Day 120

All good things come to an end, but what about great ones?

Our journey has far exceeded our wildest dreams and hopes about what we would see and do.

Forget the exotic trips abroad, travel this country and see the world!

We have driven over 16000 miles, visited 26 states and three provinces in Canada, met some fascinating people, made some wonderful friends, and seen the most stunning wildlife and scenery imaginable.

We have been educated far more than we could have thought possible, and fallen in love with Alaska.

We drove the last 400 miles back to Houston today, and got pulled over by the police, the first time in four months, back in Texas! I was told that I was stopping too close to other vehicles when I pulled up at stop lights. How far away am I supposed to be, we wondered? Anyway, no ticket, just a friendly chat, so we survived to complete our journey.

We had an uneventful trip back, along the rest of highway 82, then south on 59 in Texas.

It was interesting to see how many little mom and pop RV places there are, scattered along the roadside like so much confetti. Pretty full as well, most of them.

We did see a herd of buffalo (bison) in Arkansas, if you can believe it.

We hope you all enjoyed our travel log as much as we did writing it, and also that some of you get the travel bug!

America really is a big, gorgeous, exciting, fun packed, country.

The End.

Day 119

Despite going to bed late-ish, we did get a reasonably early start, on the road by 8 of the clock.

Then the Kudzu started.

It seems that the whole of this part of the country is infested with this stuff.

For the uninitiated, Kudzu is a prolific weed, which takes over everything. It covers trees, houses, bushes, cars, anything.

It was introduced to the country in 1876, farmers were told to plant it to prevent soil erosion, became a gardener’s pet sort of plant, and of course then took over. In the mid fifties it was declared an illegal immigrant, but by then it was too late. This stuff grows at a rate of about one foot per day, and although it is technically a vine member of the pea family, it has multiple stems, some 6 inches thick, from each root system, and is bloody difficult to get rid of. Miles and miles of both sides of the roadways are covered with it, big green leaves smothering everything.

If you get no daily report tomorrow, look under the kudzu, we may have been got in the middle of the night!!

We traveled nearly 600 miles today, through Georgia, all across Alabama, all across Mississippi, and into Arkansas. We stayed on highway 82 the whole way, and we were very impressed with the quality of the road, especially in Mississippi. We expected a relatively poor State to have badly maintained back roads, but this road is as good as some, and better than most freeways we have been on. Compliments to the Mississippi highway department.

We saw some beautiful old southern towns, with magnificent mansions, with two story columns, and acres and acres of land.

We saw some really skuzzy towns as well!!

We have passed miles and miles of cotton fields, as well as lots of rice paddies.

Tomorrow, sadly, will be our last day on the road for a few months.

Wildlife watch today was a deer, some cows and horses, pretty boring really, but a change from mooses, Karen!!

Day 118

Baked bugs.

That’s what we had today.

Thousands of them, squished all over the windshield, and baked by the relentless, unyielding, burning sun.

350 miles and fifty bugs for every mile!

In case you hadn’t guessed, it is love bug season in Georgia, and we have had every single one in the state splattered on the windshield, mirrors and all across the front of the Magic Bus.

Yes, finally a new name for the coach, one that is fitting coz it’s been a magic trip. Many apologies to The Who.

We enjoyed the campsite in Charleston, very clean and quiet, and left 30 minutes past our checkout time, being the rebels we are.

The sad news is that our odyssey is nearing an inevitable break, and we are heading back to the three H’s.

Hot, Humid, Houston.

We have small details to attend to, like earning some money for next year’s adventures, and major and minor maintenance to the Magic Bus.

It might be magic, but it is not miraculous, and won’t go on forever.

So, we headed west on highway 82, which for those geographic buffs, runs parallel to Interstate 10, but lots of miles further norther.

The road is four lanes, has very little traffic, and winds through some very pretty countryside. All the verges for miles and miles were freshly mowed, and well maintained. They must have known that The Hill Royalty was on the way!!

Every little town has its reduced speed limits, hoping to catch unwary travelers.

The signs right by the speed limits read “Speed checked by detection devices”

We wondered what else they could use to check speed, other than detection devices.

All answers on a post card to…………

Anyway, a very relaxing day.

We had a discussion on the pronunciation of one town name.

It was Ty Ty. How would you pronounce it?

As you can imagine, my guess was different from Marlipops, and wrong.

We stopped for the night 6 miles south of the town of Albany, Georgia, and hope to be on the road early.

Wildlife watch today was twenty million squished insects.

Day 116

We got wet!!

We had a thunderstorm!!

How dare they!!

It was a toss up whether to go to Charleston or Magnolia Plantation first, and the plantation won.

Magnolia Plantation was built originally in 1676 by the Drayton family, and is believed to be the only plantation in the state to be under the same family ownership as when it was first built.

The plantation house was burned to the ground by the Union Army in the Civil War, and the present house was built around 1870.

So we paid our entrance fee, parked the peril, and started our walking tour of the gardens. We saw our first alligator since Florida all those years ago, and then decided to go around the maze.

Halfway round, the heavens opened and a big old thunderstorm soaked us, coz we were lost!

After twenty minutes under a tree, very sensible in a thunderstorm, we ran, yes ran, to the plantation house and sheltered on the humungous wrap around porch/balcony.

The rain finally relented and we continued our tour.

The place is well laid out, but unfortunately there were not a lot of shrubs or bushes in bloom, so it was a sea of greens. Still, pleasant all the same.

The plantation house, is typical of the time, big doors, porches and lots of white painted columns.

There were also the original slave quarters still standing, but the rain started again so we left.

We drove to Charleston, which is a wonderful old city. The old historical downtown has a wonderful walkway market, a single story brick building with lots of openings, filled with iron grills and bars. These date back to the 1840’s when the building was built originally to hold and sell slaves as they came off the boats in Charleston Harbor.

There were quite a few women weaving and selling baskets, out of sweetgrass. These women were from the Gullah people, a group of Black Americans who live in South Carolina and Georgia, and who have managed to maintain their African heritage more than other black descendants. The Gullah speak a version of Sierra Leone Creole. The original slaves were brought in to tend the rice fields of the area, since the white plantation owners knew rice would grow in the moist conditions, but didn’t have a clue how to grow it!!

Charleston also boasts Fort Sumter, a military outpost on an island in the bay, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861.

We had a very enjoyable lunch/tea at an Irish type pub, and the draught Boddingtons went down without touching the sides!!

As we sat outside, we watched life go by, consisting mainly of bike taxis and horse and mule drawn carriages. All very slow and sedate.

It was hot and very humid after all the rain.

After our walk around the historic area, which does have some fabulous old buildings, we drove out of town, and over the east side of the bay on the magnificent Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which is virtually identical to the Sunshine Skyway bridge of Tampa Bay. The bridge was named after a state legislator, who happened to be big in real estate and general contracting, and whose son was indicted for allegedly buying and distributing cocaine.

We took some pix of the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier, but did not take the tour.

We got back early to the coach, as we want to make an early start tomorrow for another destination.

A very enjoyable day, despite the rain.

Wildlife watch today was a alligator, gooses, rooster, guinea fowl, and some peacocks.

Day 115

After a wonderful break at Karen and Larry’s place, we had to leave and move on to pastures new.

Thank you both very much for your crashing hospitality!! You too, Sally.

We left Clemmons and took back roads all the way south in North Carolina, and wiggled our way into South Carolina, east of Charlotte, without going on any freeways.

We passed miles and miles of cotton fields, white as snow in places, but we are not sure of the harvesting time, so we don’t know how ready the cotton was.

We also saw yet another rainbow, this one came from nowhere.

We were going to spend the night at a rest stop, near Charleston, but there are signs posted everywhere forbidding, under pain of death or something, any overnight camping, so we trogged on, past Charleston, and Marlipops did it again!!

She found a perfect campsite, 12 miles away from the big city of Charleston, and we have full hook ups for very cheap, and we are in some secluded woods, facing a lake, and with no neighbors.

Brill!!

We intend to stay for at least 3 nights, coz we want to investigate both Charleston and Savannah, Georgia, which is not a million miles away.

Wildlife watch today was nothing except the red cardinals in Karen’s backyard, and the dog.

Day 114

Another really laid back day, having a holiday from our vacation!

It started with a bang,……..and I promised to say no more about that!!!!

10 minutes after Larry left for school this morning, he called to let us know the bank he was at was being robbed!!

We later found out that a blue bath-robed robber got away with lots money, and Larry was almost in the thick of things. He was lucky not to get arrested as an accomplice, since he was dressed for his school, in his chef’s uniform! Luckily, he was not detained, and off to school he went.

We decided to go to Old Town Salem, which dates back to the late 1700’s. This place is touristy, but in a very well done manner. All the buildings are as they were originally, there are no gaudy signs or billboards or glitzy gift shops.

The town has a lot of residential properties, and the owners are not allowed to have any modern day items in the yards. So things like kids toys and barbecue grills are not allowed, and if they have vegetable gardens, they are required to grow only what was around when the place was first built.

So, lots of red brick and timber buildings, all with copper downspouts, red brick sidewalks and lots of shady trees. There were few people about, so, a thoroughly enjoyable morning, followed by a nice lunch, served by wait staff in period costume.

This evening, we went over to brother in law Larry’s culinary school. The class he attends for chef school had an evaluation evening, for food and beverage service, where first semester students waited on guests, and the whole menu was prepared by second semester students. We were charged the ridiculously inexpensive price of $ 7.50 each, for the three course meal. The food was excellently prepared and served, and the menu was very varied.

A very enjoyable evening.

Wildlife watch was a pigeon and a frog that Larry squished.

Day 113

Today we did not a lot.

A leisurely morning, chatting with sis Karen, and then a little bit of shopping, and a wonderful lunch at The Village House, in Clemmons. They did an excellent quiche, with salad, and then a key lime pie to die for. The girls had bread pudding with some delectable cream, which was also yummy.

This evening the four of us went across to Greensboro, North Carolina, to a Cirque Du Soleil performance. This was called Saltimbanco, and was, as usual, brilliant. Excellent acrobatics, wonderful music and magical costumes. A very good performance, even though it was opening night.

So, today’s report is like me, short and sweet.

No animals apart from Sally, the dog of the house.

Day 112

Another wonderful night’s sleep at Wal Mart, this one in Asheville, North Carolina.

We got up late, coz we can, and drove the few miles down the road to the Biltmore Estate, a must see tourist attraction of the area.

Must see, and must have deep pockets. $ 45.00 to get in, $ 8.00 extra for the audio tour, and no photography inside the building (but you can buy our glossy photo brochure for an extra $ 15.00).

Of course, your valiant Captain snuck a picture or two while walking around!

Anyway, we are tourists, so we did the visit, and it was well worth the money.

Old Grandfather Vanderbilt, amassed a large fortune during the 1800’s, Father Vanderbilt inherited the large fortune, and had doubled it within 10 years, and it was then inherited by George Vanderbilt.

When he got it, the fortune, by today’s prices, was worth 96 billion dollars.

Move over Billy Gates.

He decided to buy North Carolina and the Great Smokey Mountains, and build all the castles of England, Ireland and Scotland, together with The Palace of Versailles, and roll them into one building.

This huge house is named Biltmore. The name is derived from the last part of his own name, and the old English word for open spaces, more. Nobody thought or dared to tell him the correct spelling is Moor.

The place has 250 rooms, eighty of them are bathrooms, was one of the first in the country to have indoor plumbing, electricity and working flush toilets.

It is a maze. The basement contains separate rooms, for vegetables, pickles, and a whole room for drying clothes. A separate room just for roasting meat, a separate bakery, and too many servant bedrooms to count. There are four acres under the roof. It has a huge indoor swimming pool, billiard room, and an indoor bowling alley.

And, as usual, gift shops galore! (Eventually this country is going to be one ginormous Wal-Mac-Sam-K-Mart-Gift Shop.)

For the time it was built, very opulent, no expense spared at all. There are 8000 acres of estate, with all sorts of gardens and greenhouses dotted around. At one time, the estate encompassed 125,000 acres, literally as far as Old George could see in any direction, which did indeed encompass most of The Great Smokey Mountains and some of North Carolina.

It would seem the successors to Old George have frittered away 96 billion dollars, if they have to resort to having strangers from all over the world trample through their house!!

The truth is that the state asked the family to open up the house during the depression, in the hopes of bringing in more tourism dollars.

After this experience, we got on Interstate 40, again, drove 150 miles and are now safely settled in at The Family Motel, in downtown Clemmons, North Carolina.

Our hostess, Karen, ( Marlipop’s sister) made a delicious soup and bread dinner, from leftovers, and then told us it was one of Mom’s recipes!!

Wildlife watch today was tons of butterflies, wasps, bees, Canadian Gooses and a snake.

Day 111

A very comfortable, quiet nights rest at Wal Mart, Chattanooga.

We picked up Interstate 24, but only for a few miles, since we don’t like freeways, and love the back country roads.

We took TN 11 north, through Athens and Philadelphia (we do get around) and stopped for a tour of a dairy farm, and cheese making plant.

This farm had over 700 milk producing cows, lots of calves, and just a couple of bulls.

The cows are milked 3 times a day, round the clock, and produce on average 10 gallons of milk per day. They are kept in a huge air conditioned barn, with unlimited food and water, and it is interesting to note that there is a social pecking order between them. We also found it fascinating that when one cow peed, several others followed suit. Typical females, have to go to the bathroom together!!

The young girl who showed us round was extremely smart, knowledgeable and witty.

About 80 % of the milk produced goes for drinking, and the rest is processed into cheese.

They have a wonderful array of flavors, and we bought some special reserve, made in 2002. Excellent tasty!!

Afterwards, we looked and looked and looked for corn mazes, but could not find any that were open. We are sure that sis in North Carolina knows of hundreds locally to her, and will be delighted to show us some!!!

We then got to Pigeon Forge. This is the home of Dolly Parton and Dollywood.

To be polite, it was not to our taste. It was another mini Vegas, or a bigger version of Branson, a long strip full of all kinds of glitzy stuff, and rides for the kids.

Great if you have family and are easily entertained.

So, we didn’t stop, but went down the road to Gatlinburg, right on the edge of The Smokey Mountain National Park.

Marlipops liked this place, it was a street lined with a thousand little shops and stores.

We drove for a few miles up into the park, and the mountains, then turned round and came back. They were very pretty, and we could see the haze from which they get their name.

We left the area, and headed onto Interstate 40, through the mountains, and the tunnels,
leaving behind a most spectacular sunset, with the blues of the mountains being topped with clouds, which had gorgeous pinks and reds from the sun backlighting them. Unfortunately, we were on a part of the freeway which was wiggly wiggly and uppy downy, so we could not stop to take pix.

Tonight, we have once again landed at a Wal Mart, this time in Asheville, North Carolina.

Wildlife watch today was a gazillion cows, and one fat 16 year old pig..

Day 110

“Pardon Me Al, is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo”

Or, “ Pardon me pal, is that the cat that chewed your new shoes”

Depends on the version you know.

Once again, guess where we are??

After a fitful nights sleep at the rest area, coz of the trucks going past at inconsiderate hours, we left this morning, turned west, since that was the way the freeway went, and descended a five mile mountain, turned round, and came back up the same mountain!

We got to Chattanooga an hour later than anticipated, because there was a time zone change, and we are now in central Atlantic Bermuda time, or something eastern.

We parked the coach at a brand new Wal Mart, right by exit 174 on Interstate 24, for those of you following on Google Earth.

Lookout Mountain pretty much contains all there is to do in Chattanooga, so to Lookout Mountain we went.

Half way up is the turn off to Ruby Falls.

This place was discovered in19 something. There was a known cave system in the mountain, which had to be blocked off when it was decided to run a railroad tunnel through part of the mountain. A local man, by the name of I can’t remember, thought it would be a good idea to excavate an elevator shaft from the top of the mountain down to the cave system, and open it up for the public. The distance needed to drill down was about 450 ft, but when they got 260 feet down, there was a rush of cold air and a new cavern system was discovered. The man whose name we cant remember, henceforth known as Mr. TM, ( That Man) crawled into a hole 2 ft by 4 ft, disappeared for 17 hours, and then reappeared screaming or shouting “we’ve won the lottery”, or something like that. It took another couple of years or so, and finally Ruby Falls was open to the public.

It is named after the wife of Mr. TM.

After descending the 260 ft in the elevator, you walk for “two fifths” of a mile, in very narrow, low ceilinged paths, basically in the limestone rock fault lines, and finally come to the falls.

They are quite spectacular.

A vast cavern opens up, and water falls from185 ft above into a pool, 5 ft deep. There are multi colored lights, and “dramatic” music piped in from above, and all around, but the effect is very good.

If you suffer from severe claustrophobia, don’t visit. Your valiant captain nearly succumbed to the dreaded enclosed feeling, but managed to hold on for Marlipop’s sake.

Afterwards, we exited, through a gift shop.

We then drove further up the mountain to Rock City.

We thought that Lookout Mountain only had these two places on it, but it is a very busy place, lots of private drives and houses, stores, post office and gas station. Very normal, but just high up.

Rock City is a place discovered by another Mr. TM, back in the mists of time. He wandered in one day, saw lots of big rocks all higgledy piggledy, and decided this would be a good place to make some money, so he called it Rock City, built a few bridges and walking paths, put a fence around it and started charging exorbitant amounts of cash for people to look at……………rocks.

However, there is a wonderful part called, with great originality, “Lovers Leap’, which has a really good panoramic view over seven states.

The truth is stretched a bit here, coz they reckon that Virginia is visible, 120 miles away. The basic laws of visual physics come into play here, and together with the curvature of the earth, the haze, and where the sun is, all make this a bit too much to believe.

Anyway, still a great view.

We then came down the mountain, and wandered into the downtown area, where we visited the “Chattanooga Choo Choo”, a real old time steam train, with it’s attached carriages.

Next door was the model train museum. HO gauge railway modeling at its best. We spent over an hour marveling at the skill and ingenuity of the people who put this display together.

The room was about 300 feet long, and the display was the full length, and at least 30 feet wide. There were literally hundreds of different individual scenes, and at any one time there were a minimum of seven trains running around the various tracks and circuits. Excellent.

Then back to Wal Mart and the coach, only to find we were surrounded by vehicles!

No way out! Gridlock!

There was a Tabernacle Festival going on right beside the coach, with tents and live music and tables full of grills and hot dogs and burgers and millions of kids running round. So, we sat in the coach, and decided to stay where we were for the night! That was a decision we did not have to take long over!!

So here we are, and off to all points east in the morrow.

(Karen, we are getting closer)

Wildlife watch today was some bored looking white deer in Rock City, and a Praying Mantis.

Day 109

It must be the air, or the position of the moon or something, coz today was yet another wonderfully fascinating day.

It started with 100% full marks to Marlipops.

After two days of stewing things over mentally, she said to me at 6 in the morning, “ We are not stupid. We can figure out, between us, what is wrong with the slide room not working. Let’s get out the wiring diagrams and see if we can fix it.”

So we did, and we did. Not rocket science, but with two logical minds working together, with no arguing, we finally pinned it down to one yellow wire not doing it’s job. So, we will now go to a Cummins dealer, at our convenience, and politely tell them to put permanent fittings on the temporary ones we installed this morning.

Then, we left Whispering Pines RV park, via a field. The road we should have taken out still had a tree in the way, and the other path was too tight for the coach, so across a field we went, towing the peril, right across a drainage culvert. I did not stop until I was way across the other side of the road, in hopped the ‘Pops and we was off!!

Don’t know if the culvert survived, and don’t really care!!

We headed through Clarksville, by road, not the last train, and didn’t see a single Monkee.

We came to a tiny little village with the interesting name of Bell Buckle. It was their annual summer fair/fete thingy, and the whole town was there, all 50 of them. They had a fantastic old ice cream parlor, which we duly helped financially, and some great antique shops as well.

Also, because they knew we were coming, they had very nicely arranged for Miss Tennessee 2007 to show up!! I asked her if she would like her picture taken with me, coz we had come all the way from England to see Bell Buckle and her. (See, the accent does help)

She told me she would be delighted to pose with me, provided I stopped telling such whopping lies!

Very pleasant young lady, with a great personality. She will go far.

After that, we left, and headed towards Nashville. We did not stop, but drove past The Grand Ole Opry, and we were impressed with the size and quality of the freeway. Six and seven lanes each way, very smooth, and I was cruising at a steady 65 all the way through. Then I slowed down when I saw the limit was 55.

The weather today has been gorgeous, mid seventies and bright blue sky. There were literally hundreds of motor bikes out, with people of all ages riding them. We reckon there was a rally on somewhere.

So, on through Shelbyville and past farm and ranch after farm and ranch, with tobacco fields, and Tennessee Walker Horses. Rolling downs, all neatly kept, and miles and miles of white fences.

We then got to the little town of Lynchburg.

This is where Jack Daniels Whiskey comes from.

We took the guided tour, and our tour guide, Paul, was an absolute star. A real down to earth Tennesseean, with a dour sense of humor, and a brilliant guide.

We each got a squirt of 140 proof whiskey, from a can that looked like a weed killer can, and it was strong!!

We have learned a new word.

Functionable. Paul used this a couple of times, we are sure he meant functional, but Functionable sounds a lot better.

The tour itself was highly educational, even though we have been to breweries and distilleries before. There are only 400 workers here, yet this whiskey gets to 140 countries around the world, as well as all over the states.

It was the first still registered in the US, in 1866, and you can buy a whole barrel, 24 cases total, plus the barrel, for around $ 9000.00.

It stayed alive during 28 years of prohibition, when cough syrup became increasingly popular, and the county the still is located in is actually a dry county!! The only place you can buy whiskey in this county is right there in the company store!!

We then wandered around the little burg of Lynchburg, which is basically JackDanielstown, but still very pleasant.

We then drove on, through Winchester, and have landed at a rest area on Interstate 24, about 50 miles west of Chattanooga, Tennessee, that of the choo choo fame.

The back roads of this state are wonderful. They twist and turn, we cannot go much above 35 mph, lots of hills and valleys, but so much more interesting to drive than the freeways. Not being on a schedule has its advantages.

Wildlife watch today was some emus, turkeys and a couple of stray dogs wandering the highways and byways.