Our fifth wheel and the truck

Monday, February 25, 2013

Catching up - very quickly!!!

Well I am back!! And if I hear some comments like ‘about time’ and ‘we thought you had fallen off the face of the earth’ I do apologize. I wrote this post a long time ago but was feeling a bit down when I finished it so it didn't get put on here till now. 

We have covered a lot of ground since my last post so I am going to put a few posts up together.  I will save the pictures till I get some decent internet (we haven't had it for a while!)  I have written quite a few posts but rather than put them up one at a time I am posting quite a few together so get yourself a coffee or a wine and a comfortable seat cos this first one is pretty long.

PART ONE

After leaving Jasper and the amazing places we had visited during our three months in the north it was a bit of a come down to hit the rolling prairies and corn and wheat fields of Canada and northern US.

Before leaving Canada we had one more stop - in Edmonton where we were going to spend some time with some of my family members. Jock and his family are cousins (a few removed!).

We met up with Jock in Edmonton and spent a wonderful evening with his sister Marta and her husband John and a friend, Michelle. The next day Jock, Norm and I went to the Edmonton Fringe Festival which was wonderful. The street performers were incredible especially a couple of twin sisters from Quebec. Thanks to Anne, Jock’s niece, we attended one of the Fringe performances that evening. ‘Guys in Disguise’ which was so much fun! Two very talented, cross dressing blokes who performed as Julie Andrews, Cher, Tina Turner etc. Just an amazing day and evening. Thanks Jock, Marta, John and Anne - you guys are wonderful and hopefully we will catch you again some time.

From Edmonton we headed south towards the border and an interesting time crossing back into the US. Just to provide some background, we had asked at each US border crossing what we needed to do with our I94 (our entry document) and at each one we were told something different. At one we were told that if we were spending a significant amount of time (two weeks +) in Canada then we needed to hand it in. So when we went into Canada for the last time and planning on spending about three weeks we handed our forms in.

Not a good move according to the border patrol officer in Sweetgrass, MT. According to him it is at least 30 days and we shouldn’t have handed it in. Anyway after quite some explaining and showing him our airline tickets to depart the US on 25th February (which I had changed and printed the day before - just to be sure we had everything JUST IN CASE), and paying $12 we were issued with new I94’s that expire on 27th February. So we have two days grace just in case flights are changed or some other unforeseen circumstance occurs.

So, with new I94’s in our hot little hands we were bound for North Dakota where we spent a couple of days in Bismarck. We took a dinner cruise while there but were a little disappointed. The food was okay - plenty of it and quite good, but the commentary and scenery was pretty ordinary. Mind you we have been spoiled by Alaska and the Yukon!

After North Dakota, Minnesota and our friends Pete and Judy in Byron were our next destination. We met Pete and Judy in December, 2010 in Texas and then traveled with them through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama for a few weeks. We spent a couple of days with them and had a great time. It was so wonderful to catch up with them again however we were disappointed that they wouldn’t be joining us at the rally.

The four of us visited a local Amish area around Lanesboro and Harmony which of course I loved because of the quilting. Mind you, I have been a little disappointed in many of the quilts I have seen - they don’t appear to be very well made and the actual workmanship has not been that flash. I will add here that when we were in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania a couple of weeks later I noticed that the quilts were beautifully made and the quilt stitching was really well done. Anyway a lovely time was had with Pete and Judy and we will be catching up with them again - probably in Alabama or Florida during the winter. Thanks for having us - again - and we loved spending some time with you both. Take care and see you on the road!!

Our next stop was to spend some time with the first friends we made when we arrived in the US in 2010. Mary and Bruce (from Wisconsin) pulled into an rv park in Leadville Colorado at the same time as we did and as there was only one spot we thought we were going to have to draw straws. The owner of the park eventually returned and sorted out the problem and we both ended up with places and then the four of us went out to lunch and spent some of the next few days sightseeing and chatting and eating etc. We have visited them twice before on our travels across the country and they joined us for a week at the Grand Canyon just before we went home last time.

