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It's time for us Snow Bunnies to hop back on the Highway and head for home. We hate to leave the beach and sunshine but our family is missing us and we've put it off long enough. Friday morning (April 4th) we are up early and packing our gear. We pulled all the plants inside to the garden tub Thursday evening and pulled in all our awnings. It doesn't take us long to finish up and get things stowed properly, check our emails and have breakfast. We are on the road by 11:00. The wind is blowing pretty strong and storm warnings are out. The sky looks pretty dark so we decide instead of driving in the storm we'll stay overnight at Campers World and have them do a bit of preventive maintenance before we start the trip North. While we are there we pick up some supplies and a new fresh water pump. Ours has quit working and CJ thinks he can install it himself and save the cost of labor. They don't finish with us till 4:00 on Saturday and we're planning on going to my cousin Tracies house in Auburn Alabama. That's about 4 hours away so we don't tarry around. We filled up our tanks at the Loves truck stop and put a couple hundred dollars worth of diesel fuel in Big Blue and away we go. It was about 8:30 when we got into Tracies. She's such a sweetie. She's got supper waiting for us and it is scrumptious. We set and eat it at my Grandmother's dining room table which makes my day! My favorite southern meal, pork bar-b-cue sandwiches with coleslaw on them. She's also fixed some baby red potatoes and salad to go with it. It's so nice to catch up on the girls. She has 3 daughters and this is the first time I've seen them since 2000. They've grown so much. And such fine young ladies with all the wonderful southern charm and manners you find down here. Tracie and her husband Paul are doing such a fine job with them. The oldest girl, Lydia is quite a young horsewoman. On Sunday we drive out to the stables and watch her working the horses. She's only 12 but she's so good with the horses that the stable has hired her to do a lot of training and stable chores in exchange for her boarding fees. Little Katie, the youngest goes along with us and it's easy to see that she's got quite a love for animals and insects. On the way home Tracie drives us through the Auburn campus and shows us around. Auburn is a beautiful community and Tracie and Paul have a gorgeous house in Cary Woods. Their road is on the tour of Dogwoods and they are all in bloom right now. It's breath taking! While we were out at the stables, Marion, who's 10 has a couple girlfriends over to visit and they are excited to see us get back cause they've been dying to take a tour of Big Blue. They all decided it would be a perfect spot for slumber parties. It's just like a little doll house. Sunday evening we grill outside and have chicken and pork chops. I fried some potatoes to go with and we put together a big salad. Soon it's time for the girls to get ready for bed as there is school tomorrow. We are parked right across the street from the house so we don't have far to walk to go home. Monday morning we get up early and see the girls off to school and say our good byes to Tracie and Paul. We drive the motor home to Wallmart by the Highway we'll be taking to Birmingham and leave it there while we go back into Auburn to do a bit of site seeing. Tracie was telling us about the famous college bar-b-cue hangouts called Mike and Ed's. They have T-shirts that would be a perfect gift for my son-in-law Tim who works on a Pork Farm. We stopped there to buy one and sample their bar-b-cue and found it so good we bought a pound of it "to go" to eat on the trip Northward. We also stopped by Tracies Pack Mail store so CJ can see it. We are on the road towards Birmingham by noon.
Our first stop in Birmingham is Oak Mountain State Park. It is HUGE! From the gate to the camping area is over 5 miles. It is full of winding trails for hikers, bikers & horseback riders. They even have a golf course there. I think there's about 3 lakes and more streams than you can count. We got a perfect campsite with trees around us and a view of one of the lakes from our windows. The shower house was only a few steps from our motor home. The 2nd day we are here, Karen, our friend from Pogo comes to spend the day with us exploring. She lives only a few miles from here and has been to the park many times. They have a wild animal rescue and shelter here which we tour. Then a drive up the mountains tallest peak to do some site seeing. It was a beautiful day for it as the sun was shining brightly and it was over 75. When we got back to the motor home I heated up our Bar-b-cue and made some coleslaw and baked beans for supper. Then it was time for Karen to head home to watch "Idol" so I went to the Publix Grocery to stock up on a few supplies.
