It is definitely time to start moving south. We headed out on a Sunday morning, almost the last people in our campground that officially closed for the season yesterday although there are a couple of rigs being stored “on site”. That has never happened before but it helps the people who do not have a truck and will be returning for all of next season.
Iowa
Our first stop was an overnight stay with Kay and Mike Radl but of course, we had to stop on the way for our weekly Bloody Mary.
The drive in to Guttenburg was beautiful. We parked in Mike and Kay’s yard and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon and evening of chatter. Mike made a delicious meal for us.
Illinois
Continuing east, we stayed at a Harvest Home at Messiah Lutheran Church for one night, in Joliet, IL. It is very cold and we have seen a lot of snow showers. BRRRRRRRR
Indiana
We made it to Orvan’s, otherwise known as Amish Family RV. Orvan is an expert on Cedar Creeks and will do some maintenance on our rig. We parked in the driveway for the first night, before our appointment. The next day, Orvan made a detailed inspection of our trailer and submitted his list of recommendations to us.
It was so neat to see all of the Amish horse and buggies. A lot of people also used bicycles for transportation.
Dave, Boo and I moved to the Der Ruhe Blatz Motel in Shipshewana while he and his crew worked their magic. We mainly hung out in our motel, reading, playing Cribbage and getting this site updated. We were able to get a tour of the Cedar Creek plant on the 20th. That was neat to see our house was built.
While Orvan was working his magic on the trailer, we spent a day exploring Shipshewana. What a quaint little town. We had a delicious Amish lunch at The Blue Gate restaurant and simply walked around a lot.
Orvan had more work to do on the house than we had expected but we were happy to have the work done. He finished by mid afternoon on Friday, October 21 so off we went. We spent that night in a Harvest Host, Ambrosia Orchard, a short 100 mile drive.
Kentucky
On the 22, we had another Harvest Host stop. This was at Boundary Oak Distillery in Radcliff, KY. It gets its name from portions of a large tree that was on the boundary of Thomas Lincoln’s home, where Abe Lincoln grew up.
This was a neat distillery but Dave and I agreed that distilleries are not our favorite places. I guess we prefer wine or beer to bourbons and whiskeys.
Sunday, October 23 found us boondocking at at COE (Army Corp of Engineer) park in Ashland City, TN called Lock A Campground. It is on the Cumberland River. We didn’t do much while here except the to enjoy the scenery and the campground.
Our next stop was a one night stay in Smyrna, TN at I-24 Campground. We had been there before and thought it was a nice campground. Last time, we had to extend our stay because hurricane rains had closed the Natchez Trace. We had rain this time too. Maybe we shouldn’t stay in this campground?!
North Carolina
We spent three nights in Smokemont Campground, Cherokee, NC. It was at the southern end of the Smoky Mountains National Park.
We sure picked a good time of year to see the Smokey’s. The colors were gorgeous and the weather was beautiful fall temps – a little chilly in the morning, giving way to 60’s and 70’s.
Besides touring the hills of the park, we checked out Gatlinburg and the Museum of Cherokee Indians in Cherokee. These pictures are not in any order because it was difficult loading so many into our gallery.
Alabama
We stayed for two nights in a baseball park/event center lot in Hoover, AL, The Hoover Metro Complex RV park. We spent that Sunday at a local bar watching the Vikings play the Cardinals where we won 34-26.
For our last night of boondocking (there have been many over the last two weeks), we stayed in another COE park near Montgomery, AL called Gunter Hill Campground. This is on the Alabama River. At first, we thought we were the only trailer in the park, at “our” side of it. Later that evening, we watched 3 ladies trying to back into their site across from us for 45 minutes!
