Buffalo, NY via Niagara Falls!

Wow! We got all the way to Niagara Falls on Friday, had great weather to see the falls and even took the dogs down to the lookout point. The dogs didn't seem particularly interested in the falls, but The Ed, as usual, stopped to beg from anyone appearing to eat anything. Nice.

The falls were spectacular! And the sun was shining brightly, so picture-taking was...superb. The last time I was at Niagara Falls was a long, long time ago and it was raining. This is Ken's third trip to the falls, the first time in 1952, the second in 1986 and now. He says it has gotten better (though more commercialized) each time.

Nonetheless, the crowds were small and the views amazing. We're looking forward to coming back some other time, perhaps without the dogs so we can stay longer, ride the Maid of the Mist and see the Cave of the Winds.

See The Ed in the window? He's standing on the table!! Grr.

Once we left the falls, we drove a little ways south of Buffalo along the Niagara River (so pretty!) to visit our friends in North Collins, a tiny rural town. Rose, David and Roz took us to Uncle Frank's, a local bar known for their Friday night fish fry (yummy!) and friendly neighbors. We chatted non-stop and had a great time! They made us a fabulous breakfast Saturday morning and we swore we would never leave. (Easily the best B&B we've been to in recent memory.) We got on the road later and drove to Herkimer (what?), NY, where we're roughing it in a WalMart parking lot. What a comedown from last night's digs.

Tour of Cleveland with an Old Navy Buddy!

Wade Chapel

On Wednesday, Ken reconnected with Ray, his old Navy roommate, after 41 years thanks to Facebook. Ray, his wife, Bene, and their son, Johnathan, live in Cleveland. Ray and Johnathan took Ken and me on a tour of Cleveland today including the Lake View Cemetery, where Eliot Ness, John D. Rockefeller and our nation's 20th president, James Garfield, are all buried. Garfield's monument is an impressive sandstone building with elaborate gold mosaics on the inside. We also visited the Wade Chapel, whose two very intricately stained glass mosaic interior murals and elaborate front window were designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany (of Tiffany Lamps).

Next, Ray led us through University Circle where Case Western Reserve University is located, as is the Cleveland Clinic, a world-renowned hospital. We toured past Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Cleveland Botanical Garden.

Our last stop was in Cleveland's Little Italy, at Corbo's Bakery, where we bought...of course...cannolis. Yum! We also tried their Lemon Italian Ice (very refreshing on a hot, humid day!).  We met up with Bene for dinner at Kumo, an Asian buffet restaurant with lots of variety and a large spread of sushi -- yum again!

It was great seeing Ray after all these years, and we really enjoyed meeting his lovely family!

Near Cleveland, Ohio at Punderson State Park

We landed at a beautiful park near Cleveland called Punderson Lake State Park. On Monday evening we set up camp, walked around the campground a bit and took in the "beach" -- a little stretch of the lakefront with some sand. On Tuesday we took a nice rowboat ride around the lake and enjoyed the low humidity and gorgeous weather we've been hoping for since we left Virginia a couple of weeks ago.

The park has a really nice campground, lots of hiking trails, a marina to rent boats, great fishing, and a beautiful manor house. The lake has lots of minnows,  lily pads, thousands of dragonflies and a few blue herons.

On Tuesday evening, we met our camping neighbors, Don and Diane, and had a great time chatting with them over a raging fire and some giant marshmallows. Yum! Don and Diane are from Cleveland and like to camp at Punderson Lake every year, though they also visit the other nearby parks as well. What a great find this campground has been!

Evidently, the manor house and the lake have quite a bit of interesting history...several drownings have occurred and there have been lots of ghost sightings in the house over the years. Who knew?

Punderson Lake Manor House

Louisville, KY

Well, we got a slow start leaving from Bardstown, KY, on Sunday morning...but we managed to hit the last stop on the Bourbon Trail -- Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, Kentucky. Now this is a large operation. While some of the other distilleries were quaint in their smallness and such, Jim Beam is impressive in its scale and the entire campus smells of bourbon...yum. We were offered a tasting of two of their bourbons. The first was the Jim Beam Devil's Cut, a bourbon made by extracting the bourbon trapped in the barrel wood after aging for 6 years and then blending it with another bourbon. Very strong and described as a mixing rather than sipping bourbon, so this one could be used in place lighter fluid. Jus' sayin'. The second bourbon we tried is the only one on our entire trip I could actually imagine drinking again on purpose. It's Red Stag by Jim Beam, a bourbon infused with black cherry flavor. Ken thought it was too sweet and I imagine most bourbon drinkers would agree with him, but at least I found one I enjoyed a bit...and, hey, Kid Rock shills this stuff. How bad could it be?

