Thanksgiving Celebration

Prior to our Thanksgiving celebration, we spent a couple of afternoon visiting with Janetta and Tessa, and exploring Rockcastle County.

Tom and I browsed through the shops in the little artist village in Berea, KY.  We’ve driven by so many times as we travelled north or south on I-75, but this was our first time stopping and visiting the area.

We found several really cute shops, and picked up a few gifts.  Another day, Janetta took Tom out on their gator to explore their property, while I visited with the cows and took pictures of the barn.

I dodged the cowpatties in the back pasture, and went out to get a closer look at the cows – and some pictures!

I think they were a little confused about why I was out there with them!

The little calf was so cute – peeking out from behind its mama!

Janetta has so many interesting things around to capture in photographs!

Thursday was a beautiful day – warm and sunny!

Bryan had gotten home from Virginia on Wednesday, as did their son, Tristan, from college.  We would be joining the four of them, along with Janetta’s parents and uncle, for their Thanksgiving celebration.

I had made an apple pie to bring with us.

There was a huge selection of food,

and nobody went hungry!

Dinner was delicious, and the company was great – we’re so grateful to have been included in their celebration!

That’s one of the best things about this lifestyle -- as we travel the country, we continue to meet new people, and often even just a short interaction with someone will result in a lifelong friendship!

After cleaning up the dishes, Tom and I went for a drive with Bryan and Janetta to Climax Spring.  It’s a natural spring flowing out of the mountain, and a local company actually has a bottling operation at the site.

This spring has supplied drinking water to the locals for 100 years, so part of the arrangement that allowed bottling of the water also stated that free public access to the water had to remain. 

While we were there, several people came with water tanks and empty gallon jugs to get their water to take home, and there was a young girl having her senior pictures being taken in front of the waterfall.

It is a very picturesque area, so we took the opportunity to get some pictures, too, while we waited for our turn to get some water.

The old corn crib,

a pretty barn across the street,

and selfie opportunities in front of the waterfall.

We got our own selfie with Janetta and Bryan in the background while they took their own.

When it was our turn, we took our red solo cups over to the water pipe, and each got a cup of fresh, cold, mountain spring water!

Mmmmm . . . we feel younger already!

It was a great day spent with wonderful friends!  We’re so thankful!

From Grandma's to Grandpa's

Tonight's blog is an experiment.  I've always used Picasa for my photo editing, and LiveWriter for blogging, but Google is no longer supporting Picasa and I like the idea of having all my photos backed up on in Google Photos.  I recently read a series of blog posts highlighting the benefits of Google Photos and writing directly in Blogger, so I thought I'd give it a try.

• All of tonight's photos were taken with my phone and backed up to Google Photos -- I must say I do like the ease of accessing phone photos from my computer this way; much easier than emailing them to myself, or connecting the phone with a USB cord.  It also solves the problem of how to get the occasional photo that I take with my work phone.
• I did all of my photo editing in Google photos -- it works, but I'm not sure I'm completely sold on it.
• I am writing this blog in the Blogger Editor.

OK, on with the blog post . . .

From our overnight stop in Alabama, we continued north on I-65, through Tennessee and into Kentucky.  Traffic was a little heavy, but by starting out from northern Alabama, we were ahead of most of the returning spring breakers so didn't encounter any major backups.  We had been warned against taking I-65 through Louisville, but on the map it didn't look that bad -- clearly an easier drive than through Nashville, so we didn't take that advice . . . and continued north on I-65.

The drive through Kentucky was fine, until we got within about 15 miles of our destination -- then the wind really picked up!  Oh my goodness . . . I was SO glad we didn't have to go much further in that wind -- it was crazy, and I felt like we were going to be blown off the road!

We arrived safely at Grandma's RV Park in Shepherdsville, KY . . . although the driveway entrance was a little tricky!

We quickly got set up on a pull-thru site, and headed into town to go to mass and get some dinner.

