Resting Among Pennsylvania Magnolias

Considering our recent time spent in Mississippi, it is probably fitting that we should now find ourselves nestled next to a Magnolia tree. As we spend some time in PA before we mosey on down the road, it has been a very nice time to visit family. The weather has been mostly cooperative and we're likely to remain here for another couple of weeks before striking out again to discover what lies beyond the next bend or over the next mountain. Unfortunately, we've begun to question the wisdom of continuing our original plan to spend the Summer months in Alaska. As everyone knows, fuel prices continue to soar and we've made some realistic (and sobering) estimates of the cost of our travel plans and we will continue to monitor the situation while considering alternatives over the coming weeks. We can't help but think that there are others of you in our situation (RVing full time) that are having similar thoughts about now...shorter trips and longer stays in one place. As much as all this may alter some plans, there is no dampening of our enjoyment of this sort of life and all that it has to offer.

A Temporary Return to PA

Oops!

On Sunday, the Thirteenth of April, we arrived in PA for a stay and visit of a month or so before continuing our journey which will take us across some of the Northern parts of the US before we head up into Western Canada on our way to spend most of the Summer in Alaska.

True to form, we found some parts of Pennsylvania highways to be about the worst we've encountered since hitting the road in October. We were not more than 30 miles or so into PA when we noticed a tire on the the tow dolly appeared to be a bit low on air. Not being able to discover any obvious signs of a cause, we used our little portable compressor to inflate the tire and continued our trip. We were not more than 40 miles from the end of the day's travel when the tire blew and took a major portion of the dolly fender with it.

We are now on a nice pad that Mike and Lori provided for our stay with power, water, and we can even get some TV reception AND WiFi! We will be quite comfortable here while we visit with friends and family, take care of some necessary business and get the vehicles prepared for the trip to Alaska.

Across West Virginia - Into Virginia

When we left Milton, WVA [about 20 miles East of the KY border] this morning, the forecast for the day was a high of 61 degrees but we arrived in the Walnut Hills Campground near Staunton, VA at about 5:30pm to 77 degrees. After another day of Tornado Warnings yesterday and an approaching cold front that has been crossing the country in this region, we appear to have outrun the front for now, but the forecast for tomorrow here is a high of only 52 - obviously the front will be overtaking us sometime soon.
On our way across the widest part of West Virginia, we traveled on the curviest Interstate Highways that I've ever encountered, not to mention a whole lot of climing and descending - probably never more than a mile or so of flat land at any one time for most of the way. We stopped at the largest roadside rest that I've ever seen, including a huge circular gift shop that must have been 1/4 mile in diameter. There were thousands upon thousands of items to choose from, but it is really quite amazing how our limited storage space will keep us from finding things that we can't live without; however, the stop also included a Starbucks - a first in quite a long time.
If the weather holds, we hope to be enjoying at least some portion of the Skyline Drive on our way North tomorrow and we will likely be heading into PA by Monday, April 14th.
WVAtoVAMountains - Be sure to catch the captions.

Second Week of April - 2008

Country Music Hall of Fame

A beautiful Sunday in downtown Nashville. We visited the Country Music Hall of Fame, walked by some of the many bars (most with live music) of Music Row (even stopped in one to listen and have a bite to eat) and toured the Ryman Auditorium, former home of the Grand Ole Opry. Deb had a chance to revisit her experience of a family trip to the Ryman back in the early 60's - even got to stand on the stage where most of her Country Music favorites stood at some point in their carreers. Even for those of us who may not be the biggest Country fans, there is no denying the historical impact of the Ryman and the influence of the Grand Ole Opry on the evolution of both Country and American popular music. It was quite an honor to be in such an historic landmark and for those of you who really are not at all fond of Country music, you should know that Caruso once performed at the Ryman [as did many other performers]. Be sure to see the photocaptions.

