Summer Trip, 2014, Continued

Thursday, June 19, 2014

We moved today, but just a short drive to the KOA in Nashville, where we met friends Rick and Jennifer Van Norman. We are going to explore Nashville together and play some cards. They have just recently learned how to play Hand and Foot, so the games should be fun!!

Friday, June 20, 2014

The temperature and the humidity have joined forces to put me under! Feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest!

So we drove over to the Opry Hotel, which is a really huge hotel with several wings and between each of the wings is a garden or conservatory with trees, flowers, waterfalls, statues, elevated walkways and scattered in amongst the beauty are shops and patio cafes. Very elaborate with high domed glass ceilings to let the light in and it is beautiful!

One of the glass ceilings

One of the "River Boats", Shops up the stairs behind the little
river

One of the tropical flowers

Multi colored Duck

Beautifull Orchids

The old folks

Tropical Flowers

One of the many fountains

Maps of the gardens, shops and hotel

I can’t imagine how large the gardening staff must be to take care of all of this, keep it landscaped and clean, trimmed and weeded. Certainly more work than I would want to do, even on a smaller scale. The guys did a little research to see how much it cost a night to stay at the Opry Hotel…a measly $325.00 per night for a room with a view of the gardens.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

I stayed home and rested today while Phil, Rick and Jenn went shopping at Trader Joe’s, because tonight is Grand Ole Opry night! So, I wanted to be rested for the big show.

We took one of the shuttle buses over to the Opry so we wouldn't have to fight the traffic, the KOA Campground is less than a mile from the Opry! Turns out the shuttle stops at every campground and hotel along the way. We were the first ones picked up, and of course, the last to be dropped off after the show.

The Opry is still performed live, so you are not only entertained, but have to listen to the commercials as well. Oh well, it was fun and entertaining. I liked most of the performers, old and new.  See if you recognize any of these names…Connie Smith, Little Jimmy Dickens, Riders in the Sky, Bobby Osborne & the Rocky Top X-Press, Mary Gauthier, Bill Anderson, Jeannie Seely, Lucy Hale, Opry Square Dancers, Steve Wariner, The Whites and The Willis Clan. I didn’t like The Whites at all, but I loved the Willis Clan. These kids were on America’s Got Talent last year, a group of brothers and sisters who all play various instruments and sing, as well as clogging. For the clogging they brought out the youngest sisters who were three and five, they were so cute!!

Sunday, June 22, 2013

We braved the heat and humidity to go downtown to see the old part of town and the Johnny Cash Museum. The museum was wonderful, followed his life and career, his time in the Army, his fight with alcohol and drugs, his first marriage to his high school sweetheart and his marriage to June Carter.

A very young Johnny Cash

One room showed some of the movies he was in, not a great actor, but fun to see!  More fun was all of the memorabilia from his music career, the outfits, the gold records, the Country Music Awards, all wonderful to see and read the background stories that went with them.

Movie Poster

The outfit, the guitar

His cycle

Birth Certificate, Born in Kingsland, Cleveland County
Arkansas

Monday, June 23, 2014

Rick and Jennifer left early this morning, as they were traveling all the way to Little Rock, we followed about an hour later, heading for West Memphis, AR. Good to be back in our home state! We will be home tomorrow. It’s been great to be gone for awhile, but we have lot’s to attend to at home, so it will be good to be there for awhile.

Summer Trip 2014, Continued

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

We got out for a bit this morning and drove up to the Cumberland Mountain State Park. This is a good sized park with 1720 acres, and in the middle of it is Byrd Lake which offers boating and fishing, for swimming there is an Olympic sized swimming pool where for a small fee you can enjoy the pool on those hot summer days. Fourteen of the 145 campsites have full hookups, the rest have water and electric and are all first come, first serve. There is also a Jack Nicklaus 18-hole golf course.

