First and Last Freedom - (A Short Story)

 Location: Willow Beach COE Campground, "A little past Little Rock" (bonus points if you know the song).

Caution: this is not an RV traveling post so leave now if that is what you expect. If not, read on at your own risk.

As ya'll know, I've been in some campgrounds on this trip in which I couldn't get a good cell signal and without a cell signal, I don't have internet. Combine that lack of internet with a dwindling desire to explore those locations and I found myself taking longer walks around the campground. Just like me and "thinking benches", my walks are usually "thinking walks". Sometimes that thinking will take the form of a fictional short story. Of course, although fictional, there is always a large piece of truth in the story. This is one such story:

First and Last Freedoms

After dinner, he walked up behind her chair and brushed her grey hair away from her ear. He leaned over and kissed her gently on the cheek. No one in the room paid much attention because this was a routine that was established many decades earlier. Had they been paying attention, they might have seen him whisper two words in her ear and may have overhead him tell her, “Tonight, midnight.” She instantly knew what those words meant and they brought a big smile to her face. Their teenage grandson saw her smile and jokingly asked her if she had gas. She laughed a little and cryptically replied, “No, but we will probably get some later tonight”. Her husband gently squeezed her shoulder as if to say, “Don’t give away our secret”. Nobody picked up on the clue and their grandson just thought both of them were a little crazy. He was waiting at midnight as the porch light came on and she walked out the door.

It’s strange how the years go by so quickly. One minute you are a teenager with a brand new driver’s license and a cheap car that barely runs. The next you’re a 76 year old man whose driver’s license is about to expire and you know it won’t be renewed. That driver’s license has always represented freedom but the time was near when that would end. Oh, their kids are trying to make it easier by saying we will be “chauffeured” from now on as if that will make losing the freedom easier to handle.

My wife and I met on the day I got my first driver’s license. We were both at the Driver’s License Bureau, each taking the written test. I noticed her right away but she was too distracted with the test. After I completed the driving portion and received my license, I decided to hand around the parking lot in hopes of meeting the girl. She had pitch black hair with green eyes. I had never seen such a combination and it captivated me. I hadn’t noticed anything else about her because I couldn’t get beyond the hair and eyes and that bothered me a little bit. As I was daydreaming about her and my new license, she came walking by and almost bumped into me. She was obviously sad and mad so I asked her what was wrong. She told me that she had failed the test and would have to wait two months before being able to take it again. I boldly told her that I had gotten my license and would be glad to take her anywhere she wanted to go. She wasn’t sure if I was making fun at her failing the test or if I was serious. She decided to test me. She gave me her address and told me to be there at midnight and she would leave the house when the porch light came on.  I silently thought, “Wow, I’ve hit the jackpot”, but knew that wasn’t the right answer so I tried to be cool and stammered, “Sure, I’ll be there”.

He arrived at her house fifteen minutes early and waited for the porch light to come on. At the stroke of midnight, the light came on and she opened the door. She wasn’t sure he would actually be there so she looked around until she saw his car then walked steadily and confidently to it. She stopped at the passenger door and waited. I asked her what was wrong and she curtly replied, “A gentleman always opens the door for a lady”. That was the first of many lessons she would teach me over a life-time. I hurriedly got out and ran to the other side to open the door. She got in and sat down in a true lady-like fashion. After I crawled back behind the steering wheel, I realized that I didn’t have a clue on where to go. I asked her, “Where to”? She replied, “I thought you would know”. We both laughed and that broke the ice for the evening. I told her that I needed to stop for gas, hoping it would impress her with my ability to pump it and pay for it. After fueling up and still with no destination in mind, we agreed to just drive around and enjoy our freedom. Hours passed, and we talked about everything. We told each other about our past and plans for the future. It was as if we had known each other our entire lives. It was during those hours of simply driving around that our two lives became one life.

For the next sixty years, we were never farther apart than necessary. Whenever life felt like it was crashing around us, one of us would always say, “Tonight, midnight” and we would just drive and talk until it felt ok to go home.

Tomorrow, my license will expire and our freedom will be reduced, but tonight, in our minds and memories, we will both be sixteen year old kids again just driving around.  

