Smokey Mountain Ride

We got together with Stu and Froggi Donna today for a motorcycle ride through the beautiful countryside. What a gorgeous day for it ! Temps were in the high 60’s, when we got together for lunch at our place. Linda grilled turkey burgers and veggies, and we had that along with deviled eggs, beans and potato salad. After lunch we jumped on the bikes and headed out. We went up over the mountain and at the overlook, could see Gatlinburg down in the valley. The nearby mountain peak (the highest one in the picture to the left) is about a mile higher, in elevation than Gatlinburg which sits below it. This contrast is the biggest of any town on the east coast. That was pretty impressive.







Lots of folks out on bikes and in their cars taking in the beautiful foliage and great weather. Our route took us  through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, along Little River Road and back Wears Valley Road, which brought us back to the campground. Lots of curves and switchbacks in the roads around here. Not sure I’ve seen a part of the country with such winding roads as around here. We stopped at lots of neat pull offs and overlooks to take in the sights.






Donna bought this little guy at a shop that we stopped at. He became Stu’s backseat driver for the trip home. It was a hand carved bear and he fit so nicely in Stu’s back seat. We all had ice cream at this shop, while we walked around and checked out all of the neat items they had for sale. They had moonshine jelly, which I’ve never seen before. I told my mom about it tonight when I talked to her. She had never heard of it either. It was a clear jelly and didn’t seem very solidified. Hmmm..not sure how that would taste. Reminded me of the fuel you put in tiki torches..(probably tasted like it too…haha)


It was a great day for a ride…especially with new found friends Stu and Donna. Supposed to be cooling off over the next couple of days. Rain in the forecast for tomorrow afternoon. Linda and I want to get back out again on the trike and check out some other roads. Not sure if we’re going to do the Dragon or not….with the stiff turning radius of our trike, it would be a heck of a workout for my arms to do 318 turns in 11 miles. Lots of other great roads to explore.

Wyoming….

  We’re enjoying our time in Wyoming. What a nice drive up here, from Colorado. There was record snowfall this winter, so it hasn’t been until the last three weeks that this area has experienced any warm up in temps. There is still snow in the mountains all around the park.
This is horse country..even as you drive into town there are horse pastures all along the road, right up to the town limits. We arrived Thursday afternoon and got set up. Had our meeting with the campground owner and then started selling on Friday. We’ve had pop-up thunderstorms every afternoon. The area has had a great deal of rainfall, since June, and many areas have experienced flooding. All the rain has made for lush pastures and gorgeous flowers.
We spent Friday morning selling in Afton….a really cute town down the road from Thayne. They have the world’s largest Elk horn arch over the street in the center of town. Quite a site to see. We were parked, in downtown Afton, along the curb and could hear some dogs barking. I looked up and saw these cute little guys, watching us from their perch at a second story window. How cute !
The park here is very large…806 sites. They have a golf course, which is extremely busy, and several other amenities. It is surrounded by the beautiful mountains and Linda and I don’t seem to be bothered as much by the elevation. No shortness of breath, like in Colorado. Maybe we’re finally getting used to being in the mountains. Going to be in Thayne for a total of ten days and then we move on to Jackson for ten days there. Looking forward to our time in Wyoming…

Our Friday is Here....

We know we're heading "home" when we see this....

We're all set up. They left the rig on the site so only took us a few minutes to drop the back jacks, hook up the utilities and put the slides out. We left work around 7:15...got our wake up call at 5:30 with the call off of the dishwasher. Couldn't get back to sleep so figured we might as well get up and hit the road. This was the second morning of getting woken up at 5:30. Yesterday it was the alarm monitoring company calling to tell us there was an alarm going off in the fire panel. It's been going off every so often the last week but our maintenance guy thought he had the problem resolved by changing out the back up battery to the 3rd floor panel. Seem he swapped out the wrong battery. So I swapped out the truly bad one and so far it's been ok.

