An eventful month.  We spend most of November at lot A5 at Lake Nottely RV Park in Blairsville, GA.  We did take a weekend camping trip to Lawrenceville, GA to the Stone Mountain Hamfest.  Interestingly enough, the fairgrounds charges $20 per night to camp, water, electric, no sewer.  They remind me of KOA, too much money for too little product, but it is convenient for attending this annual gathering of ham friends.

The next weekend, we went to the Cherokee Campground in Helen, GA to camp with our old Winnebago club, the Gone with the Winnies. There were about 40 of us there, about 20 rigs, and of course, we were the only SOB (some other brand)  I did make a sign declaring our Fleetwood Discovery as a Winnebago Ultimate Discovery.  That seemed to appease the purists in the crowd!  Actually, this group of friends didn't care what we were driving and we will attend the Christmas party in Livonia, GA in mid December.

On Friday, November 19th,  we left Blairsville on our way to Livingston, TX to become Texans.  We rolled through the Ocoee gorge once again, through Cleveland, TN, picked up I 75 and headed down to Chattanooga.  At Chattanooga we hopped on I 24 until we rounded Lookout Mountain.  After Lookout Mountain, we picked up I 59 and started toward Birmingham, Alabama.  We went through Birmingham around 2 pm and made it to just east of Meridian, MS for our first night out.  We stayed at a small campground outside of Meridian that was conveniently located between the interstate and a railroad track.
On Saturday we left the campground at about 9:30 CST and headed west.  As we approached the Texas border, we were talking to a couple of hams on our two meter radio who directed us off of I 20 at exit 3.  We filled up with diesel at the Flying J at this exit, but really did not need to add fuel.  We just like Flying Js and do get a small discount from our Flying J discount RV card.  We averaged 10.5 mpg again at this fill up.  We put 708 miles on the rig between fill ups, but could go over 900 miles if we wanted to push it.

We left the Flying J and headed south on US 79 to Carthage, Texas.  At Carthage we picked up a small farm road that led us around a particularly bad section of US 59.   We moved on to US 59 somewhere north of Nacadoches, TX.  We followed 59 all the way to Livingston.  Unfortunately, we got to Livingston about 15 minutes after it was completely dark.

Finding the Escapees Park, Rainbow's End, is not an easy task after dark if you have never been there.  We followed US 59 to US 190.  190 took us through downtown Livingston and we turned south on state highway 146.  Rainbow's End is about 6 miles south of Livingston, but the sign where you turn is rather small and obscure.

After finding the entrance, we parked in dry camp area A, near the managers rig for the night.  Escapees generally do not charge for the first night of dry camping, so our trip average for camping is now $8 per night.  This meets our nightly budget of $10 or less quite neatly.
Sunday morning the camp hosts asked us if we wanted to move to a spot with water and electric.  We said sure, so off we went.  It turns out that the park is completely filled during the Holidays.  There are 80+ sites for rent here and at this moment, there are about 160 rigs in them.  Needless to say, some of us are doubled up on some sites. In fact, we are on the same site as Liane and Don Holder and their son Tommy.  We met Liane several months ago on a couple of different internet bulletin boards.  She and her hubby are both retired from Bell Atlantic, so we had something other than RVs in common.
Here is a pic of the Holder family as we were all getting ready to go to dinner at the Catfish King here in Livingston.  Not that RVers eat a lot, but the Catfish King in US 59 just north of US 190, has a great dinner.   $4.95 for four catfish fillets, fries, hush puppies, slaw and free ice cream after you eat.

A few words about becoming real Texans.  We are used to doing business in a very laid back and easy manner in Blairsville, GA.  Livingston is even more laid back than Blairsville, when it comes to getting official things done.  We got up Monday morning to rush down and start the process of moving our domicile to Texas. The first thing we needed to do was get our vehicles inspected.  This took all of 15 minutes at the local quick lube joint on US 90 just west of downtown Livingston.  It cost $13.50 per vehicle and consisted of turning on the headlights, turn signals, flashers, and blowing the horn.  I always enjoy blowing the horn when someone is standing right in front of the motorhome.  Apparently, the metro areas of Texas require an emissions test, but Polk county does not.  Then, you go to the County Tax Assessors office and fill out some paperwork attesting to the fact that you are registering your vehicles in Polk county.  A little less than $500 and we had our Texas plates.  The next time, it won't cost as much, but even this is less than half of the ad valorem tax we would have paid on just the RV in north Georgia.  Living in metro Atlanta would cost us about 2k annually just on the motorhome!  Next, we headed out Business 59 north and stopped in at the Drivers License Bureau.  It lives on the north side of the parking lot at the county jail.  We went expecting to stand in line for our Texas license, but no one else was there.  We took the obligatory eye exam and had our pictures taken.  Texas mails the finished license to you in about 30 days, so we were issued temporary licenses until the regular ones catch up with us.  Libby's license was $24 and mine was $39 because I wanted to keep my motorcycle endorsement.   Like I'm really going to ride a bike again!  However, I had to take a driving test to get it a number of years ago in Florida, so I wasn't about to give it up.  The licenses are good for 6 years.  Other than a trip to the insurance office to get our car insurance changed over to Texas, we were done.  We left Rainbow's End at 8:30, took the Rv in and then went back for the Tracker.  We were finished by 11:00 a.m.