It was so good to have some down time at Mary and Bruce’s with time to catch up on ‘stuff’. Norm spent a very profitable couple of days doing some renovations to the fifth wheel and I thoroughly enjoyed doing some cooking in a real kitchen. During our stay I cooked a real Australian roast lamb dinner and trifle for dessert. Both went down really well although I am not sure whether I have convinced the family that roast pumpkin is really good!!!

On the weekend the four of us visited the Wisconsin Dells and took a boat ride up the river. What an amazing place!! The land around the Dells is rolling hills and it is a real surprise to see the change in the landscape of the river and the limestone cliffs along its course. Unfortunately, due to low water levels the lower dell was not navigable but never mind we still had a really good time.

As always our time with friends is never long enough and before we were ready to leave it was time to be moving on. Thanks Mary and Bruce, we will miss you guys.

A quick stop near the Amana Colonies in Iowa was our next destination. Lots of antique shops and restaurants and very interesting how this group of villages have adapted to modern society.

The next week we spent at Sedalia, Missouri at the Escapees rally along with over 550 other rv’s of every description from tents to huge motor homes. We met up with Rick and Karen on our arrival and were looking forward to spend some time with them and catching up however Rick became ill early in our stay and that put a damper on the rally. He was okay by the end of the rally as they made their way east and we were going to Kentucky.

We met up with a couple, Lynn and Louise, who had just returned from four years of rv’ing around Australia. We were having such a great time with them that when they suggested that instead of slowly making our way to Northern Kentucky University, we should go with them to Branson, Missouri for a couple of days we decided to go. We had plenty of time - haha! Well we would have if they hadn’t talked us into staying an extra couple of days!!

Our stay in Branson was really fascinating. I had never heard of Branson and was certainly unaware of all the theatres that exist down there. It seems that everyone has a theatre down there and we were blown away by the standard and variety of live shows around. We went to the Dolly Parton Stampede for the dinner show - now that was an eye opener. Dinner is served on a plate as you watch the show but you have to use your fingers to eat it all. A cup of soup, a whole chicken (a bantam really), some ribs and pork loin, corn on the cob and potato and then a chocolate dessert - way too much for me. The show was fantastic with singing, horses, comedy etc. A really good night.

The other show that we went to was a group of six brother (called SIX) who sing without any instruments and make all the instrument noises with their mouths. They were really incredible and just so talented.

One day Lynn and Norm went to a car show and, although it wasn’t what they expected, it was made up of cars that had been used in movies like the Batmobile, the Dukes of Hazzard cars, Kitt from Knightrider etc as well as some other classic cats. Louise and I went shopping!

Having pushed our stay to the absolute limit we had to hightail it across country to Kentucky to see Bryce. Six hundred miles in two days!! The first day we drove and drove and drove and were going to stop for the night in a casino parking lot but as we were looking for the casino a dreadful storm hit with lots of lightning, thunder and rain so we needed to get off the road in a hurry. We found a Walmart, except that the parking lot was being resurfaced and was closed off. It was right next door to a Home Depot so we decided that was a good place to stay for the night. Usually these stops can be a bit noisy but this one was off the highway and so we spent a quiet night and were able to get some sleep.

Early next morning we drove the rest of the way to our campground, set up and then took off to Northern Kentucky University at Highland Heights to finally catch up with our son,

Bryce! It was so wonderful to see him. He is so happy at NKU and is loving being back in the US.

For the next few days we spent lots of time with him and his friend, Steph. We visited Newport on the Levee and went to the aquarium there. A bit of a blast - the first display as you enter the aquarium was Australian river fish!!! This was a really awesome aquarium. We also took a walk on the ‘Purple People Bridge’ that took us across the river into Cincinatti, Ohio and took a visit to the Carew Building. The view over Cincinatti and into Kentucky was beautiful.