Returning to the RV Park, we were greeted with this site across from our RV.

These poor people - we felt so bad for them!  Their truck and RV were new and they already had a broken back window (the RV broke the truck window on a tight turn -- short bed truck), and now this!

Luckily, the RV wasn't hurt too bad -- a small hole in the roof, and some scratches in the paint.  The truck had a dent in the hood.

The wind continued to batter us most of the night, but fortunately there were no more casualties.

We woke up to chilly morning temperatures and got back on the road, hoping that traffic would be light through Louisville on a Sunday morning.  

Ugh!  Louisville was horrible!  The biggest problem was the construction -- traffic wasn't bad at all -- and my crazy iPhone telling us to be in the wrong lane . . . and we all know how easy it is to make lane changes in a big rig!  So, we ended up getting on I-71 rather than staying on I-65, and had to go a couple miles out of our way to get turned around and back on the correct highway.

With that challenge behind us, we were in Indiana . . . and on the absolute worst roads we have ever driven on!! We thought things might improve once we got around Indianapolis and switched to I-70, and they did for a few miles . . . but then they got worse!  We could not wait to get off the interstate, and were relieved to reach Grandpa's Farm Campground in Richmond, IN.

It was pretty quiet in the campground, with only two other occupied campers.  It's a little early for camping in Indiana!

Richmond looked like it might be an interesting little town, but we didn't really feel like getting in the car and going anywhere . . . that's what 3 solid days of driving will do to you!

Bryce had to work on a report for his Technical Writing class, so Tom and I took a walk around the campground.

The sites in the back of the park, along the river, are nice -- just 30 amp and water, though.

It looks like a beautiful day, but it was only about 55 degrees -- I know, that sounds balmy to somebody who spent the winter up north, but for somebody who was on the beach in 80 degree weather just a few days ago, it was downright chilly!

Tom found a bridge over the river.

We weren't sure why they built it so tall . . . 

or why it had that slight curve in the center, but Tom was brave enough to climb it.  It wobbled quite a bit, so I didn't follow him!

He came back across, and we continued our walk . . . 

and spotted some goats grazing on the opposite bank.

We weren't sure who they belonged to, but they were cute with their floppy ears!

I guess they add to the farm aspect of the campground!

It was a nice little park, although the sites are close together and the roads are narrow.  It was fine for an overnight stop in the off-season, but I don't think I'd want to try to maneuver around here when it's full.

One more driving day on Monday -- a short one, though -- and then we get to stay put for several days while we get some work done on the RV.

Oh, my final thoughts on the experiment . . . I like using Google Photos, but I'm still not sold on the Blogger editor -- I don't like the fact that I need to be online to write the blog and edit the photos, and I'm just more comfortable with the formatting available in LiveWriter.  For now, I think I'll probably stay with my old method of blogging.

Headed North!

We said good-bye to our friends and the great state of Georgia, and started heading north towards the mountains.  Our destination was London, KY for the night, and we were having a great travel day.  The weather was good, traffic was light, and then, about 20 miles from the Kentucky border, I thought I heard a “Pop!”, and then a flapping noise.  Tom thought it was just the truck in front of us rolling over the rumble strips on the side of the road, but then Bryce came up alongside us, motioning us over to the shoulder.

Oh, no . . . not again!

Luckily, there was a nice wide shoulder on I-75 and we could get the RV safely pulled off the highway.  This time it was a blow-out on one of the RV tires, and at least it was on the curb side.

I was going to call AAA, but Tom thought he and Bryce could take care of it faster than it would take them to arrive.

The tire was torn up pretty good, and wrapped around the axle, but luckily it didn’t do any damage to the RV!

Tom and Bryce got to work, and got the old tire off, after cutting it away from the axle.

 

Getting the old tire off wasn’t too much trouble, but getting the new one on was a bit of a challenge!    