Most of the structures, cabins, restaurant and picnic pavilions were built by the CCC from 1934 till the park opened in 1940. The most famous of the structures built by the CCC is the two lane bridge/dam that connects the two sides of the park.  The natural stone, found on the mountain is called Crab Orchard Sandstone. The bridge/dam is the largest masonry structure ever built by the CCC.

The Bridge/Dam built by the CCC

Close up of stone work

Spillway on back side of bridge/dam

Close up of spillway

John Taylor Road...where have we heard that name before...
Maybe Phil's Baby Brother John or Nephew John

Summer 2014 Continued

Saturday, June 14, 2014

We left Chattanooga on Monday, June 9^th and arrived at the River Plantation RV Resort in Sevierville, TN for the DRV Owners Rally. This is a really nice park, and would be perfect for the SMART National Rally!!

The highlight of the Rally was the food, it was all catered and was better than any rally we have ever been to!!

The one tour we did during the Rally was to the Bush Bean Plant. I had the impression that we were going to have a tour of the plant, but what we had was a film of the plant and the demonstration of how the beans are made. The film was interesting, but would have loved to have actually seen the plant! It was right across the street from where we were at the Museum/Gift Shop.

They had some really nice gifts for the raffle, so I tried my luck and won some wine for Phil…three bottles worth, so he was pleased.  Then I won the Quad Step, which we have been looking at, but Phil wanted the aluminum step and this one was steel. The 50/50 tickets were $5.00 each, so I only got $20.00 worth, and didn’t win. One lady won with two tickets, out of the three possible, and each was worth $567.00.  Then came the door prizes and each rig got one. Most of these were donated by RV’s For Less, the local DRV Dealer, and there were some really nice ones.  When our name was called they brought us what they thought was two canvas chairs. But, when they handed them to Phil, he raised his eyebrows because they were really heavy, too heavy for chairs!  So he took one out of the bag, and what they look like are two projector screens. I noticed what he didn’t though, and that was that on the other side of the white screen was printed with RV’s For Less advertising like they would use at an RV show.  After the prizes were given out Phil went and talked to the owner of RV’s and told him what we had, he was shocked that those signs were there, they weren’t suppose to be. Those things cost him like $500.00 each, so he was very great full that Phil let him know what we had. Phil then worked a deal, we didn’t get a door prize because we had to give it back, he didn’t want the steel quad step, so he got them to agree to a swap…the advertising signs and the quad for an aluminum quad step that just came out on the market! So, I’d say we did pretty good!!

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

We left Sevierville on Saturday, June 14^th and moved to Breckenridge Lake Resort just south of Crossville, TN. This is an RPI park, and since we are members of RPI we only pay $10.00 per night, plus $2.00 per night for 50 amp electric, very good price in today’s world of $40-$50/night. We are here just to relax and pass the time until it’s time for us to head to Nashville to meet our friends Rick and Jennifer for the weekend, so we leave here on Thursday. So far the only reason we have left the campground is to go to the grocery store in Crossville, so we have definitely been relaxing!

Oh, almost forgot, I got the last RV Park for the Alaska Caravan done, so we are all booked!! Such a good feeling to have that done!!

Summer 2014 continued

Thursday, June 5, 2014

There are three main attractions at Lookout Mountain; the mountain itself, the Incline Railcar and Ruby Falls. The Falls is probably the most popular of the attractions at the Mountain.

One of the things I noticed right away was that the formations were all broken, even high up on the ceiling. This happened during The Depression, when the tour guides would break off the formations and sell the onyx to help support their families. The other thing I noticed is that visitor’s are encouraged to touch, something you would never find in a non-commercial cave and I found that a little sad. 

There was one way in and back out, and of course for tall people, the ceilings were a little low most of the way. We had a tour guide who was somewhat knowledgeable, but very much full of himself.

The Falls were beautiful and natural, at 1120’ below the surface of the Mountain, the falls are 145’ high, and displayed with natural light and a laser show of lights.