After cooking his favourite dinner - spaghetti bolognaise - and leaving him with a big pot of his favourite soup - pumpkin - it was time to say a very, very sad farewell. Too sad.

And on that note I am going to finish this post. Whoever thought that I could fit two months into one post? Not as verbose as I can be! I will start working on the next post right away - do you believe that?

PART TWO
 

I left the last post as we left Bryce in Kentucky and we began our journey east. Our first destination was in Stout, Ohio where we stayed for two nights as the information we had found said there was a lot to see in the area. On the way there we traveled along the Ohio River and passed through some beautiful little towns with lots of historical buildings. I did pass the comment to Norm that it would be lovely to have a look around and maybe we would find the same in Stout! Famous last words!!

We arrived at the rv park which was just a cleared area but was beautifully situated on the banks of the Ohio River. We set ourselves up and the next day we got an early start to visit Portsmouth. Very disappointing and in fact the only draw card that we found in the town was a Macca’s with free wifi. On the way back to the rv we stopped to visit the Sh???????????? State Park which was really beautiful. Being out of season it was absolutely deserted so we had it all to ourselves and took a walk. A sign indicating an infestation to ticks encouraged us to go back to the car and head home.

We cut our visit to Ohio short and left early the next morning bound for West Virginia. After crossing the state line we went to the visitors centre as we had no definite destination. We decided to head to Morganstown in the north of the state. We found a lovely park just out of Morgantown - very rustic with lovely trees in each site.

The next morning we took a ride into the town which is home to West Virginia University and there were students everywhere. We had been advised to take the PRT (Personal Rail Transit) which does a loop through many of the different facilities of the University and would give us a good start to looking at the town. We climbed the stairs towards the platform and realizing that we didn’t have a ticket (you can’t buy them at the station, all the students and residents have pre-paid cards) and a lovely young student very kindly allowed us to use her card to get on the platform.

There was a little carriage sitting with the door open so Norm made his way into it and I was just about to follow when I realized that he was on the wrong one. I told him immediately but….. Before he could get out, the doors closed and the carriage moved off leaving me standing on the platform!!

Rather than follow in the next carriage I decided that as it was a round trip I would just wait till he came back. A lady on the platform, seeing out predicament rang the management office and the next thing an announcement comes over the loudspeaker advising the lady who has lost her husband not to worry, they would make sure he got back to her!! Embarrassing - just a little!!

About 20 minutes later a carriage pulls in to the station and Norm climbs out. He doesn’t need to go on the trip now - he has seen it all!!! We did go though as I wanted to see it too.

We then took a walk through the town and found some beautiful old buildings that had been beautifully restored. The whole town is really geared to the student population.

On our way back to the campgrounds we went to visit SSHHHHH State Park which was lovely. The overlooks across the valleys and the mountains were stunning and the walking trails were gorgeous. Fall was coming to West Virginia adding some stunning colour.

From WV we went further east into Maryland and managed to navigate our way across Baltimore in peak hour traffic - or at least it seemed like it! We stayed at a park just near the Maryland/Delaware state line. The plan was to spend a couple of days to see something of both states.

Our first day we took off for Dover, the capital of Delaware. Our thinking was that as Delaware was the first state to sign the Declaration of Independence there would be some old buildings, history etc. We muffed that one! We drove all through Dover and couldn’t find anything except a wonderful museum that was designed like an old-fashioned village with a typical house, barns and even the outhouse. There was a gorgeous little chapel and in fact there was a wedding taking place while we were there. A railway station, a school house, barber shop and general store were also there. They even had a working windmill drawing water from a well. It was so much fun and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next day we planned on visiting in Maryland however after we set off with our intentions to see some of the sights and then have a Maryland crab lunch, it began to rain and wouldn’t let up. Just getting in and out of the car was an absolute pain so after some shopping we decided to go back home.

