Getting up at 4 am is not the way to start an adventure. Going out and finding that it's still dark at 5 am just seemed to cement that feeling that this was just too early to do anything, and we had 420 miles of towing to do that day. Gulp!
With Towed Haul all hitched up behind us, rolling off the driveway at 6.30 am it still felt too early, but the restorative powers of Tim Hortons coffee and bagels are well known and we'd all perked up quite a bit as we headed west to Windsor and the United States.
Our tour had been months in the planning is to involve seventeen days of driving and camping, dragging our beloved Towed Haul as far south as Orlando in Florida and as far west as New Orleans, Louisiana. We were also planning to stop in Kentucky and Georgia on the way down as well as Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and Ohio on the way back. Logistically it wasn't too hard to set up (if you don't include buying a trailer and leasing a new car) but the prospect of spending so long towing and in the company of the Tadpoles was more than a little daunting. Still, senility can be a wonderful thing so off we went with barely a worry.
This first day was a run a tiny bit shy of 420 miles, down to Fort Boonesborough State Park in the beautiful hinterland of Kentucky, driving most of the way on the US Interstate 75, the modern replacement of the old Dixie Highway from Michigan to Florida. Crossing into the US at the Ambassador Bridge isn't normally something people relish but being so early on a Sunday there was no line up at all at the border. The young border guard was quite amenable and went and had a look inside Towed Haul himself (on the lookout for contraband food, we thought, but he may have been looking just to have a peek inside an Airstream; he was most complimentary). My forward planning in getting a Visa Waiver certificate (curse that British passport!) the week before ensured that we were, to all intents and purposes, just waved through, which was just excellent. Welcome to Amerikee.
Heading south on the I75 we made first for the Ohio city of Toledo, bouncing along the roads in Michigan, which are dire, and that made the bulk of our beautifully ironed clothes jump off the wardrobe rails. Still, Ohio was better, certainly smoother and less patched. First we headed for Dayton, then Cincinatti; up until now just names I'd heard in films but here they were reality. The traffic was light, the weather good (if a bit warm) and the only trouble we had was at some roadworks in the heap of tangled roads that form Cincinatti's by-pass. It was more than a little worrying that as we were changing lanes in slow moving traffic, other drivers simply didn't notice we were there. Look, signal, move, look again – argh! The other drivers looked so surprised to see 28 feet of aluminium appear in the lane in front of them. It was hot, too, as the car's air conditioning worked manfully to mitigate the 36 degrees Celsius outside. The city looked interesting, though, so maybe we'll make a trip there one day.
Petrol consumption was a bit alarming, with an average 19.6 litres per 100 kilometres, which is about half as good as we'd get when not towing; two fill ups day were looking likely although at around US $3.50 a gallon, less than a dollar a litre, it wasn't quite as bad as it could have been. It's only money!
Entering Kentucky as we crossed the Ohio river (thoughts of Olivia Newton John swim into focus for some strange reason) and continued south to Lexington. The I75 wasn't too busy and was getting a bit more hilly as we moved away from the flatlands of Ohio.
Rest areas on the I75 are few and far between so we used them judiciously for our P&T stops. We did pull off into a big retail area on Man Of War Boulevard in Lexington (named for a famous racehorse rather than a Portugese jelly fish, apparently; well, this is Kentucky) to get some supplies in. Crossing into the US means that you can't carry meat, fruit or vegetables, so our fridge was quite empty up to that point, but a quick spin around the big Meijers store sorted us out. Just south of Lexington we struck east off the I75, to Fort Boonesborough and the camp site which was nestled in a nice little wooded valley. It was still hot but the clouds were looking ominous; were we in for rain? The actual campsite plot was a little concrete pad, sufficiently off-kilter to be interesting and for some reason, covered in straw. We did a sort of half unhitch; loosened off the weight distribution system but stayed hooked to the hitch, ready for a quick getaway in the morning. We were just putting the awning out when the rain started and boy, did it rain! It was a deluge of biblical proportions and as we watched the brown muddy runoff from the bank beside us rush under the trailer, we realised what the straw was for; to cover the mud that was quickly gathering there. Normally the time we have after getting set up is used to get things straight, but with the rain hammering down and showing no sign of abating, were were confined to the inside of Towed Haul. It was still very hot and more so in the trailer, so on went the air conditioning and supper was prepared.
Have you ever tried Hamburger Helper? If not, I'd advise that you give it a miss.
Supper was just being served when the main power breaker in the trailer popped. Air conditioning, cooking ring and microwave all combined to give the breaker no option and, for safety's sake, click to the off position. However, as Gene Hunt might say “It's dinner time and I'm having hoops”, I was determined to eat so I flicked the system over to battery (no A/C of course) and had my supper; the breaker could wait. Initially I couldn't get the breaker to re-arm but a quick glance at the manual (we have one?) showed that I'd omitted to push the breaker fully down before switching back on, but with that little omission corrected and we were back on line. Still the rain came and now the wind joined it so I had to venture out into the maelstrom to haul the awning in; they're good things these Zipdee awnings but can be fragile, so I was playing it safe. The rain did stop eventually and we ventured out into the steamy evening, feeling the humidity pressing in, especially in our quickly dampening clothes. They said it would be warm at this time of year but the moisture in the air was something else, at least for rural Kentucky as I'm sure there are steamier places on earth.
I don't really remember the rest of the evening but I do recall thinking that I should have gone to bed earlier; we were planning on another 420 mile day and I really needed my beauty sleep. OK, regardless of the driving distances, I always need my beauty sleep.
What would the morrow bring? More rain? More heat? Who knew? Read on dear reader.....
** Photos not uploaded yet - will do that later **
