Hello from Crossville, TN

Crossville is roughly half way between Knoxville and Nashville, TN right along I-40 on what they call the Cumberland Plateau.  At one time a few years ago we had purchased a lot here in the RV Community called 'The Gardens' and had full intentions of building here, however, life changes and we decided to full time RV instead.  We sold our lot in about 2010 but still have good friends here and we still love the area, so will spend the next few days catching up with everyone here.

We enjoyed our time in Asheville, NC but I will say that Asheville itself is probably not for us.  Beautiful old city, the downtown area is very eclectic and new age and was not the easiest place to get around with its narrow streets.   The surrounding area of Asheville, such as Hendersonville, was very nice and not the hustle/bustle of Asheville.  Of course, that being said, Asheville is very touristy with the Biltmore Mansion drawing thousands of visitors each day.  We toured the mansion in 2006 so we did not do it again.  It is an expensive tour that you need to do once ($59 a person unless you have a coupon of some sort) but worth it once.  The picture I'll post is from our visit in 2006.

We took a Greyline bus tour one day of Asheville and really enjoyed letting someone else do the driving.  Michael, our driver, is a professional story teller around Asheville and he told us that they pay him to talk, so that's what he did ALL the entire trip (almost 2 hours).  He really knew the history of Asheville and I wish I could remember all of what he told us about.  So much history there, big Victorian homes, unique architecture such as the Basilica of St. Lawrence, Battery Park Hotel, the Art Deco City Hall and many more.  One interesting tidbit he told us was the McDonalds near the entrance to the Biltmore Village is the fanciest McDonalds they have with a grand piano inside.  If we could have found a parking place, Dick and I would have stopped but that didn't happen.

Asheville also has several Farmer's Markets but there is one that has been there since the 1970's and was very close to our RV park.  It has both a retail section and then in the back there are MANY farmers and brokers there selling to individuals who want to buy in large quantities for canning/freezing, etc. and the brokers selling wholesale to the restaurants.  I talked to a 'local' lady who gave me some 'hints' of what is actually fresh right now in the area and what is being brought in right now, such as peaches from S. Carolina.  I asked her about 'greasy green beans' as I was seeing them in most every booth.  She's not a fan......said I needed just 'half-runner' green beans for good beans.  Greasy ones are just that, in her opinion, and the 'mountain folk' as she called them like to fix them with bacon, potatoes and lard.......hmmm.....don't think I'd like that either.  Anyway, she steered me correctly as far as tomatoes (big beef steak tomatoes like I remember as a kid), half runner beans, new potatoes, the S. Carolina peaches were excellent and the sweet corn was too.  We aren't much for zucchini or squash or things like that so I bypassed all of that but what we had was very good.

Another day we took a road trip out of Asheville up through the mountains to Brevard, NC, over the French Broad River into the Lake Toxaway area which is an area of many waterfalls.  It was an awesome drive, although VERY curvy and most roads were 35 mph in many places.  We stopped at Whitewater Falls near Cashiers, NC which was beautiful.  It was a short 1/2 mile hike back to the falls and then you could take 150+ stairs down to the bottom of the falls, and of course, you had to come back up......we did it and it was well worth it.  We drove on to Bridal Falls which was not near as beautiful (in our opinion) and we both say that if we would have done that one first, we wouldn't have driven another 30 miles on those curvy roads to see Whitewater Falls which meant we would have missed the best one.  There are many more falls in that general area but we started heading back as it was all total probably a 175+ mile day and we had seen some beautiful country but decided to save the rest for next time.  I can't tell you how many times Dick commented that he was glad he wasn't driving the rig through some of those curves......and my vertigo was saying 'enough is enough' too.

We left Asheville on Friday and had a short day mileage wise to Heiskell, TN where we spent the night to visit some RVing friends there.  We met Judy & Lyle in Durango, CO several years ago and have continued to keep in touch as they winter in AZ as well.  Judy will be having her 3rd hip replacement surgery in the next couple of weeks so she's not able to get around very well right now.  They have a beautiful home on Lake Norris outside Lafollette, TN where we enjoyed catching up with them.  They offered us a boat ride but I'm not a water person so we passed, also knowing that she couldn't go right now either.

