Today is moving day for us. We are leaving the Orlando Thousand Trails preserve this morning, headed for Paradise Island RV Resort in Fort Lauderdale, about 220 miles south.

The “quicker” route is to get over to Interstate 95 and take the superslab south, but what fun is that? If you’ve been on one interstate highway, you’ve been on all of them. We prefer the “blue highways” that show us small town America, and where we can travel at a slower pace.

So instead, we are going to take U.S. 27 south, through Sebring and around Lake Okeechobee, hook up with Interstate 595, and take it to 95. Then it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump north to the campground.

Our friends Jim and Chris Guld, from Geeks on Tour, are staying at Paradise Island this winter, and we’re looking forward to spending some time with them, away from all of the hectic activity of an RV rally, which is usually where we cross paths.

We have had a very good time here at the Thousand Trails, and this is one campground we’ll be returning to again. Now that we have used up our allotted 50 nights per year that we get “free” under our Thousand Trails membership, any other stays are $5/night, which is a darned good price on a full hookup RV site! We do have to come back to this area in the next few weeks to have the nice folks at Camping Connection do our latest Norcold refrigerator recall, but during the winter the Thousand Trails keeps pretty full, so I don’t know if they will have an opening for us.

A while back, a gentleman named Ladd Lougee, an outdoor and fitness enthusiast, wrote me that he came up with the idea for a better travel chair when he was camping in the Mammoth Lakes area of the California Sierra Nevada Mountains. Ladd said that after squirming around in his chair in discomfort for the hundredth time, he asked if anyone else had a sore back from using the typical camping chairs. He was very surprised to hear that nearly everyone else in his group did as well. So Ladd said he set out to build a better chair, the result being the Strongback Chair.

Okay, a lot of companies and people contact me, telling me that they have come up with the newest and best whatever, from computers to books to widgets, and I have to admit that usually I’m a skeptic. Most of these outfits simply send me an e-mail press release and expect me to publish it, but I don’t do things that way.

I write back and tell them that if they want to send me one of their products to review I’ll look at it. But, they must be willing to accept the fact that if it is good I’ll say so, and if I think it’s crap, I’ll say that too. I seldom hear back from them after that. I’m never sure if they are just looking for free publicity, or if they don’t have enough faith in their product to let me try it. But Ladd offered to send me a chair to evaluate in his first e-mail. That’s always a good sign.

The chair arrived a couple of days ago, and after sitting in it a while, folding it up and stowing it in its nylon carry bag, and pulling it out to sit on again on different types of terrain, from grass and gravel to blacktop, it is absolutely the most comfortable camp chair I have ever sat in.

The chair is big and roomy, it has solid padded arm rests, a drink holder, and can hold up to 300 pounds, and best of all, its design incorporates a frame-integrated lumbar support that gives my lower back excellent support. Strongback Chairs come in two models, the Zen for smaller people, and the big, roomy Elite model that Ladd sent me.

My only problem with the chair is that Miss Terry likes it just as much as I do, so now we have to fight over it! Or maybe there’s going to be a new chair in her Christmas stocking this year?

Thought For The Day – Stop global whining!

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We visited Louisiana yesterday! No, we didn’t take a quick trip to the land of Cajuns and crawfish, we drove to the picturesque Mississippi River town of Louisiana, Missouri.

We love small towns, and historic Louisiana, settled in 1817, has much to offer any visitor. One claim to fame for Louisiana is that the Delicious apple was developed here, and the Stark nurseries, which brought them to the world, are a major employer and famous around the globe.

Louisiana was an important stop for pioneers headed west, and a major river port in the glory days of riverboat transportation. Many riverboat captains and steamboat owners made their homes in Louisiana.

Louisiana’s prosperous past is reflected in the beautiful old houses lining its residential streets, including the beautiful gingerbread Victorian built in 1891 that was home to Missouri Governor Lloyd C. Stark.

There are also many handsome commercial buildings in the small downtown business district, including this one, home to the popular Eagle’s Nest Restaurant, and the neat stone building housing the Carnegie Library, built in 1905.

Folks in Louisiana are friendly, and justifiably proud of their town. Many said hello as they passed us on the sidewalks, or waved as we drove past. Louisiana is also known for its murals. More than 20 murals decorate buildings in town, depicting community and regional history. 

Many years ago we crossed the Mississippi River at Louisiana on the high, narrow Champ Clark Bridge, a five span truss bridge that carries U.S. Highway 54 across the river to Illinois. The bridge was built in 1928, and one trip across was enough for me! I scraped the exhaust pipe of our first motorhome trying to get over far enough for an oncoming eighteen wheeler to pass, which he did with inches to spare between our mirrors. In subsequent visits to the region, I have made it a point to travel the 30 or so miles north to Hannibal to cross the river on the wider four lane U.S. Highway 36 bridge.

State Route 79 goes from Louisiana to Hannibal, and if you’re in a big rig, it will test your nerves in a few places as it winds its way uphill and downhill as it follows the course of the river. Several pullouts lead to great views of the Mighty Mississippi, but they are not suitable for large RVs. But in our van yesterday it was a piece of cake.

We stopped at Mark Twain Cave and Campground to meet Ed and Marilyn Dray, longtime blog readers who spend their summers at the RV park, where Ed leads tours and Marilyn keeps the local hummingbird population busy at her feeders. It’s always nice to put faces with the names of the people we hear from, and Ed and Marilyn made us feel welcome as we sat under their awning and got acquainted. Be sure to check out their blog, The Happy Wanderers. It was a great day for playing tourist, and we had a wonderful time sightseeing in time in small town America.

Thought For The Day – A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

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