Category: Personal

Day 2385

Sunday, April 14th, 2024

Day 6 of our trek north

Dear Journal:

Well there was no knock on the coach door overnight, and because of the no overnight parking signs we had a very quiet night, although I was up early this morning but that had more to do with going to bed earlier than usual. The temperature overnight was 64ºF (17.7ºC) and a balmy 71ºF (21.6ºC) in the coach. This morning has been spent catching up on this weeks blogs as we trek to our summer home base. It’s now seven o’clock and Miss Laurie has risen and made coffee, and now we are settling in to watch Willie Guise on NBC, a Sunday morning tradition.

Bacon and Tomato sandwich for breakfast this morning, always a popular choice in the Buchanan household, todays route will move us through Illinois into Indiana where we will move to our final time zone Eastern Daylight Savings time. I’m hoping to be on the road by nine o’clock and with the lost hour we should be at tonight’s destination by 2:00 there will be a fuel stop in Indiana, and I hope to circumvent Indianapolis before we end the day, leaving a very easy day tomorrow.

We were on the road ahead of schedule, and I-70 traffic seams lite, Thunder is running well and we are just clicking the miles off. The smooth ride went to hell at the Indiana State line as I’m thinking that Indiana may have moved New Mexico out of the number one position for the worst roads, maybe someone should tell Indiana that the Federal Government have money available for roads, we have seen the signs posted in almost every other State.

Fuel prices in Indiana are the worse we have seen, higher than Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, they are close to California or Canadian prices. As we get to Indianapolis Navi is recommending the by-pass which we have taken the last few trips so I was not thrilled to find miles of construction on the by-pass. The only good part of this scenario was that it is Sunday and the traffic was lite, as we leave the bypass and head north on Interstate I-69 we are just a few miles from tonight’s destination a Cracker Barrel in Fishers Indiana, and of course the RV / Bus spots were full of cars, so we parked in a plaza near by to watch the Masters golf tournament and wait for a spot to open up.

After the golf was over we moved across the street to an open spot where we eat the beef brisket from Buc-ee’s that Laurie had picked up along with a salad, my conclusion is that the hype over the brisket is justified and we will be getting more the next time we stop. We are settled in to just watch television tonight, I was pleased with the outcome of the golf tournament, and it has me thinking about playing a round or two this summer.

Day 6 Stats: 245 miles (395 kilometers), solar harvest 273 amp / hours, camping cost $0.00 (breakfast $19,00), 47.366 gallons (179.29 liters) of diesel fuel $208.26 ($286.24 Cdn)

Day 2384

Saturday, April 13th 2024

Day 5 of our trek north

Dear Journal:

Well not one of the quietest night we have had, it was not noisy enough to keep me awake. After leaving a place as quiet as Thursday nights spot everything is going to seem noisy, but the bonus to a Cracker Barrel is that we order breakfast, Miss Laurie had her pecan pancakes and I had some biscuits and gravy, we placed our order last night to have it ready for pickup by 7:45. We could go in and eat but they seem to frown on me bringing the Irish cream bottle in with me.

We were not in the RV parking spot but our location on the outer edge of the parking lot worked fine, there were too many cars to keep the toad attached so I have a plan to escape the lot after hooking up to the towed. The overnight temperature was 56ºF (13.3ºC) so a very comfortable morning. I was up at 6:30 and Mister Sam spent the best part of an hour on my lap, he is not enjoying out travel days, but at least the days are shorter now as I try to watch most of the Masters golf tournament broadcast. Miss Laurie just handed me a fresh cup of perked coffee and yes there is a wee Irish blessing, as we catch up on a little of the news.

Our departure time is before nine o’clock, and our first stop will be a Buc-ee’s just four miles down the highway, we are going to top off the fuel tanks on both Thunder and the towed. This was Thunders first visit to a Buc-ee’s and with close to seventy five fuel islands it was not hard to find an empty one. Each fuel island has two, two faced pumps and each pump has both diesel and three grades of gasoline. This station was not here last spring when we drove Interstate I-44 and from the seals on the pumps it appears it opened this spring. While I fueled the vehicles Miss Laurie went into the store where she picked up a few items, it during this time I noticed there were no windshield squeegees at the pumps, they were located at a couple of spots at the edge of the lot, which was going to be my next spot as the windshield has a plethora of bug guts. As a point of reference regular Gasoline was 2.959 per gallon and diesel was $3.359 per gallon, the best price on both items we have seen this spring.

We are heading to a Walmart tonight that is just a few miles off of Interstate I-70 east of St. Louis MO in Illinois, a couple of reasons for this the first we need some items from Walmart and second it was about the correct distance of driving time to catch the Masters broadcast, and last but not least we are with in a couple of miles of “Sauce on the Side” a great calzone restaurant that we first enjoyed over a decade ago, it is one of Miss Laurie’s favorites and I also have a little surprise on tap for Miss Laurie this afternoon.

Well dinner was an event besides enjoying some of the best calzones ever we had the company of Miss Emily, yes the same Emily that made us cry on Sunday at the Arboretum is now having dinner with us in the outskirts of St. Louis. Emily now lives in this area, she has a new job in the area that she is enjoying, she and her partner have purchased a home here and seems more than happy. She is missed at the Arboretum but she was also taken advantage of at the Arboretum as well, we were thrilled to be able to catchup on her new adventures and have threatened to hunt her out again our next trip through the area,

We returned to the coach just at dark, I reconnected the towed to Thunder as this parking lot looks like the type of a place that we could be asked to leave, there are some signs about no overnight parking, and we have a plan “B” if it is needed

Day 5 Stats: 239 miles (385 kilometers), solar harvest 269 amp / hours $0.00 camping (dinner with Emily Priceless), 48.02 gallons (181.7 liters) of Diesel fuel, $161.38 ($222.33 Cdn)