm. But no shocker here her flight out of St Louis was delayed. Checking connecting flights she was just going to make her connection, but..... That one was delayed too. So she got her around midnight. Just let me say, it was a long day.

 

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Monticello

We had a couple of issues this trip. No surprises there. The Direct TV hasn't worked this trip & tech support doesn't work weekends. I called them this morning & they talked me through a couple of things (something about region changes) & shazam satellite TV. So now it's finally up and running. Boys are happy. Of course I-64 is tree lined so lost the signal a lot while driving. But what do I care, I'm driving & can't see it.....

Next CC was creaking when we opened her last night. But it must have been the site we were staying at. No problems this morning.

Woke up this morning. Had a nice hot breakfast & broke camp. Quick 20 minute drive to....

First stop, Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. The road up the mountain was interesting. Let's just say very narrow and curving up the mountain side. I'm surprised Rita's Honda Fit, we're towing behind CC, didn't clip somebody or something on the way up.

Monticello's website said RV friendly, but I'm not so sure..... Wound up parking CC in a downhill pull in slot (not a pull through) & had to disconnect the Fit.

While on the shuttle, we arrived at the top of the mountain & the walkway to Monticello, the recording on the shuttle said we are approaching "little mountain". Hunter said "I thought we were going to Monticello?" The gal in front of him turned around, she was an off duty tour guide, and said "Monticello is Italian for little mountain". Hunter just gave her a smile. It kind of took the wind out of his comment...(if this doesn't make sense, it might have been a "need to be there" moment.)

Monticello was beautiful. We got the official tour then roamed the gardens. Watched some archaeologists working at the old Joiners shop. Looked like a hot & tedious job. The Joiner's Shop was where they made and fixed furniture.

I never realized that the back of a Jefferson nickel was a picture of Monticello. I never really thought about it. After the house tour we wound up on the back lawn & the tour guide pointed it out. I said " so this was the nickel tour?" The guide just kind of looked at me....

I decided to take a picture:

It might not be the back of a nickel, but you might notice my two Nickle-Heads sitting on the steps ..... Nickel head, knucklehead? Get it?

We walked down the mountain, stopping at Thomas Jefferson's grave in the family cemetery, then decide to drive the car to have a late lunch at Michie Tavern. Nice old tavern (since 1784), they had delicious fried chicken.

We got directions to the parking lot....

Then drove back up to the RV parking lot. It was way easier in the Honda. We tried to hook up Rita's car on the mountain but the parking lot was pretty steep & it was next to impossible. Lesson learned. We decided to drive separately down to the flats & hook up there.

It probably was a good thing. There was a lot more traffic on the narrow winding road. It was one less thing for me to worry about. Got to the bottom, hooked up and on our way to Williamsburg.

Nice part about this leg of the trip, it's all down hill..... Our campsite, American Heritage is real nice. Boys are thrilled, it has a Hippo Slide. It's an inflatable water slide.

Boys did this for an hour. I was exhausted just watching them run back to the steps to do it again, and again, and again...

Back to CC and dinner waiting for us. (Downer..dishwasher isn't working, but I'll figure it out. Maybe)

Tomorrow Jamestown.

 

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Still getting there...

We're in no real hurry to get anywhere. I had talked to a bunch of RVer's before and they all mentioned the same thing. Slow down and enjoy the ride. Plus don't drive too much in one day, it can be exhausting. It's not like driving your car at 70 plus mph and trying to log a gazzilion miles in one day to get where ever your going. Driving this 43 foot, 45,000 pound house on wheels is challenging enough without wearing yourself out.

We need to get fuel, diesel of course. But we have a plan. We are members of a big camping club,"Good Sam" and get a 3 cent discount per gallon at Flying J stations. Plus we got a Flying J credit card and get another 3 cent discount, every penny counts when you have a 100 gallon tank.

To explain what we have going on, I have to explain CC. She has a 453 cubic inch Cummins Diesel engine, cranking out 435 horsepower. Plus she has a 10kw diesel generator completely powering the "house". I'm not completely sure what all that means but the people that I have talked to that know about such stuff say it's really good.

