#22 - Monday, 6 February 2017 | Bowling Green, Kentucky

Apparently I have become a regular at this Country Inn & Suites in Bowling Green. Last night was my third stay in less than three weeks. Yesterday was a shorter driving day. I left another Country Inn (my favorite chain for value rooms that are modern and clean and not creepy) in north Macon yesterday and was easily relaxing in my hotel here long before Super Bowl LI started.

Saturday I drove about three hours from the state park to Barracuda RV & Boat Storage in Ocala. I parked my traveling home and then continued about four more hours to north Macon. The drive was easy, with overcast skies making it less tiring than driving in the blazing sun. I've driven this road so many times. I've made plenty of trips from Chicagoland to Florida. But even more than that I've driven both north and south when I was based in Nashville. The stretch between Nashville and Louisville, Kentucky is particularly well-traveled as I used to exhibit at a monthly reptile show in Shelbyville, KY. Each month I would drive three hours north on Interstate 65 to just south of Louisville before I'd veer east to continue to Shelbyville. Trips to visit family and friends in the Chicago area were fairly frequent when I was living in east Nashville. Nashville south to Atlanta was also an oft traveled path, and I was thinking yesterday how that road must be disconcerting to some travelers. When driving I-24 out of Nashville to head to Chattanooga and on to Atlanta or elsewhere in the southeast, some motorists must become confused. As you near Chattanooga you suddenly see a sign welcoming you to Georgia. I wonder how many drivers think they have missed a turn. Five miles farther another sign welcomes you to Tennessee. The mountains forced a brief dip into Georgia before I-24 could turn back northeast toward Lookout Mountain and the city of Chattanooga. 

I'll be back in Huntley and Hoffman Estates this afternoon. Tomorrow I have lunch with my sister Lisa and dinner with my bonus dad Joel scheduled. I also need to get ready for Wednesday evening. I'll be at O'Hare at about 5 pm to catch my 7:40 Emirates flight to Dubai. It arrives Thursday evening due to time zones and the fact that it is a bloody long flight of about 15 hours! Then I arrive in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Friday morning and catch a flight to Kuching, Borneo. Then it is a taxi to the LimeTree Inn where I should arrive in the mid-afternoon. I'll have an evening to myself Friday night before my friends/second family join me on Saturday. It will be my mate Mark's birthday and, as far as I know, our plan is still to visit his friends at Borneo Headhunters Tattoo in Kuching to get traditional hand-tapped tribal tattoos.

All the best, M

#17 - Friday, 27 January 2017 | Bowling Green, Kentucky

#roadtripusa2017 has now officially begun! 

It will be interrupted by my February 8-26 trip to Kuching and Langkawi, but yesterday I left Chicagoland with "The Wheelhouse" – my 31' travel trailer – in tow. Once the RV was delivered earlier in the week I had planned to leave Sunday morning after my family returned from their holiday in Riviera Maya, Mexico, but icy and cold conditions and no place to park the rig combined to make me leave yesterday morning. In the back of my mind I think I had hoped that I'd be able to back the travel trailer into my sister's driveway to load and organize, but it is far too narrow and I realized that my eagerness had left me in a bind. When I picked it up on Wednesday I began to load it, but became very stressed about having no place to park it overnight, and that worry was exacerbated by the dreary fog and cold rain of the day. I loaded what I could and took a test drive on the highway where I found a truck stop where I could do some unpacking inside. Eventually I decided I had no choice but to park it on the street in front of my stepdad's house. I could block his drive and park overlapping the parkway in front of his neighbors. However, his side is the no parking side where fire hydrants are located. I resigned myself to accept the parking ticket and went to bed early, very anxious and restless. 

Yesterday dawned with no angry neighbors and no police department fine. When I say dawned I mean the wee hours before dawn as I am an early riser always, and had gone to bed very early the night before intending to wake early and get shit done. It was 2 a.m. and I drove to my sister's house in Huntley to load the rest of my gear. In the dark of predawn I was able to park in the alley beside her business house and load everything. I then headed back to Joel's house to load the rest after a stop at Starbucks and Walmart. It was a cold and icy morning and the weather forecast was for dropping temperatures. Trucks were everywhere salting the streets. Even though it would mean leaving my parrot Jesse alone for 48 hours, I knew that my best plan was to avoid the weather and rig parking and hassle and get on the road. One week ago I had stayed at this Country Inn & Suites by Carlson in Bowling Green, Kentucky and loved the hotel. I decided to book last night here and start getting myself back to warmth. Today I have a return to Macon, Georgia planned, but as it has cooled off there to where overnight temps will be close to freezing I will either have to go farther south or stay in a hotel for one more night. Starting Monday night I have a campsite reserved at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, Florida where I was originally planning to start this road trip. The only sites available were in the equestrian area so I imagine my RV will be among musky scents and whinnying. I'll be there four nights unpacking my things and doing some hiking. Winter weather has returned throughout the U.S. and temps in Florida will be cooler than when I was there just over a week ago. The furnace in my RV will actually run during the night. On February 4 I will park The Wheelhouse at a storage facility in Ocala, Florida and return to Chicagoland for my trip to Borneo and Malaysia. It won't be cool there.

Hopefully you keep up on my Instagram posts, but here are some photos my rig:

about to leave the lot at General RV Center, Huntley, IL

Practicing backing in a vacant lot

Unnamed truck & "The Wheelhouse"

Coachmen RV Freedom Express Liberty Edition 276RKDSLE
31 1/2 feet, 7800 lbs. loaded

#15 - Thursday, 19 January 2017 | Bowling Green, Kentucky

My little sortie to Florida to break in the new truck and familiarize myself with it is coming to a close. I am in Bowling Green, Kentucky having breakfast in my hotel and will soon begin the six and a half hour journey back to Chicagoland. Yesterday, I left the very warm Macon, Georgia after getting my first oil change and drove north listening to the third book of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones, Book 3 - A Storm of Swords). I stopped at a rest area in southern Tennessee near Monteagle. The weather was significant cooler, especially for someone still garbed in t-shirt, shorts and sandals. It was a bit of a sad visit there as my late and beloved dog Taylor was from Monteagle and I rescued her when I was living in Nashville. The weather had become gloomy and so was my mood thinking of memories of my amazing pooch. She really was the best friend. 

The weather turned worst south of Nashville and it became difficult to see in the downpour. Accidents caused traffic delays and my ETA at my Bowling Green hotel got later and later. I had thought about having lunch in my old Nashville hometown, but decided to forge ahead and have a late lunch/early dinner upon arrival at my destination, which is what I had been doing the past few days. The Country Inn & Suites Hotel is by far the nicest of the trip, but I didn't get to enjoy the amenities as after my early dinner I just showered and laid in bed writing a letter to someone very special. Then I dozed off early and woke at like 2 a.m. with a pounding headache. I likely didn't drink enough water during yesterday's drive.

Before I made it to Kentucky I called my salesman at General RV and inquired about the status of my travel trailer. It apparently was completed at the factory this week as scheduled and was now at the distribution center in Indiana. It's close by and I am awaiting word on when I can pick it up.

I hope you have had a chance to enjoy the photos I posted on Instagram during the trip. I hope to resume my southern travels before long and it is now less than 20 days until I leave for Borneo & Malaysia. 

All the best, M