Mother Nature's car wash

Nashville, TN – If there was the slightest trace of Ottawa road salt anywhere on our car or motorhome, deeply tucked away in some crevice or groove, today’s drive took care of it totally.  Great swaths of rainwater swept over every surface of both vehicles for all of the 140-odd miles we covered on Interstate 65 between Elizabethtown and Nashville.  Val cranked up the wipers to full speed several times, and back to regular speed, and only a few times to occasional speed when the rain let up a bit. Both vehicles are now gleaming as if they just rolled out of a carwash – and it was free of charge.

In spite of the inclement weather, we’re happy tonight, because for the first time since our departure, we get to sleep in our own bed with our own comfy pillows and cozy duvet inside our little home on wheels!  We’ve set up at the Nashville KOA where we stayed in 2011 on our way to Arizona, so there are some familiar landmarks as well.

Setting up again after putting the RV in cold storage (so to speak) over the winter takes some doing, because the plumbing system is filled with pink antifreeze and every single household item that could freeze (dishwashing liquid, frying pan spray, toothpaste, you name it) has been removed.  Also, we haven’t used any of its amenities for several months, so we have to relearn where everything is and how everything works!

In addition, we had to stock up on everything from bran flakes to salad fixings, and when you’re shopping in a store where all the brand names are different, it takes almost twice as long (do they have white tuna packed in water? Which brand of peanut butter has the least sugar? Where do they keep the raisins?).  However, we managed to find everything on our list and cart it all back and find places for it all, so we’re back in business.

It’s not exactly warm here.  Frederic, the young man who registered us, said there was snow in Nashville a couple of weeks back, and the forecast low overnight for the next few nights is going to dip below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, so we’ll be using the furnace for sure.  Good thing we filled up the propane tank when we pulled in.  Still, it is much milder than we’ve felt in a long time, and when I stepped outside a few minutes ago, I actually heard the chirping of a robin nearby!

After our challenging shopping trip, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner out at Cracker Barrel, a popular restaurant in these parts.  The chain provides down-home food like meatloaf and biscuits in a country home setting, featuring a huge open fireplace and decorated with farm implements and vintage signs.  It was so comforting to enjoy a hot cup of tea and a good dinner after a damp afternoon.

Kentucky's rolling hills

Elizabethtown, KY – It’s only been a few days, but we are already feeling the embrace of the south in many small ways.  First of all it was the fare at our breakfast buffet this morning—hot biscuits with sausage gravy, and packets of instant grits where you’d normally find oatmeal (although there was oatmeal as well).

Then it was the gentle twang in the receptionist’s words when I called to make our hotel reservation this morning – punctuated with “honey” – and the huge letters painted on the water tower in Florence, next to the Interstate 75 as we drove along: “Florence, y’all!”  And tonight, at the Cracker Barrel restaurant where we went for supper, we enjoyed catfish served with more hot biscuits, and encouraged our server, TJ, to keep chatting so we could enjoy his charming southern accent.

Probably the nicest development has been the warm weather.  We actually saw the sun for a good part of the drive today, and aside from a few icicles on some rock faces we passed, there was no sign of anything frozen!  Our winter jackets were really too much for the short walk to the restaurant this evening.  I left my scarf and hat behind.

Our route took us through Cincinnati – Ohio’s third largest city – and across the Ohio River on the same road we’d traveled coming back from New Orleans last spring.  From that point, though, we turned off the I-75 and headed southwest into Kentucky and toward Louisville.  This city is named after King Louis XVI of France, and is most known for being the site of the Kentucky Derby.

We took the I-75 into Louisville and followed the GPS instructions to connect with I-65, but in all the profusion of concrete arteries through the city centre, we ended up hearing a plaintive “re-calculating” from the device when we thought we’d followed the instructions correctly.  So, after a bit of a detour through some secondary roads and a few stressful words between pilot and co-pilot, we found ourselves back on track.  We are so spoiled to have a machine that can pinpoint our position from a satellite hovering over the planet and (eventually, anyway) get us to our chosen destination!

Elizabethtown is just south of Louisville, just off Interstate 65, and the town is named after the wife of its founder, Colonel Andrew Hynes, who established a homestead here in 1793.  Kentucky is a very pretty state, with rolling hills, streams and farms, and that famous blue grass that is so nourishing for the horses that are raised here. We are enjoying the sight of green fields, and I imagine Kentucky must be a lovely place to visit in the summer months.

 

Blow ye winds

Springboro, OH – We are just south of Dayton, Ohio tonight, after a very wet and windy drive.  There was a thick fog in Windsor this morning when we pulled away from the hotel and headed for the Ambassador Bridge, which would take us into the United States. (Today's picture is of the bridge as we saw it last year, returning to Canada.)