The next destination was Lancashire in Pennsylvania - the heart of Amish country. I have a fascination with the way these people live. The simplicity that they are able to maintain in their every day lives is really interesting.

The first day we visited the town of Intercourse which is wonderful. The range of arts and crafts is truly amazing and finally my faith in quilting has been restored. My prior experience with Amish quilting has been in Indiana and Minnesota and I have been disappointed with the quality of the quilting in both places. The stitching that I saw in Pennsylvania was so well done. Even sized stitches and the pattern of the quilting was much more than just the straight lines I had previously seen.

Our second day was again spent investigating the local flavours and the crafts. We discovered a village where many artisans collected and found one store where you could sample all the produce. Wonderful tastes!! Jams, pickles, olives, sauces, oils, spreads, salsas - I was in heaven. I can’t remember how many jars we came away with.

It was now early October and we have a date with our friends Holly and Shaun in Connecticut so we began heading north.

A short stop in New York State at Camp Waubeeka which we just loved. Although this park did not have such great reviews we found it really good. Cold but good! It was very much a family park and this was the last weekend of the season. Most of the rv owners were there to close up and winterize their rvs so the place was full of children having a wonderful time, pot luck suppers and bonfires were also on the agenda for the weekend. Sunday morning we woke to find everyone moving out and by lunch time the park was almost deserted and so quiet without the kids outside playing.

Some sightseeing to a State Park which also includes Bash Bish Falls in Massachussets. An absolutely gorgeous spot and quite an easy hike up to the falls.

We also took a drive around the country side. Gorgeous fall colours up this corner of the country are - just spectacular and they aren’t even at their best yet - so we were told.  We also saw a sign attached to a pig farm - Pigasso Farm - so funny!

Our next stop will be in Prospect, Connecticut with our friends Pam and Greg. They were Bryce’s host parents when he came over in 2006/7 for his first exchange and we are so looking forward to catching up with them again.

Love and hugs to you all. Take care dear family, friends and visitors and I will be back shortly - rofl!!!!!

PART THREE

A short drive from Camp Waubeeka, New York took us to Heritage B&B (not really) in Prospect, Connecticut and our friends Pam and Greg. We set up the rv in their front yard and settled in to catch up with the comings and goings in their home. And I might add there are always lots of comings and goings in their household. Pam and Greg are amazing people who foster children from new-borns to teenagers. My admiration for the tasks they take on is immeasurable. Not only that but they still take in exchange students as well as having four adopted children from Russia. Talk about big hearted!

Greg is an amazing tour guide so we were taken on some terrific tours of the area. We visited the Nautilus (a submarine) and even got to walk through it. The submarine is maintained just the way it was when it was in working order. I couldn’t imagine Bryce being a submariner - the beds are only 6ft long!!!!

He also took us to tour Mark Twain’s and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s houses. Our guides on these tours were terrific and were able to let us know about some of the idiosyncrasies of Mark Twain and the truly interesting life of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Stowe was a woman far ahead of her time - as were her siblings.

Pam and I took some time out and went to the Mohegan Sun Casino. If you know me you will appreciate the fact that I hate to gamble - especially on slot machines! I have always said I worked too hard for my money to throw it away in machines that are rigged in favour of casinos. HOWEVER we had a wonderful time and ended up playing a machine for two. Pam got down to about $5.00 (I had already lost my $25.00 - which is what I allowed myself!!) and as we played the machine the money started going up. We got to a point where I said to Pam - if it goes down to $50 we walk away. Then it was, if it goes down to $80 we walk away. Then it was if it goes over $100 we walk away. So on an amazing winning streak Pam walked away with over $100. A fun day and a win for Pam and not too expensive for me!

The hard part about having such wonderful friends in the US is saying goodbye to them so we bid Pam and Greg a sad farewell but we now head north east to Ellington, Connecticut to see our friends Holly and Shaun who we met on our Hawaii cruise.

