Moved and Settled!

Yes, I've been a bit lax in posting. But I have excuses...LOTS of excuses! Honest!! No, really. I do! But...but...but... Okay, I get it. You don't care. You just want to know where we are and what we are doing. Fine! Whatever....LOL!

Can you tell I'm struggling with what to write? While we've been quite busy, nothing has been particularly interesting. We came back from our cruise and finished getting ready for our drive north. Before we left, we had stored all our outdoor gear in our cargo trailer and put the trike in the garage. That left a few outside things and the inside work to be done. Looking at the weather forecast, we jumped to it and got the outside things taken care of (other than the necessities like utilities and Directv) before several days of bad weather moved in courtesy of Tropical Storm Colin.

I don't think I've ever taken pictures of our rig inside once everything is stored and the slides are in...it's, um, interesting. LOL!

We finally left on Thursday morning and discovered we weren't used driving, we hadn't done any long trips in quite a while. We were both wiped out when we finally stopped for the night in Woodbine, GA. Because of the intense heat, we knew we weren't going to asphalt park (truck stops, Walmart, etc). So we stayed at a cute, secluded campground just off I-95. Formerly King George RV Resort, it was bought and renamed Walkabout Camp & RV Park. The staff was quite helpful, even though we arrived well after office hours. The rate was under $19 for 50 amp thanks to our Passport America 50% discount.

[click any photo for a larger view]

We got a kick out of the resident chickens, too. We ate out, opting for Denny's for dinner and Cracker Barrel for breakfast, both a couple miles down I-95. Coming out of Cracker Barrel, we spotted this cool truck. I had to take some pics as well as one of the local color.

We had planned on staying one day but as often happens, life intervenes. One, I was completely wiped out and two, we had lost our trailer brakes. Stu knew what to do to fix the problem, he just needed a few parts and a little time. We opted to stay a second night and slept in the next morning, enjoying our breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

Of course that wasn't everything we discovered that first day - we also found out that our inverter wasn't working. Normally that wouldn't be an issue but now that we have a residential refrigerator, with temps in the mid-upper 90's, it was important to keep the fridge running.

Back on the road on Saturday, hoping for cooler temps and not finding them. We ran the generator for several hours to keep the refrigerator working with the added bonus of running the A/C and cooling the inside a bit.

Between Woodbine GA and Brunswick GA, we had two sport bikers tear past us in the far left lane. Not something we would normally pay attention to but the first one had to have been doing between 90-100 and the second one, a minute or two behind, must have been doing between 80-90.

We got to see a state trooper pull the second one over and hoped another was targeting the first, faster bike. A couple miles up the road, there was some road construction at an exit ramp. There was a motorcycle that had gone off the ramp and was laying in the grass. A few people had stopped, one man was picking up debris as he walked towards the bike. We will never know for sure, but we suspect it was the first bike, either missing the exit or cutting in front of someone and getting hit. Sad...

Night three found us in a campground on the SC/NC border - literally. We stayed at South of the Border back in 2009. It was fairly sad, needing a lot of refurbishing. Well, it looks like they have done quite a bit. The campground had plenty of room and we paid under $35 with our Good Sam discount (10%) for a 50amp site.

We headed out early, knowing we weren't going to arrive until Monday (still in plenty of time for our first medical appointments) and knowing we wanted to drive no more than 300 miles. The drive was uneventful, but we did enjoy seeing a smaller motorcycle pass us with the rider wearing a Captain America backpack. Oh, and his helmet was decorated like a duck from the rear view, a duck with a mohawk. LOL! Wish I could have snapped a picture but he was gone too quickly.

On our way south last October, we found a nice little campground, Carolina Crossroads, in Roanoke Rapids, NC. $30 was the overnight rate for a nice pull-through. The owners are great folks and that was our destination. I did forget to take photos so I had to borrow these.

