River Plantation RV Park (TN)

Aug 8-12, 2012
(Catching up in the Great Smoky Mountains.)

Sevierville, TN
River Plantation RV Park site 165

We stopped by here for a few days to enjoy full hook up on our way to visit family back in NC.  We really wanted to go to the Cable Mill Visitor’s Center of Cades Cove and get some Caribbean pancakes at Flapjacks Pancakes which is right next to this RV Park.  Many of you are familiar with this place because we were at the RV Dreams Rally in April of 2011.  There is a new office to check-in at in the park and it is still a well maintained park.

 

The first order of business for the day was the Caribbean pancakes.  We had enjoyed some when we were here a year and a half ago and our taste buds were ready for some more.  We sat down in a booth and saw that it was no longer on the menu!  I asked our waitress about it and she said that it would be no trouble for the cook who could whip up some just special for us.  They were good with coconut, banana, pineapple and nuts on them.  Yum!

Next, we decided to take a ride on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail.  It was so nice there that I’ve decided to do a separate post on that soon.  It started raining as we finished up with that but we still drove over to Cades Cove.

 

In our previous visit here we had stopped at most of the restored pioneer buildings and I did a post about them that day.  We just enjoyed our ride today by finding some wildlife in the meadows.

 

 

Much of the attraction of driving to Cades Cove is the drive itself.  There is a stream that runs along beside the road most of the way there and there are lots of squiggles (curves).

 

We could tell that a strong storm had hit the mountain not too long ago.  There were several places along the road that had many trees down.  I think that some of them had been cleared away but most of them were still laying there.

 

I guess it’s nature’s way to open up the canopy to let new growth sprout forth.  This rainy day also helps with the new growth and keeps everything a very lush green.

Thanks for dropping by and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Rain, rain, go away

Stix n Brix, NC

Gin’s folks left the cg Wednesday morning.  It was raining just a little bit at the time.  We discussed it and decided to stay one more night.  We knew we would get wet either day so we chose to relax in the MH.  When it stopped raining for a few minutes, we went outside to put away the chairs and put up the awning.  We got out our pole and blocks so we could pry up our bad jack, and we were shocked to see it go up on it’s own.  If it had been raining hard, we would have had to pry it up.  Go figure.

Speaking of raining hard, a tropical storm system came in last night.  Heavy rain on the roof of a MH is VERY LOUD.  Yes, you have to shout at each other even if you’re only three feet away.  We’re learning how to play Mexican Train Dominoes so we gave it a try.  It was a noisy night.  I mentioned the nearby artillery the other day.  Well, we had nature’s artillery instead.  It was a little bit of thunder, but the pine cone grenades are what really made it hard to sleep.  About the time I drifted off, another one would hit and make me jump.

We got up about 9:00am and it was a break in the heavy rain.  Smudge really appreciated a quick potty break.  Here’s what site #13 looks like with a pond in front, beside, and behind us.

Gin put on her raingear to do the last bit of packing up (vu qube, cables, dump station etc).  We had brought our kayaks and never took them off the top of the Suki.  They were full of water.  We’ll carry them differently when we fulltime.  We’ll also need to come up with something better to keep the bikes dry.  Here’s Gin dumping some kayak water.  We like the hullavators but you will get wet if the kayak has water in it.

As she finished up at the dump station, the bottom fell again.  It wasn’t that bad to drive in thankfully.  I felt the wind only once as we drove over the bridge into Swansboro.  All things considered, if we were fulltiming, this would have been a “stay put” kinda day.

I have to work the next 5 nights so I’ll be quiet for awhile.  I’ll still find time to read your blog posts though.  Only 10 more months until retirement, but who’s counting (me of course).

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Stir Crazy

Cedar Point CG site #13
Croatan National Forest
Cedar Point, NC

Welcome to our newest follower, Karen & Al.  Karen has a couple of nice blogs and I have bumped in to her Florida-Georgia Camping Kayaking one several months ago and thought how nice it was.  There's some good info there, and it sounds like we share common interests.

Well, it's official now...I'm stir crazy (as opposed to just plain crazy).  I woke up at 4:30am and can't get back to sleep because I have caught up with my sleep.  It's Wednesday and it's been raining off-n-on since Sunday night.  We all went shopping at Walmart in Morehead City on Monday and then hit the Golden Corral buffet.  Yes, our hit did leave a pretty big dent.  :)  Other than that, we haven't left the cg.  That's ok by me, but it's been so wet that we didn't bother to get the bikes off the rack to ride around.  We've played Canasta in the evening with Gin's folks every night.  Since a storm is forecast to come in today, they are thinking about leaving this morning.  Gin and I will pack up our chairs while they are sorta dry, but we will wait it out and leave Thursday.  I don't mind driving in the rain and a little wind too much. 

Yesterday was a busy training day at the Marine base in nearby Jacksonville.  We could hear the artillery all day and into the evening.  Some of it sounded kinda close.  It sounds a lot like thunder but it's constant.  I cannot imagine living in a war zone.  I wonder if politicians would be so quick to declare war if they knew it would be fought daily on American soil?  I hope and pray that it never happens again.

What kind of things do you do on a rainy day in the RV?  Gin plays games on her IPad while I do Cryptograms.  We bought this word puzzle book from Walmart and it will last me several years.  We've caught up with our sleep by napping every rainy day and watched all the shows that we've tivoed .  I feel like I'll pop if I keep eating like I have during the past few days.

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life's journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.