Ten days since my last blog. Where does the time go? Every day seems like a Saturday. Great fun and no time pressures. But I must keep everyone better informed and will try at least 2x a week in the future. That way each entry will not be too long as this one turns out and hopefully you won’t throw me into your spam folder. Since this is also intended to be a reference in the future for me, I will try a different format for dates and places.
3/21/14, Friday: Perry GA to Salem SC
About 4 hour drive to visit our friends Edda & Mike who have a 19 acre spread near Salem. Uneventful trip except for the traffic on the Atlanta bypass which is a place to avoid next time. I’ll never complain about Tampa traffic again. We knew our friends lived in the country but when we arrived on a gravel road only about 10 feet wide with fences on both sides (the coach is 8.5 feet wide) and several low hanging trees I thought I was going to test my driving in reverse skills to the max. After Mike cut a couple tree branches with his chainsaw and a failed attempt to back into a part of their field, somehow I managed to turn the rig around and backed in at a different angle. I was so focused on getting into that space I literally had no recollection of how I did it just after I shut the coach off. OK, so the field was not too level. No problem since the coach has leveling jacks. As I was putting the jacks down, Rosemary came running to stop me as the coach steps were being plunged into the ground. We lowered the back end a little to save the steps. Fortunately, we just made the 3 degree tolerance for the refrigerator to work. Dinner out with Edda & Mike entailed a 30 minute drive. Good Asian restaurant in Seneca I think. Good visit and Saturday departed for NC.
3/22/14, Saturday: Salem SC to Henderson NC
Arrived just before noon to visit my sister Staci, bro-in-law Jon and niece Avery. Only a 70 minute drive from Salem. Afternoon visit to Burntshirt Vineyards for wine, nibbles and music on a beautiful sunny, cool day. Sunday morning, rain and cold. It cleared some in the afternoon so we visited the Triple Falls and Hooker Falls waterfalls about 30 minutes away. Monday spent in Asheville visiting artsy fartsy stuff for the girls in order for the guys to pick the dinner spot, the Wicked Weed Brew Pub. (The weed referred to is hops). Good beer and good bison burger. Tuesday and SNOW!!! Two nights straight with temps down to the low 20's. Kept my light on in the outside water compartment to have a little extra heat on the pipes. But no frozen pipes. Jon has a 20 amp outlet for us to plug into. The electric heat was fine on the 20 amps at first but tripped when we discovered Jon’s electric blankie was on the same circuit. Thereafter, we used the LP furnace for heat. Since LP was running low and I did not want to move the coach until we depart on Wednesday, I turned the heat off Tuesday during the day. Staci (who designed the tasting room and more at the winery) had arranged a private tour of Burntshirt with the winemaker, Mike Sterling. We sampled 5 wines of the 2013 vintage directly from the barrels since it had not been bottled yet. Good stuff and Mike was a generous host. Dinner at Flat Rock Wood Room. Good BBQ and wood fired pizza too. When we returned after dinner, the coach was a nippy 54 degrees. The LP furnace heated us up in no time and went to bed hoping the LP did not run out before morning.
3/26/14, Wednesday: Hendersonville NC to Perry GA
Departed 10:15. Stopped at Flying J at mm 160 on I-85 for LP, diesel, dump and lunch. Took exit 149 to go 441 through Athens to avoid Atlanta. Arrived Perry just after 5:00 and checked into Fairgrounds with full hookup. Parked right next to two Roll ‘N Rebels coaches. Thursday, a couple seminars and dinner of mahi mahi on our gas grill (outside the coach) in the sun with a cool breeze and a bottle of porter. Evening entertainment and door prize give-aways afterwards keeps the crowd there til the end. Out of about 440 coaches the first number picked for a prize was ours. A silicone spoon rest! Just what no one needs in a coach. The next day we managed to convince the vendor who sponsored the spoon rest to let us exchange it for a comparably priced item, a kitchen timer, so we do not have to turn on the generator for the microwave timer every time Rosemary wants to time her tea. Friday, guess what. More rain. Another muddy mess. About 30 minutes of severe winds did some damage to others with flag poles and wind socks taking flight to outer space but our coach survived unscathed. A couple more seminars including an RV Tour company who was giving away a tablet at the end of the seminar. Guess what? Rosemary got her tablet. Another device she won’t know how to use! Saturday we played hooky from Perry and went to the Aviation Museum in Warner Robbins, admission free. About 30 minutes northeast. Had a good time, lots of aircraft on display inside and outside. Dinner at the rally was by Yoder’s, a Mennonite caterer. More entertainment and a Chinese auction by which time our luck had run out.
3/30/14, Sunday: Perry GA to Andersonville, GA and Tiftin GA
Depart 10:00 for about 40 minute drive to Andersonville National Historic Site, the National Prisoner of War Museum and the National Cemetery. We spent the entire day. Fascinating story of the Civil War prison known as Camp Sumter as well as the history of all prisoners of war. Some 30,000 Union prisoners housed in a prison designed for 6,000, operated from February 1864 to May 1865. No shelter at all. Just walls around the perimeter. 13,000 died. Afterwards headed south to Tifton where we knew a good place to stay the night as we had at the beginning of the trip, the GA Museum of Agriculture. Arrived about 6:00, dinner at Pit Stop BBQ, then shopping at Publix so we have a full fridge when we get home tomorrow. I have never been homesick the last 17 days and wish we were staying on the road. But lots to do when we get home before the really big trip this summer. Enjoying motorhome life! Until next time, happy travels.
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