Date of Departure

Or maybe not.....

My brother was hospitalized once with a condition that possibly required surgery.  I was visiting when the surgeon came by on his rounds.  He blew into the room with a couple of assistants.  This guy was a man's man.  An operating room veteran with a local reputation to go with it.  Stethoscope around the neck and white coat open just so.  He looked over my brother and said, "I think we'll just leave our knives in our pockets today."  Turns out he was right.  My brother was fine and went home a few days later.

I think I'm going to keep my keys in my pocket today.  We are at the tail end of a particularly nasty winter storm that moved up the east coast.  It snowed overnight here but not very much.  The problem is Bald Mountain and Sam's Gap which are between me and Asheville, NC and in turn Perry, GA.  Due to the elevation, things get worse "on the mountain" as the locals say.  Friday offers temperatures above freezing so we're going to move everything forward a day.

One of the nice things about being able to work from home and having a home that can go anywhere is the ability to be flexible.  My supervisor came through with moving my vacation days around - thanks Boss.  I can still work the dog show for 2 days, Saturday and Sunday rather than Friday and Saturday.  I have plenty of Christmas cookies for the duration - thanks Dawn and Lynn.  The cookies came special delivery from Margo who decided to come visit for Christmas.  When you have a woman who will travel 600 miles to see you then you know you hit the jackpot.  She had to leave the next day to get back (another 600 miles) but what a great Christmas present.



I hope you and yours had as great a holiday as I did.  We'll talk again after the new year; after I get Flo and Mingo back to warmer 'climes.

Snow Day

IT"S SNOWING!!!!



Okay, I realize that you readers north of the Mason/Dixon line are going to just chuckle but for a Florida boy this is a big deal.  We woke up to a nice dusting this morning.  Actually I think this would qualify for more than a dusting but it's really just ' bout knee high to a Dachshund.

Russell "Rusty" Wallace Oliver. One of the three resident ankle biters.

Shiloh, the big black Cocker Spaniel, stopped in his tracks upon my opening the door this morning to let him out.  After a few steps he looked at me as if to ask what had happened.  In his mind the Mayan calendar/end of the world thing that was supposed to happen today actually did.  Pepper, the Schnauzer, has seen snow before (on prior trips here) and was like Tigger in the Hundred Acre Wood - bouncy, bouncy, all over.

Shiloh - warming up to the idea

Pepper, still in his jammies.

It's been cold since I arrived, in the 20s at night with single digit wind chills,  but we've been quite comfortable.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I would talk about the cold weather issues you have to deal with in a trailer.  Certainly it's different from a house but actually BTU for BTU it's much more efficient to heat LuLu then to heat a whole house.

We have four sources of heat, actually five if you count snuggling up to Margo, but I won't go into that here, it's a family blog after all.  First the AC unit on the roof is also a heat pump.  We have a standard electric space heater, a propane furnace and an electric blanket for the bed.  Airstreams have what is called a belly pan that encloses everything underneath including the three water tanks and all of the plumbing.  This is for aerodynamics but also with ducting from the furnace to keep things warm underneath makes it truly a four season RV.  As long as I run the propane furnace when the thermometer dips below 32 I have no worries about frozen pipes.  Most of the time the space heater is all that is needed to keep it quite cozy.  Of course it's all controlled by thermostats so once set is automatic.

LuLu

Hank

The aluminum skin you see is the outside skin.  There's a layer of insulation then an inner skin as well.  All of the windows and doors have rubber gaskets and form an air tight seal.  We had winds with gusts up to 50 mph yesterday but there were no drafts to speak of in here.  Actually, it's so air tight that you can pressurize the inside and put soapy water on the outside to check for leaks.  Because of this though I do take great care in making sure that the carbon monoxide monitor, propane gas monitor and smoke alarms are tested each month.  All in all a very cozy camper.

Well, Christmas week will be here soon then, baring more of this white stuff, we'll be headed south again with a stop in Perry, GA for a 3 day indoor regional agility dog show.  After that it's back to the Sunshine State.  I'll update everyone on the trip back and the show when I can.  Until then, I wish you and yours a very merry Christmas.

