Smokin

Road far far away
Bee on raspberry blossom

Were were there!

Ok, so I didn't really hike on it

A quiet day at a Park viewpoint

Don't know, but pretty

Chimney tops we were there on a previous visit

Old mill--turbine powered

Elk

Join us on a trip to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We left this am and drove to Townsend and the woodcarvers' shop for some supplies before we hit the park, then spent the rest of the day leisurely driving roads like the one in the above pic (you can also see where the Smokies got their name) and stopping for beautiful vistas. We visited both visitors' centers--in Tennessee and in North Carolina. We stopped in a little diner off the main drag of Gatlinburg for lunch, in Cherokee (NC) for ice cream for a snack and in a Shoney's in Pigeon Forge for supper. We didn't really plan on doing anything in particular. We took our hiking shoes just in case, but didn't get inspired to use them. Instead we used the beautiful sunny day to stop at a lot of overlooks. The pix of the elk were taken outside the visitors' center and historic farm on the NC end of the park road. Someone said the elk had just recently been reintroduced into the park. In the first pic you can see the tag on its neck just at the antler tip. The grist mill was unique in that it was built in the late 1800's and used (uses) the diverted water to power a turbine to turn the stones. It has been refurbished and still grinds corn meal for sale there. The Chimney Tops is a very popular hike--there were several people up there in the pic. We actually hiked the 2 miles up there years ago. This time we contented ourselves with just looking. Duane wanted to go today because he thought there might not be many people there on a Monday. Wrong! There were tons of people there. The popular hikes all had overflowing parking lots. The visitors' centers and main overlooks were crowded. There were strings of cars on all the roads. Fortunately, it is still early in the season, so things weren't unbearable. The weather was perfect. A cool front moved in last night and left us with very pleasant temps in the valleys and cool temps on the mountaintops. We had a very pleasant, and decided that we would return another day for some hiking.

Enough for now

Louise and Duane

Hikin

Trouble in paradise

No trouble here


Our little creek

Cardinal flower???

Intrepid hiker

Head and shoulders above the rest

Some kinda fungi (and poison ivy)

Dragonfly on a redbud

Shasta daisies

Millipede

We are settled in here at Raccoon Valley for the duration, we think. So far nothing else has happened to make us beat feet back to Buddy Gregg's wonderful campground. Our new bosses took over on Monday. Wallace and Wanda Lewis are a treat to work for too. We are happy with our jobs here. Our new schedule is Duane--alternating Wed. mornings and Sat. mornings and both of us all day Thursdays. Works well for us. This morning we hiked the little 1/2 mile trail up the hill. Duane took his camera and I took my nippers to snip away any overhanging brush and poison ivy vines across the trail. The trail is a very nice hike in a typical mixed wood forest with enough elevation to make it interesting. When we returned we stopped to survey the repairs on a leaky water pipe at one of the campsites. It made Duane happy that he didn't have to work this morning. The weather here is typical midwest summer: warm and humid during the day and cool and humid during the night. We have officially taken off the down comfort and run the air during the day. There is always the chance of an afternoon thunder storm. The past few days have been mostly bright overcast. When we aren't working or hiking, we do our usual things. Duane has the garage just about organized now that he has the washer installed in the mini fridge cubby and a small tv on the wall. When its cool enough we drop the back door and have a screened porch. Otherwise we keep the connecting door open so the air can circulate. I am working on quilt 5 of 6. I have it done except for hand sewing the binding. Duane has finished his book and is reading one written by a guy who learned survival skills from a Native American. I am still plowing through Helen Santmyer's ....And Ladies of the Club. When I'm working on a project I don't read as much, but I will finish it as soon as I finish this quilt.

Basta por hoy (enough for now)

Louise and Duane

Don't know--maybe cultivar of bleeding heart

Everything is fixed I hope!!

