Winter Excursion 8, Day 199

We left camp late morning to do a little exploring. First stop was near Pulaski, VA on US Rt 11 at a really nice overlook.

We ate lunch there and enjoyed the view.

We continued south on Rt 11 and checked out Hungry Mother State Park. We had been there before, but wanted to check it out again.

On the way back to camp we stopped at the Dutch Cupboard. We picked up some snacks and some scrapple.

From there we jumped on the Interstate as it was starting to rain. We got into a torrential downpour. Traffic on the Interstate slowed to a crawl and finally stopped for awhile due to an accident. We finally drove out of it.

Back at camp we had dinner and a movie then off to bed.

Winter Excursion 8, Day 198

We got up at 0630. We wanted to avoid the forecasted rain and we did! We were on the road by 0830 and did the short drive to our new campground. We arrived at 1130 and did minimal set up as we are only here for 3 days and rain is forecast the entire time.

We spent the afternoon in the camper reading and watching TV. We don't have the satellite set up so we are streaming or watching recordings.

Here's the new campsite at Claytor Lake State Park, VA. Site #D-21.

If it doesn't rain tomorrow we may do a little exploring.

Winter Excursion 8, Day 197

We woke up after a great night's sleep around 0830. A little camp clean up and showers were in order this morning.

Around 1130 we left for a day trip. First stop was the Lodge Cast Iron factory store. I checked it out in about 10 minutes and then sat with Kaylee in the truck. Cath came out sometime later. Next came Tennessee Legend Distillery. We did a little tasting and got a few bottles of some Good Ole Tennessee Whiskey.

We then drove to the Bush's Bush's Visitor Center and had lunch at the Bush's Cafe. It was very good and the fries were to die for. 

We got a few pics of the Smokey Mountains on the drive.

We shopped a little at the store, but was disappointed they were out of their Jalapeno Bean Dip.

Our last stop was not in the area last year, but was under construction. We gassed up at Buc-ee's!

This one is not your everyday Buc-ee's. It is the largest in the world! It is at the intersection of I-40 and I-81. They have 128 gas pumps! Here's a panorama pic to prove it (click on it to open).  It is not curved, that's what the panorama pic looks like. We had never seen any gas station like this. We did go into the store. It was the largest convivence store we've ever seen.

Back at camp we made sure the awning tube would fit into the camper. We got lucky!

 

Winter Excursion 8, Day 196

One of our neighbors came over this morning and helped me remove the awning and hardware from the camper. We will save the "tube" as it is not damaged. It should fit in the camper for transport (keeping our fingers crossed). There was another camper right next to us that had their awning destroyed also. 

In the afternoon we did a quick trip to the grocery and then to SMKW (Smokey Mountain Knife Works). I think I wrote about it last year. The place is HUGE and has any type of knife you can think of. I picked up a new pocket knife I'd been eyeing online. From there we wanted to go to a distillery we had seen advertised to try some Tennessee whiskey. We didn't realize it was in Gatlinburg. It took us almost an hour to drive 20 miles. The tourist traffic in this area is nuts! We did not visit the distillery as the area was crowded and parking the truck would have been impossible. There is another distillery near us we will check out tomorrow.

Back at camp we had a few more rain showers (that were not forecast)! Had a nice dinner. Went to bed and will sleep like bears as last night we didn't get much sleep after the awning fiasco.

All is well, once again, in the Boss Camp! 

Winter Excursion 8, Day 195

The weather guessers were wrong again. We woke to dry weather and did our final pack up with no rain and no issues. 

It was a very long drive for us, 343 miles! We drove through three major cities, Birmingham, AL, Chattanooga, TN, and Knoxville, KY. Around these cities traffic was horrible. We got to our new campground around 1500 and were all set up by 1600. We have a nice site right on the Douglas Lake. Do you notice any funny about the pic of our site?

After dinner I hit the bed early as I was tired from the long drive. Cath did some reading and came to bed later. Right after she crawled in bed we had a storm hit. The forecast was for some rain tonight and light winds, but this was anything but that! Here's some pics of what was once our awning.

The awning and both "arms" are destroyed. The left "arm" separated from the camper a little, but the damage is not too great, it's repairable. I'll be able to get the new "arms" and new awning on Amazon to the tune of around a grand.

We are both hoping that bad things happen in threes. First the dump valve, then the roof, and now the awning. It's been a lousy last few weeks at the end of this camping trip.

The old "arms" and awning now reside in the dumpster at Douglas Dam Headwaters Campground. 

Winter Excursion 8, Day 194

Laundry Day...YUK!

