A day off

Good evening, Campers!

It's Silver Cliche' here with you again. Tonight's report comes from Meaher State Park in beautiful (seriously) Spanish Fort, Alabama. Its amazing what happens when you arrive at a campground on the day you have a reservation... they let you in... AND they give you a place to drop the 7 tons of gear that you bring along. That's a fun fact by the way. We weigh in at just over 14,000 pounds for this trip.

Anyway, sometimes there is no justice in the world. One might think that after a screw up like yesterday that I would still be facing penance. There should be a minimum sentencing guideline or something... 24 hours at least. NOPE! I got the day off today. Well, that's not totally true. Since we spent last night in a WalMart parking lot and had nothing more than a 4.7 mile drive today (I think I've got it, honey!) I used the day to catch up on items around "the house". That included cleaning and stowing gear, buying a few things we needed and finishing the set up on the new home theater system. Since a WalMart  Supercenter was within walking distance of our home that was a snap.

I don't want to overplay the value of winding up in a WalMart parking lot. If it was that great, this trip would have been called "101 WalMart nights" and I'd rename Mrs. Cliche' Scheherazade. Here, let me save myself the need to write 2,000 words and your need to read them...

This is your view at WalMart:

This is your view at Meaher State Park.

Any questions?

Anyhow... Spanish Fort. Alabama. We are just east of Mobile and directly on Mobile Bay. This area was accessed and occupied easily and often as waves of European explorers and traders wandered the Gulf of Mexico from the early 1700s onward. Predictably, military action followed. At various times the French, British, Confederates, Union and, yes, the Spanish put military facilities and troops here. It might called French Fort, British Fort, or something else, but the nearly 50 years when the Spanish controlled this area provides the name. The US has controlled this area since the Spanish and British were driven out during the War of 1812.

About a mile or so offshore from the view above is the I-10 bridge connecting the Florida/Alabama state line to the east with Mobile to the west. Here's a simple panorama taken from the shoreline:

Well, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow we head west to New Orleans and a return visit to the French Quarter RV Resort. We haven't been there is about 5 years. My last recollection is that the place needed a good pressure washing. Stay tuned for an update on how things have changed, although you'll have to try and untangle where the things I report as because New Orleans has added five years or we have. 

Later!

Day 3... or is it Day 2?

Good evening Campers! It’s Silver Cliche’ writing to you tonight from the “Redneck Riviera”... the Alabama Gulf Coast.

They say that being a writer is all about honesty. I wish they’d stop saying that. If they stopped, then I could tell you a story about a long drive through the rural South, the people we met along the way, the historic sites that dot the landscape and the stark distinction between America as viewed from rural roads versus America as viewed from the Interstate system. Maybe I’ll get to that, but first I need to tell a tale on myself.

When we started the trip a day early (on Friday) and stayed two nights in Georgia, I cancelled our original reservation for night #1 (O’Leno State Park, Florida) and planned our departure for this morning to get to our reserved site for night #2 (Meahan State Park, Alabama). When we arrived at Meahan at 4:00 this afternoon the office was closed but the sign that was left out instructed campers with reservations to head straight to their reserved spot. Easy, right? What happens next requires you to understand that I plan these trips in meticulous detail. I build a spreadsheet that includes each day of the trip as a row. The columns include the day number of the trip, the date, the day of the week (weekend reservations are hardest to book... I frequently do them first), the state, campground, campsite number, confirmation number, amenities (electric, water, pets allowed, etc.) at each campsite, any notes, the driving distance between campsites and the driving time. It’s detailed and it’s essential (in my mind) to plan a long trip this way even if you know you will divert from the plan occasionally. The challenge comes if the tool is used for planning but not consulted for travel. After a 7 hour drive today I opened my spreadsheet to look up the site number for Meahan State Park tonight only to learn that on Sunday April 18 we have a reservation for Site 17 at Falling Water State Park, Florida. Meahan is booked for tomorrow night. Several phone calls and web searches indicated that Meahan was full for tonight. Fortunately, an understanding travel companion (or maybe an exhausted one) and a nearby WalMart with a policy to allow overnight parking solved the immediate problem. Our Gulfside campsite (#33 by the way) awaits tomorrow. We settled in to Wally World. We even tested out the new big screen theater in the trailer to watch a Netflix about RVing through America called “Expedition Happiness” (I kid you not... after all, this is an exercise in honesty, right?). The setup is a portable projector onto a 60” screen hung at the foot of the new bed. It’s driven by a laptop PC. Here’s a pic showing a Cliche’-eye view of the setup...

