2023 #1: Mothership

First trip of the season. We took Eggcelsior back down to Hohenwald, TN for some warranty work at the Oliver Trailers service center. On the punchlist: check some drawer glides, replace some interior trim (the silver strip around the belly joint) that fell off, and (top priority) replace a faulty jack mounting plate that had a hole too big for its carriage bolt. This would be our first big trip with the Oliver after we brought it home, and the first real Oliver trip where Steph was feeling well.

We ran short hops - 4 to 4.5 hour drive times according to Google Maps. Our days of 8 hour drives are in the past. Our first stop was Locust Lake State Park in Pennsylvania.

We had advance reservations and chose a site right next to a bathhouse, (which we didn't really need because we were able to dewinterize before we left). A little unlevel, as you can see, but OK otherwise if you have a smaller RV. Wouldn't recommend for larger rigs.

The next day took us to a commercial campground, Walnut Hill, in VA for a full hookup pull through site. Nice campground.

The next stop was in TN, at a KOA. Not a great campground but we got there early enough to relax a bit.

On our way to Hohenwald we visited our first Buc-ees. Wow. Just like you hear about online. Cheap gas, great food, fun stuff. Worth a stop.

It wasn't all good that day, though. A car to our left on I-40 in Knoxville hit some road debris and kicked it up into our truck's driver side door and fender flare, taking off paint down to bare metal. Could have been worse, though. The fender flare pushed it out away from the front of our trailer, so the Oliver wasn't damaged.

Finally, we arrived at the Oliver service center, where we had a site waiting for us the night before our scheduled service. Saw lots of other Olivers down by the mothership and met some of their owners.

While Oliver was working on our trailer we spent a night at the Gaylord Opryland Resort hotel in Nashville. This is a really cool place! If you ever have a chance to stay there, I'd recommend it, and pay extra for a room with an atrium view. Why? Because these are ENORMOUS indoor atriums! One contains a botanical garden. Another is themed on waterfalls. And the third is loosely themed on New Orleans, complete with an indoor river and island. Very cool!

On the way back to Hohenwald we stopped for lunch at Fox and Locke in Leipers Fork, TN. This eclectic restaurant in a kitchy little downtown offers healthy portions of comfort food and live country music. There are some nice shops next door, too.

From there, we followed the Natchez Trace Parkway to the Oliver plant, stopping to see a few things along the way.

Unfortunately, there was an issue when we returned to pick up our trailer. For some reason, Oliver service didn't understand the work order (and didn't call my cell for clarification) and the trailer wasn't fixed as requested. The faulty mounting plate and stripped carriage bolt were still in place. After talking to the tech, and getting the service manager involved, the parts were obtained from the factory and the repairs were completed. Unfortunately, that caused a 2.5 hour delay, which impacted our travel plans for that day. Most surprising to us, given Oliver's reputation for stellar customer service, was that we didn't get an apology for the incomplete work and the resulting delay. What we did get, instead, was a bill for $31 for an incidental non-warranty inspection we asked them to do while the trailer was in the shop. Under the circumstances, I would have expected them to waive the $31 as a courtesy for our 2.5 hour inconvenience and resulting travel delay.

The return leg of our trip featured something we haven't done for a while: travel without reservations, or with only 24 hour advance reservations. We wanted to see if there really was a campsite shortage post-pandemic. The night before we left Hohenwald we had reserved a site in a TN state park: Cumberland Mountain State Park. After the delay picking up our trailer we were forced to do something we generally avoid, especially when going to a new-to-us campground: traveling in the dark. Fortunately, we had scored a large, paved, full hookup site there and the camp host had tagged our site to hold our reservation. Using the underbody courtesy lights on the Oliver and a couple of LED road flares to mark the edge of the site, Steph was able to guide me into the back-in site without problem. This was a very nice state park campground, and we hope to return when we have time to explore it.

Next, we tried our luck with a first-come, first-serve site in a national forest campground. Since we arrived mid-afternoon we were able to get a dry camping site for only $20. Deal! This was a Thursday night.

We figured getting last minute sites on the weekend would be harder, and it was. We couldn't find any open state or national park sites in the areas we needed. We ended up booking a couple of commercial campground sites for Friday and Saturday nights. Somehow, I forgot about our Harvest Host membership! This would have a been a perfect opportunity to try Harvest Hosts for the first time. 

Friday we stopped at Virginia's Natural Bridge State Park for lunch and a short hike to the landmark tagged by George Washington.

That night we ended up in Endless Caverns RV Resort in VA. Beautiful campground with big sites and lots to do, including their own cavern tours. Would've been a great destination, but more than we really needed for an overnight.

Saturday, our last night on the road, we found another commercial campground just off the highway in PA. The pull through full hookup site let us empty and flush our tanks before heading home Sunday with a stop at the I84 Diner in Fishkill, NY on the way. One last delicious meal for this trip!

SUMMARY

• It is a bit harder to find sites than it was pre-pandemic, even off-season, but mostly just on the weekends. 
• Those little round LED road flares make great markers to help navigate difficult site backing in the dark. 
• Buc-ees is awesome. Try the brisket sandwich, breakfast burritos, Buc-ee Nuggets, fudge. The gas was cheap, too.
• 4 hour Google Map drives give you time to sightsee, relax on arrival, or allow for unexpected delays. RVing is supposed to be relaxing, right?
• The Oliver is excellent for traveling. The small footprint gives you more campsite choices. No slideouts means full access to everything at rest stops. You can make a meal, even take a nap, without taking up a lot of space. The lithium batteries provide tons of power for boondocking and recharge extremely quickly via solar or 30 amp hookup.