We left camp after a quiet, but rainy morning and headed to the laundromat. We had been at this one before, but they have made some changes. It was clean, but EXPENSIVE! It cost us close to $60 for 5 loads. The machines were over $8 and the dryers were 4 minutes for each quarter.

Back at camp we put the clothes away and relaxed.

Left camp again around 1630 to go get our traditional "last night in camp" dinner..PIZZA! After dinner we packed up the inside. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the weather forecast is wrong. It says we have rain when we leave, rain the whole way, and rain when we get to our new campground. We shall see!

Winter Excursion 8, Day 193

Weather continues to be nice, but we will be happy to get back north.
Repaired the roof hole this afternoon. I'm sure it will hold until we get home and can fix it right.

Took Jacob home in the afternoon. We will miss him, but will have some more time next year with him. He is growing up fast! He is getting to be a super flattop cook!

Back at camp we got almost everything packed up as it forecast to rain for the next 48 hours. We hate to pack up or set up in the rain. Time will tell.

And BTW...Happy Mother's Day to all you ladies. You Gals are the best!

Took a quick bike ride this evening and got this pic of a couple of deer.

Zoom in a little. They could care less I was watching them.

Winter Excursion 8, Day 192

We had a lazy morning and just enjoyed the great weather. I could not have asked for better weather to be able to dry out the hole in the roof before I put a temp patch on it. It was very low humidity with temps in the mid seventies!

Ray and Melinda came over in the afternoon. We all just sat outside and yakked. They stayed for dinner and Jacob and I BBQed chicken. Cath made a nice potato and asparagus dish and a good meal was had by all.

After dark we spent some time in the camper watching Dish Scapes. It was fun trying to anticipate what was coming next.

 

Winter Excursion 8, Day 191

This is one blog post I hoped I never have to write.

After the storms blew through last night I went out this morning to check for any damage. Here's what I found.

This stick is about 2" in diameter. And yes that is the camper roof!

Here's the hole when I pulled it out this morning. I'm actually glad the stick was still stuck (LOL) as it kept most of the rain out (think cork in a wine bottle).

Here's the part of the limb that broke off that little stick in the roof. This thing is about 10 ft long. It fell from a tree, speared the roof, then broke off. That's what shook the camper so hard last night.

 This is the ceiling inside the camper just over the fireplace. It was wet, but not soaked.

The entire campground looks a mess with branches, cones, and leaves all over the place. The Ranger came by to do an incident report. She also said there was no other damage in the rest of the campground.

I called USAA to start a claim. They were on it right away. I've been with them 44 years and would not even think of changing insurers! Their service is better than A+. 

I will give the hole a few days to dry out and then put a temp batch on it. We will get it repaired when we get home.

The rest of the day went much better. We left camp around 1230 to get Jacob. We spent the afternoon with Fergie and CC, then drove back to camp when Jacob got home around 1630.

Ray and Melinda had a nice dinner for us. Afterward we played SEQUENCE again until 2130. Back at our camper bed was in order. It's been one "helluva" day!

Winter Excursion 8, Day 190

We spent most of the day in the camper. The weather is so hot and humid you can hardly stand to be outside. We have storms forecast for tonight. That will break this weather pattern and we will have cooler temps and lower humidity.

We went over to our friends camper after dinner to play some more SEQUENCE. After about an hour we heard thunder, so I checked the radar. The storms were coming a lot sooner than forecast, so we headed back to our camper. The storm was very violent when it blew through and it shook the camper. After it passed I looked outside and there were tree limbs, branches, and leaves everywhere. I didn't see any damage, but will check in the morning when it's light.   

Winter Excursion 8, Day 189

We did a little food shopping this morning to get us through the weekend.

Our friends, Ray and Melinda, arrived early afternoon. They got all set up a few sites from ours and then came over for dinner. We yakked a lot and played our new game, SEQUENCE. A good time was had by all!

The weather continues to be miserable. Temps are in the high 80s to 90s and the humidity hangs around 90. Our ACs run full blast all day. Hopefully we will get some cooler, dryer weather soon. 

Winter Excursion 8, Day 188

We left camp around 0930 to do a little exploring. As soon as we left the campground we got behind this guy doing about 35 in a 55 zone. Checkout the jeans on the top of his vehicle.

There was no where I could pass him. It took us awhile to realize that they were indeed blue jeans! He finally pulled off to go fishing. "Fishy" I would say!

After that interesting start to the drive we headed to Moundville, AL. and Moundville Archeological Park.

We mainly wanted to check out the campground that is here.

A view of some of the mounds. There are lots of them here, all shapes and sizes.

Here's the steps on the largest one. We did not climb them...LOL!

