Headed to Pigeon Forge, TN

 The Meyers had been planning a 4-day vacation to Pigeon Forge. They planned to leave right after school was out on May 25th. They asked if we wanted to meet them there since it is only a few hours from our house. Of course, we said yes.

Our plans were to arrive on the afternoon of Sunday, May 26th, Memorial Day weekend and leave on Thursday, May 30th. A short, but fun trip. It would be our first trip without our precious Bentley who died on Tuesday, May 21st. He had been on every trip with us since 2007 when we bought our first motorhome. Abigail did her best to fill in for him, and even though she did a good job it just wasn't the same.

Here she is riding on the dashboard as we started down the road,

And Emma & Trevor were busy on their devices while riding along on their way from Florida.

After we checked into Camp Margaritaville in Pigeon Forge & the Meyers checked into their cabin, they came over to our place. The RV Park had a restaurant, bar and lodge with an arcade in the basement. for the kids. It was a good thing too, since it poured down rain. Glynda drove up from Chatsworth to spend a couple of days with us too.

The weather prediction was to have rain all week. It stormed all Sunday night and Monday morning and by 10am it had cleared up and was beautiful the rest of the week.

Monday morning, Abby and I went for a walk around the campground.

It was a really nice campground with lots of amenities. They had a lodge, heated pool, lazy river, pickleball courts, a couple of bars and places to eat, playgrounds and lots of games for the kids. It was very clean, and the staff were all very friendly. They had more amenities than we needed for sure.

The Meyers decided to go to Dollywood on Monday after the rained had stopped. They had a great time even though they didn't get to see everything.

Emma and Najla really liked the roller coasters like the Thunderhead wooden roller coaster. Ryan and Trevor, not so much.

For dinner, we had reservations for the Dollywood dinner show. It was great and the food was really good too. They served creamy vegetable soup, a whole roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, a biscuit, BBQ pork and an apple turnover. You didn't leave hungry for sure.

They had a pre-show for entertainment while we waited. The trio was very good.

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Here are some of the pictures taken at the show.

Buffalo

It was a fun night and everyone enjoyed the show and the food.

Monday, March 4th, Last Day in St. Augustine

 We had a nice quiet day with the kitties and their squirrel friends. Of course, throwing out peanuts for the squirrels helped.

We would be leaving on Tuesday to head home, so we spent some time organizing to get thing ready to get back on the road.

Ryan texted and said they were going to skip Emma's volleyball practice that night and they would come over at 4PM and spend some time with us. When they came over, it had turned a little cool outside, so we sat inside. We ordered pizza and salad for dinner from Marcos's pizza. Then, the kids went into the bedroom to watch TV, while we chatted. It was a good night. Abby even came out and made friends with Najla. We talked about meeting them when school is out in May in Pigeon Forge, TN. They wanted to go to Dollywood. I couldn't believe I didn't take any family pictures. What was I thinking? The kids are so tall.

On Tuesday we left for home. It was raining almost the whole way. Abigail jumped on the dashboard to see where we were headed. She was amazed at the windshield wipers going back and forth, back and forth.

Check out the video.   https://youtube.com/shorts/gQLXBODTUvM

We were stopping over night at the KOA in Forsyth, GA. This has usually been about our halfway home stop when heading home from Florida. Unfortunately, it rained most of the way and the ground was saturated with puddles everywhere. 

 The one thing going for it was it had geese, big, noisy geese. Bentley saw them too. He couldn't hear them, but he could see them.

Meanwhile, Abby was busy begging for her cat grass. We keep it in the showers so she can't get to it. She is obsessed with it. It must be some pretty good stuff.

The next morning, we got ready to hit the road for home. The geese were busy honking and teasing the kitties. Abigail loved it.

She like this campground.      https://youtube.com/shorts/XIv1_4CeEWc

After getting the car hooked up, away we went, with Abigail leading the way. 

We had no issues this trip and no traffic problems getting through Atlanta. We got home early enough to take the kitties home , come back and unload everything from the motorhome. We were all happy to get home and Abby was especially happy to get back to her screened porch.

VISITING THR NAO TRINIDAD

 After breakfast we walked over to the ship, Nao Trinidad for a tour. It was docked just south of the Bridge of Lions and by the time we left the restaurant, the fog had cleared, and we could see her clearly. She was a beautiful Tall Shop. Of course, she is one of the reproduction ships of Ferdinan Magellan to encourage education of historical events.

She is touring various ports along the Eastern Seaboard and was in St Augustine until the end of April. Here is some info on her.  Trinidad (ship) - Wikipedia

NAO Trinidad – Tall Ships America

This is the Bridge of Lions which takes you from St. Augustine to Anastasia Island, where Ryan and Najla live.

The lions sit on each side of the entrance to the bridge.

           There's the ship. What I didn't notice until we got right over to it was the gangway entrance. Every ship I have been on had a nice flat long gangway without a steep angle. This one was not that. You can see the steepness of the gangway by looking at the white banner attached to it. ARE THEY KIDDING ME? Me, the faller and tripper of all times. Not only that, but there were NO RAILINGS to grab onto, just a rope on each side that was not taunt but swinging with the movement of the ship. OH LORDY. I just about turned around and left. One saving grace was that it had ridges that kept you from sliding back down. It took me a while to get up there. Once at the top there was another challenge---getting onto the ship. The step down was very steep and the steps were very small width wise. People must have had very small feet back then.

Once on board, the ship had 3 levels, The deck , top level and lower deck. Going from one level to the next was also challenging since the steps were also small and steep, but at least there were wooden handrails to hold onto. And inside all the areas were at an angle. I can't imagine sailor climbing up the riggings on a ship like this, especially when at sea.

                     It was surprising how small this ship really was to sail all around the globe.

                                                         Here's the route taken.   

  

                                               Some of the storage areas for food and supplies.

                                                           Those steep, little steps again.

                                           The captain's quarters. The only bedroom on the ship.

Goodbye Nao Trinidad. It was nice to visit ye.

Now to find our way back to the car. We headed back across the intersection at Ponce de Leon and King St, towards the direction we thought our car was.

                                                                     Past the square.

                                                             Past some nice little shops.

                                                                            Churches.

                                                                Old historic buildings.

Then we remembered our cell phones and location options.  When looking at it, it showed the approximate area where our car was. As we got closer, we stated to recognize buildings with Flagler College that we had walked past on our way to breakfast. And there was the parking lot where we had parked. YAY!!!! Boy, were we tired and happy to find our car and get back to the kitties. It was time for them to have a go out anyway. At least we had a little adventure this trip, and nothing broken.