Lunar Rainbow, or Moonbow

We drove the rig to Cumberland Falls State Resort Park between I-75 and US 27 just west of Corbin Kentucky. If you have a rig over 25 feet I wouldn't try the CFSRP, I would drive a couple miles more to the west and park at Eagle Falls Resort. The sites are much better.
Although the people at the state park was very helpful and suggested we park the rig across the site. Which we did, but I was concerned about dumping the air tanks, so I dropped the jacks first to keep us from hitting the "site" with the middle of the rig.



All worked out for us and we didn't bottom out, but I did have to listen to the buzzer while the air tanks filled up. As you can see in the next picture none of the sites are for large rigs, even the pop-up campers had trouble getting level.



We drove the jeep down to the falls. We arrived way too early to see the moonbow, but we did hang around long enough to see a portion of the moonbow. I was too tired to hang around for the best of the show, besides we were going back the next night with our son,daughter-in-law, and grand daughter.



Here is the water falls that with the help of a full moon creates the moonbow, or lunar rainbow.



Another shot of the falls.



At the bottom of the falls we found a very nice beach area, if it wasn't such a long walk it could be a good place for an afternoon of fun.



It is almost impossible, if not impossible to get a good shot of the moonbow with most cameras so I borrowed this shot off the internet. The camera gurus where talking about 4, 11, 9 exposure shots, and something about 2-8 minuets. I figure I saw it, and I could borrow a picture off the net to show you.



If you do plan on seeing the moonbow plan on a late night. we left at 11:30 the first night and should have stayed until 1-2 AM. The second night we waited until 10:30 to go down to the falls, and should have waited until midnight.

It was interesting, and we will do it again someday......

Getting ready to move on.

I spent the afternoon straightening out the basement. Now that we have made donations to our kids, and stored some more "stuff" at Jenelle's, I have room to put some more "stuff" in the bays. I did build a thingy to keep all the long stuff in place, so that freed up even more space. I'm a happy camper again!

We have been here at CGNP for a week now, but it is time to move on. I need to move so I can get some rest. Between running around visiting friends and family, helping dad around his house, and re-arranging the basement, I have forgot about relaxing!

Wednesday we will move the rig to Cumberland Falls State Park. The falls is one a only a few places on earth that you can see a "moonbow". I guess it is like a rainbow but the light is supplied by the moon and not the sun. It happens within a few days of a full moon, the moon light shines through the mist formed by the water rushing over the falls creating a "moonbow".

I doubt that we will have internet service there, but I will take pictures and post them as soon as we get to a place with decent service.

The weather has been great the past few days and I am LOVING it!!!!

Marcia is a HAPPY CAMPER

We are spending time with family and friends here in Eastern TN and southeastern KY. Tomorrow we will move the rig to Cumberland Gap National Park in VA so we will be close to dad, Scott, Corey, Jennifer, and the grand babies.

Yesterday I fulfilled a promise I made to Marcia a long time ago. I/we replaced the jeep she gave up when we went FT. My cousin Mitch took us to an auto auction to look for a jeep. They had 4 there, but they were all standard shift trannys, and I really don't want to bother pushing a clutch so we didn't get one.

However Marcia spotted one at a used car lot, so we stopped to check it out. Long story shortened, we wound up buying it. It is a automatic, 6 cylinder, and has air, and those were the three things I demanded in a jeep.

Here are a few pictures of it.










I know we will want to add our personal preferences to it, like new wheels, maybe a hard top, (with moon roof) and we are thinking about having graphics made and put on it to match the Kountry Star. I have seen several motorhomes pulling toads that have the same graphics and I think they look really good. I will add pictures as we add "stuff". Maybe we will try to make it to CO so we can follow along with Jim and his brother on their annual ride through the mtns in July......... (you ready Jay?)

RACCOON VALLEY RV PArk

We left Raccoon Valley RV Park today and drove the 65 miles to Middlesboro KY to visit family. It was GREAT seeing family again, and it really makes you realize how much you do miss them.

