Sorry for the late start

We finally started out on our long-planned, "epic" journey at 12:15pm Monday, May 31st.... Memorial Day.  What a day to start making OUR memories of OUR first RV trip across this beautiful country.  We're pretty proud of ourselves that we left Venice only 1 1/2 hours behind schedule. 

Our first stop was at OLeno State Park in High Springs, Florida.  We used Jean's "trusty" I-phone to navigate us to the  park and it took us a mile and a half down a dirt road to a dead-end.  While Jean was standing at the end of the road helping to get our truck and 28-foot trailer headed in the opposite direction, it started to pour down rain.  It continued to rain until the next morning... what a beginning!  It was a beautiful park with only a few other camper in sight and a lot of wildlife.

Next we stayed at Georgia Veteran's State Park in Cordele, Georgia.  Another beautiful park, this time with well groomed landscape, on a lakefront graced with Canadian geese.  Here we had a citronella candlelight dinner while we sat under our awning "enjoying" another rainstorm.

Then on to Old Hwy 41 Campground #3 in Acworth, Georgia (Atlanta) where we had a mini Wolf- family reunion, attended a wedding, and had lunch with Jean's sister and brother-in-law and friends that Jean hadn't seen in 40 years (Carolyn and Larry Estepa).  Oh yes, did we mention that it rained again?!?!  We must say, although it puts a damper on campfires, it does make it nice for sleeping.

From Atlanta, we headed west to Huntsville, Alabama to Monte Sano State Park.  We visited with the lady who sold us "Belle", our HiLo camper and picked up the sway bars that she finally located in her garage.  Oh yes, did we mention it rained again?!  Is this starting to sound like a broken record?!  As we were leaving Huntsville, on "garbage day," Jerome was unable to avoid a garbage can that was sitting too far out into the road.  We thought we barely nicked it but it must have been full of bricks because it tore off the front awning support of our trailer.  We "limped" into a Walmart parking lot, with the support swinging in the breeze, and examined the damage.  We saw twisted aluminum and broken and missing parts.  Thank heavens for duck tape!

We wrote this blog while in Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky while enjoying beautiful weather and a great campfire.  The challenge for the 3 nights we stayed here was to camp without water, electricity, or sewer hook-ups!  We learned to fill our water tanks from the nearby water source,  use our propane tanks for our refrigerator and for cooking, our solar panel to recharge our batteries for our LED lights in our trailer, and to use the water pump to flush our toilet., We hiked and biked, sat outside painting, and just enjoyed the park.  Even though it may sound like a disastrous beginning, the parks have been beautiful, the company heartwarming, and we are having a wonderful time.  Our ability to use Wifi and send blogs is quite limited.  We're now in Platte River Campground in the Sleeping Bear Dunes in Honor, Michigan.  We'll try to update our trip soon.  'Until later, we wish you a sunny day and a smile.......