Mission, TX ... finally

  I will try to keep all the info correct and in order, it has been a long four days.

  We finally got on the road Saturday morning.  We made it to Harrah's in Tunica, MS without incident.  They have a really nice RV park there and with the Good Sam discount it is about the most reasonable place you can stay.
  We went into the casino only for the purpose of visiting Paula Deen's buffet.  What a meal, the food there is unbelievable.  We both had the prime rib and it was just wonderful, melt in your mouth beef.  OK, I got $5 in free slot play and used it all at the rate of a dollar a minute.  Karen and I both tried our hand at some games for $20 and well that was all we really had to spend there.  Back to the RV and get some rest for the road the next day.
  Sunday we left Tunica at 9:00 AM heading for Bryant AR to see Karen's brother Kenny whom I had never met.  We got to mile market 213 on I-40 in AR.  A semi-tractor had flipped over and blocked the lane.  The bad part of that is that it happened at the exact spot where the roadway narrowed to one lane for construction.  We were stuck in that traffic, at a complete standstill most of the time, for almost three hours.  Karen had to call her brother and let him know that we were not going to be there for lunch.  Arkansas has some of the worst roads I have driven on so the fact that they were working on it was a relief and except for the accident it moved pretty freely the rest of the way.  We had been planning on having lunch and then continuing on to Dallas that sameday. Well, all that construction put us so far behind that we decided to stay overnight in Bryant AR.  Kenny was nice enough to call ahead for us got us a spot at the I-30 RV park for the night.  We didn't even bother to unhitch the trailer.  We just hooked up the electric so the girls (Prissy & Duchess) could have the air on while we were gone.  We leveled the trailer and went with Kenny and his wife Janet to their home.  We had a really nice visit it was great to get to meet them and their three sons, catch up on some news and leave some history, in the form of old photos, with them.  Thank you Kenny and Janet for your hospitality.

  Monday it was off to Dallas.  Of course Karen had been on the phone with everyone letting them know that we weren't going to be there and tell them our change of plans.  On our way there we were flagged down by someone in the next lane who we thought was telling us that our lights were blinking.  Everything seemed to be operating okay.  I tried the lights and they seemed to be fine and the brake controller was telling me it was connected but, the next chance we had to pull off I went to check the connection to make sure that it was secure and everything was working.  It was then that I realized he had been telling us that the license plate was loose.  I took it off and put it in a side window for the time being hoping we wouldn't get stopped for it.  That didn't seem to be a problem and we never did get stopped.  We got to the Destiny RV Park in Denton Texas without further problems and checked in to our site.  Again we parked, hooked up electric, and leveled the trailer and left it hitched to the Denali since we were heading out first thing in the morning.  We had now discovered that we had no money in our bank account.  Some unforeseen debits popped up and now we were traveling cash in hand.  This truly has been an adventure.  Our granddaughter MacKenzie and her boyfriend Evan, who attend University of North Texas in Denton, came and picked us up and we then all went to our friends Rose & Rod's house.  Everyone went in for a swim, well except Rose and me.  They have a wonderful home and it was great to see their daughters Rachael and Becky again.  After everyone got out of the pool and changed we went to meet Rod at Romano's Macaroni Grill for dinner.  It was a wonderful evening of catching up and getting to know each other.  Thank  you Rod & Rose for a wonderful dinner.