We are driving in the summer so the generator is enough power to run everything on board, including the 3 roof air conditioners. Seriously we are traveling in style....

So just 10 miles east of our campground we stopped for diesel. The boys "recon" the lot for those elusive license plates and I fill up.

6.5 miles per gallon.....ouch.

But we remember we didn't buy her for the fuel economy, or lack there of. It's the adventure. And having our home with us. No more hotels, CC is nicer than most hotels we've stayed at anyway. Plus no more restaurants. Unless we want to treat ourselves.....

The views on the trip really improved. Hitting the mountains of West Virginia & Virginia was awesome. Plus we have an perfect place to see it all. About six feet above all the cars. The boys take turns sitting up front, looking at the mountains & valleys, plus tracking down those pesky license plates. (Everytime we stop they recon the parking lot)

Same routine though drive half way, then Rest Stop for lunch. Pretty nice, clean restroom, on board. Good looking waitress for my lunch, I'm negotiating the payment..... Perfect day.

The driving is a little more involved. I mentioned to Hunter what it's like to drive across Kansas. Straight, flat & ineventful. I mentioned you could probably wedge the steering wheel against your legs and take a nap while cruising at 70mph.

The Virginia's not so much. Uphill, downhill, curves. Our GPS keeps telling me to "slow down for dangerous curves ahead". So I'm cruising at 62mph. But I spend most of my time engaging the Jake Brakes down the hills. Then slip into a tight turn and back up the next mountain. More than once on the downside of a 7% grade CC tried to sneak into the mid 70's, that's a little scary. So it's speed up, slow down, repeat.

Poor o' CC is laboring up the mountains. She's not overly struggling, but cranking out the power to get up. I'm still passing 18 wheelers and other campers..... I'm curious what the MPG will be next time....

The hill behind the boys is a typical example of what we're driving up....

Anyway we are spending the night at Misty Mountain campground. We just drove 310 miles today and are staging 18 miles east of our first real stop, Monticello. Thomas Jefferson's home. www.monticello.org

Oh yeah. License plate count is 39.

 

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Here we go!

The big vacation is finally here. Monticello, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Washington, D.C., Gettysburg and home......

Saturday morning I had to help at the Academy give a POWER test, (physical fitness test) to potential recruits. I took CC into work and Rita brought the boys, Hunter, (13) & AJ (11) out to school around 10am.

She had Rita's car all hooked up by the time I walked out of the office and we were on the road by 10:20.

This easy an easy trip to plan. Hop on I-64 and go east. That's it, one highway all the way to Williamsburg.

The boys had a bunch of "homework" to do on the way and games to play. One of the games was the License Plate game. So we were looking for and calling out plates all morning.

We drove for about 3 and a half hours then pulled into a Rest Area for lunch. The boys went on a "recon" mission looking for license plates while Rita made some sandwiches. Had a nice lunch and hopped back on 64....

Our first overnight was outside of Ashland, KY. Checked in about 5:40 CDT. Cranked off 427 miles today. Not to bad of a day. Kept the cruise just under 65 mph. I'm pretty certain that the bug population is seriously depleted.

We stayed at a KOA campground. Not bad, but not glamorous either. The boys helped us hook up CC and seemed to enjoy the work.

One of the first things you have to do is clean off the bugs from the windshield and the front of CC.

This is what the whole front of her looked like.

Best part of the campsite is they had a nice pool and it was the perfect temperature.

 

After swimming and throwing the boys around we headed back to CC to grill some steaks and relax. We prowled the campground after dark looking for license plates. We were getting fanatical. We got 32 so far and were worried about some of the obviously hard one like Alaska & Hawaii. After walking around with flashlight like a bunch of bungling burglars we only found one extra license plate.

So here we are, sitting around a fire that Hunter had carefully built, showing off his Boy Scouting skills, when a late arrival showed up. We sat there & watched them hook up right in front of us. When AJ noticed that they had Alaska plates, woo hoo!