Found out the other day that our boss, the regional director, is leaving the company. The "official" notice, from corporate, is that he's leaving to spend more time with his family. The truth is, as he told us, is that he resigned back in May but was asked to stay on for a while to help the company. When he was asked a short while ago what his intentions were, he said he'd like to stay and continue with the company. At that point they told him that he'd turned in a resignation, they had accepted it so he needed to go. His boss has been demoted to take over his job so a huge impact to not just one person, but two. Our General Sales Manager told me that this is now the 5th change in that position she has seen since joining the company in January. Awesome...

Great news this week....we made our last payment on Bertha ! She is now wholly ours and not shared with the credit union. Now we can start applying the amount that was the truck payment and get the rig paid off. Hooray !!

Just saw a neat piece on Sunday Morning show about a micro sculptor. He uses a microscope to make art that fits in the eye of a needle or other similarly small areas. It was incredible ! His name is Wigan and he was ridiculed, as a child by a teacher.The teacher told him, "You are an exhibition of failure, and all the children in the school need to know about you, because this is what happens if you don't listen to me, children,' - you know, that type of thing? So, that made him feel that small." His mother noticed. Her advice then still guides him today.

"She said to me, 'You are now going to continue to make small things.' And I said, 'Why?' And she says, 'If you keep making small things, your name will get bigger!'


He laughed: "She said, 'The smaller your work, the bigger your name'." So he started sculpting super small items. His pieces are viewed through a microscope in order to be seen by people going to his art gallery shows. One of his pieces is Charlie Chaplin balancing on the end of an eyelash. He commands as much as $100,000 for one of his art pieces...pretty neat for someone who his teacher thought would be a failure.


No big plans today....we're pretty exhausted so I foresee a Nascar nap in my future. Need to call my mom and wish her a happy birthday...she's turning 85 tomorrow. Also think that a seafood dinner from the Mayflower might be in order. Stay tuned....

Monday

Today is our last full day off. We go into work at 11:30 tomorrow so we'll leave the campground around 9 in the morning. Today we drove into town, which is only a couple of miles down the road, to go to the thrift shops. We had seen three of them while we were driving around yesterday but only one was open today. It was well worth it though. Linda and I found quite a few blouses that will be great for work. The thermostat is set at 77 degrees, at the community, so we've discovered that short sleeves are the only way to go. The eight blouses we bought today will put us in good shape to stay cool at work.

While we were driving around, we saw these old houses in one area right outside of town. I love the windows and detail...Gorgeous houses from a grand ole time. The town of Mount Airy is really cute. We're going to wait till the next time we come up to park downtown and walk around to all of the shops. It's a little tricky to park Bertha in small places but since we won't need to drive her up here again (until we leave here with the rig), we can drive our car up each time we come. We're only 45 minutes from work....

It's so neat here, at the campground, that it feels like you're out in the country but it's only about two miles to Wal-Mart. The campground overlooks the mountains in the distance and you can see cars and trucks on the highway down below us. At night, it's so quiet. The campground cleared out today and there were only about 25 rigs left here. Tomorrow we'll just unhook everything, pull the slides in and leave the rig sitting here. Benny, the owner, will move it to the storage area......about 200 yards from where we are now. We won't be back here next week....we're headed to the NASCAR Hall of Fame and our behind the scenes tour. We can't wait !

Goin' Camping...

They finished repairing the rig so we're going to pick it up in the morning, as soon as we get off work. We also have to drop the Xterra off at a garage across town so we can get the cruise control fixed. It won't hold a setting and the "set" light flashes on the dashboard. It's no fun driving on a long trip without cruise control. Don't know how we ever survived before we had it.

As soon as we drop the car off we'll head up the road to get the rig and then we're off to Mayberry Campground for the next two nights. Yippee !!! Not sure we still know how to set up camp....but I think we can wing it.

Calling for hot temps the next couple of days...in the nineties so we're hoping for a nice breeze up on the mountain. It will be nice to get away on our days off. Tomorrow there is a cookout here at 12:30 and then a bluegrass band at 2 and then some feeble fireworks (probably Rick standing out front with some sparklers)at 7 or so. We had alot of calls today for people signing up to come so there's around 30 extra people coming. I also called a bunch of people and invited them....many wouldn't commit but sounded interested. We left a note that there could be some drop-ins.....surprise !!

