bernhardsauer – Our Travel Adventures

Racoon Mountain near Chattanooga

bernhardsauer — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 01:47:53 +0000

7/26/26 – For the first time in a long, long time Maria felt well enough to venture out. We decided to drive to Racoon mountain near Chattanooga. The drive is about 1hour 15minutes and, if taking side roads, is an adventure on its own. We took TN 111, then TN 127, a short stretch of I-24 and then up the mountain on a nice winding road. On top is the reservoir and visitor center run by TVA. TVA is producing electricity via hydro power. This station is used during high demand times, where the valves are opened and the water falls about 1000 ft and electricity is produced. During low demand water is pumped up from the TN River into the reservoir again. This whole operation acts like a giant battery, charged (water pumped up during low electricity usage) and released (battery discharged) during high usage time.

Afterwards we went to Jasper and grabbed lunch at AJ’s on Main Street and went back home. All in all a nice little trip.

Home base

bernhardsauer — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:01:31 +0000

We arrived at Mountain Glen RV Park on a snowy day. At the campground we had about 2-3inches of snow. The next 6 weeks we stayed at this place and took care of our doctor appointments and other obligations. During this time , our handyman and his crew started with the construction of our RV spot on our sons property. It’s a pretty big construction with a length of 56ft and width of 24ft. The length of the area where the RV is parked is 40ft, so we have a 16ft x 24ft one and a half story building in the back which will be used as storage area, home Gym and a one room apartment with full bathroom. I have included some pictures from during the construction and the exterior after completion. The interior of the building is still a work in progress, but we are using the RV spot already. It for sure is nice to be close to our kids when at our home base.

Our plans for this year are to stay here until mid September and then visit Mammoth Cave area in Kentucky for a week. After Thanksgiving we will head south to Florida for the Winter.

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