GOODLETSVILLE, TENNESSEE

It is July 9th, 2015 and this is our last night at the Koa North Nashville Koa rv park.  This is a very nice park with lots of long pull thrus.  Many beautiful coaches are here.  It is about 15 miles north of Nashville.  Our refrigerator is still broken, but tomorrow morning we are going to the Holiday Rambler Factory in Decatur, Indiana for service to that and to the slide and a whole bunch of things, you know the drill.  We had one real bad storm here Tuesday nite but came through it ok, only the satellite wouldn't work (darn).  Last night we had dinner at the Colorado Grill, about 10 miles north of here in the town of White House.  It was such a nice restaurant in that cute little town and I had the Filet Mignon Steak dinner and Joel had a half rack of baby back ribs.  We both had onion soup to start and fresh hot bread and butter.

Today we decided to go into Nashville and visit the American Pickers tv reality show store.  It was in a large old brick complex with lots of boutiques around it.  I took some photos but did not buy any of the tourist junk.  Then we took a ride into the town of Franklin, a little old historic town where Julies old boss opened up a stonefired pizza place.  We had a decent meal, talked a bit and took some pics.  Then we went to the Grand Ole Opry.  Unfortunately it the new grand ole opry and was in a huge shopping center, so we went in and bought a few things while there.  I got some Repel Insect Repellant at the Bass Pro Shop, it will either help me or kill me.  I have so many bug bites from the humid weather here.  It is more than 100 degrees today.

Tomorrow we will be on the road real early because we have at least a 6 and a half hour trip to Indiana.  I am so glad my blog is working.  For a week I could not add photos (which are the best part),  Joel took a microsoft security package and they give up all the support we need for 3 years.  Anyhoo it took the tech about an hour to realize that Internet Explorer is really a crappy browser and he switched me over to Google Chrome and now everything works, in fact my computer is super fast now.  So enjoy the pics. I will send updates on our repairs.  Goodbye Y'all.

This is the American Pickers store in Nashville, Tennessee

All these photos are the antique stuff inside

Old bikes and motorcycles decorate the place

Below tourist stuff to buy

Nice painted sign on garage door

Picture with Gina at Ginas Stonefired Pizza 

in Franklin, Tn.  Gina was Julies former boss.

Below me standing in front of the new Grande Ole Opry

I LIED, I JUST TOOK PICS TODAY IN MEMPHIS

Today is July 5, and we went into Memphis, Tn to see Mud Island River Park and the Museum.  This is an old attraction since the late 50's.  It only took about 20 minutes to get there.  You park in the garage and that is $6.00.  Then you go to the ticket booth and buy a ticket for the monorail and the museum entrance.  This is a great deal.  If you want you can walk across the bridge but the ticket for seniors was only $8.00 each and included the monorail and the museum.  The best deal.  The Museum is old style, different exhibits, mostly focusing on the Mississippi River and its tributaries.  The exhibits are old but very interesting.  We got to walk on a real replica of an old River Boat and an ironclad vessel from the civil war.  Some exhibits had speakers on and old folks told tales about living on the river and "Schwabs".  They had lots of old things for sale and an ice cream fountain too.  We then went back to the campground. 


We got a new gps for the car, it works real good but the letters are a little small to see and you can't change the size of them.  Oh well.  Enjoy the pics.

