Travel update - FG Airstream spotted on the road

[BatDude]

Bat Dude and family travel update


As we begin heading north we spent a week in Clearwater Florida with friends after 4+ months in our Scamp. A full sized bed was nice for a week as well as a week of intense social activities with longtime friends. They were founders of the Florida Bat Conservancy so they were once batty as well. The downside was perhaps a bit too much wine!


On the road, our first night’s stop our of Florida was in Valdosta, Ga and last night the Cartersville KOA in Ga. Turns out we had stayed here a few years ago. Nice place. Super clean restrooms etc. I had a major oops that was as they say “My bad.” The AAA trip routing I use includes campgrounds and I had selected a KOA that looked good for the planned distance traveled. AAA has now has added a time feature so you can enter how many hours you wish to travel between rest stops. Nice feature. These show up as a red circle around distances that were selected e.g. every 2 hours as suggested rest breaks.


However, AAA has apparently not updated their location database! The campground listed as a KOA was selected from the AAA route and what I entered as our destination in our Flex’s navigation. Turned out that one was an EX-KOA and RVParky showed it as a bad choice with loads of negative reviews. I did read those reviews and reserved our slot at the real KOA. However, Bat Dude did not correct the on-board Flex navigation route! Oops, I was shocked and Carolyn horrified when we pulled in to the “A-OK RV Park” or whatever they are calling it. Clearly, the old KOA style A-frame office etc. all painted a bright “Pea soup” green. According to their sign they “featured” a petting zoo. We did take advantage of the rest facilities quickly and noted all but the petting zoo goats were in the restrooms. When I initially inquired at the office I was informed that they only had a single 30 amp and water site available for $39. Wrong answer!


We turned on our Verizon Hot spot to look at our Google calendar with the cnfrm # for our real KOA slot. Well Poop! Bat Dude had not updated the nav list in our flex before leaving Clearwater. So once the correct destination was entered it was a quick and easy back track south on I-75 and 15 minutes to reach the correct KOA.


As the infamous quote from the book Accidental Tourist “If you are going to Hell you will have to change planes in Atlanta” seems this also relates road travel on I-75 and all the bypasses. As we approached from the south I thought we were going to be golden with one of the by-passes and miss the dense traffic. Wrong. OMG right through Atlanta on I-75. At one point Flex, nav indicated a 41-minute traffic delay ahead. We survived the careening 18 wheelers and massive motor couches on the 4-6 lanes passing on both sides and darting in ahead of us often a mere 10 feet in front of us at>75 MPH in 65 MPH zones. On the positive side, there were multitudes of kind folks who slowed down to allow us to change lanes to the varied interchanges to remain on the route.


Once north of Atlanta and my cortisol levels returned to normal I began enjoying the drive and looking around again. I was rewarded by a sighting of the new FG Airstreams about 20 miles north of Atlanta. It was heading south on I-75 on a flatbed trailer with 2 of the smaller aluminum trailers. Looked like it was ~ Scamp 16 or 17 Casita size.


Our stay in Venice at the Encore RV Resort was adequate and served the purpose for me to paint during the Light Chaser’s Paint Sarasota and annual show event. After a long cold stay on Jekyll where I did very little painting due to weather, it was nice to be outside again. I had a major shock as we toured the annual Light Chaser’s show! There was a red dot on my annual show entry. Yikes, my painting of Jekyll Island marshes SOLD! My paint Sarasota painting Do Not Feed, came home with us. So 50% of what I had in the show sold LOL.


We are heading to Lexington KY today to the Kentucky Horse Farm State Park. We had planned only 3 nights there but last night I extended our stay 2 more nights. A major winter event is sweeping Michigan for the next 4 days with loads of snow and freezing weather. Even arriving Tue. of next week instead of Sunday will still necessitate winterizing the Scamp. Hopefully, when we are that far north the roads will at least be ice-free. Night time temps are predicted to range from mid-teens to low 20S. Oh joy. I plan to add RV antifreeze to front bathroom gray water transfer water pump and drain then open all cabinet doors with water lines and run the propane furnace at night once parked.


We have one more planned Scamping trip in early June for a 3-day yoga retreat along Lake Michigan in a state park. Our new Escape 19 will not be available until after Aug. 8th. Still not sure if we will opt for delivery or likely motel it on a trip to pick it up. In addition to more space we are having it 4 seasoned insulated so for these colder temps it will be a bit warmer than the Scamp.


Carolyn has a huge 3-day dog training-behavior workshop in Canada mid-September. That would be an easy pull through the Detroit area across to Canada about 90 miles.



The cold front is starting to move in and temperature dropping so we are layering up for colder wet weather for our travel day.


Cheers,

Bat Dude

[John in Michigan]

Bat Dude please give me your opinion on the KHP campground. We are seriously considering stopping there en route to NC in the near future.

[Tom 72]

Airstream's release date for the Nest, its fiberglass entry is about a week away, April 12th. There are likely many on flatbeds about now. The load you saw makes me wonder whether dealers have to buy one Basecamp model in order to receive one Nest. I don't know.

[mary and bob]

Are you taking that new Escape to Jekyll next winter? We won't spend the winter on the island again, probably not go in the campground again. Our future stays will be in a rented house as we did this past February, even though we had the camper with us.