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.

2013 Yellowstone and Beyond - Part 3 - The Badlands

We finally left Cody headed to the Mt. Rushmore area.

Before arriving we stopped at Devils Tower which was proclaimed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 as the first National Monument. It was quite impressive.

We hiked around the monument, watched several rock climbers and checked out the prairie dogs near the entrance.

After passing Sturgis and Rapid City, SD, we found our campground outside of Hill City in the heart of the Black Hills. During the last leg of this trip we began having overheating problems with the RV as we climbed hills but made it and had no obvious problem right then.















The first excursion we took was up the Needles Highway which was very picturesque, curvy, mostly single lane with 3 very small (8' X 12') tunnels.











One of the most entertaining things we witnessed was the German couple in a rental RV who were determined to drive through the first (and smallest) of the tunnels. They did, and made it, scraping the top and sides along the way.





We expected them to get stuck but when they would hit, he just accelerated and barreled on through. By the way, there were 2 more of these tunnels on the road, with no alternate route.  We passed them at a pullover area so we don't know the outcome. 








Other things we saw while in this area were Crazy Horse Memorial Monument, Custer State Park, Sylvan Lake and mountain goats.

 

We made 2 trips to Mt. Rushmore, one in the day and another for the night lighting. 

 With a look of amazement on her face, Sophie exclaimed while looking between the rows of state flags to the monument,

"I never thought I would be here". 

It was a very awe inspiring sight.

 

 

2013 - Yellowstone and Beyond - Part 2 - Cody Wy

We had to say goodbye to Yellowstone and our friends Sam and Brenda (they were headed back to Longview) as we headed to Cody, WY.  During the next week we visited the Buffalo Bill Center of the West (made up of 5 museums), Old Trail Town (pretty much what it sounds like) and traveled up the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway and Beartooth Highway. 

 



Beartooth Mountain

 Larry and David visited the Japanese 'relocation' center at Heart Mountain while Beverly and Sophie opted to do laundry.  The girls met 2 couples from Canada who, when the wind and rains came and they were all closed up in the laundry room, likened it to having a party but without wine. From the way the Canadians were acting, the girls thought they may have had the wine before they got there. Later Larry and Beverly went to the gunfight in the street re-enactment while we elected to rest.  A highlight for David and Larry while in Cody was meeting up with their Longview friend Bart McCoy who took them trout fishing.

He has family in the area and spends time with them each year. Beverly and Sophie met up with the guys at Bart's nephew's house where Brett and Stella showed us great Wyoming hospitality with homemade tortillas and fish from the days catch.  Before we left Cody we saw 2 other Longview couples Bob and Sharon Holcomb and Bob and Jackie Berryhill who were visiting Bart. Just proves "It is a small world".

With Larry and Beverly leading, we say goodbye to the Ponderosa Campground and.......oh wait, there's a problem with our tow bar. No worries, David whips out his tools and has it fixed in no time. We're on our way again.......oh wait, Larry has a problem with the Auto Park brake on his RV.  We had traveled only 3 or 4 miles out of Cody and had just passed a repair shop. God always provides. Since this all happened on a Saturday it was Tuesday before the repairs were completed and we were on the road again. Although we had a great time of R&R while waiting, we decided in the future, we would not travel on the weekend.