Darrell Goza

August 21, 2024

Taken on a trip to Galveston before I retired and started full-timing. It was a couple of senior (seasoned) citizens walking along the beach. I watched them until they were almost out of sight. It was a comfortable feeling. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.   

One New and One Old Campground

 Location: Redman Creek Campground West; 20 miles northeast of Poplar Bluff, Missouri near Lake Wappapello.

This is another great Corps of Engineers campground. I sure say that a lot uh? I've stayed at several dozen COE's over the years and can honestly say I've only ran across about 2 or 3 that I wouldn't call great or at least well above average. They are still my first choice when looking for campgrounds. For newbies, I use Allstays.com to find my COE's as well of other campgrounds and stuff. Unlike most COE's, this one is full hook-ups, meaning sewer, water and electricity at the campsite. All of this for $12.00 per night with the senior pass discount. For those wondering, yep, I'm picking up a satisfactory cell signal that allows me access to the internet. I'm staying in the East campground but I drove through the West campground that is just across the highway. It is a newly reconstructed campground that is just now re-opening. It looks great. 

My full hook-up campsite at Redman Creek Campground

It's not a bench in the true definition of the word, but a picnic table is like two benches. This one is looking out over Lake Wappapello. It's a very pretty lake.

I was a little lazy and didn't put a lot of effort into finding things to explore during my 3 day stay here. I did explore a nice laundromat or as my mother would call it, a wash-a-teria. I'll tell you a secret about washing clothes. You don't have to separate them into whites, color, fancy, etc. Just wash them all together in one load and after one or two times, you can't tell the difference. After washing my clothes, I enjoyed a very good Chinese buffet lunch. It was the best I've had in a very long time. I was able to explore a little around the dam and found a spot where I may be able to get a good sunset picture tonight if everything goes good. Since tomorrow is moving day, I'll post the sunset in the next post if it happens.

<squawk, squawk> We interrupt this post to bring you some pictures from a previous campground. The campground is Lieber State Recreation Campground which is a state campground about 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis, Indiana. It was the first campground after the big FROG rally in Goshen. I could not get a cell signal in the campground so I wasn't able to post pictures from the campground or the Cataract Water Falls I explored. 

I took this picture as I was leaving Goshen. You see a lot of Amish around there and many work at the RV factories. 

My campsite at Lieber State Rec Campground. In comparison to my current campground, Lieber only had electricity at the campsite and no cell service. My current COE campsite at Redman is $12.00/night compared to $30.00 at Lieber

Cataract Falls located just south of Lieber Campground. Nothing like any falls out west but not bad for Indiana.

This is Cagel Lake which is part of Lieber State Rec Area. The was very pretty that day.

Two of the many hiking trails at Lieber. This reminded me of one of the lines in a Robert Frost poem.
"Two roads diverged in a wood, I --- I took the one less traveled by, And that made all the difference.

Normal people think we Full-time RV Travelers are always taking the "one less traveled". In other words, they think we are crazy.  

The outside temperature today is the hottest of the summer for me with a high of 99 degrees. The whole area including Arkansas is due to cool down starting tomorrow. Conviently, tomorrow is moving day and I'll be headed to a COE that I've stayed at a few times before. It is located on the eastern edge of Little Rock on an oxbow of the Arkansas River. Again, nothing to explore to time, but I can usually find something of interest. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road. 

TVA Circle completion & COE again

 Location: Canal Campground (Corps of Engineers); Grand Rivers, Kentucky 

It sure is good to be back in a Corps of Engineers (COE) campground. With the senior pass, the cost is $13.00 per night which is between a half and a third of the cost in the Indiana and Illinois State Park. Plus, I have a booming cell signal while still being in the woods. Something still ain't right about no cell signal in those state park, but I'm about to throw my hands up and just forget about it. Maybe, maybe not. 

That's Barkley Lake on the left. I had to back uphill to enter the campsite. It was a little tricky, but not too bad. 

My picnic table appears to be from "way back when". A pretty good lake view through the trees.

This concrete picnic table is near my campsite. It isn't associated with a campsite and doesn't have a parking spot so I'm not sure who uses it. I liked it because it looks like it may be an original one from when the campground was first built, many decades ago.

