Wandering America
April 2007 Part II
| Six Months Already? Unbelievable!! On April 14th we began our seventh month of fulltime RVing. We couldn't believe that six months had passed so quickly. At the end of six months we found ourselves right back in the same place as where we started our trek (MeCosta Pines Campground in Morley, Michigan) and heading the same route south to Nashville, Tennessee (to visit our grand daughters and their parents). During our first six months we had towed the RV approximately 5,000 miles and drove the truck roughly another 5,000 miles. We had visited eleven states; Michigan, Indiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Kentucky. We had completed two months of workamping and two weeks of volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. Accomplished several remodeling projects on the RV, created the website, worked on our hobbies, hiked Red Top Mountain twice, and did several bike trips. The only problem with this "job" is that there are no vacations but we can tough it out and are extremely happy with our decision to fulltime. Back to Tennessee Countryside Resort in Lebanon is our "home base" whenever we visit our children in Tennessee. Our son, Marc, with his wife, Aime, and our new grand daughter, Lola Mae (four weeks old), came from New Hampshire for a visit. Even though it was a short stay we had fun especially with our two grand daughters.  Routine katt care must be maintained as we travel. The katts need to get brushed weekly and about once a month we have to trim their nails (a task that Katie absolutely hates and fights to the utmost). Alex doesn't like his nails trimmed but he tolerates it; which means that we generally do Katie's nails first in order to minimize the battle. Katie kicked up so much commotion that Alex (knowing that he's next) decided he had better go hide. Here is Alex's version of hiding from dad in order to avoid the ugly nail trimming event.   After a five day stay at Countryside Resort in Lebanon, Tennessee we headed east to the Raccoon Valley Escapees Park in Heiskell, Tennessee in order to wash the Michigan mud off the RV and truck and give them a good waxing before heading east. Also, by spending some more time in Tennessee it would give the east coast a chance to dry out after the Nor-Easter they had recently received (hope the snow melts before we get there - we don't wanna see no more #@!!&# snow!!!!). "God Bless America" ".....from the mountains, to the prairies, to the ocean white with foam...." We didn't exactly make it to the prairies we did see the flat lands, as my dad used to call them, of Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. Then we spent time in the mountains while making our way to the Atlantic ocean off of the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Heiskell, Tennessee is eleven miles north of Knoxville which is located in the Appalachian Mountains and near to the Museum of Appalachia. The museum was started in the late 1960's by John Rice and now covers 65 acres. It includes the Appalachian Hall of Fame, dozens of log structures, Craft and Gift shops, the Mountain Heritage Room restaurant, and a collection of over 250,000 items. It is easy to get to by taking exit 122 off of I-75 and is well worth the visit. The Hall of Fame has many excellent displays but being that Appalachia has contributed hugely to America's country music we decided to feature pictures of instrument displays. Notice in the pictures some of the molds used to make the instruments.     Next
we visited the Display Barn which houses one of the nation's largest
collections of frontier and pioneer memorabilia. Here is what the
country store would look like in the 1880's.
 The grounds are very well kept and manicured as you can see in the pictures below.
  The Mark Twain Family Cabin was moved from Possum Trot, Tennessee to the Museum. It was the home of Mark Twain's parents and some of their children in the 1830's before the famous writer was born.        This
is the Tater Valley Schoolhouse which is furnished in the manner of an
early mountain school. The Irwin's Chapel Log Church was built
around 1840 in mountainous county of Madison, North Carolina.
Many of the furnishings are the original belongings of the church.
    No
tour of Appalachia would be complete without stumbling upon a still (or
two). Hopefully you don't stumble away from the still (hic!!!).
 After visiting the Museum of Appalachia we took a scenic drive up route 441 which lead us to the Norris Dam. The dam was built in the late 1930's as one of the TVA projects. The views are breathtaking and there's a state park, the Lenoir Museum, as well as hiking trails. We, also, took a ride into the quaint little town of Norris where the local drug store has a soda fountain. While enjoying a couple of milkshakes we met Angela and her daughter Chloe and enjoyed chatting with them about living in the small community of Norris, Tennessee. It is always rewarding to take these little unplanned jaunts off the main trail.       Another Road Trip
We
decided to take a drive on the back roads of Tennessee to look for some
more "Charles Kurault Moments" and guess what? We found ourselves
in a little Victorian English village in the northeastern section of
Tennessee known as the Cumberlands - whoda thunk it? In 1880 a
famous British author, statesman, and social reformer named Thomas
Hughes founded the little village of Rugby, Tennessee. It was to
be a community where Britain's younger sons could build new lives
through agriculture and Christian principles. Rugby was added to
the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and is a quaint little
village with an Episcopal Church, Library, Cafe, and Gift Shops.