As you read in the last post, when we got back to the campground from getting everything on the new trailer fixed, the charger went out. Back to Buddy Greggs we went. I am sure glad we work for some every nice people here. We got to the repair center on Monday, they looked at the charger on Tuesday, yep it's bad, we have to order one. In the mean time the microwave started to act up again. What next!!! We had to drive the 20 miles to work on Thursday and Friday because the parts hadn't showed up yet. Not a big deal there, just inconvenient. They decide we needed a new cable for the microwave, had to order it. The new battery charger showed up on Monday, you guessed it, WRONG one. Had to reorder, they overnighted the next one. Wednesday the cable for the oven showed up along with the new charger, right one this time. They installed the parts, we loaded up and headed back to campground. Everything is working so far. Wish us luck....lol
Thursday, uncovered the pool here at the park. A water line had broke during the winter so I fixed that. I was suppose to work a 1/2 day, but talked to the boss and decided to work all day to get the pool further along. Had to trim grass around the pool, sweep the pool, install the ladders, etc. Today I am working 4 hours, Louise is working 8 hours to get our 20 hours a week in. We love the setup here. I work 4 hours on Thursday, we both work 8 on Friday. That gives us 5 days off in row, what a deal. The bad thing is we have spent all our time so far at the trailer repair center. We are planning to start doing some site seeing next week. Should start having some pictures to post.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

Raccoon Valley SKP

Our new home

The office and social hall




Our new campsite

The new camping area

A worm, not a twig

Worm

We have arrived at our new home for the next 3 months. We spent 10 days at Buddy Gregg's repair campground. We were surrounded by huge double axle rigs. We tried not to feel like poor relatives! Finally we got our microwave, tv, and speaker taken care of and drove to Raccoon Valley. After setting up we went to the office for a brief overview of our duties. After supper and a trip to WalMart we noticed that our lights were dim. Then our fridge wasn't working! Duane discovered that the drain tube to the outside was coiled up inside. As soon as he put it where it belonged, the fridge started working again. Good thing, too, since I just filled it! Next we discovered our 12 volt charger isn't working. After digging around in the bowels of our nose storage, Duane finally found it, but can't figure out why it isn't charging our battery. So we rely on our little tabletop plug in lamps for light and hope for nice breezes or run the air since our vent fans don't work. Hopefully he can get hold of a knowledgeable tech tomorrow.

Today was our first day at work. The managers here, Millie and Greg Small, are very nice and very easy to work for and with. They were around in the morning, but since Fridays are supposed to be their day off, they took off the afternoon. No problem. After Livingston, this place is nice and uncomplicated. Right now there isn't much activity, so Duane spent the morning putting together bookcases, and I spent the afternoon arranging the library and game shelves.

We are glad to be settled in and all set up. It is nice to sit at our computer desk and use the big monitor and keyboard, and to do office work with everything at our fingertips. Hopefully we won't have to pack everything up for another trip to Buddy Greggs, but that would be another blog!

Basta por hoy

Louise and Duane

Made it to Knoxville

Triominoe board

With no tv, setting in a Walmart parking lot, Louise and I had a roaring game of triominoes. The bad thing is Louise beat me by 2 points in a game to 500. I sure hope we get the tv fixed soon, I won't be able to live with her if she keeps winning.

We arrived in Knoxville, TN at Buddy Gregg's RV Service center early this afternoon. They have a really nice campground for those that are here for service. Water and 50 amp electric, no sewer hookup, it's free....They are suppose to look at the trailer tomorrow. The manager said that they would have to look at everything, then call and get the go ahead from the factory to do the work. Sounds to me like we may be here a few days. We are suppose to be at our new campground job to work on Sunday. We will go up there tomorrow, or call, and find out what our schedules will be for next week. We may have to drive from here, about 25 miles, until we get everything taken care of. Hopefully they can get the parts they need and get things done on Friday but I'm not counting on it. We may have to come back here on a day off, we'll see.

The drive from Texas went really well. After a few miles, a couple of hundred, I got comfortable driving the new rig. The traffic was very light, even through the cities. Not much road construction either. We took I20 to I59 to I24 to I75 to here. The roads through LA. and AL. were concrete a lot of the way. I hate concrete roads, they are very bumpy. At times the truck and trailer set up a rhythm that was not to pleasant, but we surived. The truck pulled the hills really well. I think it stopped better then the motorhome did. In tow mode the transmition slows the truck when you take your foot off the gas. It does not pick up speed downhill like the coach did. I liked that a lot. We just need to stay off those darn concrete roads...lol. The weather has been bright and sunny all the way here. We were just behind all the rain that hit this area last week. THANK GOODNESS. They had really bad weather in the Nashville area, a lot of flooding. I don't think it was as bad here in Knoxville. The weather is almost prefect here.