Liberty isn't in this picture but I thought it represents an overall view of what the campground looks like with the campsites scattered in the woods. Some campsites would be very difficult to get in and out of, so choose wisely.

Over the years, I've planned to stop at this campground but never was able to fit it in with my trips, until this return trip back to my homebase in Louisiana. This campground sort of completes the circle of my trip along the Tennessee River and the Tennessee Valley Authority from the summer of last year. Back then, I started the Tennessee River exploration at Pickwick Dam and went upstream towards Knoxville, Tennessee. At my current campground, I staying near the Kentucky Lake Dam which is the last one before the river empties into the Ohio River about 20 miles or so from here. 

This was a good plague at the dam site. It shows all of the dam sites along the Tennessee River and its tributary dams. 

This was interesting. This is from one of the viewing areas. A girl and her guitar sitting in the shade of a bridge. I couldn't hear her singing but I like think she was. It was good.

A good picture of the Kentucky Dam. The powerhouse is on the left and it appeared that two turbines were operating. As with lots of hydo-dams, the fishermen will get right into the outflow of the turbines. 

There is a very nice Visitor's Center at the Kentucky Dam that is staffed with retired TVA employees. The couple on duty were RV travelers and we visited for about 45 minutes about several things. One thing I learned from them that was surprising, but then after thinking about, maybe not so surprising. They said all of the TVA dams/powerhouses are controlled at a central location in Chattanooga, Tennessee. So if you see a turbine start up or a gate opening or closing, that is happening by somebody sitting in a control room in Chattanooga. Interesting.

Sunrise this morning. It was very peaceful in the campground at that early hours. Very nice.

I'm kind of tired. This trip is beginning to wear on me like never before in the past. I'm finding it harder to find interesting things to see or do and a lot of times it is due to my lack of interest. I'm not sure of the cause but I've had this feeling since I entered Illinois several weeks ago. I felt invigorated during the FROG rally, but the strange feeling seems to be returning. To sum it up, I'm looking forward to moving days more than exploration days, and that is worrisome. Maybe I'm just homesick and looking forward to getting back to Louisiana.

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be going about 150 miles east to another COE campground on a lake about 15 miles northeast of Poplar Bluff, Missouri. The temperature is suppose to warm up into the mid to upper 90's so I'm hoping I picked a shady campsite. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe, I'll Cya down the road.

Back On The Air - Post FROG Rally

 This post will be from several locations due to a very mysterious lack of cell signal in a couple more campground and also due to a little laziness/frustration.

The last post had me at Danville, Illinois with internet. From there I moved to the following campgrounds:

Tippecanoe River State Park Campground; Winimac, Indiana (NO CELL SIGNAL)

Potato Creek State Park; near South Bend, Indiana (NO CELL SIGNAL)

Elkhart County Fairgrounds; Goshen, Indiana (FROG Rally and with Cell Signal but too busy to make a post)

Lieber State Recreation Area; a little Southwest of Indianapolis, Indiana (NO CELL SIGNAL)

My current campground is John James Audubon State Park; Henderson, Kentucky (just across the Ohio River from Evansville, Indiana. YEAH, I have a strong cell signal.

I've made an executive decision to not make retroactive post for all of those campground where I didn't have a reliable cell signal. I will not be back to them and do not recommend them if you need reliable cell service. They were pretty campgrounds, and if I get a cell signal booster, I may give them a try again, but I'm postponing that decision too. As you can see, I'm getting comfortable with procrastination again. 

I will mention the FROG rally though. It was another success as far as I'm concerned. I met several very nice people from Canada, Georgia and South Carolina just to mention a few locations. The dinners and breakfasts were mostly delicious with excellent conversation during the meal. I volunteered this year to drive a gold cart around for four hours picking up and dropping off people at different events, etc. There were also two pretty good outdoor concerts. I also got several items of work done on Liberty and as usual at the FROG rally, it was free of charge. Yep, that's right, free of charge. I roughly calculated the value of work done this year and I figure it was about $2,000.00 if it had been done someplace other than the rally. This was my my fifth rally and the grand total of work done on old Liberty and current Liberty is beween $12,000.00 and $14,000.00. As my father would say,,,, "good deal, Lucille".

