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After sitting in the same place for 4 months (the longest we have stayed in the same place since the beginning of the pandemic), it was time for a mini vacation in Hilton Head, South Carolina. We had made reservations at the Hilton Head Motorcoach Resort at one of our favorite sites, #214. This place has extra special meaning to us as it’s the first place we ever took an RV to camp when we rented one back in 2017. We have returned every year since then, making it our most visited campground.

This park is very well forested and landscaped with huge live oaks covered with Spanish moss. Each site is individually owned and most have been upgraded with pavers, furniture and other hardscape improvements. Our site was at the back of a loop with no site on one side which makes it extra spacious. Most of our time there we had excellent weather.

After relaxing at our site for a day, we headed over to the town of Bluffton on March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day, to see what was going on. The visitor center was not open (only by appointment??) but we enjoyed walking around the grounds before heading over to the weekly farmers market (where we forgot to take any pictures). We found some great veggies and other delights before heading on to walk around the town and enjoy some of the sites before finding a place for a late lunch.

Realizing it was St. Patrick’s Day weekend, we made sure Lola was showing the right colors at night

Every day we would ride our bikes around the resort, covering 2 miles each trip. Since we were camped during March Madness, we also took advantage of the great weather to watch some games outside.

Our next adventure took us to the Coastal Discovery Museum right on Hilton Head Island. This encompasses a large parcel of land that used to be a plantation and still has some of the buildings from that timeframe. The main house has been turned into the museum where you can learn all about the history of the island as well as the inhabitants. There is also info on the flora and fauna of the area. We enjoyed a quiet walk along the trails which included views of the marshes and a camellia garden.

Some people may know that Hilton Head is very big for golfers. In fact, they hold a PGA tour at Sea Pines Plantation every year. There are many golf courses scattered across the island and over the bridge on the mainland. We decided we couldn’t spend two weeks on the island and not partake in the sport so one nice afternoon, we decided to play a round of 18 holes. It was a tough course but Jill and Dan remained neck and neck with the score thru all 18 holes. However, Dan stumbled on the back 9 and Jill ended up victorious by one stroke. It was a great but exhausting day given the fact that we walked the whole course, no golf carts used! Luckily, we found a great watering hole to recover after the grueling round of golf.

Daufuskie Island Day Trip:

As many times as we have visited Hilton Head, we have never taken the time to visit Daufuskie Island. This is an island rich in Gullah history that has remained somewhat isolated from the modern world due to the fact that no bridge connects it with the mainland. The only way to reach the island is via one of the ferry services that make the 45-60 minute ride several times a day. We opted to rent our own golf cart on the island and tour at our leisure.

During the Civil War, plantation owners and slaves fled Daufuskie Island as Union Troops occupied the island. Once the war ended, the Gullah people (freed slaves) returned to the island to work in oyster canneries and the logging industry. Life was often hard, made more so by being cut off from the mainland, and as a result Daufuskie Island’s residents grew to create a close-knit, tightly bonded community that crossed racial lines—a rarity for the time.

Eventually, pollution closed the oyster beds in the 1950s and the island’s economy faltered and by the 1980s the Gullah population had dwindled from over 2,000 to roughly 60. Around this time developers started making plans to make Daufuskie Island a residential development destination and Bloody Point, Melrose, Haig Point, and Oakridge were born. Despite this newfound progress and development, the island’s historic district has remained untouched to preserve the Gullah culture and today the entire island is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Rice and cotton were the traditional crops found on plantations throughout the Carolina Lowcountry. And the cotton grown on Daufuskie Island—Sea Island cotton—was considered to be the best in the world. In fact, Sir Ian Flemming wrote that 007 himself preferred Sea Island cotton shirts. The cotton was originally harvested and tended to by slaves from West Africa.

The Gullah language is a legacy of the original slaves and later laborers who remained once the plantations folded. The Lowcountry was remote until the mid-20th century, but add the isolation of an island and it created the perfect climate for the language and manners of the Gullah people to remain remarkably well preserved. The language is a colorful and rhythmic blend of West African and rural English dialect that is becoming increasingly rare to hear.

Local metal working artist

Our trusty transportation and driving around the island – typical road.

The remainder of the week was spent relaxing, riding bikes and not doing much of anything. On one of our last days, we returned to one of our favorite restaurants which happens to be within a short bike ride of the resort. The restaurant is called Lowcountry Backyard and literally has an outdoor area like someone’s backyard. We have visited this place every time we have visited since 2017. Ironically, on this visit we sat at the same table and Jill was wearing the same jacket and similar shirt (she swears it is not the same) from 2017. You can check out the two picks below and decide which one is from now and which one is five years old. A hint – Dan thinks she looks even better now than 5 years ago 😉

On March 29th, we headed back to our regular hang out in Dallas, Georgia to spend some time visiting and preparing for our next adventure. On April 25th, we’ll be heading out on a 2-month trip. We’ll leave you with a picture of our newest shirt as a hint to the itinerary.

