May 16 and we're in an RV Park called Misty Rivers Resort in Walland, Tennessee.    It's about 28 miles west of Gatlinburg, TN nestled between a few foothills of the Great Smokies.   The reason they call them the great Smoky Mountains is because about dusk each day, the fog looks like it's coming up out of the trees and looks alot like smoke. 
 

These are some beautiful mountains and in some ways, the area here reminds Angie and I of the area around Yosemite National Park.

So, here isa photo from the area around our campsite.

I may be getting ahead of myself here.  Let's talk about how we arrived in Tennessee and what happened on the way here.  Yesterday morning, we packed up the RV and headed out of Charlotte, North Carolina, where we had spent a few days getting Angie's Apple computer fixed at an Apple Store and I have to say that those people are not only nice and helpful, but very efficient.  We had an appointment at a select time and that was when they saw us and in 15 minutes, took care of the problem and taught us a wealth of information about backups, cleaning up her hard drives, etc...

So - we drove from Charlotte and when we got into Tennessee, the GPS took us on a route that was up and over a mountain on a very winding road with alot of low hanging trees.  I had thought, at the time, that we missed most of them by taking the middle out of 2 lanes (there was very little traffic and I believe I know why.....) - but apparently, I was wrong.  One of the low hanging branches was strong enough to shatter the vent cover over the bathroom fan - but we didn't discover this until we were parked in our campground, during a thunderstorm as we were setting up.   So, armed with duct tape, a beach towel and a plastic bag, I scrambled up onto the ladder to the roof to play RV Repairman to the rescue.   At the time, it was just sprinkling - but there was alot of lightening and thunder activity.  Even after drying the roof area around the shattered vent cover as best as i could - duct tape was not going to stick, so I called through the open vent and asked Angie to come out and throw blocks of 2x4s from the back of the truck up to me.   I thought it odd at the time that she kept asking me if I wanted her to hand me up a metal rod for any reason (I'm 14' up in the air on top of the RV in an electrical storm????), so with the help of the wood and plastic, I covered the hole and planned on replacing the vent cover today.

So, I leveled out the RV, made sure the water, sewage, electrical and satellite dish were all hooked up and we proceeded to go find a restaurant for dinner and coffee.  The first place the GPS took us was only about 3 miles away (that takes 10 minutes in the mountains) and we pulled in at the sign saying Milhouse Restaurant and followed the road up and found it was a house that looked deserted, so we pushed buttons on the GPS and saw the next nearest was The Rustic Barn and started towards that destination.  It said that it was only 4 miles away - but I think that was 4 miles if you were a crow, pigeon or buzzard as that 4 miles took us 20 minutes down roads that at times were very narrow 1 lane country roads.  Angie kept hearing the music from Deliverance, so I made sure the pistol on my belt was loaded and we kept following her directions.   We ended up pulling in at a sign that says Rustic Barn and voila - there was a very rustic looking barn with 3 cars in front of it.   Angie raised one eyebrow (reminding me alot of Mr. Spock on the Enterprise), but we proceeded to park and walk in.   There were 5 tables in this "restaurant" and one family of 5 sitting at the largest table that held 6 people.     We were seated and the waitress brought a white erase board on a tripod to our table and took our drink orders (2 coffees with creamer).    Yep - the entire menu was on a dry erase board and a few minutes later, we got our coffee.  We waited awhile and when the waitress came to ask us if we were ready to order, we asked for creamer for the coffee and she said they were out and when I asked for milk, she said the boss has gone to the store to get some.  I knew then that we were in trouble.   So - we both ordered chicken fried steaks, extra gravy and some vegetables.   When they eventually brought the food out, we asked for extra gravy - but she said "we're almost out of gravy", so we didn't get any extra.    After the meal, we had some peach cobbler and the only good thing about it was the ice cream on top.   It will be awhile before Angie lets me hear the last about the Rustic Barn.

This morning, as I was out laying the mat next to the stairs, I noticed something didn't look quite right under the rig and then I discovered that the entire middle section of the bottom was hanging down by the ground - including my water lines, 80 gallon fresh water tank, electric wires, etc...  The only think holding it together and keeping all the water lines from breaking (as well as electrical wires, sewage lines, etc) was the underbelly material.  So, I immediately started emptying the water tank and climbed under the rig with a couple of jacks, 2x4s and started stabilizing the entire section so it wouldn't do any further harm.   When you live in an RV - you have to be a master mechanic, plumber, electrician and jack-of-all-trades.  So - we called a repairman and he came out and said he can fix it all in about half a day and he'll get busy on it, late Monday.   The timing of this has to be a God thing.   This is the first time we scheduled to be in one spot for 7 days and had the underpinning came completely off while we driving down the highway - it could have caused a massive accident or tore up alot more than it did. 

