In to Kentucky, and some cheap gas!!

It's funny, but we've been to Lexington, Kentucky several times... yet we've never been to downtown Lexington. We're staying on the southern outskirts of the city this time so maybe we'll take a day and head into the central area to see what there is to see.

We woke up yesterday morning by the river in St. Albans, West Virginia. I peaked my head out the window to see if the sun was coming up yet...

The Wonderbag!

When we were in Europe, we learned about a simple method of slow cooking that uses very little energy. The Wonderbag.

Being frugal RV'ers who like to conserve energy while boondocking, Ruth thought this might work really well. She often makes a stew, or curry, or other crockpot style dish. Our Wonderbag was delivered when we were at Connie and Barry's house last Monday, and so we tried it out on Tuesday!

Great views, and another free overnight spot!

We got up yesterday morning, and drove the short distance to the New River Gorge visitors center. We knew that it didn't open until 9:00am, so we sat in Sherman and had some breakfast. When we were ready, we went up to the entrance.

"Closed due to Thanksgiving. Will re-open Friday at 9:00am".

Hmph.

There are no straight roads in West Virginia!

Which is fine.... Sherman likes driving on curvy mountain roads.

We've never spent any time in West Virginia. In fact, our only recorded travel here was through a tiny corner of the state back in 2010. And we don't think we stopped. So really, this is our first time here.

Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike Tunnel

Woke up at 6:30am yesterday morning, put the heat on and went back to bed for another 20 minutes. It was a bit chilly on top of the mountain! But the skies were clear and it wasn't long before the sun was shining in Sherman's windows.

It was close to 10:00am when we headed down the mountain to try and find the abandoned highway tunnel.

A great travel day, and a good boondocking spot

Yesterday was the first day that we truly felt we were back to our style of RV travel. A short travel day on back country roads, followed by a hike and boondocking on top of a mountain.

In a word, fantastic!

Hiking in the forest and found an old plane crash...

Finally got out for some exercise yesterday. The forecast keeps teasing us by saying the sun is going to shine, but it wasn't very accurate yesterday. Still, Barry graciously offered his pickup truck to us to go back up into the mountains and do a hike, and we're glad we did.

It felt great to get out and get some fresh air!

Rainy day and Sherman has some new LED light bulbs!

Well it was a dreary, wet, miserable day yesterday. But we didn't let that stop us... we had fun anyhow! Sure glad that we weren't driving anywhere in the motorhome though.

Barry and Connie took us out for breakfast. Just a local diner. It seems everywhere we go, they bump into someone they know!

Tire fixed, and a long driving day....

Up early at the Walmart in Watertown, New York. No idea what the temperature had gone down to that night, but it was only 39F (3C) inside the motorhome when we woke up. We never leave the heat on at night. Nice and cozy in bed still, but boy you sure didn't want to get out!

Looked outside and saw this...

Not a smooth start to the trip...

Well it wasn't a great travel day. But, we are safe and happy in our motorhome, and sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. Today will be a better day.

How about I start at the beginning...

We got up at a half decent hour, with the plan to be pulling out of our daughter's driveway by 10:00am at the very latest.

New dinette table for Sherman... and we're off!

Sherman has a new dinette table!

We've always hated our dinette table in the motorhome. It simply looked cheap.

Our son in law Justin is a wood craftsman. He's actually a trained cabinetmaker, and he builds the nicest furniture. But he's always so busy, so we hesitated to ask. We told him we would pay him to build us a table, and he agreed. So before we left for Barbados, we bought some (expensive!) Peruvian walnut hardwood at a wood specialty shop.

And while we were gone, we let him work his magic...

What did it cost for 19 days in Barbados?

We always find it an interesting exercise to go back over our trip costs when any particular voyage ends. Of course when someone goes on a typical package vacation, it's a lot easier to add things up. The typical one week all inclusive is especially easy because for the most part you know all of your costs up front.

But with us, you just never know until the end. Of course we try and do things as frugally as possible within reason. But when you travel to a relatively expensive country like Barbados, you're pretty much stuck spending whatever it costs. I mean after all, you still have to eat!

Back in Canada

But it's going to be a whirlwind visit, mostly just to say goodbye. We need to do some last minute shopping (maple syrup, among other things!) and then we're heading into the United States on Thursday morning.

Our travel day was fine yesterday. Everything happened exactly as planned.

October Expenses

There was so much going on in Barbados, we never got around to telling you about our month of October expenses. So I've got some time to waste here in Toronto airport waiting for our flight to Ottawa.

October was an expensive month. Mostly because of repairs and maintenance to Sherman, but also because we always seem to spend more money visiting Ottawa than when we're out traveling!

Barbados rough north coast

Our last day touring Barbados and we finally made it up to the rough north coast. Cliffs and caves and wind where the Atlantic Ocean crashes into the rocks.

Our couchsurfing host Eric was headed out anyhow, and he gave us a drive up to Archers Bay where we could then walk to Animal Flower Cave and the cliffs along the north coast.