September 22nd started rather dreary as we departed Georgia, heading to the gulf coast via a stop outside of Montgomery for a couple of days. As we drove south and west, the weather cleared and we found ourselves enjoying a nice fall day when we arrived at a COE campground just west of Montgomery. You might wonder why we made a stop on the way to our destination. As full timers, we try not to have to be in a rush anywhere and thus we operate by “The Rule of Two’s”. This means we try to do the follow:

1. Drive no more than 200 miles in a day
2. Arrive at campsite by 2 PM local time
3. Spend at least 2 nights at a campsite

This means we don’t have to push too much, get tired, make mistakes, etc. Thus, we decided to stop halfway to Orange Beach for no other reason than the Rule of Two’s.

After this short stop, it was on to the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area for 7 days. We were happy to return to a campground we had visited back in the spring of 2019, Buena Vista RV Resort. Our site included brick pavers, a view of the lake, a covered kitchen area and furniture to enjoy the outdoor views. They also have a wonderful pool with winding river.

We spent most of the week relaxing at our site but did spend part of one day locating and exploring one of Alabama’s stranger sights. Evidently, there is a very rich man by the name of George Barber who has built a very nice marina near Gulf Shores (he also built a racetrack and motorcycle museum near Birmingham) and he decided to use some of his money to populate the road to the marina with various roadside attractions including several dinosaurs and a partial replica of England’s Stonehenge (because I always think of dinosaurs and prehistoric English monuments when visiting southern Alabama).

Bamahenge, as it’s called sits back from the road in a clearing so you have to know what you are looking for as it is hard to see from the road. We were very disappointed to find it is actually built of fiberglass, not stone.

After our visit to Bamahenge, we continued down the road in search of dinosaurs. When you search the internet for info, it says they are “dinosaurs in the woods” but we soon discovered that most of them are in clear view from the roadside. Only one was truly set back in the woods and due to recent rain, wasn’t really reachable from the road.

Back at camp, Jill was grilling another one of her delicious meals when a local “dinosaur” swam over to see if he could get any handouts…

On October 1, we headed east about 60 miles back into Florida to spend 1 1/2 months at one of our favorite places, Navarre. Emerald Beach RV Park is a relatively small park that sits directly on Santa Rosa Sound, looking out to Navarre Beach. During our stay, we visited with others who make this an annual visit, some staying as long as 6 months during the winter. When we arrived it was still pretty warm, nice pool or beach weather. By the time we departed on November 14th, we’d had some temps down into the 30’s!

Not a lot of activity to report for this portion of our travels. Days were spent walking, bike riding, chatting with neighbors, relaxing, reading, napping, etc. We visited the beach a few times although during our last visit we were chased away by sand flies! We also visited the pier on Navarre Beach which is billed as one of the longest public piers at 7,890 feet in length. We enjoyed the walk, saw a dolphin and a lot of stingrays along the way.

Our other favorite activity was eating seafood, which we tried to do as often as time and budget would permit. It seems most of our pics were taken at one of our many lunches. Below are various views from our tables along the way.

After getting our fill of seafood and sunny days, we reluctantly headed back to the Atlanta area on November 14th. As usual, we had several doctor and other visits to complete (hair cuts!!!) but also spent a few days with the grand girls of course 🙂

As we wrap up this blog, we’ve experienced our first below freezing night and woke up to find our water hose had frozen up. All of our internal pipes are fine but since we are running a 100 foot hose outside to the water spigot, enough of it got exposed long enough to freeze up. Looks like it’s time to order a heated water hose!

But, not to worry too much. Our much awaited “vacation” fast approaches. We’ll soon be flying to Miami to start a 14-day Caribbean cruise. Stay tuned on Facebook for pics and we’ll have a special blog dedicated to our trip when we get back.

Wishing everyone a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving!

Our last post left you/us hanging in Fort Wayne awaiting final return of Lola 2. We checked out of the house on Friday, and headed to Decatur to see what was the latest. When we arrived, the coach was nowhere to be seen, evidently still in the shop even though we had told them we’d be coming over Friday AM to get the rig. Latest update was they were still working on the body damage around the step area (even though they had told us it would be done in plenty of time). We were told it would be ready “soon” but couldn’t tell us when. Jill decided to stay at the service center and do some laundry (in addition to free electric, they also provide free laundry machines) while Dan headed back to Fort Wayne to pick up Adele.

Upon his return and after lunch break, we checked with our advisor and were told they had gotten the new grill in and were now installing that! We were happy it had arrived but again, surprised no one seemed to know about it when we checked in the AM. Long story short, we got the rig back and even were able to take it over to a truck tire dealer to have a tire checked out that had been slashed. They measured and confirmed it was just a “flesh wound”, not deep at all and no risk to the integrity of the tire (yeah, some good news!). Friday evening, we settled back into the rig and got ready to make our escape from Indiana on Saturday AM.

