Pikeville, KY

We made a longer tow to Pikeville, 203 miles on US23, a very nice 4 lane divided highway.  We'll continue on US23 which we have taken twice in the past going to Flowery Branch to visit Jody & family.  We'll spend 2 nights here as we aren't in a hurry to go south and are keeping an eye in hurricane Irma.

 

The city of Pikeville is long and narrow stretching along the  Levisa Fork River.  You can see on the left of the picture some of "the cut" as it's called that took 18 years to construct rerouting the river to eliminate flooding and make a better route for the railroad and a couple major roads.

The Pikeville City Campground is in a large city park and we are adjacent to the lighted soccer field allowing Judy to relax on the sofa and watch the girls then the boys high school games.

It made us think of Devyn so Judy sent her a couple pictures and said this is the way we want to watch her games from now on.

Circleville, OH

After visiting our RV friends we made a short tow to Ohio Christian RV Park in Circleville, OH to hole up over the Labor Day holiday.  Nothing special here just a place to hide for the holiday.  We did spend 2+ hours on the Hocking Scenic Railway enjoying the train ride.  Like the heater in the corner?

 

 

Downtown Circleville had this nifty mural that at first glance caused us both to look closer.  We had full hookups so Judy did a few loads of laundry, full hook ups (read sewer) is nice!

Time to head south, again!

We pulled out of Michigan 8/27, before Labor Day this year because Devyn is in college and Randy & Lisa left on their Harleys. They are on a two week trip to Georgia to see Jody & Renato and then 2 or 3 work stops in North Carolina; and there will be some fun roads to ride.  The first day was 540 miles so they met the 500+ mile day goal.  We were bored at Juniper Hills so decided to head south and stop in Bowling Green, OH (less than 100 miles) to visit RV friends.  We had supper Sunday evening with Ron & Roberta, Bert had a knee replaced less than 2 weeks ago and is doing very well.  Judy got to quiz her because we expect that she will have 1 or 2 replaced next year.
Today we took them to Defiance for lunch with Harold & Karen.  Ron & Roberta want to head to FL early October, the same time Harold & Karen head to CA.  We are headed for some train rides, a visit with Jody, Renato, and the grandkids, some time in FL checking out possible homesteads, and then another Gulf Shores winter.

Here's our site at Fire Lake CG in Bowling Green.

Devyn's a Comet at Olivet!

Devyn moved into her dorm room at Olivet the 16th as the soccer players had to report a week before classes start so they can organize and start practice.  She has practice weekdays for 2 hours each at 6am and again in the evening.  Busy girl.  Judy and I drove up on the 26th to watch her first college game, it was a scrimmage against Cornerstone University, another Christian school in Grand Rapids.  She played the first 35 and last 10 minutes, there are 26 girls on the team.

Devyn sounds and looks very happy here.

 

I forgot the camera and had to use the cell phone which doesn't take focused telephoto pictures......or I just don't know how to do it right!

 

The Olivet Comets won 3 to 1.

 

No more Moe

We enjoyed the rally but Moe ran away.  We made her leash smaller and took her outside and she quickly weaseled out of it and bolted into the woods and brush.  We had all the rally attendees and campground workers keep an eye open for her but no one ever saw her.  Ron & Lois talked with a neighbor outside the park who said they believe they saw her once.  There have been no calls saying she's been seen so Moe is now a Kalamazoo cat, she's friendly so hopefully someone will adapt her.  One individual who doesn't miss Moe is Patches.
We returned to Juniper Hills CG and are in a site near our first site.  Here we are back in the empty campground.

Here (below) it is a few days before NASCAR race weekend.

Here we are race weekend, can you spot our small white antenna dish and US flag?

Here's a view from our front door, we were lucky that the race fans that were suppose to be in that site had RV problems and did not make it.  They were friends with the fans that were camped behind us.

Here's the C130 flyover.

AH.......back to peace and quiet and no smoke.  It was an entertaining week and the fans were very friendly and well behaved.

 

M&M Rally, Kalamazoo

On the opening night we always have a potluck dinner and then spend some time going over the potential activities.  Judy made turkey sloppy joes for everyone.

                                Lunch at Gun Lake Casino.

                     We had happy hours every day in the shade.

                                          Bumper cars.

                                               Go karts.

                      And the crowd goes wild doing the wave.

One afternoon the group toured the Heritage Guitar manufacturing facility above and below.

We had a good time the 3 days there before the rally started and the 5 days of the rally.  The best part is just relaxing and socializing with our friends.  There were 10 HitchHikers in attendance and 20 friends.  The bad thing is that Moe ran away the second day there.  We had her on a leash and went outside the first time and she weaseled out of the harness and ran into the weeds.  All 20 of us and the park workers kept an eye open for her but no one saw her the next 5 days.  A neighbor outside the park across the street saw her once (she thinks) and they along with the park have our contact info if she is captured.  Moe was an indoor/outdoor cat and now she's an outdoor Kalamazoo cat.  I hope someone adapts her and takes good care of her, she's a friendly cat that likes the outdoors.

We returned to Juniper Hills and cancelled our trip to Nebraska and the HitchHiker Eclipse Rally due to our mobility problems, bad knees, both of us.  Judy is doing better and the doctor said she can put weight on the knee she fell on and injured a few weeks ago but she's still wobbly like I am.  Judy starts rehab Monday and I see the orthopedic doctor Thursday.

Here we are all alone again......until the NASCAR fans start arriving in a couple days.

 

Juniper Hills and MOR/ryde

Here's Judy relaxing outside and below she's with Moe and the laundry.  Moe loves to go outside a few times each day and stays within a couple hundred feet of home.

One weekend there was a country music festival called Faster Horses at MIS with 40,000+ attendees, Randy & Lisa along with Devyn & Dan went.  Juniper Hills was busy during the festival and we had neighbors below.

Judy and I made a trip to Olivet to check out Devyn's college and a couple local campgrounds.  While we were there we met Ron & Lois (HitchHiker friends) for lunch.

On the way to the M&M Rally in Kalamazoo we went by Elkhart to have MOR/ryde service our suspension.  It only took a couple hours and everything checked out OK.  Then we went to Kalamazoo for the rally.

This was Moe's first RV trip so we put her in the bedroom with Patches and used Velcro to keep the doors closed as we traveled to Elkhart.  When we arrived we opened the bedroom door but couldn't find Moe, we assumed she had found a good hiding spot.  We kept the bed slide in and opened the three other sides and set up for the night.  An hour later Moe came out from under the couch, how she got out of the bedroom we have no idea.