Day 5 – Milan to Frozen Head State Park

Started out by 8:00. Walmart parking lot was a bit noisy. Made our way through small towns along Route 70 until we got to Nashville around noon. Made the obligatory stop at the Grand Old Opry House but opted out of the 45 minute tour ($24😳). Stopped in the Opry Mill mall for a quick lunch and awesome people watching. Back on the road by 1:30 heading east towards Knoxville. Decided to stay where we could get a shower before moving on. Getting here from I-40 was some serious back roads with sharp hairpin curves and miles of wondering if Siri directed us right. It’s worth it. We are sharing the campground with just two other parties. Quiet indeed.
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We were lucky enough to have lots of food in the frig and dined on our own tomatoes and other leftovers. We entered the eastern time zone just as we got in the park so it’s later than we think. We’ve not had any trouble sleeping though.
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Frozen Head State Park Tennessee site no. 1

Kind of far off the beaten path but we picked a great night to be here. Only one other camper right now. Looks like all the sites are reserved for this weekend, but we will be long gone. Looks like they’ve made lots of improvements here recently. Nice looking campgrounds. I bet it would get noisy when there are lots of people here. Sounds seem to carry.
There are some sort of nuts all over the ground. Gonna have to take a few with us and figure out what they are. They look kind of like chestnuts but that can’t be right.
Much nicer here than Walmart parking lot. I think we’ll sleep in in the morning.
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Day 4 – Bull Shoals to Milan, TN

Spent some time walking around the state park so once again did not get on the road till 11:30. Went the road less traveled and crossed the Mississippi somewhere in southern Missouri. Then into Tennessee where the trees are noticeably greener. Made it to Jackson and thought we’d stop there but too noisy so on we went to Milan. Not sure what tomorrow will bring. Maybe Nashville?
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Milan Tennessee Walmart Parking Lot

Much quieter here than the one in Jackson. That Walmart was right on I-40 and the parking lot was very sloped. At least this one is relatively flat and much less crowded.

I think I failed to plugin the trailer completely this morning. The T@G battery showed low voltage. Had to buy a styrofoam cooler and ice to save the milk and yogurt. Just glad to be settled in for the night.
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Day 3 – Enid to Bull shoals state park, AR.

After Simon’s bath we headed east not sure which road to take. Decided to get off the interstate and take highway 412 towards Mountain Home, AR and the state park nearby. Lots of rolling hills and not much traffic. Have already lost track of daily miles, miles per gallon and what day of the week it is. Love these roads trips. Tomorrow we plan to cross the Mississippi just not sure where😳.

Bull Shoals State Park

Just arrived here. Simple set up. Simon is fed. Now our turn. We’re in site number 90. $8.96 per nite. The showers are a short walk. 74 degrees. Nice evening.
I find the driving a little nerving in this part of the country. I’m used to seeing the mountains and the ability to see long distances. Here we’re in the trees most of the time and no telling what’s up ahead. 😳 if it wasn’t for Siri I’m sure we’d be lost.
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Bath Time for Simon

We never got to give Simon a bath before we left and today he needed one. Found Julie online and she let us use her grooming facility to wash him. Best $10 spent so far!! Back on the road again at 10:30 smelling much better!
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Day 2 – Clayton to Enid, OK

After our look at the dinosaur tracks, we headed due east but not after a stop at Clayton’s coffee shop for breakfast and so Rick could update a couple of client websites On the road again at 11:30 and spent an uneventful day watching Oklahoma change from flat and dry to green and rolling. Tonight we are in Enid at Walmart. Nice grassy area right next to us. We were able to watch some of the presidential debate but sort of glad when our phones stopped working so we could get some sleep. Plan to get up and get going early tomorrow.

Day one – Salida to Clayton, NM

We were on the road by 11:45 on a beautiful fall day. The colors were stunning and maybe because the Broncos were playing, we encountered little traffic. We listened to the game enjoying the Broncos win.
Stopped at Raton, NM for info but visitors center was closed on Sunday. We found out that was the case in Clayton too. Picked up dinner at the local market and drove 12 miles (again with little or no traffic) to Clayton Lake State Park. There is one other camper in another loop so it’s pretty quiet. Sites are large and we are overlooking the lake (C-9). Semi-dark sky allowed us to see the Milky Way and amazing stars. Lots of wildlife very active at night. A good first day. 253 miles.

