Catching Up - Arkansas to Oklahoma

It's snowing here in Oklahoma......oh, I forgot. You don't know we're in Oklahoma so I better catch you up.

When last I reported we were in Flippin, Ark on our way to Mountain View. Larry had been talking about this for weeks and was excited for us to experience it. Don't tell him, but we really enjoyed it. Every evening we went downtown and listened to the various groups jam. Music was varied and so was the level of talent. There was the man who had adapted his fiddle so he could play with mostly nubs on his left hand. He was outstanding.
There was a man who played the dulcimer and autoharp and "schooled" those in the group with him. There were two young girls who could outplay most older guys on the fiddle and a family who played and sang the most beautiful harmony I have ever heard. On the flip side of this was the lady with the snare drum and the guy with the tie-dyed shirt, stove pipe hat and banjo that sounded like he had been to "happy hour" before he arrived. It was all very entertaining (and the ice cream was good too). One interesting thing we saw in town was the "Curl Up and Dye" hair salon.  We thought the name was kind of cute but in a creepy way. 

After exploring Mountain View for several days, Larry and Beverly had to return home to take care of some family business, so we returned to Bull Shoals alone. We pulled into our parking spot and immediately noticed stuff hitting the roof of our RV. We had noticed this a little bit the first time we were here and thought it was acorns, since we were under a tree. It wasn't until we moved the next day that we noticed the ground was covered by pecans. That's why it sounded like someone throwing rocks during the night. We enjoyed fishing, bird and deer watching for another week before returning to Longview and the Quinn RV Park.

After about a week of taking care of business in Longview, we finally headed to Oklahoma to visit the family. For you that don't know our family it consists of our son David, daughter-in-love Nicole, 3 grandkids Dane, Dax and Dayci and 2 foster babies Little Man and Tiny Man. We've been here 2 months so far and are having a great time. We've spent quite a bit of time baby sitting and helping Nicole with taxi service. The 3 grandkids go to school, come home and go to other activities all at different times.  Don't know how she keeps up with it and with 2 babies to juggle as well.

Dane warming up

Basketball started this week and we are excited to see Dane play. He's been working hard with long after-school practices. Doesn't hurt that he's already 6'4" at 15.  We got to see the end of Dax's fall baseball season and look forward to seeing him in basketball as well.







Dax in action in the Lawton game
 

Dax also started his basketball season.

















Dayci has started her gymnastic meets and yesterday came home with two 1st place, one 2nd place and one 3rd place ribbons plus was 1st overall in her division and has the medal to prove it. 





After several weeks of setbacks and delays, 2 1/2 weeks ago David and Nicole bought their new-to-them home. It is beautiful. Large living spaces and more storage than they know what to do with. The kids finally have their own rooms. It took Grandpa building a wall, but it is now complete and looks good.

This leads me back to the beginning.....IT SNOWED PEOPLE. I know, it wasn't a blizzard or even that much snow but to a girl from Texas, ANY SNOW IS SNOW.  When we decided to full-time we said we would NOT be in this weather situation. What's wrong here.   Oh well, it warmed up for a few days so we'll take that for now.

We're off to Dayci's birthday party where she and her friends are going to paint.  We'll let you know how it goes next time.

 

Goodbye to Sticks and Bricks

We spent 2 months in Longview taking care of our final sticks and bricks related issues. On July 4th we had a cookout with friends Larry, Beverly, Sam, Brenda, Charlene and Dennis. Although the weather was great, we still appreciated the fact that our RV site was covered and we had shade. 
While waiting for the closing on our house, we took a car trip to Oklahoma to see the family.  The boys left for church camp a couple of days after we arrived, but we still had a great time with the family, which right now also includes 2 beautiful foster babies.  Looking forward to a longer visit later this fall.

On August 1st we said goodbye to our sticks and bricks (home) in Hallsville and closed that chapter in our lives. The following day we, along with Larry and Beverly, left for..........wait for it.........Toad Suck, AR.  For those who don't know, it's just north of Conway on the Arkansas River and home to the Ferry Lock and Dam. We had to stay there if for no other reason than to say we've stayed at "Toad Suck". Actually, we enjoyed the stay.




