$2 A Day!!

SWEET! We're at our new "home park" in Crossville, TN ( http://www.aorcamping.com/resort_directory/aor_resorts/tennessee/docs/breckenridgelake.html ) and we're only paying $2 a night because it's our first visit. Sure beats the $40 a night ( or more) in the Northeast!

Now you may be asking, "What's a home park?" OK. I'll tell ya!

If you're a full time RV'er, then there are camp "memberships" that you can buy which allows you to stay at certain RV parks across the country for $10 a night. Like a time share, if you buy one directly from the "company" then you could spend $3,000 to $10,000 for one of these memberships. Your membership is to a "home park" and you get discounts to other RV parks that are associated with whatever association your home park is a member of.

There are three national associations that sell these memberships:

1. http://www.1000trails.com/ - We did NOT join this.

2. http://www.coastresorts.com/directory/index.cfm - Coast To Coast or as it's sometimes referred to: C2C. We DID get a membership in this one.

3. http://www.resortparks.com/ - Resort Parks International (RPI). We got a membership to this one too!


Since our "home park" is part of the C2C association and the RPI association we also get access to all the RPI and C2C campgrounds scattered across the country. We can stay at one park for 7 days in a row and then we HAVE to be "out of the system" for another 7 days before we can go back to a membership park. The beauty is: we can stay at a C2C park for 7 days and then go directly to a RPI park for another 7 days at a cost of $10 a night!


We won't always be in an area where there is a membership park and that's OK because this will cut our camping costs in half at least!


AND... I bought my membership off Ebay from a reseller for a fraction of what it would have cost new! I love a good bargain!

We're just hanging out here in Crossville waiting for the leaves to change. Tough life huh? hehehe

Mammoth Cave National Park, KY

Here we are in Mammoth Cave National Park (http://www.nps.gov/maca/ ) camping at Diamond Cave RV Resort which is a "not so bad" RV place. I still wonder where in the world people come up with the nerve to call some places a "resort" though! A swimming pool, hot tub and saunas that don't work do NOT warrant the "resort" title in my opinion. HA!

We ended up here because we were running from Hurricane Ike. When I saw it was headed towards the Indiana & Michigan area we fueled up and headed south! All we got here in KY was some wind blowing about 35-35 MPH so it wasn't too bad.

We did take a short tour of Mammoth Cave. They had several walking tours available. One was about 1/4 mile in a section of one cave and the next choice was a FOUR mile walk through the cave. Yikes! That's quite a jump! Guess which one we took? Yep! The 1/4 mile "Niagra Falls" tour. That was just right :) Here are some pictures:

We'll be here for 2 weeks because we only have to pay $10 a night! That's right! We finally found a camping membership that didn't cost $1000's of dollars. I bought one off Ebay for less than $400 a YEAR and it allows us to stay at Coast to Coast and RPI campgrounds for 7 days at $10 a night. I figure that'll save us around $400 - $500 a month :) Sweet!

Our next stop will be to stay at our "home park" in Crossville, TN for a week (maybe 2 weeks) for $2 a night! We haven't been there yet, so we'll see how we like it. If it sucks ( I know it only has 30 amp service and I like 50 amp so everything works) we'll move on to Bluff City, TN to visit our son, Justin, for awhile.

Cheers! Don't forget to tell your friends about Ameriplan if they're looking for a great discount dental plan.

RV in the shop

Our RV is in the shop getting an oil change and some warranty work done on a funky air gauge. So NOW we get to sit in a hotel room in Lafayette, IN while we wait for it to get done. Hopefully we'll only have to be here one night.
On the bright side, there's a dairy queen ND a White Castle about 100 yards from the hotel so our meals are planned for the next two days! HAHAHA!
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Update: RV repairs cost: $567. Crap. Kathy discovered that our brake lights weren't working, so I had the shop chase that down and it turned out to be a cut wire under my brake pedal. THAT cost $267 alone. I did NOT get my air gauge fixed because the shop didn't have any in stock and it would have taken 3 days to get one in, so I'll have to take this thing into the shop again when I get back to Jacksonville. I did get all the fliuds checked and the oil/filter changed for my 1st 5000 mile check up.

Watching corn grow....

Well here we are in Remington, IN at Caboose Lake RV Park. We arrived 5 days ago and it's rained on us for two days and three nights. Today's ( Sunday, 9-7) weather is nice though adn we look forward to opening the windows and enjoying cool temperatures.

We're on our way Wed. morning to have an air gauge for our air brakes looked at cause it's going bonkers on me and I think I should have air brakes that work 100% of the time :) We'll also get our 5000 miles service, oil & filter change, check the ride height adjustments, etc. so we may have to get a hotel room in Lafayette, IN while we wait for our warranty work to be done. Kathy's excited about that! HA!

We met a FUN couple last night and had a great time around the fire with them just shooting the breeze and having a few drinks. They had a female dog named Lacey (?) and Elvis had a BALL playing with her! We also made a new friend, John, while camping at South Haven, MI so now we have TWO people we may be able to call/visit the next time we visit Michigan. HA! Hmmm, are we being presumptuous?

On the flip side... have you ever watched corn grow? we think that's about all there is to do around here and boy - are we ready to get back on the road!
We actually went to a DAIRY FARM to get some cheese we were so "looking for something to do."

I hid in the corn field on my way home, relied on my GPS to get us back to the RV park and we ended up on a gravel road that was about 5 miles long! HA! See the pics below:

Leaving the Lakes

So, after two weeks here, we are hittin' the road again tomorrow morning. Off to a place in Indiana, Called Caboose Lake. We have a spot on the river, so Steve may just get out that fishin' rod he done bought at the Wal Mart store and ketch us sum dinner!! Or not, maybe he'll go catch a steak at the store. In any case, we've really enjoyed the Lakes Region, but time to move on.

We have to get a part fixed on the RV (and regular maintenance) and there is a place 30 miles from where we are going to stay that we hope to have all done there. I hope it takes two days and that there is a Ritz Carlton in Central Indiana? Whaddya' think my chances are of that??? Slim to none, I bet. I'll settle for a hotel with a jacuzzi tub and room service.

We have been thinking about everyone in the storm's paths. Connie, hope you are ok. Mom and sis and niece, they are good, at least this week. We'll see what Hanna does. Steve's daughter Nicole is in Charleston, but she's not near the water and her mom is there as well.

Just over 88 days until Hurricane Season is over!!! Yeah! We haven't seen rain in over a week. Lake Michigan is really pretty but really cold................

Not sure of any other plans until we get thru the storms. Hope everyone is well and safe.................

Kathy