Now for the really important stuff.  When in Livingston, make sure you go to Shrimp Boat Manny's.  Its on U.S 190 just west of downtown and just east of U.S. 59 bypass.   Have some of their shrimp with pink sauce.  It's great!

We stayed in Livingston until Friday the 26th.  We had Thanksgiving dinner with 250 of our most intimate friends at the activity center at Rainbow's End.  The Escapees furnished the turkey and dressing, we all pitched in to do the rest.  Each table brought their own food except of course, the turkey and dressing.  Naturally, we had far too much food to eat on Thanksgiving, so there was a potluck dinner Friday night.  Unfortunately, we weren't there.

We fired up the old diesel about 9:30 on Friday morning, punched in our destination on the Delorme Street Atlas and rolled down the road.  Street Atlas took us across the eastern end of the big thicket country on a couple of Farm Market roads.  Not a lot of towns or people, but a lot of piney woods and thickets.  We came out on U.S. 79 about 30 miles north of Beaumont.  At Beaumont, we picked up I 10 and headed east .  We rapidly crossed Louisiana, Mississippi and rolled through Mobile, Alabama at about dusk.  We were headed for the Escapees Park in Summerdale, Alabama.  This park is called the Escapees Plantation.  The lots are huge, both the rentals and the leased lots.  We unhooked the Tracker, set up the Discovery and headed back to town for some dinner.  By the way, this park is no easier to find than Rainbow's End in the dark.  You head south on U.S. 59 and when you cross the Summerdale city limits, you have to look for county road #28.  You turn west on this road and go for around 5 or 6 miles before you finally find Escapees Plantation on the right side of the road.

33 days to go!

On Saturday, November 27th, we took the Tracker down to Gulf Shores and looked around the beach.  It was a typical gulf beach town.  Lots of condos, motels and sand all along the waterfront.  Gulf State Park was a nice surprise.  The campground is huge and not too expensive considering a lot of the sites are right on a lake and within walking distance of the gulf.  The monthly rate for full hook up was $300.  The daily rate was just under $20.

After our site seeing trip,  we drove back north to Foley, Alabama and had lunch at a place called Lambert's.  This restaurant is known for its thrown rolls.  A waiter goes around the dining tables throwing rolls at the folks as they eat.  Its pretty funny and most people do catch the rolls.  They serve southern home style cooking and lots of it. In addition to the regular food from the menu, they also have pass around dishes.  Today, they consisted of fried okra, macaroni and tomatoes, fried potatoes and black eyed peas.  Another group of servers bring these dishes to your table and ladle them out to you.  There is far more food than one can eat.  It is a must if you are in the Gulf Shores, Alabama area.

Monday, November 29.  We got up fairly early for two folks who are semi retired and headed up US 59 to I 65.  Just after we got on I 65 the low fuel light on the Discovery came on. Oh Oh!  How could we be low on fuel, we get 10.5 mpg and had only come around 600 miles from Livingston. Then I remembered, I had filled up in Shreveport the week before.  It was maybe 150 miles from Shreveport to Livingston.  We were getting close to 800 plus miles on this tank.  Needless to say, we pulled off at the next exit and filled up with diesel.  It took 80 gallons to fill our 90 gallon tank.  The cost was exactly $100.

We made good time running up I 65 and then I 85.  We cruised through Atlanta at about 2:30.  Of course, there was a traffic jam.  No reason, its just Atlanta.

We got back to Blairsville about 4:30 and filled up with propane since the weather channel was predicting cold weather for the next couple of days.  We backed into our lot at the Nottely RV park about 5 pm.  The only other residents are the managers and they are just waiting for the local gas company to bring them a large tank so they can head down to Tampa for the next four months.

The temperature last night got down to 20 and tonight it is supposed to be 16.  Time to go.  We are going to Gaffney, SC on Sunday to have the Discovery's transmission fluid and filters changed bright and early Monday morning.  We also have a small air leak in the rear suspension system that they are going to fix for us.  Then we will head for Birmingham,  Alabama and my last product team meeting on Wednesday.

30 days to go!