Roaring Forks Motor Nature Trail - Gatlinburg, TN

What a beautiful day for a drive on the Roaring Forks Motor Nature Trail! This is the road going into the park. Once you enter the park, the road is a one way, one lane road. A beautiful, relaxing drive to see mother nature at her finest!

 I just took a quick shot of this cabin as we drove by it. I think it was the Ogle cabin but I'm not sure. We already want to go back and do some more exploring and this will be one of the stops next time.

There are several pull outs along the road to be able to stop and enjoy the scenery.

We stopped at the Bales Place to stretch our legs and get a small glimpse of what life was like in the early 1900's.

So sad the vandalism but loved the 3 doors lining up. I'm sure this helped with ventilation during the warm summer months.

I thought the fences on this property were so interesting. It helped with the visualization of life back then. To picture kids running along the fence. Chickens out in the yard. Cows mooing from the barn. Such a simple, yet hard life.

 The babbling brook that created such a sound throughout the yard and even up to the cabin.

One of the roadside waterfalls. I appreciate the fact that our government has preserved this wonderful area!

Oklahoma to Tennessee for the Summer

We secured a workamping position at the beautiful Two Rivers RV Resort in Sevierville, TN for the summer. We left Oklahoma City on April 6th and drove to Little Rock, AR. We booked a two night stay at Downtown Riverside RV Park in North Little Rock. It was an okay park on the banks of the Arkansas River but it did have nice views of downtown Little Rock and some bridges. Our site had a nice view of the skyline and the river.

The park is not fancy but it is clean and in a good location. We would stay here again when in the area.

We then made it to Parker's Crossroads RV Park in Tennessee. This was our second stay here and we like it just fine for a overnighter. Friendly staff, decent rates, level concrete sites, and a clean park with easy access from I-40.
The last stop is Two Rivers Landing RV Resort and what a nice place this is! Smaller park with 55 beautifully landscaped sites. The park is on the banks of the French Broad River and the river front sites are for Class A motorhomes and some Super C motorhomes. The second row has a nice river view and does allow 5th wheels and travel trailers.
There is much to do and see here in the Smokey Mountains region, so we are looking forward to a great summer.

We are in site 28 and it is very nice.

 Our swimming pool that borders the river.

A view down riverfront motorhome row.

Visiting Family In Oklahoma

We left our winter home in Tucson, AZ in early March and headed for Oklahoma. We stopped in Truth or Consequences, NM for a two day visit at Elephant Butte State Park. The park was fairly nice and we got a lake view site which was nice.

We found  Riverbend Hot Springs Resort and Spa and booked a hot spring session two times, one day time and one night time under the stars. This is a very nice spa that overlooks the Rio Grande River. You have a choice of a public or private spa, and we chose the private spa for privacy and relaxation.

The patio waiting area.

We then headed to Lawton, Oklahoma to spend some time with family prior to heading to Sevierville, TN for our summer workamping gig at Two Rivers Landing RV Resort.

We parked the motorcoach at our daughter's home and actually poured a gravel pad, and then used landscape timbers as a border. We used only enough electricity to keep the batteries charged since there is no 50 amp hookup and we have our own bedroom in their house.

 Our next project is to add hookups so we can stay in the coach when we visit. 50 amp electricity is a must! Water and sewer is already near, so we should be okay. After about a one month visit, we headed east to Tennessee!

Replaced Shelf with Slide Out. Love, Love, Love It!

Another inconvenience we had was the cabinet under the stove. Here we stored pots and pans but we had to get down on our hands and knees to retrieve whatever we needed for cooking. Seems like much of the time what we needed was way in the back.
We went back to Lowe's and purchased Rev-A-Shelf, a double shelf that has sliding trays. It seems to be of great quality and it was not hard to install. I did have to remove the one permanent shelf in the original cabinet, but it was not a big deal. Basic hand tools and a cordless drill made it pretty simple. A short time later we ended up with the project completed and it is so much easier to slide the shelf out and retrieve whatever you need. Happy Camping!

Now with the drawers extended.

Loaded with our pots and pans and it works great!

Refrigerator upgrade project.