Thought about making s'mores but our butts were dragging so we called it a day.

 

 

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Mulberry Grove

Well this is the last weekend trip / shakedown cruise before the big summer trip.

We couldn't get a good slot at Carlyle Lake. Part of the problem is you can reserve camp sites six months in advance. So all the regular campers jumped ahead of us & reserved the good sites. It didn't even cross our minds that we would have a RV, much less be thinking about camp sites.

So we're a little behind the curve on camping sites, but catching up quick. We're are booked up with weekends through September.

Anyway, we chose Cedarbrook RV Park in Mulberry Grove, IL. It's not to far, easy to get to, and has an awesome golf course nearby that I haven't played in years.

We did the new routine, I took CC to work & Rita met there around 4:30. The weather was turning ugly, of course. But we got on the road with out getting wet. As we headed northeast the clouds were dark & ominous, fortunately we just had light rain.

When we got to Cedarbrook they said they were HAMMERED by a storm & had no power, but Ameren was on the way. We hooked up, but left the generator running. Power was restored in about 45 minutes.

Cedarbrook was a nice park. It's mostly seasonal campers. Some of the campers had decks built up to their campers, so they weren't going anywhere. The campsite we had was on the end of the pull-thrus with a big grassy area. Perfect!

There was an older couple watching us pull in & hook up. The guy commented on how Rita & I communicated as we parked CC in her spot, we had to do some maneuvering because we had a tight turn to get her in. He said we did great with our hand signs, normally he watched as couple bickered at each other. Not us. Quick recon, pick the spot where we want her & bam, put her there. (I hope I'm not getting over confidant).

Grilled some steaks and sat outside watching the post rain sunset.

Saturday we prowled around Cedarbrook. Found the perfect chair for Rita by the playground.

Might be a little big, she looks like Edith Ann, not Rita Ann.

Then we played golf at Indian Springs Golf Course. It's in the middle of nowhere. But it's in great shape. A hidden gem in Southern Illinois. After golf we explored the area, found another camp ground. It was a lot like Cedarbrook. A lot of seasonal campers it's real nice. Cool playgrounds.

Explored Mulberry Grove, didn't take long it's a small town. Found a liquor store, stocked up on beer & back to CC.

Slept in Sunday, then did some research & paperwork for our DC trip, then headed home. A perfect weekend.

CC isn't going anywhere 4th of July weekend. We're staying put & playing golf with friends at Annbriar.

 

 

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CC @ CC

Just home 4 days from Mexico and we realized we missed CC. It is amazing how much we enjoy getting away from everything & slowing down the pace with CC.

We spent an hour & a half giving CC a bath & prepped her for a trip.

We booked a non lakeside slot at Coles Creek. We are really liking it out there. To change things up & save time I decided to take CC to work Friday morning, it saves my trip home & then the return trip with Rita following me back to SWIC to hook up her Fit.

I just parked CC out in the lot & Rita drove out to the college around 4pm. I actually gave my Dean a tour of CC. I got off work, walked out, hooked up the car & took off. (Saved us almost an hour.....)

We'll not quite.... Right after we attached Rita's car a storm rolled in. We hooked her up quick, but you can't drive off until you pull up a little & get the hitch arms to lock into place. Then make sure the car rolls freely so you have a safe tow.

So the question is do you sit & wait out the storm before leaving? Or send out the "co-pilot".

Co-pilot it is! Rita armed with an umbrella ran out, checked the lockout, verified the roll, & confirmed lights. Eastbound & down! (But still saved an hour)

Point of interest, I don't think we have been on a trip where it hasn't rained. So if you're suffering from a drought let me know & we'll head your way.

Weather cleared up, we got to Carlyle in great time. Slipped CC into her slot & did an actual full RV'r set up. Deployed all the canopies. Four window covers, door awning & the massive patio cover!

We strung party lights, hung out the flags, set out lawn chairs, lit the Tiki torches & started a fire. We're camping now baby!!!!