We are tired out...waiting for the NASCAR race to kick off. Rain delay in Daytona. I remember when Linda and I were there last year and stood next to the track, in awe of the banking on the one turn. This is the last race on this track before they repave it so might be an interesting race. Hope they get some of it in before we're done in for the night...not gonna be long now !

3 Yr. Anniversary For Our Home...

Yep, it was 3 year's ago today that our rig rolled into the campground where we were renting a small camper and our adventure began. Our Excel came from Guthrie Center, Iowa and was delivered to us because we didn't have our truck outfitted yet with a bed or hitch (were still researching it). Since the RV dealership guys had to bring it through an ice storm in the mid-west, we felt the $1000 delivery fee was well earned.

I think she's holding up pretty well for 3 years of full-time living. As our full-time friends know, a whole different level of construction is needed for a rig called "home" on a day to day basis. There have been some issues over the years but I think it still looks as good as new on the outside and inside. Our rig is hunkered down, on the day of its birthday, in 17 degree temps (although with the wind chill it feels zero) with 30-40 m.p.h. winds outside. We appreciate the heavy weight of our rig on nights like this....very little sway.

When we had the closing on the sale of our house, end of October 2007, we rented a small camper in the campground near us until our rig could be built and delivered to us. Two adults and two large dogs in a small camper for nine weeks. Wow ! You had to go outside just to change your mind. Then our rig came and we started moving in....we thought we had downsized all we needed to from having two houses... well we had to downsize even more. Then the fun (and learning) began....On Valentine's day, 2007 we had over a foot of snow in a big snow storm, then another foot on St. Patrick's day...then a 10 day period of wind chills of -10 to -20. Wow, did we get initiated by fire (or ice) ? That was some winter in PA. For those of you not following our blog in those days, go to our older posts at the bottom of the page and you can relive those days. Ones I'd sooner forget...at least the ones with lots of snow and cold.

We are looking forward to going to a warmer climate for a while. Let our rig warm up along with us.....Happy Birthday to Destiny !! We wish her many more years of safe travels with us at the helm.

End of Week One at Work...

It's our day off....we are exhausted. It was very busy yesterday, starting with people waiting for us as we arrived for work at 8 a.m. Never stopped from there....people moving in and out all day long. Guess because it was the first of the month that it was transition time. In addition to the day to day stuff, we are still finishing up things to be ready for the owners visit on Tuesday. I've gotten several coats of wax down so far in the restrooms and they are looking much nicer and the dock and crash poles have a fresh coat of paint. We rented a buffer/scrubber from Home Depot and the 1st floor is almost done and looks great. I don't think much more is going to get done before Tuesday as there are other more pressing things to get done relevant to our day to day operations that will take time to get done.

Here at the campground, Sunday seems to be a big turnover day. We arrived here last Sunday afternoon and there were many empty spaces. Many are packing up to leave today so by this afternoon it will probably have the same look as last week. Many of the Rv'ers here are from Quebec. It has been so rainy this week and we feel so sorry for the folks that are in tents. There is a wide mix of camping styles here....very small tents....old pop-ups....camper vans.....5th wheels.....elegant motorhomes. Linda even saw a young lady wrapped up in a blanket sleeping on the ground next to her car the other night. Not sure if she wasn't fit to drive home or what her situation was. I guess it was around mid week that we were absolutely packed. Even up until 10 p.m., when I went to bed, the evening security guard was still helping people get into the few remaining sites. Last night we went to bed to the sound of "thump thump thump" and I walked down to the harbor to see if I could figure out where it was coming from. It wasn't coming from the bar but seemed to be over towards the Statue of Liberty. I could see the sweeping flood lights criss crossing across the sky and hear the music. I asked at the office this morning and Carmen said it was a concert at Liberty State Park. Not a weekly event (thank God as it was very noisy)but something special during the summer.