A thread on the Escapees Forum asks about the changes made to Raccoon Valley. To try and answer some questions I will show some pictures I took today.

Here is the sign that greets you as you drive up to the park from I-75.



From the bottom of the park, or the south side on the "old side" looking towards the newly renovated side.



I think these site will be ERPU sites. The four closest to where the "old double wide" used to be.


From up on the hill looking down oon the new side.


This is what the newly renovated clubhouse looks like now.


Inside the clubhouse.


another inside the clubhouse.


And this is the sign as you see it when you depart the park.


Once we arrived in Middlesboro our son came to see us. I had to take this picture of our new Coach Driver. Maybe she will take over the driving full time for us.

Everyone was doing well, we had a good visit, but tomorrow we leave headed to Renfro Valley so we will be close to Lexington for my doctors appointments this week. We will be headed back to Raccoon Valley on Thursday.........

I-75 exit 127 Twin Oaks RV Park

If you happen to be traveling up or down I-75 in southern GA watch for exit 127. If you take exit 127 and go east about 1/10 of a mile you will see Twin Oaks RV Resort on the north side of the road.



If you turn in you see the office on the left and the stop sign on the right. We found out yesterday it is always a good ideal to park your rig in a position that it isn't blocking anything.
(a guy yesterday pulled in and parked, he went in to register, and when he tried to move his rig to his assigned site it wouldn't start, 24 hours later the rig was pulled into a site)


The park has every thing you would want in an RV park/resort. There are two club houses, one being the community center where there is a TV, tables, microwave, coffee pot. You can gather there for cards, games, snacks, happy hours, or what ever you choose.

They offer shady sites for those who like being parked in the trees.


And then there are the open sites where you don't worry about the bad effects from the trees. We have a good AC so trees are low on my want list.


The park has a nice sized swimming pool to enjoy on the warmer days.


There is a VERY NICE gazabo that also houses the hot tub. Who dosen't enjoy soaking in a hot tub after spending time traveling?


I really enjoy the hot tub, the warm water helps sooth my aching bones.





The park also offers two pet areas where you can let the pets run free. I just can't get Marcia to let me take Leo for a walk.


The playground area has a volleyball net set up, along with horse shoe pits, and another game I am not familiar with.


There are also two bath houses for camper to use, although we have grown fond of using our own facilities in the Kountry Star.

Now another good part is the cost is $18 a night with Passport America, Camp Club, and maybe other discount clubs. Another thing I was impressed with was the book says $36, or $18 with the discount, and that is what we paid. There was no + for this and + for that that run the bill up.

The people running the place has been very friendly the two times we have stayed here, and from here it is an easy drive to your next stop, as long as your next stop isn't too far away...............

On the MOVE

As everyone knows we have 2 rigs because our insurance company was too eager to repair the Santara. They wrote Lazy Days a check for around $19,000, and will be writing me one to cover our expenses while the Santara was in the shop for two months.
We had decided to store the Santara in Bushnell for the summer in hopes that my dad will come down this winter and stay in it.






Our etch-a-sketch got shook up a bit and we took the Santara to Flagship RV in Bushnell where they sell it for us on consignment. They will keep it on their lot for up to 90 days. If it sells I guess it was meant to be, and if not I will have avoided paying storage for the 90 days.

After we finished the paperwork on the consignment deal we returned to Sumter Oaks to hook up the tracker to the KS and head north. We said our good-byes to all the remaining people at Sumter Oaks and started out.

Our first stop was in Ocala where we met Paul Anderson for lunch. Connie couldn't be there because she has a JOB. We are sorry we missed her, but we did enjoy spending some time with Paul, and we figure we will be seeing him again on the road somewhere this summer.

Our next stop was in Gainsville Fl where we met Sober Joe to buy a a sleep number bed for the KS. The mattress we have now isn't much, so we will be trying the sleep number as soon as we can get rid of the mattress we have now. (I won't just drop it on the side of the road). After stuffing the sleep number bed into the tracker we paid Joe and hit the road again.