We are looking forward to spending time with them again and of course, Norm is just a little excited about attending a New England Patriots game with Shaun while Holly and I visit Salem, Massachusetts - home of the infamous ’witch trials’.

Shaun and Holly had a wedding to go to so Norm and I took ourselves off to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. What a brilliant place! Every player who has made the Hall has a dedication to them with a souvenir from their playing days, you can shoot baskets and dunk the ball at varying height rings.

The next day Norm and Shaun got an early start so they could attend the ‘tail-gate’ party before the game. This is apparently a tradition at American football games. I guess you have to have something to do for the four or five hours after you get a parking spot and before the game starts! One of Shaun’s friends bought the barbie and the meat and they had a huge cookout while they were waiting.

The Pats were playing the NY Jets which is apparently a bit of a grudge match so tickets were hard to come by but the guys had really good seats for a really exciting game. Shaun told Norm that of all the games he had attended this was perhaps the most exciting. Both of the guys came home really hoarse and even the next morning Norm had a scratchy throat from all the yelling. It had been a 12 hour day by the time they got home so both of the guys were pretty wacked. They even had another ‘tail-gate’ party after the game finished while they waited for the traffic to clear a bit.

While the guys were off at the game Holly and I took a drive to Salem to have a look around. What a thoroughly interesting place. The true story of Salem is not nearly as exciting as I had thought. No witches were burned and in fact only 18 people were hung with one fellow being crushed to death. The true story is that a few girls started the whole incident due to boredom. The started accusing people of being witches and causing them to have fits etc and when the people were in court they twitched and fainted and had fits and the judges were convinced and consequently found the victim guilty. One of the girls eventually admitted (as an adult) that the whole thing had been a hoax and actually apologized.

Anyway the whole town is a testament to witches and witchcraft with souvenir shops, museums, shops with all sorts of witchcraft paraphernalia, restaurants etc. We had arrived on a day of celebration (can’t remember what of!) so the streets were full of people in costume, tourists and street performers. We had a great day and finished the day with a yummy dinner - apparently you should always have a lobster poboy when in Salem so that is what I had. Sooooo good!!!!! Needless to say we had a great day and still managed to get home before the guys.

After a wonderful stay with Shaun and Holly it was time to say farewell and to be moving on again with the plan to make our way south to Maryland and hopefully do some sightseeing. We are planning on coming back to see Shaun and Holly in 2013 when we come back to the US.

I have to tell you that as we headed south the GPS indicated that we would have to drive through Philadelphia and as Norm usually does the driving through the cities - because I have to do the navigating - I tried to plan the trip to accommodate that. So much for my planning!! As we drew near Philly I was in the driver’s seat and Norm was snoring gently beside me!! Well by the time he woke we were well passed Philly and I was feeling very happy with myself. I drove through Philly and without a navigator!!!! Don’t tell Norm but it was really easy and not too much traffic!!

This time when we went to Maryland we stayed at a park just north of Baltimore. It was situated right on the bay and in fact our rv was backed up to the water with just the most wonderful views across the water. We decided to take a couple of days just sitting and getting the laundry done and having a rest which turned out to be our undoing as we still didn’t get to see anything in Maryland.

We were sitting by the bay - about 3 metres from the water) when we found out about a visitor coming to the area! Sandy was headed our way and we decided that this wasn’t a really good place to be. Our ultimate goal was to be in Florida for Christmas with a detour to North Carolina to see friends but as Sandy was in Florida and heading to NC we decided that we would go to Tennessee. I planned out the trip and we packed up with our destination the SKP park in Knoxville.

We overnighted at a truck stop (which was surprisingly quiet for a truck stop) and reached the park the next morning. Mid afternoon our friends Karen and Rick arrived. They had been escaping from Baltimore and Sandy as well when they say a post I put on Facebook about where we were going and, without a destination in mind, decided that it sounded like a good idea.

Lucky for us we left Maryland when we did. I heard from some other friends who had been driving back from Florida to NC who said that the interstate that we had been on, had been bumper to bumper and crawling along south the day after we got to Knoxville. Definitely more good luck than good management!