Due to spending an extra week in Indiana, we had to make some changes to our planned itinerary. There had also been some flooding in one area we had planned to camp so we shifted plans accordingly. Our first stop was near the small town of Moorehead, KY. This was a new RV Park and we were only staying for two nights in order to get back on schedule. We were so tired from all the moving, the long drive (about 6 hours), and just the stress of dealing with repairs that we really didn’t do anything at this stop, not even take a picture of our site (a first since we started this blog!).

Monday, August 23rd, we headed out for our next stop, Kairos “Resort” sitting on the VA/WVA border near the town of Princeton, WVA. Note that I put the word “resort” in quotes. We’ve learned that campgrounds take much liberty in the use of this word but still, we usually expect to see a few upgrades at a place with this title. Well, that must not be the case when in West Virginia. We should have known things were a little sketchy when we turned onto a very small country road that soon turned to a rutted dirt road. Given it hadn’t rained in awhile, the back of Lola and all of Lolita were soon caked in a heavy layer of dust as we plodded along trying to avoid the worst of the pot holes. After about 2 miles, we came to the entrance and a very steep paved road (not for long) up the mountain to the “resort”. After another mile leaving a dust trail visible to the astronauts on the Space Station, we finally arrived for check in. They were nice enough to allow us to use a nearby hose to rinse off Lolita enough that we could see out the windows to drive the car!

They allowed us to select our site from a list that would be empty the whole week of our stay. And in fairness, our site was very nice, level, with some good tree cover.

The campground was pretty empty with the few occupied sites being filled by long-term renters, most with ATV’s or dirt bikes. And that is REALLY what the resort is about. They evidently have tons of trails that are wonderful for off roading adventures. During the week, things were pretty quiet. Come the weekend, the place was invaded by scores of trucks and trailers and the forest was filled with the sounds of engines. Other than that, not much in the way of amenities to make it a resort.

We got out to explore several times while in the area. We will admit that they area is very beautiful with mountains and rivers and trails all over. One very large river in the area is the New River. And up the road from us was the New River Gorge and Bridge. We took a day to explore the area. This included driving over the bridge that is still one of the highest in the world at over 800 feet above the river. We checked out views of the bridge and then took an old road that goes down under the bridge, eventually crossing the New River at the bottom of the gorge.

While down at river level, we stopped for a picnic lunch and then ventured to the now mostly deserted town of Thurmond. Back in the early 1900’s this was one of the richest cities in the Virginias due to the amount of coal and other mining that was done in the area. The town had several major rail lines that converged to ensure freight could get out of the gorge as needed. Today, it is preserved as part of the newest National Park in the system.

We always enjoy observing the various rules and practices and how they vary across the great country we live in. We have observed in the past that one of the most interesting things to experience are the variety of different rules and laws around purchasing beer, wine and hard liquor. In the state of Indiana, they seem to have gotten one thing right – you can buy all of the above at one place and that’s a grocery store. In almost every other state we have visited, you have to go somewhere else to get hard liquor. But even within the state of Indiana, the rules change as you travel across the state. For instance, in the southern areas, it appears that they just put it all in the store and let you buy and check out in the front along with all your other groceries. But up north in the Fort Wayne area, they may have hard liquor in the grocery stores but they have it in a section in the middle of the store and you have to go in and buy your liquor separately, get the bag sealed and labeled and then you can continue with your other groceries (including buying your beer and wine).

In contrast, West Virginia seems to have a different concern. To get liquor in that state, you’ll have to go to a special store that sells liquor. That’s not the odd part though. The odd part is if you go into the local Walmart and head to the pharmacy area looking for shaving cream, you’ll see that there is a section in the middle where you have to go in and buy it separately, get the bag sealed and labeled and then you can continue with the rest of your Walmart shopping (including buying your beer and wine). So, in Indiana, they may be worried about people stealing (or buying illegally) liquor but in West Virginia it’s all about safeguarding the shaving cream….

Our next stop was the town of Elkin, NC. This is a cute little town on its own but is also not too far from the city of Mt. Airy. And Mt. Airy is famous for one of its former residents – Andy Griffith. Mt. Airy is also the town that Mayberry was modeled after and thus, the city has taken on the look and feel of what Mayberry might have been like. Although none of the Andy Griffith Show was actually filmed in the area (all filmed on the lot in California), several famous locations have been recreated to give it even more of a Mayberry feel. This includes several police cars that look like the ones that Andy and Barney drove, a recreation of Wally’s Service Station, and a recreation of the City Hall/Sheriff’s office/Jail.

There is also a museum dedicated to everything Andy so we stopped there to absorb some more history.

