Beacon on the Road.

[Mattnan]

We started our 4 1/2 road trip to the South and Southwest on November 30.  It was 19 degrees when we left New Harbor, Maine at 4 AM.  The first chilly night was designed to make mileage and crash for an overnight.  We stayed in the Cracker Barrel in Frackville, PA.  We have stayed here before.  It is not busy and easy on and off.  This day included 2 plus hours for driving in snow on route 84 and 81.  First time pulling Beacon in the snow.  It was cold down to 23 at night.   The next evening we stayed at a Harvest Host in Wytheville, VA.  Right off rout 81.  The last half mile to the farm was a little challenging and included crossing a 12 ft wide wooden bridge.  This was our first harvest host experience and it was very positive.  We got some honey, eggs and an alpaca stuffed animal for our new grandson.  I would highly recommend this host.  Tom was really nice and other Oliver's have stayed  there.  We went in the pens with Tom and petted the alpacas.  We learned a lot here.  On to Pigeon Forge, TN and Pine Mountain RV Park.  Great location if you like being near all the attractions but just off the parkway.  Nice and very well kept full service r.v. Park.  I would also recommend it.  Very well kept and very clean with great showers.  We spent 2 days in the Smoky Mountains.  Then to Oliver for annual maintenance on Beacon.  We stayed right at Oliver in their new campground.  Service went great.  There weren't any deliveries or others camped for service while we were there.  There were new units brought over from the factory to be prepared for delivery. They also have a dump station.  Very handy.  Tonight we are at McKinney COE campground just north of Atlanta off route 75.  Really nice spot.  First time for us at a COE campground.  Really nice and with d with my geezer pass hard to beat for $14.  We got a pull through site right on the lake!  Off to Aiken State Park in SC to see some family tomorrow.  Sunday we start out trip to Naples FL.  Here are some pictures.

[Mike and Carol]

I need to know your secret to keeping your trailer so clean even after driving in snow!  Great pictures and it sounds like a great trip so far.  We have enjoyed all of our HH stays, it’s a great option for an overnight while traveling to get somewhere.  Thanks for posting and let us know about the rest of the trip!  Mike

[topgun2]

You guys are, indeed, a "beacon" of delight during this winter season.

I've stopped for breakfast at that Cracker Barrel and its nice to know of the Harvest Host location in Wytheville since we go through there a couple of times each year.

Hopefully getting through or around Atlanta will not give you too many troubles and after that you should be fairly good to go.  Safe travels!

Bill

[Boudicca908]

13 hours ago, Mattnan said:

Sunday we start out trip to Naples FL. 

Naples?! You'll be around the corner from me in south Lee County! Thanks for the wonderful entry -- it gives me a smile to see this adventure. 

[Mcb]

I know of two other Ollies hanging out in Lee County right now as well.. and it sure is nice🙂

[Mattnan]

Thanks. The Ollie is not as clean as it looks!!! Lots of streaks toward the front.  No problems getting around Atlanta left the Campground around 9.  We did have some slow down areas and lots of trucks but it went smoothly.  I must be the slowest vehicle on the road!  Can't wait to get to Collier and Lee county.  Sunday morning we head south.  Going to take it slow and try to average just over 200 miles per day.  We like Collier Seminole State Park as we stayed there 2 years ago.  Thanks 

[John E Davies]

Were you actually on snow covered highways that first day? I don’t have the nerves for that. I pulled “Mouse” out just last week onto the 2 inches of dry snow on our driveway to reposition it inside the RV bay and was having trouble steering. 

I know that some members go skiing with their trailers, I just can’t get over that…. I would be completely freaked out.

Count me as one more big fan of COE campgrounds, I love them. If you ever get to WA you can spend all summer in Lake Roosevelt Corps CGs in the east side of the state.

John Davies

Spokane WA

[fairmontrvpark]

Thank You for this awesome post about winter travel with your Oliver! Your pictures are great and your trip sounds fun. There is too much negativity on this forum relative to winter travel, these trailers are very capable as are you it seems. 

Safe and Happy Trails

Dan

[Mattnan]

Thanks. Fortunately for us the snow didn't accumulate on the highway the temps were in the high 20s to low 30s. Snow was accumulating on the sides of the roads and on the trees and grass.  If it gotten much worse and started accumulating on the roads we would have pulled off and waited it out.  Fortunately it was a small system heading west to east and we were going east to west so we got through it.    The COE was awesome.  We don't have many COE in the Northeast but we will definitely be going to more COE based on this recent experience we will certainly try these again.  I have learned that if it is really cold it seems to work best if we really warm up the interior so the walls warm up before we drop the temp back down for the evening. Otherwise the walls stay too cool for my liking.  If we have electric we use the vornado.  If not we are good on gas.  Thanks for following. More to come. 