Here we are at Graceland, the two planes that elvis owned

View of the bridge in Memphis at Mud Island

This is a scale replica of the whole Mississippi River

water included, it is 5 blocks long

This is the view of the river from our campground

Hopefully this video is working , the flow of the river is enormous

all day long and night tugs push the barges along

 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Well, today is July 3, 2015.  We are here in West Memphis Arkansas since last Thursday.  We left Amarillo, Texas last Monday and went to Oklahoma City, Ok for two nights.  On the website the rv park looked real nice, but looks can be deceiving.  The  Rockwell Rv Park is right off I-40 and easy to find.  Upon entering the park, there is so much trash and garbage, old car parts, etc. which is your first welcoming view.  The building which houses the office is so old and hasn't had a coat of paint in god knows how long.  The man checking us in never even looked up at us.  We got a nice long pull thru site and there were many highend coaches there.  We stayed only two nights and never even took our car out of the trailer.  Very disappointing.  Then we were off to Little Rock, Arkansas Koa.
Very difficult to find due to poor signs.  As soon as you get off the ramp you come to a four way stop but can't really tell which way to go.  We made a choice and then started up the road, nothing looked promising so we pulled into a church parking lot to call the park.  It so happened we were on the right road but just hadn't come to it yet.  Upon checking in a snippy young girl listened to us talk about the lack of signs and snickered.  An older workamper woman next to her never smiled and seemed disinterested.  We were led to our site, a nice long pull thru, unfortunately it was under a tree and we couldn't pick up our satellite signal.  No problem they said, just hook up a cable and we have satellite, long story short, we couldn't get it to work.  At least we still had internet.  Joel decided to take only one night there and that was a good idea.  It was $49.50 a night.  The real surprise came in the morning when we realized that we had to exit thru two trees on the road, wasn't going to happen.  Luckily the site in front of us was empty and Joel managed to get thru that way.  I would not recommend either of these parks.  I have become really disappointed in the Koa's lately.
Well, we drove about 4 hours and reached West Memphis, Ar. where we pulled into "Tom Sawyers" rv park, a little off the main road, but great signage to help you get there.  We are right on the Mississippi River and watch the barges go by day and night.  Nice long gravel and concrete pull thrus. No pool or cable but only $33 a night so we took a little over a week here.  It has turned out to be a very nice park.  We had some problems with the rig though.  Our refrigerator started to get really warm and we called out a tech.  He thought it was the thermistor, and called a fridge guy that he knew.  This guy thought the same thing but also thought about the pc board which he did not know how to check.  When we get to Nashville next week I have already located someone to fix it.  But for now we have to keep things cold.  Well if the thermistor is plugged in things get warm and if we disconnect it, things get real cold, so we have been alternating between the two using a small thermometer to get the temperature.  A real pain, but necessary.  Last night we had a real bad rainstorm.  We haven't been in rain for almost 2 years.  I heard hail hitting the roof, but we came thru ok.  It is almost noon now and has been drizzling all morning.  I hope the rain will stop today, it really is awful because our satellite dish keeps losing the signal.  We went to Walmart yesterday to stock up on some things and had lunch at a real nice Mexican restaurant called "Panchos" .  Good thing we went yesterday, could have never gone today.  Today I am doing some wash.  Last Tuesday we went to see "Elvis" home at Graceland.  I can't believe how much we spent there.  It was $10 to park, $82 for tickets, $21 for awful dried up chicken sandwich, and I bought a real nice shirt.  I was expecting to see a mansion, but elvis just had a little ordinary house, decorated from the 60's, shag carpet and such and lots of land around it.  We saw the car museum with very few cars, my only good part was seeing all his costumed jumpsuits, there were so many.  I would not recommend the place, only if you a diehard elvis fan and want to cry at his grave which is in the meditation garden on the property.  We will be here thru Sunday and then are going to Nashville, Tn to another Koa, god I hope its a good one, where we will be for a week.  We have an appointment at the Holiday Rambler Factory to get some work done on our rig and we have to be there on the 13th,  wish us luck, I didn't take any pictures on this post .

AMARILLO, TEXAS

It is June 15, 2015, and we have arrived at Amarillo Rv Ranch late in the afternoon.  It was a long trip from New Mexico, about 7 hours.  It is a nice park, but it was a mobile home park many years ago and all the sites have curbs, about 6-7 inches high.  Quite a big deal coming into them.  Aside from that, the park is fine and is near most of the attractions.  We are here for a week and the weather ranged from very cloudy to highs of 97 degrees.  Quite a bit of wind too.  We visited an rv museum, a classic car museum, went to a car show on route 66 and also visited Palo Duro State Park with gorgeous canyons.  We also ate at the famous Texan Steak House, very touristy and food pretty mediocre.  But at least we went, one time was enough.  Tomorrow we leave for Oklahoma City, so here are the pictures, enjoy them, we did.

 

Upper pics are of a & w stand in the rv museum

check out the old prices

 

 

 

Old vw bus is so cool

This big bus was actually the rv in the Movie "RV"

with Robin Williams

 

 

 

First popup camper

 

 

 

 

First little bitty Fleetwood

 

 

Teardrop

 

 

At the Big Texan Steakhouse

what a boot

 

 

 

 

They also had a big chair

Here I am sitting pretty

 

 

This is 6th Ave on Rte 66

These are the original buildings

Wild Bills BBQ

 

 

 

These pics are all of Palo Duro State Park

Beautiful canyons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO

Well, it is June 14, 2015 and we have just finished a week at the Roadrunner Park in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  We have had a wonderful week.  This park is the first park we have been in that have no bathrooms or showers or pool or laundramat.  It is a bare bones park with great big long pull thrus and full hookups and that is all we need. 

Of course, being next to our friends Cynthia and Ron made the place a paradise.  We know them since May, 2013, when we were  both having work done on our rigs , at Alliance in Wildwood, Fl.  We were there a week and they were there 3 weeks having remodeling done on their motorhome.  We both have cats and while I was there Cynthia taught me how to write this blog.  We have been following each other on the road, they are full timers too.  This is the first time ours paths have crossed.  It was wonderful to see them and we were right next to them.  They showed us a wonderful time.

We started out on Tuesday to find me a new camera.  I must have abused mine because it had died while we were in Sedona.  These wonderful friends dragged me to three walmarts to finally find the one that I wanted. 

We kept our corvette in the trailer and they chauffeured us around town in their fun jeep.  We all went everywhere together and ate out a lot.  We started the week at Backroads Pizza.  Then on to the Casino buffet, then to a great Mexican restaurant in Sante Fe.  Then to another great Casino Buffet, of course some fast food, Arby's.  We topped off the week with a trip to the Rio Grande Gorge in Taos, New Mexico and it was a wonderful trip. We all had lunch in a place called "Renato's", and sat in the back garden under umbrellas.  It was the perfect day. 

