bernhardsauer – Our Travel Adventures

Change of plan

bernhardsauer — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 17:45:05 +0000

After Eastbank Campground we went to Gunter Hill Campground near Montgomery, AL. This is another COE campground with very spacious sites with FHU. For sure one to come back one day. While in Montgomery we visited the Capitol. Very interesting nice building with lots of information about the history of the state of Alabama. We also spent an hour or so at the Rosa Parks Museum which provided information about her life, the Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights movement in general. Highly recommend to visit in the area. During our stay here our refrigerator decided to spring a Ammonia leak which rendered it dead. We bought a small fridge/freezer unit to keep our food safe. Our friends in Texas, Kyle and Dorsey whose Motorhome died last Summer had a 12V refrigerator in storage they did not need anymore and offered it to us for free. After a 2 night stop at Hidden Cove Campground near Arley, AL where we met our friends from Kentucky, we headed to San Antonio, TX. After 4 days of diving through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and most of TX we arrived at Medina Lake Campground. Saturday we met with Kyle and Dorsey and picked up the fridge from storage near Waco. Sunday, Kyle and I ran electrical cables and installed the fridge. Monday I was able to complete the electrical hook up to the fridge and , eureka we have a fridge and freezer again. Thanks Dorsey and Kyle!!! Now we are hanging around at our campsite and enjoy the warm/hot weather. Next Monday we start heading home to TN. We are looking forward to spend some time close to our boys and do some much needed maintenance and upgrades.

Until next update,

Maria and Bernhard

Our time in Florida and heading north

bernhardsauer — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 16:10:28 +0000

Time for a short update.

12/20/2025 – We spent Christmas at our friends property in Wellington near West Palm Beach. It was nice and quiet and we enjoyed it a lot.

12/28/2025 – Headed to Wauchula, Fl and stayed at Thousand Trails Peace River Campground. Most of our time we hung out at our site. We did some Laundry and basic maintenance on our home.

1/4/2026 – Next stop was Orlando RV Resort. Here we spent 2 weeks. The weather was OK and we used the Pool and Hot Tub a couple of times. Also, we drove to Tampa to visit one of the largest RV Shows in the US. We explored lots of the new Class A Motorhomes and came to the conclusion to invest some money and effort to “renovate” our current one. We were pretty much disappointed in the quality, layout and payload capacity. The new RV’s are equipped with features (gadgets) that we would never use or the layout is for “Weekend Warriors” or 2week trips and would not work for us. The payload capacity of some of these motorhomes is less than 1500 pounds, whereas ours has 4400 pounds!!!

01/18/2026 – Back to Wellington for a week.

1/25/2026 – Started out trek north and stopped for one week at Sunshine Holiday Daytona. Here, the weather was on the cold side with mid twenties at night, so we spent most days around our campsite. Still a very relaxing stay.

2/1/2026 – Two nights at Casey Jones RV Park in Lake City. Nice campground close to I 75 (very little noise intrusion). Went into Lake City to explore and do some Grocery shopping.

2/3/2026 – Eastbank Campground near Bainbridge, GA. This is a nice COE campground at a lake. Very quiet and in the middle of nowhere.We visited the Capitol of FL in Tallahassee on Thursday. We have been there before, about 20 years ago. On 2/6 we met with Chris and Kelly, who are camp hosting in the Destin area. We have not seen them for over a year and it was nice to catch up on all things. We will be here until 2/10.

Until next update,

Maria and Bernhard

What a year

bernhardsauer — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 18:00:36 +0000

What a year we had!! We spent most of the Winter in Texas, including a month on South Padre Island with our friends Dorsey and Kyle, bounced between 3 Thousand Trail RV Parks with our friends Pam and Junior from Kentucky and then headed North and West. Visited Guadalupe Mountains National Park in north Texas and the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Spent 3 weeks in Gunnison, CO where we had warm weather with Sunshine, cold weather with some Snow, explored Dinosaur National Monument on the border between Colorado and Utah, a couple of nights near Flaming Gorge in UT and on to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. In Oregon we started out near Bend and visited Lava Land and Obsidian Mountain. In Washington State our first stop was Leavensworth, which tries to be a Bavarian style town, then we went north to the border to Canada and ventured south along the Pacific Coastline. What a beautiful scenery!! We also had a surprise visitor, Maria’s sister Ulrike , who spent two weeks with us. Mt. Mood, Mt. Baker and Mt St. Helens, all still had lots of Snow at the top. On our way back East, we stopped at Custer State Park in South Dakota to see the Buffalo Roundup and Mt. Rushmore. Met with our friends, Lisa and Keith in Iowa for a couple of days before we headed South to see our boys in TN. As always, we went camping over Thanksgiving with Arina and Bertus in Florida. We also spent time in various campgrounds in central and South Florida to escape the cold weather. Now , in 2026, we plan to spend more time with our boys, go on a cruise to Alaska and ship Maria off to Germany in Fall. The rest of the year we will fill in with some needed maintenance/repairs on Schnitzel, find another vehicle we can pull behind and other planned and unplanned activities. May 2026 be another great year in your and our Life. Stay safe and healthy and enjoy Life, we only have one….

