A New State!
~Tuesday, March 30, 2021~
Day 289 (Travel Day)
Getting out of our campsite in Greenville was, thankfully, a little easier to get out of as opposed to getting in. And, we lucked out with timing our travels today with such beautiful weather, especially with 6+ hours of driving ahead of us. Tire pressure is a bit low on both truck and trailer tires which is something you never want to mess with. Something else that every RV’er should have is a TPS (tire pressure monitor). This handy little device sits on top of our dashboard that takes a reading of the temperature in each trailer tire as well as the PSI. You place a sensor on the air stem of each tire. The sensor will send a signal to the monitor where an alarm sounds off when any tire is losing pressure or overheating. A smart $200 investment certainly avoids a potentially dangerous situation of blowouts and shrapnel damaging the underside of a rig. An ounce of prevention a pound of cure...right? Since we are trying to get to Mahomet, Illinois to see Hannah, Devin and the grandkids by Easter, we thought Kentucky was the perfect midway point. And what could be more perfect than adding another national park to our list while in Kentucky…..Mammoth Cave National Park.
We didn’t realize just how much we missed seeing mountains until we drove over the Blue Ridge Mountains through North Carolina then the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee to eventually end up in Kentucky. This time around through North Carolina and Tennessee were just teaser drive throughs and a first for us in those states. Our first impression…..absolutely beautiful with blooming forests and green rolling hills. We picked a good time for first impressions, but have a feeling it’s always beautiful. We have plans to revisit these areas in June, with more concentrated time in each. In fact I have two cousins in Tennessee who I look forward to seeing again after much time apart.
Something we should have done earlier, was book our Mammoth Cave tour tickets. With COVID, and stricter accommodations, it’s definitely a must to book these things way in advance. Even though March is not the peak season, it is Spring Break for many. Anyway, as luck would have it, on our drive to Kentucky, Jeff and I snagged the last 2 tickets that were available for the 1 self-guided tour that they’re running called the Historic Tour. The next available tickets were for April 14th. At least lately, we’ve had pretty good karma when it comes to reserving things. But good karma doesn’t last forever, so we’re enjoying the moment!
Arriving at our campground in Mammoth Cave National Park, we noticed about 3 loops were open for this quiet time of year. We’re the second loop in and probably the largest RV here. There are mostly die-hard tent campers with temps in the low 40’s at night. Even in an RV that’s chilly. There are trees everywhere
that are starting to get their leaf bloom and can tell this place would be stunning in the summertime, once everything filled in. This time, we had a pull-through site and it was my turn to pull-in since I had just driven 4 hours of the 6. The pull-through wasn’t the problem though. The “living side” which is the awning side as you enter is on the road side. You want your living side to be facing the firepit and table. So Jeff walked ahead to see if there was a spot big enough for me to turn around and come in from the other direction. It was a tight squeeze through trees and a tight radius, but I did it, I did it, I did it!!! 👍 GIRL POWER!