Oh, and in case you didn’t know, the Andy Griffith theme song that opens the show actually has lyrics, not just whistling… Here’s the link so you can get it stuck in your head.

Next stop on our return to reality was just outside Clemson, SC near Lake Hartwell. We had no idea that we happened to schedule this stop on the Labor Day Weekend of the UGA/Clemson game and at first were worried that it would be crazy at the campground given we were only 17 miles from campus but we soon realized the game was being played in Charlotte and most campers were families so no drunken crazy campers that weekend!

We splurged for a patio site which includes a deck and furniture. At KOA’s, especially the older ones, many sites can be in pretty bad shape (not level, tight to get into, close together, etc.) so we figured this would ensure a better site. Upon arrival, we laughed at the site as it was set up just for a Clemson fan (which we are NOT).

Our only excursion at this stop was to a working goat farm nearby. We visited with some of the residents and even bought some goat cheese!

On Sunday, September 5th (over the Labor Day Weekend) we completed our trip, arriving back at the Garrett’s property. As always, our time in the Atlanta would be filled with doctor appointments with a few visits with friends and kids thrown in.

That brings you up to date on our latest travels. Still no working dishwasher or entry steps…We depart for Orange Beach and then Navarre on September 22nd for a month and a half on the gulf. Looking forward to lots of fresh seafood and sea breezes.

August arrived and found us outside of Nashville, TN at a nice park with sites right on the lake. We enjoyed the outdoors considering it cooled down nicely during out stay.

We also caught up with Jill’s 2nd cousin, Casey and had lunch on the lake (plus her first time ever seeing our home on wheels!). The only excursion we made was to do the obligatory visit to the Opryland Hotel. We were amazed that they charge $29 to park at the hotel but we found a cheat where you can park at the Opry Mills Mall next store for free and sneak in the back!

We wandered around the inside of the hotel, enjoying the views of the various areas but after less than an hour, we’d had enough. It is pretty, nice gardens and a river with a river boat cruise, but not really of big interest to us. But at least we could tick it off our bucket list!

Our next stop was across the Ohio River from Louisville, on the Indiana border. We camped at the nice quiet state park of Charlestown. Not much around but the park itself is huge with many hiking trails and much of it borders to river.

One day started cool enough that we decided to try a 3 mile hike to Rose Island. The hike in is pretty easy and includes walking down a paved path from the bluffs above to the river. The challenge was coming back up with a steep half mile climb out of the river gorge.

Rose Island is actually a peninsula of land on the Indiana side of the Ohio River. This land was developed in the late 1800’s as a cool resort destination for those living down the river in Louisville. Over the years, they added a hotel, cabins, an amusement park (including a ferris wheel and a zoo), a pool, and dance hall. People either got on a ferry boat from Louisville to cross the river and visit of, for those on the Indiana side, they would park their cars at 14 Mile Creek and pay 25 cents to walk across a wooden suspension bridge.

The park saw its peak in the 20’s but as the depression settled in, attendance dropped. The final blow was a disastrous flood in 1937 that washed most structures away, leaving only some stone walls and foundations. Today, you can walk the grounds of the resort that has now been mostly taken over by the forest.

Now, before we go further, scroll back up and take a look at our campsite. You will notice Lola 2 has a nice set of stairs that come out below the door. These open automatically when you open the door and can also be locked in the open position. They are supposed to go in whenever the engine is on and the door is shut. We started having issues with this back in Nashville where the stair was not going completely in. We worked on cleaning the gears and slides and working some silicone spray on and that seemed to help. Well, the title of this blog tells you, that wasn’t the end of the story.

Leaving Charleston on Sunday, August 8th, our destination was the American Coach Service Center in Decatur, Indiana (yeah, pretty much in the middle of nowhere with Fort Wayne being closest city, 30 minutes to the north). We had a pretty good list of things on our list for Warranty Work but none of it seemed that complicated. And we felt ahead of the game since we had already secured parts for those repairs that needed them. A partial list of things we needed fixed:

• A roof leak that we had tried in vain to repair three times
• A leak coming thru the front windshield
• A dishwasher leak that had prevented us from using it since day one.
• Captains chair arms that were broken and needed replacing
• A kitchen drawer that would not remain closed while underway and had come off it’s tracks and ripped out it’s hardware.
• Potential overheating issues with our heated tile floor
• Front decorative grill was coming loose
• A light under the microwave that had exploded
• A few other minor hardware issues

We had the new chair arms with us along with a replacement lens for the microwave light. We also had the replacement motor part for the dishwasher. They offer the option of staying in your coach at night but that means getting up and out of the coach at 6 AM each day and getting your coach back around 3:30. With a dog and everything else (plus being in the middle of nowhere), we opted to rent a house in Fort Wayne. But, before we could get there, we had to park overnight at the service center because check in was 6 AM! So, after a long drive up thru Indiana, we pulled into the parking lot (which does provide power hook ups) and then, while backing up, took out part of a light pool with our stairs that had not fully retracted. It was a gut-wrenching moment for us – we had never hit anything since we started in early 2018 and now we had damaged our new coach. All we could do was hope we could get this added to the list and fixed/replaced.