From Moundville we drove to Cath's favorite Mexican Grocery Store near Oak Mountain State Park. She picked up all the things we needed for a fajita dinner. The have marinated fajita meat to die for.

We stopped at Oak Mountain State Park with the hope we could see the renovated campground. It is opening the 24th of this month and all sites are full hookups. We could not see the campground as they are still working on it. As much as we like Deerlick COE, we will be glad when Oak Mountain is open and we can stay there next year. The drive to see Jacob and CC is way shorter from OMSP.

We got back to camp around 1530, had a few toddies, a good dinner, then off to bed.  

 

Winter Excursion 8, Day 187

After breakfast we did some camp chores and just hung out (inside). The weather remains hot and very humid. I think it's time to head north!

We played some cribbage in the afternoon. Cath is back to her cheating ways, but I beat her anyway!

We did get a walk in this morning before it got too hot and we had a "find of the day". On one of the lantern post we found this red bead necklace. We think it's from Mardi gras. It now belongs to George along with his winter ensemble and handcuffs.

Around 1600 we drove back to Hoover area to watch Jacob at his archery lessons. He is getting pretty good!

Back at camp it was a night cap then off to dreamland!

 

Winter Excursion 8, Day 186

Jacob and I made a nice breakfast on the flattop. Afterwards we all got cleaned up, did the dishes, and spent the rest of the morning relaxing.

After lunch Jacob and Cath played some cribbage. I'm sure there was some cheating involved.

We all watched a movie and then headed to Jacobs house in a thunderstorm.

We had a nice dinner with Fergie and CC. Talked for awhile and then headed back to camp.

I've done very little night driving lately and it was "fun" getting back to camp. Once back we hit the hay. Sleep will come quick! 

Winter Excursion 8, Day 185

We finished our site set up this morning and then made the short drive to the grocery store. We did a little shopping and headed back to camp.

Jacob and CC arrived around 1000, with Jacob driving, and the yakking began! We burned some burgers for lunch and the yakking continued. After lunch we played a new game they had brought called SEQUENCE. We had a good time playing and Cath & I ordered the game for ourselves.

After CC left Jacob did some truck driving with our F250! He said it's too high and too big! He is use to an Forester!

We had a nice steak dinner and we all hit the rack early. It's been a fun day and it was great to see them both.

  

Winter Excursion 8, Day 184

We were up early and on the road by 0900 (EDT). It was a perfect travel day, no rain, but overcast. We drove the backroads all the way of the 300 mile, 5 1/2 hour trip, and arrived at Deerlick COE, AL around 1400 (CDT). Did a minimal setup as thunderstorms were forecast, but they never happened. Here's a pic of Site #11 at Deerlick.

I think this is our third time in this site.

It was pushing 90 deg when we arrived. We turned on both ACs and just relaxed.

We can't wait to see Jacob tomorrow! All is well in the Boss Camp!

 

Winter Excursion 8, Day 183

We woke up this morning to a power outage. Our EMS cut the power as one "leg" of the 50 amp was only 73 VAC (should be 120 VAC). I'm glad the EMS caught that, if the air conditioner would have tried to start it would have been damaged due to low voltage. I let the host know and the maintenance guys showed up a little later. Seems the 100 amp circuit breaker is bad. This affects our site and the one next to us. They did not have the part so we are running on the 30 amp plug now. It's really the first time our EMS has "saved" us! That makes it worth every dime we paid for it.

Later in the morning we drove through Macon, GA and went to Robins Air Force Base. This base is huge! We visited the commissary and the PX. They are also huge! Checked out the FamCamp and then headed back to camp.

As we are leaving tomorrow we had our traditional pizza for dinner. We got pick-up at a Mellow Mushroom. It was very good pizza.

We are headed to Deerlick Creek, COE tomorrow and Jacob!

Winter Excursion 8, Day 182

We headed for High Falls State Park just a few miles from here. We met Kathie the Assistant Park Ranger who is also in charge of Dames Ferry. She gave us the run down on Dames Ferry and our duties for next year. We are looking forward to volunteering for her.

High Falls is a nice park. We toured the park and all the campgrounds. It is a nice park especially the day use areas. The campgrounds are also nice but too big for us, no hosting!

The CCC had a hand in building all of this. This dam forms the lake.

There are two campgrounds above the dam and one below.

As long as we were in the area we headed over to Indian Springs State Park. We toured the park and campgrounds, but again, not our cup of tea as far as hosting (it's too big).

It also has a lake, a dam, and CCC involvement, but it also too big for us as far as hosting goes.

Back at camp it was 88 deg. We sat outside in the shade for awhile, but ended up in the camper with both ACs blowing.

We are going exploring again tomorrow. Stay tuned for more adventures.