The Last Hurrah !!

Well we got up this mornin’ had a lazy breakfast then got unhooked, dumped our tanks and settled up with the park for our stay. Funny but when we used to travel the closer we got to home it seems the faster we moved, being anxious to return home. Now it seems the closer we get the more I want to turn around and go somewhere new or different. If it wasn’t cause I had to renew my Commercial Drivers license at the drivers license office, we wouldn’t be here now. Well at least the weather is still nice, 59degrees. That’ll due just fine for early mornin’ temps. By early mornin’ I mean 8:30ish, no need to rush into anything. We took a walk around the park one more time and then it was ‘On the road again’.

We got thru Lakeland, stopped for fuel in Lake Wales, still headin’ east. Between Lake Wales and Yee Haw Junction, (ya’ll like that name, Yee Haw Junction, sounds like a rodeo or country music capitol, It’s Not), the temp started risin, 80, 85, 90, 95 degrees. What the H_ _ l is goin’ on here. Stopped at Wally World comin’ into Vero for some groceries and that thermometer was stuck on 95 degrees. I want to go away, wah, wah, wah. I don’t like it this hot, this is what I left at the beginnin’ of July. Oh well got things to do, and company comin’ fer Turkey day, so I guess we’ll have to put up with it fer now. I got a hay field to mow that’s gonna take me days to get cut down so’s the homestead is lookin’ proper come time the company comes.

Well that’s all fer today. Hope to see ya’ down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Almost there!!

We left Swuannee River Rendezvous headin’ south & east movin’ closer towards home. We headed easterly on Hwy 20 to High Springs, turned south on US 27 to Williston, then picked up US 41. Our destination today was Dade City, a Carefree Resort, Citrus Hill RV Resort. Another Passport America participating park. We’ve stayed at other Carefree Resorts before and found them quite, clean and accommodating.

We arrived at the park to find no one at the office, of coarse silly, it’s Sunday. The manager came over and showed us to a site and we told her we’d square up with her in the morning. Nice park, mostly Park Model trailers intermingled with RV’s. We paid $14 for a full hookup site, which was great as we could dump before we leave for our final leg of our trip home and eliminate making an extra stop at Flying J to dump.

We setup and took a walk around the park to check it out and for some exercise. The weather is still cool and comfortable which surprised us hearin’ about the heat wave they’ve been havin’ fer weeks. Tonight the weather guesser is sayin’ low 50’s, Wonderful.

Well not much else new. I’m still not up to feelin’ normal yet but I’m hopeful.

Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Drawin’ Closer to Home

Left the Gulf Coast this mornin’ headin’ ever closer to ‘Home Range’. Took FL 20 east, great road, a few small towns, no traffic. Turned south on US 27 after passin’ the Tallahassee area, headed around the ‘Big Bend’ of Florida. Our destination today is Mayo, FL, a Passport park named Suwannee River Rendezvous. Found them listed on Passport America’s website and we’re gonna see what it like. When we reached Perry we were back on FL 20 again , next stop, The Rendezvous.

We arrived to be pleasantly surprised at the beauty here at this park. The grounds are covered with giant Live Oak trees, creatin’ a beautiful canopy, not your typical ‘awnin’ to slide’ commercial park. When we went to the office we were greeted by the owner Susie. She was surprised that we were inquirin’ about Passport in that they had just enrolled with them last week. So we were their first Passport America customers to come thru the door. We talked and talked, Susie’s husband Frank came up and we talked some more. Seems they were in Alaska in 2007 same as us, and we talked some more. Didn’t want to but we broke away from conversatin’ and went to find our site. Not too shabby, $11, full hookup and right on the Suwannee River. They’re regular rates are nothin’ to sneeze at $15 fer water & electric and $17.50 fer full hookup.

Here’s our site

Couldn’t resist this shot of the Suwannee through the trees

The rest of the day was pretty lazy after after the long drive/ We settled in and had some supper watched a little TV, did some internetin’ and read till I drifted off too La La land.

