Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Tearjerkers Hoosier Gathering, May 15-19, Brown County, IN

This trip was for the Hoosier Chapter of the Tearjerkers in Brown County, IN at the state park.

I started off the weekend by leaving Thursday night and driving to Franklin, KY where I stopped at Bluegrass Music RV Park. It had been a KOA up until a few weeks before and had been bought out by new owners who were working on improving it. It was a Good Sam park.

I had a pullthrough site with water, electric, and sewer.






The next morning I headed on to Nashville, IN and the state park for the Gathering.

This is a wooden bridge near the entrance to the State Park. I went in that entrance after a trip into town for stuff I forgot.

Here are pictures of all the teardrops at the gathering. I hope I didn't miss anybody.



































This was a neat setup. The family tows these in tandem. One for mom & dad, and the other for the kids.






















On my trip into town, I stopped at a scenic overlook.

This Little Guy wasn't part of our group, but was there at the campground that weekend, so I took a picture.



This is what happens when you don't bring your onboard water jug with you!!!!

The potluck dinner. Lot's of good food, and good conversation!!
















There was a movie shown Saturday evening after dusk, but I went back to my camper after dinner and did dishes, and then went inside the camper and turned on the Braves game on XM and sat down with a book for a bit. Next thing I know, it's 3 in the morning!!! A storm was rolling through, so I got up and sat under my awning and watched it come through :-)
Sunday morning, the sun came out nice and bright, so started to dissasemble and let things dry good and packed up, walked the loop of folks still there, and started for home. My goal was to get home that evening, but "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get"
I was about half way through Kentucky, when my engine light popped on, then my temperature gauge started rising!!! That's not good. Fortunately, I was right at a rest stop exit, so I pulled in there. I opened the hood and found a broken hose and water and antifreeze every where. This was about 3pm Eastern. I called home, then called Good Sam ERS to tell them the problem and to see about getting back on the road. They got my information on where I was, what I was driving and pulling, and what I thought the problem was, and said they would call me right back.
About 20 minutes later, I got a call back, and said they couldn't get the trucks out to me in time to get it repaired that evening, but a Chevy dealer nearby could get it first thing in the morning. They asked me if I wanted to camp or stay in a hotel that night, and of course I said camp, so they told me there was a Good Sam park within 1/2 mile of the Chevy dealer, so I agreed.
So about 2 hours after we hung up two trucks arrived. We disconnected my T@B and my truck went on one truck and my T@B went on the other. They took my truck to the Chevy dealer in Cave City, KY and took me and my T@B to Cave Country RV park right there nearby.
It was a very plain RV park, but immaculate. The two guys that run the place work endlessly to keep it nice and were very nice and offered to take me somewhere for dinner or whatever I needed. Since there was a Cracker Barrel within throwing distance of the campground, I ate there instead.
Here are the pictures of the campground. The sites were all pullthrough sites with electric, water, sewer, cable, and they had the fastest WiFi I've ever had. The laundry room and bath houses were spotless. While waiting on my truck, I did some laundry and some cleaning.




Shortly after 10am Central time, the dealer called and said my truck was ready, and they came and picked me up, and I took care of the bill, then went back to the campground, hooked up, and headed on home.
I had just recently switched from standard AAA to Good SAM ERS and was soooo glad I did. Just that one tow, paid for my membership!!!
I had a great time this weekend, even with the car trouble!!! Everyone was really friendly and seeing all the individual craftmanship and creativity on all the teardrops gives me some great ideas!!!
Coming next, back to Lake Guntersville State Park. Our Scout troop is going there to do some waterskiing, and it's our annual Scout family barbecue.
Thanks for reading!!
Carol



















Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Reinforced Bed Cleats

We had an "incident" with our bed cleats on a recent camping trip. We have taken the table legs off of the table and we put too much pressure on the wrong spot.
I added some reinforcing boards to solve the problem.
I removed the existing screws from the bed cleats and added more substantial screws.
Then I purchased a 1x4 board that closely matched the finish on the T@B and stained them with natural stain. Then measured and cut the boards and placed them in strategic locations along either side of the bed cleats. I glued them and screwed them in with the same screws that I replaced in the cleats.
There are a total of 4 support boards on the passenger side, and 3 support boards on the driver side.
This should support the bed no problem now.