Saturday we had another short driving day to Crossville.  The weather this week had been very nice with no rain to speak of, however, almost to Crossville it poured for about 20 minutes and then, of course, the humidity came out and so the rest of the day was muggy and hot.  We will enjoy our time here, most of which will be visiting with friends, getting Murphy a bath and Dick hopes to do some cleaning on the rig.

Just a short update on Mike.  He's home back in Phoenix in a 'hard' cast for total immobilization of his heel for 4 weeks.  The right one is still in a boot and after these next 4 weeks they will x-ray both again and see where he's at.  If things are progressing as everyone hopes, then he'll be in a boot on both heels for 4 weeks and then therapy.

Dick just told me this morning that we've traveled 4200 miles so far since 5/1 when we left Phoenix.

Enjoy your week ahead.  I can't believe it's almost August already......

Beautiful drive up towards Whitewater Falls near Cashiers, NC

Bridal Falls near Highlands, NC

Whitewater Falls

The Basilica of St. Lawrence in Asheville

Pack Square in the heart of Asheville with the Lance Monument in the background

Another home in the Montfort area, many of these are now B&B's
or medical facilities

The Biltmore Mansion

Our friends view from their deck of Lake Norris in Lafollette, TN

Tomatoes, apples, watermelons, a little bit of everything at the
Farmers Market in Asheville

Just a small sampling of the wholesale section of the Farmers Market

Hello from Concord, NC

Want to buy a bucket truck anyone?  These are directly across the highway from us and we initially 'assumed' it was the yard where they were all stored on a weekend, however, they never moved all week so we finally asked and there will be an auction this coming week where they, along with many other types of construction vehicles, will be sold.  I'm not kidding....there must be 500 vehicles of some sort over there and according to the lady we talked to they have an auction of this size every month.  Wow!!  Where do these all come from and where do they go?

It was an interesting departure from Winchester last Monday because that little hill we were parked on at the campground, turned out to be too steep for us to get down without dragging on the bottom of the rig.  So with the neighbors help, and some boards under the front tires, Dick was able to back up from being partially down the hill and then back out of the space and get turned around to get out of the park.  Oh the things we still learn.  And I guess we still didn't learn because later that day we stopped for a break and a soda at what turned out to be a VERY small truck stop along the interstate.  Dick missed the turn into the truck stop so we went on down the road but couldn't find a place to turn around without unhooking the car (we take a wide space to turn with the car hooked up) so we unhooked, took a little break, hooked back up, and went on down the road.  

We are here at the Tom Johnson Campground connected with a large RV dealer here in Concord and it sits between the RV dealer and the Charlotte Motor Speedway.  The park is nearly empty because there are no Nascar races here until later this summer.    Since we didn't have any definite plans to be somewhere, we decided to stay a week since the rate is very reasonable ($160).  Of course, there has been a heat wave throughout this area and the humidity was 90+ most days but what the heck, it's good for our skin right?  Not!!  

We have been at this campground before when we were doing all of our Nascar work so it has been fun to come back and look around when the area isn't so crowded.  We did go to a race on Tuesday night at the speedway as part of their Summer Shootout Series.  Free twinkies were given to everyone (I think that was the day they came back on the shelves) and we saw both Legend Car and Bandolero racing.    These are smaller cars with body styles similar to those of the 1930's and 1940's and powered by Yamaha motorcycle engines.  The Bandoleros are designed for drivers as young as 8 years old and the young-at-heart of any age.    When you think about it, the Nascar guys all pretty much started when they were kids doing exactly this at their local tracks in various types of vehicles.  Probably the best part of the night was two 'specialty' races........lawnmowers and school buses.  Oh my gosh, the lawnmowing guys /gals take this very serious.  In fact, they have their own national association of lawn mower racing and will have the 'national' race here next spring.  The school buses were 6 old buses and this week they called the race 'fastor pastors' as they were driven by pastors from local churches.  I believe each week they have different organizations who drive the buses.  Again, what a fun thing to watch and the winning pastor was so excited to get a trophy for his church.  

Another day we went to the Stewart-Hass Race Shop in Kannapolis, NC.  We still follow Tony Stewart, although not as seriously as we used to follow Nascar.  We have seen several other race shops in the past and it still holds true that they are IMMACULATE!  It is hard to imagine that the guys are there working on these cars and you could eat off the floors.  There is absolutely no grease or anything anywhere, plus their tools and tool boxes are spotless.  Depending on the team how close you can get and with Stewart-Haas you can only watch from behind a glass wall.  We were lucky enough a few years ago to get a 'behind the scenes' tour at Hendrick Motor Sports and that was a special treat to see how this big team is all put together and where they all have the best of everything to work with. 