Saturday we awoke had a lazy coffee time and breakfast. Then it was out to explore this nice rustic, wooded park on the Suwannee river. We met some folks camped out in front of us, one couple was from Georgia and the other was from Jacksonville. They been comin’ to this park fer 25 years and said the new owners were takin’ much better care than the previous ones and had made a lot of improvements. Somehow we got on the subject of Passport America and we left them our directory to look over while Linda & I explored further. The park has an eight unit rental in the center under the oak hammock and another four units right on the river along with a couple of single cabins. I guess they get a lot of Scuba divers explorin’ the spring that lies just north of the office cause there were signs about asking to keep your wet scuba gear outside.

This is the eight unit rental

This is the four unit rental that backs right up on the river

Here’s Linda by the spring behind the office

If you look real careful like ya can see a small piece of orange tape at the top of the picture on the second tree from the right, I almost cut it off in the picture. That’s where the river crested this spring at almost 45 feet above flood stage, which is 29 feet. They’re website has more info on the spring & pictures of the flood.

I’ll tell ya I’ve lived here in the sunshine state fer 37 years and we always seemed to have adequate rainfall and lots of water flowin’ in the rivers. The last four years seems like it’s feast or famine when it comes to rain, last year it was dryer than a popcorn fart and you could drive down on some o’ the sandy river bottoms in the northern part o’ the state cause they had ‘NO’ water. We had a big problem with fires and such then this year the Suwannee is 40 feet above normal. Weather pattern sure has changed since them Hurricanes came through in ‘04. I been to Alaska and British Columbia and the Yukon and seen the glaciers, spoke with the locals and read the history regarding the glaciers. I as in WE don’t believe all the hub-bub of ‘Global Warmin’. It’s just a cycle of ole Mother Nature. Them glaciers have been growin’ and shrinkin’ back fer as long as people have been seein’ ‘em. Oh well back on track.

This here’s the Office, Lounge area behind the ‘Springs’

They even have a restaurant that boasts ‘Home Cooked Food, but we didn’t have the opportunity to try it. The lounge area in the office is spacious with many tables, free wi-fi and a big TV. So if you’ve got a hankerin’ fer some time away from the ‘Rat race’ of today’s world and enjoy not bein’ parked on top of your neighbor while drinkin’ in the splendor of ole Mother Nature, then stop by Suwannee River Rendezvous and get ya’ a spot fer a while and recharge your soul while drinkin’ in the beauty around ya’. By all means tell Susie & Frank we said Hi, and we hope to return soon.

We headed back to our site and stopped to pick up our PA directory and of coarse conversate some more with the folks we lent it to. Then it was time we got ourselves movin’ on down the road as this chapter of our wonderful adventure is comin’ closer to an end.

Hope to see ya’ down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Movin’ On, an On, an On

We left Mississippi headin’ east for Foley, AL. Today would be a short travel day, mileage-wise, about 85 miles. We’re headed there cause, you-know-who, thinks we should go eat at Lambert’s Cafe. I still don’t feel a hundred percent but I’m not gonna throw a wet blanket on her idea. Lambert’s is the ‘Home of the ‘Throw’ed Rolls’ and the food is quite good. We visited here for the first time last winter after we froze down the Natchez Trace Parkway. You get a goodly amount fer your money and they’s always the ‘pass-arounds’ as well. The ‘pass-arounds are vittles they bring by your table in big stainless pots, servin’ ya if ya want some. This visit they had fried okra, macaroni & tomatoes, black eyed peas, steamed cabbage and the best fried potatoes with onions I have ever eaten, along with all the rolls ya can catch with apple butter and sorgum syrup . Both Linda & I don’t care fer’ okra, but we got to admit the Lambert’s do somein’ to turn even that dish into somethin’ special. Linda had the Chicken Fried Steak at $11.95 and I had Chicken Wings fer $10.95. Sound too high, or just about right. Let’s just say we totted home more leftovers than we had room fer. The Chicken Fried Steak that Linda had left we cut in half to get it in a quart storage bag. Should call it ‘Showshoe Chicken Fried Steak’, we had the leftovers fer supper next night.