The next day we puttered around the park. Chuck installed the new water pump under the china cabinet. It was a fairly easy job. I did some laundry and some hiking and took some pictures. It was at least 75 today and sunshine. Then for supper we went and picked up Karen and we to our favorite Birmingham Restaurant to have their famous baked spaghetti. It's called Costa's Mediterranean Cafe and it's on Lorna Road, just past the Galleria shopping center. After supper we went back to Karen's to watch the rest of the "Idol" show with her before heading home to the coach.
Thursday morning we got up early to pack up our things and headed over in the motor home to the Freightliner service center, northwest of Birmingham. When we were at Camping World the discovered a leak in the rear pinion seal which they didn't have the parts to fix. They told us we wouldn't have trouble getting to Birmingham to get it fixed. The freightliner place had the parts and got that fixed along with a new U joint that had some pins missing and we were on the road again from there by 3:00. Which was good cause we didn't want to drive through the major rush hour traffic back to Karen's house in Big Blue. Karen had a perfect place for us to park our rig for a couple days next to her condo building. Thursday night I put together a great big salad for us to all eat on and we opened a bottle of wine to go with it. Friday we all went to the Outdoor Sports show at the civic center and toured a couple dozen motor homes and 5th wheels. We also saw some pretty nice boats. After we left there we stopped at Walmart for some supplies and then one last stop at the Whataburger. Our last chance before heading north. The temperature was 85 and sunny but a storm is rolling in. By evening it's here complete with hail. Karen's friend Angela came over to visit and do Karen's hair and when they finished I cut CJ's hair. It's starting to cool down a bit and we don't have to worry about not having any air conditioner in the coach while dry docked. On Saturday we're on the road again and heading towards Elkmont, our next campsite. It's been a wonderful week here in Birmingham visiting with Karen.
We got into the campground in Elkmont about 4:00 and still have good light. The campsite is fairly level and they've got a nice shower house. There's only two drawbacks. No Kingdom Halls in the vicinity and no Internet! I had absolutely NO signal with my Verizon air card. The campground has advertised free WiFi though so I downloaded the linksys WiFi system into my computer and got online for about 30 minutes while CJ takes a nap and then the camps WiFi crashes and no more Internet. Dang! Guess we won't be staying here two nights. It got a bit chilly tonight and I plugged in our ceramic heater for some warmth. Sunday morning we got up early, took our showers, packed up and hit the road by 10:00am. Leaving the campground my brake warning light came on and stayed on. We stopped at the first gas station and CJ put some brake fluid in and that seemed to fix the problem. We got on Interstate 65 and headed north. We stopped at the TA truck stop just south of Nashville for a bite to eat and then wished we'd made our own meal in the coach. The food was not good and the service was even worse. We had to keep asking for everything, they never did bring my toast with my eggs, they only refilled our coffee once which we had to ask for and it was all way overpriced. And they weren't even busy. We will never stop at another TA again. Not to eat anyway. That was pretty much the first bad experience we've had eating out on the whole trip. We made it around Nashville safely which is always a worry for me. Nashville has the most convoluted interstate system. All kinds of roads crossing each other and merging with lanes appearing and disappearing without warning and no through lane. Of course there's always road construction. I'm always thankful to get through there safely. We got off 65 at Bowling Green KY and headed north on the William Natcher Parkway which takes us through Morgantown where my dads family is from. Off and on we had to drive through some rain but nothing too bad. The temperatures are dropping though. Twenty miles north of there in Hartford is a campground in the Ohio County Fairgrounds. It's just starting to mist when we pull in. We found a site on the edge next to a grove of trees. There's not too many coaches here. It's not a bad place to camp and it only costs us $10 a night cause it's on the Recreation USA list of campgrounds. Monday we get up early and take the car back to Morgantown where I give CJ a tour of the family sights. I even managed to get him to walk through the cemetery with me. We ate at the Farmboy and went to the IGA for some groceries then head back to the coach where I'm finally getting a chance to set and put this blog down before I forget too many details. Tomorrow we're leaving early and should make it back home by tomorrow night. We've only got about 6 more hours of traveling to go. We're hoping to make it up to the Mt. Vernon area (halfway) and stop for a nap. Then on to mom's. Dad's scheduled to have his stint surgery on Wednesday morning so hopefully we'll be there for that.
I've put together some slides for your enjoyment. Click on the link below.
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