Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!
 I went to work this morning as a cat!

 This is me and one of my co-workers.  We are a little catty aren't we?
 This is the rest of the crew.  Aren't we cute.  I am sure you would want to come see us

This is Doug.  He didn't look like that today.  Our son added the "stash" to a photo and sent it to me today.  He looks extinguished doesn't he?
A day of fun for the kids and adults.  Hope you had a good and safe Halloween.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Went on a shopping spree

Drove into Little Rock today to do a little shopping.  I needed something to wear for Halloween at work.  I really didn't find anything that I wanted so I settled for make up to make my face up as a cat and I got some ears and a tail.  Going to have to do.  We then went to Home Depot looking for  a new shower stall.  I want to remove the bathtub and replace it with a shower.  I am good at tearing things up but not so good a putting it back together.  All of the 48" shower trays have the drain in the wrong place.  We may have to use the 60".  I was hoping to use that 12" to add a small cabinet.
Oh well. whatever.  Then we headed to Sam's for some fruit, fresh veggies, paper products and just stuff.  We came back with all that and a new Blend-tec.  It's a blender, ice cream maker, soup maker and juicer all built into one.  Makes smoothies too.
For the price it should take call in orders.  This is suppose to help you eat more fruits and veggies.  We'll see.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

The To do List

   Back home and things are back to normal, whatever that is.  Everyday life is kind of boring so I haven't written anything.  I can't believe that its almost November.  This year has passed by so fast.  Doug will send in his paperwork next month and everything will be "official" as far as his retirement is concerned.
I have a list of things that need to be done before our trip next year.
1.  the surge protector needs to be installed
2.  the roller on the slide needs to be replaced.
3. I need to clean the carpet again.  There are a few spots that keep coming back no matter what I do.  It looks like they come out but I guess there still is some kind of oil still there that attracts dirt and back they come.
4. Time for an oil change
I wish we were as talented as some of the bloggers that I read.  They could handle all of this to do list in no time.    The only one that I am sure we can handle by ourselves is the carpet cleaning.  The rest well.....  I do think that Doug is going to give the roller a try.  Let's hope he can fix it.  The oil change wouldn't be so hard but we don't have a container to hold that much used oil.  Well, we will start on the list next weekend. Not necessarily in that order.  I have room for another motor home if some one wants to stay at our "campground " and help.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

We are home!

We left Tunica around 11 today.  The weather was fine but as usual in this area, it was very windy.  Back in Arkansas is sure is hot and humid.  Time to put the coats and sweaters up for awhile.  Monday will be here way to soon and back to work we have to go.  It was a great week.
We heard some good music.
Saw some elk grazing in a field.

And beautiful mountains and streams.  Although we didn't get to see Nashville or ride in the Nascar go- karts, we had a wonderful time.  We will just have to go back again and stay longer.

I have to say that Zipping with Libbie was by far the best time EVER!

Friday, October 12, 2012

We are on the road again.

We left Loretta Lynn's Ranch this morning around  10:30.  We had a  good storm roll through during the night.  Lots of rain and lighting.  It sure makes for good sleeping though.
We had a nice site.  It included a deck with table and chairs.  Unfortunately because of the rain we didnt use it.
Right across from us was a General Store

 and a Laundry and Showers.
There was also a game room in this building.  A nice place really.  It was $36 a night for full hookups.
We had an uneventful trip to Tunica today.  We will spend the weekend here resting and then head for home.  This was a great week, just too short.  Makes me eager to retire.  I could get use to this lifestyle real quick!
We are sitting outside with our iPads, Macs and iPhones.  Jim says this is our ETime.  (Electronic Time).  He bought a new toy for his iPhone yesterday.  It is the new Bose Sound Link.  You tether your iPhone to this little square speaker that has more sound in it than you can imagine.  That's Bose for you.  I tethered my Mac Air to it and played my music for a couple of hours and it sure sounds good.  This might be a good christmas present.  :)
Its getting a little cool out here.  Time to go in and warm up.   We have had the heat on all week and when we got here this afternoon we opened all the windows it was so warm out.  Crazy weather.  Temps are dropping now.  It's more like we have had.... Night ya'll

Thursday, October 11, 2012

What a day!