Monday, May 5, 2008

T@B Blue Ridge Rally, May 1-4, 2008

I just got back from a great weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina with 21 T@Bs and 1 T@DA. Outstanding weekend!!!

I left work Thursday evening, May 1st and proceeded part of the way to a little RV Park called Overnighter RV Park right off of I-75 in Athens, TN.


The next morning, I headed out and proceed on to Mountain Stream RV park. http://www.mountstreamrvpark.com/ . I was in site 12. It was a delightful little park with a beautiful stream running past the campsites.

That evening after setting up, I joined the campfire and S'Mores Roast for a little bit, then turned in.






The next day after stopping at the store, I decided to go exploring. Our Rally host had a Goody bag for everyone with all kinds of brochures of things to do in the area. I chose the Emerald Village Gemstone Mine. I purchased a $10 bucket of stones to see what I could find. I got a nice little bag of pretty stones out of the deal, with quite a few Emeralds. The lady there said that two of them were promising and might make a nice set of earrings. Maybe someday. (My birthstone is Emerald.) Here is a picture of the mine and the surrounding buildings and museums.











Next, I decided to drive a bit along the Blue Ridge Parkway for the view. Magnificent!! I stopped at a couple of the overlooks and got some pictures, (which don't do the view justice!!)







I then went back to the campground to take a few pictures of the T@Bs. Here is the campground weather station.
All the T@Bs , all in a row.


William & Donna, Site 3

Cindy, Site 5
Sandra, Site 6
Sharon & Becky, Our Wonderful Rally Hosts, Site 7
Mike & Cheri, Site 8
Brett & Penny, Site 9

Susan & Bob, Site 10
Cheryl & Randall, Site 11 (I forgot to take a picture!!!!!) Sorry!!!
Carol, Site 12
Diane & Jill, Site 13
Sandy & John, Site 14
Stephen, Site 16

Sue & Rich, Site 17
Gregg & Donna, Site 19
Dana & Larry, Site 20
Jerry & Nada, Site 22
Al & Pat, Site 24

Janet & Earl, Site 25
CJ & Sharon, Site 26
Ed, Site 28
Jim & Don
Geo & Liz

Then I took a few pictures of my latest setup experiment. I think this one is a winner. It's a lot of work, but keeps the bugs out and keeps rain off the most critical stuff.
This is my hot water maker. It's a little less expensive than the Coleman on Demand, and I can mount it on a propane tank instead of using the little bottles.
I now have a true grey water sewer hose. I tried using the adapter and running a garden hose directly into the sewer drain, but it drained too slowly. I cut off the garden hose really short, then added a female connector to the other end, then siliconed a sewer cap to the end of a sewer hose. This drains normal and sets up easy.
I have lots of covered space

With Geo's help, I finally have a Blue T@B sticker!!
We gathered for a great hot dog roast and PotLuck for dinner. Lots of YUMMY food!!!




After dinner, the campground had a Gospel Quartet perform. They were really good.
This was a really fun Rally!! Sharon and Becky did a wonderful job organzing and we just had a ball!!! Although no pictures, they also arranged for a T@B dealer to bring in a new T@B and new T@DA and provided us all with a wine and cheese reception and some goody bags from the dealer.
Sunday morning, it had rained overnight, so things were a bit damp packing up, but I got out about noon Eastern on Sunday, and got home at 5:30 Central. I decided to keep the T@B home for a couple of days to give her a thorough cleaning as I've been out a lot the last couple of months. Not being able to keep her at home is tough.
Coming next, the Hoosier Tearjerkers gathering at Brown County State Park in Nashville, IN

Thanks for looking!!!
Carol