We spent part of the day reloading the garage area, it didn't make take the trip here very well. I think we got it this time. More hooks and bungies, move a few things to new locations, and now we have to drive to see if it all works.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

and we're off

We left Livingston, TX on Sunday heading for Heiskell, TN. Packing for our first trip in the new trailer was an event in itself. I decided to open up the foldable boat we carry that had been laying out behind the trailer. BOY was I glad I did!!!! ANTS>>>BIG BLACK ANTS!!!. There were several hundred or so that had taken up residency in the folds of the boat. I sprayed and washed them out, then found a bunch under the floation, so had to spray and wash some more. Thank goodness we didn't put that in the trailer with all those ants, that would have been a mess.
So we have everything in the trailer and hit the road. The truck does just fine with the load. A little slow on take off, but that is to be expected. It gets a little rough riding on these LA. roads, but not to bad. Louis misses her recliner with the foot stool already. Our first night found us in Ruston, LA. at a Wal Mart for the night. When we opened up the trailer we found a lot of stuff that Louise had stored in the top bunk on the floor. Louise had to climb over the counter to pick things up so we could open up the slides. When we opened the door to the work area in the back, drawers had come open and spilled on the floor. I had bought child locks for them but they didn't hold. So it was off to the store, we were in Wal Mart parking lot, to buy some different hooks to hold the drawers. This morning we went to Lowes, right around the corner, to buy a couple of L brackets and a 1x10 to install in the top bunk to hold the title wave from coming down again. Tonight we are in Cottendale, AL. Everything we did WORKED, no more spills, at least for this part of the journey. It will take a while to figure out how and where to store everything so we don't have to play pick up when we get to where we are going. Thanks to one of our friends at Livingston, Chris, who showed us the little bungys that she uses to hold the cupboard doors shut, we went and bought some before we left, all of the cupboard doors stayed shut just fine. Thanks Chris!!
I am going to call in the morning to see if we can get the trailer in a day early, I doudt it but I will try. We have made better time then I thought we would. We are about 300 miles from the service center tonight. We are in a Passport park tonight, $16.00. Not much more than a gravel lot with hookups in it. We have 50 amp so we can run the air and everything else we want.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

loose ends

Grandpa rocking the girls to sleep
Happy girl

Lovin' the bath with Sissie

Winning score!

Today was our last day of work at Rainbow's End Escapee Park. Tomorrow we are taking off for our new post at Raccoon Valley Escapees Park near Knoxville TN. We have been taking care of a lot of last minute details. We are finally street legal and have spent the last couple of weeks installing our cabinets and workspaces. We are mostly ready except for the last minute packing. This is our first move so we are anxious to see how things are going to travel. Last Thursday we drove to Celina TX to say goodby to our kids and grandkids. We won't see them for at least six months. The girls were in fine form. They are really mobile and fun to watch and play with. Jr. and Brandey also celebrated Mothers Day with me since we won't be here then. We had a yummy pork chop dinner with hot chocolate chip cookies to follow. Yum! We have also been saying goodby to our Escapees family. Last Wed. Duane spent one last evening with his carving group here at the park and I spent the evening playing Mexican Train (dominoes) with some very fun people. My friend Marsha said that whomever wins the game has to display the winning score on the fridge. (She's a retired school teacher, doncha know!) So, Marsha there's proof.

Basta por hoy,

Louise and Duane

FINALLY!!!! I finished another carving!!!

It has been a while since I have finished a carving. I started this some time ago. Between working in the park and changing rvs, I haven't had much time to carve. We got the shop set up in the back of the new 5th wheel trailer and our hours here at the park are now 20 hours for the 2 of us, I have the time and the place to work no matter what the weather is like outside. Maybe I can get a few things done now. I have no idea why I decided to carve a beer drinking biker. I don't have a bike and I don't drink beer, go figure. I just got the urge to carve this guy, so I did. I hope people like him, I do.

We are settled in our new house and quite comfortable. Despite the fact that our living quarters are smaller, the work room gives us more freedom. We like it a lot though it is still a little cluttery since we don't have everything put away yet. We will have it in order by the time we leave here next Sunday. We will be headed to Knoxville, TN and our new assingnment at Raccoon Valley Escapees park. Before we report for work we will be making a stop at an rv repair for work on our tv (great picture but no sound), and our microwave/convection oven (will work a few seconds then quit). Hopefully these problems will be resolved before we start working on the 9th. Meantime, we have one more work day here on Sat. The rest of the week we will be fixing up, putting away, and enjoying our last few days at this park. The weather is still kind of springtime iffy, but most of the time it is beautiful. Today was perfect--cloudess deep blue sky, bright sunshine, a cool north wind. We hope you all are enjoying some nice weather too.

