Vince Gill & the Tennessee floods

When we left Nashville, we went to Fort Campbell Campground, it is located about 50 miles NW of Nashville TN. This was a nice park, near a nice little stream, with a dam upstream about 50 yards from the park.
We are still attempting to find a place to take our motor home to have the water pump replaced, they have finely agreed that there may be a problem causing the 8 pumps to fail during this last 14 months. Hopefully we can find somewhere that can find and fix the probklem.

Since we did not get to see Vince Gill last Monday night, we decided to drive back down to Nashville and go to the Station Inn again. We were so glad we did, we did get to see and meet Vince, boy he is great...he is such a nice man.

Lots of fun....and meeting Vince Gill too. Wow !!!

We got back to the campground and learned that a storm was coming toward the end of the week, and early Friday morning the rains started. By late afternoon we had to leave the coach because of a tornado warning, running through the pouring rain and high winds to a small building at the park, after about 20 minutes we got the all clear announcement and returned to our coach. It rained very hard all day and night and on Saturday morning we could see that the stream had turned into what looked like a raging river and had rose quite a bit too. By afternoon it was much higher and several of the people in the park pulled out and headed for higher ground. We moved up the hill to a parking lot at the top. It continued to rain all night and the next day too. Pictures of the campground after the rain slowed down on Monday morning. A total of 13.5 inches over the weekend.

We finely found a place to have our coach looked at. Bill in warranty said to try a place in Knoxville TN that does work for them. We had called a few places, but could not get in for a few weeks, so these people are willing to work us in on the 6th of May. We will head out in the morning. Some of the highways have been closed, but looks like we can get through tomorrow.

Nashville Tennessee

We arrived in Nashville to stay for a week or so and checked into the campground where we had made our reservation. Small and not very nice, so we will stay for a night or so and look for another one to move to.

We signed up for a couple of tours in Nashville on the first day and set them up for the next day, the first tour for 4 hours, was of the city, the famous places, highlights, and the history of Nashville. It was very interesting and exciting to see all of the famous places that we had heard of. The second tour, in the afternoon, was of the celebrity homes. That was fun too, a lot of great homes to see here in Nashville, wonderful places and beautiful landscapes.

These pictures are of the Ryman Theater, originally the Grand Old Opry that was on television many years ago, you may recognize the stage from the TV show.
Our friends,Terry and Connie, met up with us at Nashville Country RV Park just North of Nashville, and we got to spend almost a week together. We moved up to this campground from one we had been at for the past two nights, it was not nice at all and had very tight spots, so we found this nice park, and asked for two sites next to each other.
We spent one day at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center. Wow, what a beautiful place this is. They have a huge covered atrium with beautiful trees and flower gardens. There is a waterway running through the atrium, with a flat bottomed boat floating through the gardens. Quite a few restaurants, lounges and snack bars are located in this beautiful setting.

We learned about the Ganeral Jackson Riverboat while we were at the hotel, so we signed up for the lunch buffet and show for the next day. That was a lot of fun and the entertainment was good music and comedy, so we laughed a lot and enjoyed the music.


At the RV Park, we met a couple that play music, and they told us about a place in Nashville where Vince Gill plays with a band called the Time Jumpers on Monday nights. This place is a small bar named The Station Inn. Of course the four of us made plans to go there on Monday. We had a good time, but Vince Gill was doing a benefit at the Rydam Theater, so we didn't see him, but enjoyed the band a lot.

We had lots of fun in Nashville, we loved spending some time with Connie and Terry and we were sad to see them leave and head back home. We are going to Fort Campbell Kentucky now for a week or so, and we are still waiting for word from the factory where we can take our motorhome for repair work.

Pigeon Forge Tennessee

We drove to the trolley transfer station and took a trolley to Gatlinburg one day. It is a pretty drive, and we enjoyed riding around town and seeing all of the shops and resturants. We ate an early dinner there and took the trolley back to Pigeon Forge.

While we were there, we went to 2 dinner shows, and a breakfast show, we had a great time. The music was good and the food too, we both had a good time. This town is a lot like Branson Missouri, with the family friendly shows and entertainment. Dollywood (the amusement park) is located here too, we didn't go there, but were told it is pretty nice and there are a lot of shows and entertainment at the park also.

We went to the grand opening of the new Titanic Exhibit in Pigeon Forge. It is twice the size of the one we saw in Branson. Regis Philbin was there for the grand opening, so we got to see him also. It was raining pretty hard, and was a little cold also, but we enjoyed it too.

We stayed here for a week or so, and enjoyed the shows and dinner theaters. Good time. Now we are heading for Nashville for a week or two. Our friends Connie and Terry are meeting us there in a week to spend some time with us.

Maggie Valley and Asheville NC

We arrived in Maggie Valley on Saturday afternoon the weather was very nice, about 70 degrees and sunny. On Sunday morning we went to, Rhonda and Bill's youngest daughter, Allyson's softball tournament in South Carolina about an hour or so away. She plays on a traveling team, so plays all over the area, and she is a very good player. That was a lot of fun.

The next day was colder and raining off and on, and by the next day we were having to unhook the water hose at night because it was getting down below freezing at night. Then we woke up to snow, it was coming down pretty heavy, but the ground was still so warm that it could not stick to the ground very long. That only lasted for a few hours. It was pretty cold that day and then it was nicer, around 50 and 60 during the day but around 30 to 35 each night.

Joe and Bill played golf a couple of times and Rhonda and I toured the area each day while they played golf, we found lots to do and had a great time with them as always.

Rhonda and I took a Trolley tour one day in Asheville, and had a good time, Asheville is a pretty interesting place and there is a creative and artistic charm about this town. Beautiful homes and churches, interesting people and what a nice place to visit.

During our visit their older daughter Alysia had a concert and we were able to attend. She sings with a choral group called Voices in the Laurel, it is made up of 3 different age groups and they were all very good, we had a great time. She is very talented, her voice is beautiful, and we enjoyed this concert so much. This was the choir's Spring Concert, and we were so lucky to be here in town for it this year.

While the guys played golf on a beautiful day, Rhonda and I went to the Biltmore House in Asheville, this is a great place to visit. It was built in the late 1800's by the Vanderbilt family and it is huge and very elegant. It has 250 rooms, and 55 of these rooms are on the tour. They offered a audio tour, self guided, and this tour was very informative. We both enjoyed the day here at the Biltmore House. The gardens were great, but a little early in the Spring yet, so will have to come back here again, there is a lot more to see.

As always, the time to go came too soon, so we said goodbye to our friends in Maggie Valley, NC. We always have a good time here and the trip was great fun. Now, we are on the road again and going to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to spend a week or so then on to Nashville.

Orlando again and Savannah GA

We finished up at Lazydays and went to Orlando for a weeks stay at the Thousand Trails there. We met up with some of our Mandalay friends and had a great time. The guys, Joe, Ken and Buck, got busy right away and made a laundry rack for the back of our coach. I think they did a good job, and I know they had a good time!! We all went out to dinner a couple of times and had a lot of laughs, wish we had been able to stay a little longer, but we were already making plans to meet again soon. We also met up with another couple, Andy and Virginia, at Thousand Trails Orlando. We met them at Camp Mandalay, Elkhart IN, back in 2008. They were surprised to see us, and since they will be working in NH this summer, we may get to see them up there.

We left Orlando and headed for Northern Florida to spend a week with our friends Connie and Terry. We always have such a great time with them. They have their two grandchildren living very close by, and we got to spend some time with them too. They are so cute and lots of fun to be around, we had a great time there, as always.

With lots to do around this farm, Joe had a good time hanging out with Terry and helping him with his daily chores. Terry helped Joe work on a couple of projects that he been planning to do on the motor home, and they put in a switch for the fuse disconnect on our toad.

We changed our plans a little, because we decided to have our oil change and lube here in Florida at a place where Terry goes, and since we did not have to go to Gaffney SC, we decided to go over to Kings Bay GA for one night at the Naval Sub base there, and then on up to Savannah Georgia to see this area.

We stayed at Hunter Army Air Field in Savannah, at a new campground they just finished improving. Pretty nice place, we spent a couple of nights at this park, and a couple of days touring this beautiful town. Wow, this is a great town, with old homes restored and looking grand. Beautiful old Living Oak trees with Spanish moss hanging down. We took a tour around the town and learned a lot about the history of Savannah.

We enjoyed our visit to this wonderful old historic place, and now we are back on the road toward Maggie Valley North Carolina to visit our friends (Rhonda, Bill, and girls) in there great log cabin home.