The People of Alabama

One of the best things about life on the road is the people we meet. So many nice and interesting people it would be impossible to tell you about all of them.

But the people of Alabama deserve a special mention. There must be a special kind and generous gene that is reserved just for them.

When we were staying at Adelaide Shores in Avon Park last December/January we met Jim and Judy Maddox of the Meandering Maddoxs. They sold their home (and this year their cottage on a lake in Alabama) and are now full time RVers. In the summer they work part time as campground hosts at Blanton Creek Campground in Alabama and in the early spring, late fall they travel around exploring the country with a long stay at Avon Park during the winter.

Jim and Judy joined us on a nature tour of the swamps around Lake Kissimmee FL. 

When we owned Bay Hammocks we welcomed Rvers to stay on our property through the Boondockers Welcome website. That is how we met Mike and Pat. 

Lovely people who invited us to visit with them at their home in Alabama. We really wanted to do this on our way south this year but our route took us just a bit to far west to do so. Perhaps next year, we will make a detour to visit on our way to (or from) Florida.

But we did spend time in the western corner of Alabama this year. Having repairs done to the Adventure Bus.

The story of these repairs is rather long.

On our way home last spring we stopped at a truck tire shop in Maine to add air to our tires. (Regular gas station air hoses do not have enough pressure for this job.) The man who owned the shop told Arch that we needed a front end alignment, which we decided to have done when we got home to Nova Scotia. Then, when we got home we parked at Bay Hammocks for 4 months without moving the Adventure Bus.

In early August we started to prepare the Adventure Bus to travel this winter. First project – the front end alignment, which Arch hoped would eliminate a shake that had developed in the front end. No such luck.

So then the repair people removed the drive shaft to see if it was causing the problem because there was a problem with the universal joints or it was out of balance. This was all fine.

Next was two trips to a truck tire shop to have the tires balanced. The front end still shook when we drove over 50 mph. And we were beginning to realize that the real problem was that repair shops in Nova Scotia are not familiar with motorhomes (Most Nova Scotians buy 5^th wheels or trailers). So, since it was not a safety problem, we decided to wait until we got to the US.

Our first opportunity to stop at a RV repair facility was in Greencastle, PA. We arrived at the shop only to learn that they did not do tires. But they suggested we go to the Freightliner facility about a mile up the road. Freightliner did not do repairs at that facility but sent us on up the road to another facility where they did repairs. When we arrived there the man at reception they could fix it but there was a 2 hour wait to get into the shop. Well, we had already waited for 3 months so two hours was fine. So we took a number -really- and waited – 4 hours. And when the person from the repair shop heard what the problem was he said “we don't fix that”. So we left.

And about a half hour down the road we encountered a traffic jam. Interstate 81 was closed in both directions due to a truck accident and traffic was being rerouted through the town of Harrisionburg VA. That took 4 hours.

That was not a good day!

So we took a few days off from trying to get the problem fixed and enjoyed out time on the Blue Ridge Parkway and in Nashville.

We left Nashville and travelled down the Natchez Trace to Florence. Alabama where we found a beautiful little campground in a city park. The perfect spot to stay and try and get the front end fixed. We asked our fellow RVers where to go. They recommended The Simmons Tire Company. We called and they said “come on over, we will take you in immediately”. So off we went.

They quickly took the Adventure Bus in to the shop and put it on a special tire balancer (my technical description) for trucks and within 5 minutes came back and said we can fix this, no problem. Both front rims are slightly bent (and they just happened to have a pair on motorhome tire rims that were the right size) and the tires are out of “true" i.e. Not round. They fixed it in about an hour. Again, really nice, honest Alabamans.

While all this was going on our furnace was starting to make a loud screeching noise and as the nights were cold we wanted to use it. So this had to be fixed. We decided to push our luck and asked at the RV park where we should go. They recommended Kinny's RV Center in Red Bay, Alabama. So we headed there the next morning.

No appointment but they took us right in.

Again really nice, helpful people took care of us. We were able to wait in the Adventure Bus with supplied electricity. Four hours later we had a new motor and fan in the furnace – and it ran quiet as can be. We really lucked out here as our furnace is obsolete, but Red Bay is the home of Tiffin RV who manufacture several models of RVs and just happened to have an old furnace on hand that was used for parts. Arch suggested they install the complete furnace but it was too large.

So after all the pain the Adventure Bus is working perfectly, thanks to the good people of Alabama. And we are on our way.
We love Alabama!

