We’re getting hitch itch and are looking forward to getting back on the road in a week or two. Since we’re sitting still right now, I’ve been looking over past issues of the Gypsy Journal and thinking about some of our favorite routes from past travels. Here are my ten favorite RV routes.

Natchez Trace Parkway – They called it the Devil’s Backbone back in the days when Indians, outlaws, and renegades prowled this historic route, preying on unwary travelers But today, the Natchez Trace Parkway is pure heaven for RVers! Picture 450 miles of good two lane road that meanders through  hardwood forests and past charming small towns, with a speed limit of 50 miles per hour, and no commercial traffic allowed, with frequent pullouts large enough for any size RV, and you can see why we love this historic highway that winds from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. If you haven’t put this trip on your travel itinerary, do it now. You’ll be glad you did!

US Highway 101 – Further south in California, this scenic route loses much of its charm, but from Eureka, California to the tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, US 101 will take you through some of the most beautiful scenery you’ll find anywhere in the country. Take your time, because you’ll be treated to dramatic ocean views, charming small towns, lighthouses, fishing villages, and if you’re really lucky, even whales passing by just offshore!

LoLo Pass Trail – If I had to choose my very favorite route in America, in terms of scenery, it would be US Highway 12 between Missoula, Montana and Lewiston, Idaho, which locals call the Lolo Pass Trail. The excellent two lane highway follows the route explorers Lewis and Clark took on their epic trek west, with towering mountains on one side and the beautiful Clearwater River on the other.  Keep your camera handy for an opportunity to photograph deer, elk, moose, and whitewater rafters. 

US Highway 2 – If you love unspoiled forests, friendly small towns, scenic views of deep water, and a slower travel pace, you should take some time to travel US Highway 2 across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. For most of the 140 miles between Escanaba on the west, and St. Ignace on the east, you’ll be passing within spitting distance of beautiful Lake Michigan. It’s a good highway, and you can make good time if you want to, but with scenery like this, why would you hurry?

Great River Road – The Great River Road is one of America’s national treasures, and a route every RVer should take at least once. From the headwaters of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota,  this series of local, state, and federal roads follows the course of the river south through ten states, to where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico, introducing you to beautiful views, wonderful small towns, river barges, and history every mile of the way.

Route 66 – Much of this historic route has been swallowed up or paved over by interstate highways, but there are still many sections of the Mother Road to be explored between its origin in Chicago, Illinois and its terminus in Santa Monica, California. You could spend an entire season tracing the many alignments of this nostalgic highway by RV and with your dinghy, and still not see it all.

Overseas Highway – The Overseas Highway, the southernmost leg of US Highway 1, carries you from Miami, Florida to Key West, affording views of the sparkling blue water of the Atlantic Ocean on one side, and the Gulf of Mexico on the other. Along the way, you’ll pass funky tourist towns, a dolphin sanctuary, beautiful beaches, cross over the impressive Seven Mile Bridge, and back into history. One note here, while this is a great trip, you’ll have to park your RV somewhere else at the end of your journey, because the streets in Key West, at the southern end of your route, are not suited for large vehicles.

Old Spanish Trail – Incorporating US Highway 90 in the east and US Highway 80 in the west, the route known to old time travelers as the Old Spanish Trail, is an interesting and memorable journey that will carry you from Jacksonville Beach, Florida all the way west to San Diego, California, as you trace America’s history from coast to coast.

Lincoln Highway – The Lincoln Highway was America’s first transcontinental highway, stretching from New York to San Francisco, and though the old route has been replaced by Interstate 80, you can still drive much of the original route, especially in the east and Midwest. It’s a slow paced trip to remember.  

US Highway 60 – Beginning at an intersection with Interstate 10 in Quartzsite, Arizona, and stretching all the way to Virginia Beach, Virginia, we love to take this slow, scenic highway when we travel east from our old hometown in Show Low, Arizona. Sure, we could go north a few miles and jump on Interstate 40, but what fun would that be? We prefer to take our time, stop for lunch in small town cafes, and experience the real America that the superslab bypasses.

So there you have it, my ten favorite great RV routes. Tell us about some of yours.

Bad Nick doesn’t have hitch itch, but he is pretty ticked off at the latest rip off coming out of Washington. Check out his new Bad Nick Blog post titled Adding Insult to Injury and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day -A bend in the road is not the end of the road, unless you fail to make the turn.

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I think the old Willy Nelson song with the above title must be the theme song for fulltime RVers, and I bet a lot of us hum or sing it to ourselves when we pull out of a campground. It sure brought a smile to my face to do so yesterday morning!

It was 19 degrees at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington when I fired up the Winnebago and pulled out of our campsite. After a quick stop at the dump station to empty our holding tanks, we were on the road by 9:15 a.m. We usually wait until rush hour is over before we leave in the morning because we can’t see any reason to get out there with all the commuters on their way to work.

We took the Bluegrass Parkway southwest 90 miles to Elizabethtown, where we got onto Interstate 65. All along the way the rock faces, where the route was carved through the mountains, were covered with long icicles that looked like stalactites found in Kentucky’s many caves in this region. They call this area Cave Country, and it’s one of our favorite places, but not this time of year. We’ll be back sometime when it’s warm.

As we traveled south, eighteen wheelers and RVs going by us from places further north occasionally showered the highway with great sheets of snow and ice that slid off their roofs and exploded into white bursts as they hit the pavement. I guess we’re not the only ones in a hurry to get out of the cold!

