Your coach looks lonely without the VW van.

Hey Steve you missed the Talladega race yesterday!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Duane88:
Hey Steve you missed the Talladega race yesterday!!!

Nope. It was on I 75 between Tampa and I 10. All the racing I needed.

Well we did another 305 miles, made it by 3PM. Just outside of Birmingham at the Hoover Metro RV park. Great big paved lot, almost empty.

Picked up another thousand dead lovebugs on the front of the coach. Not sure of the exact number but it was even, they are always in pairs! (part of me feels sorry to kill so many happy amorous bugs but with a magnifying glass I could see they all had faces like this: . Aside from numerous postmortem cases of Peyronie's disease they all looked happy!)

Criuse control dropped out a couple of times. Needed to clean the connections on my dummy stop lamp back there. Ok now.

Have Barth, traveling

Be curious how this part of your trip goes, perhaps a couple 0f the busiest cities, Nashville, Louisville and also believe it to be the most scenic part of the trip. Have a pleasant drive ole chum!

Did not leave until 930 this morning, after rush hour in Birmingham. Made it through easily.

Stopped for lunch at the Tennessee welcome center. Florida has free orange juice samples at their welcome center. I was hoping maybe Jack Daniels here but no luck!

Tanked up this morning. The truck stops are a rip off. Most around $5.29. Found a Marathon right off the freeway for $4.79! Yeah! Got a good fill and still got 9.3 mpg. No complaints here!

We will be heading through Nashville around 2PM. we'll see how traffic goes. Heading for Horse Cave Kentucky KOA tonight.

Have Barth, traveling

Steve you will go right by the "Makers Mark" distillery in Louisville, stop in they do have a sample bar, free too! That is also close to Churchill Downs. No free betting though.

Made it to Horse Cave KOA. Not an easy day. 305 miles took 6 hours instead of 4 1/2. Good run through Birmingham and north to Nashville. Got to Nashville around 2, just in time for an hour of stop and go.... Made it through Nashville to find construction all the way to the Tennesse border... (Actually 14 more miles into Kentucky.) A tedious drive. About as bad as I75 through Atlanta, just different.

Horse Cave KOA is not my favorite. The sites are rather short and not very level. The back in sites are terraced on a hillside. When I got my coach parked just off the road, I could not walk around the back end, it was hanging over the hill! If you get a pull through you will still need to unhook the toad because they are so short. I would avoid if over 30ft. No cable service and almost no local TV stations. Lots of road noise from nearby highway. Ok for the night but worth the price.

An irritating day. On top of that the cruise control quit working (not that I would be able to use it much.) So far this has not been a better alternative to I75, just different.

Truck stops add about 30 cents a gallon to diesel. Then you get a credit card that deducts it when you pay. If any interest I will go to the Barth and retrieve the info.

Thanks Gary but I have only one more fuel stop and it is a regular station with good prices in Ohio.

Duane, you were right. I65 ain't no better than I75. After the nightmare called Nashville yesterday, and thinking about Louisville today, we changed plans. We decided to go back to I75 to avoid Louisville, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, etc. Better with the devil you know...

Drove north to Elizabethtown, jumped on the Bluegrass Parkway 9002 and drove east to Lexington. Great road, no traffic, bourbon trail. Passed the Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey, Four Roses, Woodford Reserve, Jim Beam distilleries, etc. Got back on I75, drove north. Took the east loop around Cincinnati, through Dayton and up to Wapakoneta KOA. Another 310 miles, arrived by 2PM. Best day of the trip so far!

One more day, 355 miles, to get home tomorrow. We had frost last night in KY and it snowed at home. The leaves are just coming out here in Ohio, none at home. Supposed to be 54 tomorrow. No more shorts and sandals for me for a while....

Cruise control is still weird, it will turn on and hold fast idle, kick off with the brake, but won't hold on the road. Maybe no speed signal from trans. I will check before we leave tomorrow.

Steve, believe Nashville is the most dreaded part of the trip with Indianapolis running a close second, always tried to go through them at night. A lot of Interstate highways intersect at Nashville and that makes for considerable lane hopping going on and slow downs.

When I lived in Louisville and Evansville the Blue Grass Parkway was great, did a lot of bass fishing those days and there are lakes all along that route.

Have an easy trip tomorrow, even if it is cold being home is worth it, summer is on the way.

I have no fondness for Atlanta, but at least you can go more or less straight through. As you say, there are many lane changes and merging traffic areas to get through Nashville. We drove through at 2PM, not rush hour. There was no construction in Nashvile (miles of it north of the city!) but it was constant stop and go and merging. Not an easy city to get through.

We will probably go back to the 75 route and choose timing carefully to avoid late day travel.

Either route is crawling with trucks these days. I will be tweaking my Cummins soon for better passing and hill climb performance. It is currently rated at only 300 hp and I am sure I can get at least 75 more with little trouble. Stay tuned for a Cummins hot rod thread, coming soon. As soon as I get my EGT and boost gauges installed I will play with boost and fuel.

Last trip leg is tomorrow. Should be OK since I know the route and there is not much construction. I will report tomorrow.

Have Barth, traveling now

Home now. Filled up this morning at $4.69 drove 355 miles to home. 1633 miles this return trip. Good to be back!!!

Sunny and 50, not Florida but I can live with it.

Glad you are home, maybe spring will start now that the snowbirds are back home...