Getting Ready

Before every trip is the preparation. I caught this photo of Eddie working on his bikes over the weekend. Bikes clean and ready to go? Check!

Our Plans for Day 1…

Our plan is to leave Travelers Rest, our Florida home away from home, during the first week in March and drive the 50 or so miles north to Ocala and the Power South Cummins service center for routine maintenance. Power South has RV hook-up on site, which makes getting service easier.

In the past we have used Lazydays in Tampa (really Seffner) for our servicing. They do excellent work, but if they are very busy, as they invariably are, it can take several days to get the work done—even with an appointment. We stumbled across Power South last May when we had a problem on our way from Florida to Kentucky (for another Life on Wheels conference). We were pleased with their service then, and hope we will be again!

The plan for the trip is to drive 300 to 350 miles each day. With a week before we actually get on the road, I tried to plot a tentative route staying at Passport America member campgrounds. We've been members of Passport America since our 2004 trip west, and the membership ($44 a year) has been well worth it. More often than not we are able to find RV parks along our route, and with Passport America we pay 50% off the going rate. There are restrictions, but for long-haul traveling it has worked well for us. We pretty much either use a Passport America campground or Walmart when we are just staying overnight.

I also asked the Good Sam members website to plot a route for us. Good Sams route will include campgrounds that offer the member discount (usually 10% – 20%). It also offers gas prices along the way. At the moment we can figure an average price of around $3.40 a gallon for diesel. Ouch! I will check again just before we leave, but I don't expect the news to be any better. In fact, it just might be worse.

For this trip we want to stay at campgrounds that offer WiFi whenever possible, so our tentative overnight schedule is:

1. Ocala
2. Covington or Dudson, Louisiana
3. Fentress or Luling, Texas
4. Ft. Stockton, Texas
5. Deming, New Mexico

Once we get to New Mexico, we will probably head down to Arizona and Sierra Vista. It is a good area for long distance bike riding, which is just what Eddie wants to do. And I always find good photo opportunities along the way