So, Monday morning arrives, Dan is ready to check in at 5:45 AM (Jill and Adele were already at the house we had rented (more about that later). No matter when you arrived or checked in, you waited to be called by an all-powerful “advisor” who’s main job is to tell you what they will work on, give you vague answers about timelines, and make promises they will never keep. When I was called up, a technician was also with the advisor. I reviewed all our items on the list and then discussed the damaged steps. They had indicated previously (before they knew about the steps), that three days would be enough time. Regardless, we had booked the house thru Saturday so they would have 5 full days – no rush! They seemed very positive that it could all be done, IF they had the parts. And of course, other than a replacement step, I had brought all the parts they would need!

We were told that we should expect a call back before middle of the day Wednesday and if we hadn’t heard from them by then, feel free to call. That’s when things started to turn. On Tuesday, the Advisor (we’ll call him “Greg” because that is his name) called asking more about the dishwasher part. It appeared to be the right part (although they had yet to pull the dishwasher to really check) but they couldn’t understand how I had gotten it. I told them their own customer service got it to me. Then I was informed that since it is warranty work, only a certified technician can work on the dishwasher. They would have to see about getting someone out to look at it. So, they knew for three months I was coming in about this, they knew I had the part since it was on the work order, but they were only now figuring out how to fix it?

And so it would go. Each day, Greg would promise to call back and never did. Each afternoon, we would call, get his voicemail and never get a return call. On Thursday we were finally able to talk with Greg and basically found out there was no step, they were still working on finding an appliance guy to come in an oh, they had to order a new front grill because the original one was too damaged to repair. How long would all that take – have no idea!!!

This is evidently what it is like to try to get an RV repaired. If the work can be done without needing parts, then they may get it fixed somewhere near the time they promised but they won’t keep you informed and you’ll just have to drift along and wonder. If a part is needed, they will drag their time ordering it and will not give you any ETA of when it will be in.

We met one man who had been sitting for 3-months waiting for some repairs since the parts weren’t in. Another had driven back and forth to the service center 3 times (that’s a total of 3,600 miles for him) to get the same work redone.

As Friday neared, we escalated our concerns to customer service as well as driving back out to the service center to meet in person with the tech working on the rig. The complaints got Greg’s attention because he called us mid-day to review everything with us in detail. For the first time we found out:

• Most items on the list had been completed (but he couldn’t tell me details on what was found, how it was fixed, where were the leaks, etc. – thus our visit with the tech that we had to initiate).
• The grill still had to be replaced, no ETA on that one
• The steps could not be repaired (they only figured this out Friday morning) and a new one was on back order (and they hadn’t even bothered ordering it yet)
• A dishwasher tech “might” get to them the following Friday.

At this point, we had already decided we’d stay one more week and start also working on other options because we were damned if we were going to stay in no-where Indiana more than 2 weeks. We had to get out of the house we were renting so we put Adele in a local kennel, stayed in the coach Saturday night, and found another house to rent starting Sunday.

Oh, you ask, why didn’t you go back into the first house you were in. Well, let’s just say it was sub-par. We’ve lived in “transitional neighborhoods” before but this area had not started the transition yet. We were in a 100+ year old home that had been semi-revived but was surrounded by seedy, run down houses and yards. It rained several nights which meant the basement sump pump would run and make lovely grinding and banging sounds every few moments. The bed was small and seemed to call back to the times when people slept on potato sacks filled with hay. The washer and dryer were in the basement and the steps leading down seemed to be original and it appear that railings are optional. Jill thought she heard gunshots a few times but we couldn’t be sure – probably just one of the old cars backfiring.

So yeah, we found us another place which we moved into on Sunday, August 15th. Seems much better and more to our liking. Granted, there’s not a lot to choose from in Fort Wayne between VRBO and Airbnb.

Today, Monday, August 16th, we found out the grill replacement wouldn’t be in to the following week. How convenient since we are leaving on Saturday! So, now we are just hoping the appliance guy can get to us on Friday (anyone want to put a wager on that one?). We are already working on some other options to get a replacement step ordered and installed when we are back in Atlanta. In the mean time, looks like we’ll need a step ladder.

Dan didn’t have it in him to take a picture of the damaged steps before they were removed but below is a pick of what it looks like with no steps (note the steps borrowed from the shop) and also what we’ve got on order from Amazon as a potential interim solution.

So, that’s our big news for now. If all goes well (wouldn’t that be nice), we’ll be on our way back south on Saturday, stopping in Kentucky, Virginia, and South Carolina before arriving back in Atlanta on Sept 5th.

