Living Our Dream

Summerdale, AL to Berlin, OH

Berlin, OH - Events of Monday, April 27 to Friday, May 1, 2015

We got up on Monday morning, packed up the 5th wheel, pulled out of Rainbow Plantation and began a journey north toward Berlin, OH. We like Berlin, not only because it is located in the heart of Ohio's Amish country, but also because it is located about two hours west of where Lora, J. Michael and Lydia live near Pittsburgh. We are heading north a little earlier than we normally do because we have several family activities scheduled with Lora, J. Michael and Lydia in May.

We broke the journey to Ohio down into 4 legs with drives of a little over 4 hours per leg. Our first overnight stop was at Birmingham South RV Park in Pelham, AL. Birmingham South has gravel roads, and the sites have gravel pads. There are 40 or 50 full-hookup sites, some with 30-amp electric and some with 30/50 amps. The site spacing is fairly generous for a private campground. We got a pull-through that was relatively level; and, although many of the pull-throughs are a little short, we also got one that was long enough that we could leave the 5th wheel hitched up.

Our site at Birmingham South RV Park

Our site also had a good view of the southern sky for our satellite dish, but most of the sites have at least some trees.

Sites with some shade

There were also some heavily shaded sites, but most of those looked to be occupied by seasonals.

Seasonals on the heavily shaded sites

Birmingham South has free Wi-fi that was fairly fast in the morning, but which bogged down a bit in the late afternoon. Fortunately, there is a good Verizon 4G signal so we could use that when the Wi-fi slowed down. There was some traffic noise from the 4-lane highway that is close to the campground. The traffic on that road diminishes at night so you can then hear the somewhat more-distant whine of the interstate. All in all, however, we didn't find the traffic noise to be that bad. The cost for our 50-amp pull-through site was around $37 plus tax.

On Tuesday morning, we headed out on the next leg of our journey with another drive of a little over 4 hours to Cages Bend Corps of Engineers Campground in Gallatin, TN, located northeast of Nashville. The campground is situated on the shores of Old Hickory Lake, which is a dammed up section of the Cumberland River.

As with most Corps of Engineers campgrounds, the sites are widely spaced. Most of the sites are all gravel, but there are a few that are paved. The roads are paved, but they are very narrow with steep drop-offs on one or both sides in some places. There are also a fair number of trees. Fortunately, our satellite dish was just able to clear the trees behind our site to lock onto a signal; but if the trees grow much, we would need to find a different site or use our tripod if we return in the future.

Our site at Cage's bend

View down the hill from our site toward the lake

All sites have 30/50-amp electric and water only. Obviously, there is no Wi-fi, but there is a good Verizon 4G signal in the area. However, the signal faded to 3G at times, and that may be more frequent on the sites that are down over the hill near the lake. The cost was $10 per night (half price) with our America the Beautiful Pass.

We scheduled two nights at Cage's Bend because we don't like to travel more than two days in a row if we don't have to. We didn't plan to go anywhere, so we didn't even unhitch. We just chilled out around the campground to take a break from traveling. It was the middle of the week so it was nice and quiet.

We did take a walk around the campground to check out some of the other sites in case we ever want to come back. There are some nice lakefront sites, but unfortunately, we only saw one where we thought we could get satellite reception.

One of the lakefront sites

On Thursday morning, we hit the road again to our next overnight stop at Big Bone Lick State Park in the northernmost tip of Kentucky a little south of Cincinnati. We got an earlier start since we would be losing an hour going from Central to Eastern Time. Big Bone Lick State Park has about 30 sites with electric (30 amp) and water hookups only. The water hookups are shared and are located between sites, so some of the hose bibs are pretty far away. Fortunately, we carry 75 feet of drinking water hose, and we needed all of it.

Our site at Big Bone Lick SP

View of a few other sites down over the hill from our site

The roads and pads are paved. The sites are all back-ins and are widely spaced, and most of them are short. Fortunately, we managed to find one that was not only long enough for us to leave the rig hitched up, but it was also one where we could get good satellite reception. Unfortunately, our site was sloped to one side so we had two wheels in the air to get close to level. The cost for our site at Big Bone Lick state Park was around $28.