We got the KS out of FL for the first time since we bought her back in Feb when we crossed into Ga on I-75. We drove exit 127 where we stopped for the night at Twin Oaks RV Park. As the name says "RV Park", it is MUCH nicer than a lot of the "RV RESORTS" we stayed at in FL, and for a whole lot less $$.

Our plan was to spend the evening enjoying the pool and hot tub, and then leaving Saturday AM, but the etch-a-sketch got shook up last night and we will be staying here another night. The weather looks better tomorrow for traveling than it does today, and I want to take some pictures of this park to show everyone what a nice place they have been missing out on every time they pass through southern GA on I-75.

Keep a close watch for the blog about Twin Oaks RV Park.............

Ghost Towns, or RV Parks

Last week we parked the rig at Shady Acres RV Resort near Ft Myers FL. We had a large selection of sites to choose from since most of the "snow-birds" have already migrated north. We really enjoyed the park, the clubhouse was nice, the bathrooms were a bit on the fancy side, and the pool was heated. With the Passport America discount it was even affordable at $22 a night.



The park has a small lake in it with some sites "on the water".



We even saw the park alligator lounging on the bank next to the deck that over looks the lake. It was a small gator, and I'm sure they will be calling someone to trap it once it gets big enough to start causing problems with all the little dogs people have in the park.



Marcia and I started to play a game of chess with the chess set provided by the park, but I couldn't hold two pawns in my hands so Marcia could pick one to determine who would be white.



One day we went to Ft Myers Beach to walk in the sand and watch the people, we were entertained by a guy catching this fish. He said it was a "sail catfish" and I don't dispute it one bit after seeing the large sail like fin.



We had the chance to meet my brother, his wife, and their youngest son for dinner at Cracker Barrel one evening. It was good to see them, and I regret that we don't spend more time with them.



Marcia met Chuck and Terry and another couple Saturday to go shelling. I wasn't feeling like I wanted to walk the beaches so I got caught up on some sleep I had been missing out on. They found a lot of nice sea shells, and here is Marcia laying them out to inspect them, or show them off to me.



Sunday we left Shady Acres early and drove to Lazy Days. We parked the Kountry Star there while we took the tracker to MacDill AFB to get the Santara. As I suspected the new ceiling Lazy Days had installed was starting to come down, so we drove the Santara back to Lazy Days and left a note for our "service manager" to get it FIXED.
After turning in the keys we hooked the tracker back to the KS and drove on to Sumter Oaks. We arrived just as everyone was leaving the ice cream social. We again got to pick our site from many empty sites. We are finding a lot of near empty campgrounds here in FL in May, they look a lot like Ghost Towns. We picked the site we had when Marcia was host here, the same site we were on when someone stole my motorcycle on Dec 4th 2008.



It is really strange seeing so many empty sites here, it makes me remember the good times we had here before when almost every site had someone on it. And the fun we had when Bob and Molly would come over to play cards with Paul and Connie, us, the Chapman s,and a slew of others. This is also where we were when my dad came down and spent about 6 weeks with us. He really enjoyed that visit and he asks about everyone he met here when we see him. He was really impressed with Connie, and I think it might have been the cookies she brought him.



But as you can see there are a lot of empty sites here now. 25 rigs yesterday, but some of those remain here year round with the owners coming back for the winters.



Larry and Babs are here now until the end of the month, and we may see them in NC sometime this summer. Several others are here too, but we haven't gotten close to them like we have others. You know how some people you meet and like, and some you meet and like and want to spend time with, and I can't leave out the ones you meet and don't like, although those are few and far between.

Wednesday the Santara "should" be ready for us to pick up, and if it is we will store it at Breezy Oaks in hopes that my dad will come to FL this winter and use it! As soon as we deal with the Santara we will head to KY to see the kids and grand kids as well as dad and Scott for a few days. Then to Lexington KY for some doctors appointments........