Before we did our ‘Dine Out’, we got us a spot fer the night at Bluegrass RV Park in Foley. Passport park, all full hookups, pull-throughs, $10/nite. Nice park, all grass, had some pricey rigs parked around. After Lambert’s we repacked everything so as to squeeze it in the fridge, then we went off to the shower. Then it was TV and lights out fer us.

Durin’ the night that storm started rainin’ on us. Everytime you were woke up from the rain it would stop, then wait a while, then start again to wake ya. Along with the rain the wind was gustin’ pretty good and rockin’ the camper right good. Along around 5 when everythin’ was mellow, the rains really let go. Ya can sure tell you’re back in the south again.

Friday mornin’ we left out headin’ easterly. Our destination today? Easterly! We took US 98 through Pensacola, balked at staying at Big Lagoon State Park, as it was just 10:30 when we passed it. Stopped at another State park along the beach, it was full, telephoned two more State Parks along the beach, there full. Next stop, Topsail Hill State Preserve, looked a lot like a country club goin’ in. Price was $42/nite +tx, at a State park, not in this decade, fer these folks. Down the road we go. This is gettin’ monotonous. Next stop is Grayson Beach State Park, they have one site in the old campground & several in the new one. Soo….. next question, “What is the difference between the two?” Turns out the ‘Old’ one was built in 1968, has water & electric at $24/day, the “Brand New’ one is full hookup at $30/day. “Can we look at what’s available?” The ‘Old’ was wooded, with vegetation buffers tween the sites. The ‘New’ had wide open spaces, fer todays mega coaches. big gravel pads and paved roads. Guess which one we chose? Here’s our site.

The site backed up on the water and by walkin’ down a little trail we had our own ‘Little’ beach.

Across the ‘lake’, you can see the high dunes of the beach.

We ventured over to the beach but didn’t stay too long as we were still on the edge of the ‘Front’ and the wind was blowin’ purty stiff, whippin up the Gulf waters. We’ve been down south further on the Gulf on stormy days but have never seen it as angry as it has been the last few days.

Linda was havin’ fun with the Seagulls

We had the ‘Left-Overs’ fer dinner, relaxed with some TV, I read, Linda, well, let’s just say she relaxed.

That’s all fer this leg of our trip. We’ll see what the future brings us. Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

I'm not slidin' I think I've Crashed!!

It's been a rough couple o' last few days. Tuesday started with me being woke up at 5:30am for an immediate call from nature, like right now. My illness seemed to be progressin' rapidly, in the wrong direction. For the next 12 hours I had 8 more 'restroom calls', to put it polite terms. Shortly after a light lunch of cheese & crackers, milk and some Mandarin oranges I started gettin' terrible pain in my upper abdomen. Not cramps that came and went, this was constant pressure pushing up under my sternum. Kind O' scary. But no fever, no achy feelin' anywhere else. Now with all the hype about H1N1 flu I'm gettin' worried. To add to this around 4:30pm, it starts comin' out the other end too.

Now I'm in the bathroom of a truck camper, goin' at both ends, at least I couldn't fall over as weak as I was feelin'. We started for the local hospital once, but after a bathroom bout I felt a little better. Then things went right downhill again. So I told Linda she had to take me to the Emergency Room, I know she was worried.

Now I don't normally run to seek medical attention and I think generally Linda & I are healthy. Well I was doubled up with pain fer 4-5 hours with no letup, so I needed to see someone. We arrived at the Ocean Springs Hospital at around 6pm, which just happens to lie across the road from the park entrance we're stayin at. Thank goodness it was a slow night. I were seen, taken back to a treatment room, given an IV, pain medication and had a EKG in 30 minutes. Then after blood and 'other' samples, we waited fer results. Well the EKG was fine, that's good, and as my pain is subsidin' a bit I fall asleep. I don't think I slept very long but when you're in pain like that you don't have a real grasp o' time.