Dinosaur Tracks

Clayton lake is known for its dinosaur tracks that were uncovered when they constructed the dam. We took the time to see the tracks. Just a short 1/2 mile walk. Very interesting. Glad we did
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Black Canyon of the Gunnison

We had such a good time in the spring at this national park that we wanted to go back.  Our favorite site A-9 was already booked so we reserved site A-34.  Not as nice but we made it work.  Set up in the rain – white canopy and patio mat first.  Good system.IMG_7189

IMG_7202 We spent three nights here riding our road bikes on the rim, hiking the trail that allows dogs and checking out the diversion tunnel set up to send water to the Uncompaghre Valley.  We saw a young bear on the road back from the diversion tunnel! Also went to the Montrose Aquatic Center for a short swim and showers.  All in all, a fun weekend and not too far from home.

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We are tightening up our “systems” for future travels, getting rid of things we really don’t use.  We left the umbrella at home and will not bring the small aluminum table any more.  We really like the additional space we have after taking out the air conditioner.

Weekend getaway

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We camped in site #32 at Monarch Park for two nights. It’s less than 30 minutes from home so it’s an easy pack up and go. We set up on Friday night and came back to Salida on Saturday for a couple of events in town. Quick shower and back to camp! It was the first time we have left the T@G alone, locked up in camp. We were home unpacked by noon. Although the site itself was adequate, site #34 is the better site.
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Crested Butte Disbursed Camping

Weekends are busy in Colorado but Crested Butte seems the busiest for us. We found this spot on the Slate river about 6 miles out of town. Very dusty and dry and nothing left in or near the trees. Price was right though! Our set up worked great and we didn’t miss having a picnic table. Next trip we will be looking for trees and shade!

Rikki took us four-wheeling over Paradise Pass.  There were some wildflowers still and the views were spectacular!

New Set Up

We switched the canopies putting the white larger one over the “living space.” Gave us much more room!
Thoughts on Collegiate Peaks CG: we lucked out with this site with its large space and relative privacy. Although the CG FULL sign was out there were two available sites right near us. We call the smaller wooded sites the “inner city” since they are so crowded with lots of families and kids. We are “out in the county” here and prefer it. Doubt we will be back here this season. Too many other places to go.
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Luanne and Steve

These really nice folks are from Indiana. Turns out they had one of the original Little Guy 4 x 8 trailers. So they knew all about tear drops but said it looks like they’ve come a long way since they had theirs. Steve said they ended up selling theirs for one and a half times more than what they paid for it. We were able to share info about locations in Colorado they might visit while here. They shared some of their camping experiences with us, mostly about maintenance issues. He said he used to carry an extra set of wheels bearings and grease for the their trailer just in case. He said they’d go on 6000 mile trips. Made me wonder if extra bearings might be a good idea. Little Guy says the bearings need to be repacked every year or some sort of mileage. I’m hoping there are some zerks under there.
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Collegiate Peaks FS Campground Site 31

This is a very large site. There’s enough room to park three cars in the parking space. Susan came up early Thursday morning to grab a site in this campground and this was the last one available for a two or three night stay. There are lots of shaded spots throughout the campground but this one and a couple around it are wide open with out trees. I’m hoping it won’t get too hot. But because we’re finding our T@G to be more self contained than our SS, we wanted to try setting up closer to the trailer not depending so much on a provided picnic table.

Monarch Park site #11

Here’s our site for tonight. We decided on a whim to check out Monarch Park while we drove near it. We discovered not very many people camping here and decided to pay for a spot and we’d go home to get our trailer.

What worked out well was most of our gear was still packed from the trip we took this past week. It’s nice and cool here compared to Salida today.

Reliance Portable Potty Storage

We used to carry our Reliance portable potty in the storage box mounted on the Silver Shadow tongue. But the new T@G Max has the propane and battery mounted there. Thought maybe I could carry the potty on the extra space on the tongue with a cam strap. It looked like the strap would slide off and loose grip of the potty. So to keep the strap in place I cut slots in a five gallon bucket cover. Was pretty easy to do. Used a grey one to look a little nicer. Hopefully it will all hold in place.
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Our Little Guy dealer

Here’s Susan with Dana Parsons of Missouri Teardrop Trailers in Centerview, MO. What a pleasant experience dealing with this knowledgeable gentleman! We spent more than two uninterrupted hours with him as he took us through all the Ins and Outs of our new T@G trailer. Hope to stop in to see him again on one of our trips. Thanks again, Dana!

Tool to move trailers!