Our last morning, Monday, was a nice drive, for the most part. We finally got off I-95 and took US 301 the rest of the way. The Virginia part was a two-lane divided highway, cooler, refreshing, quieter, had less traffic and more green. Sweet! Well, except for one idiot who was entering from a side road.

He looked right at Stu, then pulled out IN FRONT OF HIM. Remember, this is a medium duty Freightliner pulling close to 20k pounds! Stu slams on the brakes, signals left AND THE IDIOT MOVES LEFT, RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. Stu moves back to the right and lays on the air horn. Scared the crap out of the guy as he pulled over two lanes to the right (side of the road) - again, right in front of Stu. Sigh....

This route took us over the Potomac bridge, one I had never been on. I know my good friend Nick Russell wouldn't like it at all. I snapped a few pics with my phone, just to give you an idea.

Traffic wasn't too bad and we arrived at our final destination in Stevensville, MD around 2pm. Phew! We're the bums in the backyard for the next few weeks. Then it's on to Vermont and the Escapade!

Ciao for now!

Always an adventure.....

We are on our last leg of our trip back to Maryland and what an adventure it has been. Couple of things to note first, We normally take I-81 north, less traffic but more mountains. Due to the late winter weather, we opted to take I-95 (UGH) this time around. Shorter trip, flat terrain and we could drive shorter days so we'd arrive less tired.

Well, you know the saying about the best laid plans. Sigh.... We left Vero Beach, FL on Wednesday after a great time visiting family. The weather was good and we hit the road around 11:30 am. We hoped to make it to the north side of Jacksonville that first night but it wasn't to be. Around 2pm the rearmost passenger tire on the trailer blew. Not a pretty sight...did some body damage, too.

Stu managed to get the spare mounted and the awning arm secured and we headed to the closest Flying J for the night. I think that was Hastings, FL, south of Jacksonville. We had a great parking spot, ate at Denny's and got a good night's sleep. The next morning Stu took another look at the rearmost tire on the other side and didn't like how it looked. Next step, Goodyear, for two new tires.

[more photos here]

Note that these tires are barely three years old but have probably 40k miles. Being in the back, they seem to take the worst beating. We replace the frontmost tires on both sides when one of those blew last spring (due to something in the road).

Anyway, another late start to the day being 1pm before we really got rolling. We stopped at the Flying J in Brunswick, GA for the night and had another great parking spot. Seems like the ones on I-95 are more geared towards RV parking than the ones we've used on I-81.


Day three on the road, Friday, and we made it to Latta, SC and another Flying J. This time there was a large dirt parking area, we were the second ones in. We've been getting off the road around 4pm when possible due to the holiday weekend. Seems like everyone is heading back home at the same time. LOL!

So here it is Saturday and we're just outside Washington DC. Initially we had planned to head to Kent Island and park in our stepdaughter's driveway. Well, we now have an appointment in Beltsville, MD on Wednesday to get the RV body work evaluated. We're hoping we can get it done while we are in Ecuador. Rather than head all the way East to come back over for that appointment, we made a reservation at the Capital KOA. PRICEY but with the cost of fuel, maybe not. LOL! We have doctor appointments in the Annapolis area on Monday and Tuesday.

So it was good that we chose the shorter trip, we haven't had to kill ourselves driving AND we had good weather all the way up. The thought of having that blow-out in the mountains with ice, snow and cold. Brrrr.....

Rested, recouped and recovered...

Oh my, yesterday was interesting...that's the best way to put it. We got a slow start to the day, sleeping in a bit to recoup from hours on our feet at the Blue Ridge Log Cabin factory tour. We hit the road about 11:30.

It was a beautiful day and I started snapping some shots of the scenery. Nothing spectacular but pretty just the same. We thought we have about a 2 hour ride ahead of us. Little did we know...

All it takes is one turn...and you are committed. For anyone that has forgotten or doesn't know, we are almost 60' long when traveling. We weigh about 25k pounds combined. We are 13' high. We are not your average little trailer....LOL!