 It was very interesting to watch barges navigate through the locks. One of the strangest things we saw was a lady walking her pet raccoon.  Yes,  I said raccoon. 

Oh, I keep forgetting.  This is ARKANSAS. 





Sam and Brenda joined us while in Toad Suck. When we went to make the reservation for them, we were told that we had to put a "tent" on the site then come back and pay.

David had the solution with a blue tarp and some rope and soon he and Larry had erected a "tent".


 The next 2 weeks were spent at Bull Shoals State Park. This park was exceptional with full hookups, level site pads and shade. This park has won many awards for the best state park in Arkansas.

They offered talks/hikes such as Night Hike, Owl Prowl,  Bird Walk, Nature Hike and Trout Fishing Tips which we enjoyed very much.  Ones we DIDN'T attend were about snakes and eating bugs. YUCK!! 

Deer were everywhere. We had a group of 16 outside our front door one day.

 

We also had a red fox come by. The girls spent lots of time bird watching, photographing many of them. They identified around 40 different birds.  The guys had great fun fishing but not great luck until the day Larry and David rented a boat. Beverly even got in on the action when she caught her first trout, much to Larry's surprise. We toured the Bull Shoals Dam Powerhouse, strolled around the Park Visitors Center and took a Sunset Cruise on the Lake. As we said goodbye to Bull Shoals we also had to say goodbye to Sam and Brenda. They were headed to Mountain View for a couple of days and then home to take care of some business.

Red headed woodpecker



Pileated Woodpecker

Chipmunk

One evening we took a relaxing sunset cruise of the lake with our friends.

Sam and Brenda




Larry and Beverly

We headed down river to the Blue Heron Campground near Flippin and Cotter.

This is a very nice park with lots of shady places to sit and it's right on the water. Terry, the owner is super nice and told us we could "run a tab" when we checked in. That's different. Each evening we sit out at the river watching the river rise and wonder which of us will be the first to get wet. A few nights ago a group of us were sitting at the waters edge with Terry on the very edge with his back to the water. It wasn't long until he was splashing his feet in the water. We all could see the water rising on his chair and tried to tell him but he paid no attention. Well, you know what happened. The water finally got to the seat of his chair (maybe with the help of waves from a passing boat), he jumped up like his chair was on fire and we just laughed. Hey Terry!  We tried to tell you.
  
We have a few more days here and then will head to Mountain View.

Goldfinch
 

                  








We just love this RVing.

THE "NEW NORMAL"

Since our last post, we spent Thanksgiving in Oklahoma, arriving in an ice storm. We enjoyed the Thanksgiving with the kids but left a few days early after the weatherman warned us of more freezing and ice coming.


We spent February at Surfside Beach, Texas (just down the coast from Galveston) with Larry and Beverly. Although it wasn't as warm as we would have liked, it was warmer than back in East Texas since you guys were having ice.

It was during this time that we confirmed our desire to pursue this RV lifestyle. We had spent many hours discussing this lifestyle and if it was for us. It was during this time that we decided that we had talked enough and it was time to make the move.



Although the 2001 Winnebago had served us well, we decided that there were a few more options that would be beneficial for a lifestyle change, so David went shopping for a new motorhome. We found one........in Pennsylvania. At that time they were having snow....lots of snow. By the first of April it had cleared up enough that David and Larry flew to PA and drove our new motorhome back. Of course the first stop has to be the closest WalMart for supplies.





The next bit of excitement was to test the accuracy of road signage by taking the 12'8" motorhome under a 12'7" overpass.  After assurance from the previous owner that they had been through there, we decided to make a go of it. Did I also mention that it was narrow and there was oncoming traffic? Don't want to do that again.




After a trip to Lake O' the Pines with Larry, Beverly, Sam, Brenda, L A and Jean to test out our new digs and a trip to Dallas with David's brother Dennis, we have decided to take the plunge and make the RV our new home.

The next step in this adventure would be to sell our home. We also agreed that we should seek professional help in disposing of our "things". We visited with several estate sale companies and all their schedules were open the next few weeks but then busy for a couple of months. So after 2 crazy weeks of real estate people, estate sale people and deciding what we wanted to keep or put in storage, we moved into our motorhome as our primary residence. We were exhausted and shell shocked from all the activity. Thanks to our wonderful friends Larry, Beverly, Sam and Brenda, we spent the next 10 days at the lake just recuperating. It took several days, but we finally came out of the fog we were in from the enormity of what we had just done.