So, tomorrow we pick up where we should have been. I promise this is my last screw up until the next one.

Back to our travel today... we were up and at ‘em... went out to breakfast and hit the road just after 9:00. The planned route took us through Macon and Columbus, Georgia then Auburn and Montgomery, Alabama and into Meahan in Spanish Fort (or WalMart in Daphne as it worked out).

The story of the day turned out to be a lesson in state road travel versus interstate travel. As luck would have it, the first half of the trip through Georgia avoided interstates except for a short jog down I75. The second half was nearly all interstate. The interesting sites in Georgia were plentiful. The interstate segment was featureless and could have been in any state east of the Mississippi.

So, what did we see? Well, we passed near the most notorious prison of the US Civil War... Andersonville, Jimmy Carter’s peanut ranch at Plains and Franklin Roosevelt’s retreat at Warm Springs. We drove past a National Park Service site called Ocmulgee Mounds where early native tribes built earthen mounds that are up to 55 feet high. The largest was estimated to take 10 million baskets of earth to build (I had no idea, either). As promised yesterday, we stopped for barbecue. Bad news... the particular shop we stopped at doesn’t run their smoker on Sundays. What? I’m not known for my bible scholarship, but I don’t think there is a prohibition on smoked meats on the Sabbath. Maybe it’s a Georgia thing.

We drove for three hours through beautiful “americountry” on the state roads of Georgia. You could see it, smell it, interact with the locals and learn about their peculiar views on the relationship between God and barbecue. It was everything a road trip should be. The pace we had to move prevented us from actually seeing the things we learned were out there, but the knowledge we gained may just call us back. The unique feature of this piece of americounty is the pecan grove. Miles and miles of stately trees that have just now brought forward their new leaves to restart the cycle. Today’s “Silver Cliche’ driving experience (and the first in over 4 years) is the view I had of one such grove. 

(There is supposed to be a way to get those on one line, but I’m too tired to figure it out...use you imagination.)

One final event tells the tale of the day. For this trip we added a tacky travel accessory to the rear window of the Airstream. I talked about that a couple of posts ago. I didn’t mention that we also added a large QR code that links to this blog. As we were driving between Columbus, Georgia and Auburn, Alabama a grey GMC Sierra pickup pull-up alongside while we were doing about 40 MPH. I feared I had cut them off and they were coming for me or maybe they were about to alert me that my right rear tire was billowing smoke. Nope... the woman in the passenger seat was waving her cell phone that displayed the current view of “Silver Cliche’ On the Road”. Welcome aboard! We hoped that might happen one day on our 100 day trip. The fact that you found us on the roll on Day 3 is encouraging.

We saw absolutely nothing of interest from the Interstates. Well, there was a giant brown sign alerting us that we were near the Tuskegee Airman monument. That might be worth a return visit.

It’s getting late. Time to turn in. We’ve got a 10 minute drive ahead of us tomorrow. 

Later...

Day 0: A year of planning out the window!

Goooood morning, Campers! 

It’s Silver Cliche’ here with you again. It’s 8 AM Saturday as I start to write this and today is supposed to be Day 1 of the “trip to everywhere” (formerly known as MOART 2021... the Mother Of All Road Trips). But we couldn’t wait and we are already traveling. Yesterday we rolled 460 miles north to Louisville, Georgia to get a jump on the trip.

There is an ongoing discussion in the Airstream community and probably among enthusiasts of every brand of RV and every form of home-away-from-homeism. At its core, it is an exercise in introspection and a quest for self-understanding wrapped in the human need to declare one’s purpose in life. It’s as old as human migration and as fresh as the exploration of space. It was immortalized in the question posed to George Mallory before his ill-fated attempt to reach the summit of Mt. Everest in 1924. “Why are you going there?”. Among RV’ers, the simplest breakdown of responses creates two distinct groups. There are “campers” and there are “travelers”. The former are focused on being “there”, the later on getting “there”. Campers have somewhere they want to be. Travelers have somewhere else they want to be. When George Mallory replied “Because it is there.”, he clearly planted his flag in the world of campers. 

We threw out our plan and left a day early for a previously unplanned destination because we had somewhere else to get to. We proudly declare ourselves to be travelers! We are doing what travelers do... going places.

Those of you who have traveled with us before through these pages probably knew that already. After all, we are the only people I know who booked four nights in Yellowstone then after three nights asked “Isn’t there somewhere else nearby we could go to?”. Campers would have planned an even longer hike for their last day then cooked their fresh-caught trout over a campfire which they started with hand-whittled kindling made from deadfall they collected on their hike. We hate that.