So, the GPS directed us to turn. I looked at the road and my stomach fell. I just had a feeling that this wasn't a good idea. Once we made the turn, the adventure began. Narrow, twisting roads that barely had room for us at times. No shoulders or worse, ditches in the place of shoulders...on both sides!

Just when we thought it couldn't get worse...we hit a construction zone. The road was so narrow that we hit every cone on the center line. I watched one get kicked out behind us and go tumbling down the hill (better than US going down the hill...). No sign of workers, just several miles of cones.

Then as we rounded a corner we spotted the workers...they were definitely incredulous. When we passed the third truck, a worker sitting on the back waved and hollered something at us about losing the trailer... I don't blame him, there were turns where I wondered how we were going to make it. At one point the trailer went off the edge of the pavement and dipped way over and back up again. I dreaded to see what happened inside...

There was no place to turn around, no place to turn off, no cell phone service to let our friends know we were running late. Stu did wonderfully...Sadie was terrific considering she was overdue for a potty break...me, I was a basket case. I tried not to stress Stu, that meant just closing my eyes and trusting. Phew!

Eventually we came out onto better roads, the kind we should have been on...but we found a pull-out where we can get off the side of the road for potty breaks. Stu found this underneath the trailer...LOL!

Still no cell service but in about 10 minutes we were at our friend's house. DOUBLE Phew! We got backed in, unloaded the bikes and finished setting up. Too late for a ride, we headed into town in their car for a nice evening of good food and great conversation.

I was exhausted and so was Stu...we slept hard and eventually got up and ready for today. We knew we were riding but had no idea when or where. After talking to Arthur and Irene it was decided to take a ride into town for lunch, via scenic roads, and then back where we would pack up Sadie and go for another ride.

Arthur and Irene are from Massachusetts...in fact, they lived in a town right around corner from where I was born and spent the first 15 years of my life. They retired and moved to Greeneville, TN almost two years ago. They have never looked back. Recently they traded in both of their motorcycles and got a 2011 Harley-Davidson Tri-Glide. It's a beauty!

Both rides were wonderful....the first was about 75 miles out and back and the second maybe 50 miles out and back. As usual Sadie loved it...we stopped at A&W and went inside. We got a table where we could see her. She sat there and behaved so wonderfully, looking around, watching people and being good. We will do that more often, always where we can watch her and see how she does.

We head out in the morning, back to Jamestown. We've had a great time here and will be back...heck, we have a 50 amp hookup! LOL! Oh, we got a call from our excavator today...they laid the gravel. So we'll see how that looks on Wednesday...glad they beat the upcoming rain.

We have dinner in Cookeville with friends from Sparta (my old neighbors). It will be a late night after a travel day...doubt I will blog. Back on Wednesday for sure!

Forgot to mention...the only damage was the microwave opening up and everything stored in there fell out. Oh, and the revolving glass dish...shattered. That was fun cleaning up...NOT! There were a lot of other scattered items, but nothing else damaged. Another phew!

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

I love the smell of fresh cut timber....

We had a good night in the parking lot of Blue Ridge Log Cabins, Sadie slept through the night - pretty good since we lost an hour moving over to Eastern time zone. We fired up the generator, had breakfast and did a little computer catch-up.

Before we realized, it was almost 10am and time to head up to the factory. Low and behold, we walked out the door to find our sales rep, Matt Phillips, pulling in to give us a ride up the hill. Thanks, Matt!

I won't go into the details of the day. You can read that here: Blue Ridge Log Cabins - Factory Tour and Model Homes. It was a great day and we are comfortable with our decision to stop looking...we have found our builder. We were very impressed and hope anyone considering building a log home will check them out.

Now to the inverter issue....we tried following the shutdown, restart procedure...twice. Nope, still not working. In fact now we have a perpetual message showing, "Error....trying to restart" with the same error number. Guess we'll be making a call to Xantrex on Monday. Tonight we are plugged into the model home so we have basic power without running the generator all night. Thank you again, Matt!

