Family Reunion!

The Shaffers (Ed, Julie, Cate, Sam, and Jesse) and McBrides (Terri and Molly) have just returned from an exciting Shaffer family reunion in Charlotte. Today we had our own mini-family reunion. When we got to Ed and Julie's house and rang the doorbell, Charlie and Bijoux rushed barking to greet us at the door, and Sam opened it wide for us. Then it was kisses and hugs all around.

Everyone was excited to see us and to show off their rooms and their new skills. Cate gave us a complete tour of the house, which is really saying something. It's a BIG house, with a full unfinished basement, first floor with piano room, office, living room, dining room, kitchen, master suite, lavatory, and utility room with a door leading to the garage. The piano is Cate's, and she is very proud of it and of her piano playing. She played "Pop Goes the Weasel" for us, with verve and expression, drawing a laugh at the end.

Upstairs is a very large playroom and a bedroom for each of the kids, plus a guest room, and two baths. Beyond that is an attic and storage under the eaves, but we didn't venture into those. The kids were too excited to show off their new trampoline and how high they could swing. Did I mention that the backyard is big enough to be the 18th hole of a Georgia golf course?

After lunch Julie, Terri, Molly, Jesse, and I went grocery shopping. Our mission was mainly to get dinner and celebration items for Molly's birthday celebration (her actual birthday was June 14, but she was in Tokyo then). She chose lasagna with salad, garlic bread, and roasted and steamed veggies for dinner. Afterwards we all gathered to watch Princess Mononoke and eat popcorn that Sam helped fix. At intermission we gathered in the kitchen to sing Happy Birthday to Molly and share some birthday cake and little cupcakes.

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Move to Bald Ridge Creek

We were on the move again today, to another park on Lake Sidney Lanier. Bald Ridge Creek Campground is only ten miles from Sawnee, but the move was a bit more difficult than that figure would imply. First we had to be very careful leaving Sawnee, because we had to contend with narrow roads, sharp turns, and overhanging branches. Then on the way into Bald Ridge Creek, more of the same, with even more low hanging branches.

The folks in the motor home that followed us into the campground were really impressed by how much the trees had whipped up on our rig. Fortunately, there doesn't appear to be any serious damage, but it's still unnerving. Then we had to wait in line at the dump station, which took an hour. The dump station at Sawnee was not very accessible, so we waited until we got here to dump our tanks.

Once we got to our site, the whole process was much easier, with an easy pull through.

We walked through the campground with our campground map and made notes on each site, so we'll know which ones we can fit into and which we prefer the next time we come to visit. We have an ongoing problem that we won't be able to fit into site #34, which we are scheduled to move to for July 3-7. We're hoping for a cancellation.

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Romantic Day

We celebrated our anniversary today by going out to eat at Tam's BackStage in Cumming. The food was delicious and the venue unusual: Backstage is located in the lower level of the historic 1927 Cumming Schoolhouse. Many of the patrons were dining and then attending the community theater performance on the upper level.

We also got to walk in the moonlight--the light of the "supermoon."

The moon shining over Lake Sidney Lanier, view from near our site, with a closer shot superimposed.
 
That's not an astronomical term, but a poetic description of the moon hitting the peak of fullness and its closest approach to earth for the month at the same time, and in this case the closest approach to earth for the year.

This morning we went over to Bald Ridge Creek Campground to check out our sites and just walk around the campground. It turns out that site #65, where we are scheduled to be starting tomorrow until July 3, is a great site and easy to access. Unfortunately, the site we are supposed to move to on July 3 until July 7 won't work for us. The approach is too steep, so the rear of the fiver would hit the pavement as I tried to back in. The host couple are going to look for another cancellation of a better site for us.

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Happy 16th Anniversary, Happy Solstice!

We have made it to Cumming, Georgia, a place I had never heard of not so long ago--and then some really special people moved here. Soon we'll get to see Ed and Julie and Cate and Sam and Jesse, plus a bonus: Terri and Molly!

We had a long day of driving today, and somehow we misplaced an hour.... Suddenly when we thought it was 4:30 p.m. our clocks started telling us it was 5:30 p.m. instead! Our bodies will have to do some adjusting to the new time zone. Fortunately, we picked the longest day of the year to do it. Happy Solstice, everyone!

We are at Sawnee Campground on Lake Sidney Lanier for the next two nights. You can't see it in the first photo, but our site overlooks the lake, which we can see from our big windows.

We didn't plan this really well--a long day's drive on our anniversary isn't our favorite way to celebrate. We'll have to celebrate tomorrow. It's hard to believe it's been 16 years.

