Love’s RV Hookup – a Review

We stopped in the Love’s RV Hookup in Morris, IL today. Interesting.

When I think of Love’s, I think of truckers coming in for a diesel refill. I don’t think of a RVer camping spot. However, my overall first impression is positive. The RV Hookups concept seems like a good idea for short term (1 day) RV stopovers, but it is definitely not a destination.

The Positive: a full-hookup (50A) camping site with WiFi and a nearby gas station. In addition, there’s a Love’s store and one or two restaurants. In our case it was a Hardee’s and a nap nap Middle Eastern grill. (We chose the latter.) Plus, there was a laundry, propane refills, and a small dog park.

The Negatives: it’s loud. Vehicles, particularly trucks, are coming and going at all hours. And the noise is not hundreds of feet away – it’s under 100 feet from your site. Plus, the WiFi was disappointing. The free WiFi was not worth using, and I was unable to connect to the Premium WiFi ($5.99 for 24 hours) I signed up for despite several attempts and a call to tech support. Overall, this pointed to a “disconnect” between the RV sites and Love’s itself. For example, the Love’s staff really were fairly clueless about the RV park on their property. Their standard reply to any RV question was “Check out the app”. I did. Not really helpful for my questions.

Conclusion: Would I stay here again? Sure, if there weren’t any other campgrounds around.

2023 Trip #3 – Fallingwater

Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Fallingwater house in Mill Run, PA has been on our bucket list for a long time.

We took a 2-hour tour of the house with eight other people on Saturday, June 10th.

But first, here’s a recap of our road trip from Tecumcari to Pennsylvania’s Ohiopyle State Park, located 15 minutes from Fallingwater . . .

The Journey to Fallingwater

The walk-in tornado shelter in the Shamrock, TX campground was anything but comforting.

In Arkansas we noticed Flirt limping. We knew she had arthritis, but her limp was debilitating so we we able to get her into a vet in Russellville.

Long story short, after a “miracle” shot Flirt was back in business the following day.

Next stop, West Memphis, AR and the Mississippi River. We camped just feet away from the great river and watched these huge barges travel up and down the Mississippi . . .

Finally, let me just give a shout out to Bucky Bee’s BBQ in Cave City, Kentucky. We ordered a half rack of ribs and we’re still eating them. Yum!

Fallingwater

Our tour of the Fallngwater grounds and house started at about 8:30 am on a beautiful sunny morning. An unusual day as we’ve encountered our fair share of rain and storms on this trip.

First impressions: it looked smaller than I expected. Besides that, the house was superb. Incredible lines and an infinite numbers of views inside and out.

Living Room

To me, this room and its patio is the heart of the house.

The Window Tower

This tower travels the length of all the floors, but hides each floor so that it looks like a continuous window.

Upstairs

Master Bedroom

Final Thoughts

Fallingwater is a work of art, but, like other Wright buildings, it leaks.

The house and the guest house above Fallingwater are constantly being maintained. The houses’s location has much to do with that. The house sits on a creek and water constantly flows through the surrounding rocks. (It also flows inside the house.)

However, we would live there in a heart beat.

2023 Trip #2 – Grand Canyon to Tucumcari

From Lake Havasu State Park we drove to Grand Canyon’s Trailer Court RV Campground in a day. Interstate 40 from Kingman, AZ to Williams, AZ was HORRIBLE! Avoid at all costs. On our return trip, we’re going to travel on old Route 66 instead.

Shortly after arriving in Trailer Court RV Campground, we set off for a short (1.5 mile) walk to the Grand Canyon – just as we did when we camped here before in 2019.

Starlink

It’s everywhere . . .

El Tovar

We stayed in the El Tovar Hotel in 1974. It was incredible. We rented an upper floor patio that faced the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon Panorama

Homolovi Ruins State Park

Our first stop after leaving the Grand Canyon . . .

Tecumcari

While traveling to our next campground in New Mexico, we received a text message from the RV park saying they had to cancel our 2-day reservation because the campground was badly damaged in a fall flood the night before.

2023 Trip #1 – We’re Off

Our first stop was an RV park in Bakersfield (180 miles). On Monday, it was on to a KOA in Barstow (140 miles), then to the Lake Havasu State Park on Tuesday (another 180 miles).

We’re in Lake Havasu City until Friday. It’s a chance to meet old friends, dine out, and shop before leaving for the Grand Canyon.

A day after we arrived in Lake Havasu, we had our RV’s living room slide out fixed. I suspected that a slide out shear bolt had broken which was causing the slide to go out and come in unevenly. When we were in Mariposa we received two quotes on getting the slide out repaired – one quote was for about $250, another for over $700. And those prices were for just showing up!

Our Lake Havasu RV repairman fixed it for $175.

Our campsite came with its own “private beach” on Lake Havasu. Flirt loved it . . .

Our Jeep Blew Up!

Yep. Our 2008 Jeep Wrangler gave up the ghost a little over a week ago. It went like this . . .

After I stopped by Bob Blackburn’s Mountain Automotive and RV Center (where we get our RV and Jeep serviced), I tried starting our Jeep which I had just driven to Bob’s a few minutes ago. However, as soon as I turned the ignition key I knew immediately that the engine had “blown”. It raced, faltered, and make very loud knocking noises that shook the whole vehicle.

We had been having some issues with rough starting for a week or so, but didn’t think much it. Boy, were we wrong.

Bob (of Bob Blackburn’s) gave a listen and pronounced it DOA. He figured a piston was destroyed and that the Jeep would need a new engine. That’s about $6 to $12k. More than our Jeep was worth, so it was a total loss . . .

. . . and there is about 2 weeks left before we’re supposed to leave on our cross country RV trip, and we have no car. Super.

So after owning our 2008 Jeep Wrangler for 6 years we sold it for a pittance to an auto mechanic who plans to install a new engine.

Now we need to find a new used car – fast. And we did . . . thanks to some of Jan’s Mariposa friends with local connections.

Long story short . . . we rented a car, found a used 2011 Honda CR-V and bought it 3 days ago. In the 3 days we’ve owned it, Bob Blackburn’s moved the RV braking system from our dead Jeep to our Honda. And today a local mechanic installed a towing system on our Honda. The mechanic worked 12 hours and said he loved doing it!

Good Karma’s back . . . at least for the moment.