Dispatch from the Road 2024

The trip so far!  Friday May 24 2024. It stormed most of the night, so I checked weather radar as soon as I got up. Well, actually it was right after I made coffee, you know how mornings are! The big mass of storm moving across us was almost exactly the same as the previous two mornings. There was one substantial difference, a huge area of Oklahoma was under a flood warning. My planned route was straight through the center of the warning area.  NOTE: On the day we would have passed through this area a tornado killed 7 people. Prudence sometimes is the better part of valor. I changed our route, taking I-30 southwest to Texarkana and from there west through Texas on Hwy 82. The road has an interesting plan for traffic, the road is three lanes wide, two lanes in one direction and one in the other. Every few miles the center lane swaps to the other direction. It worked seamlessly, even at the 70-mph speed limit.  Texas Hwy 82 We had gotten away at 9am, I think, I’m not sure which time zone

The trip so far!   Sorry this post is a bit technical and that I have no photos of the repairs. When I'm working I am fixated on the task and never think of taking progress pictures. Tuesday May 21 2024 We have a 412 mile drive scheduled for today and planned on an early start. We got up at 6am and were ready to shortly after 7, however the RV had other plans. First issue was the slide out would not retract. When troubleshooting did not disclose the problem because the fuse panel labeling was wrong and I didn’t discover this until later in the day. We retracted the slide using the backup mechanism. This required removing the fascia at the top of the slide-out to access the gearmotor.  With the slide in we started hooking up to the truck and the electric jack would not retract. Seeing basically the same “no voltage” as the slide-out I assumed the problems were related and as I hadn’t fixed the slide-out yet, I just removed the jack and used the stabilizing jacks to lower the tongue

A hot chick under a cool old tree (Osage Orange, est. 200+ yrs old)  Friday May 17, 2024, we drove to Nashville today. Most of the route is on I-40, one of our least favorite roads because of heavy truck traffic. To ease the pain, we drove local roads to Knoxville before getting on the freeway. Surprisingly, traffic was light and we sailed along and passed the time listening to an audio book. Campsite #24 Our campsite reservation outside Nashville is at 7 points campground on Priestly Lake. It is one of the seven Corp of Engineers campgrounds on the lake. When I made the reservations a few months ago all the waterfront sites were taken and we picked site 24 which is across the road. It turned out to be lucky for us as all the waterfront campsites were recently flooded due to heavy rains and they were all still closed. All the waterfront sites still drying out after flood On Saturday May 18 2024 we drove into downtown Nashville and visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. We h

  It's a highly contagious killer virus. Quick, lets buy an RV and go camping among strange people! We surely would have spent more time in Virginia, but nowadays when you are making campground reservations, you have to take what you can get. This is especially true with state or federal parks, they have been in high demand since the Covid crisis.  It seems that in a collective epiphany, a whole lot of folks went out and bought RV's thinking that somehow this method of travel would keep the family safe from the ill's of the world. I wonder how that worked out for them? Our site at Jellystone Campground On Tuesday May 14, 2024, we moved from Raccoon Branch to Pigeon Forge Tennessee. We have a very nice site at the Jellystone Campground which is located just off the main drag thru Sevierville and Pigeon Forge. It is no more than ½ mile from the main entrance to Dollywood. That first afternoon it was on and off showers, so we just stayed at the RV. The original plan was to sec

Denton NC to Troutdale VA  Monday May 13 2024 On Sunday morning we broke camp at Denton Farm Park and drove northwest to Raccoon Branch Campground near Troutdale Virginia. It is a small campground in the Jefferson National Forest with only about 20 sites and only 10 with water/electric and the rest primitive. It is a pretty place and is also the trail head for the path up a mountain to a scenic summit overlook called Dickey-knob, elevation 3650 feet. view from Dickey-Knob The first night here at Raccoon Branch the temperature dropped to 43 degree F. That was climate shock for us, coming from the south; Had the electric heat set to low and woke up to 61 degrees F inside. The gas furnace quickly brought it up to a comfortable 75. We have learned from previous visits here that the water pressure and volume is very low. So low you have a hard time washing shampoo out of your hair. I stood outside at the tank fill with a hose for what seemed like an hour to add 20 gallons of water to our on

  The Malpass Brothers, Chris and Taylor Thursday May 9 2024 to Saturday 11 2024 We decided today would be a good time to miss the first couple shows and visit with Millie’s sister Lucile, knowing that the first day acts repeated in the afternoon and we could catch their shows then.  The drive to Greensboro took a bit over an hour and we had an enjoyable visiting with Lucile. Even though the sisters speak regularly on the phone they still generated nonstop conversation the whole time we were there. Soon it was time to head back to the Malpass Brothers Country and Bluegrass Festival at the Denton Farm Park. Just a sampling of the other Bluegrass Groups Over the course of the three days we saw eleven different Bluegrass groups, five performances by the Malpass Brothers and the closing act by Gene Watson and his band.  I can’t say enough good things about the Malpass Brothers. They are consummate entertainers, they sing traditional country songs, they are excellent musicians and do comedy