It is always good to come home.

Tom here with a follow - up thought, or two.  As we pulled into the drive way and parked the "beach  house" we were glad to be home and were already talking about visiting Utah parks in a couple of weeks,  but were ever grateful to be back home in Corrales after driving  6,000 miles thankful for having  a safe problem free journey.   We talked about the vastness of Big Bend, the just blooming Blue Bonnets around Austin and Fredricksburg.  We always are glad we are on the road when traversing the swamps in Lousiana and all the moss that hangs from the trees and how there is so much water everywhere while we live in the desert.  The uniqueness of New  Orleans, smells and all.  Tobasco will be my favorite hot sauce after visiting Avery Island.  The Florabama , Florida beaches, Key West and the Overseas highway...the Carribean right here in the USA.    The charm of Savannah, the crafts and mountains in North Carolina and seeing the Biltmore, largest home in America.  Visiting with Becky while riding an elevator in the Grove Park Inn explaining how management did not understand " mountain people " were all special.  Met Roger and Suzzane who have a rig just like ours.  We got some good tips as they have been doing this for awhile.  Thanks for the quick water disconnects  tip Roger.  Loved Graceland , Nashville, Memphis and now know that Arkansas has some beautiful scenery.  Watched the lunar eclipse from  Hot Springs National Park, after it rained all day...beautiful.  Enjoyed Branson and the shows, patriotism and down home feel.  Shopped at the best Price Chopper store I have ever been to, people helping you out everywhere.  Went to a great baseball game in Kansas City and watched the Royals whip up on the Twinkies.  In Amarillo we went to an RV museum and it was a hoot.   However the best thing that we experienced is the time we spent with family and friends, Alan and Louise in Austin, Jim and Valerie Simpson in Daphne and an intro to the Florabama, while Matt Simpson showed me some great magic tricks.  Pete and Sue Scala, neighbors two doors down , but have a vacation home in Jupiter, FL.  They took us to a great breakfast place right on the beach.  Bill and Shirley Barnhart in Melbourne , where we enjoyed perfect weather and watched Hercules maneuver around a massive array of fountains...except one. Loved the Cookville house too.   Great Salmon.  Glen and Jackie in Ashville gave us a whirlwind tour and we talked about planning more cruises with them in the future.  Time with my sister Gigi and her husband Bob was perfect, found an old tape my parents sent my brother and we laughed and cried at the same time.  Sam , Mike  and Dana their children are all finding there lot as they start carreers and finish school.    Barbra and Richard took us to their favorite spots and we enjoyed music, breakfast and some great Pizza and a homemade Pot Roast.  A few of you remember that I may like a scotch now and then, you will all go broke if your pour like that for all your friends.  Friends and family are the best things!  Thanks to all and we will leave the light on for you.

Are we there yet?

It has come as a bit of a surprise to both of us that we are rapidly approaching the end of this current adventure.  Tomorrow we head home from Amarillo, but first.....we spent a whirlwind two days with our dear friends: eating and talking and going out for breakfast with the Pancake Posse and then going out for lunch and then we had cocktails and munchies near the patio while listening to the band.  Yeah, we did a lot of eating.

In the middle of all that we also visited one of the coolest museums we have seen on this trip.  It is not one of the biggest, or most well-known, but for an RV trip it is very apropos; an RV museum.

Here are a few of my favorite exhibits.

Here is Tom in the driver seat of the movie bus from "RV".

And of course, there had to be a Bambi

Here is one of the earliest camper motorhomes from 1920's built on a Model T frame.  Only two are known to exist today, this one and one in the National Automobile Hall of Fame. 

This one has great story and great color scheme, for 1975.

Happy Easter

Yes, I have been absent from the blog for a few days, but I have good reason.  We have been visiting family here in the Kansas City area, and we just have been so busy moving in so many directions and trying to catch up with all the goings on.  When at home, this is pretty much where and what we look like, sitting and talking and/or getting food ready to eat:

In between we all have figured out how to solve most of the world problems, discussed what we think the kids Should do instead of what they Are doing, visited the new home one niece is moving into, went to a baseball game, conducted three Easter Egg hunts (daylight, glow light and one glow light re-run in the basement just because the grandkids wanted to see it again),  talked about retirement planning and retirement living, visited the local sights and restaurants, and whipped up a couple of batches each of margaritas, salsa and rumrunners.  I don't have pictures of everything, but here is what I did remember to capture on the phone.