We arrived back into the Atlanta area just before the July 4th weekend and the heat was definitely on. As noted in the previous blog, we had time to have the kids at the pool while we were staying at the Garrett Ranch, which is always the highlight of any visit back to Atlanta

Not a lot to report of our time in Atlanta other than it was hot! Regular things were accomplished such as a few more doctor appointments (getting old sucks!), some recall work on the Honda (Lolita), repairing a crack in Lola 2’s windshield, and visiting with friends and family.

The highlight was when we visited the grand babies (almost 2!) at their home and watched them play in the puddles, in their little pool, and inside. They are starting to “talk” to each other and from time to time come up with a word (“puppies” seems to be a favorite right now).

On the 24th of July, we pulled out for 40+ days on the road with the main objective to get some warranty work done on Lola 2.0 at the factory in Decatur, Indiana. First stop was Cloudland Canyon State Park in NW Georgia. All the years we have been in Atlanta, we’ve never visited this popular park. The campground was very spacious, including our site. Lots of trees provided good shade the whole time we were there.

We were only there for three nights and two full days but both days we got out to explore the park and particularly the gorge. On our first day we took what we had expected to be a rather easy 2 mile hike but it was more like 3 miles with some rocky trails along the way. On top of that, a rain storm caught up with us at one point so we ended the hike rather soggy.

The next day we took a much shorter walk to a view of the west rim (the rim we hiked along the previous day).

We packed up our things and headed northwest, just up the road to the very small town of Shelbyville, TN. This would be a unique 4-night stay at a farm with full hook ups. They only have a couple of spaces, plus a few glamping style cabins. This is a working farm called Crossing Creeks Farms and it is run by three generations of family. They have ducks, chickens, dairy and beef cows. It was a wonderful place to spend some quiet time. This was Adele’s first time on a farm and she really didn’t know how to take the farm animals.

Not much to do in the area but we did drive over to the cute town of Bell Buckle one day to check out the shops and have lunch. An odd name for a town so we had to look it up:

“Bell Buckle, Tennessee, a railroad village of preserved and restored Victorian homes and churches, is nestled among the hills, farmland and Walking Horse country of Bedford County, Tennessee. The most commonly asked question about Bell Buckle is the origin of its name. Stories vary, but some believe the name came from a bell and buckle tied around a tree close to a free-flowing creek. Others believe the Indians carved a bell and buckle into a tree to discourage settlers, while still others believe the bell and buckle symbol was used by surveyors to signify the usefulness of the land for pasture. Whatever the origin, Bell Buckle is one of the oldest names in the county.”

On the last day of July, we loaded up and headed further north up to Nashville. Now, for those who have been following our blog you’ll know that we visited Nashville for a week during our first year of full-timing and we pretty much wore ourselves out seeing all the typical sights. This time around, we planned for a more laid back and shorter visit on the shores of Lake Priest, to the east of town. We didn’t have much plans and since the hot weather finally broke, we were looking forward to time sitting outside and enjoying the outdoors. But, you’ll have to wait for the next update to hear about this visit as well as our adventures as we head further north to Indiana. Who knows, we may even have updates more often than once a month if things get really busy! 😉

Time for the monthly update! During June, we retreated to the mountains of north Georgia and North Carolina and were lucky to have cool weather most of the time. The day after Memorial Day, we drove up to Crossing Creeks RV resort outside of Blairsville, GA. This is a nice campground and we upgraded to a large site on the creek with some nice shade.

While in the area, we were able to visit several friends. First off was a great visit at the campground and then dinner with Bob & Sonja Short. We’ve known the Shorts from back in our whitewater paddling days and it was great to catch up with them again. And, discover an AMAZING authentic Cuban restaurant in Blairsville (Dan’s Grille).

Blairsville is close to where we spent many days and weeks when we had a cabin just north of the Georgia border in Murphy, NC. But lots of things have changed and we’ve discovered there are still lots of things to see and do that we never explored or didn’t exist back when we used to visit the area.

Our first exploration was to the Sun and Moon Alpaca Farm very close by. This is a working farm where they sell the “fiber” from their Alpacas as well as make various garments and other items from the fiber. We enjoyed the close up visit with the Alpacas as well as with the dogs that belonged to the farm

Ironically, long-time friends of Jill, Hill and Bridget Kelly, live just across the street from the Alpaca Farm so we dropped in on them to visit a bit since we were in the area. Great to be able to meet and see each other this year without masks!

Next on our schedule of exploration was to visit Project Chimps, just down the road from our campground. This is a non-profit that takes in monkeys (mostly chimpanzees) that have been used for medical tests and are now “retired”). They provide a place for them to enjoy and live out the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, tours of the facility were only being done periodically (unless you wanted a personal tour at a very high price) so we decided to just tour the grounds instead. This included a nice trail and a pond with some very large koi (which are also rescued!).