We are now settling into the "new normal" and really enjoying ourselves. We will keep Longview as our home base and are currently at a local RV park. Our next plans are to see the grandkids and spend some time in Arkansas. Of course, these are subject to change at any time. We'll let you know what's really next in our adventure called life.

2013 Yellowstone and Beyond - Part 6 - Chattanooga - Atlanta RV Rally

As we left Kentucky through the mountains of Tennessee, we again had an issue with our engine overheating. We decided to stop at a Camping World RV Park in Chattanooga to see if they could recommend a mechanic. Praise the Lord. They had a service center and could repair it for us.

While waiting for the repair, we visited the downtown area, walked on the Walnut Street Bridge across the Tennessee River and went to the Moon Pie General Store. Larry was really excited about the last, since Moon Pies are his favorite, but was a little disappointed when no factory tour was available.

The repairs were completed and we were ready to go but alas, the government decided a shutdown was in order. This put a kink in our plans. We had originally thought to drive on to a Corps of Engineer Park near Atlanta, but those parks were now closed. We decided it was best to stay where we were until time for the RV Rally in Atlanta. The Camping World park was nice and convenient to many things we wanted to see in and around Chattanooga.

Since we had really enjoyed the previous festivals we had discovered, we looked for ones in this area.  First was the Annual Fall Festival in Etowah, TN, about 45 miles away. It was slightly larger than the previous two with lots of local vendors and food. Beverly and Sophie checked out the booths before we all enjoyed fried apple pies. As we were leaving, we saw a sign for the Car Show. You know we had to track it down and again saw several beautiful classics. We had seen many garage sales along US 411 as we traveled to the festival (reminded us of the Hwy 80 sales at home), so we stopped at the one Larry called the "Mecca".  Although there was lots of stuff available, all we bought were what Larry and Sophie said were the "best" tomatoes they had eaten in a long time.

A few days later we took a trip to the Mayfield Dairy Farms in Athens, TN.  After putting on a "lovely" hairnet, we went into the plant where we saw them making the jugs and them filling them with milk. We also got a glimpse of them filling ice cream cartons.  Although we enjoyed the tour, we all agreed the best part was the ice cream we got to eat at the end of the tour. On our way back we drove down the Cherohala Skyway scenic bypass which was a narrow, curvy road through the Appalachian Mountains.

The next day we went to Rock City and had a great time squeezing through the skinny places along the trail, walking on the swinging suspension bridge (even though someone in our group kept jumping up and down on it) and looking out over the beautiful countryside at Lovers Leap. It's unbelievable to think that this was one family's property when it was developed.

We finally thought it was time for a guys and girls day out. David and Larry went to a 3-D showing of "Gravity" while Beverly and Sophie went shopping of course.  They didn't buy anything but did find another Walmart for future purchases.

On our last weekend in Chattanooga, we traveled to Ellijay, Georgia for the Apple Festival.  We parked downtown and proceeded to the square where we roamed through vendor and food booths, thinking this was smaller than last weeks festival. When we saw school buses picking up people, we realized this wasn't all. They transported people to the fairgrounds where hundreds of vendor and food booths were set up. There were dozens of kiddie type rides and blow-ups and at least 250 classic cars and trucks. Amazing. We sampled the food,  some more than others, and had the best fried apple pies of the whole trip.  This festival was over two weekends and unfortunately the parade was the following weekend.   I'm sure it was larger than the last one we saw.

It's finally time to leave Chattanooga and head to the RV Rally at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, GA, just south of Atlanta.  We checked in and found our parking spot in one of the main parking lots.

This was "dry camping" which means no electricity, water or sewer, but since we are self contained, this was not a problem. We would run our generator for a short time in the morning and evening to keep the batteries charged.

We had great fun at the Rally, checking out the latest in motorhomes, learning all kinds of good and important things in the many seminars and finding all of those "must have" items offered from the vendors.  

Evening entertainment was provided by the Beach Boys and Vince Gill plus a spectacular fireworks display. They were great.

