Arrive at Charlestown, Indiana

July 28, 2005
I woke up about 2:30 gasping for air. A short deisel rig had pulled in next to us and was simply gassing us!!!! We made coffee and took off again. I got to the next rest area and we stopped again - about 60 miles!! Crawled back on the bed and slept until daylight. Keith then looked at the map and realized we could leave I40 just before we got to Nashville and go north on the #231to the 31E and do a scenic route without winding roads or mountains!! So that's what we did!! We went North into Kentucky this way. Thru a bunch of small towns - I like seeing the old towns!! They look so homey and friendly! We stopped at Abraham Lincoln's birthplace and took the tour before stopping for lunch.


We made to to Charlestown State Park this afternoon, I'd guess about 4 PM. Keith's Mom, and sisters Heather and Dolores were waiting anxiously to see him. Even his neice, Faith brought her baby Caleb to greet him. We visited at his Mom's home for awhile and all piled into the cars and went out to the park. We showed them our home on wheels. They left about 8 and I fixed dinner before we crashed and burned!! Another long day. But we made another destination on our list. We plan to be here about a week before we move on to April's home in Missouri.

The Welcome Committee









Diane

The roads going up the first side!!

This is the first set of hills. We hadn't gotten to any of the "good ones" yet. and then again late when we were looking for somewhere to park. At one town we even saw gas for $1.99 a gallon, and we had a full tank of gas!!!
The scenery on the Mountains

Leaving Clayton going on to Charlestown, Indiana

July 27, 2005
Up early this morning to pack up and say good-bye to our hosts of the last couple days. Tom and TJ were already out fishing so we missed them. Got our carload of stuff ready, said "see ya in the fall to Nancy and Linda, and took off to Walmart to load the RV up again. Got the little car loaded and left Clayton about 10:30.

We went on up HWY 144 to Franklin, North Carolina. Then we took the "Scenic Route" along #28 thru some beautiful country to Lauada, NC. Of course with the country came the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains and Apppalachians. We turned a little south along #74/19 until we got to Topton, NC and turned NW again along the #129. There Keith decided I "could" drive awhile. Talk about a mountain road!!! We went UP and AROUND and DOWN before we went UP and DOWN and AROUND!! About 5 miles about of Robbinsville I started to have trouble with the car trailer following me. About 6 miles out I told Keith the bicycle seemed to have slipped, and about 7 miles out I didn't see anything but one part of one handlebar in the back camera!! He said to pull over, so I did. Right across the entire parking lot of a little Country Store (that was the name of the place). Unfortunately, the car trailer didn't stop quite as quickly as the RV. We got out and looked at the back of the RV:(

There was the bicycle on the ground, the tongue of the car trailer was clear under the RV, and the front of the car was just, just there!! I wish I had thought quickly enough to grab the camera and take a picture of the mess and Keith standing there shaking his head with his hands on his hips. It would've been funny if it hadn't been so scary. The hitch-pin was gone, the car trailer had come out of the hitch receiver and only the safety chains kept me from losing it completely along the DOWN part of the drive. And they are all that kept the car from going right under the RV. Now I know for sure why you need them!!! Anyhow, I went into this little store to see if they had anything we good use to get to the next town. All I saw was soda, ice cream bars, and fishing tackle. Lots and lots of tackle. The Lady there was really nice but couldn't help us at all. So.... we took the bike off of the rack, the car off of the trailer, pushed the trailer out from under the RV and Keith drove back to Robbinsville to see what he could find. While he was gone I picked up the pieces of the bike rack, visited with the Lady clerk, had an ice cream, and hoped!!! The Owner of the store came back, made jokes about having to order the "parts" and reminded me I was in the hills of North Carolina!! Keith got back and said he had found the only hardware store there, and got 2 hitch-pins. No one had ever heard of one breaking before, and we know there was one there, so... whatever happened to it - will probably never be known.