      After
touring the village we stopped for lunch at the Harrow Inn Cafe which
served various English dishes at very reasonable prices. We had
the Harrow Inn Special Club Sandwich which was made with Ham, Turkey,
Bacon, Swiss Cheese, Tomatoes, and Lettuce with a special mayonnaise
sauce and served with "chips" (French Fries). It was good.
  Oh yes, We have those kinda days too!!! On the way to Front Royal, Virginia Alex decided that two days of travel back-to-back was unacceptable so he proceeded to voice his objections. For over two hours he "meowed" and "roamed" throughout the vehicle. First up front, then in the back, next a walk across the navigator, and then it was onto the pilot's seat and then start all over again. We finally had to stop and get the squirt bottle out of the RV to put a stop to his antics. Usually he responds to the "No" command but this time he pretended that he had never heard the word and was acting like a kid that had just hit the "terrible twos" and entered the "twilight zone" at the same time. Finally he settled down into his riding mode but that was not the end of "our day". We took our exit for the campground and followed the Streets and Trips directions which as it turned out placed the campground about seven miles on the opposite end of town from where it is actually located. Now picture dragging 38 feet of RV over the back roads of Virginia along the Blue Ridge Mountains - just imagine the lack of turn around spots and the "ticked off" drivers following us as we were trundling along looking for a campground that did not exist. Being in a mountain "pass" we were unable to get cell phone reception to call the campground. Finally we came across a tourist attraction with a large enough parking lot to pull into and get directions. They had never heard of the campground but tried to call for us and wouldn't you know it, all they could get is the answering machine. What to do? We got out the Trailer Life Guide, looked up the campground, and then followed the directions from I-66 on the Trips and Streets software. Yep, the campground was on the Northwestern end of town and we were in the southeastern end. With all of our electronics, GPS (which we hadn't programmed), cell phones, computer software, as well as travel manuals, we still have a few bugs in our system. But that's not all. Upon reaching the campground we found that they have a very antiquated method of check-in. They use the security guard to accomplish the task, but while doing that he had to check everybody else through the gate. When handed a credit card he had to go to the office and get "the paperwork" to fill out (no "swiping" here). It took almost a half hour to get checked in and then the site that they assigned us was in the back of the park and not large enough to accomodate our rig - we hung out over both ends with no place to park the truck. A call to the office got us the site that we should have been assigned in the first place. It had been a long day and Judy summed up both our feelings as she whined "I wanna go home, but I don't even know where home is!!" This would not have been the best day to ask for her opinion on fulltime RVing. A final note, the site we ended up with backed right up to the river with a beautiful view. After getting some food in our guts we began to feel better. Katie and Alex were glad to be settled for a few days. The Shenandoah Valley It was time to start our trip east and our first stop was in Virginia along interstate 81 which runs through the Shenandoah Valley. The valley runs from Winchester, Viginia at its northern end to Staunton, Virginia at its southern end and is sandwiched between the Blue Ridge Mountains on the east and the Appalachian Plateau on the west. Front Royal is located right where the Shenandoah River branches into the North and the South Forks of the river. Our campsite backed up to the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.   The Shenandoah National Park encompasses the Blue Ridge Mountains from Front Royal (the northern entrance) to Rockfish Gap (the southern entrance) near Waynesboro. The main attraction is the 105 mile Skyline Drive across the top of the mountains. We drove 65 miles of it beginning at Front Royal and getting off at the Swift Run Gap entrance. It was an overcast day so visability was a little hazy. We took lots of pictures but after a while they all looked the same. One difference, however, is that the leaves were on the trees in the valley and as we went higher the trees weren't even budding.         Something New for Our Website Readers We are setting up a notification list to e-mail people whenever the website is updated. If you want to be on that list please e-mail us including the words "Add to List" in the subject line. Then you will receive an e-mail from us with a link to our website each time we update. We appreciate our readers and hope you are enjoying our site. Your notes and comments are welcomed, so please feel free to drop us a line. |