The plan was for Rita to drive into Belleville for a couple of morning appointments. She was going to drop me off at the golf course & I was going to play 18 holes.

But Brandi's babysitter plan didn't work out & daddy was no help so Papa to the rescue. Brandi dropped of Saxton, Mica & Kolton. Along with their bikes & we spent the day together. We rode to the playground & burned up some energy! Had a discussion on bugs. These kids have a strange fear of these flying creatures. Talked of the risks of bears in the woods,(none). And generally had a great day together, I think we went on 8 or 20 bike rides around the campgrounds. Found a squished frog, we checked him every circuit.

Had a nice lunch of P & J sandwiches, fresh fruit & animal crackers. Played catch. Saxton can toss a football with a nice spiral & he's only 5.

Eventually wound up in CC to watch "Rio" and rest in the cool air. The 2 little ones passed out. So it was some quiet time.

Rita's morning only appointments became a couple of afternoon ones but that's ok. She got out there & gave me a break.

We decided to have them stay for dinner & a fire. Rita broke out the games so the kids had fun waiting for mommy.

Grilled some chicken breasts & asparagus. Delicious!

Sat around the fire as, surprise, a storm rolled in. Brandi & the kids headed home. Rita & I fell asleep to the sounds of rain on the roof. Good sleeping weather.

Since we didn't get a chance to spend an adult day we decided to stay Sunday night & head in to work late Monday.

We slept in, had a great breakfast, then went fishing. Didn't catch anything but we had a great afternoon together.

So our leisurely drive in Monday took an odd turn. I was planning on getting in around noon. We're sitting on our site all packed up when I realized I was subbing for a teacher on campus at 11am. Holy crap, that's in an hour. Rita jumps out of CC & heads home to get me a change of clothes, of course, all I have is shorts & t-shirts.

I start driving to the college, thinking. The class is Police Report Writing. I have a daughter, who is a cop, who writes awesome reports & is off today. A quick call gets her out the door & 10-76..

I divert to home, park CC in her driveway & complete my leisurely drive to work. Thanks, Jackie......

Oh yeah, the title of today's blog. One of my nieces pointed out that we were at Coles Creek (CC) in CC. Maybe that's why we're so comfortable there.

 

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What? Fun without CC?

In the midst of the deep freeze of the Winter of January '14, dreaming of warmer climes. Before CC was even a glimmer of a thought. Rita & I thought it would be fun to take our "clan" to the warm beaches of Puerto Vallarta.

Hoping to cheer up Brandi we decide, what the hell, let's take everyone. So we booked an all inclusive resort for all nine of us. Four adults & nine kids, ranging from 2 to 13.

Luckily, we paid for most of it before we fell in love with CC. So, with a bunch of camping trips under our belt. We went on vacation and left CC behind.

We staged at the Marriott Airport Hotel,(for the price of a room, you can park your car free for 2 weeks. It's cheaper than the Parking Spot & no crazy 4am drive to the airport).

An early 7am flight, relatively easy excursion through Imigration & Customs. Quick bus ride to the resort & beach side by 1pm, of course with a beer in my hand, well actually a Michelada!

We got all the kids a family suite with a Pacific view.

We were pool side or on the beach every day. Kids had a freaking blast. Kolton's new favorite word? Cannonball!!!

So after 7 full days of beach, pool, unlimited food & booze, we made it home. My liver still isn't talking to me!!!

 

 

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It is an Adventure!

You can hardly call your blog, "The Adventures of CC & Me", without an adventure...

When we bought CC we knew the awning motor needed to be replaced & the dishwasher needed some service. Well after a couple of visits by the appliance repairman the dishwasher works.

The awning was a little more complicated. The delivery tech at Orlando RV was supposed to order the new awning motor, but by some glitch in the system, thought it was ordered. It wasn't. When we called back he was convinced it was on back order.