So we left yesterday, drove 460 miles and dropped the trailer jack at 10 PM then cancelled our long-standing reservation for tonight at O’Leno State Park in Florida. I hate to disappoint those of you who were looking forward to a report on the latest lichen discoveries at O’Leno. Instead, tomorrow we will gather data on the 6 1/2 hour drive from Louisville, Georgia to Mobile, Alabama. With luck we will find a famous barbecue joint somewhere near Albany or Auburn for a lunch stop. Of course, on a Sunday in the Southland we’ll have to fight the Baptist after-church crowd for our share. 

So, what’s the attraction here in central Georgia? Well, Mrs. Cliche’s brother lives here and our dogs love getting to run free with his dogs on the acreage. Free running at home is never an option. Oh, have I forgotten to update you on the dogs? I apologize. You may recall that we chose to add “Cliche’” to our name because we are a retired couple from Florida roaming the country in our Airstream with a small dog pack. Initially that was our tiny chug (half Chihuahua, half Pug) “Romeo” and the two, old Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers “Kailey” and “Gracie”. The old girls passed in 2016, but Romeo is going strong. Joining the pack for his first long trip is “Zachary”, an 80 lb. Golden Retriever/Labrador Retriever mix. Here’s a shot of us in our campsite today:

The “photo of the day” is Zach sitting on the new bed looking out the window at the pond and waiting for the opportunity to run in the grass alternately chasing and being chased by the two Catahoula Leopard Dogs who live full time here at doggy Disney.

And his hero shot when the longing expressed in the morning shot above was fulfilled in the midday sun. Run Zach, run!

Well, we’ve got somewhere else to be and it’ll be a long day tomorrow to get there but we plan to intercept day two of our planned itinerary on day three of our journey. I’m sure it won’t be long before we break from the plan again. Adventure awaits.

Later...

A week away

Good morning campers! It’s Silver Cliche’ here with you from beautiful Vero Beach, Florida. The day has not begun yet, but despite months of preparation and with about a week before departure I’m feeling like I didn’t start prepping early enough! When I tell people about the upcoming trip (which I will do for you in a moment) they frequently say “Oh my! A trip like that sounds challenging and exciting! How will you pull that off?”. I now can say that the trip looks easy in comparison to the challenge of preparation.

Anyway, the pieces are falling into place, even if not quite quickly enough. The contents of the Amazon boxes, which still arrive daily, has shifted from components to rehab the trailer (wiring materials, recliners, fans, lights and a new mattress) to add-ons (portable washing machine, video to monitor the dogs, a rechargeable vacuum cleaner) to essential supplies (dog food, RV toilet paper, kitchen gear). I had to complete an application recently that included the question “Name someone who will always know how to locate you.” I replied “Amazon.com”.

I digress. The trip... the trip.

A “trip to everywhere” needs lots of stops and lots of miles. We’ve got both. Let me give you a rough breakdown by month. We plan to leave about April 14 heading north to Georgia to visit Mrs. Cliche’s brother. Then west across the continent with stops including Mobile Bay, NOLA, the gulf cost of Texas, Big Bend and Marfa, Texas (I’m not sure whether I’m more excited about discovering the mystery lights, barbecue or arts scene in Marfa). May will begin with a continued surge west then a turn north. Stops include national parks (Saguaro, Joshua Tree, Sequoia and Yosemite), coastal areas (San Simeon, Carmel) the coast of Oregon and end where Lewis and Clark called it quits at Cape Disappointment, Washington. I can say with certainty that place was named before the Chamber of Commerce was formed there. In June we will make a turn east including stops in Idaho, Montana (Glacier NP), North Dakota (Theodore Roosevelt NP), Minnesota (been there, done that already) and camping on all five Great Lakes. We’ll end June on the St. Lawrence River looking across at Canada (I forgot to mention that one night in Big Bend we will be boondocking on the Rio Grande looking across at Mexico). July will see us in all six New England states, New Jersey (for Airstream maintenance at the dealership where we bought the Cliche’ seven years ago) and the 48th state we will camp in will be little Delaware on our 39th wedding anniversary. 

Airstream campers generally see themselves as sophisticated travelers whose home is an American icon. I’ve defiled the Cliche’ for this trip with the campiest item of camping gear sold at Camping World (yes... there is such a place)... the vinyl US outline map with colored stickers for each state! We will place the last sticker for the lower 48 on July 17. When she saw that I had defiled the rear window of the Airstream with the map, Mrs, Cliche’ asked “Won’t that spoil our view out the window?”. I replied “The view?  The VIEW?? This will spoil our image as sophisticated travelers!”. I feel a certain kinship with Chevy Chase’s character from “Vacation” right now.