I wrote about how much I hate driving through Nashville when I reported on our trip north, and several people suggested we take the State Route 155, known as the Briley Parkway, as a bypass. We had been on this stretch of road several years ago while it was under construction and were faced with long delays. This time around there was no construction, and though there was a lot of traffic, it moved along pretty well as we skirted the east side of Music City, passing by the Grand Ole Opry, where I imagine Willy Nelson has sung On The Road Again.

We made good time as we scooted across Tennessee, then crossed into Alabama. Rain had been predicted for much of our route south, and a few miles north of Birmingham it began to sprinkle, then picked up to a steady shower. Roadways are most dangerous just after it begins to rain, because all of the oil and road film gets wet and very slippery until it rains enough to wash it away. This is a very dangerous time to be using either a Jake brake or cruise control. We slowed down to a safe speed on the wet road and continued into Birmingham, another city I really don’t like driving through. There was a lot of road construction, with narrow twisting lanes, and the drivers all seemed to be in a hurry to be the first one to the accident.

The sky had been gloomy since we left Nashville, and as the afternoon wore on, it got darker and darker. By the time we were approaching Montgomery, it was pouring rain and visibility was dropping fast. Time to get off the highway. We pulled into the Prattville Moose Lodge, about ten miles north of Montgomery, and just a mile off the Interstate.

The lodge has a small campground for traveling Moose members, with a dozen sites with water and 30 amp electric hookups. We stayed here once before, in dry weather, but I wanted to test the dirt RV parking area before we pulled into it with our heavy motorhome. It was pretty saturated, and we decided instead to pull around behind the lodge and park on the edge of the driveway. There are no hookups back here, but that’s not a problem for us, with our Onan generator and fresh water holding tank.

We had covered 490 miles, and that was more than enough for one day. It’s chilly here, about 42 degrees overnight. But since that was about twice what we had the night before, and four times what we faced in Elkhart, nobody in our coach was complaining!

Today we have an easy run of about 185 miles to the Escapees Rainbow Plantation RV Park in Summerdale. It will be nice to be back with our extended family of RVers for a while.

Thought For The Day – Love your neighbor, but do not pull down your fence.

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In a blog a few days ago, I wrote about the dumb mistakes all of us RVers make from time to time, no matter how long we’ve been at it. Just to reinforce that message, let me tell you about my latest blunder.

I was getting the motorhome unhooked and ready to hit the road yesterday morning, and since we might be overnight in a parking lot or two on our trip north to Indiana, I was filling our fresh water tank. Normally we only carry about 1/3 of a tank full of water, to keep our weight down, but when we know we might need it, we fill up.

After the water tank was full, I moved the knob in our Winnebago’s utility bay from the Fill Tank position back to the normal position that we use when in a campground with a water hookup. Then I reached over and slid the brass collar free on our Quick Connect fitting that connects the hose to the motorhome, never bothering to turn the water off at the campground outlet. Rainbow Plantation has darned good water pressure, which is a good thing, except on a chilly morning when you pull a stunt like that! I got a very cold shower before I could run over and turn the water off. Miss Terry got a real laugh out of that one! I’m glad one of us enjoyed it.   

We wanted to get an early start yesterday, but leaving an Escapees campground is never a quick thing. There are too many folks to say goodbye to! Dutch and Di Irrgang were parked a couple of sites down from us, and we stopped to see the complete re-do they had done on their beautiful Carriage fifth wheel. Dutch said they had been considering buying a new fiver, but they liked the floor plan of their present one so much that they had it remodeled for a whole lot less than the cost of a new rig. It came out great, and we were really impressed.

Between saying goodbye to several people and checking out at the campground office, it was 10 a.m. when we finally pulled out. We had an easy run north on State Route 59 to the junction with Interstate 65 at Bay Minette, and then took 65 on its path north across the state. We ran in a mixture that ranged from a light mist to showers until we got past Montgomery, with one stop for fuel at a Flying J. The Silverleaf and Miss Terry’s calculator agreed that we got 7.75 miles per gallon on our last tank of fuel.

Traffic began to get heavier as we approached Birmingham, and soon we were in a tangle of construction zones, kamikaze drivers in four wheelers, and truckers trying to dodge them as they merged without yielding,  and changed lanes without signaling. I don’t remember traffic in Birmingham being this hectic on past trips through the area, but after yesterday, I’m in no hurry to get back.

Once we were clear of Birmingham, we rolled north, making good time, and began to see blue sky above us, which was a welcome sight after the gloom we had been driving in.

By the time we crossed the Tennessee State Line it was late in the day and we were running out of time. It was getting pretty dark by 5:30 p.m., and though I had hoped to get past Nashville by the end of the day, it just wasn’t going to happen. We pulled into the Tennessean Truck Stop, about 60 miles south of Nashville, and parked way back in the furthest reaches of the lot, well away from the truckers. After a nice dinner in the truck stop restaurant, we returned to the motorhome, shivering all the way. The temperature had really dropped! We started the day wearing T-shirts, but walking back to the motorhome wearing a T-shirt, sweatshirt, and jacket, I was still cold! We fired up the Onan Quiet Diesel generator and turned on the heat pump to warm up the rig.  

Even with our late start, we covered 392 miles yesterday, and that’s a lot of driving in one day. Certainly much more than most RVers usually cover in a day. Usually 200 to 300 miles is a good day of driving in an RV, and gives you time to relax along the way, and get off the road and set up someplace early. But we’re not in a relaxed RV travel mode where we’re playing tourist, we’re in our “go fast” mode to get up to Elkhart and take care of our business up there. It’s too cold to play tourist!

Thought For The Day – Anger hurts you more than the person who upset you.

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