That's Liberty on the right. I showed up a couple days early and was rewarded with a free Rodeo in the background. It was a youth rodeo and was enjoyable. 

There were about a dozen RPods at the Rally and all got quality service.

This was a look out my back window before another rig parked there. The view sort of represents the rally. People walking or riding and RV's everywhere. It was a good Rally and I'll be back next year, hopefully.

After I got Liberty set up at the rally, a group of us were gathered around talking and watching as other RV's were arriving. As we were watching an RPod being set up by a pretty lady, she came over to our group and asked if anyone had an extra dogbone. A dogbone is a short electrical adapter with a 50 amp male plug on one end and a 30 amp female plug on the other end. Every RV'er usually carries one so they can connect to either a 30 amp or 50 amp electrical pedestal. Well, this lady forgot hers and needed one. I volunteered mine since I didn't need it at the time. We talked about when I would get it back but nothing was really decided. As I was hitched up on the last day of the rally and ready to pull out I asked if she was finished with the dogbone. She said she needed it longer and asked about mailing to me. I told her, it's not a problem and she could just keep it. I hadn't used it in a long time so it didn't bother me about giving it to her. I figured I would just pick one up at a Walmart down the road, just in case. About an hour after leaving the rally while towing to my next campground, I wondered to myself, "What am I going to do if I need a dogbone at my next campground." Then I thought about it,,,,, she and I were both leaving the rally on the same day, but she now had a dogbone and I didn't. Uhmmmm,,,,, was something wrong with that picture? Then I realized that a pretty lady got me again. It had been a while since that had happened to me, and strangely, it felt nice. And Rhonda, if you're reading this, it really wasn't a problem about me leaving the dogbone for you. I didn't need it at the two campgrounds I stayed at after the rally, and have already replaced it with a shorter one.

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be headed to a nice looking COE campground. It's been a while since I've camped at a COE and am looking forward to it. Also, I hope to get back in the swing of posting semi-regular.  

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road. 

Bad Ju Ju-- No Internet & Flat Tire

 There will be two locations in this post because of the lack of internet access at the last campground.

Location 1: Moraine View State Recreation Area Campground, about 15 miles east of Bloomington, Illinois

Location 2 (current): Kickapoo State Recreation Area Campground, Danville, Illinois (real close to the Indiana border)

I was shocked at the lack of internet at the last campground. I access the internet through a Verizon Hot Spot on my cell phone. If I can catch a good signal, then I can have access to the internet. Heck, I was close to a major population center (Bloomington) so I thought for sure I would have a strong signal. Nope, one bar that would change into no signal. What the heck was going on? If I got even 2 miles away from the campground, I could catch a very good signal. The name of the campground may have given me a hint. Moraine View. The campground is located at the end of one of the fingers of the Wisconsin glacier which was several hundred feet thick at that location. Moraine is the stuff that is pushed ahead of and carried along as the glacier moved south all the way from Canada. Remember, a  glacier is what dug out the material that created the Great Lakes, so they were very powerful. The heavier stuff, like iron ore, granite, and other heavy metals stayed intact and moved along with the glacier. Perhaps, just perhaps, all of that heavy metals interfered with the cell signal at that location. Who knows for sure. The other reason is that Verizon is converting over to 5g and reducing the strength of 4g which is what I use. That may be the most reasonable answer.  Maybe. The democrats promised rural broadband several years ago, but that ain't happening. 

So, for 4 days, I was without reliable internet. This is now the second campground on this trip that I have been "internet-less". For 10 years of traveling and over 400 campground, this is only the 4th time it's happened. Very frustrating, especially when storms approach and I didn't have any means to see the weather radar or get weather alerts.

I was flying high as I left the bad luck campground and was looking forward to reliable internet at my current campground. Ut oh, after only 20 miles, the low tire pressure warning went off on Freedom. I exited the interstate and pulled over onto the shoulder of an off ramp to check the pressure in the tires. All showed good until I got to the last one which showed 55 psi. While checking the pressure, I noticed the head of a screw in the tire. Crap, I must have carried some bad ju-ju with me from the campground. 

