General Update and Travel Plans

 Location: Heart of Haynesville RV Park (homebase); Mansfield, Louisiana

It's been a while since I've posted and I'm about a month from hitting the road again so I thought it was time for an update. It's been about five months since my last travel post but I have snuck (that doesn't look like a real word) in a couple of short stories. I've spent these few months visiting with family during the holidays, which was great. The entire family (kids and grandkids) get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I also visited with all three of my doctors and nothing was found to interrupt my life, meaning I'm good to go for at least another few months. All three wanted to visit with me again in May and made appointments. I'll fool them and reschedule their visits until probably July when I'll be passing through Louisiana again. I've also attended doctor appointments with my X-wife and Brandon. It's always a good idea to have someone else attend meetings with doctors so the information is heard by two people. Of course, I'm kind of hard-headed and don't take anyone with me. I'll have to think on that a little to figure out why I'm that a way.

I had planned on hitting the road beginning on January 6th, but I kept postponing it in one month increments (RV park rent period) due to my granddaughter's school archery tournaments. She started playing around with archery last year in her elementary school but this year it has become more competitive in her Intermediate school with state tournaments. The tournament season just about over but her school is ranked number two in the state and she is ranked 4th in her school. So they are 99% sure the school with qualify for the Eastern National Championship which is in Louisville, Kentucky during the first part of May. Yep, I already have reservations at a nearby state park during that time. If they do well in that tournament, then they go to the  Overall National Championship in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in early June. Yep, if they go, I'll be there too.

That's Olivia in the purple on the left getting ready to launch her arrow. I've never attended an archery tournament until she got involved in it. I like it.

 Anyway, her last tournament is March 8th but she is also in Drama and their yearly play is on March 21th. After that, I'll be free to travel. I've made reservations at 8 campgrounds beginning on March 24th and going through April 20th. I will head south and follow the Gulf of America coast over to the Pensacola area before turning north. The first campground will be used to visit with my oldest son and the second to visit with my sister. I've been gathering information on things to explore in the areas of my reserved campgrounds, but if ya'll have any suggestions, please post them in the comments. Thanks in advance.

CG #1 and 2 are for visiting family and a little exploring. Stop #3 is another old CG for me, but is located in a good spot for this trip. # 4, 5, 6 and 7 will be new CG's for me and I look forward to exploring those areas since at least 3 of them have been on my list for years. CG #8 is an old one for me and is actually the very first COE campground I ever camped at back in 2014. I'm curious to see how it's changed. 

A few things have changed. One is Freedom was retired and turned out to pasture. Actually, she was sold to a car dealer who promised to treat her right. About a month after I sold her, I received a call from the person who bought her. He wanted to know any particulars about her in terms of mechanical issues. Of course I told him everything I knew and the reasons why I sold her. I also referred him to this blog if he wanted to know every place that the truck had been since late 2013 when she was born. At the end of our conversation, I told him that her name was "Freedom" and that she would respond to that name. That took him aback but I could tell he understood as he quietly promised me he would continue calling her that. It was sort of a sad day as I reminisced about all the places Freedom and Liberty had taken me over the years. But like everything in life, we move on, eventually. I now have a new Freedom and Liberty and even though it may be confusing, I still call the new ones with the old names. I started calling Liberty, Liberty2, but that didn't take. So bear with me in the name calling. My new truck is a 2023 Ford F150 Lariat with so many accessories that I'll never use all of them. Frankly, there are so many, I won't even know they exist, much less use them. I don't like relying on that much fancy stuff. 

Freedom2 on the left and Liberty2 on the right. But, like I said, I'll be dropping the 2 from both.

Even though I don't like the fancy stuff on Freedom, I am  now up to date in one area of technology. I bought a Starlink to solve the problem I had on this last trip where I couldn't get a cell signal in a few campgrounds. Without a cell signal meant no hotspot which meant no internet. I'm hoping Starlink will keep me connected. For those interested, the receiver cost $500 and the monthly service is $50.00 for 50Gb's and I can pause and un-pause service whenever I need to. My Verizon cell phone gives me 30 Gb's which I've never exceeded. I'm on the Starlink roaming plan which mean I can move locations as often as I want and I can actually be connected while traveling if I feel the need. Starlink is working towards providing cell service as well so I may eventually be able to cancel my Verizon cell plan. I hope I don't cut myself too deep by being on this "cutting edge".

That's the Starlink receiver mounted to the ladder. On moving days, I will unplug it and wrap the excess cable around something I haven't figured out yet. After using it more and traveling with it, I'll post more about it. I'm using it now but it needs to be mounted differently so it can tilt flatter and get faster speeds. 

This post if getting longer than I thought so I'll end it for now and make another on in a week or so as I start preparing for the trip which is about 4 weeks away. It will take me that long to get everything in order. The good news if the cold weather seems to have passed and decent weather is in store up to my departure date. Hopefully, my cold winter weather is over for me this year. 

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