While the Doc is lookin' at the test results and tryin' to make up his mind about admittin' this ole beaver, my pain is comin' on strong again. He finally comes back in to tell us everything looks good and their gonna send me home. But first their gonna give me some Morphine fer pain, another pain med that works on the abdominal area and a couple of Rx fer abdominal pain and nausea. All he come up with is that there is a bad abdominal virus gonin' around and that's probably what I have. They gave me the Mophine and I started to feel better over the next 20 minutes. Now I have had experience with Morphine when I had chest surgery 30 years ago. This stuff was a lot more mellow as it didn't hit me like a wave of silly, happy, pass out right now drug. I was discharged around 10pm and Linda had to drive to a neighboring town to find a Drug store open to get my Rx filled. I rode along feelin' pretty pain free, but exhausted from the days doin's. I thought about havin' her take me home first, but I didn't want her to have to drive there alone. We returned around 12am and we went right to bed.

I slept all night and awoke to feel much, much better. I had a lite breakfast, don't want to incur the wrath of the virus bugs. I was feelin' pretty washed out so we didn't do too much today and by dinner I'm feelin' like a new man, considerin' where I was yesterday. I did take a looong shower and enjoyed the hot water and steam of this nice campground.

One good thing to come out of this, if anything could be considered good? I think whatever I had has blasted the head cold out of me, as that part is feelin' much better also.

Early tomorrow it's supposed to start rainin' fer a few days so we're gonna head out. I loaded the Lance this evening and stowed all our 'outdoor stuff', so we wouldn't have to work in the rain tomorrow.

Here's a shot of our site

Notice: I was talkin' with the ranger this afternoon and she told me that the Fort Pickens Campground in the Florida branch of the park has opened 160 water & electric sites for use. The website states that all the sites are primative with no water even on the park site. This area of the park was hit really bad by Hurricane Ivan as it washed out everything includin' the highway to get there. After the road was finally finished they had issues with the bird breedin' season followed by turtle hatchin' season. So this is a big breakthrough fer us campers. This is only one loop so more sites are to be brought on line soon. At this time it's still, first come, first serve with no reservations till maybe 2010. Here is the link that tells about the new loop opening, Fort Pickens Campground.

Well that's all I can muster fer now. Hope to see ya down the road as we're;

Dancin' on the Wind.

Just tryin' to Recuperate!

We made it to Gulf Islands National Seashore. We're staying in the Mississippi branch called Davis Bayou. It has a nice quiet, little campground with 51 sites. Each site has 20/30/50 Amp electric and water. There is a dump station and restrooms with showers. No reservations needed cause it all first come first serve and at $16 a night is a good bargain. Those with 'Old Age Passes' can stay for half that.

Just can't wait for that day. Seems like I haven't wished to be older since I was a kid. Now that we're retired and doing whatever we want, and can afford, worrying about being older doesn't seem to fit into the equation any longer.

We set up camp removing the Lance from the truck cause we're gonna do some Casino visitin' and maybe try'n to put a dent in some buffets while we're at it. The rest o' the day was spent chillaxin' around camp. Linda was startin' to feel better yet with her cold, mine still seems like it's progressin' but not in the right direction. So we just sat in our recliners readin' and enjoyin the sun.

She had me to call some of the buffets but they weren't offerin' any deals. For dinner we decided to go to Popeyes for some spicy fried chicken, Love that Chicken from Popeyes!! We ordered 11 mixed pieces for $9.99 and we ate all but one, I just couldn't eat Linda's last piece so we took it home.

The rest o' the evening was spent watchin' TV, a little Internet fer me and then off to bed.

Snapped this on the way in today.

That all for today. Hope to see ya' down the road as we're;

Dancin' on the Wind.