As far underground as we were, I really expected it to be cool, but because of the falls, the humidity level was at 100%, add exertion to that and I was way overheated before we were done.

 

Summer 2014 continued

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Today we spent some time at the Chickamauga National Battlefield and Museum. This is another victim of Sherman’s march to the sea. The Museum here is full of artifacts from the Civil War Period, and has a huge collection of fire power, rifles and cannon. It is also an example of how the troops lived.

 

2014 Summer trip, continued: May 31st - June 2nd

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Today we drove back down into Georgia to see the Lookout Mountain area and specifically Rock City. We weren't sure what to expect, other than there were suppose to be fantastic views.

Rock City is a commercial enterprise, where the natural beauty of the rock bluffs as been redesigned (for lack of a better word), to include pathways through the rocks crevices, nicks and crannies.  Different paths at the beginning, just after entering the park, take you to different overviews. All the paths wander through the natural vegetation of the mountains of Georgia. It’s all very pretty and interesting the way the paths have been designed, but the view at the end of each path is what you are paying for. It is absolutely spectacular!!

An Eagle Statue at Rock City

The view from the Bluffs at Rock City

One of the wood swings at Rock City

From the bluffs, they claim that on a clear day you can see seven states!

Not today, too hazy and cloudy, but even at that the view was amazing! There was a breeze coming across the valley and up the bluffs that cooled the 80 degree day down enough to make it comfortable enough to sit at a table in the outdoor café and enjoy a wonderful burger while still enjoying the view and for our listening pleasure, a couple of guys on a guitar and fiddle playing some of the old mountain music. It was a very enjoyable afternoon!!

 Monday, June 2, 2014

Today we went back down to Lookout Mountain to ride the Incline Railcar. Starting at the bottom of a part of the mountain, the Incline is pulled up the mountain. The steepest part of the ride is a 72% climb! The railcar is designed so that at the steepest part you are sitting upright, so getting on and off of the car is somewhat interesting!

Our turn to ride The Incline Railcar

Nita, looking up to the back of the car

Just about at the top of the mountain

A gopher plays in the grass at the top

Going back down, sat at the back of the car

Looking back to the top

At the top, we are once again treated to a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside. On the ride up there are a lot of houses built into the mountain, and of course, the higher you go, the bigger and more expensive they get.

We had left the campground early this morning with the intention of doing the railcar and then going out to lunch. Phil decided he was in the mood for a burger today (I always am), so he looked on his trusty phone and found a Cheeburger-Cheeseburger, and off we went.  Where we ended up was downtown Chattanooga, just before the bridge going over the river. Amazingly enough, right next door to the restaurant there was a parking lot, empty and big enough to get the truck into and parked!! As we exited the parking lot, we looked up and noticed that the Aquarium was right across the street. So, we had our burgers, which were delicious, then walked over to the Aquarium.

Chattanooga Aquarium

One of the many butterflies

This aquarium is designed a little differently than most we have been in. After entering on the first floor, you ride an escalator up to the top floor of the building, then simply walk along the display windows observing the huge variety of salt water dwellers, and you are slowly going back down to the first floor. There are the occasional bump outs where you will find special displays, like those of the various kinds of Jelly Fish or Sea Horses and Sea Dragons.

Jelly Fish Display

Sea Horses, the picture washed the colors out

Blown Glass inspired by Jelly Fish

At one point during our journey down, there were a couple of scuba divers in with the fish, answering questions from those of us sitting there. The kids of course, were most fascinated by the sharks swimming freely by the divers.

We eventually worked our way to the ground floor, to be directed to the next building where the river dwellers were kept. This was especially interesting because there were several different river settings on display, starting with the water life found in the great Tennessee River, then onto the smaller types of rivers and swamps found in the delta areas.