Tomorrow morning we head back home, making a stop in Greeneville, TN for one or two nights. The friends we will be visiting are also riders and we hope to get in at least one ride before leaving.

We do need to get back to Jamestown and see if the trash on the property has been burned yet. We really don't want to stay on in to December, we'd like to get to Florida where it's warmer and we can ride more. Once the trash is burned, then they still need to level and grade the main driveway and put down the gravel.

Oh, don't forget to check Sadie Speaks to see how she dealt with the log cabin day...

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

It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood...

Oops, wrong television show....this one doesn't have a catchy theme song, just a catchy motto - Make it Right! If you have ever watched it, you know who I am talking about...Mike Holmes of Holmes on Homes (HGTV).

We found out a couple of weeks ago that Mike was going to be in Nashville to kick off his magazine hitting the US market. We both love the show and figured, why not! So we loaded up Sadie and her crate and headed to Nashville.

Stu wanted to take a different route down to I-40, about the same distance and time as the usual route we take. It turned out to be a gorgeous, twisty, mountainous road that we WILL ride on the motorcyles!! This road would have been part of what we would have driven the other day in the fog...boy, we were glad we didn't go any further that day.

We arrived at Books-a-Million shortly after 1pm. Stu took Sadie out for a potty run while I went inside to get in line. While long, it wasn't as long as it could have been. We did hear that 30 minutes earlier it was much longer. We chatted with others in line as well as workers for the tour. (We got several nice recycled tote bags, magnetic clips, a pen and other stuff.) We got a real kick out of a mimi-Mike, right down to the Sharpie tattoo of Make It Right on his arm!

Before we knew it the clock had rolled around to almost 2pm, the end of the tour stop. We chatted with the gentleman controlling the flow of folks in to talk to Mike. We told him we had driven 90 minutes to see Mike...he said no problem. Turns out he was the Publisher for the magazine...we never did get his name. Stu called him VIP since that was on his hang tag.

We got our photo taken with Mike, chatted with him for a minute while he signed our copy of the magazine and then headed to the cashier where Stu had stashed a new lapdesk that I found on sale, 50% off. Yippee!!

We stopped and posed for a couple of outside photos and headed back to the truck and our ever patient pup.

We spent about 30 minutes playing with her in the grassy area. Stu had brought the training lead along and it was perfect for playing fetch.

Right around the corner was a Costco and a Petsmart. We needed a few things so Stu did the Costco run and Sadie and I headed into Petsmart. We picked up exciting things like more tennis balls, some training clickers, collapsing water/food bowls for the motorcycle and some food. I looked at the sweaters and jackets but at $25-30, I'll stick to the $9 Wally World version.

Heading east through Nashville, we hit a little traffic but nothing serious. We made it to our next stop on time...Cracker Barrel in Lebanon. We were meeting some online friends who had hosted a campground gathering back in October. We had planned to attend but life got in the way (Stu's knees) and we had to cancel.

We spent the next 2+ hours chatting with Lisa and Tony from Carthage area. What fun folks...we were kept laughing until we finally parted and headed home. We finally arrived home around 8:30 and settled in for the night. Great day!!

Tomorrow we load up the bikes, pack up the rig and hitch up the truck for our trip to Campobello, SC where we will be attending a factory tour and model home show at Blue Ridge Log Cabins.

Sometime Sunday we will arrive at Arthur and Irene's new home in Greeneville, TN. They are long time friends of Stu and the camping club back in Maryland. They retired from Massachusetts and move to Greeneville...oh, and they ride Harleys. The weather Sunday and Monday is supposed to be gorgeous so guess what we'll be doing...LOL!

We'll be back home by Tuesday, just in time to go out to dinner with some of my good friends from Sparta, TN - Tom and Karen.

Life is good!

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