Next up was a visit with several friends including Bob & Cheryl Siler and Linda Cahill at a winery and restaurant (Crane Creek Vineyard and Paris & Company Restaurant) in Young Harris, GA. Beautiful place, great views, wonderful food, and fantastic time!

Not all days involved exploring places or eating out with friends. One day, we had a wonderful fresh grilled meal right on the creek. It included sausage along with fresh grilled tomato, potato, and squash. We even had entertainment from the local ducks.

Back on the road, we drove over to Blue Ridge to check out Mercier’s Orchard which included some spiked cider tasting as well as getting several of their famous pies! After a fun visit to Mercier’s, it was over to Harvest on Main for lunch. The place was pretty busy so we got chairs at the “bar”. This isn’t really the bar, it’s more of where the chef’s prepped for dinner. We enjoyed a great meal as well as talking with one of the chefs who was prepping for dinner service. Quite a great show!

After 10 wonderful days in Blairsville, it was time to drive north to Maggie Valley, NC. Due to the higher altitude, we enjoyed very pleasant temps while visiting for a week. We stayed at a favorite park of ours, Cross Creek RV Park. This year, we were parked next to the pavilion which provided extra entertainment as the seasonal folks (mainly the men) had regular gatherings every morning to talk and we could hear them starting around 7 everyone morning.

We were in Maggie Valley for a week and really didn’t do much. We did visit one of our favorite markets, Christopher Farms, which brings in all sorts of produce and other items from Asheville. Lots of fresh veggies and fruit! We spent a day walking downtown Waynesville which is a wonderful small town for window shopping.

Next stop was the very small town of Pineola, NC. The closest town of any name recognition is Linville which is also the name of a a river, some falls, and caverns all nearby. We were less than two miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway. We camped at a lovely little campground on the Linville River. Most sites were occupied by seasonal campers but everyone was friendly and it was a very quiet place to hang out for 9 days.

This campground did have a few unique quirks we have never encountered. They had no cable but that’s OK since we stream everything over a dedicated cell router. But, we were told we could not use our own WiFi because it would interfere with the campground’s WiFi. Almost every campground we have visited has had WiFi, never been told ours would interfere. So then we figured would could stream over their WiFi – nope! Not strong or built to handle any streaming, not even that good for email. And since we were so far up in the mountains, we were limited to a couple of PBS channels over the air. Yes, we are glamping when our only complaint is not getting good TV while camping 🙂

Our first outing took us onto the Parkway for a short but very difficult hike up to a great view of Grandfather Mountain and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

After a strenuous walk, we needed a place to rest, have a snack and rehydrate. Luckily, Linville Falls Winery was just down the road. This is a beautiful winery (and Christmas tree farm too!) with a great patio to enjoy the views.

Our next adventure was to check out Linville Falls. The river, which flows lazily by our campground, reaches a point where it has created what some call the Grand Canyon of the south. The river plunges into the gorge in a series of water falls that are quite impressive to see.

We had a few rainy days while in the area but that didn’t slow us down. We decided that a rainy day would be a good time to visit another nearby winery so we drove over to Grandfather Winery for some tasting and enjoyed more scenery.

Our final outing was over to the town of Little Switzerland to visit the Bon Ami Mine. This area of NC Mountains was a very active mining area from late in the 1800’s to mid-1900’s. Various minerals were mined during this time and some of the abandoned mines are still accessible. The Bon Ami Mine has been turned into a museum where you can examine the tools and equipment used as well as explore a small portion of the mine. You can also see displays of products made from minerals that came from this and other nearby mines including Bon Ami cleaning products (see below)

We chose to skip the panning activity and just explored the museum and the mine. It’s amazing to realize how much was done by hand and very basic equipment to get these rocks and minerals out of the mine. After the mine was abandoned, a nearby stream was allowed to resume it’s natural flow and actually filled the mine (and another close by). But in the 90’s, as part of opening up the mining museum they decided to regain access to a small portion of the mine entrance. They built a small canal to pull some of the water out of the mine and set up more equipment and displays inside so that you have the opportunity to actually go into and experience what the mine might have been like when it was active.

There were a lot of artifacts but Dan’s favorite was this special item…

Yes, these may be the original versions of port-a-potties! The taller one is for two while the yellow one was for the boss (he gets his own potty!). They would roll these into the mine for “use” and then tow them back out for dumping. Sorry, no privacy while using!

After exploring the mine, we walked next door to see the camp store that has been restored for viewing. This is where the local post office was housed, where the boss worked, where minor medical (and dental) issues could be taken care of and basic supplies could be purchased (which is a nice monopoly since the miners would get paid, then walk the the store, run by the mine company, and give their money back to the company buying supplies…).