Brrr……Headin’ South

We pulled out of Bryson City headin’ south headin’ fer some sun & warmth. Almost every day since we got here it has rained, clouds down around our ears and gotten colder day by day. Linda & I have both picked up a bug, hers is better, mine seems to be gettin’ worse. I can get to be a bear when I’m sick, but I guess it’s got to get worse before it gets better. Maybe some vitamin C from the sun is all I need. When we left Sunday morning there was snow on the mountain tops all through the Smokies. Sorry no pics, cause every time we saw the snow capped peaks, we went around a curve on the mountain roads. Escapin’ the heat is one thing, but we’ve had enough of this COLD to last a while.

Right now we’re headed fer the Gulf Coast in Mississippi to defrost fer a while for we head home. They been havin’ a record heat wave at home, mid 90’s with heat indexes at 105-110. No need to be runnin’ into that to soon. We’re gonna set at Gulf Islands National Seashore and visit some o’ the casinos in Biloxi and try our luck.

This is what we been seein’ fer most o’ the week

We've made it to Meridian, MS tonight and we're doin a Wally World overniter. There were some Passport parks in the area but I decided they were a might too far off our intended route. The weather is still a little on the chilly side soo... we decided we'd just move on down the road a little farther before we called it a day. Well that's all fer today. Maybe the Good Fairy will come by in the night and make me all better again.

Hope to see ya down the road as we're;

Dancin' on the Wind.

Life in the Mountains

Today is Monday and we are headed across the mountain thru the park.
The weather has been up & down. Friday was OK, I worked cleanin’ up branches and hulls from the chestnut trees and burnin’ em. Friday night we had tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings, all we got was some rain , thank goodness.
Saturday started as a rainy day, but cleared off around noon so we went to the local flea markets. A lady Linda worked for many years ago has had a booth here for many years so we visited a little, but she was closin’. We told her we’d come back and see her Sunday. Went home for dinner then some TV and internet. My air card doesn’t seem to work real well here even with the antenna. One minute I have 60% the next 10% signal and there’s a tower right down the road 3/4 mile, if that. I am workin’ off a Verizon network I think but I don’t know why signal varies so much, “Give me Sprint 3G” anytime.
Sunday was a nice day so we went back to the market to see Marret, the woman who owned the beauty shop Linda worked at shortly after we got married. Boy is that ancient history. Linda bought a pair of sunglasses she looked at Saturday. We then stopped at the Harrahs Casino in Cherokee to see if they had any Promo’s goin’ on, No luck. We headed home from there, had some dinner and another excitin’ night of TV watchin’.
As I said we’re goin’ over to Pigeon Forge to shop for unmentionables fer the wife, at Jockey and stop at the Coleman campin’ outlet store. It’s another rainy day so we figured we might as well do this as sit at home. The clouds are on the ground in the higher elevations today but the leaves are showin’ their best colors up there too.

This is Newfound Gap, where we ate dinner the other night
Made it to the ‘Unmentionables’ store and got more than what we came fer. I even got some new jeans and we ate dinner at Applebees, yum…. We also perused the Coleman Camping store and purchased 2 pie irons for makin’ mountain pies. Fueled up at 2.49/gal in Pigeon Forge then headed across the mountain fer home. The fog was lots worse on our return trip tonight.
Well that’s all the excitin’ news fer today. Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Travel plans set in Oatmeal?

We left Maryville at our normal 10:30 – 11:00 early departure time after sayin’ our goodbyes. Made a stop at a Grocery for some vittles and got some great deals. I keep harpin’ “Our freezer Doesn’t have any more room” Then we see 2 filet mignon’s fer $3.30, Porterhouse fer 4-$5, New York strips 4-$5 and a fella just can’t turn down deals like that. So I buy some ice & throw everything in a cooler cause we’re gonna be in Bryson City in a few hours, then I’ll just throw em’ in the freezer there.

Well we got as far as Townsend, TN and we decided that we would drive through the park along Little River Rd. makin’ a stop at the ‘Sinks’ along the way. We fueled up in Townsend fer $2.39/gal and got us a Subway sandwich to split. We hadn’t stopped at the Sinks in a number o’ years so we stopped and ate our lunch. Then we got to walkin’ around and snappin’ some pictures.

