Recap of a few days on the road...

We left Lake Cumberland on Wednesday around 9:30a and arrived at the Chattanooga Holiday Trav-L-Park.  Hadn't been to Chattanooga for probably 15 years.

Thursday, we went up Lookout Mountain just to see the view, which was awesome.  The drive up and the drive down were horrifying.  Hate that kind of driving (two lane road, twisty, straight up or straight down).  Ugh.  Saw two Class A motorhomes and could only imagine the drive.  Yikes.

We looked for a place to have a cocktail with a view and found the Boathouse Chattanooga which overlooked the Tennessee River.  Not much boat traffic, but the crewing teams were working out which was cool.

Decided while we were at the Boathouse to bite the bullet and put new tires on the truck, so we did that.  Why can't those guys tell time?  Said it would be "an hour, maybe an hour and a half".  We got there at 4:30p, left there at 6:50p.  Had a couple of beers across the street at a little neighborhood bar.  Had to leave once the locals got there, they were all smokers.  In Tennessee, if you make the place 21 and over, you can dictate the smoking laws.

Friday, we made the short run to Stone Mountain Family Park Campground.  Not our candy bar of a campground.  Total tree shade.  The sites were OK, but getting into them was a challenge (and one that I was up for).  After two aborts, we got the big spud in there.  Another thing, when it rained EVERYTHING was mud (no sunlight, no grass).  Liked its location, wasn't crazy about the sites.

Saturday, we went to the Yellow Daisy Festival.  Fantastic.  Over 400 craft vendors, but the ONE thing we were looking for (a flag holder with a light on top), nobody had.  Talked to a guy on Monday before we left (the campground was pretty much filled with vendors rig's) and he said he'd been doing this festival for 20 years and this one was about 2/3 of what it had been in the past.  Rained on Thursday, Friday and Sunday made it a bad one.  We were pretty wide eyed, but we went there on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.


Saturday night, we went to the Hudson Grille in Shady Springs to party with the Ohio State Alumni Club of Atlanta.  Great folks.  Shared a table with a Buckeye Alum and his girlfriend who was from Atlanta.  We had a great time, even though game didn't end up as we would have hoped.

Sunday was a good recovery day.  Sunday night, we went out with one of Connie's Wilmington HS friends that she hadn't seen for almost 30 years.  Ate at a place called Summit's Wayside Tavern and enjoyed the company of Nancy, Craig and Evan.  Food was good, company was terrific catching up on old friends and news from the Wil City.


Today (Monday) we made the short drive to Columbus, GA (actually Midland) and Lake Pines RV Campground.  Nice park, much more our style.  We can hear the shooting from the range at Camp Benning.  Check in guy said there might be artillery fire, but that didn't happen.  Nor did any paratroopers (that we could see from our site) which usually practice on Mondays.  Oh well.

Our Dog History

We were married in 1983, and the first thing each of us wanted to do was have a dog.  Neither of our parents would "let" us as we were growing up, and it was a goal when we got married.

We wanted a Basset Hound, just because of the looks.  Upon return from our honeymoon, we saw "free puppies" and went to take a look.  Mom was a full blooded basset, Dad was a full blooded English Setter.  (Today, that would be a 'designer breed' of some sort.)  Our love of RV'ing and camping was born about the same time as Rambi, who lived to be 10, through all of our towns we lived in.

When Rambi passed in 1993, it took us exactly one day to realize how much a dog moving about was a factor in making a house a home.  Two days later, and a trip to the Ashtabula Protective League with our then 2nd grade daughter, we got Jobu.  We thought we had gotten a black lab and, to this day, we're still not sure what breed she was.  She was high strung, very agile, and great to have on your side.

Two years later, along came Brutus, our first male.  We had been kicking around the idea of being a two dog family as our daughter was growing, and we were gone with work.  We thought a second dog would keep JoBu company.  Brutus was from a student who couldn't keep him and supposed to be a chocolate lab, but grew to be a beagle/shepherd mix.  He was a terrific dog with a tremendously loud bark.  Brutus was really, really laid back, a perfect ying to Jobu's yang.

As these two were getting on in years, and we knew we'd be full timing, we started deciding on getting a breed that we'd know what we had.  We were between a Boxer (always having large dogs) and a Boston Terrier.  Tragically, within 6 weeks of each other, first JoBu, then Brutus passed away -- they were 14 and 12 respectively. During that 6 week period, we got Sloopy, our first Boston, from a breeder.  She's funny, makes us walk and exercise and a great dog for an RV.

Having been a one dog family for four years, we were kicking around the idea of having a playmate for Sloopy.  It would definitely be a Boston Terrier.  As we were shopping next door to Two Rivers Campground, we struck up a conversation with one of the employees who had seen us walking Sloopy through the lot.  She had Bostons, in fact, had just had a litter and couldn't find anyone to take the 9th one.  If you believe in fate, just earlier that morning we had corresponded with someone from Corpus Christi (where we'll be for the winter) about getting a Boston puppy.

So, welcome to our family:  Carmen.

From the firepit to the fan!

Last night we were enjoying a fire in the pit on the patio. Tonight, the heat is back and we are running the fan. Enjoying the evening listening to the Buffett concert and watching the Reds and Indians on TV (we flip back and forth).

Hope you are enjoying your evening too.

See ya down the road...

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Anything you can cook, I can cook on the Grill!

Ok, I know we have been hitting it hard with the food and recipes.  Can you tell we like to eat?

Anyway, it has been soooo hot here in Oklahoma that we have not wanted to cook inside the RV.  That just adds to the heat and makes the A/C run harder.  But, we still need to eat.

We recently purchased a new grill so we would be able to have a thermostat and more consistent cooking temps.  The thermostat also enables us to use the grill just like an oven.

Tonight, we needed to use up some leftover chicken (from the Beer Can Chicken previously cooked).  We decided to go with one of our favorites - Bisquick Impossible Pie recipes.  All we needed to do was adapt the recipe for the grill.  Lower the cooking temp to 350 degrees for 1 hour (indirect heat) instead of 400 for 30 minutes.

Worked out great and the RV was able to maintain a comfortable temperature inside.  Outside was showing 102 degrees.

Hot, hot, hot!

Enjoy a Safe and Happy 4th of July!