We got everything all loaded all back up again, car back on the trailer and finished our trek thru the mountain. The Lady clerk told me there were 322 curves from Cheoah Point at the top of the mountain down to the bottom of the mountain on the Tennesee side. We saw people white water rafting, in tahiti's, and in canoes along the river we followed all the way up, and down. In many places it reminded me of the OLD 42 in Coos County. We finally crossed into Tennessee about 1/2 down and we made it to the bottom. That did it for Keith. We stopped at Binfield (#123 & #411 junction) and he found that there was a 4 lane Highway going to the Interstate 40 and that's how we went. I managed to stay off of the Interstates from the time we left I95 at Titusville all the way thru Georgia, North Carolina, and a piece of Tennessee. We drove I40 until just past Crossville before we pulled into a rest area. It had a 2 HOUR limit!!! It was 9:30 and we'd had a bunch of miles of bad, bad road. We were sooo worn out. We crawled into bed and passed out!!

More Lake Burton

The good news arrived at Noon. The RV was fixed and ready for us to give up the space it takes to the next broken down wreck!! We decided we would wait until Wednesday to leave so we took it back up to the WalMart parking lot. Went back out to the Lake and spent the rest of the day relaxing. Good thing too! Wait until you see the post for tomorrow. I'm only a week behind, but I'm catching up fast:) I added pictures to the last journal entry but then lost the whole thing into cyber space and haven't had time to figure out what I did wrong, I'll try again later.

By the way, it dosen't work well to have an extended warranty that has a $250 deductable for brake components (per incident) and each bill was only a little over that. Insurance Companies :(

The Novices,
Diane

Lake Burton

Lake Burton is about 10 miles down country roads from Clayton. It is a huge lake with lots of people with boats. We watched people ski, fish, tube, and generally have a great time. It is beautiful and definately worth seeing.

We got up early this morning to see if Keith could find a place to get the RV fixed - again!! Lucky for us the Chevrolet Dealer there could work on it. The manager - Mr. Goodall was very nice to us. He said he had a backup of local work to do but would expidite the RV. We went and got it out of the WalMart parking lot and took it to them. Then went and had breakfast at the Clayton Diner. Very good food and really nice people. It was strange to my ears, listing to the "Georgia Drawl"!!

We then went back to Walmart to shop for what we would need for the couple days that we would be spending at the Lake. The Keifers rented a huge place!! It has a beautiful view of the lake from the living room and a deck around it. It is complete with boat dock and steps down into the lake. When we returned to the Lake House, the Keifers had gone fishing. TJ wasn't to impressed with fresh water fishing. He didn't get a bite that was big enough to keep.

Nancy and Linda BBQ'd steaks and potatoes. Great dinner, great company. Nice and peaceful.

Called Mr. Goodall about 5 - the "switch for the parking brakes" had leaked and needed to be replaced. He ordered it and the RV should be ready tomorrow.

So ends another day for the Novices.

Diane

Tom

Day 3 - To Clayton GA

It's a great morning. The temp is down around 80 and the humidity is wonderfully not like Vero. Keith got up about 7 and banged around until I gave up and got up about 8. He went over and showered, made coffee, and checked out the campground. I headed for the showers and saw my first live snake since Dad's house when Timmy and I went up to visit. I just backed up and gave him the right away. He was completely gone by the time I came back through to the camper. We had breakfast, unhooked, and left about 10:30. No idiot lights were on. It was sure a nice campground. We traveled up US 441 thru all the little towns, saw some beautiful old homes, and stopped for gas every other town!! About 10 miles out of Clayton (our first actual destination) the "Parking Light" idiot light came back on. Keith checked the brakes and they were still working - so we went on into Clayton. We got there about 4 pm. We had decided to park the RV at Walmart and go up around Lake Burton to see what they had for RV sites. We couldn't find Walmart!! Walmart was hiding!! Keith pulled into a Burger King lot and asked for directions. We'd passed it, it is up on a hill, behind alot of tall grass and there is no sign "'cause everbody knows where it is". We found it and parked and kept right on rolling - WE HAD NO BRAKES AGAIN. Putting into park didn't stop it and we had no emergency brake either. Thank the Good Lord that we didn't go ahead and try doing the lake roads. So by now it's after 5 pm on Sunday. Where would we ever go to get this fixed? We left a message on Tom and Nancy Keifer's cell phone. Said "We're here, but we're stranded". Took the red car off and headed for Mexican Restaurant that Keith had spotted. While we were there, Tom called, sent Nancy and Linda down to meet us and we went up to the lake where they rented a beautiful home, complete with little cabin where we could stay!! Another blessing, another breakdown, another great place to stay!! And with good friends too.