We drove into Charlotte one day and what a beautiful, very spread out, old city with magnificent big tree-lined streets in some areas.  They do have segway tours around Charlotte and I kinda wanted to do that but it was just too hot so we walked around a bit and just enjoyed the scenery.

These flower beds are all around the part of
downtown Charlotte where we were

There is also a huge outlet mall here in Concord so I frequented that a couple of times and we drove into 'old' Concord which is very pretty as well.  Basically it has been a week of 'hanging out', some RV housekeeping, and eating some very good NC food.  I use tripadvisor.com a lot when we travel and it has become a game to try some of the restaurants and things to do in the areas that we are, to see if we agree with previous ratings.  One of our best finds here in Concord has been Jim 'N Nicks Barbecue where EVERYTHING is made from scratch.  Both times we've been there the waitresses told us that there is no freezer in the restaurant, that it's made fresh all day long.  I had just read an article in Thousand Trails magazine about this restaurant being started in Birmingham, AL by a gentleman and now being run by his son in the same manner as his father started.  I would love one of these out west but so far they are only as far west as CO.  We try to do and use 'local' things instead of the big chains that we see everywhere we go.

We'll move on tomorrow to Asheville, NC.  It's only about 175 miles so will be an easy traveling day we hope and our plan is maybe 3-4 nights in Asheville, another very pretty city in NC.  Rain is predicted for later this afternoon and all day tomorrow so hopefully only rain and no storms.

Charlotte Motor Speedway

Stewart-Haas Racing Shop.  Danica Patrick's cars on the left, Ryan
Newman's on the right & Tony's to the rear 

Crape Myrtle trees seen all over this
area in many colors

Crape Myrtle blossom up close (I've also
seen it spelled Crepe)

Some of downtown Charlotte

Legend cars lined up to start

Lawnmower races

School bus races ready to start

Unfortunately, my short video on these races wouldn't load so still pics is all I have to show you.

Hello from Winchester, VA

We have seen more rain on this summer's trip than we've seen in Arizona the past ten years and truthfully getting pretty tired of it.

We said good-bye to our friends, Craig and Cheryl, on Tuesday morning and left Elkhart as planned.  We stopped for diesel at the Flying J in New Haven, IN and that was the beginning of a VERY long day and night.  When we were ready to leave, the truck wouldn't start.  Dick did everything he knew to do, some fellow truckers gave us their ideas and still 'nothing'.  Of course, we were blocking one aisle at the fuel pump but what is one to do!   Dick called a mobile Freightliner guy and he got there within about 30 minutes and worked on us for another hour and still it wouldn't start.  Needless to say, we were all frustrated and wondering what we were going to do.  Dick is very conscious about taking care of the mechanical end of this motorhome and had just had a tune up while we were in IN, so we were all stumped.  As a last resort, the mobile guy even installed a new starter thinking that had to be the issue, but it wasn't.  All of a sudden about 90 minutes later, Dick happened to look down and realized that he had accidentally hit the battery disconnect switch down on the side of his seat.    Not only was Dick mad at himself, but the mobile guy was mad at himself too, both not even thinking about this being a possibility.  Dick has only turned it off (manually) a couple of times before and that was when we sat so long in Phoenix last summer and he didn't want to wear out the battery.  So after paying a pretty hefty bill to the mechanic, we were once again on our way.

By losing a couple of hours that morning we drove later into the evening than we usually do trying to make up some time.  We started watching for a truck stop or WalMart to overnight at about 6:30 but all were full or there were no WalMarts, so it was after 7:00 when we stopped at a Flying J in Luray, OH. Once again we went way to the back, found a spot in the corner that allowed us to put the slides out over the grass.  We had hoped not to unhook the car but in order to fit into that spot, we had to unhook and park the car in front of the rig.  No problem.  Of course, it had rained most of the afternoon so between the fiasco in the morning, the rain, and finally finding a place to park for the night, we retired early.  At about 2 a.m. I awoke to someone pounding on the door.  At first I thought I was hearing things, but it continued and then moved to various parts of the rig.  Dick was up by then and opened a window to ask what he wanted but the guy couldn't hear us (several trucks around us must have been refrigerated trucks because they hadn't shut their engines off) so Dick could see that it was a Flying J employee so he opened the door.  Because we were at the back of the lot, and it was a dead end back there, we had to move because the truckers couldn't turn around.  There were absolutely NO signs saying 'no parking' because we pay close attention to that and never park where we're not supposed to......except this time I guess.  Before going to bed we had seen several trucks turn around just fine but I guess by 2 a.m. and because it was raining, the truckers were frustrated that we were there.  It is absolutely pouring rain and we have to decide whether to just move to an empty spot in between semis or move on down the road.  We were awake, so we hooked up the car and went on down the road about 50 miles where we spotted a WalMart and stopped for a couple of hours of sleep.  What a long day to say the least!   Oh well, you have to have those once in a while to appreciate all the good ones.

