Adventure Is Out There

Webster defines adventure in the following ways: a an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks or b the encountering of risks.

Sometimes we forget how small our world has become. It’s healthy for us to remind ourselves that the world is vastly larger than the space we occupy in our banal, day to day existence. In order for us to expand those horizons, we have to make a concerted effort to break out of our comfortable lives and seek new horizons and challenge our status quo. That can be a lot. The older we get, the more burdensome this task seems to become for most people for a variety of reasons. So why make the effort? In this post, I’ll try to answer that question by taking you along on an epic journey (adventure) of my own. You can share in some of the joys, beauty and challenges we met along the way.

Before I set the stage, let me dispel any myth that might exist that any such undertaking would just be laughter and good times. Two trucks, two fifth wheels, four adults and two dogs for ten days and 1737 miles has its share of challenges as well as good times. That said, I’ll set the stage now for this adventure. Who? I traveled with my wife, and one of my best friends (a former zone partner of mine whom I’ve worked with for over thirty years) and his wife and our two dogs. What? We did our 1700 plus miles in fifth wheels that are both about the same size-between 33 and 35 feet long. Where? Our ultimate destination was Hot Springs National Park. But we had a carefully planned itinerary that my wife put together that took us to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, and back through Alabama to Florida. Why? The national park looked interesting and was a great destination as did the variety of stops in between that were between 250 and 350 miles apart. When? The trip was planned for ten days.

I’ve thought a lot about how to chronicle a trip like this. The friendship, the hardship (there was some), the stunning countryside, getting out of our box, working together learning new things or seeing amazing new parts of our great country. Jamming all that into a manageable blog sounds difficult. As a matter of fact, it sounds more like a book than a blog. However, I’m going to try.

I’ll begin by going over the hardships. Let me start out by saying that my friend and I are experienced RVers and that between the two of us we are prepared for just about anything. While on the road, we communicate via GRMS radio (thankfully-cellular signals were not always dependable where we were). We carry tools, extra supplies and we were still challenged.

Our first challenge was a tire problem with his tow vehicle that required both of our compressors to solve. Shortly after that, there was a stop because of a high pitched whining noise from the rear end of his tow vehicle that, after the second time we stopped, we finally diagnosed as an errant mud flap. We fixed that with high quality duct tape (never buy the cheap stuff) and we were on the way. Not far outside the national park in Arkansas, my radio cracked “Hey Mike, you need to pull over. You have a flat.” One of the tires on my rig had gone flat. We used his previous experience with a flat on his rig on another trip and his 20v torque driver and had the tire changed in something like 25 minutes. Ten minutes or so after we were back on the road he called me again…”I think you have another flat on the same axle.” Oh, and by the way, again we were using both of our compressors. This time we were highly freaking suspicious since we found no damage on the last flat or this one. We removed the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) valve stem caps, put air in the tire we had removed and the one still on the rig that had gone flat (only one spare) and it held air. The TPMS caps were causing the failure in the valve stems! The tire on rig held air while we held our breath and limped into the national park campground.

The campground in Tupelo, Mississippi was beautiful but our site was difficult to get into. Since we have owned our rig, we have experienced something I call “kingpin bite”. This happened because the space between the truck’s tailgate and the kingpin/hitch of the fifth wheel is too little and when the truck and fifth wheel move up and down in opposite directions too much the 10,000 pounds of fifth wheel damages the tailgate. It happened again in Tupelo while I was maneuvering into the site. I had to drop the truck off of the pavement and I damaged the tailgate again. This time the most severe damage to date. My travel partner had a suggestion that involved a trip to the local Tractor Supply in Hot Springs and then tailgate repair and hitch removal and re-install in the campground. Done. Problem apparently solved.

Well, the second to last challenge was a doozy. There are few things in the life of an RVer that are worse than a malfunctioning RV toilet (I will spare you readers any photos). My travel partner experienced this in Chickimaunga State Park, Tn. We were up until all hours of the night trying everything you can think of and NOTHING worked. We had to pull out early and head to the nearest repair shop to have it fixed. Wow.

As far as challenges, the last one was massive. Geographically and problem solving-wise. Post toilet fix, we ended up in a small state park in Alabama and were preparing to take a breath and relax when we realized that the giant, dangerous storm system that had been in the news over the last couple of days had moved and we were in the highest risk part of it and it was bearing down on us. All four of us talked about it. No one was happy about it, but we packed up and headed for home to get out of its way. We have been in an RV for a tornado, high winds and hail before. I’d rather have a 16 hour drive day than do that again. Given the way the storm wrecked parts of the country that we were in, I’d say we were right to get the heck out of dodge. If for no other reason than both rigs are 13’6″ high and towing them in high winds ain’t no fun.

The places we saw were beautiful. We drove through hundreds of miles of the most beautiful American countryside you can think of. Farmland. Open fields. Rolling hills and low foothills/mountains. There were cattle and horses, sheep and goats. Towering trees and low grasslands. We met other RVers from all over the country and chatted with them roadside and in the campgrounds. The campgrounds were great but the two best were, without a doubt Hot Springs National Park and Chickasaw State Park.

Hot Springs National Park campground is small…about 40 sites. It is nestled into a valley of some low mountains. Our site backed up to a small river/large creek that babbled its way past us and was part of the feeder system for the hot springs. The park is laced with hiking trails and rich with animal life. I took a lot of pictures of birds and hoped to capture one of a Golden Eagle (I read that they live there). We had a wonderful close encounter with a golden eagle on a hike that took off from a perch in dense trees some thirty feet over our heads, but I was unable to even bring the camera to bear. Besides the trees were so thick that there was little chance of a decent photo. But…wow, what a treat and privilege.

The City of Hot Springs is loaded with history too. Bathhouse Row is part of the national park and steeped in history. There is a lot to do and we barely scratched the surface.

Chickasaw State Park was sprawling and beautiful as has been my experience with Tennessee state parks. It was absolutely loaded with bird life and things to do and see. Hiking trails crisscrossed the park. You can ride horses, rent boats (or bring your own), fish, practice archery (they have a range) and get lost if you aren’t careful and don’t have a map. What a beautiful place.

Takeaways: My wife did a stellar job of planning and coordinating this complex trip across the southeastern part of the United States. We ran into a lot of people along the way and never met anyone who wasn’t kind, generous, and friendly. A very special thanks to the good people Of Hot Springs Tire who made certain that the rest of our trip was safe and uneventful in the tire department.

Our national parks be they large or small are wonderful treasures. If you have an opportunity to visit a national park, seize that opportunity with both fists. It is well worth your time and trouble.

Tennessee State Parks are in my experience simply superb. No entry fee. Beautiful. Feature heavy, well maintained and situated to take advantage of the state’s remarkable natural wonders.

Webster’s definition of adventure involves risk. There certainly is more risk in travel than sitting at home watching TV. But, the rewards are beyond this writer’s simple means to communicate. Travel with loved ones and shared experiences. Travel with friends, problem solving as a team, experiencing our country and being OUT THERE. I encourage you all to pack your things, plan a trip and see some of this great country.

Post Script-In the planning and preparation area, every tool and doohickey that my fiend and I bought or acquired and took with us was worth every nickel and the trouble to pack and figure out how to take with us. I think we used everything we had between the two of us and I will be acquiring a couple more after this trip.

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