New Butler / Old Butler

Hey Folks,

When I came up with the idea to document my travels in a blog I also had the idea to focus on describing places that are "off the trail" so to speak.  Places a traveler would normally just pass by.  I thought about making it a regular feature.  Welcome to episode one.  We'll take a trip to Watauga Dam and talk about Butler, TN.  Actually,  New Butler, as Old Butler sits at the bottom of Watauga Lake.

Back in 1948 the Tennessee Valley Authority finished damming up the Watauga river in Eastern Tennessee.  You can read all about it here on Wikipedia, Watauga Dam.  When the dam was completed it did what dams do and created Lake Watauga.  "Old" Butler was not old at the time.  It became Old Butler when they moved the town prior to the flood and built New Butler.  All 600 people, 125 homes, 50 business and 1,281 graves were moved to their new location.  The local beavers stayed behind to help with construction of the dam.   The old town used to flood regularly anyway,  experiencing major floods in 1867, 1886, 1901, 1902, 1916, 1924, and 1940.  They were resilient back then though and always rebuilt.  Ironically it was known as  “the town that wouldn't drown.”  Progress, the need for cheap hydroelectric power and political policy changes did drown the town though.  There's a very nice museum in "New Butler" and of course a web site here.  Here's an aerial picture of the new town.  Not much to it really.  Blink and you'd miss it as they say.

"New" Butler

When we think of a dam we get visions of the big ones like out West,  huge white curved behemoths that take your breath away.  Watauga Dam, not so much.  It's an earthen dam and actually looks like part of the mountain.  Here at Wilbur dam (just down stream from the lake proper)  is where all the kilowatts come from.  I was actually a little disappointed with I first saw it.  The lake is over 280 feet deep on the other side of this though so I guess when you think about it that is a pretty stout structure.

The dam

Pepper and Shiloh don't care about Butler, new or old.  They don't care about all the beavers who worked from sunup to sundown to build the dam.  They're only interested in sniffing some new turf and lounging in the sun.  My travelling companions are simple really.  For them it's all about the present.  For me it's about another kind of "present", the peace and quiet of a still lake.

"The Boys"

Appalachian Trail - northbound. Many a hiker has ascended these on the way to Maine

Old Butler, a couple of hundred feet below the surface.

Down in the Holler

About 15 years ago my mother was living and working in Ocala, FL.  She was single at the time and it was there that she met her future husband, Mel, a building contractor from Palatka, FL.  They got married and she moved to Palatka.  Soon afterward though they decided to retire together to Tennessee.  Mel owned some land near Elizabethton, a small town not too far from the North Carolina/Tennessee border.  They picked up a few home plan magazines and looked through them separately, noting privately the plans they liked.  After they compared their favorites only one house made the cut with both of them.  So Mel, being a building contractor after all, called up some friends and they built their dream house in a holler about 12 miles out of town.



You've heard of a Tennessee holler.  Any country song worth it's salt references the holler.  A holler is simply a small valley between two hills or mountains.  They have catchy names like "Possum Holler" or "Heavenly Holler" to name a few.    Mom and Mel reside in "Blue Springs" holler.  You won't find that name on any map -  it's a local thing.

View from the rocking chair

This picture was taken from their front porch and as you can see the mountain is just across the road - a road by the way that is a bit on the narrow side.  Unless you're driving a Subaru you pretty much need to hug the yellow line and hope for the best when oncoming traffic approaches.  Lulu was hanging over the line a good foot or two on the way up but it all worked out -  folks give you room up here.

Fertile fields

On the left is the view from the back porch.  Fertile fields and farm houses.  All the land you see here is worked by a number of relatives, close or distant, of Mel's.  They've owned the land for generations.  Everyone has a garden and the land always gives back.  The big field might be corn one year (with an elaborate maze cut into it around Halloween), hay the next, pumpkins the next, etc.  There are a good number of cattle in the fields as well.  It's a place where a city slicker couldn't imagine living and a local couldn't imagine leaving.  In the 4 days I've been here I haven't heard one siren but have heard a lot of gun shots off in the distance -  it's hunting season after all.

The law comes around frequently, though not usually on official business.  Mel operates a  gun shop in the basement so hunters, old friends and local deputies are stopping by all the time.  It's really a combination gunshop/social hangout.  That's what social networking means around here.  The firing range Mel uses after he repairs a gun is the driveway - although we have a new rule now - notify the guy in the camper first......