As we crossed the bridge we could barely see its huge trusses and cables, so getting any kind of view of the area was out of the question.  I was hunched forward in my seat, trying to read the directional signs for RVs through the mist and fog as we approached the border crossing.  Even though I could make them out, we still had to be redirected by an attendant!  Someone should go through all those hoops with the eyes of a newcomer so they could see how unclear the signage actually is!

Our border official was unsmiling and terse as he shot questions at Val and requested a look-see inside the RV, opening the bathroom door in case we were harboring any fugitives in the tiny space.  Still, we were not searched beyond that, unlike the van ahead of us in the line.  So we bid farewell to our native land and headed past the factories and mean streets of Detroit, shrouded in the mist, dodging some sizeable potholes along the way.

Sudden gusts of wind made Val grip the steering wheel a bit tighter as we left the urban areas and passed fields and farmhouses.  The windshield wipers got a good workout today as well.  At least the temperature did not dip to freezing levels, so it was just wet, not icy.  We actually caught glimpses of green grass in some areas, even though it had been extremely cold and snowy only days before.

Our route followed Interstate 75 the whole way.  Michigan went by quickly and we then entered Ohio, passing through Toledo and on toward Dayton.  The concrete walls at the Dayton interchanges were decorated with space shuttles and biplanes to remind us that we were passing through the area where the Wright brothers’ airplanes first slipped the surly bonds of earth. 

There’s an airplane museum nearby where visitors can actually take flight in a replica of the first plane.  Val said he was really not tempted to see what it was like seeing the ground drop away from a machine made of rags and old bicycle parts.

Springboro is a suburb south of Dayton where the country’s most affluent neighbourhoods can be found, although we didn’t see them from the interstate.  The town was also a way station for fugitive slaves using the Underground Railway to find freedom.

Brisk winds were still whipping our hair about as we walked from the hotel to a nearby restaurant for dinner.  We were glad to get back to our room afterward, armed with hot drinks from the dispensers in the lobby.  Nice touch.

Westward ho!

Windsor, ON – If you were headed out on a long, long journey and wanted to start it right, you probably wouldn’t find a better way to do it than we did yesterday. We spent our first night out in Acton, ON with a couple of dear friends, Scott and Mary Jane, who not only wined us, dined us, and put us up in a cloud of down-filled comfort, but also pulled out maps, guide books and travel photos of their trip to California and filled our imaginations with wondrous ideas of where to go and what to see. 

To back up a bit, we got up bright and early yesterday morning to accomplish all the last-minute tasks in the house and in the motorhome. We were blessed with a clear day that was comparatively warm after many days of bitter cold.  That made hitching the little Honda FIT to the back of our motorhome a lot easier, since the best way to make the connections properly is with bare hands. We pulled away at last, around 9:30, and headed for the open road. 

Highway 401 was clear and bare and the sun shone most of the way, except for a cloudy patch shortly before we reached Toronto that swirled a few snowflakes about us.  Once we got past the big city, we could see, in the bush, grim evidence of the recent ice storm that crippled the area over the Christmas holidays. It reminded us of Ottawa’s storm back in 1998 – and of Mother Nature’s amazing ability to overcome such challenges.  Now, in the Ottawa area, there is little evidence of the damage that looked so terrible all those years ago.

Cleanup crews with trucks and equipment were clearing broken tree limbs and debris in and around Acton when we arrived shortly after four in the afternoon.  Scott came out and hopped in his van to lead us to a parking area near their home where he’d arranged for us to leave the motorhome and car overnight, and then drove us back to the house.  That’s when the wining and dining, and a wonderful evening of catching up on news and adventures, began.  We had so much to talk about that it was hard to tear ourselves away and get some sleep.

The aroma of bacon, eggs, toast and coffee greeted us this morning, and we sat at Scott and Mary Jane’s new kitchen island while they completed breakfast preparations.  Scott also concocted a spectacular smoothie for us to take with us, made with carrots, kale, bananas, blueberries, cranberries, chia and flax seeds, yogurt, ginger and coconut, all liquefied in their Vitamix machine!

A soft snow had fallen overnight, so we had some sweeping off to do on our rig.  We had hoped to be able to swing the RV and car around in one arc to exit the parking lot, but it was just too tight!  So we unhitched the car, made the turn, and hitched it up again.  It didn’t take too long, and then Scott led us to the turnoff where we parted ways.

The highway was messier today, and it was foggy for a while on the 401 headed for Windsor, but later on the ceiling lifted and the road cleared a bit. The clatter of ice plates flying off the roof of the RV startled us the first couple of times as the temperatures rose, but now the snowy cap is gone, to our relief – and we don’t think we sent any vehicles behind us into the snowbanks with the debris!

