Our two weeks with the grandkids begins!

First of all I will say we didn't plan this sortie all that well.  We are both used to moving and actually prefer it to sitting, but wow, we bit off more than we could chew.  We had a hard date to pick up the kids and packed our appointment in Elkhart and all the driving to accommodate it with big long days and short nights.  We are now in Santa Fe starting our "vacation" time in earnest after over 2300 miles in 7 days over rough roads and tons of rain, including our time in Elkhart getting the lights fixed.  Too much.  

They were having a heat wave as we came into Texas, it was 97 in Dallas where we visited with our daughter, and over 100 as we made our way into Lubbock where it was only 98.  But overnight the heat broke and we have had pleasant weather ever since, oh yeah, that was yesterday and the day before:)

The grandkids on the way to the motorhome

We even had a surprise break on the way to Santa Fe that included ice cream sandwiches.

We pulled into Santa Fe with a huge storm coming down on us, winds gusting over 50 mph, dust everywhere, and what!  The truck won't start!  Dead battery.  The campground had a guy come over to jump us so we could get the truck unhooked and get set up in our site.  Then the debate, did we leave something on, is it just a fluke, or is the 3 1/2 year old battery dying?  We decided to just get a new one so we wouldn't become stranded in one of our out in the middle of nowhere places that we plan to be in.  So with our son's advice I head over to Autozone and in about 10 minutes on Memorial Day afternoon, have a new battery installed in the truck and am out of there ready for our big days to come!  Great service.  So after taking the kids out to dinner at one of our favorite places, The Pantry, listening to the wind whistle and the dust blow by, we watched a movie and had a nice relaxing evening to get ready for our big day today.  

Kudos to Elkhart Sales and Service!

Just a quick post to say how pleased we were with Elkhart Sales and Service.  As you know we have trouble finding quality service providers.  We have about 3 in the entire US that we trust to work on our rig.  We can add one more in the east.  We were met right at 7am, our appointment time, we were worked on exclusively during our time there, our problem was fixed, and we were done even before we were told we would be.  Tom did a great job getting our rear running lights back.  He was as puzzled by our problem as we are and the shop in Oregon that tried to fix them.  He told me up front he could spend an incredible amount of time figuring out the inherent problem with no time frame, or he could get our lights to work in minimal time.  I chose the minimum time one.  He picked off the power to the rear clearance lights that were working all the time and powered up our rear taillights, license plate light, toad lights, and even the two lower clearance lights that didn't work.  We were very pleased, and even more pleased at the very fair bill we paid.  So kudos to Elkhart Sales and Service!

The Smoky Mountains

Well here we sit in the pouring rain.  Don't get the wrong idea, this is very nice once in awhile, the pitter patter on the roof, homemade soup for dinner, watch a movie and veg away a day.  Jan is baking, I am trying to write and work on our unfortunately recurring problem.  I said that the air compressor amazingly fixed itself after we arrived here, we heard it run off and on for several days, and then we noticed, hey, it is isn't running anymore!  Well, there isn't going to be any troubleshooting right now, not worth getting soaked over, and who knows maybe our electrical guru in Elkhart will have some insight.

We had a great time here in Cherokee, NC, right on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, campground not so nice though, very old, run down, tight, no cell service, very iffy internet, but otherwise surrounded by two pretty streams on the Eastern Cherokee Reservation, so even with our NC fishing licenses we can't fish here without a tribal license, but we did do a lot of fishing in and around the park.  We recently read an excellent book about trout fishing in the Smokies, "On the Spine of Time" by Harry Middleton, a great read and made us really want to experience the area.  So first we entered the park north of Bryson City on the Lakeview Drive, parked and hiked down to the Noland Creek and gave it a go.

Lakeview Drive

Suiting up

Beautiful Noland Creek

It was gorgeous and a bit challenging as it was fairly tight amongst the trees to make casts without sticking your fly in the leaves.  But we had a good time and sure enjoyed the scenery.  It was so peaceful and beautiful you could just sit there and listen to the water for hours.  