Big Bone Lick State Park gets the "Big Bone" part of its name from the fossils of mammoths and other large animals that were found there. It is believed the animals were attracted to the area by a salt lick deposited around a spring, which is where the "Lick" part of the name comes from. The state park also has a visitor center/museum featuring fossils and displays about some of the animals whose fossils were found there.

After a one night stop at Big Bone Lick, we headed out on the final leg of our journey to Berlin, OH. This leg was almost 5 hours by the time we added a potty break and a stop for fuel. We pulled into Scenic Hills RV Park close to 2 p.m.

Scenic Hills has around 140 full hookup sites, about half of which have 30-amp electric and half of which have 30/50-amp electric. The roads are semi-paved (tar and chips). The sites are on three levels. On the middle level where the office is located, the sites are all gravel. The sites on the other two levels have gravel pads with grass between the sites. About two-thirds of the sites are pull-throughs. We got a back-in site in the back row of the upper level.

Our site at Scenic Hills

The campground has free Wi-fi, but it tends to be slow to very slow. There is a good Verizon 4G signal where our site is located, but our past experience has been the Verizon signal is very poor on the northern end of the lower level because that area is behind a hill.

The nightly rate at Scenic Hills is $35 with various discounts for stays of three nights or longer. We got the monthly rate of $595, which works out to less than $20 a night.

As we said, we headed north a little earlier than we usually do, and the weather was a little cool on the way up and when we first arrived in Ohio. The campground was indicative of how early it was because it was almost empty as you can see from the photo below showing some of our neighboring sites.

Neighboring sites are mostly empty

Although it was cool when we first arrived, the weather forecast was predicting a warming trend. Not only that, but this is a good time to be in Amish country because the farmers are plowing; the trees are getting new, bright-green leaves; the redbuds and some of the fruit trees are starting to flower; and the tulips and daffodils are blooming. We'll definitely be enjoying the scenery over the next month. Stay tuned.

Memphis to Nashville

Mount Juliet, TN - Events of Tuesday, June 17 to Saturday, June 21, 2014

We made a Walmart run on Tuesday, then relaxed around the RV park and watched barges on the river the rest of the day. We had planned to do some sightseeing on Wednesday, but we found out what we wanted to see was only open on the weekend. Oh well, maybe next time. We ended up relaxing some more.

On Thursday, we did some of our pre-departure chores in the morning, then headed to Memphis for lupper at the Bar-B-Q Shop one more time. We both had chopped pork dinner plates again with slaw and potato salad for our sides. Yum!

Chopped pork barbecue at the Bar-B-Q Shop

On Friday morning, we headed east on I-40 to Nashville to the Cedar Creek Corps of Engineers campground in Mount Juliet, TN located to the northeast of Nashville. We stayed at Cedar Creek the first time we were in Nashville back in 2011. It was supposed to be about a 4½-hour drive from Memphis to Cedar Creek, but it took us almost 5 hours because of traffic slowdowns for two separate accidents and because we had to stop for fuel. We arrived around 1:30.

Cedar Creek has about 60 sites with water and electric (30/50 amp) only. The sites are a good bit closer together than we usually see in Corps of Engineer campgrounds, but the sites are still bigger than many private campgrounds. There are about half dozen lakefront sites and another half dozen across the road from those that have much wider spacing; but the lakefront sites are hard to get on weekends, and they have too much shade for our rooftop satellite dish. The photos below shows our site and some of the other sites in our circle.

Our site at Cedar Creek COE campground

View of some of the other sites in our circle

The cost for the sites at Cedar Creek is $20 a night except for the ones that are down by the lake. Those are $24. America the Beautiful passes are honored for a 50% discount off the regular rates.

We hung around the campground the rest of the day on Friday and spent a little time on the internet researching things to do. We had a strong Verizon 4G signal.

Margery had made an appointment for a haircut on Saturday morning. Paul dropped her off and went to Lowe's to see if he could get a pin to repair the hinge of the latch on one of our storage bay doors. Getting a haircut at an unknown salon is always a big question mark, but this gal did a good job.

After returning to the campground and successfully repairing the latch, we drove about 30 minutes east to Lebanon, TN to have barbecue for lupper at Tom's Blue Moon Bar-B-Que. We went there the last time we stayed at Cedar Creek, and the barbecue was pretty good.