Watch this space!

Here's a picture of our motorhome and car when we were heading home from the south last year.  You can see the slide out the back of the RV, where our bed is located, and the hitch that allows us to tow our little Honda FIT.  It was a great trip, and in a few days Val and I will be starting another; this time we will be heading west to California and back!  Hope you'll follow along with us on another travel adventure.  Coming soon.

Dancing between the snowflakes!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Ottawa, ON – That’s right – we’re home! And it’s great to be here. Everything was in order when we got in, so we proceeded to amend that by carting in a ton of junk from the RV and depositing it all over the front hall. We have lots of time now to sort through it and get settled again.

We can’t believe our luck in arriving when we did. Val checked the weather forecast on the TV in the hotel room this morning and said there was a snowstorm headed for Toronto from parts west, so we wasted little time getting packed up and on our way. We didn’t even stop for breakfast till we were past the city limits. (I munched on an apple to keep me going till then.)

All the traffic was headed in to the city, so we didn’t have to contend with much congestion as we set out. Clear skies graced our journey all the way home, and we made good time. Once we brought in most of the stuff that needed to come out of the RV, Val checked out the local weather and discovered that the late-winter storm is headed this way, with up to 20 cm of snow coming tonight! Whew! It’s almost as though Old Man Winter chased us all the way!

We had a fantastic trip, once again, and enjoyed sharing it with all of you who have read about it over the last eight weeks. To close off, here are a couple of little anecdotes that didn’t make it into the daily blog.

THE BLOB. After giving Val a haircut, I was putting away the clipper, scissors and other tools into the corrugated cardboard shoebox that holds them all. I noticed on the end of the box some kind of black substance that had eaten away part of the cardboard, but couldn’t figure out what the cause could be. A day or two later, Val brushed away what he thought was a crumb from his T-shirt, and a whole hunk of material came away with it! Then I found a hole in the leg of my jeans. So far, no explanation, but we’re hoping there will be no more attacks from The Blob.

THE PARKING LOT. We knew parking was expensive near the French Quarter in New Orleans. Having parked the car, we were walking to the kiosk for our tour of the city and noticed another parking lot right next to it, so we stopped at the ticket dispenser beside the lift bar, trying to find out what the fee was for this lot. A waiter at the sidewalk café next to the parking lot was watching us, and finally called out “You have to have a car to get in!”

MISTAKEN IDENTITY. When we stopped to admire the camels by the road in Kentucky, a guy in a truck was driving by and must have noticed our out-of-state plates. He leaned out the window as he passed and hollered out, with a wonderful Kentucky twang, “them ain’t no Kentucky race-horses!”.

CANADIAN, EH? – A Michigan tourist who discovered where we were from eagerly asked us if we knew how our country got its name. I said I had a feeling he was going to tell us and he said, “The prime minister had a bag with letters of the alphabet in it and pulled out a C, an N and a D. He said, ‘C, eh? N, eh? D, eh?’”

Being green

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Toronto, ON – Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Here’s a shot, taken in our hotel room mirror, of Val and me with our special “Ireland” t-shirts, which I picked up a couple of days ago to help us celebrate the day. I also wore the shamrock scarf I got as a souvenir in New Orleans. Enthusiasm is my middle name!

We were planning to meet Ben, Mark and his Katie at Ben’s apartment for brunch, so there was time this morning for me to get to church. As luck would have it, St. Andrew’s was just on the other side of the 401 cloverleaf from our hotel, a mere five-minute drive. It was lovely singing the hymn “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” in honour of the Irish saint.

Toronto’s multi-ethnic character was well reflected both in the congregation at church, and in the people at Tim Hortons where we went for breakfast this morning. It was great to see so much diversity everywhere.

Ben and his cat Sage greeted us – the former very warmly and the latter disdainfully – when we got to his apartment. It was great to see him again, and to sit down and catch up on all his doings. Mark and Katie arrived a little while later, looking a bit tired. The night before was their housewarming party for their new apartment and they had about 40 guests till who knows when, so we felt especially honoured that they came at all!

As we munched on slices of pizza, we showed them a few of our travel pictures on the laptop, but mostly we just listened to their latest news and enjoyed their company. It’s great to see all of them following their dreams and working to make them happen, even when the going gets tough from time to time.

The afternoon flew. On the way back to the 401 we found a car wash, and got rid of all the dried-on gunk that the car had collected when linked to the RV through yesterday’s slush bath! It was a considerable improvement, especially as we had smeared the muddy windows with Tim Hortons paper napkins after breakfast this morning in an attempt to gain some visibility, with mediocre results!

Now back in our hotel room, we are preparing for the last leg of our long journey. We are really looking forward to being home again! One more sleep!