Our Latest Trip

Well, we're back from our latest trip, safe and sound, but oh so tired.  I hate to admit it, but we may be beginning to feel our ages.

We took a 3810 mile loop through the southeastern USA, and we can now add West Virginia to our "camped there" map.  We had stayed in all the states surrounding the Mountain State, but somehow failed to stop there until this trip.

Our first stop was just south of Texarkana at the COE park on Wright Patman Lake.

Honey had recently completed a patriotic jigsaw puzzle.  I sealed it between two sheets of plastic, and we used it to decorate our campsites along the way.

 Our traveling buddies, the Sheltons, blew a hydraulic line on a slide-out and ended up having to turn around and head for home.  We were able to celebrate Travis's 76th birthday with dinner in Texarkana before we parted ways.

Next stop was Memphis, and the Graceland RV Park - Thank you very much.  We took the Graceland tour, mostly because we were there, but I found it more interesting than I expected it to be.

From there we headed to Nashville and an overnight stop at another very nice COE Park - the Anderson Road Campground on J. P. Priest Lake.  We were a few miles north of there the following morning when we experienced our first bad moment - a blowout on the 5th wheel!  It was a big one - I heard it, felt it, and looked back to see all sorts of debris flying off the side of the trailer.  A call to Good Sam Roadside Assistance got the tire off and the spare down, and we were back on our way.  Yes, it took over two hours, but they got it done.

Our next stop was a true destination stop, the Kentucky Horse Park.  The RV park is very nice - large campsites with lots of well tended grass - but nothing in the park is level. We literally had no place to set a camp chair that wasn't headed down hill.  The park itself is fabulous, and the statuary and the live horses are fantastic.

Several famous horses are buried in the park.  This is the grave of Man O' War.

While we were there, we also made a side trip to a historic Shaker Village.  We learned a lot about this religious community, for example, the Shakers believed that the second coming had already occurred, and they should conduct themselves accordingly.  The village had three leaders - two men and a woman - who made all major decisions for the entire group.

 See the thing sticking out of the roof?  This was the cistern house, and the water reservoir was filled by pumping water from about 1/8 of a mile away. When the reservoir filled the flag would float up signaling when it was time to quit pumping.

One of the Shaker's communal residences from the 1800s.  Men lived on one side, and the women on the other.  Our guide didn't offer any hints about how or when they ever got together, so maybe that's why the cult eventually died out.

We still had that blown out tire, so I went to Walmart for a replacement.  When I went to pick it up, the salesperson who helped me pick it out scanned the work order and said there's been a mistake.  He said they listed the new valve stem and the tire install, but they didn't show the tire itself, and I don't know how to fix it.  He thought for a while, then eventually said "Well Hell, everybody could use a break once in a while." and charged my credit card $14.82.

That has us about halfway along on our trip.  I'll tell you more tomorrow.