Arrived in Tennessee....

Just a short note to let everyone know we arrived safely at Maple Hill RV Campground & Cabins. Nice little mom and pop campground, only 22 sites and a couple of cute little cabins. The new owners are really nice and I hope they can make a go of it...tough time of year, never mind the current economy, to get started.

Today was an relatively easy day, especially for me who took at least three cat naps. The morning started a little rough...heading out from Flying J at exit 80 on I-81 and exiting at exit 77 for that Flying J/ They have an RV island which makes things easier...at least it usually does.

As Stu took care of the fueling, I headed inside for some coffee. First snafu...no coffee since the water was turned off. Okay... They now have a Denny's instead of their own restaurant so I got coffee there. Paid for it and headed out to the truck. Still no gas...error messages on the pumps.

So I head back inside and get in line....then find out their computers are all locked up and they can't reboot them until anyone currently pumping fuel hangs up their hoses. At least 8 truckers and I stood there waiting for the guy on pump 22 to finish pumping. Ten minutes later they sent out a guy to ask him to hang it up...he was at over $500 and 200 gallons. By the time the employee got out the door, the guy was done. LOL!

Now they reboot...they then wait for the tables to load back into the system. All this time they can't check out anyone, no one can get fuel at the auto, RV or truck pumps. The truckers can't take showers (no water), no rest rooms to use. Such fun...

Finally, the system is rebooted and the guys let me go first (such gentlemen). She figures out the pump number and asks me if it will be more than $75. I laugh and tell her yes. Then I run out to tell Stu to go ahead and pump. I come back and get back in line to pay for the propane.

When I see that he's done on the passenger side (I can't see the driver side) I go out to be sure he's done. Well, seems as though she only turned on the one pump. So I had to go back in and get her to start the other one. Eventually we got done and back on the road.

The funny thing was the difference in the patience and humor level between the truckers and the car patrons. Needless to say, the car patrons were NOT patient at all and had NO sense of humor about the situation. Life is too short, folks.

We drove another hour and exited in Abingdon, VA where there was a Cracker Barrel. We were meeting Jenny and Don for brunch. They live about 30 miles away and are part-time RVers. We chit-chatted for about 90 minutes before heading outside where they met Sadie and we chit-chatted for another 15 minutes. LOL! It was so great to meet them. I have followed Jenny's blog for 3-4 years and she has followed mine.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We moved into Central time zone, gaining an hour (and we'll gain another this weekend). The ride up US127 to the campground was really pretty. We'd only ridden it on the bikes and I look forward to riding it again. Jamestown is about 45 minutes north of I-40.

The good news is that we have good cell service here. We can finally make a few phone calls that need to be made. Blogging won't be a problem except for available time. We had a lot to get done in the next couple of weeks. So bear with us...some blogs will be here, some will be at Fire Lily Base Camp. I will try to get some good photos of the area for those that have asked.

Still working on the ToadilyPets.com website and blog as well as Sadie Speaks (which you can also find on the ToadilyPets website). Please pass the links along to your friends!

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna and Stu