Unfortunately, on our way to Atlanta, we again experienced engine overheating so after talking with the people at Camping World, we headed back to Chattanooga for them to check it out.  The part that was replaced earlier was found to be defective.  After replacing it again, all was good and we were on our way home.

It's hard to adequately describe how awesome this trip was. August thru October 2013, we were privileged to see many of God's magnificent creations as well as many He inspired man to create. We don't know what lays ahead but we look forward to new adventures in 2014.

2013 Yellowstone and Beyond - Part 5 - Indy- Louisville

Saying goodbye to Iowa, we headed toward Indianapolis. Beverly, our resident campground booking agent, found us a spot in Thorntown, IN.  We left I-74 and turned onto a very small, curvy, one-lane, sometimes dirt road covered by overhanging trees and surrounded by corn fields. As we traveled down this little backwoods looking trail of a road we thought we heard "Dueling Banjos" (if you're to young to get this reference, it means "very scary") and we really questioned her choice of campgrounds. We finally arrived and it was nice but kind of strange.  We had never seen as many golf carts in one place as we saw there.  It appeared that if you were seasonal (stayed there for extended periods of time) you had to have a golf cart and ride around in the evening snubbing those that were overnighting. It was quite comical to watch.

Thornton was having it's annual "Festival of the Turning Leaves", so naturally we had to go.  It started on Friday with garages sales that Larry and David had to check out. On Saturday we checked out the vendor booths, had a bite to eat from the food court and listened to some local talent perform. We found a cool (shady) spot to see the parade. Well.....there were no marching bands, floats or even decorated trucks with trailers, but mostly parade officials and political opponents campaigning.   There were a dozen or so antique tractors, some being pulled by others, that were very cool. This was followed by a large Frito-Lay truck from which they were throwing bags of Doritos.  Bringing up the rear were what we thought must be every emergency vehicle in the area.





We took a day trip into Indianapolis and toured the Motor Speedway and Museum.

It was very interesting seeing past winners cars, innovations through the years and the history of the track. We even took a lap around the track. No, it wasn't in a race car (it was a bus) but it was fun anyway. 
 
We headed toward Louisville, KY stopping for the night in a park in Indiana. While pulling into our parking spot and missing a tree by mere inches, we clipped a water spigot, which caused a geyser to rival many we saw in Yellowstone. While the campground host was busy looking around for a pipe wrench, David calmly pulled his out and cut off the water. "Be prepared" is our motto.  

Before leaving this area, we made a trip to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory Tour. Very interesting to see how bats are made and bats and other memorabilia in the Museum. We each left with a souvenir miniature bat.

2013 Yellowstone and Beyond - Part 4 - The Corn Fields

After leaving Hill City we passed hundreds of signs (no exaggeration) along the highway advertising Wall Drug. We decided to check it out. Well........it's more like a mall than a single store, taking up a large portion of the downtown. Dozens of stores, several cafés, entertainment areas and much more, make up this "store". It even had an indoor "street".

Next we stopped in Mitchell, SD to see the Corn Palace. If you've never heard of this, don't feel bad.  Sophie was the only one in our group who had.   It's used as an event center but the famous part is on the outside.

In areas on the front and side walls of the building, areas where pictures or a marque would be, there are murals/pictures made with corn cobs. 







It is like "paint by number" pictures.  Corn is grown specifically for this purpose.  The cobs are cut in half so that they will lay flat against the wall, then nailed on. This work was going on while we were there so we saw it in all stages.




Next stop on our must see list was the Winnebago Factory and Visitor Center in Forrest City, IA. We all thought it was very interesting and informative. The craftsmanship put into each unit just confirmed that we have the right motorhome.


Since there was "no room at the inn" so to speak at the Winnebago Campground, we chose to stay in the city park in Forrest City. Let me assure you, this was nothing like any park in our area. It was very nice and peaceful with a creek running through it and a golf course next door. 

We again decided not to travel on the weekend, so we took a car trip to nearby Osage for a fall festival called Autumn Artistry. We had seen it advertised on TV and knew it also included a car show. The "festival" part was on Main Street were we bought 2 yummy apple pies from the ladies auxiliary and apple butter from another booth.

We rode the shuttle wagon (pulled by a John Deere tractor) to the fairgrounds to see the car show where there were lots of beautiful classic cars.