Looking Forward

This has been a relaxing day around our home.  I got caught up with a few computer tasks I’ve been putting off.  I also got several rows knitted on the afghan I’m making for Eric and Leigh Ann’s first child.  I’ve gotta get a move on; she’ll be here before I know it.  Gene cleaned up the truck, inside and out, plus rubbed on the trailer a little.  We went together to the grocery this morning.  So, we got a whole lot done today.

Tomorrow morning Gene will get his new crown put on.  That’s what we’ve been waiting for.  After that we will get on with our journey.

At this point, we are planning to hitch up and pull out of Perry Thursday morning heading toward Nashville.  It is about 350 miles from Perry to Nashville which is a little farther than we like to drive in one day.  We’ll probably stop for the night somewhere near Chattanooga and finish our trip on Friday.

We have two primary goals in Nashville.  We want to see Jack, Ansley, and Kayley and we have a service appointment for the Everest.  This will be our last chance to get all the warranty issues taken care of before the 1-year warranty is up.  We’ll work in a visit with my parents, of course, but that may be the only family we will have time to see on this short visit.  We only plan to be there 9 days.

We are typically in Nashville during holiday season--November and December.  We usually park at Two Rivers RV Park on Music Valley Drive.  Because it is off season and because we stay for 2 months, we get a reasonable rate.  Not cheap, but reasonable.  For the three campgrounds on Music Valley Drive, they start their peak season on March 1.  Rates at any one of those campgrounds is about $45 per night.  That’s way beyond our budget.

After several hours of leafing through the campground books, Gene finally found a park in Goodlettsville with good ratings at a decent price.  However, Goodlettsville is too far away from our Everest dealer in Columbia to get there early on service day.  We came up with a real hair-brained plan.  We’ll go to Goodlettsville on Friday and stay until Monday.  Then we’ll move to a tiny town 20 miles south of Columbia so we’ll be more conveniently located to take the trailer in on Tuesday morning.  Then, we’ll move back to Goodlettsville on Wednesday or Thursday.  It’ll be a week of hitching.  I’ll probably be completely over hitch itch by the time we’re ready to leave.

After our brief stay in Nashville, we’ll be heading to Smoky Mountain National Park in east Tennessee for a month to do some serious hiking.  We’re hoping to get back into hiking shape--something that goes away far too quickly when you’re not out there everyday.  April should be a good time in the Smokies with all the new spring growth and the wildflowers.  There will probably still be snow at higher elevations.

I think that’s about all I know for today.