Tom's Blue Moon Bar-B-Que

Tom's has smoked pork, brisket, turkey, chicken, ribs and bologna. Yes, they smoke bologna and serve it with barbecue sauce. We had a sample once at a barbecue joint in Memphis, and it was actually pretty good. Sandwiches at Blue Moon are $5 to $6 and include slaw. Dinner plates are $9 to $11 and include two sides and flat cornbread or Texas toast. Ribs are $13 for a half slab and $22 for a full slab and include two sides and flat cornbread or Texas toast.

We both had pulled pork dinner plates. Margery had slaw and home made potato chips for her sides, and Paul had slaw and potato salad. We both had flat cornbread, which is a cornbread-type batter fried up like pancakes.

Pulled pork dinner plate with slaw, potato salad and flat cornbread

Margery about to sample the flat cornbread

The pork was not very smoky, but it was nice and moist and tender. The cole slaw was so-so, but the chips and potato salad were very good as was the flat cornbread.

Tom's has "Sweet and Sassy" and "Sweet and Spicy" barbecue sauces. Both are molasses-based, and as the names suggest, both are quite sweet. They also have South Carolina mustard-based sauce that is on the tart side, so we mixed some of that in with the molasses-based sauce to cut down on the sweetness. We always like it when there is more than one type of barbecue sauce because we can blend it to suit our own taste.

With our bellies full, we headed back to the motor home to relax the rest of the weekend. We don't have a lot of sightseeing planned for our week's stay in the Nashville area, but we have a couple of things we are considering doing. Look for our next post to see what we decided on.

Nashville Part I: Ryman Auditorium

Ashland City, TN - Events of friday, July 20 to Monday, July 23, 2012

The next stop on our summer travel schedule was near Nashville, TN at the Lock A Corps of Engineers Campground outside Ashland City. Last fall when we stopped at Nashville, we stayed on the eastern side of the city at Cedar Creek COE Campground in Mt. Juliet, TN. This time, we decided to try a COE campground that was located right on the Cumberland River on the northwestern side of Nashville. Lock A is a little more remotely located than Cedar Creek; but with our goal of a more relaxing year of travel, it seemed to be a good choice.

We took our time departing from Parkers Crossroads because our drive was only around two hours plus a few extra minutes for a fuel stop. We pulled into Lock A shortly after noon.

Lock A Campground has paved roads. About half the sites are gravel, and the other half of the sites are paved - not just the pad, but also the driveway leading to the pad as well as the generously-sized patio.

Our site at Lock A Campground

View looking down the road past our site

As with most COE campgrounds, Lock A has only water and electric (30/50 amp) hookups. Most of the sites are nice and wide, but a few are a little closer together. We were in a relatively small, quiet loop off by itself, but there wes also a larger loop where the sites along one side back up to the Cumberland River.

Lock A campground is a short distance upstream of Lock A on the Cumberland River. There were some pleasure boats, but there were also a few large tow boats and barges. We took a few walks, and we usually ended up down by the river.

Cumberland River looking upstream

Last fall, we didn't do much sightseeing because we had trouble with our satellite internet and ended up spending a lot of our time gathering information and making the decision to switch to Verizon Broadband. Therefore, even though we were in a bit of a remote location during this stay, we did end up doing a little more sightseeing than we had originally planned.

We made a Walmart run on Saturday, relaxed most of Sunday, then headed into Nashville on Monday to see Ryman Auditorium. Ryman Auditorium is a 2,300+ seat auditorium that used to house the Grand Ole Opry.

Ryman Auditorium

Downtown Nashville has numerous parking garages and parking lots, but they also have some on-street, metered parking. We found a space right across from the entrance of the auditorium. Metered parking is 25 cents for 10 minutes ($1.50 an hour), which isn't too bad.

Ryman Auditorium was originally built as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892 by Thomas Ryman, who owned a fleet of riverboats and several bars in Nashville. Ryman reportedly was tired of hearing about well-known evangelist Samuel Porter Jones preaching against gambling and drinking - two of the very things that made money for Ryman on his riverboats and in his bars. Ryman and several friends attended a revival meeting held by Reverend Jones with the intention of heckling the preacher. However, Ryman ended up getting saved and built the Union Gospel Tabernacle so Reverend Jones, or any other preacher, would have a proper church building any time he came to town. After Ryman's death in 1904, Reverend Jones proposed the tabernacle be renamed Ryman Auditorium.