I plan to take a ride soon up to the local Tennessee Valley Authority dam and recreation area.  The Cherokee National Forest is right down the road  as well so lots to show you.  You city slickers may need to rethink things.

Eastern Tennessee

Hey folks,

Been awhile.  Things have been quite routine of late, just working and going about life in general.  The holidays are coming though which got me to thinking.  I haven't seen my mother in a few years.  The obvious solution - ROAD TRIP!   So come along with me for a ride to East Tennessee.

Call Ron

We've had LuLu for a year now and have taken a few trips but this would be my first big trip - 600 miles from Ocala to Elizabethton, TN.  I've been up here many times in the car and have always taken the interstate.  In the past it's always been quick 2-3 day trips then back to home to work but now with LuLu it's much easier to stay longer - in this case we'll just stay the whole month.  I also entertained the idea of taking the back roads this time as well.  The interstate is faster but there's no scenery; not to mention all those incessant billboards, well.... like this one.

In the end I decided on the interstate anyway.  I'm still new to towing a combined 12,000 lbs of truck and trailer and I felt more comfortable on a route I was familiar with - billboards aside.  Actually this one is okay.  That's Ron Slonaker, the same Ron who put together the outstanding seafood gumbo featured in the trip to Orlando.  If you're in Florida and need good counsel Ron is your man and a good friend - even though he is a lawyer.

Our backyard at Silver River State Park, Ocala

We hit the road from Silver River State Park where we had been staying.  There's an earlier post about that too so I won't go into details except to say it's another advantage of living in a trailer.  Nice backyard the Silver River.

North bound and down. I-95 South Carolina

US 441/301 to the state line was uneventful.  Then it was I-95 through Georgia.  My two girls were also making the trip from Ocala.  They're only staying a few days so were in their own vehicle.  We talked and I found out they had left an hour after we did so I was looking for them in Georgia.  Just across the state line into South Carolina they came along side. It's surreal seeing your two little girls tooling down the interstate.  They're young women now but always will be my little girls.  Jenna took some pictures and waves were exchanged.  After a few minutes they went along their way but we ended up passing again as happens on long road trips. I stopped at a rest area and they stopped somewhere for ice cream then we met up again.  After that they left their slow pokin' old man behind for good.

All tucked in for the night. Cracker Barrel, Spartanburg, SC

I had also decided, since I was staying so long, to just stop somewhere overnight.  There was no hurry and I didn't want to be pulling LuLu at night.  Evening came at Spartanburg, SC and Cracker Barrel.  For those of you who don't know, Cracker Barrel is a roadside country style restaurant chain predominantly in the South.  Good food and always room to park a 40 some foot RV.  If you ask real nice the manager will even let you stay the night which is exactly what I did.   I had a great fish dinner and a good night sleep, total cost $9.00 plus tip for dinner.  Thanks Cracker Barrel.

Rest area, I-26 in Tennessee

After Spartenburg came the mountains.  This was an unknown for me but Hank performed flawlessly.  It really paid off to get two times the truck needed to tow LuLu's 6,000 pounds.  As the grade increased he just dug in and made it look easy.  More importantly the downhills were just as easy with the engine brake kicking in just when it was supposed to and keeping us at a safe controlled descent speed no matter the grade.  Bald Mountain pass is the highest elevation at over 3,300 feet and we topped it with no problem.  My confidence is much better now for those future Rocky Mountain passes.

So all in all a very safe and satisfying road trip.  The weather was great and traffic light.  We're parked now in my mom's driveway.  My Verizon MiFi can't quite do the job here since we're in a "hollar' so I'm hard wired into the internet.  So much for calling in sick to work but that's okay, it's back to work and life in general but with a new backyard and family just outside the door.

Unfortunately Margo had to stay behind for bank business but we felt it was best for me to see mom for the holidays then come back later when she came come along.  We're still in transition but looking forward to getting on the road for good.  It'll come.  In the meantime I'm really missing her but family is important too.

Mom's driveway

I'll post soon about our adventures up here in this beautiful country.  We're going to have some cold weather challenges too but LuLu is prepared and I'll share my strategies about that with you too.

Til next time.