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Busy Day

We stayed busy today. Ken drained the water heater, a semiannual chore. He also drained the gray water in preparation for our travel day tomorrow. I defrosted the freezer and the cooling fins in the fridge, again. When it's humid, a lot of frost accumulates, and of course it gets a lot worse if the freezer doors aren't closed firmly. We also replaced our carbon block whole house filter cartridge. Now we have better water flow.

We also did some more trip planning. There's so much to see and do and so many places to stay that it takes us some research and mapping to figure out what we want to do and where we want to go.

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Grease!

No, not the musical. Ken got the grease gun out again today and greased the zerk fittings on the MorRyde axles. That involves doing some fancy skooching around under the rig, so afterward we went over to the hot tub and soaked a bit. The hot tub here is great--a real therapeutic spa, with a variety of jet placements. Almost like a real massage....

We rode our bikes around this morning, just to make sure our leg muscles don't forget how to do it. The roads are all hard packed gravel, but there is some loose gravel also, which means I have to watch out not to lose traction.

Unfortunately, when we were preparing for accessing the zerk fittings on the axles, we pulled the living room slide in without checking for obstructions outside. My bike was parked partially under the slide, so the hydraulic mechanism closing the slide clamped my bike seat. The bike is fine, but the bottom rear end of the slide is somewhat bent out. Everything still functions, but we'll have to get it fixed at some point. This just reinforces our determination to be extra careful when we're doing something out of the ordinary. Usually the bikes would be up on their rack when we move the slide room. We would have checked for items outside and put them away. Another lesson learned.

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Rainy AM/Sunny PM

Well, it apparently rained nearly all night, sometimes heavily and sometimes just light showers. We woke up to drizzle that continued through the morning and walked around puddles on our morning walk. This afternoon the sun came out, giving us a chance to do some of our outdoor chores.

Then we headed over to enjoy the hot tub and pool. The hot tub was great--very soothing to sore muscles. We ended up not getting in the pool because someone was smoking a pipe and a couple of others were smoking cigarettes. Instead we found some chairs in front of the clubhouse and settled in to read for a while before heading out for our afternoon walk.

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Drizzle

We saw the sun a couple of times today, but mostly it drizzled. I won't say it actually rained much, but it was one of those gray days. We had wanted to ride our bikes, but decided to walk instead, with our Tilley hats protecting us from the rain.

I finally got through to Aunt Iris to wish her a happy birthday. Her birthday was last Friday, but we've had very unreliable Verizon signal. I had to put on my rain poncho and stand in the parking lot to get a signal, and the call dropped after we had talked a few minutes. She is home now and recovering from her surgery, but says she hasn't had much energy and hasn't walked as much as she knows she should. We're hoping that she continues to improve. It was good to hear her voice.

Tonight we watched an American Masters program on Garrison Keillor. It was produced in 2009, and we probably watched it then too, but we found lots of it funny and enlightening this time around--especially the red shoes.

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On to Murfreesboro

Today is Father's Day. Chris and Shawn and Anara called to wish Ken a happy Father's Day--very nice. Jeff called too. Ken was glad to hear from him, especially to find the results of his latest medical tests. The bottom line is that the docs want to remove his enlarged thymus because it is pressing on his vocal cords. The surgery is scheduled for June 26. Rebecca and Cathy sent cool e-cards. Rebecca's had a Star Wars theme, and Cathy's featured the Avengers.

We left the Nashville Country RV Park this morning and headed south on I-24 to Murfreesboro. We're staying at a small park located back in the woods. That makes it very peaceful and quiet, but also made for some difficult turns on narrow back roads with no berms--just dropoffs. The road into the campground is basically one lane when it comes to a vehicle as wide as we are, so it was fortunate that someone happened to be coming out on a scooter. He returned to the campground to make sure that anyone coming out would wait until we made it in.

Then in the campground they had to call someone to trim some trees. We are just way taller than most units. We finally got backed into our site and set up. If you look closely, you'll see that the Bigfoot leveled the rig with the front almost touching the ground.

Another downside to having such a quiet, secluded site is that the Verizon signal is nothing to write home about! I did manage to make one phone call by standing out in the middle of the parking lot, but when I tried to call Aunt Iris, the call just kept dropping immediately. And the internet connection is frustratingly slow and unreliable.

On the upside, we played some Rummikub. The current score is Lee 5, Ken 4. We'll have to play a tie-breaker tomorrow.

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Grand Ole Opry!

I guess third time's a charm. We passed through Nashville in 2009 on our way south from visiting Mammoth Cave National Park on our way back to Texas. I guess we waved at the city from the interstate. Then in 2011 we were headed back to Texas again, this time from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and we drove through Nashville on the interstate again--without stopping.

