Showing posts with label Heiskell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heiskell. Show all posts

11/24/2012

November 23, 2012 Travel to Arkansas

We left the SKP Park early this morning after saying goodbyes to some new friends and headed west, passing thru some rain showers:

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Into glorious sunshine – :-)))). 

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One of the things on my bucket list is the travel Skyline Drive, then the Blue Ridge Parkway, head back to Tennessee to do the Bourbon Tours and spend time in Nashville before heading down the Natchez Trace Parkway.  I may plan that for late next summer.

We have chosen to travel I-40 across the U.S. mostly because it is a pretty route, less crowed than I-10, and a little warmer than I-70.

In Tennessee, we went past many rivers and lakes:

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With boats:

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And birds:

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And my Andy goofing off – LOL:

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Cotton fields near ready to be harvested:

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And this interesting building in Memphis:

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Here we go into Arkansas:

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Over the mighty Mississippi River:

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And past fields of birds – that black area in the photos are birds – WOW!:

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Past fields of beautiful lavender flowers:

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With the sky so clear, we could see the jets (white streaks in the photos):

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We pulled into the Wal-Mart in Lonoke, AR where we were told we could not stay – another Bummer.  So we went on to Sherwood where we stayed at the local Moose – a good move on our part.  We were welcomed with open arms, a site with 30 AMP, and VERY FRIENDLY folks.  They even served turkey soup and corn bread for supper – YUM!

 

Stats for today:

Miles Traveled: 512 Miles (LONG DAY!)

Routes Traveled:

Tennessee: I-75; I-40; I-440; I-40;

Arkansas: I-40: US-67; SR-176

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11/22/2012

November 21-22, 2012 Happy Thanksgiving at Raccoon Valley SKP Park

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We have enjoyed our time here at Raccoon Valley SKP Park – did I say how much I love SKP Parks – :-)).  We got the motorhome cleaned – inside and out; did laundry (love doing laundry at the SKP Parks – clean and good prices), updated the blog, enjoyed meeting more SKPs at Happy Hours and dinner and just taking it easy.

Our site:

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Our Thanksgiving companions:

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So tomorrow we will continue our journey south and west to our lot in Casa Grande, AZ.

Stay tuned.

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Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends, family, and blog readers.  Smile

November 19 - 20, 2012 Travel to Tennessee

Today we left our cozy spot at Delaware Seashore State Park and headed south thru the DelMarVa Peninsula (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia):

Maryland:

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Lots of chicken farms and chicken plants on the eastern shores of Virginia:

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Yep, did you see those shore birds on the top of that tank at the Perdue facility?  Hmmmmm….are you thinking what I am – LOL???

Isn’t this an incredible house – their backyard is the Chesapeake Bay – WOW!:

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Over the Chesapeake:

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Under the Chesapeake:

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The waves were really choppy and high – there was actually a small craft warning for this area of the Bay when we went over.  That is Virginia Beach in the background:

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  We continued west thru Virginia:

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COTTON – we are in the south now – :-))):

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Monday was a long travel day for us – but what a beautiful sunset in North Carolina:

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Our initial plans were to stay at a Moose Lodge – turns out that we arrived and found a “For Sale” sign on the property.  I called the number and no answer so we moved on.  The Wal-Mart in Winston-Salem said “NO” to overnights, even though they are listed in a few places as an overnight.  At that point, it is 7 PM, we are tired and we start to call places.  The manager at the Wal-Mart in Mocksville told us to “Come on in, we would love to have you stay” – so that is where we stayed (and spent some money in his store too).  We are thinking now that when we do long days, to call ahead to the places we may stay – just in case.

Tuesday morning, we were on our way towards Tennessee thru the mountains of western North Carolina:

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Into Tennessee:

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We made our way to Heiskill, Tennessee – north of Knoxville, where we are staying at an Escapee Rainbow Park for a few days.  It is always good to stay at a SKP Park over a holiday – :-).   Once we settled in and did a few things, we went to Happy Hour and met a few people in the park.  Afterwards we went into Knoxville for supper and to see the movie Lincoln.  Great movie!

I will leave you with one more from the road picture:

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Stats:

11/19/12

Miles Traveled: 454 miles

Routes Traveled:

Delaware: SR-1; SR-54; SR-387

Maryland: SR-367; US-113; US-13

Virginia: US-13; Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel; US-13; I-64; I-264; US-58; I-85

North Carolina: I-85; I-40; US-601 – Stopped at Mocksville, NC  -  Wal-Mart

11/20/12

Miles Traveled: 244 Miles

North Carolina: US-601; I-40

Tennessee: I-40; I-640; I-75; SR-170

ENJOY TODAY!

4/11/2011

April 10 - 11, 2011 Travel to Delaware

Sunday morning we said our goodbyes to our neighbors and continued our journey northward.  