Another goal that was referred to in the book was to boat over to Hazel Creek only accessible by boat or a long hike.  We drove to the Cable Cove boat launch, set up the inflatable and off we went across Fontana Lake, a TVA lake that was created during WWII to provide power for aluminum manufacturing for aircraft.  It was a gorgeous day, little wind, sunny skies, and we had the entire lake, at least what we could see completely to ourselves.  It's about 4 miles to Hazel Creek, and we didn't really know what we were looking for.  We tentatively poked up the creek as it got narrower, and found a pretty little path that we thought might be it.  We beached the boat, and walked up to find a hiker that had just arrived there from Clingman's Dome, a short little 15.6 mile hike that is primarily downhill, although he said there were plenty of climbs to break it up:-)  We decided to go back to the boat and poke up farther into the cove then hike into the creek.  Well, I have to admit we decided to just head back out into the lake and have lunch and call it a day.  Why you ask, because the 12 water moccasins that came careening out from the bank directly towards us unnerved us a bit and we decided we would do this another time, especially since we had figured out how to get there.  So maybe in the fall.  We ended up drifting around a beautiful cove, had a nice picnic lunch in the boat and fished a bit in the lake.  The we decided to give it another go with spinning gear, so we went back to the boat launch, had a fascinating conversation with 2 guys and a girl who were camping out of kayaks, that said we should have ignored the snakes, they wouldn't have bothered us.  Ha!  Easy for them to say.  Anyway we went back out and fished for another hour or so, had a great time although no fish.  After about 5 hours in the boat we packed up and headed back.

Leaving the boat launch

Beached at Hazel Creek

Up the trail

Why we left!

Out of there

Our lunch spot!!

Beautiful foliage

Then another day we went back up into the park, had a nice picnic along a babbling stream, fly fished for over an hour, much better for both of us, more room to cast, and easy to wade, a great time.  Then up towards Clingman Dome for coffee overlooking the mountains.

Picnic spot

We spent a great week here relaxing, fishing, walking, and went over to Waynesville, found a fantastic restaurant for lunch, Sweet Onion, walked around the cute town for awhile.  Gotta have some food pictures!

The delicious namesake onion soup

Asian salad

Fried chicken and roasted tomato sandwich
with some interesting and awesome
broccoli casserole

Then later we went over to Asheville to look into something we ended up buying to make our storage issues easier, at least we think so.  The fact REI was having a sale at the same time was amazing:-)  More info to come after Albuquerque where we get it.

So tomorrow morning we start moving in earnest.  We are racing up to Elkhart, IN in 2 days to be ready for our 7am appointment with the electric guru, then 4 very quick days to get to Lubbock, TX to pick up our grandkids for 2 weeks!

North Georgia

We came up out of the Atlanta area to Hiawassee, in the mountains of north Georgia, in fact we are only a few miles from the highest point in GA, Brasstown Bald at 4783'.  It is beautiful and green with the rhododendron blooming.  We are at a very nice campground, Riverbend, and really enjoying the peace and quiet.

Our campsite

As I had mentioned, one of our goals while here was to run a new wire to power our auxiliary air compressor for our leveling system.  We had lost power inexplicably in Atlanta, and wanted to get it fixed as soon as possible.  We arrived here in the afternoon and decided to do the project in the morning.  We had scoped things out and knew what our plan was to run the new wire.  Now it takes usually about a day or so to leak enough air that the pump would come on, so the next morning as we are having coffee and breakfast and planning to go to work, what do we hear????  Yup, the air pump is running?!?!  

Now we are usually on the receiving end of Murphy's Law, not in a good way, and I don't really know what the opposite law is, but we'll take it.  Our belief is that there must be an unwritten property of the leveling system in that when it gets beyond a certain point of level, and our site in Atlanta was very unlevel, it shuts off power to the pump.  Anyway, that's our story and we're sticking to it :-)  No complaints and we'll just assume it fixed itself.

We leave today to continue north to Cherokee, NC, and plan to explore and fish in the Smokey Mountains National Park.

What a whirlwind week!

We've been here in Atlanta for just a week and we leave tomorrow morning to head to north Georgia and it feels like we just got here.  We have been to the dentist, had lunch with our son, seen good friends, are looking forward to getting together this evening with some other good friends, managed to get a lot of errands done, got the dinghy in the water, and even have had to deal with a little problem.