I will put a couple of pictures on the web for tomorrow. The lake was beautiful, the company was great, we had a lot of laughs. Keith, Tom, TJ, and Linda all left Nancy sitting out on the deck just having a great gab. We were out there for quite a long time. It seemed like old times, when no kids had to be fed, clothed, bedded, loved, cuddled, or making us laugh. I miss having the kids around already!!

Well, close to midnight again. Nancy went into the "Big House" and I came into the cabin to find Keith sound asleep. Another day. Another piece of excitement.

Diane

Day 2

Woke up at the Motel - early. Earlier than when we have kids around. It's already hot!! Keith went down to Midas about 8 to make sure that they had everything they need to get started!! The men at Midas, Chris II, Jim, Jim, and Kenny did a wonderful job. They found that the rear brakes were getting no fluid, so they weren't working at all. Only the front brakes were stopping this huge thing - with the car towed behind it. They worked so hard the brake fluid boiled and it was ruined. I didn't know you could boil brake fluid! Anyhow, they worked all day and drained all the fluid, cleaned the lines and the rear fluid holders, bled all of them and had us back on the road at 2:15 :) GREAT JOB GUYS!! While we were waiting, Keith took me to their Super WalMart and I got a really short haircut. It feels really, really good!
Here we take up the whole bay waiting for Chris 1 to make arrangements with Chris 2 for us to park at Midas (and get us out from in front of his bays!!) :)

Keith finally let me drive after we stopped for dinner. We made it all the way to HWY 100 & HWY 441. I made it 35 miles and the "Parking Brake" idiot light came on in McRae, Georgia. We'd made it out of Florida!! Couldn't find a camp ground or WalMart in the phone book, so I fired up this trusty laptop and looked for the next WalMart - It was 35 miles away and it's already dark, and we are both TIRED. Looked for a campground and found one that we'd already passed, so we opted for me to drive north. About a 1/2 mile out of McRae we saw a State Parks sign!! Halleluyah!!! We pulled in at Little Ocmulgee State Park and since Keith is a Senior Citizen we got a "full hook-up" for $15.50. So up the little road we go! We found our spot, hooked up the electric, found out the sewer hose didn't have connectors on it, we had no cable for the TV, and next time we really need to pull closer to the hook-ups! We went to bed. It was a short night. It was after midnight.

So ended Day 2 for the novice RV'ers!!!

More on tomorrow.

Diane

Our Journey Begins-Day One

We left home about 11:30 this morning! It is a beautiful, sunny day. Hot of course, this is Florida after all. We tooled up I-95 until we got to Titusville. We stopped there and had lunch - probably close to 2:30. We are really having a blast! Keith is learning how to manuver the RV and to keep it between the lines.

3 PM Oh,no! At Daytona Beach the brakes started smoking. We were at a stoplight and I asked Keith if he saw anything. Of course, he didn't :) So we pulled over and spent about a half hour waiting for it to cool off. The driver's tire finally cooled down and we started out again. At the stop light in Ormond Beach, Keith says, "I have no brakes!!!" He found the next service station that looked like it had a mechanic in it, and pulled over. It is 4:30 on Friday Afternoon!!! The mechanic (Chris) checked out the fluid, says - that"s all I know to do on these things! He also called 2 RV places that said - they would be glad to look - on Monday!!! Then Chris thought of his friend (Chris II) at Midas. He phoned him and not only got us in to be fixed on Saturday morning - they let us park in their parking lot overnight. So we pulled over there - got the red car off the trailer - and headed to the beach at Daytona - about 10 miles from Midas. Not a bad place to break down at all. We sat at the beach - had a really great shrimp salad, watched the people and stayed cool.

We got back to the RV about 10 but it was just still to hot to sleep in - the a/c hadn't got turned on - so we went back down the road and got a room! with air!

So much for day one. We made it about - maybe close - to 125 miles

The Beattys