'11/#20 We're Here!!!!

We are finally in Pigeon Forge. It was the "scenic route" from Ashville NC via Elkhart In but we made it. The trailer is mostly set up for our extended stay & we are settling in. This is one of those parks that dosen't accept mail for their residents so we needed to get a PO Box to receive our mail. I don't really blame them as I have seen what a pain the mail can be for the office in our park in FL. The RVers in our section are mostly seasonal workers for Dollywood so they are friendly & make the effort to get to know the new arrivals. Right behind us Mary has made a friend. Faye is just as much a plant person as Mary & the two of them have already been digging in the dirt!

The section we are in is relatively new & the hook ups are not quite RV ready. A quick trip to Lowes & a few pieces of PVC & we were hooked up. After 6 days on our holding tanks it was time to dump & flush & dump & flush & dump again. There is nothing like a clean poop tank! There was plenty of laundry to do & the park has a beautiful rec building with a nice laundry. Being able to do 2,3, or even 4 loads of laundry at one time is one of the perks of laundromats. Another is meeting the people from the park. New friends, easy chairs for reading, & a big screen TV makes doing laundry a not-so-dreaded chore.

Another perk of meeting the residents is hearing about all the freebies available. Since the park works with Dollywood they get passes for some of the events. We got here on Saturday & went to the Dixie Stampede dinner show on Sunday! The show was excellent, the food was delicious, & being free made it even better. Next Tuesday the park is sponsoring a B-B-Q potluck dinner. Around here they call it a pitch-in. Traveling around the country has introduced me to the vernacular of so many different people that I am almost multi-lingual,HA HA.

The next few days we are going to cruise around the area to get the lay of the land, find the short cuts, locate the best stores, & just get our bearings for the next several months. I have added to my key chain collection of grocery customer rewards cards. Some people have photo albums, others have bumper stickers, I can show you where we have traveled by the grocery stores we shop around the country. What can I say, I'm different.

Well today was a busy day & we are going to have dinner soon. Then we will walk around the park & try to meet a few more of our new neighbors. We are settling into our home here in Pigeon Forge Tennessee because....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary

'11/#20 I HATE Jello

The last day in Marion didn't start off well. If you have been following us for the past year you remember the time we spent in Elkhart having some work done on our rig. The floor needed replacing which cost us quite a bit & took way longer than it should have but it was done & over with. Or so we thought. As we were getting ready to leave NC we noticed the new floor was falling apart. Some irate calls to the repair shop & we rerouted our trip from Tennessee to Indiana. Not what we wanted to do but something we had to do. The shop knew we were upset & that we had a schedule to keep so the job was assessed & started right away with their best workers. It appears that the materials supplied to the shop were defective & that it would be repaired in a few days.

I started this blog 2 days ago but just couldn't keep my head in it to finish. Now I am back. Everything was fixed & we were on our way Friday around noon. We put a lot of miles behind us for such a late start. Tonight will be another night at Walmart & with an early start we hope to reach Pigeon Forge Saturday afternoon.

After a long day, including some horrendous traffic through Cincinnati that Mary got stuck behind the wheel for, neither one of us wanted to cook. So what could we do? Well there is a Papa Johns about 200' from where we are parked soooooo. Then with belly's full we did the Internet thing. You know, e-mails & blogs & Facebook & news & weather. Soon it will be time to go to bed & get some well deserved sleep. Once again we will be lulled to sleep by the sounds of the interstate. It's either that or trains when it comes to RVing.

Now that I look at it, it wasn't much of a blog to take 2 days to write but here it is, from our home at Walmart outside Lexington KY because......

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary

'11/#19 Last Day With SKPs (Escapees...get it?)

I don't know what is going on lately. Neither one of us feels great. My back is still killing me, even though it is getting better, & Mary has just generally been feeling under the weather. Because of this & the fact that we have been night-shifters for so many years, mornings have been kind of rough. We get up for the morning breakfast & socializing but find ourselves crawling back into bed shortly thereafter. Yesterday was biscuits-n-gravy & today was "eggs in a bag". Yes, in a bag. It was a first for us but it was interesting. Start with a zip-loc bag, crack 2 eggs inside, add cheese & bacon & ham & mushrooms & onions & peppers, mush until mixed, close bag, & place in a communal pot of boiling water. 5 minutes later you have an omelet in a bag. It was interesting but would taste much better closer to 9am than 7:30.