Next we pointed the RV toward the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. There is a GIANT bat at their front door, which looks kind of funny in the middle of a very pretty downtown Louisville. The tour of the factory was great and we even got to watch the lathe making some major league Louisville Slugger bats! At the end of the tour, they gave us each a souvenir bat to beat each other with! It's been great! Here's Ken hitting the largest baseball I've ever seen...by the way, it says "Kentucky Mirror and Plate Glass" on that baseball.

Rookie mistake #5: Spending the night without air conditioning parked at a gas station lit up like a baseball diamond with the unending sounds of trucks and other motorists all around the RV will result in a poor night of sleep. Jus' sayin'.

Kentucky Bourbon Trail

And so the bourbon tasting begins....

On Friday we drove to the bluegrass area of Kentucky to start the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. We started our bourbon crawl with Heaven Hill Distillery, who makes a number of brands including Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, Henry McKenna, and many, many others. We were offered a tasting (my first!) at their Bourbon Heritage Center and, well, I'm sure a bourbon drinker would have enjoyed it quite a bit more than I did. Nonetheless, we tried the Elijah Craig 18 year old Single Barrel Bourbon, described as smooth and extremely complex but to me smelled and tasted a lot like gasoline. Thankfully, Ken enjoyed it primarily because his palate is significantly more suited for bourbon drinking than mine.

We arrived too late in the day to get to any of the other distilleries, so we retreated just down the road to the little campground at My Old Kentucky Home State Park in Bardstown, Kentucky, the "bourbon capital of the world". Ken grilled up some steaks for dinner, then some giant marshmallows for dessert. Yum!!

On Saturday, we managed to drive to four more distilleries and even took a couple of tours. We started with the Wild Turkey Distillery in Lawrenceburg. Reva offered us a tasting after a brief video of Wild Turkey's history. I tried a couple of the lighter bourbons, the Russells Reserve 10 year old and the 81 Proof, and Ken tried a couple of the "bourbon drinker's" bourbons, the Rare Breed and the Kentucky Spirit.


From there we drove to Four Roses Distillery but missed both the tour and the tasting, so we headed on to Woodford Reserve in Versailles. We were fascinated by Steve's tour of the distillery and the tasting (with free chocolate bourbon balls!) of the only bourbon they make, Woodford Reserve, the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby. Steve led us through the entire process of bourbon making from corn meal, mash bill and yeast reaction, through aging and bottling. It was fascinating! Woodford Reserve is a beautiful distillery made of stone in the middle of horse country.

Then we drove to Maker's Mark in Loretto, a distillery started in 1953 by a husband and wife. Our tour guide, Mike, gave us an extensive history of the distillery, a tour of the buildings on the site and then led us into the tasting. Maker's Mark offers only two bourbons -- Maker's Mark and 46, both of which we tasted. The 46 is aged a bit longer in a French oak barrel that gives it a different sweetness than the stock bourbon they've made since they opened.

What an interesting day! Ken's two favorites were both from Wild Turkey: the Wild Turkey Rare Breed and Wild Turkey's Kentucky Spirit. Unfortunately, I'm still not a bourbon drinker and so the subtle differences between them is, sadly, lost on me, but I've had a lot of fun learning about "America's Official Native Spirit". Tomorrow, we'll finish up the Bourbon Trail with the Jim Beam Distillery on our way to Louisville, KY!

Clarksville, TN

After leaving the park, we headed to Jocelyn and Joe's house in Clarksville, TN, a small town about an hour northwest of Nashville that mostly supports the Fort Campbell Army base. Jocelyn took us on a tour of the base, which straddles the Tennessee and Kentucky border. We chatted a lot and made yummy sundaes with Jocelyn and thoroughly enjoyed our visit. Joce and Joe have a very lovely house made much more comfortable when the air conditioning repairmen came and fixed the system on Thursday afternoon. Thank you, Joce, for all your hospitality and we love you and we'll see you and Joe in September!!