Wednesday we had rain all day again until we got here to Winchester, VA where the sun was out for the balance of that afternoon.  Then later during the night it rained again and rained off and on all day Thursday and parts of Friday.  Fortunately no storms just a steady downpour of rain.  Even though we've been in this part of the country before I always forget about how we go from OH, into W. VA, (3 times in and out of W. VA), PA and then finally into VA.

We are about 30 miles from Dick's niece and her family and we've spent some wonderful time with them since getting here.  She has some health issues of her own and a 19 year old autistic son with many health issues besides autism.  We are so proud of her and her wonderful husband and how they manage all of this because it isn't easy.    Saturday they had some birthday plans for their 15 year old son, and even though they invited us to participate, we chose to let them have a 'family day' along with his friends.

Dick and I needed a 'chill day' so we were home all morning and after a quick lunch at Arbys we drove out of Winchester on Cedar Creek Grade.  We have driven the Skyline Drive here in this part of the Shenandoah Valley previously so we just left out of Winchester and took this road to see where it would lead us.  It was a beautiful drive past many huge VA brick homes (I think they have a full-time job mowing their HUGE lawns), stopped at a wonderful Farm Market where right now you could pick your own blackberries, raspberries or peaches.  It is a wonderful place to bring children to play, and teach them a little about farms and picking fruit and there were many families there shopping, enjoying the wonderful patio (much like a Cracker Barrel with rockers) and picking fruit.  Everything in the market was grown or made locally and they had fruit, vegetables, jams, jellies, bakery items, and much more.  I love drives like this with no destination in mind and after awhile we found our way back to the campground after a lovely afternoon.

I did want to tell you that Mike had his surgery on Tuesday and he is at his daughter's in Flagstaff for a long recovery.  He has 9 pins and a plate in the shattered heel and the doctor feels the broken heel needs only a boot (we're not sure about this but he's the expert) so this is going to be a long road to hoe as my dad would have said.   Much therapy will be needed and the plan/hope is to return to Phoenix once he's released from the doctor in Flagstaff for this therapy.  He texted his dad this afternoon and said the pain is 'never ending' so I think he realize's what he's going to be in for.

We will leave here on Monday morning and make our way towards North Carolina.  We are off today to a family barbecue of smoked pork.......yum!

Candy Hill Campground in Winchester,
VA and we are truly on a hill

The wonderful farm market we found on our drive
out of Winchester

Wonderful farm for picking your own produce

Just one of many beautiful homes outside Winchester

Last Full Week in Elkhart

Quilt Garden at Linton's Nursery in Elkart,
pattern is Butterflies and Bees

I was going to say in this blog that it was a 'quiet week' but that can change in a heartbeat can't it?  We had some rain, in fact, quite a bit last night but fortunately no storms connected with the rain.  Cheryl and Craig, our friends here are going to have a bumper crop of blackberries this year due to all the rain.  I think they have been picking berries every other day the last couple of weeks so she'll have plenty to make some of her famous blackberry jam.....Dick's favorite!!

Our 4th of July was quiet.  Dick was sick with the 24 hour bug so we didn't leave the RV.  I watched a few fireworks from the windows of the RV but he was sound asleep by 8 p.m. so the plans to have dinner with Cheryl and Craig and go to the weekly 'cruise night' at the Essenhaus Restaurant in Middlebury were put on hold until next time.

Murphy went to day camp twice this week so he's had a good week of exercising, pool swimming, and making new doggie friends.