We had a really quiet time in Knoxville catching up with car services, haircuts, shopping and spending time with Rick and Karen.

As we were only a couple of hours drive from our mates in NC we made arrangements to drive over and spend a night with them at their home. Ron is American and Lynne is an Australian. Last time we were home they were visiting Lynne’s family just down the road from our place and came up for lunch with some other friends so it was so nice to catch up with them again.

They live in Waynesville which is a gorgeous town. The old buildings have been restored and many artisans have set up outlets for their work. Lynne is an extremely talented quilter and dyes her own fabrics and actually has some of her work in the outlets. I can only aspire to be as talented as Lynne.

We have the best friends! Their generosity and hospitality and legendary!! Two days later we said farewell to Lynne and Ron and made our way back to Knoxville.

We had been in Knoxville for some time and Norm and I were getting itchy feet but it was still too soon to go to Florida so we decided to take a detour to Nashville, Memphis and then down the Natchez Trail before going to the SKP park in Summerdale, Alabama and then on to Florida.

Anyway that is the next episode in this never-ending story!

To all our dear friends and family and to any visitors to this blog, I hope you are enjoying our travels and would love it if you left a comment - even if it is to scold me for the infrequency of the posts!!

Take care of you and yours and our love and hugs to you all.

PART FOUR

Just in case you are wondering where all these posts and this burst of energy has come from, I will let you into a little secret. I have set myself the goal of getting up to date by doing one post per day while I am on the Chile cruise so today, as I type this, I am sitting in the coffee shop just having enjoyed my first latte in a very long time. But more about the cruise when I get the rest of our travels done.

Moving on from Knoxville meant having to say farewell to more friends. It is never easy and Rick and Karen have been with us quite a bit throughout this trip. But it isn’t farewell it is only ‘See ya later’ as we will be seeing them again when we head west towards the end of our trip.

Our next stop was Nashville and although Norm and I are not ‘city’ people we had an absolute ball there.

We stayed at a park just out of the city and took a shuttle into town both days. We went to a show at ‘The Grand Ole Opry’ which was amazing. I didn’t know that they have been broadcasting a radio program from the Opry for a very long time and the show we went to was one of the shows being broadcast so they even have ‘ad’ breaks!

The Grand Ole Opry is a beautiful old building and was originally designed as a church so all the seating is wooden pews! Not very comfortable on the rear end!! In fact you can buy cushions from young girls walking around the theatre.

We took a trolley tour around the city and were delighted with a visit to the Mammoth Motor Car Company building and the restored cars. As part of the tour we visited a city park where there is an exact replica of the Parthenon. (While we haven’t been to Europe yet, the original has been put on the bucket list.) The park was just beautiful and as we were there at dusk we were able to witness a stunning sunset which painted the lake with the most gorgeous colours.

We had dinner on Bourbon Street and spent quite a bit of time wandering around. We visited the bar where Keith Urban was ‘discovered’ and went in to many of the bars where aspiring country singers were performing in the hope that they would be discovered.

While we were in Nashville we watched our first episode of the new tv program titled ‘Nashville’ and were amazed at how accurate much of the program was. It was a real buzz to be able to identify places on Bourbon Street and in ‘The Grand Ole Opry’ while we were actually in the city.

From Nashville, the home of country music, we moved on to Memphis, the home of rock and roll and Elvis Presley.

When we arrived in Memphis we stayed in a State Park. This would have to be one of the best parks we have ever stayed in. Quiet, clean and easy sites to get into. Mind you, the neighbourhood we had to drive through to reach the park left quite a bit to be desired but the park itself was outstanding.

We set up the rv and took a quick (the rv park wasn’t very far away) drive down to get a look at Elvis Presley Boulevard and the outside of Graceland. We decided that the next day we would take a tour of the house and have a look around. The street was jam packed with souvenir shops with Elvis memorabilia and Elvis songs blaring from the loud speakers on the street. So much fun and being an Elvis fan from way back I was really looking forward to the next day.