I'm just getting tired of things going wrong with this rig.  I will not recommend a Keystone RV product to anyone.  So far, we've had to replace the motor in the leveling jacks once and it has to be replaced again as the clutch went out in this one and I'm ordering the new one for $450 on Monday, the entire back end of the RV (that was a $14,000 job on a $44,000 RV), electrical converter  had to be replaced and we've had 4 blow-outs in 2 years and 2 months (1 since we put $235 60,000 mile Michelin truck tires on it - and now the bottom is falling out and the supports holding the water tank breaks!     Oh yeah - as I was typing the last paragraph, we noticed the satellite dish was not picking up the Direct TV, so I went out to fix it and just connected the dish pointer to the dish with the wires just as another lightening storm and hard rain started and by the time I gave up on getting a signal and getting my electronic pointed unhooked and made it back to the rig, I'm soaked.  I'm stopping this blog long enough to pour a bourbon and coke.

Ok - I'm back and decided to make a pot of coffee instead.    So - today, after spending some time with a local repairman, we drove around to look at other campgrounds in the area on the river.   We found 4 that had some beautiful spaces that backed up to the edge of the river and all had internet wi-fi and cable or enough view to the southwest for us to pick up the satellite signal for the tv - but none had an AT&T signal.  Not even one bar.   So - then we drove up to the Rocky Mountain National Park (it's only 9 miles from us) and took a couple of photos that our grandson will like, and this was not in a zoo or a protected area either.   This bear was next to the road.




So, we stopped the truck and took some video and two photos as the bear was trying to figure out if people taste just like chicken.    One fool got out of the car behind us to take a closer photo and we didn't stick around to see if he made it back to his car in time.   The gene pool in Tennessee may have risen a notch today.

So - we checked out the campground in the park and discovered they have no hookups and we could not pick up an AT&T signal - so we may decide to spend a weekend there some time (they do allow generator usage and we do have one), but we can't spend long there without phone service or internet service since my business depends on both.

We then returned back to the RV park and took a very anxious (and bladder-filled) Cookie out for a walk along the river.   As soon as we got there - she jumped in and proceeded to swim around.

I think we may decide in the next day or two to spend an hour or three with our fishing poles attempting to entice some of the trout in the river to spend a little time on our hook before releasing them back into the river.

So, naturally, upon returning back to the RV, it was my duty to give one dirty - but happy - dog a bath (she doesn't like baths), so now she smells all clean and fresh (and we checked her for ticks again as we do often considering where we like to camp),.

Don't misunderstand my complaining earlier about the RV.  I have a problem with this particular RV and not RVng in general.  I really do love the lifestyle we have and no matter what lifestyle you choose - there will be problems.  I can't tell you how many times in the past 20 years, I hated spending the night in hotels, having flights delayed, spending time picking up rental cars, false smoke alarms in hotels making everyone go outside at 3 in the morning in the rain, spending the night at airports sleeping in a chair and then getting to the convention to speak as they were introducing me - while I was still wearing jeans and tshirt since they had lost my luggage or flights delayed to the point where I had to rent a car and drive for 6 hours overnight to be able to teach a seminar at 9am and doing all of this by myself.  I love traveling with Angie and Cookie this way.  Yes - we have problems and connection difficulties so that once in a while, I may have to sit in the truck using the Onstar telephone on a conference call because my cell won't get a signal - but I'm much happier now than I was for 20 years traveling by myself.   Once we eventually get out of debt and I can trade this unit in, I plan to do so for a Class A motor-home where Angie can get work done or quilt while I drive or I can be on the computer while she drives and we will have problems with that one too (all life has them) - but we'll get through them too.    Getting to see the country this way is a blessing that I do not take for granted.    And on top of all else - sometimes driving the RV around the country turns out to be a lot less expensive than flying from home to conventions, renting cars, driving 40 miles to the convention city, paying $200 to $250 a night for hotel rooms, eating in restaurants on every meal, etc...   For instance, on this 2 month trip, I did the calculations.  I had 3 conventions to attend and as it turns out - since I was going to be in eastern Tennessee anyway - an opportunity popped up to teach a couple of seminars to primary care doctors and get new clients on top of everything else.

To fly from Tyler to Dallas to Philadelphia, and then home and then fly from home to Myrtle Beach and then home again and then to Chattanooga, TN and home for the 3 conventions, counting hotel, airfare, car rental and meals in restaurants would have cost us a  little more than $4,400.00.   So far - we have been gone about 4 weeks doing it this way, it's only cost about $1990 for the fuel and campground charges and we eat 9 of each 10 meals in the RV.   By the time we get home, we expect it to be a little less than $4,000 and we had the opportunity to have dinner or meals with 5 different clients along the way that we would have missed out on had I flown and done the hotel thing.  So - yes - we enjoy this lifestyle - although I do wish a few less things would need repairs along the way.

Now that the rain has stopped, I think I'll head outside and try to re-position the satellite dish so we can pick up a signal.  Sunday, - we're heading over to Gatlinburg and look at different RV parks along the way to see where we want to head out to on Friday to spend a week since we have the seminars on the 27th and 28th in Gatlinburg I'm teaching before we head to Chattanooga on the 1st for the June 3-5 Tennessee Osteopathic convention that I'm also speaking at.  After that - we plan on returning to Texas and spend about 3 weeks with dad and the kids (our 3 sons and 2 daughters-in-law) and grandkids (Dalton is 4 and Monika is 1) before heading out to California to see Angie's brother and sister and their families and my sister and brother-in-law and their 11 children.   At least - that is the plan - but we don't really know what God has in store for us yet - so it's flexible.                      Don