Statue of Thomas Ryman

In addition to being used for revival meetings, the Ryman Auditorium, or The Ryman as it is frequently called, was used as a venue for speaking engagements, political debates, concerts and various types of performances. Bob Hope, Katherine Hepburn, the Zigfield Follies, Helen Keller, President Teddy Roosevelt, Houdini, Will Rogers, Mae West and W. C. Fields have all performed or spoken at the Ryman Auditorium. Even with all those famous people, The Ryman is best known for serving as the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 until 1974.

The Grand Ole Opry was a weekly radio program that featured live music and skits. It started in a 5th-floor radio studio in 1925 in downtown Nashville as the WSM Barn Dance. In addition to being broadcast on the radio, the show also drew audiences who wanted to see the show in person. As the popularity grew, the Opry moved to several larger venues until it ended up in The Ryman in 1943.

In 1974, a new 4,400-seat theater was built east of Nashville that also was part of the Opryland Hotel complex and a theme park. Ryman Auditorium sat mostly vacant until the 1990s when it was restored and reopened as a more intimate concert venue. They have 200 to 250 live shows a year, and they are not all country artists. The theater is also frequently rented out for taping music videos and for photo shoots. The Ryman even hosts the Opry in the winter.

New entrance to The Ryman that was part of the 1990s restoration

The Ryman has self-guided tours for $13 and you can add a behind the scenes tour of several dressing rooms for an extra $4. We opted to add the behind the scenes tour, and we're glad we did. The dressing rooms that are included in the tour have themes featuring well-known country stars like Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and Minnie Pearl. The behind the scenes tour includes many interesting facts and anecdotes about some of the past stars of the Grand Ole Opry.

Because The Ryman is an active performance theater, there are no behind the scenes tours on days when there is a performance scheduled because the dressing rooms are being readied for the performers who will use them later in the day. Unfortunately, photography isn't permitted in any of the dressing room areas, but we were allowed to step onto the stage near the end of the tour and take a photo.

We can say we appeared onstage at the Ryman Auditorium.

As you can see from the photo above, the seats in the auditorium are pews, which fits with the beginnings of The Ryman as a church. Also in connection with that heritage, The Ryman is known as "The Mother Church of Country Music."

After our behind the scenes tour, we continued on with the regular self-guided tour. We watched the video that gives the history of The Ryman, then we roamed around the facility to view the exhibits that include costumes and instruments of many country stars.

Dresss and suit belonging to June Carter Cash and the "Man in Black"

Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton's costumes

Minnie Pearl's hat complete with tradmark price tag

Minnie Pearl was the character played by Sarah Colley Cannon. Sarah began her career producing and directing plays and musicals for local organizations. She switched to a comedy act playing Cousin Minnie Pearl in 1939 and was signed to appear on the Grand Ole Opry in 1940. Minnie Pearl was a regular with the Opry until Sarah suffered a serious stroke in 1991. Sarah Cannon died of complications from a second stroke in 1996.

The story about the price tag on Minnie Pearl's hat was interesting. Sarah always put fresh flowers on the straw hat that was part of her costume. One day she was running late and didn't have time to stop for flowers, so she sent someone from the theater out to buy some artificial flowers. When the flowers arrived, she hurriedly wrapped them around the hat and stuffed the price tag in among the stems. While running around the stage during her comedy routine, the price tag slipped out and hung down. The audience thought the tag was funny, so from that day on, Minnie Pearl's hat had a price tag on it.

The balcony of the Ryman was added in 1897 in order to increase the seating capacity for a reunion of Confederate soldiers.

View of the stage from the balcony of The Ryman

There is an alley beside the Ryman. Across that alley are the back doors of the honky tonks on Broadway, which is the next street over. Performers at the Ryman used to slip over to one of the honky tonks for a quick drink before and/or after the show. Also in the alley is the stage entrance and the steps where two young brothers used to sit and play hoping someone would notice them. Chet Atkins eventually gave them an audition, and the Everly Brothers went on to become rock and roll stars.

Steps where the Everly Brothers were discovered

Before heading back to the car, we walked on down to Broadway to see the honky tonks. Broadway reminded us a lot of Beale Street in Memphis with all its bars and neon signs. We were particularly interested in seeing Tootsie's Orchid Lounge because it was a hang out for the likes of Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Mell Tillis, Roger Miller, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams and many more back in the day when the bar used to be called Mom's. Mom was a no-nonsense woman, but she frequently lent a helping hand to many a struggling country singer.