The escalator in this building was the very longest single escalator either of us have ever seen and the steepest as well.  I believe it travelled up 5 floors! At the very top was the Butterfly enclosure, with the beautiful flowers  of the tropical’s and the butterfly’s who feed off of them. Butterfly’s come in all different shapes and sizes, and colors. They are also very difficult to photo as they don’t sit still very much.

Next in our journey came the River Otters. These little guys are much more active and playful than the Sea Otters, also thinner and longer. They were playing and chasing each other around when we first walked in, but it must have been close to feeding time because before long they were all banging on the door hidden high in the wall of the enclosure like they were expecting great things to come their way.

Now we begin to walk our way slowly back down to the first floor. Not only are there the large tanks containing the larger river fish, but many smaller displays with tortoises, turtles, water snakes, frogs, alligators, just life in general in the delta.

All displays, in both buildings, were clean, well cared for, and properly maintained. This dual aquarium gets a “10” from us, one of the best we have seen!

Outside the Aquarium, along the Riverwalk

Summer Road Trip-2014-Continued

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Today we said good-bye to Tom and Sandy, they started home, and we continued on with our trip.

Our trip was uneventful, until we got within a few miles of our destination, because, as it turns out, our destination doesn't exist anymore. When planning our trip, I as usual, used my Trailer Life Software to pick out the campgrounds. TL showed a Military campground, Army Rec Area, on Lake Allatoona, just NW of Atlanta. Didn’t give a physical address, so I used the GPS coordinates and that took us to some real pretty black gates with YMCA plastered all over them. So, we called the number Phil had written on the printout for the campground, the guy answers “Navy Lake Rec Area” so I ask him where he was after telling him where we were. He says go back to the main road, take a left and follow it till we got there. So, finally we get there, they have our reservations, but whoever took our reservation put us in a site to narrow and to short, but it’s Saturday on Memorial Day Weekend, so we don’t have a lot of choice. The Assistant Camp Hosts take Phil down to the site so he can figure out if he wants to try to get into it. To further complicate things, we thought we were reserving a site with full hookups for 8 days, turns out…no sewer.

Phil finally comes back and he says he is going to try to get into the site. They had six guys down there trying to guide Phil in, but none of them knew how. So, I’m trying to keep in out of the ditch and from hitting the tree with the back end. Not surprising, he got it in the site, but then we had to pull forward to fit the tree between the two slides, which meant the front end was nearly on the road, we had 20 feet behind us free and clear. The front steps dropped off on the steep downhill slope, made for real tricky walking. This campground was built in the 50’s when trailers weren't any longer than about 20’ and slides hadn't even been thought of yet.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

We laid low over the weekend and left the good times to the crazies.

Today we drove back down towards Atlanta to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield, which was one of the last major conflicts before the Confederacy fell back into Atlanta, and so began Sherman’s march to the sea.

We spent some time at the Visitor’s Center and watched a film about the battles in the area. We then went to lunch and did some shopping before heading back to camp.

View from the top of Kennesaw Mtn
Can you tell there is a little humidity in the air???

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

We decided we had had enough of the tight environs, so we went up to the office to see if we left in the morning we could get a refund. Turns out that the lady at the desk this morning is the one who took our reservation. She apologized profusely, stating that she had been new at the time. She gave us the refund and we are out of here tomorrow morning!

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Tonight we are in the Raccoon Mountain RV Park in Chattanooga, TN. This is a nice park, long pull thrus with full hookups. We are in an end site, so only have neighbors on one side. Will spend the next couple of days doing laundry after being in a site with no sewer for so long.

Summer Road Trip 2014

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

We met friends John and Fran at the Riverview RV Park in North Little Rock, the park overlooks the Arkansas River and Downtown Little Rock. John and Fran are on their way home to help take care of their daughter, Alison, and her kids while she has a pacemaker installed. John and Fran are going to be the Wagon Master’s for the SMART Alaska Caravan for 2015, and we are going to be the Assistant Wagon Masters. So, it is going to be a busy week trying to put as much of this caravan together before we go our separate ways. There is lots to do, I am going to arrange the campgrounds, Fran is going to arrange the meals and entertainment. I’m so excited about this caravan, Alaska has been at the top of my bucket list for a really long time!!

