We've read a few of the travel threads on the forum, and thought it would be fun to add our own, so here goes...
After dealing with the infamous cabover separation issue and wall slide problem (both eloquently described by Judge), we're off on a 3 week trip from Pickleville, UT to Fort Mill, SC to visit our kids and grandkids. The wall slide is still pretty iffy, so we'll be using it only on our longer stays in Pigeon Forge, TN and Fort Mill, SC. It's getting Vroomed in November, after which I hope to never lose sleep over opening it again.
After our last trip, the boss' main complaint about our Magnitude BH35 was the lack of kitchen prep space. I mused that I could probably come up with a surface set on small legs to create a work surface that could be placed over the cooktop when it wasn't in use.
After a bit of back and forth, we hit on the idea of multitasking a cutting board to do the job. Easy, right? Well, not so fast. The board had to be pretty large at 24" square, and of course it had to be customized with our ranch logo and Maggie's slogan. Still not too bad... All I had to do was build a CNC wood router, mill some aluminum legs, and fire up the 3d printer to make molds from which I could create silicone feet for the legs. Et voila!
We're off tomorrow morning with the sun, and our first destination is Laramie, WY. We'll be posting pictures of every stop, as well as descriptions of the interesting places we find, and ratings of the campgrounds we stay in. We hope you get some vicarious enjoyment from the trip!
Sounds like you have a Schwintek slide system. We too had problems with a large heavy slide. An RVIA certified tech, after a repair, told us to spray the gear tracks often with dry lube both inside and out. When you run it in, spray them on the inside, and when out spray on the outside about every other trip or two weeks on a long trip. Then clean and wax the sides and bottom of the slide, as well as clean and lube the seals once a month. This reduces the drag on the slide. It has been running very quite and reliable since. When it fails, do to my wife's health, we may have to repair it. If her health seems to be stable over a period of time, we too will get the Vroom slide system.
Schwintek indeed. Funny you should say that, as I've stocked a can of PTFE dry lube in the rig, and have just waxed the roller contacts. I still hold my breath though...
Nice looking cutting board/stove top. We head out next Sunday for Williams, Ar to visit the Grand Canyon for 4 nights and then head over to Benson, Ar to the Kartchner Caverns for 2 nights. We have a trip planned the end of July to visit our friends in Riverton Utah for a week. This time we will be staying at the Salt Lake KOA with our new rig(2022 Thor Miramar 37.1). We are also planning another winter trip back to Riverton in late December.
My wife had the same complaint. I don't have the woodworking equipment.... or skills for that matter! I used a standard cutting board that was large enough to cover the Induction Top and put some feet on it to provide some additional counter space as well.
I do like your larger version that covers the gas stove as well.... plus it looks sweet!
Have a great trip and I hope you have no issues with the Maggie!
We've been to Laramie in the winter to snowmobile in the Snowy Range area. Pigeon Forge is going to be a crowded place but that is a great part of the country. We stayed down in Townsend a few years ago to get away from the crowds when we hit the Smokies one October but we ventured up to Pigeon Forge for a day and hit Dollywood.
Really Graybear!
As i was looking at your fine masterpiece, my wife just happen to glanced over my shoulder…..WOW, we need that.
Thanks. Nice job,
Terry
__________________
Terry and Geri
2017 Four Winds 35SD
2020 Grand Cherokee Toad
Semper Fi
I do commissions, so if you're interested drop me a line.
Judge: Thanks, and here's hoping! We're going to use the big slide sparingly... The Snowy Range is living up to it's name, as there's still snow on the top. We plan to hit Dollywood in Pigeon Forge as well, it's on the boss' bucket list.
Paul: Is that the behemoth KOA on North Temple? We've driven through there a few times, and it's really quite nice and located near all the sights you'd want to see in Salt Lake. Just be aware that the 24th of July is crazy here as it's Pioneer Days, and you're near the Fairgrounds! Have a great trip!
Duck: I almost went for a Mazlow, but the shop is already overcrowded. The one I built is 4 ft square, and I'm building a folding table so I can stash it when not working with it. Our logo is and adapted Bar and shield with our combined initials JHD, a welding hood for me, a guitar for her, and a heart for obvious reasons...
At any rate, we landed in Laramie early this afternoon. We're staying at RJourney Laramie, which used to the the Laramie Journey KOA. It's a good size park with lots of spaces available. It's not particularly pretty, but it's clean, easy to find, and the owners are really nice.
Once we got situated, we hopped in the TOAD and went to the historic downtown for a stroll. As it's a railroad town, it fronts the railyard, and the town has done a nice job of preserving the old buildings.
Laramie is also famous for being the site of the old Wyoming Territorial Prison. The prison closed in 1909, but the state has renovated it and turned it into a fantastic and intriguing museum. Butch Cassidy spent time incarcerated here, and Millard Fillmore was a warden at one time.
Tomorrow we're off to Lincoln, NE to visit family, and then on to St Louis the day after. More photos to come!
