The "Shake-Out Tour" commenced this past Thursday night at Honeycreek State Park, in Grove. At my mother's suggestion, we decided to stay close to home for our first outing in order to shake-out any problems and be able to fix them easier being just five miles from home. I'm happy to report no problems and nothing forgotten. Actually, things went so smoothly, we are now confident enought to start talking about our much anticipated dive trip to the Florida Keys in the motor home.
We've been spending the past few weeks gathering up stuff for the motor home, David working on all the outside requirements like sewer hose and water hose (eeeewwww, I hope he NEVER gets those mixed up) and me working on the important things like decorating, getting new dishes, food prep items, and groceries. I was telling Jack about getting ready for our first trip and he told me a funny story about some clients who do the following every season as they prepare to travel...they park their motor home in the drive way and after loading it, the wife periodically spends the night in it right there on their drive way...just to make sure she has everything they need for a trip. She told Jack, "That way when we get ready to leave, all I have to do is go buy milk and bread and I'm ready to travel!" Smart lady!!!
Thursday after work, we packed up the last of those "necessary" items, loaded Sadie, and headed down the road. Five minutes later, we arrived at our destination, Honeycreek State Park. After parking, we began unloading all those hoses and plugs and began getting hooked into Honeycreek's power and water. The slab was level so we didn't really have much to do. After taking Sadie for a walk around their lovely, tree filled acres we decided to fix dinner outside on our new grill to make sure it worked. The hamburgers were fabulous! As a surprise for David, I rented the Robin Williams movie, RV, so after dinner we watched that hilarious movie. Thank you Scott for the suggestion. We turned in early and slept peacefully. I was prepared to have to buy another mattress, but were pleasantly surprised this one was so comfortable after adding the memory foam on top.
Friday morning, I made coffee in the new Mr. Coffee maker, took Sadie on another walk, then made pancakes inside. The stove worked! After breakfast, we decided to go for a bicycle ride around Honeycreek. As a part of our new health initiative, we are determined to ride our bicycles whenever we can on our trips instead of taking a "toad"... another RV word for a tow car. We know there will be times when taking a car will be a necessity, but for now this is the plan. The ride was fabulous! We then rode to the office, WalMart, and Lowes then back to Honeycreek. Let me just say, we take walks and exercise every day, but in those 24 hours on our camping trip, we got more exercise than we usually get in a week. It was great! After lunch, another walk and bicycle ride and it was time to break camp. After unhooking everything, we decided to go to the dump station and go through that "fun" exercise. It wasn't too gross, although I did make David clean his hands with an anti-bacterial cloth afterwards. Five minutes later, we were pulling into our barn, happy with ourselves on our first successful RV trip : ) Read my full review of Honeycreek State Park, complete with pictures, on tripadvisor.com.
This week we are headed over to Lake Taneycomo for a couple of days. The place we are staying is about five minutes away from the strip in Branson so I'm sure our bicycles will get another good work-out. In addition, I think we're going to buy temporary fishing licenses and do a little fishing off the RV park dock. Originally, I wanted to go to the Okeene Rattlesnake Roundup, but upon further investigation, it seems they have let it go downhill a little. It seems the Rattlesnake Club bubbas want to run things instead of letting the Chamber of Commerce. After talking to a couple of them, I'm pretty sure they are distant cousins of mine AND were definitely related to the guys on Okie Noodling. So....I'm OK with going to Branson instead...although next year I have my heart set on going to the Big Spring Rattlesnake Round-Up in Big Spring, Texas....supposedly the new king of rattlesnake hunts...dethroning Okeene and the bubbas for that previously held title. Sorry, cousins...