Ahh, spring in the east – where the trees are hues of red and gold and light green – with the young leaves just bursting out.   And the flowering trees, oh my.  Did you know that this is the only time of the year that the forest floor has a chance to show its colors – wildflowers – :-))).  Before I retired we did a lot of camping and hiking in PA and VA in the spring and I miss it…  But, you know, once we made the decision to head home, the pull is strong.   So that is why we have done two days of traveling – long first day especially.

Sunday night we stayed at a Wal-Mart in Ashland, VA and tonight we are staying at  the Elks Lodge in Dover, Delaware.

We arrived in Dover around lunchtime, had lunch at the lodge, and went shopping.   You see, Delaware has no state sales tax and since we had a number of large ticket items we wanted to buy, this was the place.   So we are now the proud owners of a new LED TV (to replace our two analog RV TV’s; material to make a new “bra” and wheel covers for the RV; a new ladder; shower bar and curtain (we aim to replace the accordion curtain that we currently have) and other odd’s and end’s.  Tomorrow we will return to shopping – I need to get fabric to make pockets for the RV plus insulation for the back closets (whenever we have cold weather the wall sweats, making everything wet.  In the Flair, we insulated and all was okay – no wet clothes or storage items) plus some more odd’s and ends.  We will be busy this summer – LOL.

Pictures from the road:

The Shenandoah Mountains:

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The Potomac River:

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The Chesapeake Bay Bridge (by Annapolis):

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Ships in the Chesapeake:

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Trees about to burst – the picture does not do it justice.   Can you see the different color hues:

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Flowering Trees – WOW!:

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Miles Traveled: 636 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Tennessee: SR-170; I-75; I-640; I-40; I-81

Virginia: I-81; I-64; I-295; I-95; SR-207; US-301

Maryland: US-301; SR-300

Delaware: SR-300; SR-44; SR-8; SR-15

4/10/2011

April 8 – 9, 2011 – Just Hanging Out

Just Hanging Out…

And that is what we did for the past two days along with laundry, shopping, etc. etc…  

Tomorrow we continue our journey north so stay tuned.

4/08/2011

April 6 –7, 2011 The Museum of Appalachia

On Thursday our travels took us to the highly recommended Museum of Appalachia and we were not disappointed.

A little background:

http://www.museumofappalachia.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Appalachia

The museum was established in the 1960s by John Rice Irwin, an East Tennessee educator and businessman, who has followed the basic philosophy of preserving not only structures and artifacts relevant to the region's history, but also preserving each item's individual history— who owned it, when and how it was created or obtained, and how it was used. These oral histories and recollections are housed, along with thousands of photographs, in the museum's archives. Starting from a single log structure, the museum has grown over four decades to include buildings such as the National Register of Historic Places-listed Arnwine Cabin, a rare Appalachian cantilever barn, and a cabin once inhabited by the parents of author Mark Twain. Relics on display include items owned by several notable or colorful Appalachian natives and thousands of tools detailing all aspects of rural life in Southern Appalachia.[2] The museum's grounds mimic a working pioneer Appalachian farm, with gardens growing typical crops and animals such as goats, chickens, turkeys, and peacocks roaming the grounds freely.”

The most interesting thing to us was that almost every piece in the museum had who it belonged to and some had stories attached to them.  And those stories are written so well that we could close our eyes and see the article in use.

Some of the grounds:

 

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There was a huge basket, quilt, and craft display – and of course a story on each one of them:

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Musical Display:

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Notice all the carvings on this piano – WOW!:

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H. Harrison Mayes had a vision of putting large concrete religious signs in every state, country and planet.   Eventually he put signs in 44 states and years ago before the new road systems were put in, his signs were seen along the roads.    At some point the signs not distributed were moved here.

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This one was destined for Italy:

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These for Arizona and Colorado:

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These for Brazil and Jupiter:

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For some reason, I am fascinated with what this person has done – might be a road trip to find his signs……

I spent some time chatting with this woman – she was originally from Wisconsin, now lives in the area and does quilting demonstrations – I just love hearing people’s stories:

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Blacksmith shop on the right:

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The family who lived here had 12 children – another WoW:

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Inside of the above home:

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The cantilever barn:

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And the animals, oh my.   These peacocks started following Andy – I told him it was his harem – LOL:

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Look at those colors:

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Check out the horns on this guy:

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If you are in this area, please put this on your list.  They also have different activities during the year.  If I lived here, I think I would get on their mailing list to find out what is happening.

We said our goodbyes to Paula and Norm and Cyndy and Merlin and hope to see them in our travels again.  We still continue to enjoy this park.  It is small but very friendly.   Many of those we are meeting are like us – heading north to home or family but waiting until the weather warms up.

And spring is here – I think in the past two days, the trees have all turned green – :-))).