We finally made it to Loretta Lynn's Ranch and Rv Park.  It only took us an extra hour and half to find it.  It seems that Jim and Libbie's Garman likes to go the long way around.  I wish now that I had taken some pictures, but I have to say that at the time, pictures were the last thing on my mind.  I knew we were going the wrong way as soon as we turned on the road.  It was narrow.  I just didn't realize that in reality, that part of the road was as good as it gets.  The further we went, the more  narrow the road got.  There were no shoulders, no place to turn around and very winding roads.  We twisted and turned for what seemed like 30 miles.  I called to Libbie.  "I don't think its going to get any better, this can't be the road."  "yes, just 4 more miles and it says we'll be there."  I took a deep breathe and Doug drove on.  Then horror of all horrors, there before us was a one lane very narrow bridge.  Will it hold us?  I am so nervous about this bridge that I didn't look ahead to what was on the other side!  A MOUNTAIN!
As soon as the bridge ended, the road made a hard left very very sharp! And what is on what should have been a shoulder?  A wall of rock!!! Keep in mind that both of our motor homes are almost 40' long and behind them are our toads.  Now remember this is a ONE LANE bridge.  We don't have the luxury of swinging wide.  The only place you could swing would be off the bridge.  We were mere inches from the rock wall and still had the car that had to clear the bridge.  This was horrible! I told Doug, I don't care where this road leads us but I'm not going back over that bridge.  Besides, it would be a right turn and right turns are a doozy even when you have two lanes.  I don't think we would still have a car behind us if we had tried a right turn.  Needless to say, as soon as we got to a straight bit of  road we stopped to regroup.  Now during all this time we hadn't seen any traffic.  Now that we stop to  regain our composure, there is suddenly traffic everywhere and we have the tiny road blocked.  Only good thing about that is that we had captive help.  We asked our captive audience how to get to the RV Park.  The one I asked said, turn around your way off.  The one Libbie asked said take this gravel road it will take you through the ranch property.  The last one happened to be a Game and Fish officer.  Yea!!! He not only told us how to go but led us there.   Yea we  made it!!!  Our hats off to the young man, he was our hero!  So what should have taken us 15 min and 7.7 miles from our turn off, took us through countryside that we never would have seen.  Places that really were pretty, if I had not been so worried, I would have enjoyed.  It was just another experience.  It was .....  well anyway, I'm tired and I am going to sleep late tomorrow, I think I deserve it.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Just wanted everyone to know I survived THE ZIPLINE!!!!

I needed to come back to the motorhome to freshen up, so I thought I'd let everyone know I am indeed alive and I did do all 7 zip lines at Fox Fire Mountain.  Yea me!!! I will post pics and even a movie later. Libbie wanted me to take her pic between lines and I was holding the camera trying to steady it and well, those that know me know thats near impossible on a good day.  Needless to say, one of the other zippers took the pic for her.  I am glad that I did it.  I had said no way and then watching some of the others do it I just told myself to "go for it".  Libbie was already headed to zip school.  She said when it came over the speaker that one more was coming, she couldnt believe that it was me.  Though I was scared, I am really glad that I did it and would do it again, maybe.
This was before my first zip.  Boy was I scared.
Libbie is the brave one.  She was ready to zip!
This was Jacob the hound dog.  He loved following all the vehicles around, barking the whole time.  I wondered why he was so thin when I first saw him.  He runs all the time.  Up and down the mountain! He sure loved it though.  He had a couple of little friends that would join him every once in a while.  But those two dogs were so small they didn't last as long as Jacob.
This is me coming in on one of the last lines.  The hardest part was stopping! I was trying to slow down.
We survived!
After resting a little bit we were going to drive the cars at the Nascar racetrack but we all so tired from the last few days that we just checked out some more stores and different parts of the area and then headed for supper.
This was the Old Mill General Store.   Tomorrow we head toward Nashville.



Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Busy day today

What a great day we had today.  We left early this morning and headed across the Great Smoky Mountains.  Boy were they pretty.
The higher we went the more color we saw.  There was a stream that followed the highway that hand some fly fisherman out there trying their luck.
We stopped at an old mill that had been built in the late 1800's and had been restored in 1933.
Doug and Jim took their time in the old mill until they had it all figured out exactly how the mill worked and just how to build another one.  The original one cost $600 to build.  That was alot of money back then.
It was very pretty and peaceful there at the mill.  We left there and headed up the mountain.  It wasn't long before we crossed state lines.
Here is Doug standing on the state line. Notice the fog behind him.  It was getting real thick by the time we headed down the mountain.  We saw one wild turkey and a small herd of elk grazing on the side of the road.  When I first saw them at a distance I thought they were horses.  LOL  My first thought was, Oh dear, all those horses have gotten out and are going to get hit by the cars.

Wish that I had a zoom camera so that you could see them better.  I didn't get a pic of the turkey.
When we got off the mountains, we went into Gaitlinburg.  This was on the main drag.  The song, Save a Horse, Ride a cowboy, was playing.  It was real cute.  After walking up and down the entire main drag (which took half the day), we decided to eat at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co.  It was real good.
We finished off the day by stopping at the Leather outfitters.  After trying on lots of hats, Doug got this one.
I think he looks distinguished!  It's been a long day and we have another busy one planned for tomorrow.  Libbie is going to Zip thru the trees.  I think I will just watch.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Woke up to rain

The rain caught up with us this morning.  Woke up to overcast day and 46 degrees.  Glad I brought cold weather clothes.  We did leave our chairs outside.  Oops.

Off to an adventure, will check in later.
5:00
We went shopping at the Tanger Outlet Mall since it was raining.  This mall is so much better than the Tanger in Branson.  It has a lot more stores and is alot bigger.  I found goodies at the Journeys and Gap stores.  (I bought me some UGGS)  Then we headed over to grab a bite to eat at Five Guys Burgers.
Sorry the picture is blurry.  But believe me it was sure good.  After eating we went over to Harley Davidson shop and I picked me out one.  This 3 wheeler model was only $35000.00!

Libbie found her one that she thought was her size.
Since Jim already has one, he bought him some shirts.  Doug couldn't decide on just one so he didn't choose.
Then we stopped at The Christmas store and Libbie bought another Mark Roberts christmas elf.  Didn't get a pic.  It was real cute though. Maybe I can find one and post it.  Hers is all wrapped up for travel.
Our last stop was the Art and Craft Fair they were having.  Only thing we found that we couldn't resist was a silver cleaner.  I know, but really that was the only thing that I thought I couldn't live without.
Even though it was a rainy day, we managed to have a good time and spend the guys money. What more can you ask?

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Day 3 Pigeon Forge

We finally made it! It is really pretty here and there is lots of things to see and do.  I already know that I don't have enough time.
That's Jim and Libbie pulling into the campground ahead of us.  We are at Bear Cove RV Resort.
After we got settled in we decided to ride around and take a look at the surrounding area.   I wish that I could have gotten a better picture of this church. It was so big and ornate.  Notice all the brass on the domes.  This was so pretty.
We rode into Gaitlinburg to get a feel for what we want to see and do first. Looks like we will have a full day tomorrow.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Stop 2 Lebanon Tn

It was a beautiful drive today.  After a storm blew through last night the temp dropped 25 degrees.  By the time we get to the mountains it might be snowing!
We made it to our campground early enough to go into Lebanon to take alook around.  This quaint little town is known for its antique shops.  It is suppose to be the Antique capital of Tn.   Downtown is a square and all the shops had been turned into some sort of antique store or little knick knack store.
These rock looking things were civil war bullets.  They were very heavy.  Some were still recognizable as bullets but most just looked like round rocks with a blunt end.  The weight of them is what really surprised me.
After walking the square we made a quick stop at Walmart and then went to eat.  The locals had recommended Demos'.  It is a Steak and Spaghetti House.  I never would have come up with that combination.  They are well known in the area for their food and excellent service.  I must say that I agree with the recommendation.  It was delicious!  I had the lasagne, Libbie and Jim had spaghetti and Doug ate steak, of course.
We look forward to arriving at Pigeon Forge tomorrow.  We can't decide what to do first.  I have tried to vote down the hot air balloon ride.   Doesn't sound fun to me at all.