CountryMusicPhotos

Monday and Tuesday we took a trip with Roger and Karen to Metropolis, Illinois. After getting out of the Nashville area, we enjoyed quite a pleasant drive North West for about 170 miles to the banks of the Ohio River and had a first-hand opportunity to view the extent of some of the flooding that has afflicted many of the river areas of this part of the country. As in Mississippi, we did not see any extreme damage resulting from the flooding; however, there was an incredible amount of water covering wooded areas and farmland all along the river. While at the hotel in Metropolis, we actually saw the water's edge reaching to tires of some of the vehicles parked in the lots surrounding the hotel. Oh, and how about some antique slot machines?

OhioRiverPhotos

Wednesday saw us leaving Nashville and heading East to Knoxville, then North to Norris Lake, a spot rather high in the mountains of Tennessee and a bit unusual in our experience as you will see in the photos.

NorrisLakePhotos

On Thursday we traveled from Norris Lake in Tennessee throuh part of Kentucky and on to Milton, West Virginia which is just a bit east of Huntington. Deb drove for the greatest portion of the day, taking us into KY and driving along the Hal Rogers Parkway through a part of the Daniel Boon National Forrest. It was a pretty drive and it was nice to be off the beaten path (and away from Interstate truck traffic) for a while, but the Parkway proved to be somewhat less scenic than we expected. Tomorrow we plan to find something a bit more interesting as we continue our journey through parts of West Virginia and Virginia on our way to PA.

ThursdayPhotos

Nashville: Gaylord and the Opry

Nessie Visits Nashville

Saturday was spent exploring the Gaylord Opryland Resort and the (new) Grand Ole Opry and Museum in Nashville. The Gaylord is a complex of three large hotels that appear to host many and huge conventions, but most notable (to us) and the reason for our visit (thanx to Roberta for the tip) was the two beautiful and huge atrium complexes that are incorporated into the areas between the towers of the hotel rooms. Other than being a bit taken aback at the hotel charging $16 for parking, we spend a very pleasant couple of hours exploring the complex and enjoying all that was to be seen in the atrium enclosures.

In our opinion, the Grand Ole Opry was a bit of a disappointment; first, because we were not able to see anything of the inside of the Opry (and we could not find any shows that listed anyone that either of us was interested in hearing) and second, right next to the Opry is the Opry Mall - yes, a shopping mall - huge in scope and so busy that the nearest parking we could find was on the order of 1/2 mile away from the entrance. Naturally, this also meant a considerable amount of traffic in all areas surrounding the mall. On the other hand, the Opry Museum was a pleasant experience - a step into both the history of the Opry and the evolution of Country Music through the legends that appeared on the stage at the (old) Opry which we plan to visit tomorrow.

Photos of Gaylord and the Opry

From Tunica to Nashville

Painter of Light? Hmmm[You'll have to see the photo captions for more information]

It was a one day trip from Tunica to Nashville - really just a few hours of travel but we made one extended stop at a spot named Casey Jones Village along the way. For the next week, weather permitting, we will be exploring the Nashville area. We had considered attending a performance at the Grand Ole Opry, but after checking the schedule, we've decided to spend our time and money on something we'd like to see rather than sit through a performance that we really did not care to hear. With any luck we'll be clear of the rain tomorrow. Flood warnings and watches continue for the area, but our current location is well out of reach of most rivers except the ones that run down through the campground when the rain is really heavy.

PhotosTunicaToNashville

The Mighty Mississippi

Plying the Mississippi

On Thursday, April 3rd, 2008, it is a very rainy day as we sit here to the SE of Nashville, TN [planning to be here for a week]. As in too many days recently in many parts of the country, we are under a Flood Watch in this area, as we were for the entire time we spent in Tunica, MS. On the day before we prepared to move out of Grand Casino RV Park, we visited an area along the Mississippi River and had an up close and personal view of just how high the water was reaching and while that perticular area was not quite at the point of experiencing really damaging effects, there were other spots just to the North and South of our location where conditions were much worse. Be sure to see the captions when viewing the photos for a bit more information.

Mighty MississippiPhotos