Enough for now,

Louise and Duane

NASA Houston visit

Entrance
Lobby

Retired rockets

Paul and Marsha in rocket engine

Duane and Louise on the moon

Astronaut Marsha

Moon rover mockup

Dwarfed by the Mercury rocket & engines

Astronaut Louise

Shuttle command center

Hello from NASA's Space Center Houston. We toured this complex today with friends Paul and Marsha Weaver. The Space Center is home to several displays including a film and artifact timeline gallery of the space programs (where we touched an actual moon rock), an update of current NASA programs, a display of the types of spacesuits used, an inside look of the (hopefully) future space station living module, a walk-through mockup space shuttle, a lots exhibits and hands on activities, and the usual gift shop, food court, and kids' stuff.

From the center guest board a tram for a tour of the Johnson Space Center. This occupies more than 16oo acres and employes more than 14000 people including contractors and civil servants. It is home to Mission Control Center where Space Shuttle missions are monitored and directed from seconds after launch to landing. Astronauts are trained here and the Space Shuttle program is managed. This Center houses more than 800 lbs of lunar rocks and soil. The tram makes two stops. The first is at one of the astronaut training centers. Guests walk an enclosed catwalk viewing several training moduals. The other stop is at a rocket display. Guests see "retired" rockets and engines up close in an outdoor display. Inside the building is a full sized module and all of the fuel cannisters. Guests walk along the assembly while an interpretor explaines the purpose of each stage of the rocket.

We spent the whole day enjoying all the Center had to offer, including some snacks, but excluding the Flight Simulator. Tired and hungry, we stopped for dinner at the Saltgrass Steakhouse, then headed for home. We really enjoyed touring with our new friends and hope to spend more time with them before we have to move on.

Basta por hoy!

Louise and Duane

The BIG switch

Our new house

Our new truck

After a lot of looking and a lot contemplating we made the big move from a motorhome to a 5th wheel trailer. We had been working on several deals for a couple of months now. We decided on the Road Warrior Toy Hauler model. We are going to install cabinets in the garage part and turn it into a place I can carve in and Louise can sew in. Soooo, we bought a Chevy diesel truck to pull the trailer with. The trailer arrived here in Texas yesterday. The dealer brought it down from MI. for us. He wanted me to drive the motorhome up there too make the trade. After thinking about the long trip up there, 1300 miles, and the fact that we are still working for Escapees, I called him and told him that the deal was off. I just didn't have enough time off to make that kind of trip. He called the next day to tell me he was willing to deliver it here. The rest is history. We made a deal on the truck the next day and the trailer arrive yesterday. We have been busy trying to find place for everything that we want to keep with us. Making the change has us going through all the STUFF we have accumualated over the past 4 years and accumclate we did...lol
We had to rent a store and lock and empty all the stuff into it. Now we are making trips back and forth sorting and finding places to put things, no small task.

To make things worse, when I got back to the trailer from the storage bin, Louise came out to tell me that she smelled diesel fuel. I looked under the truck and fuel was POURING out. I called GM road service, they sent a wrecker, towed it to the dealer here. About 3 hours later I get a call that it was ready to pick up. Seems somebody at the factory forgot to tighten the fuel line and it backed way off. Lucky I made it back to campground I guess. I picked up the truck and went back to the storage for more STUFF.

We will be here in Livingston, TX till the end of April. They tell us we are going to Knoxville, TN next. We will be there till August 15th. When our time is up there we plan on doing some sight seeing till the first of the year. We put in for Cogress AZ. for the first 3 moths of next year. Not sure yet if we will get that or not.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Weekend fun

Aunt Stacy & Ava (?)
First bath together

Cowgirl Emma

Big girls

Play time

As promised, we finally have some new pix. We left here Thursday and headed north for some baby holding. We spent a couple of fun days visiting and playing with our youngest grandbabies. The weather was good on Friday so Duane, daughter in law Brandey and I whisked the girls around the neighborhood on a brisk walk. Friday evening brought rain and daughter Stacy so we spent Saturday having a good long family chat and play day. After pizza for dinner, Duane and I headed home. Emma and Ava are nine months old now and cuter than ever. Their hair is really growing and they are sitting, rolling, and crawling like pros. Mom Brandey took advantage of the extra help to bathe both girls together. They played well together then showed us how they are big girls holding their bottles. We had a very fun time, but it was kind of wierd without our house.