Great idea here. Wonder if I can make a more portable one.
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[6-28-2016] On the other hand, we’ve found that our new T@G is sooo much easier to move around than our Silver Shadow was. The handles work really well. I’ll probably not think of how to get one of these tools much anymore.

David with a Harley

This is David. We exchanged phone numbers cuz he’s interested in getting a Harley. I told him I’d sell him ours. He is the first person to complement us on our new T@G.

Eric and Narelie

This couple was traveling with a tear drop from another company and stopped near us at the rest stop today. They’re from Virginia and on their way to Colorado. Told them they should stop in Salida sometime.

Goodland KOA

Well after avoiding RV campgrounds for the last few years in our Silver Shadow we decided to stay in a KOA tonight. Given that we’ve been traveling all day and we are tired and wouldn’t mind playing with our new toys plugged in we said lets do it. The air is cool compared to the mid nineties we had all day. Nice little campground. We’re in spot #34.

Television and stereo work great. I think we got the fridge working, but not sure how. It was showing an error on the road today. Now it seems to be getting down to the right temp. We are hooked up to the 30amp plugin at our site. I’m thinking that might have something to do with it. The air conditioner works great. We love the windows and doors. Big improvement for us.

First Stop Rest

I wanted to turn the fridge on. This was our first stop after we left Missouri Tear Drop. It’s actually a rest area along the highway. We just pulled out the umbrella and set it up for shade. We literally had three couples and a guy ask us if they could check out our trailer. I said that I think putting up the umbrella sort of makes folks think we’re not in any hurry so they think we have time to answer all their questions. We are used to folks asking us about our tear drop from having our Silver Shadow, but today has to be some kind of record. We were here for no more than 30 minutes.
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New home for Silver Shadow 5×8

Our Little Guy Silver Shadow has a new home with Lawton and Tom. It’s sad for us but at the same time we are looking forward to getting our T@G. We hope they have as much fun as we’ve had with that Little Guy. It sure is a great little unit.

The Adventure Continues

We have very mixed feelings about letting our Silver Shadow go. We know it’s going to a great new owner who will take it to new and exciting places.
In a few days we will be heading to KC, Missouri to pick up a 2017 T@G. These last three years with our SS have taught us what we love about Teardrop trailers: easy travel, comfortable bed and so much more. Once we saw the T@G model, we wanted the additional head room, doors and windows. Also the birch wood interior which we wouldn’t do without. We’re getting the T@G Max with all the upgrades which will also be an adjustment for us. We are consumed with excitement about this new trailer and can’t wait to see it here in our driveway!

South Rim Campground

We’re in site #A9. Surrounded by scrub oak. Lots of wildlife: birds, deer, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, and mice. Simon hasn’t been trying to chase any of them but we’re keeping an eye on him.

This has been one of the nicest sites we’ve ever stayed at. One of the first things we noticed was the lack of generator motors running. Later we learned it’s because they are not allowed in this loop of the campground. The amount of vegetation also makes most of the sites feel isolated. Choose wisely.

Another welcome addition to our “system” is our ground mat seen clearly in this pic. It’s relatively cheap at Walmart, reversible, and gives us a nice clean area to be on. Folds and stows super easy. We highly recommend it. Don’t know why we waited so long.

Lunch stop

Got all the way here for lunch on our way to the black canyon tonight. Keep your feet off the ground away from the ants!

Tip: Watch out for ants in this visitor center. You’ll need to keep your feet off the ground.

Fun in Durango

No campgrounds wee open for the season in Durango so we contacted our friends Greg and April who moved here from Salida. It was great fun catching up with them while enjoying the warm sun. Simon got along well with all three of their dogs. We camped in their driveway since they were leaving very early on a trip. We took our time leaving this morning and are looking forward to our campsite in Chaco canyon.

On the road again!

After being delayed by unusual heavy spring snow, we are headed to Durango today. Our destination is Chaco Canyon in New Mexico for some cultural experiences and a Star Party with the new moon. Chaco canyon is a designated dark sky area so it should be interesting and fun!

One nighter

Supposed to be the height of the meteor showers so we found this spot in hopes to see some later. We’re just about 25 miles from home but seems like so much further.

We are in the San Luis Valley Campground, a private campground. There are only about half a dozen sites. Only one other camper while we were there who seemed to be semi-permenant resident.

Our last night

Spent our last night in site 38 at the Colorado National Monument-same site we stayed in at the beginning of this trip. Beautiful warm night with quiet neighbors around us. This was night 16 of the 18 nights on the road in the Little Guy. Looking forward to seeing our garden and riding our bikes on familiar roads.