After Delaware, there isn’t another state to stick on the map. Well, there is Alaska... maybe 2022?... and Hawaii, but I hear that is a drive no Airstreamer looks forward to. With no new territory to conquer for the year, we’ll leave Delaware and head to Maryland for a visit with our daughter and three grands. From there stops in North Carolina and again in Georgia then home to Vero Beach in time for hurricane season!

Well, the sun is about to start lighting the eastern sky here. I think I have time to clean out some closets in the Cliche’ and reload them with the new stuff Amazon brought me yesterday before Mrs. Cliche’ gets up.

Later...

The trip to everywhere

 The trip to everywhere

Evening, Campers! It’s Silver Cliche’ here with you tonight writing from home in Vero Beach.

It’s looking like we will shove off in 30 days. So, it seems time to offer some insight to the preparations that are underway and a preview of the trip.

It was almost six and a half years ago that we bought the Airstream. We’ve made some enhancements over the years and that’s enhanced our comfort and convenience when living the trailer. However, we’ve always kept an eye on being able to return to the original, factory configuration. This year we’ve pretty much dropped the restoration clause. In a real sense we are making the Cliche’ our own now.

I wrote from Lewisville about the battery system upgrade. It’s a great addition to allow us to live off grid. That’s the major mechanical system enhancement. Other upgrades are for livability. We’ve dumped (literally!) the RV queen sized mattress from the original design in favor of a full sized queen from Nectar. Those of you who are not RVers may not know that the “RV” in RV queen means it’s too short and too thin for a good night sleep. In the years we’ve been traveling in the Cliche’ we lost our 35 pound Wheaten Terrier, Kailey who slept in her own bed on the floor but gained an 80 pound Golden Retriever/Labrador cross, Zachary, who believes he is entitled to the center of the bed including a pillow for his head. Now we can add “too narrow” to the RV queen descriptor. To address that point, the new queen for Mrs. Cliche’ and me has an adjacent, custom-made dog mattress that is 11” of foam 2’x6’. The smart money is on the idea that within three days of our departure Zachary will be on the Nectar and I’ll be in the dog bed.

To add comfort and convenience we’ve added a portable washer and spin dryer that rides perfectly in the shower and two new recliners. It’s likely that we’ll add a built-in dresser where we’ve had a small couch that has only ever found service as a place to drop clothes. A bunch of electronics round out the changes. Most significantly, a wireless network with a spiffy exterior antenna to connect to Verizon and a security camera to allow us to monitor the trailer and the dogs while we take excursions. Our son the techie is working on a way to store a ton of movies on a file server so Mrs. Cliche’ can stream onboard in the event the cell connection can’t be maintained in our most remote campsites.

Phew! That’s a lot of modification!

For now let me tease that our upcoming trip now has a name. Thanks to a couple of people (are you there Colt and the Gutter Guys?) who innocently asked “where are you going?”, I have a stock answer. “Everywhere”. This is going to be “the trip to everywhere”.

The plan is simple. 1. Head west. 2. When you run out of land, head north. 3. When you run out of US states, head east. 4. When you reach an ocean, head south. 5. If you see someplace that looks like where you started, you are done. That’s over 10,000 miles and over 100 nights.

Soon I’ll start giving a week-by-week preview of the trip and pics of the enhancements described above. I hope you’ll share the excitement if the prep and anticipation of the adventure with me.

Until then...

Shakedown cruise

Gooood Morning, Campers, it’s Silver Cliche’ with you here from... where???... Louisville, Georgia. It’s still dark and early here at oh-dawn-forty-five. It’s also 47 frickin’ degrees out there, but a delightful 68 inside the Cliche’. At least the outside temp doesn’t start with a 3 like it did here yesterday morning.

 It’s 8 weeks until the start of the Mother of All Road Trips... MOART 2021. That hardly seems like enough time for me to prep... and I’ve been working a month already.

We are here in Louisville (that’s pronounced “lewis-ville” by the locals... there won’t be none of that frenchy-crap “louie-ville” here in the original capital city of Georgia) visiting Mrs, Cliche’s brother. We are also testing the first major upgrade to the Cliche’ itself made in preparation for MOART... a heart transplant of the 12 volt system that allows us to live off grid with all of the comforts of home (except air conditioning).