I failed to get pictures of the nieces and nephews and/or grand nephew and/or spouses.  Also only have the egg hunt on the regular camera with the pictures still on the memory card and no way to transfer them just yet.  It's as if I hit the driveway and completely forgot I still needed to capture these moments.  No eggs, no glow lights, no candy piles, no devious hiding of eggs.  

About the only thing I can show you is that Hercules is still handling the trip like the travel dog he is.  As 

long as he is on his Dad's lap.

 

Comedy Capers

The park we are at is a KOA, and they are in full swing prepping for the coming high season, which starts May 1.  Every hour we see little yellow golf carts zipping around the park and the yellow t-shirt crew has been raking up old leaves, nailing shingles on the cabin roofs, and doing all sorts of spiffy jobs getting the place ready for the summer crowds.  

After lunch today I thought I might take a little nap, just because it was a nice warm afternoon and after eating I was a little sleepy.  So, of course that is when the crew starts up the chain saw.  So I decided to read a bit longer.  About then one of the golf carts stops at the space next to ours and starts worrying about a drip from the water faucet.  Next thing I know I hear the sound of a lot of water flowing and I look over to see the water faucet handle completely off and two of the yellow shirted crew trying to get the water shut off.  

Then a couple of more shirts and golf carts show up and pretty soon we got a convention next door.

Here is sampling of some of the overheard conversation from the convention:

-There's no packing in there. I got it off, but there's like, an inch at most.

-I know that's sumthin'; that's gotta go on there first.

-No more rush jobs from here on.

-Is that what this is?

-Where's the shut off? You're doin' a fine job of that all by yerself.

-That was, like, Ralph Nader.

-Ahh, I know.  This is the one that had the box fit.

-Do you have a radio??  Nope, I'm not old enough for a radio.  (Boss lady drives off) When you do get a radio, whatever you do, just push a bunch a zeroes.

We don't need tickets for the comedy show in Branson folks, we got one right here next door at the RV park.

Diamond diggin'

Darn it.  We considered going to the Crater of Diamonds State Park when we left Hot Springs, but decided we did not want to deal with the mud and would rather tootle over the hills to Branson than take the interstate and 50 mile detour to the park.  

Turns out that would have been a great day for diamond digging...the largest diamond in three years was found at the park on Tuesday, 6.19 carats.  Just so you know, it was not us.

What we DID do yesterday was see the New Shanghai Circus acrobats in Branson, MO.  Such an amazing group of highly talented people.  I think our favorite was the guy who balanced on a board on top of a roller...but that was not the main part of his skill, the balancing was as easy as standing on two feet for this guy, the skill was that using the balance board he flipped bowls onto his head and caught them, up to five at a time...and then he flipped five spoons into five bowls simultaneously and he did this all while standing and kneeling on the balance board!  Amazing. 

Oh, and he also was in the 'chorus line' doing group juggling of hats, diving through hoops and doing back flips across the stage.   I wish I had taken a picture of this guy, but I was sitting there with my mouth open instead of taking pictures.  But I did get a couple of pictures of some of the acrobats, the two guys are 11 and 12 year olds and do some amazing dual contortions. 

Had to come back and add this picture I found on the web.  It is NOT the fellow we saw last night, and this guy is 'only' tossing three bowls in this picture, but still....I wanted you all to see this feat and particularly notice that there is absolutely nothing on the bottom of the board to keep it from rolling off the barrel.  I could never, even with years of practice, manage to balance or stand still on the balance board.  Nor could I ever flip bowls and spoons up to precise locations in the air.  Much less do them both at the same time.

Brrrrrr!

You know that late spring cold front that messed up all the fruit trees in your yard?  And was all over the news for the coldest April in Texas?  Yep, that's the one we are in here in 'Hot' Springs.  Yes the springs are still coming out at 134 degrees, but that is a few blocks over and here in the campground it is 32 degrees.  Ugh.  The little heater in the Beach House is getting a workout, Hercules is wisely deciding to stay under his blanket as late as possible, and we are just happy that the water hoses are not yet frozen.  With luck, they will stay that way, as the temperature is supposed to start rising.  It rained and thundered most of yesterday, which kept the river flowing steadily at a high rate.  We spent it as a lazy day and rested and read a lot.  As soon as the sun comes out and things warm up a bit, we are off to Branson, MO for several days.

Here are a couple of pictures from the park campground and Hot Springs:

Storms

Thus far, we have managed to avoid any serious rain or weather, at least up until last night.  We got here early to get situated before the weather arrived. Se fellow campers were not so lucky and arrived in the middle of the downpour. 