Joe is serving our country overseas, so unfortunately, we didn't get to see him. Thank you, Joe, and all your co-workers for defending our great country and freedoms! And a special thanks to all the military families who support our armed forces day in and day out!

Edgar Evins State Park outside of Nashville

After leaving the comfortable hospitality of the youngest Shaw brother's family, we headed northwest and landed at Edgar Evins State Park, an extremely steep campground next to Center Hill Lake in Liberty, Tennessee. 

This campground is very pretty, well-maintained, well-appointed (showers, playground, electricity and water at every camp site), inexpensive and most surprisingly...virtually deserted. There might be 3 other sites in use tonight out of 60 here. And check out the pictures! This is a really pretty location!

The strange thing is that we just happened upon this park and look what a find we found. Nice. We cooked up a little dinner, walked down to the lake to dip our toes in and took some pictures as the sun set behind the mountains. There is a marina with a bunch of big pontoon boats here, as well as a group of folks with a power boat and a giant innertube. Fun!

The RV is parked on a campsite that looks constructed like a deck on the side of a hill. Here's hoping it holds the RV all night.

 

Knoxville, TN by way of Tchotchke-ville (Pigeon Forge)

Here are a couple of pictures of the Oconaluftee River flowing through the campground just before we left. On a side note: The re-hooking process went much more smoothly when we packed up to leave...perhaps our learning curve is almost over (I hope).

In order to leave the park Monday morning, we continued north on Newfound Gap Road, a twisting, winding, roller-coaster of a road through some absolutely gorgeous mountain areas. The few pictures I was took do the park no justice at all in showing its true magnificence. As we exited this gorgeous national park, we entered one of the most tchotchke-laden, tourist-trappy areas I've ever seen...Pigeon Forge, a town dedicated to providing the polar opposite experience the park provides. Yuck. 

Fortunately, we drove on to Knoxville where MacGregor, Christina and Peyton were kind enough to let us stay in their house (our a/c is on the fritz in the extreme heat), eat their food, swim in their pool and pet their huge dogs. Thanks, MacGregor and Christina! On a side note, Christina and I won the World Series of Sequence (a card/board game). This is an undisputed fact despite what MacGregor may post in the comments section.

(The Ed REALLY enjoyed seeing Peyton again, whose 19 month old behavior includes throwing her food on the floor. Good for the Ed!)

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

On Sunday afternoon, we left downtown Asheville and headed to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. What a beautiful park!! Ken bought the Golden Age National Parks Passport since this was our first stop at a national park and we discovered we could camp for half price in the campgrounds among other perks. Nice!

We pulled into the Smokemont Campground and had to unhook the car and the tow dolly to get into the camp site (grrr), but found a drinking water source and dumping station to use for free (yay!).

The campground is only a few miles into the park along Newfound Gap Road, which follows the Oconaluftee River. We took the puppies walking along one of the dog trails near the river and they tried their best to avoid getting wet.

We stayed in the campground and walked all over, dipped our toes in the river, chatted with fellow campers and made dinner in the RV.

We couldn't get a fire started in the fire pit, though, because the available sticks and such were wet and neither one of us is a Boy Scout. So, no giant roasted marshmallows...yet.

Downtown Asheville

On Sunday, we left the Walmart and headed to the Asheville Visitor's Center and got some tips on a self-guided walking tour of the city. We walked around a few of the sites in western Asheville and picked up lunch at Chai Pani, a great little restaurant serving Southern Indian street fare using "fresh local natural ingredients". Excellent food! And the mango lassi is very yummy and refreshing. Charlie and the Ed were glad to have a rest under the chairs. 

Asheville is a very dog-friendly town, with most of the businesses offering bowls of water outside their doors. While we walked around the streets, like normal, the Ed begged for food from anyone eating *anything* that we walked by (cookies, tiramisu, sandwiches, etc).

Chai Pani

Ken at Chai Pani with a Yummy Mango Lassi

First night spent in the RV

So, on Saturday, the 16th, we left Janine and Joel's house and headed to Asheville. We stopped at a Walmart and stayed there overnight. Not glitzy, but hey, we're just starting out here. There were a few other RVers staying in the parking lot with us, so we were in good company. We are discovering additional mostly electrical issues with the RV, which are causing some headaches and a few thawed foodstuffs. Note to self: keep spare fuses on hand.