So, no post yesterday, as we spent the day fighting 30-60mph winds, and driving rain. We got into Lincoln very late, set up in a hurry, and rushed off to meet the fam. One bright spot was the fireflies that greeted us as we returned to camp!
Speaking of which, Camp A Way RV Park in Lincoln is a GEM! It's a beautiful older park with dense vegetation (although well manicured to avoid issues), really nice level sites, and lots of amenities!
Today was Lincoln, NE to St Louis, MO. Our goal was to visit the Gateway Arch, one of the boss' bucket list items. I spent time in St. Louis during my working life, but was happy to return. We spent some time touring the park and the arch, and then knocked back some yummy drinks along with some chips and queso at Mas Tequila Cantina, right next to Arch Park.
We're staying the the Draft King Casino RV Park on the Illinois side of the Mississippi, just across from the arch. The view of the arch and it's location near to the city are about all this place has to recommend it. It's all asphalt, no vegetation, and totally unstaffed. You enter with a gate code, and you're on your own. I have no reason to gripe, as I knew this going in and chose the place because it's close to where we want to go, and easy to access I-70, but if you're thinking of staying here, know what you're getting.
Tomorrow we're off to Nashville. Mileage is much shorter from St. Louis, and we're spending some extra time in Pigeon Forge after Nashville.
Wow, Cades Cove is a great suggestion, I just read about it, and it wasn't on our radar before. Thanks guys!
We spent last night in Seven Points Recreation Area Campground, just east of Nashville. This is a Corps of Engineers site, and like every other one we've stayed at it was AMAZING! Beautiful wooded sites that are also clean, wide and almost dead level. Heck, they even rake the gravel daily! Throw in a site prep table, a NPS barbeque, firepit and massive concrete picnic table. Man these guys think of everything! Seven Points is one of several campsites located around Priest Lake. It's also very close to the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's home.
My son was stationed at Ft. Campbell just Northwest of Nashville, so we're been here a few times. As a result, we skipped doing the Nashville tourist thing, and took a swim in the lake followed by some relaxed boozing. We got a free nature show, as a whitetail mama and her two new spotted fawns were feeding and playing right at our site. It's obvious they're protected, because they didn't care a bit about us. Finally, we were treated to a wonderful firefly display for the second time this trip.
We slept in a bit today, but still made it to Pigeon Forge in the early afternoon. We're staying at the Pine Mountain RV Park, right in downtown Pigeon Forge. It's far enough off the Parkway that you wouldn't know you were here, so it's really quiet. Another really nice commercial park with mature trees, nice flat concrete pads, nd friendly operators.
We're here for two nights, and tomorrow is all about Dollywood. More pictures tomorrow!
We've read a few of the travel threads on the forum, and thought it would be fun to add our own, so here goes...
After dealing with the infamous cabover separation issue and wall slide problem (both eloquently described by Judge), we're off on a 3 week trip from Pickleville, UT to Fort Mill, SC to visit our kids and grandkids. The wall slide is still pretty iffy, so we'll be using it only on our longer stays in Pigeon Forge, TN and Fort Mill, SC. It's getting Vroomed in November, after which I hope to never lose sleep over opening it again.
After our last trip, the boss' main complaint about our Magnitude BH35 was the lack of kitchen prep space. I mused that I could probably come up with a surface set on small legs to create a work surface that could be placed over the cooktop when it wasn't in use.
After a bit of back and forth, we hit on the idea of multitasking a cutting board to do the job. Easy, right? Well, not so fast. The board had to be pretty large at 24" square, and of course it had to be customized with our ranch logo and Maggie's slogan. Still not too bad... All I had to do was build a CNC wood router, mill some aluminum legs, and fire up the 3d printer to make molds from which I could create silicone feet for the legs. Et voila!
We're off tomorrow morning with the sun, and our first destination is Laramie, WY. We'll be posting pictures of every stop, as well as descriptions of the interesting places we find, and ratings of the campgrounds we stay in. We hope you get some vicarious enjoyment from the trip!
Don't know why it takes your original post (June 18th) to reach us via an email notification today June 25th. This is something the creators need to fix. Enjoy Pigeon Forge and be sure to eat at Paula Dean's it's awesome food. Love the cutting board. (I want one)
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Bill & Martha more than 46 years.
Traveling with Shih Tzu's Baily, Bella and Maltese Buster. Towing, Golf Cart, Harley or Polaris RZR. 3 of our darling Shih Tzu's passed away recently and I just can't take them off of here. RIP Baxter, Baili & sweet sweet Bella. Buster is our little rock.
Love Pickleville & Bearlake. We are out of West Bountiful. Love the cutting board. We just got our Maggie back from the dealership also. Cap separation and jack problems. That’s a story for anther day. Have a safe trip.
Don't know why it takes your original post (June 18th) to reach us via an email notification today June 25th. This is something the creators need to fix. Enjoy Pigeon Forge and be sure to eat at Paula Dean's it's awesome food. Love the cutting board. (I want one)
After 5 wonderful days spent with our grandkids (oh yeah, I think we ran into our children at some point as well), we're back at GSMNP. We came out on the occasion of our grandson's 4th Birthday.