We easily weathered the thunderstorms, lightning and flash floods last night.   The creek (from which we purposely chose a site well away and above) has turned from a quiet little creek one could easily cross on the trail into a raging river 20 feet wide and 4-6 feet deep with cascades every 50 yards or so.

I also discovered that my phone was set to receive NWS alerts; and it did so starting at 11:15 pm.  Well, I was already awake from the thunder, so no big deal for me.  But it did give Tom a fright, until we figured out what was making all the racket. Turns out we had already seen the warnings on TV earlier, but still it was good to know we would be awakened in case there was a change.

Of all the parks we have stayed in thus far, this has to be the prettiest.  Even with the rain, the blooming trees and flowers are so nice.

Hot Springs

Arrived here safely before noon, got a great site at the National Park with full hookups for $12 Old Fart rate.  Dashed into town, saw the Visitor Center and the turn of century bathhouses.  Got back to Beach House just in time to walk the dog before the showers started.  It will be a lazy afternoon reading and watching TV.

No pictures, we are on a limited cell connection and the upload times out.

Memphis!

Evenin' from downtown Memphis, Beale Street. We are here to have dinner, enjoy some music, and see the Peabody Hotel.

Then we ventured down the back alley to the Rendezvous

Then it was off to the Peabody..the ducks had gone to bed already, but I borrowed this picture from the hotel.

Tomorrow is the annual wine race. Servers from the local restaurants participate to see who can deliver glasses of wine - hopefully without spilling - the fastest. It doesn't always work out that way, however.

Thank You, Thank you very much

Today we got an early enough start to our day that we left Nashville and arrived in Memphis early enough that were able to tour Elvis Presley's Graceland. We also got to see the two jet planes that he had, his Automobile Museum, and 12 different Elvis gift shops.  I really should have taken a picture of all the gifts in the shops, but it was too overwhelming.  From where we are parked we can almost see the home from our RV spot.

So without further ado here are a few shots of Graceland.

Front of home

The famous Jungle Room (Elvis' favorite color was green, just like me, but his shade of green was a little too avocado.  Then again, that was all the rage in the mid 60's)

A few of the snazzy jumpsuits

The Trophy Room with all of his awards and platinum and gold records, plus some guy shaking his hips.

The living room

Kitchen (check out the cast iron skillet ready to go)

Something I learned that I never knew before, was that Elvis donated quite a bit of money to help build the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii. Here is a plaque given to him to commemorate that generosity.

Tomorrow it's the Peabody and Beale Street, stay tuned for updates.

Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry

This morning we both toured the backstage area of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. 

Some interesting facts about the Opry. There are 196 members of the Opry and they each have a mailbox at the front desk and do receive mail at their boxes.  One does not have to be a member to perform there as a guest artist.  The youngest member is Carrie Underwood at 31, the oldest is Little Jimmy Dickens at 93.  There are 18 dressing rooms, but none of them have closets and only two have a bathroom. They do have lockers and toilets across the hall.  Dressing rooms are assigned when the artists check in for their performance; some used to be permanent, but are now just named after their former 'resident'.

The artist entry walk

The check in desk

One of the dressing rooms

The lockers for clothes and personal articles

The green room waiting area

Stage entry

Onstage!

The famous circle center stage

After a quick lunch Tom went downtown to do some more touring while Cheryl stayed home with the dog. (He gets a little nervous when we're gone, so we try not to leave him alone for too long.) Herc slept all afternoon, Cheryl read and defrosted the fridge. Tom will have to report on his adventures later, no doubt he is adding to his hat collection.

The not-so-nervous sleeping dog

Tour De Villes – Ashe, Knox, Cooke and Nash

Yesterday found us touring the beautiful Biltmore Estate, in Asheville North Carolina. Suffice to say, it is the equivalent of an American Downton Abbey. Over 4 acres of actual building, 35 bedrooms, 250 rooms, 80 full-time servants....you get the drift.  Photos are not allowed of the interior, but here a couple of the exterior and grounds.  

Today finds us heading from Asheville over to Nashville via the towns of Knoxville and Cookeville, hence the title of our post.  Shortly after we crossed into Tennessee, the skies cleared and and this lower elevation, the trees had bloomed.

On the way we thought we'd stop for this photo op, particularly for Bill and Shirley. 

We are now at our spot in Nashville, just two miles up the road from the Grand Ol Opry.  We'll take the tour tomorrow and decide which of the many entertainment venues we want to enjoy.