Until next update,

Maria and Bernhard

Heading to Florida for a couple of month

bernhardsauer — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 17:56:18 +0000

11/14/25 – After spending 4 weeks at Mountain Glen RV Park visiting our Kids and Friends we headed south to Thousand Trails Hidden Cove near Arley, AL. Here we met with our friends Pam and Junior for a week. During our visit we visited Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman, AL . The Ave Maria Grotto is located on the grounds of St. Bernard Abbey, the only Benedictine monastery of men in the State of Alabama. The Abbey was founded in 1891. The Grotto consists of a landscaped hillside of 125 small stone and cement structures, the handiwork of the creative genius, Brother Joseph Zoetl, O.S.B., a monk of the Abbey for almost 70 years.In addition we stopped at the Clarkson Covered Bridge, originally built in 1904. It is located close to Cullman in a nice little park. The rest of the week we hung out with Pam and Junior playing games, drinking coffee or adult beverages.

11/21/25 – City Limits RV Resort, Cuthert, GA. Just an overnight stop.

11/22/25 – Clay County Fairgrounds RV Park, Green Cove Springs, FL. One night.

11/23/25 – Sebastian Inlet State Park, Melbourne, FL. As for the last 8 or 9 years we met with our friends Arina and Bertus to spent Thanksgiving. We all had a good time and the week together flew by fast.

11/30/25 – Encore Sunshine Holiday Daytona, Ormond Beach, FL. We stayed here for a week and met with Gloria and Art who live in Jacksonville for a day. Art went with us to visit Kingsley Plantation. We explored the grounds at Kingsley Plantation, which include the slave quarters, barn, waterfront, planter’s house, kitchen house, and interpretive garden. Lots of History. Art invited us to a Filipino restaurant which had excellent food and a nice atmosphere. The other days of this week we spent at the campground since the weather was not the best (Rain).

12/07/25 – Our friends, Grindyl and Claus, property in Wellington, FL. During this week we hung out either with our friends or did some R & R at the camper. One day Claus and I went on his boat and headed to Peanut Island. We picked the right day since the weather was awesome. Maria spent that day with Arina roaming the yarn stores.

12/15/25 – Encore Space Coast, Rockledge, FL. We are spending 5 nights at this RV Park. We went to Downtown Melbourne for a little walk, lots of artsy shops and restaurants. We also visited Cocoa Beach, had a coffee and Donut at Dunkin Donut and back to the campground. Saturday we are heading back to Wellington.

Until next update,

Maria and Bernhard

Heading Southeast to Tennessee

bernhardsauer — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 17:09:05 +0000

9/28/25 – Montrose City Park, Montrose, SD

Just an overnighter.

9/29/25 – Grundy County Lake RV Park, Dike, IA

Here we met with our friends Lisa and Keith who live in Cedar Falls. It is always fun to hang out with them. We went out for dinner a couple of times, Maria and Lisa went to a knitting group one afternoon. This campground is pretty basic with Water and Electricity at the site, but has a little lake with a nice walkway and clean showers and restrooms.

10/4/25 – Mississippi River Park, – Canton, MO

This campground was right at the Mississippi River, so we could watch some barges and small fishing boats. Other than that there is really nothing else to do around this area.

10/6/25 – Gun Creek Campground, Whittington, IL

A nice campground at a lake. Quiet, some hiking trails. Nice place to relax.

10/10/25 – John J. Audubon State Park, Henderson, KY

Very nice state park with a nice museum, Nature Center and lots of shorter hiking trails. The campground was on the smaller side with Water and Electricity at the site. One big drawback was the traffic noise from US 41 right next to the campground.

10/14/25 – Diamond Caverns RV & Golf Resort

This is a Thousand Trails campground and also on the smaller side. We got a back-in site with FHU, however it was on the narrow side, so the neighbors were very close. This campground is close to the Mammoth Cavern which were closed due to the Government shutdown. However, we visited Diamond Caverns across the street and did a tour. The cave is a wet cave, so no Bats. Our tour guide pointed out some cave crickets which look more like oversized Daddy-Long-neck spiders. The cave formations were fantastic with Stalactites, Stalagmites, Cave Popcorn and Cave Bacon.

10/20/25 – Mountain Glen RV Park & Campground

Until next update,

Maria and Bernhard