[Mattnan]

We finally made it to Collier Seminole State Park in Naples yesterday after a 3 night stop in Aiken SC state park to see some family.  We stopped 2 nights along the way from Aiken.  We liked Little Manatee River State Park just south west of Tampa. This is our second visit to Collier  Seminole park.  There is another Oliver here.  We stopped in and introduced ourselves.  A husband and wife team that are full time RVrs.  Interesting they have 2 tow vehicles and 2 RVs, one Ollie and one Airstream.  They were parked side by side. 

Our Ollie, Beacon, was filthy after driving through the snow so I finally got it to a self service carwash bay to clean it up a bit.  Far from perfect but less embarrassing.  Most of the parks we have stayed at prohibit washing RVs.   So from 19 degrees leaving Maine to 86 here in sw Florida in 2 weeks.  The trip continues. We have covered 2500 miles already.  We hope to catch up with some other Oliver owners that are a few towns away in the next few days. Picked up some fresh oranges at an Orange grove and had sundowners at Stan's in Goodland today. We are likely to go back next week with the rest of our family.  Happy Holidays and Happy Camping.  

[Mainiac]

15 hours ago, Mattnan said:

Happy Holidays and Happy Camping

Enjoy the warmth. Just know we are looking for our first "plowable" snow this weekend. And it should stay around for a white Christmas. 

Look into staying at Kissimmee Praire Preserve State Park once. Eleven miles in, washboard dirt road, alligators and deer everywhere. What you won't see is any light pollution. Red lights at bathouse so as not to kill your night vision. No neon lights or big plastic faces. The Milky Way and stars just seem to jump off the sky. There are even more stars than you can see in New Harbor on a cold February night.

Be safe out there...

[Mcb]

On 12/15/2021 at 8:48 PM, Mattnan said:

had sundowners at Stan's in Goodland today.

Good Choice!
If you have a chance to go the Stan’s on a Sunday afternoon it is a blast….

[Mattnan]

We have done that at Stan's and it is a blast. We may try again.  We like that place.  

[Mattnan]

We have moved on from Florida. We had lots of stops as we worked our way north and west.  A very cool Harvest Host stop in Tallahassee, a collectible car museum.  Wow, the cars, motor cycles, outboard motors and other memorabilia was amazing.  They had Batmobiles. Yes 3 of them!  It is loud at night as it is on a busy road at the junction of I 10.  There were 6 other campers parked with us spread out on a large grassy area. It was definitely worth the stop.

Our last Florida stop was Fort Pickens National Seashore near Pensacola Beach.  The campground is nothing special but the fort and seashore was amazing.  You are on a road driving miles in the dunes along the gulf.  It is like you are on the moon!  If you go try to get loop A.  We met some nice folks in that park. 

We also spent 4 nights at Dauphin Island Alabama.  

We are finishing up a week in New Orleans.  We splurged and are staying at French Quarter RV Resort.  The park is a 5 minute walk to the French Quarter.  Great location and they keep the bathrooms and laundry room very clean.  It is located adjacent to I 10 so it can be noisy.  The park is fenced in with a gate.  We feel safe. The park is all pavers with some grass.  Lots of big rigs.  They also have a hot tub and  pool.  We haven't tried these as it is cold but some campers are in the hot tub most evenings.  You walk by a police station on the way to the quarter.  Beyond the usual quarter attractions, we have done a swamp tour, a walking tour of the Garden District and today the WW II museum.  Wow we were there for 6 hours today.  I wish every child could visit this museum.  I would hope the magnitude of what transpired is not lost.  We learned a lot.  Very impactful.  Saturday we start toward Austin Texas.  It has been cold here at night.  Low 30s tonight.  We will get to Austin on Sunday.  

[Mattnan]

We had a nice visit at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin.  Nice Park with easy hiking trails to a couple of small waterfalls.  We got in to Austin for some music and beverages last night.  Out first time to Austin.  The Capitol building is really impressive.

We arrived at Speegleville COE park on Waco Lake in Waco, TX today.  Really nice park.  We have a nice lake front site here.  The grounds are terrific and we have brand new electric.  We are here for a few days before we head to Fort Worth. Lots of wildlife in this park.  We saw 3 armadilos.  First time for us seeing one.  One of them lives just below our camp site toward the lake.   Our Tundra needed an oil change and tire rotation.  I got that done this afternoon . It worked out well!!!!  We will do some site seeing including all of the Mongolia stuff the next few days.  We head west after our upcoming stay in Fort Worth.  So far it has been a terrific trip.