Tootsie's Orchid Lounge

We listen to country music, but we don't know a lot about its early days. It was interesting to learn about some of the stars and how they got their start and to learn about the history of the Ryman Auditorium and the Grand Ole Opry. We have a little more sightseeing planned, so stay tuned.

Nashville, TN

Mt. Juliet, TN - Events of Wednesday, Oct. 12 to Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011

As we said in our last post, the weather was cooling off in the Louisville area, so we continued heading south to Cedar Creek Corps of Engineers campground near Nashville in Mt. Juliet, TN. Cedar Creek has paved roads and gravel sites with 30/50-amp electric and water hookups. The sites are a good bit closer together than we usually see in Corps of Engineer campgrounds, and our loop probably had the closest spacing of all the loops. There are about a dozen lakefront sites and another dozen across the road from those that have much wider spacing, but the lakefront sites are hard to get on weekends, and they have too much shade for our rooftop satellite dish. The photo below shows our site at Cedar Creek.

Since we were going to be at Cedar Creek over a weekend, we made advance reservations. It's a good thing we did because, although the campground was only about 1/3 filled when we first arrived on Wednesday, it started filling up on Thursday afternoon because local schools had Thursday and Friday off for fall break. Kids have only been in school less than two months, and they need a break already? Anyway, the photo below shows some of the other sites on our loop later Saturday afternoon after the campground filled up.

Speaking of our rooftop satellite dish, we used Google Earth when we made our reservations to pick out a site with a clear view of the southern sky. After we arrived and leveled the motor home, we pushed the button to deploy the satellite dish. In the meantime, Paul went about connecting utilities outside and Margery put out the slides and worked on setting up the inside. After we finished up, we noticed the satellite dish had found the proper satellite, but we did not have a signal lock. Uh-oh. The same thing happened at our last stop, but we thought it was a problem on the satellite provider's end because it cleared up and we got a lock after a little while.

Unfortunately, we did not have the same luck this time. After a call to MotoSat technical support, we determined that our transmitter had probably gone bad. A replacement part costs about $200, which isn't all that bad considering how much we use the internet. However, the big problem was we would have had to order the part, and since we were staying at a Corps of Engineers campground for a week, there would be no good way for us to receive the part.

We have been reading about Verizon Broadband for some time, and we have toyed with the possibility of switching; but as long as our satellite internet dish was still working, we had no real reason to make a change. However, now that we were facing the inconvenience of being without internet for a week or more while we figured out how and where we were going to have the repair part shipped, we had an incentive to consider Verizon more seriously. The problem was, without an internet connection, we couldn't research our options online, and we didn't even have a good way to locate a Verizon Wireless Store. So we grabbed our laptop, hopped into the car and drove toward Nashville. We found a McDonalds that had Wi-Fi, so we did a little quick research and found a Verizon Wireless Store nearby.

To make a long story short, after much deliberation, we decided to discontinue our satellite internet service, and we will now connect to the internet via Verizon Broadband using a Pantech USB modem. Since we have two computers, the modem will be plugged into a Cradlepoint wireless router so both computers can connect at the same time. We also considered Verizon MiFi, but the MiFi is battery powered, and we didn't want to worry about having to keep it charged.

As it turns out, Nashville is a 4G area, and we are thrilled with the improved speed of our internet connection. We know 4G coverage is still limited, but it is growing all the time. We will probably have 3G much of the time for the foreseeable future; but 3G should still be at least as fast as satellite internet in most cases.

When we first started full-timing, there were wide gaps in wireless internet, and it was not as fast as satellite internet. Since satellite internet is available EVERYWHERE as long as your dish can get a clear view of the southern sky, we went with satellite in spite of the fact we had to buy expensive equipment to do it. Now, with the advent of 4G, wireless broadband can be much faster than satellite. We know there are still areas of the country that don't have 3G, much less 4G coverage, and there are some areas that have no wireless internet coverage at all. We will have to deal with that when we run into it. Hopefully, we will be able to find campgrounds with Wi-Fi at least some of the time in those areas.

Not having to depend on our rooftop satellite dish for our internet connection will broaden our campsite selections. We were always limited to sites with few or no trees. Our satellite TV shares the rooftop internet dish, so we will still have to be a little careful about too many trees. However, we will be able to use our portable TV satellite dish on a tripod in the event our site has too much shade for the rooftop dish.

