On The Road Again...

The RVing Beach Bums are on the road again.  Last blog showed us in the Great Smoky Mountains back in October.  The above photo of a tee shirt in Fontana Village gift shop was of the Tail Of The Dragon, a section of about 10 miles of NC highway 129 that is just incredible.  You have to drive it to believe it. Great for motorcycles.

Saw this little fella at the Fontana Dam area.  Never did see Momma. 

Now, to bring our followers up to date.  We left Virginia Beach on Jan 6th with our ultimate destination (first stop of more than a couple of days) being Pebble Beach/Monterey, CA for the AT&T Pro-Am.  We did this last year and we really had fun. 

Our first stop was in northern Virginia that afternoon (Jan 6) to have a quick lunch with our daughter at the Lost Dog Cafe in McLean.  Yummy!  One hour with her and it was on the road again and back to work for her.  It'll be a year nearly before we see her again, and her babies.  We settled in Morgantown, WV for the eveing at Walmart.

Up early the next morning and we were off to Oregonia, Ohio for a brief 2-day stay with my sister Deborah (full hookups at her country home), other siblings Kevin, Brenda and our Mother Shirley in Lebanon.

Above pics from Cherohala Parkway in western NC & eastern TN.  Bright & early Monday morning the 9th, we were off to Ashland City, TN via Louisville, KY and I-65 to see my Sister Donna & her hubby Joe and my Brother Chris.  They live back in a holler about 10 miles from town, and have sunlight piped in at 2:00 PM each day.  And oh, if the creek don't rise, you can even drive to their house.  :-) 

Couldn't believe it was so nice down in the valleys, and 29 degrees up here at 4400+ feet.  Wow!  It was beautiful!  Our water pump broke while in Ashland City, so we went to CW of Nashville, and after $472, six boxes of fuses and a section of ground wire, we were off to Florida to visit my Aunt Dorothy and Cousin Cathy in Ocala.

Back down in the valley, the colors were just wonderful!

We also had to shave our front tires in Nashville as they became "out-of-round" and were vibrating pretty bad.  That was another $126.  So, Thursday morning, Jan 12, we left my relates in Nashville/Ashland City and headed for Ocala, via a sleepover at the Walmart in Macon, GA.

Can't wait for our next fall visit to the beatiful mountains of NC & TN.  Friday morning we were up & off to Ocala.  Pulled in to the Target about a mile from my Aunt's & Cousin's homes.  We visited with Aunt Dorothy & Cousin Cathy (her daughter) for a couple days and left Sunday morning.  Friday night my Aunt had a meal prepared and it was so nice to sit down & relax and get caught up since our last visit.  She is a great cook and has always enjoyed preparing talk-around-table-meals.  Very nice.

 My Aunt Dorothy & Cousin Cathy and one of her Scotties, Madison.

On Saturday, we were treated to a citrus pickin'.  Yep, a real pickin' of oranges, grapfruit and tangerines.  Wow!  Fun & yummy!  Thank you Cathy and her long time friend and runnin' mate, Connie, who is "much older" by the way...LoL    ...

 Me, up a ladder and Connie and Cathy.  The orchard belonged to Connie's relatives, and they had done their pickin' for the season, so we got what was left on the trees.  Got around two bushels or so of fresh citrus.  Should last us a month if we can keep them cool.

So, we watched Tebow and the Broncos get slaughtered on Sat evening and we said our good-byes and headed out of town on Sun morning headed to Pebble Beach, via several overnighters along the way.

 Some sort of crane on the shore of Lake Kerr where the orchard trees shadowed the sandy beach.  Such a nice piece of property.  The cottage and the orchard and the lake. 

In the Target parking lot in Ocala. 

Oh, our generator blew a fuse (as we found out later) Sun morning.  We decided to pull into our first RV Park (Pensacola RV Park) since leaving home on the 6th, to see if we could figure out what was wrong with our generator.  No luck!  So, Monday morning, after yet another stop at a CW in Robertsdale, Alabama, just across Mobile Bay from Mobile, and another $205 we were headed west on I-10 around 1:00 PM. 

Can someone identify these cranes? 

Monday evening and we pulled into the Imperial Palace (IP) Hotel & Casino in Biloxi, MS.  This is a huge place.  We overnighted here, made an obligatory deposit at the casino and were on our way the next morning, Tuesday, Jan 17.  And here we are, in Lake Charles, LA, and it's Wednesday morning.  After a yukky night of showers and wind, it's a beautiful, crisp morning, about 40 degrees and sunny.  Today we'll head for either Austin or San Antonio.  We'll let you know where in our next blog. So, till then, RVing Beach Bums, Joe & Nancy.