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Diamond Chapter members Jim and Ali stopped in for a nightly stay on their way to Foley, AL, we all went to Larry’s Pizza for dinner.

Friday, May 2, 2014

Friends Tom and Sandy surprised us today, arriving one day early, meeting us here for a trip to Foley, AL where we are going to a SMART Regional Meeting.

Meanwhile, John, Fran, Phil and I are still working frantically on the caravan details.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

We said our goodbyes to John and Fran, and got ready to leave with Tom and Sandy for the first leg of our trip to Foley. We were in the lead, and pulled out of the park, but Tom and Sandy didn’t. We drove back, and Tom is having trouble with the truck, it is stalling out. He is thinking it’s nothing but bad gas and decides to go for it. So, we put them in the lead and took off again.  Our goal today was Vicksburg, MS.  After some very tense moments, we did make it to the RV Park in Vicksburg, but it was touch and go many times.

After we got to the park and got set up, Phil noticed that two of the trailer tires, the oldest, were bubbled.  So, off they came so that he could take them to a tire store the next day. Thank goodness for the automatic leveling system!! Meanwhile, Tom goes to get his truck filled with fuel hoping that will solve his problems.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Phil took the wheels to the tire store this morning and left them to be replaced.  While we were waiting, we went to do a little site seeing, Tom drove and the truck seemed to be ok, until we were on the way back to the trailer, then it died and we didn’t think it was going to start again. Murphy is now leaning hard on all of us!!

We limped into the campground, then Phil followed Tom to the Dodge dealership to see if they could figure out what the problem was. They couldn’t get to it right away, so Phil brought Tom back and the decision was made that we would go on by ourselves tomorrow on schedule.

Meanwhile, we decided to go over to the casino, have dinner at the buffet and Sandy and I would try our luck on the slots. After switching machines a couple of times, I hit one that was paying and stayed there for awhile. When it quit paying, I moved. When I finally cashed out, I had $200.00, off of my initial investment of $30.00, so I had a really lucky night!

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

We left this morning around 10:00 am, it was tough to leave Tom and Sandy behind. We had an uneventful trip, even with some really rough roads in Jacksonville, MS. Pulled into Foley, AL around 3:00 pm. We are here for the SMART South Central Regional Muster. Some of you may remember that we did this in North Little Rock last year, gives a person an appreciation for how much work goes into one of these events.

One of my main goals while we are here is to meet with John Farrell who is the Travel Coordinator for SMART.  So I want to pick his brain on the ins and outs of caravan planning and preparation.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Got up really early this morning to make waffles and sausage for the rest of the regional attendees. We had 5 waffle makers going, that was all the  electrical system in the meeting room would handle. But we managed and everyone had hot waffles, and they were good!!

We went home and took a nap!! 

Sunday, May 11, 2014

This morning Tom and I (Tom and Sandy made it in on Thursday) did a seminar on recruiting and retention for SMART, which turned into a brain storming session on the problems facing the recruiter. We expected this to last about 30 minutes, turned out to be about 1-1/2 hours, so I think it was a successful meeting.

Today is also the last day of the muster. People will be leaving out tomorrow. Tom and Sandy and Phil and I are staying a couple of extra days to see some of the sites in the area that we haven’t had time to see before.

Monday, May 12, 2014

We decided that today would be a day for washing and relaxing, and after the wash was done we played a game of Hand and Foot.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Out and about in Foley. We went to the old downtown and went through a couple of very large antique shops and had ice cream at the old drugstore/soda fountain. We also went to the model railroad display and watched the guys in charge run the various trains. Tom is a model train enthusiast, so this was right up his alley.