  After dinner we went with Evan & MacKenzie to see her new home.  It is a really nice house and we got to see her new puppy Domino. He is just big enough now to fit in your hand.  Thanks for chauffeuring us around town pointing out the highlights as we sped by.
  Tuesday morning it is off to San Antonio, whoops, I mean Mission Texas.  Since we were now lower on funds than we anticipated we decided to go ahead and make the long trip all the way to Mission and not have to spend money on an extra nights stay.  Before we left I decided that since the license plate still had the frame attached I would just duct tape it to the bumper of the trailer.  We repacked the trailer with all the tubs disconnected the electric and raised the leveling jacks and we were off.  Thank God for the Good Sam Club card for Pilot/Flying J we knew we would be able to have enough fuel for the trip.  Using this meant that we would have to alter our route a little bit so that those stops were within our fuel range.  This was nice though since we hadn't been to this part of the country before we got to do a little exploring.  We ended up going through Laredo and seeing some of that city since we were no longer on an interstate.  I will say that Texas has some of the nicest roads you could travel.  As is to be expected in Texas they are all big.  They are all well maintained also.  There was a lot of construction going on but most of it did not interfere with traffic as it was new construction of roads and not just repairs.  On hwy 83 after we left Laredo there was quite a bit of construction on that road also.  We ran into some very heavy rain right after dark that did slow us down a little bit but it ended soon and we continued on.  The speed limits in Texas are higher than "normal" and we had a lot of people passing us.  I tend to be a little on the pokey side and some of the speed limits seemed a little extreme.  At one of our many stops I thought to check and see how the duct tape was holding up and see if I needed to reinforce it at all.  The duct tape was in almost perfect condition,  there was no license plate attached to it but the tape itself was fine.  Somehow the plate had come off the frame.  Well, I guess we'll have to call and see about getting a new one sent to us.
  We arrived at Lake Canyon RV Park at about 10:45 that night.  Needless to say there was no-one in the office but Karen had called to let them know that we would be very late and they left our site location for us on the office door.  We backed into the site, emptied the tubs and set up what we had to and relaxed for a little while then off to bed.
  This morning we went to the office to check in and everyone seems so nice.  We drove around the park to see what it is like.  There are not a lot of people here at this time of year, about 20 according to Kelly in the office.  We have driven around a little to familiarize ourselves with the area and we like what we see so far.  Our adventure has finally begun and we are looking forward to whatever lies ahead.

See you down the road,
Don & Karen

Moving on

OK, so once again someone else is in control of our lives.  Finances have been probably cut in half for the rest of the year so drastic decisions have to be made.  We have decided that all the travel plans that we just finished "finalizing" had to be changed.  Our apologies to all the people that we made contact with and told them we would be somewhere at a certain time ... not going to happen. Because of the monthly fees that we can get we have decided to go directly to Texas rather than travel and end up there.  It will be hot in Texas but, it seems to be hot everywhere.  Checking Weatherbug, it has been just as hot here as it is there.  So, our time here in Dickson is up on July 5th and we will be packed up and heading southwest at that time.  While we are looking forward to just
'getting on with it" there is a certain amount of anxiety involved also.  Karen was commenting today that this will only be the second time in her life that she has moved.  I have moved several times but, I always took the family with me.  I have lived here In Dickson for almost 23 years, the longes I have ever lived anywhere.  I will miss a lot of things here, especially the kids and grandchildren.  It's kind of ironic that I prayed for so many years that Jennye and Michael, Ezra and Boaz would move back here from California and now that they have I am moving just as far away from them.   I have also had the good luck, by marriage, to have more family become a part of my life and I will miss them also.  We will end up missing a lot of things that we would normally attend, school functions and all that, but we just have to do this and do it now.
  We will keep in touch here while on the road.


See you down the road,
Don & Karen

Dickson, week 3

  It's been a good week in Dickson.  It's been hot, really hot.  It has been in the upper 90's every day.   Sunday, Father's day was nice.  We had. Family day over at Donnie & Leshelle's house and everyone was there.  That was real nice.  All the guys went fishing including Tristan the 4 year old.  I think he managed not to throw anything in the lake this time but the hook.  I managed to keep my personal streak alive and not catch anything.

