Salvisa, KY

 

Where is Salvisa you ask, good question.  Best I can tell is it is near Lexington and Frankfort, Kentucky.  How did we find it?  Actually we found Harrodsburg, Kentucky, which is nearby, in our 1000 places to see book.   The nicest RV park near Harrodsburg is located in Salvisa.  What is in Harrodsburg?  It has a historical Shaker village, a historic downtown, civil war battlefields and is in the heart of the Kentucky bourbon trail.

We had decided to do some exploring in Kentucky as we loop around the south the next couple of months.  This area is very beautiful.  Very green, lots of trees and rolling hills.  The RV park is near a river and has its own marina.  Very quiet and peaceful, except for the those that live here going to work at 6:00am! 

Here are some pictures of the park

Our rig.  The pull thru spaces are curved, which makes for some interesting placement of the trailer.

The park from the entrance.  Surrounded by trees. 

Limestone cliffs that are on the other side of the river.

We are here for a week then plan on moving to the Cumberland Gap State Park for a few days.

Before and After

I received the new motor today and it installed perfectly and works great.  To end this story arc on my blog I thought I would give you a picture of what the old motor looked like and what the new one looks like.

 

Easy to tell the difference!

Internet research saved me almost $300.

Damage Update

As mentioned in my last post we had damage to a motor that powers the rear jacks on our trailer.  I was waiting for a price quote from Jayco, but in the meantime had done some web research and it looked like this motor could cost close to $400.  Way to pricey in my opinion.  I continued my research and  found it very interesting.

The jack system is made by a company called Lippert and the entire jack system (2 jacks and a motor) has a replacement cost of $575.  Research showed that the motor is not made by Lippert, but rather by a company called Klauber located in Missouri. Lippert, on their website, will sell a replacement motor for $375.  I sent an inquiry to Klauber and they got back to me the next morning with a price quote of $126 plus shipping.  A few hours later the local Jayco dealer called me back and said Jayco does not stock the part so they would have it dropped shipped from Lippert for $375.  I told the Jayco guy what I found out and he could not believe I could get it for $126, but agreed going to the manufacturer would make a difference.  I ordered the motor and it should be here next week.

Unbelievable the mark up Lippert is putting on this motor.

South Charleston, OH

On Thursday we moved from the Knoxville area to Ohio to visit with our middle daughter.  We had a little drama while enroute and are currently waiting to see what the cost will be.  As I was driving in the right lane on the interstate outside of Lexington, Kentucky the semi in front of me suddenly swerved to the next lane and I was immediately faced with a large piece of a shredded tire in the middle of the lane.  I decided I could not swerve in time so I chose to drive over it by straddling it, hoping it would pass under the truck and trailer. I was fairly successful in this plan as it passed under the truck but then hit the cord connecting the trailer to the truck and disconnected it, which immediately gave me a warning indicator in the truck.  I did not hear or see any other damage. 

I pulled over as quickly as I could find a safe place on the shoulder so I could see about the cord as with it disconnected the brake lights and signals on the trailer were not working.  There was no damage, it had just become dislodged.  I connected it back up and took a quick walk around the trailer and did not see any other issues so I got back to driving.

A few miles down the road a semi pulls up next to me and gets my attention and is waving his arms indicating I have some issue.  I look in my rear view mirror and see something dangling by a cable from the rear of the trailer.  I again find a safe place to get over and stop.  The dangling item was the electric motor for the rear stabilizing jacks.  The motor had come off and was bouncing on the roadway attached to the cable that powers it.  I cut the motor from the cable and quickly checked around and under the trailer to see if there were any other issues.  I did not see any and this was confirmed at a rest stop a few miles down the road.

At the RV park I was able to use the jacks via the hand crank and was able to remove the rest of the motor that was attached.  I called the local Jayco dealer to see about a replacement motor and they are checking to see if they can order in time and how much it will be.  It is a small, very solid motor so I am thinking it may cost $50 to $100,, but some online research last night revealed it may be closer to $300!  We will see.

