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Mike's Take on Things So Far

 

Well, I was expecting a treatise on “How Not to Prep a Camper for a Long Trip,” but instead I got another view of the trip so far from Mike. When I asked him about what he wanted to say about getting the camper ready to go, he said, “Tell them not to do it the way we did it.” And I do see he mentions the preparation process once in his travelogue on the past few weeks. Here's his update:

Mike Report

We picked up the camper in Backus on the 25th, left the lot, and turned right back around because they'd forgotten to tell us how to dewinterize the trailer. The second time out of the lot was uneventful.

The Scamp factory in Minnesota

 We headed South. Due South. The wind decided it wanted to go due North. Apparently the wind was angry with us for not going along North, and so blew at 10 – 20 – 30 mph steady and gusts even stronger for 2 days, to Peoria, where we picked up I-74. We now laugh at headwinds. 

Possibly being angry at that laughter, the wind kept up, but now as a sidewind, until we stopped at Summit Lakes State Park east of Indy. We now laugh at sidewinds. Definitely angry at this impertinence, the wind kept blowing in our faces all thru Tuesday at the park, which we spent organizing all the crap we brought with us. Then, mid-week, we got to Indian Springs Campground on State Line Road in Greater Lawrenceburg. With the wind, of course. Which has been blowing in our faces as we spent almost a week still organizing all this crap! However, we are now ready to proceed.

We woke up to rain and went down to the casino to spend a night in luxury. The blush is off the rose at the Hollywood Casino. Still nice, but not hoppin' like, what, 20 years ago? Casino Royale it ain't. But checking out all the shiny flashy things is a hoot.

That's a lot of video games

Then, we headed to Land Between The Lakes for long enough to relax and figure out all the goodies IN the trailer. Little things like hooking up the water, using the shower, unpacking the solar panels, etc. For future reference, the better way to pick up a camper is to take it home with you for a month to do all this stuff.

We came down US 127 from I-71 this trip, then to the Bluegrass Parkway. Route 127 is neat, I might drive it again on a sunny day sometime. Really good condition to Frankfort, a bit in the town, then the fairly empty Bluegrass Parkway. Which seems to get renamed for another dead governor every 20 miles or so. I'd been curious about Pennyrile State Park for a while now, since the last time we came to Land Between the Lakes. We stayed at the lodge. It drizzled or threatened all the way here from Lawrenceburg, so no camping tonight. Anyway, it's too far to Land Between the Lakes for a one-day drive with a new trailer. Nice enough, didn't get to see much with the damn rain. The lodge was hosting a scrapbooking group when we were there, it didn’t get too rowdy. Hope the rain stops by the time we get to Land Between the Lakes.   

Mike on a non-rainy day at Taylor Bay, Lake Barkley

[Editor’s note: We had a nice afternoon, then two days of rain, then a day and a half of sunshine at Land Between the Lakes.]


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