Mary is at this moment sorting through her pictures of the Biltmore Estate to post on FB. It may take some time since she took close to 700 pictures just that day. She went through 2 batteries & that is without taking any pictures inside the house where photography is banned. I am blogging as you can see. I am trying to blog off line to save some of our data usage with Verizon. With 2 computers & this being our main connection to the world while we travel we have gone over our allotted usage on occasion. The overage charges are, shall we say......OUCH! We try to avoid this situation as much as possible.

Today will be our last day with the Escapees. There will be an open discussion on all things RV related, the daily Happy Hour, a catered dinner, & the closing ceremonies. Tomorrow everyone will be hitching up & there will be a continental breakfast where we will say our good byes & trade contact information. We will be part of the mass exodus but with only 150 miles to travel we are in no hurry. Next stop....Dollywood!

As I said earlier I am trying this blogging off line thing. I may have to copy it over if it doesn't work or not do it this way if it doesn't work well. We will start the packing up process today so we will have less to do tomorrow. So this will probably be my last blog from our home in Marion NC
because.......

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary

'11/#18 A Little Now & A Little Then

We are in the mountains of NC & having a great time at the Escapees Rally. We are meeting new friends & sharing RV experiences. That is a corner stone to the RV life style. Yesterday we went into Ashville to see the Biltmore Estate. It is supposedly the largest private residence in the US. Without a tape measure & full access I will have to take their word on it, but I can tell you that it is quite impressive. I am not into gaudiness or ostentatious displays but big is big! Some of the features in the home were way ahead of the times technologically & the grounds are beautifully landscaped. The varieties in the garden & green house had Mary drooling & snapping pictures until her camera was gasping for air. I am sure they will be posted on FB soon.

After exploring the 250 room house & as much of the 8000 acres that we could handle we went home & promptly took a nap. Waking up in time for dinner we finished some leftovers & watched the Royal wedding. And watched & watched & watched. Almost as boring as a 2 hour rehash of a presidents 10 minute speech. My only thoughts on the subject are that the couple look genuinely happy & that it seems like it will be as much a marriage as it was a wedding.

That was the now, & now a little then. Remember the country music festival? Remember Mary being in the middle of everything? Remember Mary's interview for local TV? Remember the interview for the local press? Well it is still going on! On clean-up day we met a little girl who was disappointed that one of the radio station contests had never materialized. Mary wanted to do something, but what? Well she wrote the radio station & sent pictures of the little girl in hopes that someone would take notice. It worked! Little Jenifer is now going to DJ the morning show & get all the perks the station could think of. The station let us know & thanked us for being "Runaway Country Angels". Shortly after that Mary gets an e-mail from Florida Today ( the local paper) saying they got a call from a friend at the radio station & is making her an honorary staffer. That's my girl, in the middle of it all & making people happy. She makes me happy every day so that makes me a REAL lucky guy!

Today we have nothing to do & will take all day getting it done. My back is doing better but could use some rest, Mary overdosed on flowers & mansion & needs to recuperate, so today is the day for that. We may get together with some of the RVers for a campfire tonight & Sunday will be our last day here. Monday we head for Dollywood!!! So I am signing off from our home in the mountains of NC because.....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary

'11/#17 I'm Tired Of Jello

After having to find a place to stay Easter Sunday we planed to get to the rally park on Monday. While getting ready to leave Mary noticed one of the trailer tires had developed a couple of sidewall bubbles. That meant we weren't going anywhere. First a call to road service to change the tire. Then find a Goodyear dealer that could check the tire & replace it. The tire shop wasn't too far away & after prorating the old tire we got a new one for $100 dollars less than full price.



By the time we got back to the trailer we decided to stay where we were for 1 more night. Crawling around under the trailer to stow the spare should have been a simple job but not this time. The cable got tangled up & had to be completely unwound & rewound. Finally with the tire stowed I was filthy & sweaty & tired & achy. Plan B was to get to the rally park on Tuesday.



Tuesday morning I woke up with my back killing me. Wrestling with the spare took it's toll. We made it to the rally park & I was done. Some pain killers & rest will hopefully get me back on my feet tomorrow. People are starting to come in for the rally. There are a dozen or so rigs here & we hear that they are expecting over 100. The rally starts tomorrow & we are looking forward to the camaraderie that comes when RVers gather.