The kiddos live just south of Charlotte, in Fort Mill. Fort Mill's current claim to fame is that it's the home of Puckerbutt Pepper Company, home of the infamous Carolina Reaper . This pepper holds the record for being the hottest pepper on the planet at 1,641,183 Scoville Heat units. We try to visit the store when we hit town, even though we are not what you'd call hardcore pepper eaters.
Prior to this visit we had come across the Netflix documentary We are the Champions. Episode 2 details Puckerbutt's 1st World Championship Pepper eating contest, held in Fort Mill in 2019. To our surprise, the second place finisher, Bella was sitting behind the counter. Bella and her husband moved to Fort Mill from Ohio after the contest to work with "Smokin" Ed Currie, Puckerbutt's owner and master pepper grower. It was a real treat to get to talk to her about her experiences, and we even caught a glimpse of Ed himself, also a really nice guy. Fortunately, not everything they sell will melt your soul... We found some really tasty sauces that were right in our heat comfort zone.
The other highlight of the trip was taking the grandson to Carowinds, Charlotte's famous amusement park. At 4 years old, he was awesome, lasting almost 7 hours! We rode every ride he could get on, and he was asking for more despite falling asleep on his feet.
Now we're back near Gatlinburg (Newport more precisely), at the Newport KOA. We spent yesterday and today exploring the backroads around GSMNP, as well as hitting the spots inside the park we haven't visited before. On a previous trip, we traversed the entire Blue Ridge Parkway as part of a drive from Charlotte NC to Portland ME. We hit just the south end this trip to get us to the south park entrance, and worked our way over to Gatlinburg on 441, with stops along the way. We're pulling out tomorrow for two days at Parker's Crossing, TN. We're going to hit some Civil War sites, including Shiloh. If you haven't, you really need to stay at Parker's Crossing RV Park when you're in the area. It's a favorite spot of ours.
The Newport KOA is quite nice as well. Gravel sites, and a bit tricky to level, but quiet, with easy access to Hwy 40, and surrounded by amazing scenery.
We spent the last two days at Parker's Crossroads, at Parker's Crossroads RV Park. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I can't say enough good things about the place. It's small, but well kept, with dead level concrete pads as well as gravel pads with really nice wood decks centered out your RV door. Nice pool, and free fishing in their large pond.
Parker's Crossroads was the site of a Civil War encounter between Union Colonels Dunham and Fuller, and Confederate Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest. Despite having numbers and surprise, the Union failed to capture Forrest, who is credited with being one of the most brilliant tacticians of the war.
About 45 miles south of Parker's Crossroads is Shiloh National Military Park. This parks commemorates and preserves the site of one of the war's bloodiest encounters. The casualties at Shiloh numbered more then 23,000. This was more than the dead and wounded of all the prior American wars combined.
We spent a day learning about the battle, and seeing the battlefield. The park has an amazing auto audio tour that brings the battle locations to life. There are markers for the unit locations, their HQ locations, as well as the locations of the deaths of the major commanders. Shiloh also has the distinction of being the place where the highest ranking American ever was killed in action, Confederate General Albert Sydney Johnston.
We visited the Union cemetery, which is small, but echoes Arlington for its solemnity. Unfortunately, most of the Confederate dead were buried in one of several mass graves scattered around the park.
As it happens, we hit the park at a really great time. On July 2 and 3rd each year, the park holds a cannon firing demonstration. A complete Union gun crew fires one of the 6 pounder cannons at several points in the day. We arrived just in time for the first demonstration of the day.
After a day at Shiloh, the boss and I were both starving. We've tried to avoid eating out a lot this trip, and have been making some good meals in Maggie. However, this time we decided to hunt up a local place and take a chance. Just outside of the Shiloh Military Park, right on the Tennessee River sits Hagy's Catfish Hotel Restaurant. In fact, Hagy's had been occupied by the Union during the battle of Shiloh!
The sign on the Highway looked a little sketchy, and the boss has never had catfish, however she called the tune, so we both paid the piper and headed down to the river.
Imagine our surprise when we got there, and beheld a beautiful low slung building surrounded by dozens of cars! Apparently this is the place to go for catfish in southern Tennessee, as well as northern Mississippi!
The boss gamely ordered breaded fried catfish, while I ordered Cajun style. Although I haven't had catfish since being stationed at Ft. Bragg NC in the late 70s, I knew what I was in for. But the boss was under the impression that she'd be eating fried mud. Watching her eyes light up with the first bite was more satisfying than the meal! These folks know how to serve catfish!
We took off this morning headed for Arkansas, and are now sitting on the bank of Lake Dardanelle, at another wonderful Corps of Engineers campground, Piney Bay. From now on it's one night stands as we wend our way back to Utah.
Nice job,
. This pepper holds the record for being the hottest pepper on the planet at 1,641,183 Scoville Heat units. We try to visit the store when we hit town, even though we are not what you'd call hardcore pepper eaters. 
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