Time period: May 18 – June 11, 2009
Miles Driven: 677
After arriving in St. Louis for Mother’s Day and learning that Chris’ grandmother’s surgery would be scheduled in early June, we opted to take the opportunity to divert down to Hohenwald, TN to visit the folks at the Oliver Travel Trailer factory for some tweaks and fixes. We also used the opportunity to test out our new ‘Two Night’ Rule, to force us to travel a bit slower and be still a bit more.
Down the Mississippi River
We routed down the Mississippi River from Columbia, IL, passing through Popeye’s hometown of Chester and enjoying many scenic overlooks. The Mississippi was also pretty full and we heard weather reports anticipating flooding in the coming days.
We ended up camped at Columbia-Belmont State Park in Kentucky, scoring a river front spot along the bluff. We stuck to our rule, and stayed two nights – utilizing a day working outside with a gorgeous view of barges moving up the river. We tried as best we could to ignore the lawn care crew tending to the Kentucky blue grass most of the day with their buzzing mowers and weed whackers.
Hohenwald, TN
We arrived at the Oliver factory in Hohenwald on May 20, where the crew got right to work on our fixes. Most impending was that our axle was showing signs of defect by causing uneven tire wear on the outside of one tire. After a couple rounds of eliminating other causes, the great folks at Oliver had a new axle made for us, and replaced our now balding tires. We also had been fighting a leak in the roof vent fan, which they finally solved for us. Now, we can enjoy a rain storm without bringing out towels to keep from indoor flooding.
We camped overnight in the factory – which is an awesome experience to be alone in a 7 acre industrial factory, and even bumped into Jim & Evon Oliver on their super cool Harley – we had just seen them in Lake Havasu City, AZ a few weeks back. We also had a chance to learn about their new product line which is keeping the plant open while the entire RV industry is experiencing financial troubles.
We then turned our focus to finding a spot to stop for about a week that might have availability over Memorial Day weekend. Our contact at Oliver mentioned that the nearby Meriwether Lewis National Monument along the Natchez Trace had a primitive campground that he thought was free. So off we went to check it out. And indeed it was free! We enjoyed 6 nights of free camping in the forest, which gave us much needed catch up time on various work projects and relaxation. We even encountered another Oliver owner coming in for upgrades to their trailer.
Land Between The Lakes and back to St. Louis
We then started our journey back to the St. Louis area so we could help out with Chris’ grandma’s upcoming surgery and celebrate his mom’s birthday. Leaving in time to try out our 2-night rule again, we built in time to camp along the way. We selected Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, as it simply looked scenic on a map. Our camp spot was a bit indulgent, as we opted for a waterfront spot – which came with unnecessary hookups.
Along our route we spotted these tall rock structures, and stopped in Bear Springs, TN to check one out. Some friendly locals pulled up and told us all about them. It was great fun to share travel stories and meet folks along back roads. The rock towers turned out to be furnaces, used in the late 1800s to melt iron for weapons and tools.
But we did enjoy another day to enjoy a gorgeous office view!
We then meandered around backroads in Illinois coming back to Columbia. Along the way we stumbled into The Chocolate Factory, who were tempting us with free kittens. We thought better of bringing one of these cuties back as a birthday gift to Chris’ mom and instead brought her chocolates.
St. Louis
Back in St. Louis, Chris’ folks graciously offered to let us park our home in their park-like yard poolside. Being able to stay in our own home while being temporary neighbors with his folks worked out to be a fantastic balance for us – and what a view we had! Kiki loved bird watching and going for daily visits to see her Grandmeow and Aunt-dog Molly.
Chris’ grandma came through surgery with flying colors, we helped his folks switch from PC to Mac, attended a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game and caught up on some tech upgrades of our own.
All the while, we prepared for the next chapter of our adventure – a regional burning man event and taking a passenger for a midwest road trip. That’s up next!
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