I know you will hound me until I provide a detailed account of the lithium battery configuration, converter voltage charge profile, DC/DC charger to power the Cliche’ from the trusty Tundra, MPPT collar charge controller and such... but that will have to wait. For now, here’s a pick of that $3,000 of new gear looks like under the bed:

Beautiful, eh? Guess what? If those 200 Amp Hours of off grid staying power prove inadequate, I’ve got a stack of Benjamins that says I can fit two more right next to them.

Anyway, in addition to visiting family here, I’ve had a chance to test every function in the new system. All I can say is WOW! the move to Lithium batteries is a huge difference.

In the coming weeks we’ll do a bunch of maintenance and repairs to the Airstream (she turns 7 this year), upgrade the mattress, replace the recliners, add a portable washing machine, etc., etc.. I’ll keep you posted on that progress right here while I try to learn to write again.

I’ll also try to post about the trip itself. We have stops booked for the whole trip now. The huge increase in popularity of RVing since COVID means campsites are going to be scarce in places. Not to worry... we have a plan.

We also have a logo for the trip. That includes cards, a decal for the back window of the Cliche’ and... yes... baseball caps (of course there will be tee shirts!). Here it is:

I’m sending a shout-out to Justin from Baker Management in Ft. Pierce, Florida. He and I were at the Cumberland Farms in Vero Beach, FL on Monday evening filling our respective pickup trucks with $2.59 gasoline at adjacent pumps when I struck up a conversation with him. One thing led to another. Turns out he wants to RV one day. He became the very first victim... er... ah... I mean “recipient” of my effort to share MOART cards. So, thanks, Justin for tolerating my effort to share. I hope you and Mrs. Justin follow us. Maybe you will pick up some ideas about seeing America together. Maybe you will say “OMG! Is that what it means to see America? I think we’ll stay home!”. Either way, we are happy to have you along.

I’m expecting the first sun anytime now. I think I’ll fire up the water heater for a shower, round up breakfast stuff for a pancake feed and get the day going. After breakfast we’ll break camp, do a three point turn in the driveway here and point the trusty Tundra south. 6 1/2 hours later we’ll slide the Cliche’ back into her spot in the driveway knowing the battery project is road-ready. Tomorrow starts the bedroom remodel... I’ve got to get the new mattress on order because I’m sure as hell not signing up for 3 1/2 months of sleep like last night! 

Later...

S.C.

A return to the road!

Mornin’ campers! It’s Silver Cliche’ here, back blogging after more than three years.

For the past several seasons we had a different camping style while we raised a grandson. Blogging was out! Our trips were shorter (it turns out there is a limit to how many days two oldsters and two dogs can travel with an autistic teenager versus without one), our evening and morning routines were hectic (feeding a 6’, 200 lb 14 year old requires an amount of effort that seriously impacts blogging time) and our nerves were frayed (our experiences might better have been recorded in “Psychology Today” than here on blogspot). Now my “buddy” is back under parental supervision and Mrs. Cliche’ and I are looking across America with wanderlust.

So, in three months we resume our travels. This time it’s a planned 10,000 mile trip heading west from our Florida home until we reach lands end (not the clothing store... the Pacific) then north until we get about as far from home as we can without risking the RCMP dismantling our Airstream in a search for COVID or apple pie or Smith and Wesson or whatever it is they like to look for inspect for in Yankee RVs), then east until we’ve camped on all five Great Lakes and the North Atlantic, then south and home to Florida.

There’s a lot to prep in the months ahead. Most of the trip is booked already. We will finish the lower 48 that we haven’t yet visited on this round (we have camped in the Cliche’ in 32 states so far). We are undertaking the most significant revamp of the Airstream so far including a new Lithium battery system, new recliners, a new larger mattress (when we first hit the road we had three dogs but only the 12 pounder slept in the bed... the two oldsters have passed and in their place is an 80 lb golden/lab who prefers a firm mattress and soft pillow... more sleeping space is essential) and a few other improvements. We also have a new truck for this trip. Gone is the trusty 2014 Tundra that was the only vehicle to pull the Cliche’ from the day we hitched up in October 2014 in NJ. What a truck! In her place is... well... an exact clone. Literally nobody has noticed that three months ago we replaced the 2014 with a 2020 that is identical in every detail. That choice will allow me to reuse old pics whenever I am too lazy to take a new one. I may be old, but I’m not stupid!

So, follow along! There is now a “follow” link on this page. I hope it works better than our old mattress. For the next few months I’ll blog occasionally about trip prep and our shakedown cruise (we hope to go to Georgia in late February or early March). In late April we start “MOART 2021” (the mother of all road trips). With luck, I’ll be back to posts most every day and pics on Flickr.

Later!

SC