We arrived at the De Quoin, Illinois State Fair campground on Thursday afternoon for NOMADS annual meeting. It was our first since Anne came off the Board so this year we got to relax, take in some sights and spend time with old friends. We, of course, made some new friends too. We visited, helped with the registration bags, the charity auction, and taught a first aid class.
Even though many of the NOMADS arrive as early as Wednesday, each annual meeting officially starts with a Sunday morning worship service.
Sunday evening we visited Bianco’s Ice Cream Shop in downtown Du Quoin and found out we were not the only NOMADS with that idea.
On Monday night of the gathering some played games …
… some attended a Jam Session …
… and some learned and practiced line dancing.
The NOMADS silent auction …
… and live auction had taken in over $30,000 by the time we had to leave. Extravagant Generosity!
Tammy and the NOMADS Choir always provide beautiful music for our worship service and a concert.
There were several other classes besides our first aid class, such as this “Basic Tools” class.
As always, NOMADS are as willing to help each other as they are the people and agencies we serve.
On Wednesday afternoon we said our goodbyes and pointed Fred back south toward Ellijay, GA because we needed to be in Ellijay by noon on Thursday. We broke our no-driving-at-night rule and made it as far as Murfeesboro, TN shortly after dark. We pulled into the Walmart parking lot where there was another Phaeton that had a temporary tag. As we were going into the store we saw a couple headed out with pillows, linens etc. We guessed they had just purchased the other Phaeton, so we followed them back out into the parking lot and made some new friends. They were on the way back to their home in California with their new RV. They planned to make the drive in 3 days. We thought we were up early to leave the next morning – 4:30 – but our friends from California were already gone. We hope they had a safe trip and maybe we will meet somewhere down the road. We will catch you up on our visit to Ellijay in a few days. Thanks for following our travels.
On our way to our NOMADS Annual Meeting in Du Quoin, IL we stopped for a few days at The Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky. We stayed at Canal Campground near Grand Rivers.
Our campsite at Canal Campground was not exactly level.
We saw this herd of deer every time we walked around the campground.
A spotted fawn that stayed close to the road
We caught up on some grilling while at the campground.
We visited the Elk and Bison Prairie in the middle of the day so the bison weren’t very active.
This is the closest we have been to a bison herd since our visit to Custer State Park in 2014.
Some of the bison did get up and move around while we were there.
When we didn’t see an elk on the first time around the loop we went around again and saw this one up the hill in the edge of the woods. We had to watch and wait a while for it to come out from behind the bushes enough for a picture.
Since the campground is only a few miles from downtown Grand Rivers, we visited Patti’s 1880 Settlement one afternoon.
Patti’s 1880 Settlement
The restaurant at Patti’s 1880 Settlement is famous for grilled pork chops and flower pot bread. We tried both.
We made it to the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds for our meetings and we will give you an update on that in a few days.
With our last post we left you in North Carolina on Day 53. Day 54 was thankfully an uneventful day of driving to Camp Sumatanga, in Gallant, AL. This is the campground we use most when we are back “home.” Sumatanga is a church camp, one where NOMADS work that is about 30 minutes from where we lived prior to going full time. While in Alabama on Monday, day 55, we visited with friends, checked on our remaining property on Pine Mountain, took care of some business, had dinner with friends and Tuesday, day 56, Anne got to visit her hairdresser. By mid-day Tuesday we were back on the road in route to Johnston, SC, our second home, at Randy and Debra’s. That too, was another uneventful travel day, unusual for crossing Atlanta, and before bedtime we were back in Fred, making Day 56 the final day of our 2023 Summer Road trip.
We had 56 wonderful days of seeing beautiful sights we had never seen before and just feeling very blessed by the entire experience. Following are some statistics and thoughts on the trip.
Total miles driven in our Coachman Beyond Class B, 8,393.3 miles averaging 15.3mpg
Fuel Cost $2,315.00
Total engine run time 216 hours
Nights spent in BB – 55. The most we have done in the Class B on a single trip. We decided we could travel in BB for pretty much any length of time. It is small but quite livable. We sleep great in BB. However, we are not ready to give up Fred for our daily living and working of volunteer mission projects. We enjoy being spoiled by the space we have in Fred. Whichever RV we are in is home but Fred definitely wins out for comfort.
Days boondocking (using no hookups), 40 days with 27 of those being the most consecutive days we have ever boondocked. We obviously had to stop at various places over those 27 days to empty tanks and take on water. We located most of the dump stations using iOverlander. We have found we can easily go 4-5 days between dump stations.
Days in campgrounds 15. We had four nights in Wolfville, Nova Scotia while visiting Melody and 4 nights while visiting Acadia National Park so we could use the free shuttle into the park, 2 at Camp Sumatanga and the other 5 were just for visiting other friends and for our convenience. Total cost, $791.00 – $53.00/night average – not too bad. It is a little more than we usually pay for campgrounds per night but again, we did some of those for our convenience and enjoyment.
We began this trip with several goals. One – to visit with friends across the country and have fun seeing all the beautiful locations we visited. Met that goal. Two – to sleep at least one night in the RV in every state east of the Mississippi that we had not previously visited. Goal achieved. We added 11 states (Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island) and 3 provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) to our map and now have spent at least one night in the RV in every state east of the Mississippi. We still have 9 states in the west to visit in the RV. We have been in most or all of those but not in the RV. We are making plans to head west. Three – check some items off our bucket list. We checked a number of things off, such as visiting Acadia National Park, and the Canadian Maritimes. Four – to find at least two geocaches in each state and province we visited. We now have at least two geocache finds in 48 states, missing only Washington and Oregon. We will hopefully pick up those when we head west. We also have geocache finds in 6 of the 9 provinces and in 1 of the three territories in Canada.
Looks like we need to head west to finish our map.
The states in which we have found geocaches. Anne has been to Oregon and Washington, but that was before we started geocaching.
Some of the magnets we have collected
One of the best parts of the trip was the new friends we made. We met some wonderful people everywhere we traveled. Especially fun was meeting two couples we previously knew only from their YouTube videos – Carrie and Dave of One AdVANture At A Time and Lynn and Owen of VAN TREKKING lifestyle. All four were such a joy to meet in person. Hope our trails will cross again.
Thank you for following along with us on this trip and for your prayers for our safety. Stay tuned for our future adventures.
We think both Canada and the US need a lot more of these signs.
RVing With a Purpose 