Being the patient guy I am, I waited until it was delivered. But after 2 months I became concerned. After a couple of unreturned phone calls & emails, I sent a snippy email to my salesman & voila, found out nobody ordered anything. Grrrrrrr.

After getting a little run around, I went to a local camper company & wouldn't you know after calling Carefree of California the motor was available & delivered in 24 hours. Then surprisingly Orlando RV found one to & dropped shipped it to me. So for 3 months I have no motor & now I have 2....

All I want is my awning to work. So off I go the get the motor installed. But it's a stormy day so I wait a couple of hours until it blows over & take CC to Lombardo's, the place that is going to fix the awning. Here is where up the adventure begins...

While driving down the highway in the post thunderstorm winds, the zip ties that were holding the awning closed broke & while driving at 45 mph the back half of the awning deployed & began flapping in the wind. I pulled over as fast as I could and looked up seeing it all billowing on the wind flopping around. Holy crap, I was freaking out!

I quickly call Jason at Lombardo, & he sent a guy to help me. I opened the storage bay, got out the ladder extension & climbed on the roof. (Did I mention it was windy!!!). I went to the awning, fought it in the wind & began to roll it up manually. That worked, it stopped flapping around & it looked ok. I then reached for my phone to get an ETA from Lombardo, but, no phone. It must have fallen out of my belt case, of course in the 2 foot tall grass along the road.

As I look down, I realized I left the door open to CC. What was I thinking?? So here I am. On the roof of CC, along the highway, wind howling, looks like it's going to rain any second, as in pouring rain. I can't let go of the awning. Holy crap!

Just then Jackie, who was going to pick me up at Lombardo's drives by. She pulls over to help. I'm trying to figure out a way to secure the awning so I can let go, when The tech shows up to help. He has a bunch of zip ties & climbs up to help. Of course he is worried about the wind & crawls to the edge with me.

As we begin to strap the awning down, Jackie finds my phone in the weeds. Like a good girl she takes a couple of pictures.

All secure we drive slowly to the shop.

Whew!

I go back to work & hope there isn't any damage to the awning....

Yippee, Lombardo's calls & the awning is in perfect condition, motor replaced & it works perfectly.....

But, the adventure's not over. They are locked out of CC.. You see she has two door locks. On top is the dead bolt. On the bottom a simple lock, like on a car door. A couple of RV dealers told us to not use the bottom lock because it's pretty generic & anybody could have one to get in. So all we use is the deadbolt.

But when the technician didn't know all that & locked the bottom one. Of course we have keys to that lock, bad thing is they're inside CC. Well Lombardo's had about 100 generic keys, of course none of them worked. (Do much for everybody has one theory) So they wound up breaking into a side window, with minimum damage & got in. (New part on order)

Almost over with. I got a ride back to the shop to get CC. And as I tried to call Rita to meet me at home....my phone battery is dead, really?

But, I threw it on a charger, called Rita & got CC home safely.

So here is the happily ever after part. CC is home, everything is in working order. We tested the awning, perfecto. She is fully stocked, and already for our next adventure.

And she even has her name tags on....

See you next adventure!"&

 

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Columbia, MO

Trying a Freiberg / Sax trip again. Our main reason is Warm Springs Farm, home of Anhueser Busch's Clydesdale breeding farm.

I started off Friday with the Major Case of St. Louis golf tournament. Luckily I got the morning round. Unluckily, I got the morning round, the 7am tee time sounded good, until I had to get up at 5am to drive to north St. Louis.

But still had a good time. Plus a great pace of play, done and on my way home by 11:30. The afternoon round was over booked by 4 teams and they were starting late. Oh and it started to rain. So I'm back to luckily....

Got home, helped finishing the load up, waited for Hunter and off we went. It was Hunter's first time in CC while moving so after we were on the highway he came up front. Armed with the binoculars he enjoyed the elevated view of the road.

We were on site by 5pm. Staying at a private campgrounds north of Columbia. This was the levelest campsite we have ever been at, CC was level in 3 seconds! All hooked up & in a lawn chair in great time...