 

 

 

A shot of the sinks

 

 

 

 

The rocks around here are jumbled & jagged, with some mighty swift water and it’s hard to get a good angle for a shot.

 

 

 

This is a little closer

 

 

 

After a while we headed done the road again towards home but only made it to Laurel Falls. “Have we ever seen this?”, “Not that I remember” I responded half-heartedly. So guess what?

It was a 1.3 mile walk along steep mountain switchback trails to see this.

Laurel Falls

We sure were thirsty when we got back. I don’t now why we can’t ever remember to take water with us. One o’ these days.

We started out again fer home and made it all the way to Newfound Gap at the crest of the Smokies in time for supper. What a beautiful spot for dining.

 

 

 

 

The view out the back door

 

 

 

 

After our supper with breath-takin’ scenery we started down the mountain towards home, again. About half-way down the subject of visitin’ the Elk at Cataloochee Valley came up. “Are we gonna go over to Cataloochee while were here?” “Well of course we will dear.” “If you recall, last year we caught the end of the ‘Rut’, maybe we should go now.” Well guess where we headed after fillin’ up on water. Ya see the campground lies in the valley about 17 miles off the highway. The last 10 miles are mountain switchback, one lane with turnouts, gravel road. As we headed out in the dark, it sure looked different, and a lot scarier than in the daytime. On our way in we discussed a couple we had met and became friends with two years ago in this campground, jokin’ that wouldn’t it be somethin’ if they were there. As we perused the campground loop we spied their camp.  We drove around the remainder o’ the loop back to the registration board & parked. We then walked the camp with the camp host and finally settled on a site across the way from Danny & Joy, our friends. After we got setup Joy come walkin’ by in the dark with Diane, a friend and said Hey. Still not knowin’ it was us till I asked if she was from Alabama, she looked at us and shrieked. Their were hugs all around and I told her I wanted to surprise Danny. I walked around the back of their camp where he was settin’ by the fire and said” Hey pilgrim do you remember me?’ He was surprised to say the least. Funny thing is as we were takin’ about them being here, they were doin’ the same. We hung out with them the rest o’ the night, then returned to our camp. We’ll see them again tomorrow.

Thursday before we got to eat our breakfast, Diane came over to invite us over for biscuits & chocolate gravy. Linda already had our breakfast made so we ate then went over to sample ‘Chocolate Gravy’. Very good Joy, you can make that anytime were together. They were leavin’ today and we couldn’t seem to keep ‘em, even though we told ‘em, “If you stay we’ll stay, but if your leavin’ we’ll leave to.” Oh well next time we’ll have better coordination in both our plans. Sorry guys, I know I have pictures from our last encounter but I can’t find ‘em.

After sayin’ goodbye with hugs all around, we left for the valley to check on the elk herd. We were a little late as the last group was just headin’ into the trees for the afternoon. We did get a picture of this one bull, he must have been worn out, from chasin’ women, as he didn’t move.

 

The leaves on this side of the park are comin’ on with their colors.

With no elk to watch we left Cataloochee for…. HOME? Just got back to Maggie Valley in time to have some scrumptious wings at a place called Smackers, for a late lunch. Next to the Anchor Bar in Buffalo this place runs a close second. We lucked out as on Wednesday & Thursday they have 25 cent wings so we had some hot & garlic parmesan. We’ll be back next week for more.

Well finally made it to our home in Bryson City where we’ll set for the next week or so, I Think. So that’s all for now from us. We’ll see what the next adventure brings.

Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Goodbye Maryville

After leaving Spring City we ventured east for our next stop in Maryville, TN. We arrived at Amy & Randy’s house around 3 in the afternoon and pulled in the drive. We have not seen Randy in a year but Amy came over the mountain to Bryson City in July. Amy met us at the door and we had hugs all around. Randy was still at work so we visited and she showed us all the changes from remodeling since our last visit. Their house is beautiful and becomin’ more so everyday. Randy arrived home and we all sat down to a dinner Amy had prepared. After eatin’ we all sat down to some serious visitin’ then turned in fer the night.