[topgun2]

I'd bet that your pup would just love to investigate that armored critter!

How's the weather been for you guys?

Bill

[Mattnan]

Thanks,  Yes Baxter would love to play with most any critter.  Last 2 weeks have been cool.  Low to mid thirties last night.  Couple high twenties in New Orleans.  It briefly made it to 60 today.  We had a nice day at Magnolia Silos and Market.  Supposed to warm up a bit over the weekend in Fort Worth.  Our home in Maine is expecting up to 20 inches of snow this weekend and temps have been in the single digits,  The power company and cable company have already contacted us to prepare for outages at home.

[Mattnan]

We are at Kartchner Caverns State Park in Benson AZ.  This is an absolutely fabulous park.  I did a cave tour this morning it was very good!  Then on to Tombstone.  The scenery is outstanding and so different from Maine.

[Mike and Carol]

If you have time check out Bisbee, too.  It’s an eclectic little town that’s fun to explore.  We also enjoyed our stay at Kartchner Caverns last month, nice little park!  Mike

[Mattnan]

1 hour ago, Mike and Carol said:

If you have time check out Bisbee, too.  It’s an eclectic little town that’s fun to explore.  We also enjoyed our stay at Kartchner Caverns last month, nice little park!  Mike

Probably headed there today   thanks very much for the guidance.  

[Guest]

Old Bisbee Brewing Company is a good stop for a beverage!

[Mattnan]

We made it to Dead Horse State Park and enjoyed Cottonwood, Gerome and Sedona.  Then a couple of days at Grand Canyon and a night in Williams AZ, our first experience on route 66.  Then on to Page Arizona, Horse Shoe Bend, and Lake Powell.  Today we arrived in Zion and are staying at Watchman Campground.  I forgot when I booked this it was President's Day weekend.  This place is jammed.  I can't imagine what it is like in the Summer.  The entrance to the park was backed up over a mile.  We are here for 3 nights.  Today was a beautiful 66 degrees and they started running the shuttles on the weekends until Spring yesterday. 

Unfortunately, the weather is going to turn nasty and very cold.  Our plan was to head to Bryce Canyon on Wednesday and work our way toward Moab on March 1st, where we have a week long reservation.  The stops we had planned were all parks like Frutia that are not accepting reservations this early.  This may turn out to be a blessing!!!  Bryce is expected to see night time temps at 10 below on and highs in the teens.  We have already done single digits on this trip.  I knew this could happen and it did in Carlsbad, NM. 

We are altering our plans and heading south west to get some warmer weather on Wednesday.  We are setting our sites on Lake Mead for a few days before we head to Moab.  I have nothing to prove at this stage of my life, I like warm!! We left Maine in the winter to avoid below 0 temps. As capable as Beacon has demonstrated to be, we are going to be moderately warm outside of Las Vegas!!!   So we drive an extra 500 miles!!  We will try to catch Bryce on our way to Moab or perhaps while we are there!

We are having a great time, smores and beverages by the fire tonight.  My career took us on some really nice trips to resorts all over the US in warm climates,  I have never been to the places we are seeing on this trip!!  I feel very fortunate. 

My first time to Zion. Amazing!!  Anyway, Beacon at Watchman Campground in Zion!!

[Mike and Carol]

Southern Utah is hit and miss this time of year, weather wise.  We had 60s during the days last month when we were at Zion, it was gorgeous weather and scenery.  Don’t leave the park in your truck, it will take hours to get back in!  You can walk out and do some things and walk back in from Watchman, but don’t drive.  Don’t ask me how I know!  Mike

[Mattnan]

To avoid some very cold temps and a winter snow storm at Zion, we headded to lake Mead and Boulder Dam.  We stayed 3 days.  We decided that we would move 50 miles north of Law Vegas to Moapa.  We are at Palm Creek RV Park about 8 miles west off of Route 15.  This is a small family park with only 12 or so sites and they are a bit tight.  Very friendly family, clean facilities.  What makes this special beyond the family, is the fact that the stream that runs through the property is fed by a hot spring 1/2 mile up the road.  They have beautiful property and access to the 80 degree stream. 

We are going to visit the source spring and near by and Valley of Fire State Park.  This place is a gem!  In the summer they have almost a private beach set up with picnic tables and 70 smoker grills.  They get 400+ guests on the weekends for day use.  We are going to stay 3 nights and head to Moab over 2 days early next week.  It is still cool here with lows in the low 30s at night.  It beats 10 below in Bryce Canyon.  

[Mattnan]

We went to Valley of Fire State Park today.  Just an awesome park and the largest of Nevada's state parks.  We did see an Oliver Elite II with a Utah plate parked in the Arch campground.  What a beautiful spot!!!