Cheryl and Craig did bring their 5th wheel over to the campground on Monday and got it all set up for a month's stay.  They will go back and forth to the house though for various reasons, one of them being the need to pick the blackberries.  Their granddaughter will visit this month from VA so they plan on bringing her here to enjoy 'Wally' (the RV's nickname) with them.

Our youngest granddaughter, Cassie, turned 19 this week......wow, where did the time go?  We're very proud of her as she'll start her sophomore year at N. Arizona University in Flagstaff this fall.

While Dick spent Wednesday polishing the chrome on the rig, I went to Shipshewana to the 'largest flea market in the midwest' as they like to advertise.  It is large but there is a lot of repeat stuff and an awful lot of imported items so although fun to walk around, I only bought fresh produce -- green beans, corn on the cob and tomatoes.  Yum!!!  In fact, those items were our dinner that night along with some freshly made cheese from the Guggisberg cheese factory in Middlebury.

After that 'healthy' meal on Wednesday night, sometime during the night is when Dick got sick and the next 24 hours were not any fun for him.  Enough on that topic.

On Friday evening we got a call from our oldest granddaughter, Amber, who also lives in Flagstaff that their dad, Dick's son, had been at Slide Rock State Park in Sedona, AZ with a group of their friends.  This is a very well known beautiful state park with a natural water slide that families of all ages enjoy.  It has everything from wading pools to cliffs where you jump off into the 'freezing' water below.   Well, the water where he jumped was shallow and he broke one heel and shattered the other one.  I can't even imagine the pain!!   We are still getting all of the details but we know that he was down in this water  and he couldn't walk to climb out of there so his buddies had to carry him out.......took a long time!!  911 couldn't get there for over an hour so they chose to carry him out and got him to the hospital in Flagstaff where he's going to have surgery on Tuesday for the shattered ankle.  I know from a friend who fell off a ladder while painting and shattered just one ankle a few years ago this will take a long time to heal, and to this day she has a slight limp, so with two broken/shattered heels, I'm afraid he's in for a long road to recovery.

I mentioned going to Shipshewana and the flea market there.  Other than the flea market, there are several other things in this area that worth seeing if you are in the area.  There are several Amish furniture stores (beautiful woodworkers), a Hudson museum owned by a local couple who first learned to drive in a Hudson and this is their personal collection, several quilt stores with locally made BEAUTIFUL quilted items, a couple of the quilt gardens I mentioned last week, and a theatre called the Blue Gate which has another Amish family style restaurant, dinner theatre and some shops.  There are other attractions but these are just a few here in Shipshewana, a community comprised mainly of German and Dutch descendants , where you can experience a simpler time especially when you travel on the backroads.   If you happen to be in this area on a Tuesday or Wednesday when the flea market is going on (it's also an auction for animals, hay, and antiques), you will see an abundance of buggies coming to town to shop and take care of business.

About seven miles from Shipshewana is Middlebury, another nostalgic town reminiscent of years gone by.  There are many Bed & Breakfasts in this area, a wonderful bakery called Rise N Roll with the best cinnamon-carmel donut I've ever had (and I'm not a carmel person) and always free coffee.  Down the road from Rise N Roll is Guggisberg cheese factory where you can watch cheese being made and needless to say it is very good, a Dutch Country Market where there is a quilt garden, and a hive of honeybees at work that will be made into pure honey, soap, lip balms and more and wonderful homemade noodles too.

We always enjoy our stay here and find new things to see and do every time we visit.  I never even mentioned South Bend, home of the famous Notre Dame Fighting Irish about 25 miles from Elkhart.  There is a famous Studebaker museum there that we enjoyed a few years ago and of course, the Notre Dame campus is beautiful.

Our month is up here and the plan is to leave on Tuesday headed to an RV park in Winchester, VA near Dick's niece in Toms Brook, VA.  This is an area rich in US history but our main purpose is to visit Laurie and her family so we'll play our 'touristy' plans by ear.

Conference Center in Shipshewana's Quilt Garden
in the Goose Tracks pattern

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday and here's to a good week ahead.  Please keep Mike in your prayers on Tuesday that this surgery is a success.  We are still assessing the situation and what we can do to help.

My favorite bakery where sometimes you'll hear the Amish
ladies singing their favorite hymns

The best cheese made here and you can watch it being made too

Just a few of the buggies parked at the flea market

Quilt Garden at the Dutch Country Market in the
 Hummingbird pattern