June 8, 2018 - I Killed My Computer

It started off as a beautiful day.  The sun was shining and all was bright (and dappled).

Big Creek was flowing clear and cold.

This Giant Leopard Moth was resting on a tree near the toilet building.

Then I went and ruined my day by closing my computer with a ballpoint pen lying on the keyboard!

This was all I could see.  We waited for the next Monday to drive to the Best Buy in Farragut, TN. The Geek Squad said they don't carry old screens.  I could probably find one online and they would replace the screen for me.  I decided to go ahead and buy a new computer since the beloved Lenovo was so old.  Then, we had to make another trip after they transferred the data from the old computer to the new one. When I finally got my new computer, I realized that I had left my program disks at home. The next week, we went back to buy new software.

June 7, 2018 - A Little Bit of Wildlife

This snail was along the campground road.

We saw this doe several times in the forest along the campground road.

Some horseback riders stopped at our site to tell us that a tree had fallen across the trail, so we walked down to have a look.  It was not a very big log - until we tried to move it.  It was a tall, tall tree wedged between standing trees.  Andy called dispatch to report it.

This is the spot where the trail divides.  The left path goes to the horse day-rider parking lot and the right one goes to the horse campground.  I love the green-ness of the Smokies!

We only heard a bit of a Search and Rescue underway today.  A man fell fifty yards off Alum Cave Trail, a very steep mountainside. Rescue Ranger Heath was on the rescue team.  Dispatch announced, "emergency traffic only".

June 24, 018 - Not Dead

No, we did not get lost in the forest.  Or fall off a cliff. Or get run over by a truck on the interstate. We are well and fine.

It was the computer that died.  I killed it by closing it up with a ball-point pen lying on the keyboard. Cracked the screen. We waited until the next Monday to go out and buy a new computer.  Then we waited for them to transfer data from the old computer. I finally got the new computer and then realized that I did not have my program disks for Photoshop or Quicken.  I can't write a decent post without pictures.  Since I can't find my voice recorder, the pictures remind me what happened during the day.

June 2, 2018 - Rain

It occurred to me today that I have not been reporting what we hear on the park radio.  I have noticed that I am not tuned into it.  There could be a lot more going on in the park than I realize since I am not paying close attention.

I can say that we have heard of three motorcycle accidents so far.    Yesterday, there was a lost 15-year-old boy who hiked on ahead of his family up the Alum Cave Trail to Mt. LeConte.  The family had not seen him all day.  A team was formed to look for him on the likely trails.  It was about dark when a ranger reported "Got him" at Newfound Gap. He had followed the wrong trail back out.  Today, a man slipped and fell on a slippery floor and hit his head against the wall.  That was probably in one of the toilet buildings.  With this humidity and rain, they can be very wet inside.  An ambulance arrived and they checked the man.  He was going to go to the hospital or doctor in his own car.

It seems there are bear reports every half hour.  Rangers and volunteers try to shoo a bear back into the woods and attempt to keep bear/human interactions and traffic backups to a minimum.  Boss Larry assisted a woman hiker who said she was followed on a trail by a mountain lion.  Larry was convinced the woman was believable although the park officials do not think there are any mountain lions left.

May was relatively quiet for Andy and me.  There has been so much rain that many campers do not show up.  A large percentage of them leave before their reservations are over. We have had a good number of day visitors hiking up to the Midnight Hole, but we have given up trying to control the parking when things get hectic.  Also, people seem to be going to park in the horse camp on their own without us having to tell them. The group site has had no-shows at least half the time.

June 1, 2018 - It Was Electric

The root canal job was finished this week.  Now I need to return to the dentist to get a filling where the endodontist drilled through the crown.  Dr. Fred Case has ruined a root canal's bad reputation. It was not big deal, not even unpleasant.  After the root canal, and picking up new RV keys in Knoxville, we returned to Pigeon Forge to see the Dolly Parton Stampede dinner show.

I did not take any pictures so I snatched one from the web.  The stadium/dining room was as interesting as the show itself.  It is a rodeo arena.  The seating is at long narrow tables. There was enough room between the rows for the wait staff to zip along for the dinner service. The show had a lot of rodeo events including barrel racing and fancy riding tricks.  There were also long-horn cattle.  The costumes were great too.  There was also plenty of audience participation which added to the fun. The cutest was pre-schoolers herding chickens. The food was good!

This is my first photo this year of people in the creek.  I have heard whooping and hollering over there so I know these aren't the only ones who have been in the creek.

We drove across the Foothills Parkway one evening and I stopped to get some cloud photos.  It was too dark and I have not captured the magic of little clouds nestled into the hollows of the mountains.  That's what makes them the Smoky Mountains.

The best views of the smoke in the mountains are from Interstate 40, but I can't take a picture from there when I am driving.  We have had rain every day now for weeks.  That is when the smoke is the smokiest.  Big Creek and the Pigeon River have both been a torrent for the last week or so. This is looking upstream from the bridge in the picnic area.

I walked to the far side of the creek to get a picture of Andy on the bridge.  The water is so high that the drop-off is only about two feet.

Andy pointed out this Giant Leopard Moth on the wall outside the men's room this morning. It was difficult to get a picture as the white was so bright - it glowed.

I have been nibbling the wild onion/garlic all week.  This morning I saw a blossom coming out from just below the bulblette.

They are quite tasty if you like onion and garlic.  I had my camp host office-in-a-box in my left hand, the phone in my right hand (talking to Boss Larry), and my mouth full of wild onion/garlic when a deer crossed the campground road in front of me.  I missed the picture.

A bit farther along, the sun was shining on a tiny meadow in the woods.