We are almost done with our 20 hours each. We are looking forward to starting our stint of 20 hours for both of us combined. Duane has his job down pat, and I am getting better and better about remembering details and catching errors. After a couple of days of wet cold, the weather is cooperating again. We have a little more spare time now, so Duane has done some carving, but I don't have time this week to start laying out my latest quilt. I'll start that next week maybe. I have a new friend here in the park and she is going to help me with that task. With any luck I will have it ready to sew by the time we have to move to our new location. More news when we get it.

Louise and Duane

Nuttin much

Hi people, as you can see we still have no pix cause we still are working and not doing much of anything else. In our spare time Duane has been sitting outside in the nice spring weather carving and I, believe it or not, have actually been working on my next quilt. I promised all 6 of our kids a queen sized quilt. This is number 5. Last Friday I selected fabric and ironed it. Saturday I measured and cut all day. Sunday, Monday and today I cut fabric in the evenings. I am almost finished. The next step is laying out. Fortunately the activities center here has plenty of room. The laying out process will take some time so it will be a while before I actually start sewing. Meanwhile we walk, visit the neighbors (I am teaching one new friend to crochet) and of course faithfully attend the ice cream socials every week. We are almost finished with our 20 hour apiece work weeks. After that will be 20 hours a week for both of us combined. (Can you hear our kids groaning about hard our life is? lol) This Thursday we are driving to Celina (Tx) to visit kids and granddaughters. We will come back with cute pix I'm sure. Until then you'll have to be patient.

Later,

Louise and Duane

Hooray!

We finished our two weeks of 40 hours each and one week of 20 hours each. Not too bad. I have one 6 hour day 4 days of 4.5 hours. Duane has 5 days of 4.5 hours and one of 2.5 hours. This messes with our days off giving us some weeks with a 2 hour day and 2 full days off and others with 1 full day, 1 with a 2 hour morning, and 1 full day. This is ok so far. On our days off we do the usual stuff: shopping, errands, working around the house, visiting the neighbors, computing, puzzling, reading, etc., etc., etc. One day this week I spring cleaned the house and Duane washed the outside. My how those windows sparkle! Today (Sat.) I started my rocks tumbling again, and am relaxing with a logic puzzle. Next week I think I'll start on my next quilt. Maybe. Probably. Hmmm. Ok, definitely. Duane has started carving again and has started a carving group here at Rainbow's End. They meet Wed. evenings. The first night 5 guys showed up and had a good time. More said they were coming to the next one.

The weather here has finally started cooperating. I think its safe to say that spring has sprung. We have had several dry days in a row, mostly sunny with temps in the 60's. Sometimes the breeze is still a bit chilly, but mostly the days have been quite pleasant. This is good news for Duane. He really prefers carving outside. Maybe next time we will have some pix.

Later, Dudes and Dudettes,

Louise and Duane

Oh My!!!

Its been almost a week since we moved to Livingston and we have been very busy. We were glad to get here. When we left the rv park by Kilgore we had been without power for over 24 hours and it wasn't expected to return until Sunday. We drove out of clouds and snow into sunshine and no white stuff. Yay! We spent the weekend doing chores and minor repairs. On Monday we started our training with Escapees RV Club. Duane is doing maintenance and I am training in the office. We are almost through with our first 40 hour week. Needless to say, we aren't used to these long days. Next week will be the same, then for the next month we cut back to 20 hrs a week each. So, for the next 6 weeks we will be at Livingston learning and working. Although the training is very physical for Duane and very detail orientated for me, we are doing well. We come home tired and not inclined to join any of the social activities, but we know this will only be for another week. After that we will have more free time to relax. We may even have some photos for the blog! Duane insists that he is working harder than I. He has no idea how hard it is to juggle all this information.

Basta por hoy!

Louise and Duane

Our we in Texas???????

This just isn't right.....We woke up to about 6 inches of snow this morning. They said on the news that Dallas got 11 inches in some areas. I don't know if I will be able to live with this global warming. We have spent almost as much on propane in the first month and a half of this year as we had spent all last year. We have decided that we will not plan to stay in Texas next winter....lol

Till next time

Duane and Louise