As promised:

I'll add some photos as soon as I get them down loaded to photobucket.


I use to hate to do these when I was in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade. Now that I'm 69 and retired it's sort of fun. Let's see, we left home in So. Calif on June 1 and drove to Las Vegas. Spent a week there where my room mate took the casinos for just over $1,000. I too left a winner. (read I lost less than $100.) From L.V. we went to Reno and spent a few days there. Jim gave back some of the money he won in L.V. From Reno to Bend OR. where we spent a few days just looking around. A really beautiful area. Bend to Spokane, WA. One night there then on to Butte, Montana. Butte to Yellowstone park where we spent a few days then on to Cody, Wyoming. A town I considered retiring to, until I realized the winters there are really bad and seem to last 6-7 months. From Cody to Rapid City, SD. We spent just over 2 weeks there exploring Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse memorial, Devils Tower, and Sturgis where they have the big motorcycle rally every year. I lost some more money in the casinos at Deadwood. Jim walked away with about $500 of their money. His year I guess. This is the town where Wild Bill Hickock was shot. From there we went to Knoxville Iowa. We spent about 3 weeks there. Enjoying the World of Outlaws sprint car nationals and fishing. This was my 3rd trip to Knoxville. Jim has been going there for probably 30 or more years. From Iowa we traveled to Cincinnati Ohio to visit family and friends. From Ohio we went to Orlando Florida via Knoxville and Chattanooga TN., and Atlanta. We spent about a month in Florida. Again visiting family and friends. We left Orlando and took just over a week to travel the 2500 miles back home to So. Calif on I-10 through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. We arrived back home on Sept 29. All together we were on the road for just over 17 weeks. We drove through 23 states. Put 7500 miles on the motor home and 5300 on the car for a total of 12,800 miles. (You don't want to see our gas bills.) I've been home for 6 days now and I'm already thinking about next years trip. Probably going to go up to the New England states. Main, Vermont, N.H., Mass. But that's still 30 or so weeks away. Plenty of time to plan.

WOW! Wish I could do that!Q Sounds like you had a great time and saw a lot of country. I grew up in Oregon and Bend area is really beautiful.

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~Shannon~


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"Well behaved women seldom make history."

I spent time in vegas over the summer. Where did you stay when you were there? Did you check out the Hoover damn. We rented a boat on Lake Mead and that was alot of fun.

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Fan,

We stayed at the Thousand Trails camp ground on Bolder. Less than a mile from Sam's town.
I only live about 2 hrs. from L.V. and Hoover dam. So have been to both many times. Not on this trip however.

A few of the photos I promised.

This is my summer home. A 35' "Winni." This is a great way to see the country. In the last 3 summers,
I've been to 33-35 states in this beauty. It's basically a hotel suit on wheels.
It's completely self contained. It has a nice little kitchen and dining area. Two sleeping ares.
A bathroom with a walk in shower, and 2 TV sets. It's a nice place to spend the summer.
It can get a bit warm if you don't have a shady camp sight like this one.
It can also get a bit scary in a bad storm, but except for a few evening thunderstorms in Florida,
1 of which tore the awing off the RV next to us,
we had no trouble with weather and were very comfortable.
This is a LONG way from the tent camping I did 30-40 years ago.



Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville Iowa. Home of the "WORLD OF OUTLAWS" sprint car nationals.
This is a 1/2 mile dirt track. When the outlaws come to town in August this little town of a few
thousand people in south central Iowa grows by 50,000 to 80,000 people for about 3 weeks.



Lining up for a race. These cars can hit well over 100 MPH on the short straightaways.
A good running car can run laps at Knoxville in the low 15's during the race.
I believe the lap record at Knoxville is mid 14's for the 1/2 mile.
At one 1/2 mile track in Ohio the record is 12.8 seconds.
Just for comparison, the NASCAR record at Bristol speedway in Tenn.
a PAVED 1/2 mile track is 14.9 seconds.
We went to races in 7 or 8 different states.

Wow nice set up! I spent a couple of hours at Sams Town!

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Awesome! Great way to see the country. I plan on just that when I retire.
Memphis...do you tow or trailer a vehicle with you?

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...... BRIAN ......

Crew, we tow. Its a must. When you get to where you're going you need something to drive around in.
A 35-45' vehicle that gets 4-5 mpg around town, and is a PITA to turn/park is not the way to go.
We have a 2007 Honda CR-V. (my room mates car. His motor home also.) I've seen many rigs with a little tow dolly.
On FWD vehicles, you just drive the front wheels on, tie them down and you're ready to go. We flat tow the Honda,
and all you have to do is hook up and go. The owners manual warns if you are towing long distances in any 1 day,
you should stop once (lunch, gas stop worked fine.) and start the engine and run the trans through each of the gears for a few seconds.
Good idea. On the previous tow vehicle, an 03 Chevy cavalier, we never bothered doing that and had no problems after towing it for about 30k miles.

If you are considering getting an RV. May I suggest you consider a 5th wheel also. IMO that's a better way to go.
With a 35' 5th wheel you'll have as much or more room than a comparable Motorhome at about 1/2 to 2/3 the price.
About $50K to $70k for the 5th wheel Vs $110K + for a motorhome. Of could you will need a strong truck to pull that trailer.
Based on on what I've seen a duli diesel is the way to go. Ford superduty or something like it. Of course that will set you back another $40k to $50k,
depending on what you buy. But then you can just trade in the truck every few years and keep the 5th wheel.

All of the above prices are for new vehicles. I'd suggest you buy used the first time and see if you like it for a season or 2.
If you like it you can then upgrade.