 The Foley model train station. The building with all the firetrucks really looked like it was on fire. It was fun to watch the guys there run the different trains.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Travel day, drove from Foley, AL to The Engineer FamCamp at Fort Rucker, AL. This base is out in the middle of nowhere in south central Alabama. Ft Rucker is a helicopter training base. Tom did flight school here and he wanted to check this base for a possible flight school 50^th anniversary next year. Based on location alone, I would say that it is a no go. Even though the base is located in the middle of nowhere, the base itself is huge. The campground is on a little lake and surrounded by trees. We have a couple of pull thru sites next to each other.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Today we got together with Tom and Sandy and went to the Ft Rucker Aviation Museum that is located here on base. This is a really nice museum dedicated to the development of the helicopters from the inception, thru the Viet Nam War to the current use.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Another travel day, drove to Fort Benning, GA and the Uchee Creek FamCamp, located just outside of Columbus, GA. This famcamp is undergoing renovation and has been expanded. They are in the process of switching over from their own well water to city water, but haven’t done so yet. Currently there is about 6 lbs of pressure, so we had to fill the fresh water tank and use the pump in order to have enough pressure to take a shower. The office staff and the reservation leave a lot to be desired! They truly did not know what they were doing, or what spaces were available.

Small herd of deer wandered through the campground at dusk

Monday, May 19, 2014

The guys had a guys day out to visit the Infantry Museum on base, Sandy and I had a quiet day at home. I slept in and then worked on my campground stuff for the Alaska Caravan we are going on next year. Phil and I are tail gunners/Assistant Wagon Masters.

Sandy and I were very glad we didn't go with the guys, they left at 10 this morning, and they didn't get home till after 5. That’s a lot of museum!

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Today we got up a little earlier and drove over to Andersonville National Historic Site. This was the site of the most horrific prison of the Civil War, and most of the men that died here, died of dysentery and diarrhea. This was not a prison in the way we think of prisons today, but just an open stockade, with no provisions such as shelter or blankets offered, the men had to make do with what they could find. Water came from a shallow stream that flowed through the grounds and in the summer it was reduced to a small trickle. The water was also contaminated with human waste.

This prison was built to relieve crowding at Richmond prisons and to relocate Union prisoners away from the battle front. Camp Sumter Military Prison, more commonly known as Andersonville, was an unfinished, undersupplied prison pen when the first prisoners arrived in February, 1864. Intended to hold 10,000 men, the 16-1/2 acre pen had a 15 foot high stockade wall and two gates. Nineteen feet inside the stockade was the “deadline,” marked by a simple post and rail fence. Guards stationed in the sentry boxes shot anyone who crossed this line. The stockade was expanded to 26-1/2 acres in June of 1864, but POW’s continued to arrive and by August, 1864, over 32,000 struggled to survive .

Interesting statistic, whether held in the North or South, a prisoner of war was more likely to die than a soldier in combat. Exact numbers of prisoners who died are not known. Surviving records suggest that of approximately 195,000 Union POW’s, 30,000 (or 15%) died. Of the Approximately 215,000 Confederate POW’s held, about 26,000 (or 12%) died.

 An example of what some of the men did for shelter from the harsh Georgia weather.

 The 19' deadline, where the only shade available was beyond reach, cross that line and you are dead.

The stream that ran through the stockade. This is in May,  in the hot heat of summer this probably dried up to nothing.

After visiting Andersonville, we stopped for lunch, then headed for Plains, GA, about 21 miles away. Plains is where our 39^th U.S. President was born and raised…Jimmy Carter. Included in the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site are the Plains Railroad Depot (completed in 1888), the Carter Boyhood Home and Farm and the Plains High School, which was attended by both Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. We spent about 3 hours exploring the area, then finished off the tour at the Plains Drug Store where we all had some Peanut Butter Ice Cream. It was pretty good!  

 Jimmy Carter's Boyhood Home and Farm.