Smoky Mountains

We successfully made our caravan trip from the Chicago area to Knoxville to move our daughter Kim.  The nice thing about this move is I did not have to move anything, she hired Two Guys and a Truck to pack and unpack the rental truck.  Very reasonable price and a great way to get a moving job done.  I wish I would have known about this when we had moving jobs in the past.  My back would have appreciated it!

She is moved in and complaining about Comcast so everything is back to normal.  By the way, I have never had Comcast and I hate their customer service just from the stories I have been told by those that use their service.

We are staying up the road from her apartment in Walland, TN which is very near the entrance to the Smoky Mountain National Park.  It is a nice park and a very easy drive to the Knoxville area. 

The past couple of days we have had RV’ers arriving with motorcycles in tow.  I did not think about it as many RV’ers do bring motorcycles with them, but the numbers began to grow and then I saw a banner at a local hotel that said they were motorcycle friendly.  That information along with a Facebook posting from a buddy mentioning the Sturgis motorcycle rally led me to do some investigating.  The Sturgis rally is August 6-12 in Sturgis, South Dakota, so our RV park is a stop over for those coming from the east and south. 

Since being here the weather has just been brutal.  Everyday it has been in the 90’s with extremely high humidity.  Just walking outside for a few minutes produces immediate sweating and drenched clothes.  Air conditioning is the only way to go!

We are here for a few more days then moving onto Ohio to visit our daughter Kelly.

Canadian Invasion

Wednesday was moving day for us.  We left Two Rivers, Wisconsin and drove back to the Chicago area.  This time we are staying closer in to the metro area at an RV park that is part of the Hollywood Casino in Joliet, Illinois.  The park is very nice and reasonable but only has sites with water and electric, so staying for an extended period of time means taking the trailer to the dump station to empty your waste tanks.  The sites are very nice and they give you  a lot of space.   The nice thing is that we are 40 miles closer to our daughter and friends.

When we arrived on Wednesday there were only a dozen or so rigs in the park and the entire center section of pull-thrus was empty.  That all changed at 2pm on Thursday!  We had a Canadian invasion.  At the same time, approximately 20 high end class A diesel pushers arrived.  All from Quebec. It was fascinating watching them come in.  One after another they came down the road and pulled in the next available pull thru spot, then you all heard was the hissing of air as they emptied their air shocks.  After they all set up I took a walk around and all their rigs are very high end, nothing under $500,000 and they are huge, all over 40 feet long.

Here is a picture looking up the road from our rig.

Everything on the left are the motorhomes from Canada.

Sunday is moving day for our daughter.  We will be doing a caravan down to Knoxville. 

Some Bike Riding

We have ventured out to see what is around us here in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.  In my last posting I mentioned we are across from Lake Michigan and next to the lake is a very nice bike trail that connects the towns of Manitowoc and Two Rivers.  The trail is called the mariners trail and it is very nicely maintained.  In Two Rivers the trail connects up to another trail called the Rawley Point trail which takes you into the state forest.  Here is a map of the trail.

I believe the total length of the Mariners Trail is 6.5 miles.  I am not sure the length of the Rawley Point trail.  On Thursday we rode from our RV park into Two Rivers (about 2 miles) then rode around town and connected up with the Rawley Point trail which we rode for about two miles.  We did not finish the Rawley Point trail as we were not sure how much further we had to the end and we still had to ride back to the RV park. 

It was a beautiful ride and the weather was just perfect.  On our way back we stopped for lunch at a restaurant in the Lakeview Inn.  The dining room is near the lake and offers great views and great food.  Here was our view from our table.

On Friday we rode the other way on the trail, into Manitowoc.  We rode around the town and then ended up at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.  A nice place to visit. 

Their coolest exhibit is a World War II U.S. submarine, the USS Cobia.  You get a very nice tour of the inside of the submarine from the back to the front and it gives you an appreciation for our servicemen serving in such cramped conditions.

Deck gun

Torpedo tubes

Control room

We still want to finish the Rawley Point trail and maybe take a drive into Green Bay before we leave on Wednesday of next week.