Early the next morning we got organized and drove down, found ourselves some free parking within easy walking distance to Graceland and got our tickets for the tour.

The house has not changed since Elvis died and although we were not able to tour the upstairs where he passed away the downstairs was very interesting with the Piano Room and the Jungle Room being open. I actually found it extremely interesting. I was not aware of his philanthropic work with the people of the area and his gifts to individuals and organizations. He was a very generous person. I also found it rather sad in that he found himself typecast in so many of the movies he made and this caused him a great deal of dissatisfaction with his life.

I still love his music and in fact I got on itunes soon after and downloaded some more of his music!

We left Memphis with our next destination a State Park (another gorgeous state park in Tennessee - they have really set the standard for other states) which was located just near Lynchburg, Tennessee. What the dickens is in Lynchburg, TN I hear you ask!! Only the home of Gentleman Jack!! That is right, every drop of Jack Daniels bourbon in the world is produced in Lynchburg, TN.

We took a tour of the distillery and saw the spring that is the source of all the water that is used for the bourbon, Gentleman Jack’s office and the safe that eventually caused his demise.

Apparently in a fit of pique because he couldn’t remember the combination of the safe, Gentleman Jack kicked the safe and the resulting injury caused gangrene to set in. This caused the amputation of his foot and then his leg and eventually, taking his life.

One piece of trivia for you, Lynchburg is a ‘dry’ community - you can’t even buy Jack Daniels in the town!!!

Mississippi was our next destination as we wanted to drive some of the Natchez Parkway. This was originally the route that was established by the Native Americans and also used by many early settlers who, having sailed down the Mississippi River with their goods to sell, would have to make their way back to Ohio and areas north.

We picked up the Parkway (it starts in Tennessee) Mississippi, just near Tupelo and spent two nights dry camping along the route. This is just the most beautiful route. There was so much history and many sights to see along the way. It is a very leisurely drive with a speed limit of only 50mph and not much traffic at all at this time of the year. I must admit though we did need to get to the camping areas reasonably early as they did fill up later in the day. We made a point of getting to the camp and then unhitching and taking a drive back up the Parkway to see anything that we had missed in our hurry to get a spot for the night.

Towards the end of the Parkway there is a section of the trail where it has been worn down so much the sides of the trail are about 12 feet (4m) higher than the trail. It was so interesting and although we were assured that the trail had been worn through the forest it was still quite difficult to believe that it was possible for this to happen.

We left the Parkway just north of the town of Natchez as we were bound for Summerdale in Alabama. This is a SKP park that we have visited before when we were here on our last trip and would have to be one of the busiest parks we have ever been in. There are so many activities going on all the time there is no way that anyone staying here for any length of time could ever get bored. In fact there is so much to do it is hard to decide where to begin.

We had arrived the day before Thanksgiving and were delighted to be included in the lunch held in the clubhouse. We went to happy hour a few times, had breakfast a couple of mornings and enjoyed market day (crafts people selling their wares) as well as dinner out with some of the other guests. I even got the sewing machine out and started a new quilt with the other ladies. Some of the quilt ideas that they have are really stunning and I can’t wait to get home and start again where I have lots of room to work rather than in the rv - it does get a bit cramped and messy when I am trying to sew!

Summerdale is our last stop before we move down to Florida. We are going to be staying at the SKP park in Wauchula for a few days before we got to Bushnell. Bryce is going to be joining us for a couple of weeks over Christmas so I am really excited about that. Can’t wait to see how he puts his 6’5” body on the fold out, blow up sofa bed that he will be using.

I hope you have enjoyed this rather long post and I will endeavour to put up the next one as soon as possible.

Until my next post I wish you all happy days, stay well and happy. Love and hugs from us to you.

Ooroo!