The time was a little before noon so I had all afternoon to solve the problem. I was in a safe place on the shoulder of a ramp meaning traffic had plenty of room to pass by and at a slow speed. I have Good Sam's Roadside Assistance, which I've had to use once before with good success. The plan I came up with was to give Good Sam's a call so they could have help rolling my way while I started either changing the tire or plugging the tire. After about 15 minutes of back and forth with the Good Sam's operator about my exact location, she said she would text me once she found someone to come to me. I told her to make sure they were set up to plug the tire and that way they wouldn't need to change to the spare tire. She informed me, that Good Sam's doesn't cover tire plugging. They would change my tire or even bring me a new tire if I purchased one online, but they couldn't plug. I questioned her about that but she was adamant. I said, fine, send them to me to change my tire with my spare. She liked that answer and said she would text me after finding someone to come help me. I found my tire plugging kit which surprised me because I thought I threw it away a few years ago. I went to work removing the screw and trying to plug the tire. If I could get it plugged I would cancel the assistance. I've plugged many tires in the past, but never a 10 ply heavy duty one. It wasn't going to work, I couldn't get the plug in the tire. That meant changing the flat tire with the spare. Not knowing how long it would be before the assistance showed up, I started removing the spare tire. At first I wasn't sure if I had enough room to maneuver the tool used to lower the spare tire since I was hitched up to Liberty. Just barely enough room, but I had to readjust the tool every half turn. After several minutes, I got it removed and started to jack up Freedom when I got a call from the tow truck people saying they would be there to help me in 20 minutes. I talked to the guy and told him, if you can plug the tire on the ground, then it will be much quicker. He said, they usually don't do that but he would put the tire plugging kit in the truck just in case. He arrived on time and within 15 minutes had the tire plugged and aired up. We put the spare in the bed of Freedom since I wasn't happy with it's age of almost 8 years. My plan was to get it replaced while at my next campground, which is my current one. I was back on the road again after only a 2 1/2 hour delay. I was very satisfied with the reaction time of Good Sam's and the quality service. 

I got to my current campground and it has a strong cell signal. Yippee. My theory about the moraine may be wrong since this campground is in another moraine area but this time with a signal. On the second day I went to the Walmart in Danville, but they didn't have any tires that fit Freedom. I told him I was just passing through the area and would be heading out Friday morning. He said, there was a chance he could order the tire and have it delivered by Thursday (today) afternoon. I passed on that offered as being too risky so he called around and located a place that had the correct size, so I thanked him and headed to the other tire shop. My bad luck continued, the tire shop was in a bad part of town and I immediately good bad vibes. I went in and they said they had the size I was looking for and then asked if I wanted a new one or a used one. Now I've bought a lot of tires over my lifetime but I've never been asked that question. I realize that some people can't afford new tires and used tires are better than no tires, but I took it as a sign to listen to my bad vibes and leave that place and not look back. I went back to Walmart and told them I would take the chance on the tire being delivered on time. He placed the order and I picked it up today. Although bad ju-ju usually comes in three, perhaps the third one was headed off by the good luck at Walmart. After proof-reading the post, I realize there were 3 bad ju-ju's. No internet, flat tire and bad vibe tire shop. I'm calling myself clear of the bad ju-ju with nothing but bright skies and rainbows ahead.

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be heading about 120 miles north into Indiana.

I figured this is the best place for the pictures, since this post feels a little dis-jointed. Most of the picture are from the internet-less campground since I've been busy at the current campground trying to take care of the tire.

Country crossroads with an old barn

Soy beans, corn and windmills

Nice campsite at the first SP. 

Peaceful lake

Winding road with purdy trees around the lake.

Typical country road in middle Illinois

This is looking out my back window in the morning. This turkey strolled by about 6:00 each morning.

Nice town square in Le Roy, Illinois

Same town square. This was carved out of an old tree stump. Notice Freedom lurking in the background.

I'm including this one because the name of the town is on the building in the background

from one of my walks around the campground

My campsite at my current campground. A little sunny in the late afternoon, but not too bad. Tomorrow is moving day.

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.