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A Night at the Opry

As a child I listened to The Grand Ole Opry beamed to rural Nova Scotia on the radio waves from Nashville, TN. It was on later than our bedtime and my parents were not crazy about the fact that I enjoyed country music so listening required that I turn the radio on very low and hide it under the covers.

So nothing would do but that we attend The Grand Ole Opry while in Nashville. I purchased tickets in advance on line. A mistake, given that we were there "off season" and could have selected the night that featured entertainers that interested us at the last minute.

The show is presented at The Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville.

Named for this gentleman:

Is that a bird's nest on his head?

The theme for the night we attended was Legends of the Opry and legends they were. If being old makes you a legend.

The program was two hours long, divided into half hour segments, each segment hosted by a different "legend" and interspersed with advertisements as the evening was broadcast live on WSM Radio. The emcee stood to one side of the stage and introduced the hosts, read advertisements and generally controlled the pace of the show:

Eddie Subbs, the evening's announced

It seemed to be a full house:

We were in the balcony. At the very back chairs were set up for over flow

Each legend host sang a couple of songs then introduced the two other singers on their segment of the show.

First host was John Conlee:

Other hosts included Connie Smith, Jim Ed Brown and Riders in the Sky. The oldest entertainer was Jean Shepherd who is 80. She appeared frail but could sure belt out a song. The youngest was American Idol winner Scotty McCreedy.

Before the show we spent some time on Broadway Street:

Nashville's version of  New Orleans' Bourbon St. 

Arch loved these Pedal Taverns that plied the streets for customers:

It appeared that the customers moved the carts along by pedaling

Or maybe it was the patrons who attracted him :)

We visited the Country Music Hall of Fame. Reba McIntire was a featured country singer and a short film highlighting her career and display of many of her dresses were featured.

In the film Reba said this red dress garnered more press that she did. It was quite daring for the time. Not today.

One thing I love about country music is that country stars seem to realize they are entertainers as well as musicians and wear costumes to reflect the fact. From Hank Snow's famous railroad suit:

To the beautiful dresses Taylor Swift wears:

They are all designed to entertain.

I was particularly struck by the outfit Kelly Picklar wore when she won Dancing with the Stars:

 Very tiny and meticulously made. Quite impressive when you consider the last minute aspect to costume design that must exist on that show.

And there there were the cars. The most impressive being Elvis' gold Cadillac:

The paint used for this car contained real gold and fish scales. Arch thinks the sign said there were 38 layers of paint on the car. The inside was pretty impressive as well:

The last exhibit you see when exiting the Country Music Hall of Fame is a round room lined with gold records:

All in all we had a great time in Nashville and would love to go back and visit what we missed.

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Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway in a Motorhome

Our original plan was to spend two days driving the Blue Ridge Parkway but due to unforeseen circumstances we ended up with only one day to spend there. And, as all the attractions we wanted to visit were closed for the season, the drive becomes the story. And it was quite a drive.

We entered the parkway at Galax, VA with the plan to drive on it as far as possible, then exit and take interstate 40 to Asheville, NC and then on to Harrah's Cherokee Casino where we would spend the night.

The drive was spectacular.

There are many stone overpasses and low walls on the Parkway. Made with granite from the world's largest open face quarry in Mt. Airy, I expect.

Much of the Parkway is lined with split rail fences:

In other spots beautiful granite cliffs:

At one point this herd of Highland cattle came to check out our progress:

The Parkway runs along a ridge up and over mountain tops so the views are spectacular:

At the lookoff where the next picture was take we met a woman who told us we were at the highest point on the Parkway and that the weather there was the same as in Alaska. She is a nurse in an intensive care ward and drives over that section of the Parkway each day on her way to and from work. Helps her keep perspective on life she said. Apparently it had snowed there already this fall. Glad we missed that!

In the photo below you can see the blue haze over the mountains that gives them their name:

It was pretty early in the morning when we started out so the high spots on the ridge still had some lingering fog:

At one point we encountered a detour:

That took us down the mountain and through a area of very large Christmas tree farms. For someone who lives close to the "Fir Christmas Tree Capital of the World" (That would be Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia) this was really interesting.

After about 120 miles of this we decided that we better exit and take the interstate if we were going to make it to the casino before dark. Immediately after we exited we encountered this sign:

And then this one:

As you know there is little opportunity to turn around when driving a 38 foot motorhome, towing a car, through the mountains. The grade was 6% (fortunately, I had no idea what this meant) and Arch was thrilled to practice his driving skills.  And there were trucks ahead of us on the road so we figured we would be fine. And we were.

