Smoky Mountain National Park

Hi All

Today we took a drive into the park. We have done this trip several times over the years, but it was kind of a quiet day and we wanted to go for a ride. The biggest changes over the years have been the development of the village of Pigeon Forge, which is on the North side of Gatlinburg. When we first started coming here Pigeon Forge was so small, you would miss it if you blinked. Now its several miles of wall to wall buildings of every type.

The drive thru the park was nice and on the South side at the visitor center is a farm, made of buildings that have been moved here from other places in the park. The pictures show why these are called the "smoky's".

Linda will be heading toward her Brother's new house in Virginia on Friday and I will be "bactching it" for a week.

If you can help me with instructions on how to download pictures from Picasa onto this blog I would appreciate it.

Jim and Linda

Knoxville

We left the rv dealer yesterday and drove on down to the Escapee park North of Knoxville. Its actually in Heiskell, Tn. We will be here for a while as Linda wants to visit with her brother who is moving to Virginia. They will meet us half way on the 4th, and I will drop Linda off and pick her back up on the 13th of October.

The park is the most crowded that we have ever seen it.....effects of the high fuel prices?
Her brother called today from Hickory NC and said that they had a lot of trouble getting gas, they went to several stations that were out! We have had no problems getting fuel, but maybe its coming..
Will spend some time with old friends while we are here.

keep in touch. If you cant post on theblog than send an email.

Jim and Linda

more bad news

Hi
We left Kentucky Horse Park campground this morning for a rv dealer in Lexington, Ky. They got us right in and said it would be a little while while they check things out. We went to a tire store and asked them to check the tire that was flat. They said it would take about two hours.
The rv dealer informed us that both grey water valves were bad and needed to be replaced and it would take two days to get them in.....not tooo bad. The good news is that less the $50 deductable, our insurance will cover the repairs.
The tire store called and said that our rim was cracked(I was suspecting this as there was no visible damage to the tire). They did not know how to locate one, so we went back to the rv dealer, who is a Holiday Rambler dealer, and they were able to find one in a warehouse, but it would take 7-10 days to get. The cost is $186 plus shipping.
We told them to order it and have it sent to their location and we would give them a ship to address. so we are back at Kentucky Horse Park for two more days waiting for the valves to get here.

I had expected the wheel to be in the $400 range, so was suprised at the cost.

We had hoped to be on our way to a corp of engineers park at lake Cumberlan today, but will have to wait a couple of days. Camping is a lot cheaper there ($10-11) compared to $22 here.

see ya

Jim and Linda

another bad day

Today started off real bad. I went out to dump the grey water and one of the valves broke in the open position. Luckly it was a grey water valve. While the tanks were draining I noticed one of the tires was very low. Called the emergency road service and someone finally showed up....without a jack, just our luck today. He left and came back with the jack and got the tire changed. He and I both looked at the tire and could not find any thing in it so I asked him to take it back to his shop and check things out. he came back with the tire inflated saying he could not find anything wrong. His idea is that some kid came by and partially deflated the tire....I supose that is a possiblilty. Put the tire up under the trailer in the spare position where I will check it over the next few days for leaks.
Moved down the road about 40 miles to a cheaper place to stay until Monday morning when we will go to a RV dealer in Lexington, Ky to get the valve worked on.

Jim

another bad day

lets catch you up

Hi Everyone

Lets play catch up.

We have spent the summer between ours sons house in Woodstock, Il. and my brothers house in South Bend, In.. While in the Illinois area we went camping with our old club "Des Plaines Valley Camping Club" which is celebrating its 50th anniverary this year! Spent time with lots of old friends and made some new friends. And, of course, our time with our kids and grandsons, snf out familys was the greatest!!!!!

We restarted our full time lifestyle on Sept. 15th, when we headed for Celina Ohio for a RV ralley. It was put on by the Gypsy Journal newspaper, which is a every other month paper designed and edited and printed by a very wonderful couple who have been full time rv'ers for almost 10 years... the rally was in Celina Ohio, and we traveled from South Bend with another couple who we met at the Empress Casino in Joliet, Il. back a month or so ago, Rose and Leroy Roloff. Leroy and Rose left Illinois on Saturday the 14th after 11 inches of rain fell in less than 48 hours. They had to back track and change road a number of times because of the flooding. I-94, I-80 and I-65N were closed due to the rain and they travel lots of different back roads, going less than 100 miles in over six hours!!!!

We had a great time at the rally which was from Sept 15th thru the 19th.....went to a few seminars, won a few door prizes and just enjoyed all the people, especially Rose and Leroy. We hope to hook up with them again in Tunica, Ms. at the casinos and spend several days in October.

We left Celina Friday morning, the 18th and headed South. I wanted to stop at the Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio as they have added some new exhibits since I last saw it....it was really great (look it up.... Air Force museusm in Dayton Ohio) I wanted to see the exhibit of the presidential planes which included the three main planes that have flow the presidents since FDR, and includes SAM26000, which is the plane that brought Kennedy back from Dallas and was the plane that Johnson was sworn in as president in.....they removed a bulkhead and some seats to make room for Kennedys casket and you can still see where they cut the bulkhead(wall) out!!!
It was a tremendous amout of walking and I went thru most of it pretty fast, as I had been there before and wanted to see specific things this time, including the presidential planes....sorry, but no pictures(you can go on the web site) If you have never seen a B-52, B-36, C-130, any of the stealth planes, a B-29, B-47....I could go on and on,......up close...it is amazing!!!! standing under the b-52 and looking up into the bomb bays is a humbling experience, believe me....

We left Dayton, which was under major road construction!!!!!including all the roads South. We are somewhere in Kentucky tonight.....after a very stressful afternoon of driving. I missed my turnoff three different times!!!!!!! and had to backtrack, including turning around on the four lane highway at the place where it says no turns, police only.

We will move onto the two lane highways tomorrow heading South, towards Knoxville, Tn.

We will keep you updated from now on, and our plan is to spend some time in Knoxville visiting with our good friends(and ex boss). Linda wants to spend some time with her brother who is moving to Virginia, and he has agreed to meet us halfway...but they are selling one house in North Carolina and closing on another house in Virgina, not too far from Washington D.C., so we will see how that goes.

Take care all of you, and PLEASE write when you can.

If you think someone else would like to read this blog, please send them our web address, we do not have the addresses of a lot of old friends and would like to get in touch with them, if you have their address.....

I am sending this out without pictures, but will send another email with a few pictures attatched later.

As usual.....
with love to all of ya

Jim and Linda