Monday Randy started in removin’ paneling that he’s replacin’ with drywall in their dining room and kitchen. I figured to lend a hand so he gave me the task of changin’ out the duplex outlets all around the countertop. We did various other little jobs in preparation of drywall. Dinner was spaghetti with meat sauce and Italian sausage by Linda. She also made garlic bread with fresh squeezed garlic, Mmmm… good. After dinner we watched Green Bay battle Minnesota, Amy & Randy are from Wisconsin, so I guess you could say they were Packers fans. Sorry.

Tuesday they took us up to Look Rock Tower, not far from the house. We never cease to be amazed at the the mew sites we find in areas we spent a lot of time. The leaves are just beginnin’ to change here.

Linda & Amy at the base of the tower

Almost at the top

Here’s the view from the top

Another view

While we were up in the tower the clouds started to roll over us, it was kind of spooky.

After visiting the tower, I asked Randy if we could look at the campground that we spied on the way up to the tower. We’re always lookin’ fer a new place to set for a few days. As we’re rollin’ thru the campground, after a much needed restroom break, we come upon this guy slurpin’ up acorns.

Cute yearlin’ bear

Took this from about 80 feet

Ordinarily I wouldn’t get anywhere this close, out of respect for the bear, but this one never paid much attention to Randy & I. He was focused on eatin’ those acorns and fatten’ up for hibernation.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Hope to see ya down the road, as we’re

Dancin’ on the Wind.

On the move again

We visited with our dear friends Margie & Odean at their home on Watts Bar Lake in TN. We arrived on Wednesday just in time fer supper. This is the second time we’ve been to their place in as many years. We met back in ‘05 at a campground in FL where we hung out fer the winter, 60 miles from home.

 

 

The view of the lake from the house

 

 

 

 

 

That’s us in the back thar!

 

 

 

After settin’ up we ate then set around palaverin’ fer hours. Then it was time to turn in fer the night. Linda & I retreated to the camper and I surfed the net fer a while. A couple o’ fellow travelers that I follow have had a rough time of late. Howard and Linda Payne of RV-Dreams have had a time with a wheel/axle/brake for the last week. Fixed once, nope, fixed twice, nope, fixed again finally. They just finished a summer workcampin’ stint and are on their way to host their own rally in TX when all heck broke loose for them. Now that y’all are on your way again I’m keepin’ my fingers crossed for ya.

Well Thursday we were up ate breakfast and were off to my favorite used bookstore. The Book Cellar in Crossville, TN is has a great western section, bigger than any I ever seen in a used bookstore, and being a western fiction & fictional history buff I take full advantage. They have a great exchange program where they will give you credit for books brought in at half the value they can resell it for. In other words, exchange two for one on most books, good deal.

Then it was back home for the girls to fix supper and another quiet night at home.

Friday Margie took us to a flea market, no new fleas needed here. For supper we decided to go out for fish. Shoney’s was the choice of our friends and we all opted for the buffet. We were skeptical but it was very good, especially the fish. Then it was back home for some more R&R.

Saturday the girls whipped up an apple pie, blueberry pie, pulled pork barbeque and sliced tomato’s with oil & pesto. We were off to another family reunion. We’ve had a passel o’ them this summer and only two were our family. We drove to Odean’s sister’s and spent the afternoon eatin’ up a frenzy. They had a turkey, two hams, meatloaf all kinds o’ salads and veggie’s as well as the vittles we brought. When the desserts surfaced I was so… full but there was a peanut butter pie that kept callin’ to me so I gave in. We returned home in the evening to talk & visit, cause we’re movin’ on in the morning.

 

 

Good Bye Margie & Odean

 

 

 

Thank You Margie & Odean, your very special people and we hold you close to our hearts.

That’s all for now. Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.