We wanted to take the opportunity to get the dinghy in the water since our campground here is right on Lake Allatoona.  So we drove down the hill right to the shore of the lake and went to work.  We were very curious how long it would take to set the boat and motor up as well as get it torn back down and stored away in the truck.  We were very pleased, and we realize we still have some modifications to make so we can make it even more efficient.  Nonetheless, out of the truck, inflate, mount the motor, load up the boat and off we go-----30 minutes!

Almost there

Ready to roll with our cool wheels

Just need to roll it in!

It worked very well and the motor started on the first pull, as it should, and we spent a very pleasant 1 1/2 hours tooling around the lake on a beautiful day.

A happy camper!

We brought it back and found out we had it broken down and packed away in 15 minutes. This is huge, we wanted this combo to be easy enough and quick enough to warrant the expense, so far we are very pleased.

We have a little problem that popped up.  We have air leveling on our coach, which means it uses the air suspension to level after we pull into a campsite.  It is totally automatic so we just push a button and hiss, hiss, hiss, and we are level.  Also the system comes back awake from time to time to recheck level, and if needed it readjusts.  Now since we aren't making more air, it adjusts by lowering the coach's high side.  Every coach has a certain amount of leakage, it is normal.  So after the coach reaches bottom on a corner, a small electric air compressor comes on automatically to restore the air.  Everything was working perfectly, the readjustments and the compressor running now and then, but we noticed at about the 4 day point we hadn't heard the compressor lately and  we were slightly tipping, made worse by the fact the site we are in is way out of level.  I checked the fuse first, good, then went to bypass the on/off pressure switch to force the compressor to run thinking it was just a bad switch......and nothing.  Hmmm.  Out comes the meter, recheck power is on both sides of the fuse, on the wire from the panel, and then to the compressor, and nothing?  Must be the ground, check it, all good.  Well, how the heck could this happen when we haven't even moved, so the diesel mechanic, Jan if you didn't know, crawls under with the meter, and checks for power and connection where the wires are up between the rear drive wheels.  Good ground, good connections, no power!  So we are kind of in a mystery as to how this happened just sitting here, but we are just going to run a new wire to the compressor from the panel, should be an easy job, famous last words, and we'll be good to go.  We'll do it later as we have a lot more fun stuff to do before we leave tomorrow.  We are also fortunate we have hydraulic leveling jacks as well so we are nice and level.  More to follow on this.

On our way!

After a couple more last minute goodbyes, we snuck out (Ha, with a loud rumbling diesel) at the stroke of 9am.  We had determined we wanted to go a different way to our first required stop in Atlanta, so up US 19 we went into GA, and stayed at the Albany RV Resort.  An overnight stop, not much of a resort, but we got a big pull through and took a walk around the park noticing how it was almost entirely permanent people, and surprisingly the bugs were so bad we almost ran back to get inside.

The next morning we continued north to Guntersville, AL, actually Langston, up the lake from there.  Now one thing we all experience after washing our rig is how long can we actually stay out of the rain.  Even if you have been experiencing a drought where you are, if you wash, then move, it will usually bring in the monsoon rains.  We were watching the weather closely as we approached the lake, pretty sure we were going to get soaked, there was a very nasty line of severe thunderstorms just to our west as we made our way to Windemere Cove RV Resort, this time an actual resort.  As Jan was checking us in I was watching this very black, swirling cloud getting closer and closer.  She came back out, we got parked, and as we shut off the coach, the rain, the thunder and lightning hit, we even left the slides in until the worst was over.  We won this rain battle this time:-)  Finally an hour or so later, after rocking and rolling, the worst passed and we were able to get completely set up.  This place sells lots, and is pretty empty right now, nicely manicured grounds, a clubhouse, a pool, walking trail, we are parked right on the lake on a nice concrete pad, and although the rain continued until the next morning, it cleared up and although very windy, it is a very pleasant place kind of in the middle of nowhere.  It is 20 miles from Guntersville.

The view pulling in with the darkening skies

In our site with the rain coming down

The next morning, the view from our site

Looking back up the hill

Sitting near the lake after my walk

We are also going to spend tonight here and see if we can find a good place for lunch in town, then tomorrow head over to our old digs at Allatoona Landing outside of Atlanta for our visits, doctors, and to see our son.  Yes, it's nice to be moving again!