After a couple of hours we went back to the house the women had prepared a fine dinner, brats, hot dogs, hamburgers, several salads and all the trimmings.  It was truly a good day.  After we got home my daughter Jennye facebooked me to tell me she had gotten me a gift certificate at Amazon.com which I loved.  I immediately went to Amazon and ordered the musical "Porgy & Bess" and love the music.  While I was on the site I set up a cloud to load the music onto.  I can't believe I have a cloud, a week ago I couldn't figure out what a cloud was or why I would need one.  It saves me a lot of storage memory on my phone.  Love it!  On Monday, had such a good time on Sunday, my grandson Dalton & I went fishing again.  This time we left early in the morning and got to the lake @ Montgomery Bell State Park @ about 7:30.  It was beautiful and peaceful at the lake.  The ducks and geese were swimming by causing the only ripples on the water.  The only other thing causing ripples in the lake were the fish jumping.  I thought we might just get lucky that day.   I managed to keep my streak alive though and we didn't have to be bothered with cleaning a bunch of fish.   We really did have a nice time that day.
  Like I said it has been hot Karen has gotten to the pool every day for an hour or so.  We can't seem to get Bobby outside even to go to the pool.  He is content to stay inside all day and play his X-box.  We even went so far as to go his "pocket rocket", a small electric motorcycle, back so he would go outside and do something but, to no avail.
  I took the Denali over to the Goodyear store to have them check out the tires and found a nail in both of them.  $33 but it could have been worse.  There is a "service ride control" light on my warning panel so I asked about getting that taken care of.  I could not believe that shocks could possibly cost that much.  I will take it back to them next week to be sure that's what the problem is.  We haven't had any type of problem in the ride.  Check in next week to see what happens.

Still in Dickson

  Well the past 4 or 5 days have been very productive.  We look like we are having a huge garage sale but it's all progress.  We have found some uses for objects that we really didn't want to get rid of like this cute scarecrow. 
  I have lost track of the number of trips I have made to the old storage unit, the new storage unit, Goodwill & the dump, trying to sort things out and deciding what we really need and what is just junk. 
  Well, you don't see that often, a fire truck lights flashing siren blaring pulling into a campground.  Right behind it is an ambulance no lights or siren.  Of course I could always count on Bobby to find out what's going on.  No flames or smoke visible so mustn't be a fire.  Apparently a women had a stroke.  There are a lot of full time residents here.  I was on my way to take Donnie to get his drivers license taken care of but, I knew that Bobby couldn't resist running over and getting the lowdown.  He doesn't take no for an answer.  He would probably make a good reporter. 
  Well, as I was saying just a few more things to go through and we'll be settled in here.
    I'm still having trouble with the 7 pin connector that connects the car to the trailer.  It got cut during setup.  I have re spliced everything, pretty simple color-to-color.  The brake controller doesn't indicate it's connected and brake lights and directional don't work on right side of trailer.  If anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them.
See you down the road,
Don & Karen

Dickson, TN

Well, after a rocky start we have settled in here and it is not too bad.  Still not level but not too bad.  Not sure I would recommend it to others or not.  It is convenient for us and the price is right so here we stay.
  Took a long walk this morning and felt pretty good.  It was nice to be able to go for a walk and not have to suffer from the hip pain.  Prissy seemed to like it too.
  Not really too much to say about this stay.  We have lots of things to do this week and hoping Bobby will be able to stay with uncle Tim & Aunt Renee and the boys this week.  We will be spending a lot of time at the storage unit, which doesn't have wi-fi and he would really be bored.  We're trying to get out of the unit that we're in right now and be able to move to a smaller (cheaper) unit so things have to go.  There are still things that we need to take with us, things to find new homes for and things to just get rid of.  Goodwill may be tired of us by Thursday.
  I will still add to the blog even if it seems dull, so is our life from time to time.

