Eastbound Again

After spending Sunday cleaning and packing we went out with the American Geezers for supper at El Jimador Mexican restaurant, it was very good but the service was a little slow, however, it didn’t spoil our evening it just gave us more time to chat and then we came back for a last drink at our place.


The next morning we said our sad good-byes and headed out through Montrose and then east on hwy 50, through the Curecanti National Recreation Area,


past the Blue Mesa Reservoir once again,


and then through the Gunnison Gorge to Gunnison.

Once we were through the town we were into new territory, we entered the Gunnison National Forest and started the climb up to Monarch Pass, at 11,312 feet it’s the highest we had ever taken the RV,


the climb up was spectacular, rolling mountains covered with pine forests, at some places there were no safety barriers along the side of the road which was a little disconcerting, the only thing between us and the drop off was a white line!!


The road followed the curves of the mountains and we wound around the snake like route up and over the top, then we started the decent, Dave engaged the grade brake and it held us back by down shifting when he applied the brake.

It was a slow trip down, no guard rails again, but the views were amazing, the mountains were sharper more ‘Rocky’ I suppose that’s why they are called the Rocky Mountains!


The valley on the other side was open and flat, small homesteads dotted the hillside but the only livestock seemed to be goats.


at Salida we and the 'Denver and Rio Grand Western Railway' started to follow the Arkansas River through a narrow gorge, we stopped for lunch on its banks and saw groups of inflatables rafting down as we had done a few days before.

In Caňon City we saw a train taking tourist into the Royal Gorge where a narrow suspension bridge carries vehicles over the canyon 1053 feet above the river and the railway.

Eventually we made it into Colorado Springs and we found the auto shop that was going to do the chassis service the next day, Dave popped inside to confirm our appointment, he came out with the news we had miscalculated and we were there a day early, we were not booked in until the day after! Ah well we would find the service dealership and as they were attached to a Camping World we would stay the night on their car park and worry about it in the morning.

As we drove across town it started to rain and by the time we reached the address in the east of the city the rain had turned into a raging thunder storm, double lighting strikes and torrential rain, and the dealership building was empty, they had moved to new premises. The rain was so bad we decided to stay in the car park for the night and look for the new address in the morning.

The next day the weather was beautiful and the famous Pikes Peak, the 14,110 ft mountain shone in the sunshine out side our window. We headed to the south of the city to find the service dealership, which we did and then we booked into the KOA for the night. The next day we drove right across town again for the chassis service and then all the way down to the south to the Camping World for the night, this is getting monotonous. We waited all the next day for them to look at the warranty jobs and then decide they didn’t have the parts to make the repairs, then, even better, because they were only minor repairs the parts would take 2 weeks to arrive from Winnebago. Well we weren’t going to wait that long, so we arranged with them for the parts to be sent to another dealership further east. We drove straight out of town; we felt we needed to get something achieved for the last 3 days; we made it as far as Limon where we stopped at a truck stop for the night.

The next day we drove through Kansas, famous for Sunflowers and wheat, however, I think we saw more sunflowers in Colorado and into the Central Time Zone so we lost an hour. We stopped at a campsite east of Salina for a few days so that Jimmy & Pam could send on David’s tablets that arrived in Montrose after we had left. They arrived Monday lunchtime so we moved on as well; we stopped the other side of Kansas City, to buy groceries and then stopped for the night on a self service campground in Boonville, Missouri.

We continued our journey through St. Louis, the ‘Home of the Blues’, where we crossed Route 66 and passed its great silver Gateway Arch. We also crossed the Mississippi River for the second time into Illinois.

The southern tip of Illinois looked the most interesting so we turned south on Hwy 57 and then into Wayne Fitzgerrell State Park, and found a great site overlooking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 19,000 acre Rend Lake Reservoir.

As the sun went down a family of White-tailed deer and a Great Blue Heron wandered along the waters edge. The next morning we saw a family of wild turkeys feeding on the verge.

and we continued south, over the Ohio River,


and into Kentucky, our 21^st state.


Home to Amish families and the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln,

also famous for growing tobacco and raising thoroughbred horses,

and in Hopkinsville beautiful redbrick houses.

Then we turned east to Bowling Green the home of General Motors and the world’s only Corvette assembly plant. We stopped overnight at the Camping World which provided free electricity with the free parking, excellent. In the morning we went to the GM Plant and joined their 9am factory tour, a 1 ¾ hour tour of all the assembly processes except the paint shop, for obvious reasons, and where all electronic devices are banned, hence no photos.

Then we drove across the highway to the Corvette Museum which has 50 examples of this classic car, as well as the ‘Baby’s’ that are awaiting collection by their new owners.

New Corvettes can, for a price, be handed over at the Museum; the new owners fly in, have a VIP tour of the assembly plant and the museum, a personal handover and drive home with a smile on their faces.

After lunch we headed south again on Hwy 65 and into Tennessee, our 22^nd state.

We gave Nashville a wide berth and turned east on Hwy 40, we turned off at Buffalo Valley into Edgar Evins State Park.

The campsite was on the steep forested hillside of the U.S. Corps of Engineers Centre Hill Reservoir and the pitches were a little different than we were used to. Our first concern was that it would take the weight of the RV, we were assured it would, our second concern was what was making the incredibly loud noise coming from the trees. Evidently it was a mixture of beetles and tree frogs, which created our third concern, would they stay in the trees and not jump onto our heads! That was easily remedied, the humidity was so high we stayed indoors and turned on the aircon.

Kentucky seems to be full of rivers and lakes and we crossed many of them on Hwy 40 travelling east.

Knoxville’s visual centrepiece is the Sunsphere, the main remnant of the 1982 World Fair.

East of the town we turned south again through Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and into Gatlinburg, we were disappointed with the town, a mixture of Blackpool and a theme park, but the campsite was great, swimming pool, full hook ups and wi-fi.


and it's 'The Gateway to the Smoky Mountains'.