This year we're on our way to Georgia, and our route took us through Nashville for a third time. We decided to stop and visit a bit. We're here for two nights, and the highlight of our trip was a visit to Opryland today. We parked in the Opry Mills parking lot and walked through the mall, but didn't linger there. We walked over to the Grand Ole Opry to make sure we knew where to go for the show.

Guitars

Grand Ole Opry


Then we walked to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel to visit the gardens, listed by Tripadvisor as #5 of 110 attractions in Nashville, right behind the Grand Ole Opry itself.

Gardens? we said. Yes, the huge hotel includes several multistory atria filled with plants and water features, including a 1/4 mile "river" and several waterfalls and fountains. The gardens are really something to see and must be a major undertaking to maintain. We saw lots of varieties of bromeliads, orchids, antheriums and many more. Most of the plantings are foliage plants and trees rather than flowers, but the foliage is very colorful and patterned.

You can see the tracks in the water on which the "riverboat" runs for cruises around the garden.

The Grand Ole Opry show was at 7:00 p.m., so we walked back over to the theater at 6:00, a bit early to find our seats and check out the auditorium. Just before the show, a woman dressed like Minnie Pearl appeared to warm up the audience and tell us about the rules. She also explained that since the radio show was broadcast live, we would be hearing commercials.

Finally the curtains opened, and we saw the huge Grand Ole Opry stage.

The show was interspersed with commercials for Humana, Dollar General, and Cracker Barrel. Each half hour segment had an announcer and a couple of performers.

Saturday, June 15
Grand Ole Opry 7:00 - 9:15 p.m.

7:00 – 7:30
John Conlee
Kalisa Ewing
Connie Smith
7:30 – 8:00

Jeannie Seely
Jimmy C. Newman
Opry Square Dancers
Clare Bowen
8:00 – 8:15

INTERMISSION

8:15 – 9:15
Vince Gill
Joanna Smith
Pure Prarie League
Patty Loveless
Loretta Lynn

Of course the headliners were saved for the final hour. Patty Loveless was celebrating 25 years as an Opry member. Pure Prairie League performed their signature "Amie," getting the audience to sing along.

Patty Loveless and Vince Gill

Loretta Lynn

It was an experience to be in the same room with "the coal miner's daughter," Loretta Lynn, who still has her voice and stage presence at 81.

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Molly Is 18!!! Shawn Graduates!

It's a big day for some important people. Molly turned 18 today. She's back in the USA, in Arlington, but we'll get a chance to see her June 24. Happy birthday, Molly! We love you.

Meanwhile, in Portland, Shawn has earned a brand new shiny MBA from Marylhurst University. Congratulations to her (and to Chris and Anara for supporting her).

And in Jacksonville, Aunt Iris turns 79 today. She was discharged from the rehab facility after her back surgery, but still has a way to go in her recovery.

We moved this morning to Nashville Country RV, just north of Nashville, so we'll be ready to go to the Grand Ole Opry tomorrow night.

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Land Between the Lakes

We spent an enjoyable day today driving the Wilderness Trace from north to south, exploring the Land Between the Lakes. The lakes in question are Kentucky Lake (formed by damming the Tennessee River) and Lake Barkley, formed by damming the Cumberland River. The area between these two man-made lakes is now a national recreation area administered by the Forest Service.

First we drove along a scenic byway, Kentucky Lake Drive, which offers vistas of the lake and dam. It's a very narrow one-way loop, with only a couple of places long enough for us to pull off with our fifth wheel. We also had to navigate around some deep potholes, but the drive was quite pleasant.

At the North Visitor Station we got a map of the area and some advice on hiking opportunities from a friendly staff member. We hiked along the Canal Loop Trail, which took us to the shore of Lake Barkley. The trail is a single track mountain bike trail but also open to hikers. During the week there aren't too many bikes, so we had a pleasant hike.

We drove to the Nature Watch Area by Lake Hematite, hoping to picnic, but we weren't able to park near any picnic areas, so we ended up eating lunch in our trailer and then taking a short walk along the Honker Trail, cut short by high water across the trail.

At the Golden Pond Visitor Center and Planetarium, we enjoyed the exhibits on the history of the area from the time of the Paleo Indians (10,000 to 7,000 B.C.) to the present. Then we watched a planetarium show entitled "Earth, Moon, and Sun." It included a star show and one song from their longer laser light show--something for everyone. The video was aimed at kids (and I managed to snooze through a good bit of it). The laser light show part was actually quite eye catching.

In the lobby we found several quilts. Terri suggested that we go to the Quilters Museum in Paducah--but this is as close as we got.

As we drove south on the Trace, we crossed from Kentucky into Tennessee. We ended the day in Clarksville, TN, in a friendly Walmart parking lot.

We have a neighbor!

