Sweet Home Alabama

This very early morning finds me in at Mill Creek RV Park out here in the woods of northern

Alabama not far from Elkmont, listening to a light rain on the roof of the camper. Living in an RV takes us to some of the most unlikely places. We left I65 on the last Tennessee exit and drove about 20 miles on country roads to get here because the nearest exit would take us on roads with low hanging trees. The driveway takes us about a quarter mile back in the woods to a clearing with several large pull through RV sites with full hook-ups. An older couple (about our age) own and run the place. They live in a little rustic house that sits in front of a huge garden with a chicken coop behind where we normally find them busy with something. They are currently putting a new roof on the chicken coop. Alabama has already had a hard freeze so most of the garden vegetables are finished except for late started broccoli and collards. The front porch is filled with pots of tomatoes, flowers and stuff. It is at a table there that you can get good wi-fi reception right beneath the router. We plan to head further south later today but not too far. We want the remnants of Hurricane Patricia to get past before we get close to the gulf coast.

Saturday we went to Huntsville which is about 40 miles from here where we visited the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. We took a bus tour where we saw the place where they tested early rockets and the Support Center for the International Space Station labs and learned about the history of early space exploration.

The last time I wrote, we were in Springfield at the Illinois State Fair Grounds. When we left Springfield, we drove to Bloomington, Indiana where Don’s friend Dave and his partner, Julie live. We parked in their driveway in a residential neighborhood. That required both of them watching for traffic while I helped Don back into the driveway.

Our rig filled up the driveway and blocked their garage but since our car was in front we all had a way out. We brought some Alaskan salmon which Dave cooked on his grill and we steamed some broccoli for a very nutritious and delicious meal. Dave took us for an excellent Sunday brunch and showed us around the area. We stopped at a Tibetan monestary where I found a gift for Kelly at the gift shop and saw many monks in brightly colored robes.  We toured Indiana University Campus which is near where Dave and Julie live.

Once we left their place, we headed to Shepardsville, Kentucky where we stayed at Grandma’s RV Park, just south of Louisville. We toured the Louisville Slugger factory and museum. The picture is of Don with Mickey Mantle’s bat.

We toured the Jim Beam Distillery and got to taste some good Kentucky bourbon. They had a nice tasting room and we were each allowed 4 tiny samples of a variety of their bourbons. Leave it to Don to pick Devil;s Cut for our first taste. At 180 proof it burned and kind of ruined the rest of the tasting. We then went to the place where Abraham Lincoln was born.

Our next stop was Mammoth Cave National Park where we were really lucky to get one of their 2 VIP camp sites. This was probably the best camp site we have ever had and with our senior discount it was only $25. We had a deck, fire place and a large cement pad. It was a beautiful wooded place with fall colors.
We took a tour of the caves and spent lots of time walking the trails and did some bike riding. The Park is like a small community complete with a store, post office and laundry. My washer is broke (a paddle came off the barrel and needs to be replaced) so I did my laundry there. I called Camping World in Nashville so they could get the part in and we could pick it up when we are there. The part is about $18 but they wanted me to pay $35 for shipping of this little 4 oz part. I decided to go on line to find the part. I found it on Ebay. Now I need to figure out where we will be so that I can order it and arrange to pick it up at a UPS store along the way. I have to plan for a week to 10 days out for that to happen. Meanwhile, I will use Laundromats.

We spent a few days in Nashville at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone RV Park. We did not do justice to Nashville. Had I known we would stay an extra night I would have found out the Thursday show at the Grand Ol Opry and seen Tanya Tucker.  Shoulda, coulda woulda…. As it was we toured the town and found Trader Joe’s (where they don’t sell $2 Chuck), Costco and Camping World. When we had our shopping done, we took a day to visit some Civil War battlefields around Franklin, TN where General Hood made a huge blunder and allowed the Union Army to take over the town. Then we went to Stones River National Battlefield and Cemetery near Murfreesboro where the Union won a decisive battle that allowed them to control transportation on a road, river and railroad.

Several days have passed since I began writing this blog and we are now in Hoover, AL just outside of Birmingham. We are staying here for the week. This place is really a big asphalt parking lot with a lot of pull-through level RV sites with full hook-ups. It is conveniently located near the Hoover Met Stadium, grocery stores, Costco and World Market where Don can buy his licorice. The RV Park is owned by the city and is run without a camp-host on site. You just pick out a site, put money in an envelope and drop it in a locked box. I assume someone picks up the money and checks from time to time on the campers but have not seen any sign of that. It is quiet except when Hoover High School plays a football game. We took some time off from touristing to make granola, fix the toilet (it’s always something), do laundry, do some shopping and lay around reading, napping and watching baseball.

On our way to Tuscaloosa yesterday, we came across the Mercedes plant along the road. We made a quick decision to stop with hopes of getting in on a tour that was about to start. No luck with the tour but we got to see the museum which had the world’s first horseless carriage, automobile and motorcycle. We went on to Tuscaloosa to take a look at “Bama” home of the Crimson Tide and last night went to see Hoover HS play North Marion High School from Florida. I’m just saying that Football is important around here. Several of the parents from Florida were wearing shirts with the slogan “Faith Family Football” in bold lettering on the back. Tuscaloosa and the University were pretty much demolished by the Union forces during the civil war so there are no really old buildings. The university was rebuilt and is a lovely campus with beautiful architecture. Today we plan to see the antebellum home in Birmingham from which the generals planned their destruction of the university. I’m getting the feeling that the Union officers found themselves some pretty nice digs when they came south.

 Speaking of level, I have some things to say. When we were at Mill Creek, it took us at least 3 hours to finally get this thing level enough so all the tires were mostly supported by the ground. By the time we were done, I was ready to abandon ship and go back to living in a stick house. Leveling involves putting down the jacks and seeing the whole front end of this 20 ton camper 6 inches off the ground. So you take a better look at the ground and move forward a few feet and try again only to find it’s better only 4 inches off the ground but now the right back tires are also off the ground. We carry about 10 2”X8” pieces of lumber in one of our bays so we take it out and place it under the tires. This involves moving forward, putting the wood down and backing up and try the levels again. After about 4 more attempts we finally had it about right. Now to enter the camper, we had about an 18”step up to the bottom step and I have to always remember that when I step down so I don’t fall and break a leg. About 1 hour of our time was taken up by neighbors who came in after we arrived, set up their RV and came over to talk talk talk about their life and offer advice on leveling. The other day when I was looking through our  file box that doesn’t include the Chassis manual, for the toilet manual I discovered a folder labeled “leveling”.  Something to add to “Things we’ve learned today”.