Yesterday we stopped for one night at Cheaha State Park in Alabama. This is about half way between Atlanta, Georgia and Birmingham, Alabama. It is known for being the highest point in Alabama. The park is in the Appalachian mountain range so we got to see how the motorhome did pulling the truck up some fairly steep and winding mountain roads. All I can say is we will never win any races to the top I can tell you that. It was like driving my 1964 VW Beetle 40 years ago. You stepped on the gas and pushed it to the floor and then you looked down to make sure you had your foot on the gas pedal and then you waited. If you were going on a long trip you would put Sunoco 260 octane in the tank and you increased your top speed by 5 mph to 72 miles per hour. Overall the motorhome did great but did slow down going up some of the steeper climbs. I think a lighter tow vehicle will help since our truck weighs more than double the typical tow vehicle. On the freeway to get to the park I also slowed down from 67-68 miles per hour which I did the day before to 62-63 miles per hour. Our trip mileage for yesterday including the mountain driving improved to 7.5 miles per gallon. To some this sounds horrible but it really pleases me. My mileage is only 20-25% lower than what we achieved with the truck pulling the 5th wheel. I used the economy selector for part of our trip today also which gets you into and keeps you into a higher gear longer than normal. With the motorhome we leave the park in the morning and Huli fixes breakfast on the road. The inverter using the eight house batteries will run the appliances like the coffee maker and things like that but if she wants to use the electric stove we just start the generator. Yesterday we "exercised" the generator for an hour while running down the road with two of the roof air conditioners running. The experts say you need to do that every month. So the motorhome is great for getting something to eat or drink while traveling. That's good since it is not as easy to get this thing into places I could get the 5'r into like Mickey D's parking lots but I have done two u turns with the motorhome and the truck so I am starting to understand what it's capable of doing. Cheaha park only had about 25 spaces and the camping spots were a little small but we did fine finding one where we would fit. By the way while at Cheaha park we had no telephone or internet service so I couldn't update the blog yesterday. We left Cheaha State Park this morning around 10:30ish and drove to Joe Wheeler State Park which is in northern Alabama about 20 miles west of Huntsville. We are staying here for about six days. This park has a golf course which I plan on playing at least once during our stay. From here we don't know where we are going but it will depend on the weather in Indiana. We could be home in a day or take three weeks to get home. Below are some pictures from the last couple of days.
This is what Valdosta, Georgia is best known for. The courthouse
Getting to Cheaha State Park we were actually in the clouds. Here we stopped at one of the overlooks.
We made it.
This little "hippie girl" which is what I called her has walked from Miami to this mountain top in Alabama with her dog who is tied up out front of the restaurant. She could out eat me but I could out drink her. That's true, I think my weight is a function of my thyroid problem. Oh well.
Sydney has adjusted great to traveling in the motorhome and Tanner did much better today.
A semi on the left kept us from getting any better shots of the Taledaga speedway.