 

Bryce got the spare down and aired it up, which turned out to be a mistake . . . they could not get the RV jacked up high enough to put the new tire on when it was full of air!

 

 

He ended up letting all the air back out of it, and they kept struggling with the jack until the got just enough height to get the new tire on!

We did figure out that our outside plugs run off the inverter . . . that was a bonus, so we didn’t even have to fire up the generator to run the air compressor!

With the tire change complete, we were back on the road in about an hour!  Not too bad!

We crossed into Kentucky, and made it safely to our destination – Day Bros. RV Center, where we were going to spend the night while we toured some of the motorhomes they had on their lot.

They shuffled some RVs around to make room for us, and we got hooked up to water and electric.

It was getting late when we arrived, so our first order of business was to find a tire store to put a new tire on our wheel.  The RV salesman we were working with called around and found a place that had the right tire, and Tom & Bryce headed right over there!

By the time they got back, it was almost dinner time and the dealership was getting ready to close.  The salesman gave us the code for the gate, in case we wanted to go out, and a ring of master keys to get us into all of the RVs on their lot.  He told us to take our time and look through anything we wanted, and he would see us in the morning!

So, after dinner, we did just that – we wandered around and looked at all of the diesel motorhomes, until it got too dark to see well.  There was just one motorhome that we couldn’t get unlocked . . . and that was one we wanted to see!  In the morning, we met up with the salesman and he let us in that last motorhome . . . and it had a lot of potential!

We ended up talking and talking and talking . . . and took it for a test drive . . . and then talked some more . . . and they gave us an appraisal on our truck and RV . . . and it looked even more promising!

It got so late that we ended up staying for a 2nd night in their parking lot, with the keys to that motorhome so we could spend some more time going through it!

By the time we left the next day, we had given them a deposit on the motorhome and a long list of “issues” that would need to be addressed and corrected in order for us to complete the transaction.

Here’s just a teaser glimpse . . . more to follow later!

From Kentucky, we decided to drive all the way to Shipshewana so we could spend the weekend there, before going to Mor-RYDE on Monday for our appointment.

We took I-75 into Ohio,

and then backroads to Shipshewana, where we pulled into the Shipshewana South Campground just before the office closed at 5pm.

We got set up, and spent the evening relaxing . . . with the windows open for the first time in months!

We always enjoy the neighbors and the view when we’re here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we were done with our shopping, we took a drive over to the campground where two of my sisters have seasonal sites, and we spent the evening with them, enjoying a nice campfire.

On Sunday after mass, we moved the RV over to Camp Mor-RYDE . . .a whole 20 mile drive!

After we got settled, we contacted fellow RV-Dreamers Walt & Tina through facebook and made plans to meet for dinner in Elkhart.  We met at a little pizza place, where we enjoyed a nice dinner and got caught up on each others’ travels since we last saw each other in Marion, NC.

We thought our Monday appointment wasn’t until mid-morning, but they were knocking at our door at 6am on Monday morning!  We quickly got up and got the RV hitched up to the truck, and Bryce backed it into the garage!!  He did a really good job – got it in the garage on the first try!

We were here just to have our suspension, brakes and pin-box checked out, but on the way north from Georgia, we had discovered that the integrated brake controller in the Chevy truck did not communicate at all with the electric over hydraulic disc brakes on the RV . . . so we drove the entire way back with no trailer brakes!

Fortunately, Mor-RYDE had an adaptor they could install that would make the brakes with our truck, so they installed that as well as fixing a brake line that had apparently gotten pinched by the tire that blew out on our way up.

By 8:30am, they were done, and we got ready to hit the road.  We had originally planned to spend one more night, but since it was so early there was no point in hanging around.

We had another good travel day, and by noon we had returned to our home state of Michigan.

We arrived at Camp Lord Willing in Monroe about an hour later, and got settled on the site that we will call home for the next couple months.  It’ll be nice to be stationary for awhile!