Testing Me in Tennessee

In my last post while in Georgia, I had somewhat of a plan. That has been changed several times. Gee this planning is fun! We spent all day last Wednesday waiting on the folks at Mid State Service Center to finish repairing and reinstalling our Generator.

They were good enough to let us stay in their electric hook up lot when it was too late to get us on the road. We wanted to hang out and run the generator and make sure that it was fixed.


Then, when I called ahead to Chatanooga TN to get a spot for Thursday night, they were full. Next best plan, make a run for it and we traveled over 300 miles just east of Nashville to Lebanon Tennessee.

Now Lebanon is the home town of the first original Cracker Barrel Restaurant. Being a fan of that place, we went to try it out and experience the place that started it all. Except our receipt said #2. Upon inquiring about the history of the place, the chain originated in 1969, but the first establishment burned down and thus a #2 replaced it being in the original town, but different location. I think that it was some of the best Cracker Barrel food we've had. We are also fans of Golden Corral Restaurants and the one in Warner Robins Georgia is hands down the best I've EVER had! After a great meal, we went to the next thing on the list that Lebanon is noted for,and that's their Outlet Mall. It is large and we had a pretty good workout walking up and down and through all the shops.

It has rained here a couple of times since we've arrived. This park is in a pleasant country setting right off the interstate, but not near an exit, so you still hear the noise, but no traffic. Today I had planned to go into Nashville and see some sights...but oh no, theres that word again...planned.

I've got a dog with ear infection, I have kidney infection and last night I came down with a roaring sore throat, temperature and cold to boot! So O.K throw me another curve!

No swimming pool or floatie seat for a while. Another small roadblock. I have taken every remedy and pill I can throw at this stuff. DH has a golf date to play in a mini Srs. tourney at an awesome course here early in the morning, so at least he'll get to do something. He took KayCee to the Vet this afternoon. I am watching the rain drops on the window and listening to the thunder.
We are still moving on West Thursday, but only 125 miles or so. I have wanted to see the National Bird Dog Museum for a few years now, so will finally get that in on Friday. No real plans for the holiday weekend, but to try and dodge the traffic and spend a quiet Monday in Russellville Arkansas. After a few short jaunts we will see some sites, check off two more states and land at a golf resort outside of Guthrie OK. on the 5th of July. Back to the 100 degree days once more, I just hope I feel better by then.

Betsy Gets a Facelift

We have spent more time here in Georgia than was on my list for stops this travel season. As enjoyable as this may be, at this time I am ready to move on! Every place that has been on my list of places to see and fun things to do, has either been flooded or blown away, so I gave up for a while on the sightseeing and turned my focus to maintenance issues with our home on wheels. After looking at new and used coaches in Florida and not coming across anything that we're interested in or can afford, we have decided to hang on to "Betsy" for a while longer. We have a very solid coach and with regular care it will stay that way. Traveling on the Interstates is an easy way to make our way around the country, but we have picked up lots of rock chips in the front cap from vehicles pulling in front of us too close and throwing rocks and gravel.
The rear bumper and top end cap, and several places around has started to show some sun fading and I decided she was going to have a face lift. We also had some issues with our Onan Generator running rough, and it needed some immediate attention, since we depend on it to run our A/C even when we travel. The dash air just can't cool this big space, so I found a local RV Service Center in Byron GA. about 22 miles north of here, and when I was looking at their business online, I came across their state of the Art Body Shop also.

After reading about their facility and staff, I decided to pay them a visit while getting the Generator worked on.http://www.midstaterv.com/index.php/body-works-design-center.html Mid State RV Center has been awesome to work with. Michelle Fernandez, the Body Shop Manager explained their process and showed us around their awesome Paint Booth.

I knew immediately Betsy was going to be in good hands and I had found the place that I wanted to get this work done! Mark Walton and the others that helped with the paint process have our sincere thanks for a beautiful job, they were very attentive to detail we are really pleased and I would highly recommend them for any RV Body Work that you need done.

When we decided on what we wanted to have done, they worked and got us in very quickly and tried to coordinate the job with those at the Service Center who have our Generator out for repairs.

