A SHORT TRIP TO ROSSVILLE, GA

 Where is Rossville, GA you ask? It's just over the Tennessee state line about 15 miles from our house. We decided to take just a few days and go camping with the new kitties before the cold weather hits. We didn't want to travel too far since we had such a short time. I have been swamped with about 6o quilts to finish before Christmas and they were still pouring in. I finished 17 last week and needed a break for a couple of days. So, the Holiday Travel RV Park sounded like good one.

The new kitties Molly, 7 months and Riley 5.5 months have never traveled with us, and we wanted to break them in on a short trip. This will be Abigail's 3rd trip.

We packed everything up on Saturday and headed down to the campground in the afternoon. The traffic was crazy due to the construction, so we didn't arrive until 4:30. Just our luck, the office closed at 4PM. I have never seen a campground close at that time of day. But, they didi leave us a map and a list of sites that were available. The campground was much larger than I thought and it looked pretty nice. They had lots of oak trees (squirrels) and the sites were well marked. The sites were a bit close to others, but certainty do-able.

We put the kitties outside in their stroller so they could check out the campground.

We were tired so we had a quick dinner and spent time with the kitties.

Abigail felt right at home.

It was a nice night and the Molly and Rilley had a great time in the upper bunk. We have a scratching post in front of the bunks, so once we showed them how to get up there by themselves, they mad themselves at home.

                                      

                                                       And yes, they have their own TV.

The next day we had corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast, and I took Molly for a walk in the stroller. As it turns out this campground was built on a Civil War battlefield, and they had a marker down a winding trail in the campground. Molly was a bit nervous at first, but once she settled down, she started looking all around for birds and squirrels. 

                                                             

                                                   Here is Molly, next to the marker.

                                                          

In the afternoon, David and I went over to Costco for some shopping. It was only a few miles from the campground. It's not as close to us as Sam's Club where we usually shop.  It was packed with people, 

After that we came back to the campground to sit outside with the kitties again. Later, I threw out some peanuts to attract the squirrels, but there were no takers yet.

For dinner, we went to Portofino restaurant. I have always wanted to try them, but it wasn't near our house, so we never did. They had just built a new place (2 story) and the food was fabulous. They had a rather large menu of Italian and Greek food. David had the ravioli and I the cannelloni. I like to order that because it's something I wouldn't make a t home. The portions were huge with plenty of sauce and cheese and we ended up only eating half of it.

Then back to the motor home for a quiet night. All the kitties slept with us at one time or another.

The next day was just a lazy one. I worked on my hexie EPP pieces. THEN the squirrels discovered the peanuts in front of our door. The kitties parked themselves in front of that door for the rest of the day.

                                

                                                      

             They are enjoying their time here very much. Tomorrow we leave for home and back to work.

                          So far, it has been a successful trip.

More Time in Pigeon Forge

 Tuesday was a quiet day. We all met for breakfast at the 

It was right down the hill from our campground and close to the Meyers cabin. Breakfast was great and we all had too much to eat. The service was great too. We had a nice relaxing day. Glynda spent time in the lazy river at the campground and we spent some quality time with Abigail. The weather was perfect. Glynda had to leave in the afternoon to go home which was only a few hours' drive.

For dinner we went over to the Meyers cabin for spaghetti, salad and garlic bread. It was delicious and the views were spectacular. The cabin was at the top of the mountain, and it was quite a drive up that curvy steep road. The cabin had nice sleeping areas, a hot tub, a pool table, a foosball table and great balconies overlooking the mountain range. A fun place to stay. 

On Wednesday, the Meyers went to Dollywood Splash Country Water Park. They had a wonderful time on all the rides and slides. Fun times, for young people. Not so much for old folks like us. David and I went to Mel's Diner for breakfast.

 We have eaten there several times in the past, and it was always good, but it wasn't good this time. So-so at best.

After breakfast David wanted to go to the outlet mall to look for a new pair of Sketcher's. He couldn't find what he wanted in his size, but I found a pair I liked for a good price. I checked out the Talbots store, but everything seemed to be in petite sizes, so no luck for me.

After the outlet mall we went to the Shine Girl Moonshine store. It is owned by Dolly Parton's niece, Danielle. You should read her bio. She is amazing.

  Her website.     Shine Girl Moonshine. New in Tennessee! #moonshiners #fulltimerv #tennesseewhiskey (youtube.com)

We sampled their 4 moonshines, and they weren't what you would expect. Very smooth and flavorful. and didn't burn your throat. We bought a bottle of the Red Velvet and Coconut to take home. One drink you could make with the Red Velvet was to mix it with cold brew coffee and heavy cream and the coconut could be used in a Margarita. Very interesting. 

After Shine Girl, we stopped by Iva's Quilt shop. I haven't been there in years, but I did find some fat quarters I liked. 

On our way back to the campground, we drove down Tester Dr, a street over from the main drag in Pigeon Forge. That road used to have little strip malls on the left side and empty fields on the right. Now it was all built up with hotels, restaurants. It was late in the afternoon, and we were hungry. Lo and behold, we saw a Guy Fieri, Downtown Flavor town restaurant. So that was something else. David ordered the cheesesteak eggrolls, and I ordered the trashcan nachos. WOW! they were delicious and huge. Plenty of leftovers.

And this place was HUGE. It just seemed to go on forever. Here's a video.  Downtown Flavortown Pigeon Forge Full Tour & Review (youtube.com)

It was worth the visit and luckily, they weren't busy at that time in the late afternoon. I would go back there again. It was great.

The Meyers came over for a campfire and Smores. It was a fun time. The campground was almost empty since it was the middle of the week. Even Abigail sat out in her playpen. She still smelled like a campfire when we got home.

It was a wonderful trip. Close to home, short and fun.

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.

.

Here are some of the pictures taken at the show.

Buffalo

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