Doug S

Made it to Stillwell Store at Big Bend. Headed into the Park on 385 and an Ollie going the other way at around 10:45. Hello out there!

Spent the last two nights in South Llano River State Park. Found an Oliver there! I think Denise and Dennis. At about 3:00 in the afternoon 3 buses showed up with 104 middle schoolers! Yes, they spent the night- right next to us. Climbing trees, hollering, meeting our puppies. So many spoke French! Turns out they were from an International school in H town (Houston). Very fun and gone at 6:00 am.

No, but I’m really interested.

Sounds great, but we realized that we could run out of time. Started south to Orange Beach, then a night in Crosby Texas, tonight and tomorrow night we are in South Llano River State park. Need to be in Ft Collin’s CO on the 4th. I backed into the site in good fashion for the first time!

Headed further south! Now in High Falls GA. A lot warmer here, and the traffic in/out of Atlanta was horrible! Headed down to Mobile tomorrow.

Did our first night at #1 25F!!! Nice and warm inside.

Need to find a way to connect!

Hi Toni! We picked up Carlotta today! Spending our first night at campsite #1! First Gin and Tonic - which works as planned. Head to Asheville tomorrow via Uncle Nearest Distillery. Both puppies love their new twin beds.

Great advice!

Thanks Bill! Downhill can be thrilling!

Leaving Jackson Hole to pick up hull 1491 “Carlotta” on Monday the 18th. Furthest east we’ve ever driven! Never had a truck - never had a trailer (actually had a Coleman pop-up many years ago, but was too busy to use it). Doug & Jill

I m guessing that this used to be a reasonable recommendation before there were regulated loads and we still had incandescent lights. If the internal voltage was raised into what were closer to resistive loads, both the current and the power would go up. Not the usual case anymore, where we have mostly constant power loads.

You’ve got it! The woman who owned Nora’s (her daughter), sold it to a couple of local fellows who have put a lot of effort into improving it. The food, coffee, and pizza are now very good. It still has the same small local mountain town vibe - people who live here tend to thrive on that. Hungry Jack’s, the local general store was bought out by 250 of us, and is becoming exceptional!

We actually went about 30 miles on the Natchez Trace when we went to the Oliver factory. 30 miles of mowed lawns up to the forest. Some nice turnouts. We got a book on the park and have it high on the list.

Is that in North Carolina?

It is amazing here. One reason for the Oliver is to be able to head out without much planning and do a fishing week anywhere within a few hundred miles. An amazing learning curve on the horizon.

We will definitely check. We are used to cold and weather. We live on the side of a mountain in Wilson, WY. Had a blizzard yesterday morning and a little over a foot of snow. But not in an Oliver!

Thanks - it all sounds wonderful, and it should be a fine time of year - few crowds, variable, possibly beautiful weather, and all new!

We will definitely do that - Thanks for the offer!

Never been to Kentucky, but we’ll definitely look into it!

Thanks - never heard of Hipcamp. I see they have a different business model, and some really neat looking places. We’ll definitely try some out.

Hi All - Our Oliver - Hull#1491 started production last week. We will pick it up on the 12th of March, and plan to take about two weeks to get it back home. In the middle of this adventure we have our anniversary so it should be a pretty memorable adventure. We have zero experience camping anywhere but in the West, so this is a chance to get a little more exposure to this incredible country. We do plan on going over to the Great Smokies as the photos we've seen over the years have been so compelling. After that though, we have no idea on our route back, except we should keep further south to avoid winter weather. We'd appreciate any advice or suggestions on routes to follow. We will likely use Harvest Hosts and any open National Forest or easy boon docking sites. We've got a 2023 F-250, so we shouldn't be very limited except for skills in reverse.... We also have two small (11lb) dogs who have their own unique points of view about camping, cars, and travel in general. - Doug & Jill

The one I saw in the showroom seems identical. It does open out and still serves as the emergency exit. I assume that all of the windows are double pane. I don’t remember seeing a mechanism to keep it open at any particular angle. I think it is just made to be either closed, or to easily get out of the way for someone climbing out. I didn’t notice any writing or decals on it - just a nice open view.

We were just at Oliver (New Years in Nashville)! They also changed the rear exit window to a single pane. It really is a positive change for us. With the big clear, open space without screens or any obstructions it “brings the outside in”.

Thanks for info! You guys are great!