I am going to call it an early night so that I can enjoy the rest of the week. So this is goodnight from our home in the rally park in NC because.....



Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary

'11/#16 Just A Brief Stop...Where?????

A night at the Walmart campground in Walterboro wasn't too bad. It was cool so no AC needed & we were tired enough that the overnight traffic didn't bother us. RVers learn to deal with the noise since RV parks always seem to be next to interstates or RR tracks. We actually slept in since today was just a short drive of 250 miles. Breakfast, shower, & on the road.

We stopped at lunch & called the campground to see about coming in a day or so earlier than the rally started. Stupid us!!! It's Easter Sunday & everyone is closed including campground offices. This campground also has a security gate so we couldn't even get in & settle up with them on Monday morning. Oh well, house on wheels & plans in jello one more time. Plan B. Either another Walmart or a campground on the way that would be open, hopefully the later since it is kind of warm & we would like to use the AC. Luck was with us & we found the Hominy Valley RV Park. It's on Hominy Valley Rd off of Hominy Creek Rd past the Hominy Valley Baptist Church. Ten points to anyone who can tell me where Hominy Valley is without Google-ing it.

Turns out this RV park is just what we were looking for. It's right beside the road & has full hook-up level gravel sites with 50 amp electric. Woo Hoo! Fire up the AC!!! Mary had driven in the last couple of hours & decided that she would back the rig into the site. No problem there, she has done it before but it has been awhile. Two shots, including moving it over 6 inches to clear one of our slides & she was in. I knew she could do it but we agreed that she should drive & back it in more often. No mater who backs it in we use the walkie-talkies. It makes backing in sooo much easier. That is why we call them "marriage savers".

For Easter we are going to make us a nice ham dinner with all the trimmings & then call it a day.
So Happy Easter to all from our home in Hominy Valley because.....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary

'11/#15 And Away We Go!

We had a great week with the uncles in Stuart. Just sitting around & talking after cooking & cooking & cooking was nice. Oh, there was some eating too. With belly's & fridge full it was time to go. We couldn't leave without some excitement. First there was some mangled jewelry & a finger. That was Mary's doing as well as Mary's finger. Minor cuts & some pretty good bruising but she will be OK. Apparently it hurts like a son-of-a-gun. Then we had a bit of a flood from the black-water back flush, this was my fault. Fortunately the tank was pretty well flushed so there wasn't much to the "poop" water but water but it was still a mess. Mary also managed to bang her finger(yes that one) while helping me clean up the mess. And yes it still hurt like a .....! I unhooked everything that night so we could get an early start & we had to do an extra load of laundry because of the flood. Oh well.

Bright & early we hit the road after breakfast & a quick check of all things that needed to be checked. RVers will understand. On the road by 8am & Mary was asleep by 8:30. The finger kept her awake most of the night so she climbed into the back seat & went right to sleep. 3 hours later I stopped for fuel & woke her up. I was all excited that I had found diesel for ONLY $3.99 a gallon. We hadn't seen it for anything less than $4.05 since we got to the east coast. Lunch was just over the Georgia border & Mary was awake enough to drive, or as she told me, I was tired & needed to rest. Either way she was probably right.

I slept through most of Georgia & rode shotgun through stop & go traffic through S Carolina. No accidents or construction, just stop & go on a Saturday afternoon. Go figure! I then drove a short ways to a Walmart for some free overnight camping. It's not really camping, just a place to stop for the night & get some sleep. Camping means landing gear down, awning out, slides out, grills & chairs set up. This is strictly taboo in RV circles to protect our right to park overnight in parking lots. Of course like anything else there are those few who abuse the privilege & ruin it for the rest of us but what can we do?

Well here we are at Walmart & I am going bananas! Diesel is $3.89 per gallon & 3 cents less with a Walmart card!!! Can you imagine being excited by $3.86 a gallon? Oh well, if we couldn't afford this lifestyle we woundn't be living it. While we are here we will patronize Walmart as a gesture of thanks for allowing us to stay overnight. Again this is part of the RV code of conduct.

Tomorrow should be a short drive compared to the 450 miles we drove today & will find us in N Carolina for another RV rally. This a smaller multi-chapter rally of Escapee members. Hopefully we will see some of the people we saw in Goshen last year & more importantly we hope to meet new RVers & make more friends. So good night from our home at Walmart because.....
Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary