End of Summer (Park City, KY - Charlestown, IN) Sept-Oct 2012

Summer has come to an end--at least in Kentucky and Southern Indiana.  We concluded our time at Diamond Caverns in Park City, Kentucky.  Our main purpose of staying so long was to bide the time until our annual doctors' visits.  While at Diamond Caverns, we participated in the weekly potluck suppers where there was always plenty of food.  One week I made a baked pasta dish and the next time I repeated my chicken chutney dish which is a heart-healthy dish.  On Tuesdays, we usually went to the Watermill Restaurant in Cave City.  The Tuesday buffet had a cost of only $7.00 plus drink and featured fried fish, another entree (one week was pot roast), mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, salad, mac and cheese.  Then if you haven't had enough to eat, there is always peach cobbler and banana pudding and either ice cream or sherbet for dessert.  YUM YUM YUM!!

Our only other activities during this period was a very welcome day visit from our son John.  We bought some really nice steaks and enjoyed them with him as a sort of early birthday dinner.  Always nice to see our children!!

Duke and Abby enjoyed walking around the campground each day.  However, with a shooting range next door, Abby usually went into hiding whenever she heard the pop, pop, pop of target shooting.  She is especially afraid of loud noises regardless of whether the source is thunder, fireworks or gunshots.

On October 6, we moved from Park City to Charlestown State Park in Charlestown, IN.  A massive cold front came through and we have pretty much spent the last few days indoors to escape the chilly wind.   It was nice to see all my friends again at St. Marks United Church of Christ in New Albany, IN.  We enjoyed a visit from both children, John and Cathy, after church on Sunday.  I fixed corned beef with mashed potatoes which has been a Cronin favorite for years!  No left-overs from that meal!

The rest of the week will be spent with doctors--Monday was blood work, starting Tuesday after supper I will be on a liquid diet in preparation for a colonoscopy (routine) which is scheduled for Thursday, next Monday is visit to primary care physician for annual exams, and Pat has a stress test next Tuesday.  Whew--we will be glad to have all this done.

We will probably try to squeeze in some fun times at New Albany's Harvest Homecoming.  St. Marks UCC, as a downtown church, uses Harvest Homecoming as an important fund raising with a parking lot, a flea market, and a food booth.  The funds raised are instrumental in funding the several missions of the church.

Recent books read include Private by James Patterson and The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks.  Both were a good read!

Next posting will probably see us on the road back to Texas.

EASY LIVING!!

Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky

Well I guess it is time to catch up on my posts.  As I said in my last post, we were going to Lake Michigan which we did.  These pictures were taken at Ludington State Park with its very pretty sand beach.

The campground called Vacation Station was very nice with concrete pads and patios and paved roads.  It was a very busy weekend as the summer season started winding down.  Our site was nice and long so there was plenty of room for the camper and the truck.

After our few days at Ludington, we departed and drove to Kalamazoo for a week's stay at Markin Glen County Park where we spent time last year.  Pat's brother Mike and his wife Joanne followed us from Ludington and they camped next door to us.  Even though the weather was still hot, we had a campfire and enjoyed each other's company for the week.

From Kalamazoo, we headed to Ohio so that we could meet my sister and husband for dinner.  We stayed at a campground close to the Ohio Turnpike in Milan, Ohio.  It was an OK place for a couple of days with the highlight being Sunday dinner with Valerie and Jim at Oberlin.  This is a picture of our campsite:

From Milan, we traveled south in Ohio to the Thousand Trails RV Park in Wilmington, Ohio (just north of Cincinnati).  This is a very peaceful park and we wish we could have stayed longer.  We will certainly keep it in mind for the future.  Across the road was a pasture with cows which Duke and Abby enjoyed visiting.  Of course, the pups were on their leashes and the cows were on the other side of a fence, but our two kids had to let their feelings known by barking at the cows.

From Wilmington we headed back to Diamond Caverns in Park City, KY.  Our original plan was to stay a few days and then continue south to Texas.  However, some personal issues came up so we have stayed and will be here until October when we will go back to Indiana to see our doctors for our annual exams.  While at Park City, we have had visits from our daughter and our son.  I spent a week with our daughter to take care of some personal business and was able to visit my former co-workers at Guthrie/Mayes Public Relations.  The only tourist type thing we have done was to go on a tour of the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, KY.  That was interesting to see the actual production and we were lucky to be able to see it.  The plant tours are now closed while they retool for the 2014 model.  Unfortunately no cameras are allowed so we couldn't take any pictures.  Our campsite is very nice with shade all day and we have enjoyed sitting outside now that the temperatures are more moderate. 

I continue to read my Kindle and have read the Fifty Shades of Grey series, M is for Malice by Sue Grafton, The Callahans (a family saga) by Gordon Ryan, and a couple of light romantic/mysteries by M.J. Pullen.

That's all for now. 

EASY LIVING!!

Axle Woes

Our original hope was that the new axle would be ready on Friday, August 10.  However, the manufacturer couldn't get it ready until Monday morning at the earliest.  That meant that we had to make alternative plans for our weekend since we couldn't pull the RV anywhere and our camping spot at the repair facility does not have full hook-ups. 

Fortunately, Pat's brother Mike lives in Michigan only about an hour away so we packed suitcases, dogs crates, some groceries, my Keurig for coffee, and dirty laundry (just like in college!) and headed up the road for the weekend.  We had a pleasant stay with Mike and Joanne and their dog Scooter except when Duke decided that he wanted to go for a run.  The first time he got out loose, he came back with no problem.  The second time we (he) was not so lucky--he headed down the road to visit a neighbor's boxer and decided to try to be the dominant dog which ended in a bit of a dog fight.  Needless to say, Duke was in the doghouse for the rest of the weekend.  The three Cronin dogs got along pretty well and after the initial get-acquainted period, they all settled down.

Scooter, Duke, and Abby

We had made plans to get together with some of Pat's nephews on Saturday evening.  One of them was sick and I was also sick so Pat, Mike, and Joanne meant the others and had a pleasant dinner. 

On Monday morning, we packed up everything (clean clothes this time) and returned to LaGrange, IN to get our camper.  However, when we got there, they didn't have the new axle and the repair folks wanted one more day to fix everything.  Back we went to the Michigan Cronin's for one more night. On the way, we passed some Bison grazing close to the road:

Tuesday morning, we called ahead and all was done so we headed back to LaGrange for the camper.  We paid the bill (insurance did cover the repairs!) and headed to a campground in Shipshewana for the night.  After we got hooked up, we discovered we were still having an electrical issue.  We disconnected the 50 amp cord and headed back to LaGrange.  It turned out that we had a situation that could have easily caused a fire--this time they replaced the plug that goes into the camper and all is now OK (whew!). 

On Wednesday, we had an appointment to have the axles aligned and then finally headed up to Ludington, Michigan (200 miles from Elkhart, IN).  Much cooler weather up here--it was in the 50's yesterday morning (Friday) and only in the 40's this morning.  It feels good to be in the low 70's during the day!  Hope this follows us as we head back south!!

We are going to Lake Michigan today so I will have pictures on the next post.

EASY LIVING!

Indiana Escapades (August 2012)

Okay so our plan was to leave Diamond Caverns in Park City, KY on August 2 but on July 31 we ran into electrical issues and thought it was poor power at the park.  We decided to go ahead and leave a couple of days early and head for Charlestown (IN) State Park.  Upon our arrival and while trying to plug in the camper, we discovered that our power cord plugged into the camper was broken so we had to rush to a camper supply store to buy a connector to temporarily fix our electrical problem.  It sort of worked but we still only seemed to have power on one leg of the 50 amp circuit.  We thought it was still a problem with the camper but could deal with it for the six days.  We did see several wild turkeys in the campground and paid a visit to a very old cemetery that is on the grounds of the old Indiana Ammunition Plant.

We were both glad that we moved to Charlestown a couple of days early.  It enabled us to meet a friend and her mom (Susan and DJ) for lunch at Chuys which was most enjoyable.  DJ was one of our neighbors in Georgetown and Susan's children and ours have been friends and classmates since elementary school.

Thursday, our daughter Cathy, her boyfriend Jesse, and good friend Tiffany and two sons came out to the campground for a cookout.  Of course the temps were probably the second hottest day of the year so we pretty much spent the time in the camper--5 adults, 2 children under the age of 5, and three dogs makes for a very crowded and hectic time.

Friday was a relaxing day and we met our good friends Rob and Becky for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. 

Saturday morning our son John came out to the campground to visit and enjoy our special Dutch oven breakfast casserole.  We had a very nice relaxing visit with him.

Sunday was church at St. Marks United Church of Christ in New Albany followed by lunch with some more friends.  This stop certainly was filled with visits with friends and family.  This time I remembered to take some pictures!



Mike, Tara and Mark



Christa, Bill, and our son John

Pat and John

On Monday, August 6 we left Southern Indiana with our destination in Northern Indiana for RV Repairs at Indiana Interstate Enterprises (Paul Cross).  When we plugged the camper into the RV repair place 50 amp, all looked OK.  Our conclusion is that we had two problems at the last two places--one was bad campground wiring and the other was our broken cord.  That problem has been solved but now we are sitting at the RV repair site waiting for a new axle.  Back in March when we first arrived at Lake Conroe, we apparently damaged one of the axles by driving partly through a ditch.  All seemed OK until we got here for repairs.  Upon close inspection, one of the axles is damaged beyond repair.  Hopefully, our insurance will cover the cost of the new one.  As a result, we will be in Lagrange, IN until Friday, Aug 10 or possibly until Monday depending on when the new one is ready.

Our plan is to move on into Michigan for a few weeks so stay tuned.  Never a dull moment in the RV lifestyle!!

EASY LIVING (?)!!

Alabama and back to Kentucky (July 2012)

As planned, we stayed at Diamond Caverns in Park City, KY until July 15.  We left the camper in storage (actually just had to leave it on the site and plugged in) and drove down I65 past Bowling Green, Nashville, and into Alabama to Hidden Cove RV Park in Arley.  This park is so far off the beaten path that we barely had cell service.  We got registered into the cabin which had a nice view of Lewis Smith Lake.  This lake is probably the clearest lake I have ever seen (unfortunately we do not have any pictures showing the clarity of it).  I did talk to some folks that were swimming in the lake and they told me that when the lake was created, there were some landowners who refused to leave their property.  The story goes that the authorities went ahead and flooded the land and those landowners subsequently perished (I am not sure this is really true).  The official report of the dam construction states:  "The projected flood zone was sparsely populated, although Clear Creek Falls—actually a pair of falls about a quarter mile apart in southeast Winston County—was a popular recreation spot for generations. In 1853, a post office was established near the falls and a small village, later known as Falls City, developed. But well before the dam's construction the town dwindled, a victim mainly of its remote location. In 1953, the U.S. Postal Service abolished the Falls City post office altogether. It is unclear from historical records just how many families were displaced by the dam project. In addition to buying out residents, the company also paid to have 78 graves relocated from four cemeteries that were in the dam's flood zone." 

View of Lewis Smith Lake

Cabin at Hidden Cove RV Park, Arley, AL

We were very disappointed in the cabin.  It was dirty, had broken electrical outlets, outlets that had shorted out, a stove that we couldn't light, and ants everywhere.  Our daughter, Cathy, arrived on Monday and by Tuesday, we had enough when the power went off and no one was around to fix it.  We packed up and drove back to the camper parked at Diamond Caverns.  On Wednesday, we had to call Hidden Cove to cancel our remaining days--their reaction was "the cabin is old".  That may be but it is no excuse for poor maintenance.  We will not return to that campground.  I don't know if we would even be able to get our camper into any of the sites.  Since we have been back at Diamond Caverns, we talked to some other folks who also had some trouble with reservations at Hidden Cove in Arley.

The rest of the week with Cathy and her dog Hallie was enjoyable.  Cathy and I toured Diamond Caverns, one of many caves in the area besides Mammoth Cave. 

Entrance to Diamond Caverns

Cathy waiting for tour to start

Cathy in cave

 Various pictures from inside the cave:

Vastness of the cave!

An altar in the cave--weddings were performed here at one time.

Susan on the way back up the steps!

If you look closely, you can see a drip of water.

Looks like a tree stump!  This one has been polished and
therefore will no longer grow.

This is similar to the previous picture but has not been polished
and is therefore still growing at a very slow pace.
It takes thousands of years for the formations to grow.

We also drove around the national park and saw several wild turkeys and deer. 

Mostly we just sat back and enjoyed visiting while trying to stay cool in the continuing hot weather.  

Cathy with all three dogs--Duke is under the blanket and Abby and Hallie are on top!

Cathy left to return to Southern Indiana on July 21. Since then, Pat and I have not done a whole lot.  We did visit the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green.  When we first met, Pat had a 1982 Corvette so I had to take a picture of him next to the one at the museum.  He sold his when we started our family and built a house in Tecumseh, MI.  Needless to say, Corvettes are not very good family cars!

On August 2, we leave Park City and return to Charlestown, IN for a few days before continuing our trek north in search of cooler weather (also to visit family and friends)!  We have lots of plans for August and September, so stay tuned!!

EASY LIVING!

Start of Summer Travels (July 2012)

Well....We decided to move up our departure date so that we could make a quick trip up to Indiana to help daughter Cathy move from one apartment to another.  We probably would not normally do that but since she will be student teaching this fall and we will be helping her, we decided it might be a good idea.  Anyways we left Willis, Texas on July 1 and stayed one night in a new campground in Simsboro, LA.  The campground is actually pretty nice with spacious level sites and built on a hilly terrain.  If it had been cooler, we would have enjoyed sitting outside on the deck to watch the ducks on the pond.

From Simsboro we made another overnight stop at Natchez Trace RV Park just south of Tupelo, MS.  We somewhat retraced our drive from last fall by going through the area that had been devastated by tornadoes in April, 2011.  It is amazing how much regrowth has occurred in just over a year.  Here are pictures from last year and the same area now.  There is still a long way to go and it will take years for it to be completely reforested.

October 2011

July 2012

When we arrived at Natchez Trace RV Park, the trailer wheel on one side had a terrible squeal.  We thought it might be the brakes or an axle so we made an appointment for the next morning at an RV dealer in the area.  It turned out there were two problems--one had to do with a part of one of the brakes that had come loose (probably due to some of the rough roads in Louisiana).  They were able to fix that problem.  The other one (the squeal) apparently is due to the drums being egg-shaped.  This is a problem but not one of an emergency nature. 

We were finally back on the road by ten or so and headed north from Tupelo.  Our original plan was to follow the Natchez Trace Parkway all the way to the end but with the delay and not wanting to have problems on the Trace, we went north to I-40 and then across to I-65.  We arrived at Diamond Caverns RV Resort in Park City, KY at 5:30 for another one-night stop.

The next morning we got on the road and were continuing north towards Louisville when a car passed us and pointed up towards our roof.  We had inadvertently left our satellite up and had not visually checked it.  The power had gone out on our camper because of the hot weather and when that happens the satellite control turns off.  To put it down, we have to turn it on and have the satellite dish go through the motions of being put up before we can stow it.  Fortunately we have a generator and we were able to pull off the road and stow the dish.  Never a dull moment!!

We finally arrived at Charlestown State Park in the early afternoon and had an opportunity to relax for a day before Cathy's move.  Of course, it had to be the hottest days of all time but we managed to get her moved on Friday evening.  That allowed us to relax on Saturday and enjoy lunch at Texas Roadhouse with son John.

We pulled out of Charlestown early Sunday morning to beat the hot temps as well as the storms that were forecast and arrived back at Diamond Caverns by 10 am.  Now we can really relax!!  The storms did come through last night but not too severe.  I heard that this was the first rain for the area in six weeks. The park has been emptying out this morning--I guess people were here for the week of the fourth and are headed home.  We will be here until July 15 when we leave the camper in storage and head to Alabama to spend a week in a cottage with Cathy.

Ah the joys of EASY LIVING!!!

Week in Indiana and trip back to Texas (June 5-12)

We made it safely to Indiana—drove the first day to Jackson, Tennessee and continued the next day to Jeffersonville, IN where our daughter lives.  We had a busy few days helping son to finish moving to Louisville.  Once we had the remainder of his belongings packed, we helped our daughter get better organized in preparation for her move to a new apartment at the end of the month.  After getting the apartment in order, we had to tackle the storage unit which was actually our main goal for the trip.  Both children had some things in storage and the rest of our belongings had to be sorted.  Some things went right into the dumpster and other boxes went to Goodwill.  That pared it all down quite a bit so the remainder would fit in either the truck or the U-Haul trailer.  We packed the trailer on Sunday so we could leave early on Monday morning to drive through Louisville before the rush hour traffic.

We also visited with our special friends, Becky and Rob, and had dinner with them a couple of times.  Enjoyed pizza at River City Winery in downtown New Albany and another dinner with them at Cheddar’s in Clarksville, IN.  We saw other friends on Sunday at church.  I would have liked to visit my Guthrie/Mayes “family” but time ran out on a week filled with packing, etc.  We will probably return to Southern Indiana in late August.

Our trip home was equally uneventful and we were able to make the drive in two days with an overnight stop just west of Little Rock.  The next day after a good night’s sleep back in our cozy cottage, we worked to unload the trailer and truck.  Our goal was to unload everything and then go to Lowe’s to get a big sheet of plywood.  The plywood was to put on the back porch so Pat’s work bench and other items would be on a stable base.  We arrived back at the cottage with the plywood but it had slid and we couldn’t open the trailer door.  What a dilemma!   After struggling and trying to pry it open, we finally decided there was no alternative but to take the trailer to U-Haul in hopes that they could open it.  That succeeded but then we had to figure out how to get it home.  We thought the plywood would fit in the back of the Traverse but that didn’t work.  The U-Haul guys came up with the solution—lay it on top of the truck’s toolbox and across the fifth wheel hitch.  YEA—it worked!!

While driving, we discussed the reasons for having two vehicles and decided that the need for two no longer existed.  After arriving back in Texas and taking care of the priority of unloading the trailer, we went to the local Chevrolet dealer to see if they would be interested in buying the Traverse.  That was a success and we left the dealership as a one vehicle family!!  They gave us a fair price and we didn’t have to go through the hassle of selling it as a private sale.

Now we are looking forward to our departure from Texas on July 11 to head north for a couple of months.  Everyone told us that we would NOT want to stay here all summer and they are so right!  Our initial plan is to head to a Thousand Trail park in Alabama where we are meeting our daughter for a week in a cabin/park model.  After that we will head towards Michigan where we hope it will be cooler and less humid.  Stay tuned for our future travels.

EASY LIVING!!