See you down the road
Don & Karen

Lebanon, TN

Today we left Sevierville, ok now it's been a couple of days. Right now I'm sitting in beautiful Centennial Park in downtown Nashville watching the ducks & pretty fountains @ the lake. It has been a time the past couple of days. First, I don't think I will ever tire of driving through east TN down I-40. Driving through the Great Smokie Mountains. The view is just indescibable. As you crest one mountain top and see the valleys & mountains ahead of you. This time of year it is a patchwork quilt of every shade of green imaginable. I have always said that you can see the hand of God @ work in these magnificent vistas. All you have to do is open your eyes and appreciate the splendor of nature laid out before you. I can't imagine any part of the country more beautiful than this but, I am anxious to see all the rest of the sights to see what can challenge this thought. Stopped to get gas just as we reached our destination in Lebanon and managed to cut the corner too tight and tear a small gash in the side of the trailer by hitting one of the guard posts the put up just for such an occasion. No major damage done except to my ego. On to Shady Acres where we have been looking forward to staying for at least two years. No monthly sites left ... bummer. Not too many sites to choose from at all. Well we got in the site and upon examination of the damage to the trailer I noticed that there was also some minor damage to the wheel & tire on the other side. I have no idea how this occurred and doesn't seem to be too bad. All part of the new experience I guess. After some deliberation & phone calls we decided that since we have so much stuff to do in Dickson and weren't able to get the monthly rate in Lebanon it would be better to get a site in Dickson. We managed to get a spot @ Dickson RV Park for the monthly rate and of course it is 56 miles closer to where we need to be a lot of the time. Well, what an ordeal this has turned out to be. First of all the people there bare very friendly & helpful, possibly too helpful. We did all the paperwork and one of the guys that works there, Brian, showed us our site and he and the manager guided us into it. They then jumped in to help get it set up and leveled. Well by the time that it was level two wheels on one side were off the ground. For some reason Brian raised the tongue jack @ that time the whole trailer swung off the leveling jacks and fell. When this happened the front right jack was damaged and is now unusable. Now to top that off the 7 pin connector cable which runs the lights & brakes on the trailer fell on the ground and the tongue jack must have landed on in and severed it. Just another of life's experiences. Anyway, they finally got it leveled and it is now up on blocks and stable ... level not so much but, hopefully enough to live with for a month.

Still trying to figure out this whole blog thing and when I do I will get the pictures where I want them on the blog

See you down the road,
Don & Karen

Sevierville, TN

  Today we're in Sevierville, TN.  River Plantation RV Park.  this is a really nice Good Sam's park.  It is very large and has a lot of full timers.  I have been getting out and walking everyday trying to get some exercise.  I figure it's going to either ease the aches and pains or put me in a ride-on scooter.  I'm going back to the doctor next week to get another steroid shot.  Hopefully that will hold me for another 4 months or so.  I didn't realize how long or steep the road was up to the front to get a picture of the entry to the park.  Halfway up it seemed longer and steeper than it did at the bottom.  The boys have been swimming quite a bit, as much as they can, and have made some friends here in the park.  Can you spend too much time at the pool?  They have a very nice pool area here including pools, one of which had an inclined slope to get in the pool and a water fountain at one end and a hot tub.
  We haven't been able to get out and do as much as we would like due to financial constraints at the time but hopefully we'll at least get in some miniature golf or something. This is the perfect weekend for the synchronous firefly.  This is an occurrence that only happens here in the Smoky Mountains from what I understand.  Haven't been able to get to see them mainly because of the weather but am hoping that it will clear up by this evening and will take a trip to the National Park.  You can check this out for yourself at r http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/fireflies.htm.
  Rain last night.  It was quite nice actually to sit there under the trailer awning and watch and listen to the rhythm of the falling rain(hmm good song title in there).  This morning it was raining again.  This time it was really coming down.  The wind was blowing so hard that I was beginning to worry about the awning.  It calmed down enough to get back outside again and visit with my early morning friend that comes by every morning.  This robin red breast is there every day digging up worms.



  Had to refill the LP gas for the first time today.  It wasn't that bad $25 for the 30lb tank.  I thought that was a reasonable price for that.  We'll see how long that lasts.  We will be here for several more days before getting back on the road and heading to Lebanon, TN which we will call home for the next month or so.

See you down the road
Don & Karen