Guilford Courthouse Battle: March 15, 1781

Today we visited a national park in Greensboro dedicated to the preservation of the battlefield of Guilford Courthouse. This was technically a victory for the British in the Revolutionary War, but actually helped the Americans ultimately win at Yorktown by having weakened British Lt. General Cornwallis' defenses. American Major General Nathanael Greene wore down Cornwallis' troops with a "defense and depth" approach to battle (three separate battle lines with the last one having the most veteran soldiers). Cornwallis won the battle but lost 28% of his men whereas Greene lost the battle but suffered only an 8% loss of force.

Nathanael Greene's contribution to American history lives on as the town of Greensboro was named for him, as was Natty Greene's Brewing Co. in downtown. (Check out their brews!)

Fascinating day of history and Revolutionary War stories at Guilford Courthouse. Check out the National Park Service's document of interesting stories related to Guilford Courthouse and its participants.

(Map from Wikipedia)

The learning curve continues...

Rookie mistake number 4: Do NOT pull the RV away from the curb too sharply lest the back end of the coach accidentally hit something.

On a separate note...Janine and Joel now have a brand new mailbox and mailbox post.

Pet Parakeet Found

This morning as I walked out of Janine and Joel's house, I saw a parakeet nibbling on some grass right on the sidewalk in front of their front door! Ken very patiently gained the little bird's trust with some grass and, eventually, a fishing net. We managed to get him into a dog cage with some more grass and a little bowl of water. Here he sits nibbling while Joel awaits a response from his neighbors. Stay tuned...

Update...after we returned from the Guilford Courthouse Battleground and before we left for dinner, the little parakeet...escaped! Here's hoping he's enjoying some grass seed...

On Unloading a Vehicle from a Tow Dolly...

Rookie mistake number 2: Do NOT unstrap the tires from the tow dolly before first removing the safety chains.
Rookie mistake number 3: Do NOT fasten the safety chains so tightly around the wishbone of the car that to remove them requires a crowbar, a hammer, 3 people, copious amounts of swearing and a steep hill.

We decided on the Acme Brand Tow Dolly based out of Kernersville, NC. They were very nice folks and even helped us load our car onto the tow dolly before we left. It was only after returning to Janine and Joel's house and attempting to unload the car that the real fun and frustration began. Here's hoping for an easier time the next go-around.

New Back Tires

We are really setting the world on fire now...we got all 4 rear tires replaced today by Merchants Tires in Jamestown, NC. They were very friendly, matched a competitor's price and even inflated the air bag system on the RV. Thanks, Billy and team at Merchants!

We had 6 nice-looking but poor quality tires when we bought the coach and discovered that at least two of them were shaped like eggs. This did not make for a smooth ride. The new BF Goodrichs we got at Merchants Tires are all...wait for it...round. Who knew this would make such a difference??? Here's hoping it improves the gas mileage, too.

Greensboro, NC

Rookie mistake number 1:   Do NOT put the Scrabble game in a cabinet above a seat while the RV is in motion.

Well, at least it was entertaining to watch the game and then several folders of paperwork fall out of the cabinet in slow motion.

We're here visiting Janine and Joel, and we've happened upon some record setting heat. I heard the words "hottest day of the summer" on the radio this afternoon as I approached the area. Awesome.

One thing I really do love about Greensboro...the Delicious Bakery at the corner of Lawndale and Pisgah Church Roads has the best cannolis south of New York I've ever had. And believe me, I've looked. They have lots of other great looking pastries and cupcakes and beautiful cakes...but I can't bring myself to cheat on the cannolis.

Inaugural Day of RV Trip

Hot and steamy in Shenandoah Valley...it's supposed to be 98 degrees today to start our trip toward Greensboro. Here's hoping the giant marshmallows don't melt into one big one...that'd make roasting it (them?) a bit tricky.

We've packed everything we can think of bringing on our trip and still have some storage room left over...I think more yarn is in order.

Wild Raspberries

We've been picking berries for a week with only a minor case of poison ivy as payment. The heavy rains we had in April and May made for plentiful pickings. We picked these bushes (and many of their friends) clean several times this week...yum!