Ofcourse if you want to see God laugh, make plans! While Betsy was in the shop, we camped at the Days Inn in Warner Robins GA. four nights. We thought that the Genset would be put back together and ready to go on Friday and when they got finished at the body shop we would get it put back in and return back to the Twin Oaks Campground for the weekend....to take off on Sunday (Father's Day) and scoot through Atlanta in light traffic. Well, that plan didn't come together. A part is ordered and supposed to be here on Monday, so with a little luck, service will get us put back together on Tuesday and we will head down the road on Wednesday.
I had gone ahead and made reservations in Chatanooga Tennessee and also just east of Nashville, at a Resort that we will set down in until after the 4th of July. One of my rules of the road is to not travel on weekends or holidays!(minus getting through cities on Sunday mornings!) I've had to break my rules more than I care to...but hopefully not this time. We will try to time the trip north up I 75 in the middle of the day and avoid rush hour at least. I've had to push my reservations ahead a couple of days. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have any more bad weather, and the part arrives on Monday. We hadn't been back here at the campground very long yesterday...really just wanting the paint job to cure good over the weekend, and it blew up a thunderstorm and rained for about 3 hours! I was almost afraid to go out and look this morning, making up my mind that if we had damage, that's what we have insurance for...and we lucked out.... everything is good. She looks so pretty and new! Until next time....Happy Father's Day to all you Fathers out there. We will be going to a BBQ and pool party here at the clubhouse. It will be a good time I'm sure!

Dog Days of Georgia

I would have not thought that we would still be in Georgia. We have hit a bump in the road.

Heading back north out of Florida, we decided to use Interstate 75 and visit several more states before heading west. With the heat being so severe, we operate the generator while we travel to run the house air conditioners. It's much more comfortable and I can also use the computer going down the road. I found an RV dealership here that repairs our Onan 10,000 KW. Generator. They also have a state of the art Paint Booth for RVs at their body shop and having kicked around the idea of a face lift for Betsy, we decided to get the end caps painted where the front has rock chips from the road and the back end has some fading from sun and clear coat issues.

These people are going to apply a new product to the front of the coach so that the rocks from the road won't be an issue anymore.

I will report how that works but I'm excited because the rock chips are very unattractive. The Service Shop has removed the Genset and are waiting for the inspector from our extended Warranty Service to come out and approve the repairs. Betsy goes in on Monday at 7 am for the paint work and we will head to a Hotel in Warner Robin GA for a mini vacation away from the coach! They will have it for the entire week and we will get her back on Friday.
All this is taking place 20 miles north of where we are at the Twin Oaks RV Park. We have found a "gem" of a place to stay and if it weren't for the bugs and heat, we'd stay a month!

The owner and managers are great people and the facilities are relaxing and wonderful.

We will come back here after the paint job for the weekend to be sure the paint is set and head on north into Tennessee.

These folks haven't had any rain for over two months. This area could really benefit from some moisture.

We'll pray that happens soon! The only complaint that I have is their Verizon Service is erratic and my cell service is rotten! I am running on WiFi. which is o.k. for most things, but my business stuff waits just for my aircard. In the meantime, we're just experiencing Central Georgia.

DH loves to play with the camera, and I never know what to expect when I look! I think he's still havin' fun!

The Beginning of Summer Travel

The first day of June finds us in Seffner Florida, right outside Tampa. Today it has turned rainy after days of hot hot temps. Not much wind to speak of so it's not hard to tolerate. They really need the rain. June 1st is the beginning of hurricaine season for these folks and I really don't want to hang around and experience that, the shuttle Endeavor landed early this morning in the dark.
I knew we couldn't actually see that, I'm not sorry we didn't stay to see it, so we are headed north, back into Georgia in the morning. It's kinda sad that the Shuttle program is ending for good. There will be about 7,000 people losing their jobs here. That's sad. Some have already got pink slips. It was kinda fun seeing hot little space guys walking around Walmart in their jumpsuits! We will stay just south of Macon at a nice little RV Park. I will get my mail and we have a couple of maintenance issues to address while there at a large Service Center.

We came down here to Seffner yesterday after spending the Memorial Weekend at the Great Outdoors RV and Golf Resort.
While enjoying the beauty and facilities, that is not for us! DH had fun on the golf course, but there were much too much limits and rules.

I've never seen a resort with all the restrictions that place has. It's like they want you there, but it's almost like house arrest and there's monitors and speed enforcers (complete with tickets) everywhere! It's very expensive and they roll the amenities and the streets up at dark 30!
We also learned from another resident that their little dog had been bitten by a pygmie rattler in the dog park...and I held my breath every time KayCee went in there.

We have had fun here at Lazy Days RV Park in Seffner. They treated us Royally, and we looked around at some coaches, but they just don't have what I'm looking for right now. I totally believe that if it's meant to be it will happen, and I will know when the right one comes along. It's just not here right now...so we will continue on, do some maintenence and see some more country. Our coach is very solid and I am confident that we have a lot of great years left with it. We had been referred to a Super Sales Professional, Kevin Mullis and he is a great guy to work with. He has been in the Motorcoach business for over 20 years, his walls lined with awards from very high sales records.

I trust what he says and in using my own brain, he just didn't have what we are looking for right now. I'm still a little nervous about heading north into the path of could be hail and tornadoes, so I doubt that we come north of I 40 very soon.

These pics are from The Great Outdoors and the Midway Air Boat Ride that we took up the St. John's River looking for Alligators and wildlife.