Our last stop before heading back to the Atlanta area was Travelers Rest, SC. This was a smaller KOA built along a creek. For the first time this month, we had a nicely shaded site that backed up to the creek. The upside is that temps were much nicer (we were now experiencing warmer temps and higher humidity since we left the mountains) under the shade but the humidity and the nearby creek brought in tons of little flying insects (Jill calls them fruit flies which seemed to make sense since they liked to hang around her glass of wine). Below are some pics of our site, the road thru the campground, and the creek behind our site.

Given our short day, we only planned to venture out one day. We were only 30 minutes out of Greenville so we decided to drive in and explore their downtown park that includes the Reedy River running directly thru it. It’s an amazing example of reclamation of what used to be an abandoned industrial area. It went from an area you couldn’t even see (a road bridge had been built over the falls area) to an area where hang out, enjoy the view, play with their dogs, etc., all right in downtown Greenville.

Given concerns about weather and the July 4th weekend traffic, we made the decision to depart Travelers Rest a day early and head back to Garrett Ranch on July 1st. We dodged most of the rain and pulled back into our regular site where we plan to remain until July 24th. That’s when we head off on a 43 day trip up to Decatur, Indiana to the American Coach factory for some warranty work. And of course, there will be lots of exploring along the way. But, before we wrap up this update, we thought we’d end with a few pics of our wonderful kids and grand girls (who are 18 months old!) who came to visit us over the 4th of July weekend.

As mentioned in the last post, the rest of April and May were focused on various medical needs for Dan, Jill, and Dan’s mother Jean. Initially, the plan was for Jean to get a hip replaced immediately after we arrived back in the Atlanta area. But that was held up indefinitely by some concerns with pulmonary tests. With that delay, Jill looked into getting some long awaited surgery to help with very bad acid reflux. So, basically, our schedules looked something like this:

• April 13 – multiple doctor appts for Jill
• April 14 – Jill medical test
• April 15 – Jill medical test
• April 15 – Dan with Jean for doctor appt
• April 19 – Jean doctor appt
• April 21 – Jill medical test
• April 26 – Jill eye appt
• April 30 – Jill and Jean doctor appts
• May 3 – Dan gets 2nd COVID vaccine and goes thru 24 hours of feeling poor
• May 4 – Jill doctor appts
• May 5 – Jean medical procedure
• May 6 – Jill doctor appt
• May 7 – Dan doctor appt
• May 9 – Dan gets food poisoning, goes to immediate care facility, sick for 48 hours
• May 10 – Jean medical tests
• May 12 – Jill doctor appt
• May 18 – Jill doctor appt and pre-op
• May 19 – Jill surgery
• May 21 – Jean doctor appt
• May 26 – Jean eye appt

So yeah, it was kind of a crazy month of appointments! For the first two weeks, we stayed at the Corps of Engineers site at Victoria Campground. With a 14-day limit, we had to move somewhere else that would still allow us to be relatively close to all the doctor and medical facilities but Atlanta just doesn’t have that many places to chose from. Luckily, thru some friends, we knew of some folks who had land outside of Dallas, GA that had a full hook up arrangement that we could use as needed. And thankfully, they were happy to allow us to set up and camp as long as needed while we took care of our medical needs.

In addition to full hook ups, we also were lucky enough to meet Bob and Janis Garrett and spend time with these wonderful folks. They have some terrific stories and are so generous to allow us to stay at their place. Bob even flew his 1950’s Navy trainer over us one day while we were hanging out. And talking about hanging out, we are also fortunate to be camped next to their very nice pool that we can use whenever needed. Although the weather early on was too cool to get in, it’s a very nice place to sit and enjoy the quiet.

In fact, we visited with friends and relatives around the pool several times during our stay.

Early during out stay in the Atlanta area, we had several visits with the grand girls. On one occasion we visited at their house and had fun out back as well as playing with jello!

On another day, we all met up at the Atlanta Zoo. In this instance, the highlight was watching the girls watch the animals.

The best visit, by far, was when Chris came to visit with the girls. This was their first experience with Lola and they seemed to enjoy the RV and the pool, and so did we!

Before Jill’s surgery, we took advantage of a few open days to travel down to Hilton Head Island and our favorite campground, Hilton Head Island Motorcoach Resort. Our only real desire for this trip was to get one more chance to have some fresh seafood before the heat of summer set in. We had a nice wooded site, great evening lighting, a visit from a tree frog in our awning, and wonderful weather to eat outside!

So nice to get some time with our girls in between all the appointments! And happy to report that all is going well with everyone medically as of the end of May. Jean does not have cancer but instead, some sort of fungus in her lung (Dan thinks it’s because she eats too many mushrooms!) that will take several months of treatment with medication. Dan has promised Jill to stay away from expired deli meat. And Jill is recovering well from her surgery.

After Memorial Day, we will head up into the Georgia and North Carolina mountains for all of June to escape the heat. We are working on getting an appointment for some warranty work to be done in late July or early August and that would mean a trip to Decatur, IN. Until then, July plans are up in the air.