Not sure what we're going to do today. I asked about getting into the Statue of Liberty and Carmen said she heard they are booked until October (for getting into the Statue itself). We can visit the museum, etc. but wouldn't be able to get up into the statue. Bad storms coming in again today....coming from Pennsylvania way. I know we're gonna get laundry done. May work tomorrow (although should be our day off) so we're sure to be ready for the site visit on Tuesday.

Hoops, Scoops and Shoots....

The weather has been gorgeous this weekend...bright and sunny with warm temps. The chance of rain is supposed to return tomorrow so we got our outdoor tasks done this morning. I got the oil changed in the generator and checked the water level in the batteries. Linda checked the fuses for our cigarette lighter in the Xterra as our power converter won't work in the one socket. Fuses are fine but socket still won't work, even though the other one does.

Yesterday we went to Twin Bridge campground and hung out with Linda's sister and her nephews. There was a Civil War re-enactment going on there this weekend. The two base camps were set up and around 1:30 the "battle" began. Seemed a little odd to see Union soldiers marching past campers but to get to the battlefield that's what they had to do. Some soldiers were on horseback and they even had cannons. As you can imagine all of the gunfire and cannon blasts made Boomer really nervous. Not sure who won as we didn't see any soldiers "die" so I'm not sure how they keep score of who wins. Maybe they take turns each time they have a re-enactment.

Later on in the day we went to Greencastle to the Car Hop.

Here is our handsome waiter,Coby, who took our order.....

They had a DJ there spinning classic tunes...Some of the kids taking orders had roller skates on as they zipped from car to car taking orders and then taking the orders to the kitchen to get the food. Here Karlee is showing Linda the two arm technique for hoola hoops....

It's a family affair...Jayden on the left..Carol on the right(Linda's sister)
Jake is patroling the parking lot...

They had a hoola hoop contest that went on for a long time. Two young ladies had this thing down pat...song after song kept ending and another starting and they were still going with their hoola hoop. Not me, man....I'm as bad at hoola hooping as I am at jumping rope..I think they fall in the same classification of coordination...none of which I possess. It would be called hoola oops if I did it cause it would be around my ankle right off the bat. They had a great menu of burgers, hotdogs, floats, french fries, shakes and sodas. Linda's sister, Kay was helping in the kitchen getting the food orders put together on each tray except she kept forgetting to put the hamburger patty on the bun. All the fixins were there...lettuce, tomato, mayo, etc. but when the kids would bring it back and say "Where's the Beef"...she'd see that she had forgotten the burger patty...minor detail...low cal version. It was a fun time and great for the youth working the event.

Today we're hanging out at Linda's brothers house, watching the NASCAR race at Pocono. Tomorrow we have an interview in Camp Hill and one in Gettysburg. On Tuesday we head to Maryland for an interview with a nationwide company that we want to work for. We're looking forward to getting these interviews in so that we're a little closer to knowing where we're headed next.

Back Up The Mountain....

We did more visiting today with Linda's family up at the cabin.After spending a little time with her youngest son at the homestead, we headed out. After...

...a few of these....

..and several of these....

We arrived back at the cabin where
Linda's family was hanging out...

We stayed for a while and chatted with everyone. We then left to go visit Linda's LPN buddy who has a camp over on the other mountain. She and her husband, Gene, have a beautiful site in a popular campground called "Saunderosa". They have a permanent site that they have done a great job in fixing up to make it very homey.They were having a get together with their neighbors and relatives so we joined them for a picnic. Linda had a great time catching up with Donna and swinging on her new hanging swing that Gene put up. It was one of those single person, upright hammock type swing that hangs from a hook on the ceiling. This is one of the things that we've missed about our sticks and bricks house...the large deck where we had a porch swing. I'm sure it brought back memories to her of the time we spent on our back porch.
It was a good day of cooler temps and a great time spent with old friends.....Tomorrow we will go to see another friend who now lives in the area and has purchased a house recently.