We exited the interstate just past Asheville to drive into the mountains again to get to the casino. Following road signs that directed us through the Maggie Valley commercial strip. Then we started to climb, and climb. Then down the mountain we went:

 It is really hard to show you in a photo how steep the road was but the grade was 7.5 %. I did not need to know what that meant to know it was tricky driving. After about 10 miles of this we arrived at the casino:

The casino provides RVers with beautiful (free for 1 night) parking spots beside a walking trail and a small cheek. Very calming after such a harrowing drive.

Later we took the shuttle bus to the casino and asked the driver about the road in. "Oh heavens" he said, "the signs and GPS tell you to come that way but there is a much better, four lane road in over there. The Maggie Valley business association doesn't want the directions changed because it will hurt business" Personally, I think some higher authority should overrule the Maggie Valley business association.

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Searching for the World's Largest Granite Quarry

After a full day delay in the Chambersburg PA area - 4 hours at a Freightliner repair depot waiting to have tires looked at (only to find out they did not "do" tires) and 4 hours in a traffic jam because two semis hit each other, went off Interstate 81 and caused electrical wires to fall across all 4 lanes of highway thus closing it in both directions - it became apparent that we would not have enough time to drive the Blue Ridge Trail end to end and make our reservation at the Grand OLe Opry on Nov. 8. So we chose to do a 100 mile + section of the trail that would end in Asheville, NC.

We spent 1 night at the start of this section in Galax, VA in a beautiful, quiet RV park. As you can see, we had the place to ourselves. The tourism season in coming to an end in this area of the country.

Cool Breeze RV Resort

While looking for a campground I noticed an advertisement for "the world's largest granite quarry" in Mount Airy, NC which was only a short distance from where we were parked.

After getting organized at our camp site I couldn't find the promo piece for the quarry but how hard would the world's largest granite quarry be to find? We also wanted to check out the Blue Ridge Trail driving conditions. So off we went down a short section of the Trail and on to Mt.Airy.

What we did not know was that Mt. Airy is the birthplace and childhood home of Andy Griffith:

Now rented as accommodations for visitors to Mt.Airy:

Apparently, Mt Airy was the model for the village of Mayberry on the Andy Griffith Show. And still trades on this fame today:

Mayberry's main street

Mayberry Country Store

Remember this?

Apparently, this is also an area where people come to discover old cars that they can restore and there were several spots displaying cars of various ages and conditions for sale. Some were in pretty good shape:

And some not so much:

We never did find the world's largest granite quarry but an interesting trip never the less.

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The Old Folks go for a Walk

I am so far behind in blog posts I just realized that I missed one. This story should appear before "Traveling with Friends". Oh well!! Here it is now.

While we were visiting with Arch's family in Truro his sister Grace suggested we go for a morning walk in Victoria Park. Located in the heart of Truro this is an amazing spot to discover in an urban setting. It has everything you could ask for in a park:

There is a huge picnic area plus lots of smaller picnic spots tucked away within the park:

There are the usual baseball and soccer fields, tennis courts, etc and of course an outdoor swimming pool:

tucked in behind the trees

And a bandshell for outdoor concerts:

But, for us, the main attraction is the miles of hiking trails through the forest. We chose to take the trail to "the falls" - about a mile or so long. There are two ways to get there - a high trail thats takes you up over a very large hill and the trail we took, along Leeper's (read frog's) Brook.

Along the way there is the option to climb to the higher trail via "Jacob's Ladder"

there is another level to this stairway that you cannot see.

And various spots on the brook have interesting names - the easier to tell someone where you are:

The Witches Cauldron

And at the end:

The Falls

The next morning we went back and decided to take the "high road" to the falls. It as quite a climb but really good exercise.

To go back we had to climb up to the route we took in and, for some reason, the up looked a lot more tricky that the down. Also, it was a very frosty morning and there were a lot of slippery spots on the trail and we thought a hand rail would be useful. So we decided to follow the mid-level trail back.

What we did not know was that this trail ended  - guess where? At the top of Jacobs Ladder!!!

Looking Down

So there we stood. Three old folks (two seventy somethings and an eighty year old) and one very tiny dog. Looking down.

What to do? what to do? Go back to the top of the slippery hill? Or go down the frosty ladder?

We chose the ladder. Arch went first, carrying Dash, Grace's dog, Then Grace, then me. I thought I would stay a bit behind to take a picture but it was too scary, so sorry, no more down photos.

It was a terrifying trip but, needless to say, we made it safely.

And, don't tell Grace's children about this excursion, they will kill her!!!

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