Day 19 &20

Golfed the Hunter Golf Course on the Savannah Army Airfield Base and then the Henderson Golf Club.

Campground review: Skidaway Island State Park, near Savannah, Georgia April, 2015

Campsites: The electric/water sites are very large , well groomed and are surrounded by large trees with hanging Spanish Moss.

Amenities: Washrooms are clean with laundry facilites. Shower stalls are clean and have individual benches. Picnic table at Park store has good WiFI access. Children”s play area

Hiking trails: are well marked with informative posts

The campground itself is very picturesque with large trees as shown in entrance to park picture below.

Location: Short drive into Savannah, Georgia.

Rating: 4.7

Day 18

After another 3 km walk through the park then off to Tybee Island. Here we were able to bike 15 km to explore the island and beach area. Enjoyed a beer/margaritas and shrimp dinner with an ocean view.

Day 16 &17

Two long travel days in heavy rain to reach Skidaway Island State Park, Georgia. One very interesting stop along this route was the Unclaimed Baggage Store in Scottsboro, Alabama. Arrived and set up in time for a 5km walk.

Day 13, 14 &15

Golfed Huntsville Golf and Country Club and Becky Perice Golf Course. 7 km hike on lovely park trails.

Campground Review : Monte Sano State Park, Huntsville Alabama. April 2015

Campsites: Variety of sites from primitive to electric/water/sewer. Our electric/water site was large with trees for shade.

Amenities: Washrooms were clean, laundry available in each washroom. The shower areas were excellent as each had a seating area inside the individual shower stalls. There were picnic tables and benches near the park store were WiFi was accessible. Many play areas for young children.

Hiking: Various levels of hiking trails. We found the ones we walked to be well groomed with good signage.

Location: Nearby to local Huntsville attractions and golf.

We would highly recommend this State Park.

Rating: 4.5

Helpful Hint: We use a website golfnow.com . Here you are able to book last minute golf at significant savings across Canada and the US.  

Day 12,

Our weather has been cool with rain storms over night.  Off to town to have the customary visit to a Joanne's fabrics.  Checked out a Chipolte Mexican Grill for the first time.  It was very good.  Then a tour of the US Space and Rocket Center. This is where the rockets for the Gemini, Mercury and Apollo were built. Some of the center you tour independently and others with a guide. We both found this extremely interesting and highly recommend it.

Day 10 and 11.

We have had significant rain and the bike and hiking trails are very wet.  So we biked 12 km around the park and neighborhood.   There is a planetarium right next to the park so we attended an evening program on the Spring Skies.  Sunday I walked around a Earth day festival in the park and then watched some fellows play Disc golf.  That looked more difficult then it sounds. We are enjoying this park it is well maintained and sites are spacious.

Day 9

Travelling day. We followed US 72 east across parts of northern Mississippi and Alabama. Trees are in full leaf here and farm crops are well visible. Cloudy day. Monte Sano State Park is located in Huntsville, Alabama.   

Day 8

The day was spent in Memphis. A short walk along the Mississippi river waterfront in downtown Memphis where a lovely Welcome Centre is located. Watching the Marching of the Ducks at the Peabody Hotel was interesting and certainly something we would recommend to people travelling with children. Downtown Memphis has pedestrian only streets so we enjoyed lunch on one of the restaurant patios. A complete tour of Graceland took us 2 1/2 hours. You are given an I-Pad and headphones to use while visiting this Tribute location to Elvis. This allows everyone to enjoy the areas at their own speed and listen to the information individually. We enjoyed historic Beale St. This area really comes to life in the evening when music can be heard coming from several establishments. Jerry Lee Lewis's Pub had the Jason James Trio playing great music. The areas of Memphis that we visited were clean and well kept.

Temperature reached 30C

Day. 7

Fran and Sandra spent the day visiting Quilt Stores in Paducah. Of course a little something was bought in each store. They found what can only be described as Quilter's Heaven in Hancock's of Paducah. Kevin and John golfed Calvert City County Club. After heavy rain the course was wet but enjoyed.

Day 6,

Sandra checked something off her Bucket List, by visiting the National Quilt Museum. This museum is really more like an art museum as truly all the quilts were extraordinaire. It took five hours to appreciate all the quilts, many newly completed and some circa 1850.

Day 5,


Lovely day here at KDV.  Took a short cycle up to the lodge to use the WIFI and we sat by this

view of Kentucky Dam Lake.

A day of errands in town and laundry etc. Our friends John and Fran from home joined us here today.  

Day 4:

We travelled the Western Kentucky Parkway. We are noticing that the larger trees are leafing. Kentucky has this bush that buds a violet colour speckled though out the area called Redbud, very unique in the sea of green. Very happy to arrive at the Kentucky Dam Village campground where we will settle in for a few days, to enjoy the sites and some golf. We thoroughly enjoyed the smell and resting by the seasons first campfire . Here is Jessi, very content to be out of the truck after the 4 day drive.

Temperature range: 12 - 20 C

Gas price range:$2.20-$2.35 US a gallon

254km

Day 3:

We decided to avoid the interstates today and traveled some small county roads. Here we found well manicured horse farms and beautiful countryside. Then on to the Bluegrass Parkway which is very picturesque. We camped at the Elizabethtown Cross Campground in KY.

Temperature range: 12 - 19 C

Gas price Range: $2.40 US a gallon

260km

Day 2:

After a customary stop at Camping World near Toledo, OH we traveled I-75 highway. Heavy rainfall and loads of construction for many miles (making for narrow lanes) coupled with the heavy truck traffic made for a less than pleasurable drive. We are beginning to see some budding on the low bush trees. Belterra Park Casino near Cincinnati was our stay for tonight. We enjoy the occasional Casino boon-docking as the security is good and Sandra enjoys an hour of the slots. She came away a small winner. Very heavy rainfall and wind through the night.

Temperature range: 12 - 29 C.

Gas price range:$2.40 - $2.46 US a gallon

390 km  

Day 1:

An adventure begins April 8, 2015. At the top of the Blue Mountains there is still plenty of snow in the fields. The majority of the the day was a true “dirty dog season “ day as rain fell and the wind blew. We traveled through a large area of mostly corn fields. These fields are speckled with these wind turbines.

Crossing the border at Sarnia, was quick with only a couple questions regarding our destination and planned time to spend the US. We reached Monroe, Michigan and boon-docked at the Walmart. This works well for us due to border crossing restrictions, grocery shopping is a must.

Temperature range: 1 - 9 C

Gas price range: $1.03 Canadian per litre - $2.36 US a gallon

475 km  

The Beginning

Welcome to Need a Bigger Trailer. We are a recently retired couple with an old dog; Sandra, Kevin and Jessi. We were campers in the early years but then careers and the teenage years of our daughters put a hold on that.  Once retired we thought we would again enjoy camping vacations.  We have had our trailer since 2013 and enjoy it more each time we venture out.  Since our passions include alpine skiing and golfing most of our adventures take place in the spring and fall.  What we have coined "dirty dog season" as the golden mix is often a mess as the snow melts and the rain falls here in Ontario (and the rains fall and snow arrives).  We've been talking seriously this winter about exploring those Bucket List places of Canada and the United States, which lead to reading of some travel blogs.  Reading these blogs led to the creation of Need a Bigger Trailer.  Our hope is that family and friends will enjoy these posts and pictures, and expect numerous emails will no longer be necessary. Possibly others will enjoy our points of interest and it may entice them to hit the road. When we discuss the many places we would love to travel, the question "Do you think we need a bigger trailer?" often arises.  But tomorrow we will venture out, heading to explore parts of Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee, in the one we have!