We decided to come back to Tucson, AZ and do another stint as workampers at the Tucson/ Lazydays KOA. Once again Kathy is very busy in the reservation office with many customers and all the issues that come along. While we are here we decided to do a upgrade to our refrigerator and change it to a residential style since there are so many issues with the original Norcold RV unit . We found the one that would fit in our current space at Lowes and purchased it. It's a Whirlpool with no frills, just a basic black unit but it will give us a couple of extra cubic feet of storage space. Liberty RV Service got the job for the conversion and they did a great job. We had to remove the driver side window to get the new refrigerator in since our entry door opening is too small. But we also had an issue with that window fogging up all the time, we decided this is the perfect time to get it repaired also. Little bit of a bumpy start with National Auto Glass but they did finally pick up the window that Liberty RV had already removed. The new refrigerator fit great, and so far we are very pleased. I am really tired of the inefficient operations of the Norcold RV refrigerator. They don't work very well in warm climates and it was always so frustrating.
The last part of the project was trimming out around the refrigerator. We bought trim from Lowe's, Kathy applied the black stain, and we nailed it up. Turned out pretty nice if we can say so ourselves. This project ended up costing much less than we anticipated, so yes, we are more than happy.

This foggy driver side window was removed for repair and to install the new fridge.

The old Norcold 1210IM RV refrigerator

The new Whirlpool residential refrigerator is in place!

Kathy applying the black stain to the trim.

The finished project!

2015 NE Tour to Maine

Well we spent a few months on the road and went all the way to Maine. The area is beautiful and we so enjoyed the Bar Harbor area and all it has to offer, including eating the Maine lobster! We headed south down the east coast and did our best to avoid places like New York City, Boston, Washington DC, etc. That part of the country is a challenge for sure in a 40' motorhome. The toll charges alone were scary enough! It cost us $24.75 just to cross the Tappan Zee bridge in New York, and then $16 here, $12, there, etc. It was crazy. And then we had to watch for the many exits that were marked "No Trucks" or something to that effect. If the road can't accommodate trucks, it's probably not good for us either.      
                                          This is a real nice lighthouse on the Maine coast.

On a water tour of the coast and islands

A real live Maine lobster

Beautiful Bar Harbor, Maine

Holmes County, Ohio - Amish Country

What a wonderful week it has been in Berlin, Ohio at the Scenic Hills RV Park!  The park has a nice layout with a mixture of pull through and back in sites in 3 different sections. We are in site 39 which is close to the office. The wifi has been pretty good except the usual busy time of 6-8 pm. There is no cable, but full hookups other than that. The sites are packed gravel with some having grass between the sites. Ours had decorative rock and landscaping. Thanks so much to Julia and Eugene for telling us about this area and RV park!

The township of Berlin is very quaint but touristy. There is only one road through town so there are many big trucks going down Main Street. It would  be nice if they had a bypass for them.  There are a lot of Amish and Mennonites in the area with many of the ladies working in the shops. We had lunch at the historic Boyd and Wurthmann's Restaurant. Their website has an interesting story about their beginning. We had the pleasure of having a great waitress, Vicki, who was very attentive and personable. We didn't take pictures so I used their website pictures. Of course, we had to try their pies :-)

Another day we took a loop drive starting east on highway 39. 

1. Walnut Creek at Coblentz Chocolates which has a window to watch the chocolates being made. I love how you can buy them individually or prepackaged. We also drove through our first covered bridge there!
   
2. The next stop was in Sugarcreek. What an adorable little town! Home of the largest cuckoo clock. After going through several of the shops we walked a couple of blocks off the main street to pick up our free 1/3 lb cheese from Swiss Village Foods and purchased some pepperoni to go with it. As we were leaving town I saw Bags Pub so we pulled in for a drink and to watch the local traffic. It is so interesting to watch people in different locales. We saw several families in horse drawn buggies and men driving tractors down Main Street. Next stop was Breitenbach Winery which was on a scenic little road just outside of Sugarcreek. Wine tasting .25 each so tried 4 of the wines. Decided on Roadhouse Red, which was a sweet red, and Blueberry. The barista was a very friendly girl that was interested in our travel lifestyle. 

   

   Sugarcreek's World's Largest Cuckcoo Clock

3. We had to backtrack to Sugarcreek to pick up 93 south then west on 557. The area is mostly Amish farms and most were pretty large and well kept. We encountered several horse and buggies along the route. 
   
4. Charm, Ohio was along the route but by the time we got there the stores were closed. Hope to go back there before we leave.

We took another day trip to The Warther Museum at the recommendation of our friend, Tom, who had been there before. His statement was "one of the best kept wonders of the world...you will thank me!"  And he was right! "Mooney" was a master at whittling and carving. With only a second grade education, he created some masterpiece to scale train models. He had the opportunity to make a lot of money off his work but said it would no longer be a hobby but a job. When offered $50,000 up front and $5,000 a year until he died, he also turned it down, saying, my roof's not leaking and we aren't hungry. You could tour their modest home and her "button" house for free. Frieda did some amazing works with her button collection. His livelihood was from making knives, which he learned from working in the steel mill. The knives are still produced there.