Friday, October 5, 2012

First stop Lakeland Tn




We are staying our first night at Memphis east campground.

 After getting set up we went to the Texas roadhouse to celebrate my birthday.  The steak was good the company even better.  After eating of course they came to our table to announce to everyone that it was my 29th birthday!  I don't know where they got that number.  I think I did tell them that I was celebrating the 32nd anniversary of my 29th birthday.  I guess they just didn't hear me.  They brought a saddle on a saw horse for me to climb on to.  Yes I did climb in the saddle and holler YeeHawwwww with them.   The things you will do when your out of town and no one knows you!
It started to rain and the temp dropped from mid 70's to 57!  We went back to Jim and Libbie's  motor home where We were going to have egg custard pie with a candle of course, but everyone was too full to enjoy it.  We will wait til tomorrow.  they then gave me a gift bag with a candle, cookbook and travel journal.  Great gift!!!


Can't forget the custard pie


By this time I was ready to head back to our motorhome.  We weren't there long when we got call from son Brian.  I called him back so that we could FaceTime.  my son and grandaughter wished me a happy birthday and Ashlynn showed me a fairy star she made.
It has indeed been a good day.  My youngest son started my day off by calling me to wish me happy birthday,then my boss let me off early and now tonight.  What more can one ask for.
I'll post pics later.  It's time for some sleep and to get ready for another day, on the road again!

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Twas the Night before!

Twas the night before we leave for Tennessee
And I'm as excited as I can be..
I 've loaded the camper with everything we need.
to have a good time, be comfortable and feed.
We've planned out our trip and everyone agrees
to hike through the mountains and zip through the trees.
On Doug, on Jim, on Libbie let's go!
Ride away, slide away, I'm ready lets tow! tow! tow!



Looking forward to seeing the mountains with all the beautiful fall colors!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Annual Spaghetti Supper

Tonight we went to the annual Spaghetti Supper at the catholic church here in town.  They have had this fund raiser for as long as I can remember.


 We saw several fellow RV'ers there tonight. Some cooking and some eating.

 Generous portions of delicious Spaghetti and meatballs and german slaw.  I am too full to load anything in the RV tonight.
I checked the weather again and I think I better throw in some long johns.  It might get chilly at night .

Got to tell you about my morning.
   I have my alarm clock set to wake me up with a local radio station.  I woke up and was laying there listening to the "morning show" when the announcer says " its 8:00.  I think, he's got it wrong again, He has before. I turn and look at the clock and it says 7:00.  Yep, he's wrong, he'll correct himself in a minute.  I lay there leisurely listening to the music and think about what I want to wear.  The music stops and the announcer says, it's 8:15. "What! "  he didn't correct himself!  I look over at Doug's alarm clock and it says 8:15!   Somehow, probably me hitting the snooze button and missing, I hit the daylight savings time button and turned it off.  Lost an hour.  Bummer.  I didn't think I could move that fast anymore. I made it to work before 9:00.  Don't ask how I looked and if I had any makeup on.  My hair didn't look too good either, but hey, I was there.

Monday, October 1, 2012

The countdown is on!

I started loading the motorhome yesterday.  I think if I load a little each day it won't be so bad.  I have made my menu and stocked up on the items needed.  I don't think I will be doing alot of cooking on this trip.  Breakfast and lunch mostly.
  I was just reading a post from Karen and Al and they are in North Carolina now doing some hiking in the Blue Ridge mountains.  It is beautiful and the colors are beginning to change on all the trees.  I noticed that they were wearing shorts in some of the pictures and now I'm not real sure just what I should be taking to wear.  Even though we are going to a different state, we are still going to be in the Blue Ridge Mountains and close enough that the weather should be the same.  I loved the pics she posted and it gets me excited and ready to leave.  I don't know how much hiking I will be doing.
Check out their blog.  http://florida-georgiacamping.blogspot.com