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Amarillo, Texas and their next stop is Colorado Springs.  We will be sorry to leave them, but our paths may cross again.  We managed to get an appointment at the Holiday Rambler Factory in Decateur, Indiana, so we are on a journey to get there by July 12th.  We will be going through, Amarillo, Tx, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, Arkansas, Memphis, Arkansas, can't wait to go to Graceland and see all the Elvis exhibits.  Then off to Nashville for a week before our appointment, quite an itinerary.  Looking forward to great cool weather along the way. 

Here are some pictures of the great places and our friends.

 

Sante Fe Mountains, great place to

try out my new camera

 

 

Pine ridges and our friends Ron and Cynthia

 

 

A photo of Old Sante Fe Square

 

 

Could not resist these gorgeous flower baskets

 

 

Great lunch at the Burrito Factory in Santa Fe

 

 

 

Great ride into Taos and saw the Rio Grande Gorge

Spectacular.  Look down in the river and see

the blue raft doing white water rafting through the gorge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look below at the raft

 

 

We had a gorgeous cool, breezy day

 

 

 

Lunch at Renatos

 

 

Full and Happy

 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

It is June lst, 2015, and we are on the road to Camp Verde, Arizona, about 15 miles south of Sedona, Arizona.  This is a real nice park.  It is very modern, concrete pads, small pea gravel, shrubs, set in a valley off I-17, not too noisy.  Nice view of the mountains.  There is a casino up the road, but we did not go there, instead we went to surrounding towns, and of course Sedona.  Everything about 30 minutes away.  We had one day of rain and it gets cool at night.  The temps have cooled down during the day to almost 90 degrees.  We have buddy sites here, your front door faces another rigs.  We have a real nice neighbor, no children here but lots of yappy tiny dogs.  We stay a week before we will head out for Santa Fe New Mexico. 

We went to a wildlife preserve here called Out of Africa, not really a zoo.  Took a bush tour on a high jeep type of vehicle and saw some nice animals.  The pics will show them.  Then we noticed that all the shows and stuff were way up in the hills, I never saw a tram and it was about 95 degrees, much too hot to walk around in all that heat, so alas we opted out.

We then went to the town of Cottonwood for lunch and found a Chinese buffet.  I have to say the food was subpar, the bathrooms in the middle of remodeling, the ceiling could have fallen on your head.  Joel let the manager know and he was completely clueless.  It is so hard to go out to eat, spend your hardearned money and get a crummy meal. 

 

This is the Tucson Az. Koa, nice long pull thru

 

 

Sonoran desert museum, so hot, must have been 95 degrees, just

walked around a little and then went inside to see museum.  This upper pic is of a

snowy owl, the lower is of a little barn owl

 

 

Lots of hiking trails outside, need to go in the autumn

 

 

 

 

Inside, lots of dinosaurs at the museum

 

 

 

 

SEEING LOTS OF ARIZONA

Well, today is May 30, 2015.  We are in Mesa, Az and have been here for the last two weeks.  We were at Casa Grande, Az for two weeks prior, they had a special, buy one week get one free so we took advantage of it. Before that we were in Tucson at the Koa, and did nothing but laundry cause I was still getting over my horrible cold.  Casa Grande was a nice park, it has a golf course, but we weren't crazy about it.  We decided to take the rig to Rv Renovators in Mesa to have our small leak in our fresh water tank fixed.  Well, we gave them all the info on our warranty and such and waited to hear from them.  Long story short, in a week and a half they never even called our warranty company, I don't think they wanted to do the job.  I don't think much of them.  We will leave it go for now.  Anyhoo, this park we are in Mesa Regal is one of the Calam Parks and Resorts.  It is just beautiful and has everything any rv'er could want.  Spaces 35 feet wide and will even fit our cargo trailer, beautiful pools, restaurant, bars, live music, etc.  They have a special at a couple of the parks and we took a site for next winter.  For the months of sept, thru Jan it is $595 for the whole 4 months.  Of course you have to add electric, sewer and trash, we have trash cans and they pick up twice a week.  Even with that it is under $300 a month and you can't beat that with a stick.  We are right in town, I love it, I go shopping within a few miles all the restaurants and stores are there.  Remember where we were in the desert we were 45 miles from a hospital or restaurants.  The folks are real friendly too.  Today we took a ride to Scottsdale and had lunch and looked at some cars at the Barrett Jackson collection.  It is so hot, almosgt 100 degrees.  We are leaving Monday morning for Camp Verde, where we will be at Distant Drums rv park just about 10 miles from Sedona, we will be there for at least a week sightseeing and then will meander into Albuquerque New Mexico, maybe we  can meet up somewhere along the way.  Our trip this winter will take us all the way up to the Wisconsin Dells, Macanac Island Michigan and maybe to Niagra Falls.  Take care on your trip and stay away from all that water.  Best Regards, Joel and Esta