Oct 24, 2020 - travel day

After a big breakfast at Cracker Barrel, I hit the road on another cloudy, misty day. Roads are traveled but not so busy that I was slowed down by anything other than construction sites. After getting gas at the Flying J outside of Knoxville, the GPS took me on a country road I was not expecting. Turned out the road was closed I was supposed to take - I think it was to get me back on I-40 earlier than where the gas station was so that I wouldn't have to immediately get into the far left lane. Anyway, I took the scenic way to the campground....

Oct 16, 2020 - Smyrna TN

Into every life a little rain must fall. A popular quote that I think is a pretty good intro to today’s story; one that we won’t soon forget. Thanks to Hurricane #296, Saturday night into Sunday morning was damp with a Flood Watch in effect for the mountains. Not to worry...Black’s Creek and the Little Tennessee River that ran about 50’ behind the coach were about 10’ deep and almost bone dry when I had set up earlier in the day, so not a source of concern. After midnight it got pretty stormy...heavier rain, lightning, thunder and some...

Sep 12, 2020 - Rain, rain, everywhere

We got up at 0600 and Spikey immediately checked the weather as it had rained last night and was raining lightly when we got up. There was a weather alert for flooding in Willsboro and the surrounding areas. We had received 1 1/2" to 2" of rain overnight. Spike and OT had planned a scenic route for us to take today on a 2 lane hiway. But with this potential for flooding we decided to err on the side of safety and stick to the Interstate today. Kinda boring but definitely safe and flood free. So after a trip to the dump station to do the...

Aug 31, 2020 - Baileyton TN

This is another overnight KOA, and the main attraction is the location. When I mapped out the trip I looked for campgrounds that were convenient mileages from the previous one. None of these are particularly attractive in and of themselves. Janet says she is really enjoying this trip, but all we are doing is driving and camping with no sightseeing. I think she was stir-crazy from all the pandemic isolation and is just enjoying the road trip. It has been on the verge of raining the whole time we were here, sunny, very humid, and until you've...

Aug 30, 2020 - We only made it to Tennessee....

We were up early and on the road at 0745. I was trying to find you some cool photos of the rolling hills of Kentucky but there seems to always be a barrier of trees near the road. Probably to screen the noise from the interstate. So anyway out of many tries, I finally got something I liked. Not many rest areas today. We had to wait until the welcome center in Tennessee to get a rest area. That was near 11:30, so we decided just to eat lunch there. As you can see from the pictures we have had some rain and fog this morning. The drivers in...

Aug 19, 2020 - Tennessee-The Volunteer State

Greetings from East Tennessee! We are staying at Whispering River in Walland, a small town which is the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains. We have stayed here 2 other times while in the area and just love the setting. The campground is in a valley surrounded by gorgeous mountains and adjacent to the Little River. We are here for a while to see our dear friends, the Holder Family and to get some preventative maintenance done by a trusted shop nearby. We took a day trip to Rocky Top, Tennessee primarily because of the song made famous by...

Jul 22, 2020 - Cumberland Falls State Park

We drove for about four hours to this state park, arriving in the rain, no ranger on duty,no person around at the store,no one.We waited in the truck for the rain to stop and it did after about 1/2 hours. We walked down the road from where we had parked the truck and trailer, to look at the campsite. The camp reservation told us the site number and the length of the campsite. It told us that the campsite would not allow anything over 30 foot, our trailer is 26 foot, so we are good!!! NO WE WEREN'T I had a 10 foot truck and 26 foot trailer....

Jul 19, 2020 - Cumberland Mountain State Park

Driving only three hours today, the weather is 88-94 outside and rain off and on in the afternoon. Leaving again around 11:30 and getting to our campground around 2:30 p.m. We shall be camping for about three days and running around to do some MUNZZE and GEOCACHING in the area. Harley has been gone now over four days and Norma told me that we should have not put him to sleep, she said that she does miss him sitting next to her in the truck and next to her on the seat in the trailer. I told her is was the best thing to do, he was not himself...

Jul 19, 2020 - Sunday A Day Of Rest

I like to drive about four or five hours to the next campground and stay over about three days. But our vacation was changed because Harley had eaten some coating from electrical wires from the trailer and went had to go home for about two weeks, until he was able to travel again. I had reservation at a few state parks up north and we had to be there on those dates. So I had to space out a few places to camp on the way up north.This drive today was about four hours of driving time leaving the last campground around 11:30 and arriving around...

Jun 25, 2020 - Freightliner to Tennessee

We were taken in to the shop in the morning and they were done with it by around 1030. They did find a part that was not operating properly on the air leveling system. We then checked out and were on our way about 1130. The drive to Clinton which is just north of Knoxville Tennessee was really curvy through the mountains in North Carolina and the refrigerator almost came open as we were twisting back and forth. When we got to the KOA they put us in the spot where the slide would be right in a tree but fortunately they had an alternate spot...

Jun 20, 2020 - Day 5 - Trippin through the mountains in to Branson

Oh my oh my. We got our first real taste of I-40 (Think Highways from California to the East Coast. Full of truckers. I got stuck in merging lane and went too far due to construction and people and trucks in memphis are not very friendly. Tried to get over late and ticked off about 5 truckers. Went head to head trying to merge and the little car in front of me stopped and went in front of me an wouldnt move then semil next to me said uh no Jack not happenin and I said am too. We merged to the point of me about to hit barrels then within...

Jun 20, 2020 - Day 4 - We is in Elvis Country - Uh Hu

Today was chilax in Memphis Day. Well make sure you chilax with a 9 MM by your side and you will feel a little better about it : ) Hit Graceland first thing in the morning. Kind of surprised we really enjoyed it. They just built a museum only 4 years ago across the street from Graceland. Lets just say we almost had the place to ourselves. Thanks COVID! #covidworksforus. Definitely a must do if you are near the area. Saw all of his cars, motorcycles, planes. The dude made like 56 movies. He was a huge star by age 21. Watch Sun Records on CMT...