Friday was kind of nice because it was still a small crowd. Me, Rita, Hunter, Peg, Den, & Amy. All the rest were still in Belleville at the Shriner's Parade. Hunter was in charge of grilling (with an assist for me). We enjoyed an awesome dinner of ribeye steaks, asparagus & baked potatoes.

Perfect evening on what we discovered were the "choice" campsites. On the end with a huge grassy area, directly across from the pool & playground.

Hunter might have been schooled by Rita in a quick washers game...

Jackie & AJ pulled in at about 1am. I got up just long enough to guide them in...

Saturday was fun. We made the required trip to Camping World. Free food, snow cones & attendance prizes, SCORE! Plus bought some stuff that we didn't know we "had to have". Hit Bass Pro on the way back to campsite. New rods & reels.

The Goodrich's showed up, that adds 2 more adults & 4 more kids to the mix. Brandi came pulling in too......

It was pool, playground & some odd variation of left field ball. But the kids all had fun. Plus Jackie introduced the Goodrich's to Geocaching

Here is the close one that they walked to...

Saturday's dinner was grilling by Nina (with an assist by me). Grilled marinated chicken breasts, baby potatoes & Rita's Famous Wilted Lettuce. Delicious!

Follow that up with a campfire & 'smores.....

Sunday the kids did another Geocache run, plus they took some other kid from the campground....

 

 

We then headed west on I-70 for about 20 miles for the Clydesdale's tour. Of course AB does it right, had a good time learning about the program & had some pictures afterwards. The only bad thing was they still observed the Missouri Blue Laws in this county so no complimentary beer..BOO!

On the way back to the campground 1 more cache....

Jackie dropped us off at the campgrounds & everybody except us headed home. Talk about a quiet campsite..Rita & I packed up Monday morning & headed home. I was at work by 1pm.

 

The good news is Monday the dishwasher was repaired, it ain't camping without a dishwasher....

And Wednesday the awning motor should be replaced so all systems should be a GO, for the BIG Summer trip!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Memorial Day Weekend!

We are on a nice three day weekend! But I have to remind everyone the weekend is to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.
It's because of their sacrifice & the dedication of our military that we are able to have trips like this.
Thank you!
So we're down by Rend Lake. Nice campground, awesome neighbors. Guy next door came over to help us start our fire. Showed us a great way to cheat. Who needs to remember the Boy Scout stuff.

We had a nice evening. Slept late (7:30). Headed over to North Sandusky to say hi to some friends, the Frames & Johnsons. Then drove down to the spillway for a nice bike ride through the woods.
The bike trails here are awesome, all paved, as in concrete. Didn't go too far or too fast, it was the first ride of the year. But the bikes did travel well on the back of Rita's Fit, which was behind CC. So they were in a different time zone when we drove.....

Now here we sit in front of the fire, thinking about tossing a couple of steak on the grill.
Tomorrow, playing golf at Franklin County Country Club.
It's Sunday, slept in again. I could start liking this. It must be all the fresh air, we are outside almost the whole day when we're "RVing".

Awesome breakfast then lounged around the campgrounds until our tee time.
We played at Franklin County Country Club. It's an older golf course, established in 1921. It was recently opened for public play. It was in pretty good shape. Only thing I didn't like was the bar was closed by the time we were done. The tall draught beers on the way out looked inviting.
Swung through Benton and picked up some fire starter to make life easier, then back to CC.
Headed to the pool for a dip to cool off from the course. The water was a bit chilly. But it felt great.
This siting in front of a fire with a drink, fixing dinner can get addicting. Just hope the heat of summer doesn't ruin it.

Memorial Day! Most of the campground seemed to pack up early & leave. We enjoyed the later check out and relaxed a little longer.

The load out is getting easier. One of the neighbors came by & showed me his "RVMinders". They are a set of slap on tags for the steering wheel. They're like the slap on bracelets from the 80's. They are all color coded & serve as a reminder for all the thing you need to do/store. Looks like a Camping World visit is needed.

See ya next week!

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