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Paducah

We decided to spend another night at Duck Creek so we could rest up a bit and get some cleaning and travel planning done. Today has been hot, hot, hot--and humid too. No dry heat here!

At the rear of the park, some units face water. Hard to tell if it's really a creek, or just a pond, but still provides a place for someone to boat!

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On the Move

We set out this morning from Babler State Park on our way east and south, eventually to Cumming, GA, via Nashville. Along the way we stopped at a rest area on the shores of Rend Lake in Illinois. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at a table overlooking the lake.

Our destination for tonight was Kentucky Dam Village State Park at the northern end of the Land Between the Lakes. We arrived at the campground around 4:30 p.m., after having some difficulties finding it. The large campground was mostly empty, so we figured we wouldn't have much trouble finding a spot.

We were wrong. This is an older park, and most of the sites are short. There are a few longer sites, but they were impossible for us to get into. The interior roads are very narrow, sites are at 90 degrees to the road, and there are overhanging trees and culverts, and pools of standing water from recent rains. After an hour of trying, we gave up and decided to look for a commercial RV park. We ended up at Duck Creek RV in Paducah, KY. It's mainly a long-term resident park, but we got a long pull-thru. By the time we got set up, we were beyond frazzled. We went to Long John Silver's to eat (it's one of Ken's favorites, so we go very occasionally so he can get his fix of deep fried stuff).

We've decided to take a day tomorrow to catch our breath before moving on to explore the Land Between the Lakes.

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Shaw Nature Reserve

Marty and Kit left Babler this morning. We went over to say goodbye and got a peek at their Surveyor's "bike door." The area was originally a front bunk room, but Marty took out the bunks and installed a wardrobe and computer desk. The small door is just the right height for their bikes to load inside.

Our big adventure today was a trip to the Shaw Nature Reserve. Our friends Bruce and Mary Sue were visiting St. Louis a couple of weeks ago and blogged about their day at the reserve. It sounded like a very appealing place to spend a day.

The Shaw Nature Reserve is an adjunct of the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, but the reserve is located in Gray Summit, thirty some miles south and west of the city. From Babler it was only a seventeen mile drive. We stopped at the Visitor Center to pick up a map of the grounds, and a very friendly woman pointed out to us the best routes to take to see the great displays of wildflowers in bloom, especially the glades full of purple coneflowers.

We ate lunch at a picnic table by the Trail House before heading out to explore the Wildflower Trail. As we walked along the path, so many butterflies fluttered about that I found myself actually brushing them away from my face. They seemed to like my yellow shirt.

We saw and heard lots of birds too, including this summer tanager.

The diversity of habitats is inviting, including this restored tall grass prairie. We walked down to a small pond where we heard bullfrogs and saw some turtles sunning on branches and dazzling black and white dragonflies.

We took the Wetland Trail and saw lots of lily pads in bloom.

Along the trail this black rat snake posed for Ken.

We walked through the Whitmire Wildflower Garden, which features native Missouri plants, including some unusual blooms.

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Science Fun

We started out on a bike ride around the park this morning, but ran into a closed bike trail and an oncoming storm, so we turned around and headed back to our site. Next on the agenda for the day was visiting the St. Louis Science Center. The young man at the Babler Visitor Center gave it a glowing recommendation. It did turn out to be a very stimulating place, right from our first glimpse of the animatronic dino.

T-Rex preparing to eat a Mastodon!

Gemini and Mercury space capsules

We watched a science demo on Center Stage, titled "Science Goes Splat!" It was a demonstration of the effects of gravity on various items dropped from a window 60 feet above by Lauren. It definitely made an impression on the audience--mainly kids. One point the presenter made is that gravity is not a "fact," but a scientific "theory."

We ended up staying almost until the place closed, and of course we didn't see half of it.
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Dancing and More Dancing

We danced morning, afternoon, and evening today, for a total of eight hours: six advanced and two challenge level.  It was all great fun--and all challenging at times!

Dorothy, Nancy P., Marty, and Romney

Betty, Skeeter, and ?

Marty, Velma, Patsy, Nancy P., and ?

Dorothy, Mike, and ?

? and Rae

Bob and Velma

Ken

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June Fling!

Tonight we wended our way to Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Chesterfield, MO, for the opening dance session of the 2013 June Fling. This is the 13th June Fling, but we have attended only one before this, in 2011. G.W. and David and Hugh and Louise were here that time, along with our good friends Hardy and Judy. We missed all of them this evening, but found some other old friends to dance with.

Romney calling, Jerry and Anne Fleming dancing

Several dancers from the RGV are here, including Marty and Kit, John and Nancy, Velma (Marion is off fishing), Hal and Dorothy, and Curt and Jean. We recognized other dancers from our last time here in 2010, and we met some new folks too.

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