Park Experience and More…

Thursday we spent the day at the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. We tried to get to Clingman's Dome- but it was closed for some type of special proclamation ceremony with the Tennessee Governor. May have had something to do with the 75 year anniversary for the park, but never saw anything in the limited news we have seen. Instead of getting to climb to the dome, we had a very, very pleasant picnic lunch at the Chimneys by the rushing water. Even Hazel had a great time- she was out of the motorhome, with us and able to be off the leash at least some of the time.

Weather was perfect- clouds were gone by early morning and temperatures were still bearable so all in all, it was a great day, although there is always a film of smog over the park caused by pollution. Now days the viewing has been reduced by 40% in the winter months and 80% in the summer because of pollution- this park may not make it based on all the development, etc. in the surrounding areas. What a shame.

Well- need to go now and will post more later.

Mid-Rally Thoughts

It is late Tuesday evening and the rally is in full force. We have listened to talks, eaten well and even shopped some of the vendors. The weather has been rainy and cold but the people are warm and sociable. Wait, I am ahead of myself, First, let me get us here.

Sunday was a long, long haul. I erroneously told Bruce it was a mere 8 hour drive to Sevierville from home. Boy, was I wrong. I didn't think about the fact that we don't drive the speed limit in The Beast (although I have been reminded several times since), so using the speed limit to estimate the time was apparently a very big oversight. Also we had to stop to walk the dog, to fuel The Beast (for you readers never pumping 50 gallons of fuel at a time, that is not a 10 minute operation), to walk ourselves and last, but certainly not the least, have both breakfast and lunch on the road. On top of all of this extra time, our GPS (read me) got us lost at the end. So- it took us 11 hours to get to the RV park and set up. It was in between showers when we finally pulled in so set up was quick and fairly painless, although we listed a bit the first night. Since I was in the dog house that night I did not press the issue, but it was remedied on Monday, because even Bruce could tell something was a little out of kilter.

Monday we had the day to ourselves (the rally officially began that evening) so in addition to re-leveling The Beast - we drove over to Newport to make sure there were no uninvited residents on our piece of turf in that area. The road access to this very valuable piece of property is over a roller coaster of red clay. Bruce, thinking he was driving a 4 wheel drive jeep plowed down one side, throwing mud everywhere and got us most of the way up the other side- before we slid back to the bottom, with all brakes locked up. The reality was that we were not in a 4 wheel drive jeep- we were in my little HHR- you know, 6 inches of ground clearance. So, once again at the bottom of the coaster dip, with that reality still muddy in his mind, he applied much more acceleration and we rocketed over all the ruts, bounced over the mid puddles and reached the top with me in shock. The poor car was covered in wet Tennessee clay, very, very wet red clay. Finding nothing amiss on the land, we immediately negotiated that roller coaster in reverse (adding even more mud) and went to find a car wash. Once we were somewhat clean, we calmly set off for a relaxing return drive. On the way back, we passed a turn off that led to one of the TVA projects, Douglas Dam and taking it, discovered a wonderful new park that we hope to come back to in the next year. I ramble- to sum up Monday, we were welcomed, fed a very nice BBQ dinner and we both passed out early. Speaking of passed out- do you realize that we are in a dry county- so everything is BYOB?.

Today (Tuesday) began early with the Bush Brothers (Bush Beans) tour. It was nice to see a private company still family owned and apparently with family and community values. The bus trip over was an experience though, either the bus had problems or we had a new driver since it seemed the first few gears were always problems for him. We came back to shop the vendors (probably will spend some money here) toured two new 2008 Discovery RVs (will definitely not be spending money on them) and then were fed another big dinner with evening entertainment. Thanks goodness they don't feed us again until Friday, I don't know if I can survive this much attention. The entertainment was good and we spent the evening laughing and enjoying the company of others. We have met several other new participants who are here evaluating the rally environment too, so obviously we are not the only ones who are looking for different things in their lives. We have not decided if this is for us yet. Maybe we will have to consider the local chapter- the Rolling Gators, before we can really make a decision if participating in large group activities will work for us. Either way, it was a good time but now it is good night.