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

(775 miles)

Thanks for looking!!!

Carol