On one of our information gathering trips to the Verizon Store, we saw a sign for the Hermitage, which is President Andrew Jackson's home. Since it is located fairly close to where we were staying, we decided we were interested in seeing the Hermitage once we got our new internet connection up and running.

Cedar Creek is nice and quiet during the week (except for the times when the maintenance crews are mowing); but it was crowded and zooy on the weekend. We usually don't do much sightseeing on the weekend, but we needed a break from the smoky campfires and the noise in the campground, so we decided to visit the Hermitage on Saturday. The photo below shows the front of the Hermitage.

Andrew Jackson, who was the son of Scots-Irish immigrants, was born in 1767 near the border between North and South Carolina. Jackson was a military courier during the American Revolution when he was only 13. During this time, he was slashed with a sword by a British officer, and Jackson developed a deep hatred for the British. Andrew Jackson eventually got revenge when he later defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.

Jackson's father died before he was born, and Jackson became an orphan at age 14 when his mother died of cholera. Although Jackson's legal education was scant, he learned enough to become a frontier lawyer in the late 1800s. He moved west to an area that was located in what was to become Tennessee. When Tennessee became a state a few years later, he was elected Tennessee's first U. S. Representative. He also served as a Senator and as a Tennessee Supreme Court Judge. During this time, Jackson prospered as a planter and merchant. His toughness and aggressive personality earned him the nickname "Old Hickory."

Andrew Jackson acquired a plantation he named the Hermitage near Nashville in 1804. He and his wife, Rachael, moved into a two-story, log farmhouse on the property. Between 1819 and 1921, the Jacksons built a two-story, eight-room, brick, Federal-style mansion on the property. The two-story log house was then disassembled and rebuilt into the two, single-story slave quarters shown in the next photo.

Andrew Jackson was elected the 17th President of the United States in 1828, and he served two terms. His wife died a month after the 1828 election. During the campaign, his opponents called him a "jackass," a name he actually didn't mind. He was later one of the founders of the modern Democratic Party, and the donkey became its symbol after being popularized by political cartoonist Thomas Nast.

In 1834, a fire severely damaged the original mansion, and Jackson had the house rebuilt in its current Greek Revival-style. The columns on the front are made of wood, but they are painted to look like the stone columns of a Greek temple.

There is a guided tour of the home, but, as is usually the case, photography is not permitted inside. After Andrew Jackson died in 1845, his stepson continued to live at the Hermitage. Later, the Hermitage was sold to the state of Tennessee, so about 90% of the furnishings in the house are original.

After the tour, we paused for a photo behind the house near Alfred's cabin.

Alfred, who was born in 1812, was one of Jackson's slaves who lived his entire life at the Hermitage. Alfred stayed on as a caretaker after Jackson's death and even after the Civil War. He worked as a guide when the mansion was opened for tours in the late 1800s.

We also toured the garden.

Although most of the flowers had faded, there were a few like these dahlias still going strong. The orange color was almost blinding in the bright afternoon sun.

Andrew and Rachael Jackson are buried in the garden. Alfred is also buried there off to the right side. You can just barely see his headstone above the top of the railing in the foreground.

After we toured the mansion and grounds, we went through the museum. The museum has some of Andrew Jackson's personal items and numerous of old photos. We probably should have visited the museum first because the museum was laid out in chronological order, and it would have helped establish the historical timeline for the rest of our visit.

There is a lot more to see in the Nashville area, especially if you're into country music. However, since we have shifted from sightseeing to relaxation mode, and since we spent the first two or three days in the area trying in vain to get our old satellite internet working and then running around researching and setting up our new Verizon Broadband, we decided to leave the rest of the sightseeing for another time.

We watched a lot people leave the campground on Sunday. However, quite a few stayed, and quite a few new people came in later Sunday afternoon. Fortunately, the sites near us remained empty so we didn't have any more smoky campfires nearby.

We relaxed for the remainder of our time at Cedar Creek and spent a good bit of time surfing the 'net. The weather forecast was predicting a general cool-down in the east, and the temperature around Nashville dropped like a stone on Tuesday afternoon. Our scheduled departure on Wednesday to head farther south was well timed. Stay tuned to find out about our next stop.