Thursday September 20, 2007 Cumming, Georgia

We were up and on the road this morning at 9:50. We had a safe and uneventful 280 mile drive through Nashville and Chattanooga on our way to Georgia. Margaret called and she, Trisha, and Kim had decided to go to Cherokee to check out the casino so we weren't in a hurry to get to Cumming. We arrived about 4pm and set up camp in the same site we were in last May. Pizza for supper and a short walk to the lake, wow, is it low. The boat ramp ends 10 feet before the water starts. It's just as peaceful and quiet as it was 4 months ago. No neighbors and no trains!

Wednesday September 19, 2007 Goodlettsville, TN

This morning I dropped Judy off at Curves and started the laundry. When both were done we mailed Devyn a package and spent the afternoon at the trailer. We noticed another fifth wheel pull in and low and behold it was Byron and Linda Landry. We were next to them and met them at the Escapade in Goshen! We were both surprised and shared a drink. They had toured the Fleetwood factory in their search for a new RV and were on their way back to Louisiana. We later drove to downtown Nashville and went on a ghost tour. Lots of neon signs and country music in the open bars while we walked around on our way to the ghost tour. I liked the history and Judy liked everything but neither of us believe in ghosts. We must have walked 20 miles (it was really less than 1 mile) but I was tired, hot and muggy, hills, and past my bedtime. We slept real good.

Tuesday September 18, 2007 Goodlettsville,TN

We slept in today, until the trains said good morning. Today we played tourist at the Hermatige, Andrew Jackson's (our seventh president and War of 1812 hero) home from 1804 until he died in 1845. We spent several leasurly hours there, it was a nice day in the low 80s. We have been through several old mansions and I will have to admit that Andy's wife has done the best job on a flower garden, lots of butterflies too. I had my Krystal (a little better than White Castle) fix when we ate there after the Hermatige visit. We then spent an hour and $5.50 washing the truck. Nice to have it clean, tomorrow we'll do the inside. The trailer is still dirty from the rain we drove through from Michigan to Indiana a week ago, we need a CG that allows us to wash it. We have the only night light in this CG outside our door, you can't see how dirty the trailer is!

Monday September 17,2007 Goodlettsville, TN

Today we drove 238 miles to Nashville to overnight. We generally only travel 200 to 300 miles a day, our shortest was 50 miles once in May. Margaret and her family will be in St Augustine on Tuesday to intern Dick and she expects to return to Cumming GA Wednesday so we'll get to Shady Grove CG Thursday. This will allow us to travel slower and check out some local sites.
We had a sandwich at a rest area in Kentucky on the way here and Judy fixed taters and hamburgs for supper tonight, you can eat out only so much! It was good.
I didn't mention this, but in Goshen for 10 days we were 100 yards from some very busy train tracks. You forget about trains until ya stay next to them! Not only did we see Elvis at the rally but we felt the shake, rattle and roll. The Escapade rally logo had a train on it and I didn't put 2 and 2 together until I heard someone talking about the train on the logo.
Well, guess what's a 100 yards from our site in Nashville? Yep! Trains!

Sunday September 16, 2007 Edinburgh, Indiana

This morning we went to First English Lutheran church in Goshen and when we arrived back at the RV at noon learned that Judy's brother-in-law, Dick Rubin, had died this morning at 9:15 from cancer. Dick is Margaret's husband and the most gracious host I know. They live in Cumming Georgia and we are on our way there now. Judy and Margaret are close and Judy wants to be with her sister. We hurriedly broke camp, grabbed a bit at McDonalds, fueled the truck and hooked up and departed the Elkhart Fairgrounds at 3pm. We are overnighting 30 miles south of Indianapolis in Edinburgh and will be on the road in the morning.

Saturday September 15, 2007 Goshen Indiana

Hello everyone! I have just learned the basics of creating a blog allowing all our friends and relatives the ability to check and see what we are up to. Please remember I am experimenting here!
We have been in Goshen since Friday September 7 at an Escapees RV rally. The first 3 days were an educational "boot camp" course on RVs and the life style. There were about 200+ in the course with us. We made many new friends and a saw 2 or 3 couples we met in May at the Life On Wheels course we attended in Bowling Green Kentucky.
On Sunday afternoon the Escapees rally started. There were 847 rigs here with about twice as many people. The days were filled with social breakfast snacks at 7:30am, presentations starting at 8:30am until 4 or 5pm. After that there were "Birds of a Feather" (groups with individuals with common interests such as ham radio, Habitat for Humanity, Red Cross volunteers, RV brands, etc) and Escapee chapters from the US, Canada and Mexico. There were many many RV vendors with just about anything you might want. They filled 2 large fairground buildings and an acre or two outside. We contributed to their bank accounts.

The rally ended Friday morning with a hitch-up breakfast but we have decided to stick around a few more days. Yesterday was a R&R day. Today we explored 2 RV surplus stores in Elkhart. We bought nothing. After that we had a good lunch at a Sicilian deli/restaurant and then explored the RV Museum. Gary and Deb Pearce were with us, we met them in May at Life on Wheels.

When we returned we took a walk around the campground (there is still 100 or 200 RVs here) and watched a 4H group of young kids barrel racing their horses. Some looked like they knew what they were doing and others didn't

See ya....Greg