I zoomed in and saw daylilies.

Andy said there were two deer.  I spotted one as we walked along the campground road. She paused when we did.

She began to amble through the understory.

She came out behind us and hurried across the road.

Once on the other side, she stopped for a nibble.

Then I got another picture for my animal-butt collection.

Boss Larry stopped in to visit and bring us more reservation paperwork. We always enjoy his visits.  He was concerned about our electricity problems.  Andy had a temporary fix by getting an adapter and plugging into the 50-amp outlet.  The problem with that is he could not close the door to the panel and it rains a lot here.

Larry decided to cover it with a plastic trash bag.  He did a good job too.

However, Larry was not gone for long when Tommy, the park electrician, showed up. He took one look at the power panel and said it needed to be replaced.  He happened to bring a new one along in his truck.

I think he must have had one of everything he might need it the truck.

Here is the old panel.  Good riddance.

Rick, his supervisor, helped him mount the new panel on the post.

Rick said he is new to the park and has only been here three months.  He transferred from the Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis. We chatted a bit while Tommy worked with the wiring.  Turns out Rick was from the same area of Missouri where my brother Louis lived.  I couldn't remember the name of Louis's town.  When Andy said it starts with an F, Rick immediately said, "Fordland".  He knows it well.

I thought maybe we shouldn't chat too much and distract the electrician while he worked.  I don't want to be responsible for crossed wires.  We talked when he was done.

Tommy and Rick both know Spence.  They golfed with him for the memorial tournament last month.  Turns out Tommy and I have been living near each other several times in our lives.  I grew up in the Seat Pleasant, Maryland area.  Tommy grew up in adjacent Suitland. Our high school teams were rivals. Andy told him we had lived in Lusby, Maryland before moving onto our boat.  Tommy lived in The Ranch Club, just across the road from our neighborhood.

We have been having a number of electrical problems for the last few weeks.  We hope that this fix will solve all those mysteries.  It has been driving Andy bonkers. I have been smelling that electrical burning/melting smell since we got here and thought it was something in the RV.  Yes, I have been thinking about fire. Maybe the problem was that RV power panel all along.

May 26, 2018 - Scamp's Bathroom

I like to tell people that we have a shower stall with a sink and toilet in it. You are about to see that it is true.

It was a rainy, dreary day today.  When it wasn't raining, it was dripping from the trees.  Two or three times during the day, the sun peeped through the clouds for about thirty seconds before disappearing again. We spent most of the day outside in our screen room enjoying the rain and the sparkling leaves. I did not take any pictures.  Then I decided it was a good day to give you a tour of our bathroom.  It is the smallest I've ever seen.

Here is the door.  It is two bi-fold doors almost as wide as the bathroom itself. There is not enough space to get a good picture. When we use the bathroom, we open both doors straight out to expand the space a bit.  It's still small even then.

The sink and shower head are to the left.  We have been adding little bins to hold our toiletries over the past few weeks.  There are no drawers, cabinets, or linen closets in this bathroom.  There has to be someplace to put the essentials. The bins are divided into his and hers.

Here is another look that includes the floor.

The toilet paper has a cover over it to keep it dry during showers.

I have forgotten and left it open two or three times this past month and drowned the roll of toilet paper. The cover tilts back and into the wall to expose the paper.  When you close it, the roll winds the paper back in a bit so that none hangs out the bottom.  Clever.

There is no room for a trash can!  My solution was a stick-on hook near the floor just inside the door.  I hang a grocery bag on the hook.  The weight of it remains on the floor; the hooks are to hold the bag upright.

The hand towel moves around.  When using the sink, I slide the towel over the toilet.  When I use the toilet, I slide the towel over the sink (usually). Sometimes I just sit under the towel; it's short.

The shower is on the wall behind the sink.  The water pressure is very low to save water.  I have started using less shampoo so it will rinse out faster.

There is a mirror on the wall behind the toilet.  We got two new bins at Tennessee RV Supercenter yesterday. Mine holds shampoo, conditioner, and my cup. Andy's holds his shaving gear. I keep the shower curtain folded up in a knot to keep it out of the way.  After a shower, I hang it spread out across the closet rod to dry.

The toilet a fairly nice.  The bowl is porcelain but the seat is lightweight plastic.  

The exhaust fan is on the ceiling over the toilet.  You push up on the white handle to open it and then push the little red button to turn it on and off.  Then pull the handle down to close it.

There is also a sprayer to spray whatever needs to be sprayed when the job is done. This toilet does a good job of rinsing the bowl.  But, because it uses very little water, sometimes it needs extra.

Now to the crux of the shower taking.  The floor space between the sink and toilet is just big enough to stand in if your feet are not too big. I am wondering if I will have room to turn around to reach my shampoo behind the toilet tomorrow.

The sink is tiny.  I do like the faucet though.  My toothbrushing bins don't stick to the wall too well, so I set them down on the counter.  That leaves almost no room for anything else.

I bought two small, bathroom-sized cups for us.  We keep them in our bins when not in use so the other person can use that counter space too. I have been setting the body wash and hand soap in the sink when we travel.  Now I am thinking of rigging something to hold them in place, maybe a Velcro strap.

The RV stores are selling some nice hooks with suction cups these days.  They hold the promise of staying up better than older styles.  We'll see.

That bathroom is really not big enough to warrant so many pictures!

May 25, 2018 - RV Repairs

Leaves in Sun

Large Tent in Site 2

I was sad to find a very nice pair of hiking boots left next to a boulder in front of the picnic area toilet building. I brought them to the RV, wrapped them in a plastic grocery bag, and set them on the table outside.  No one has come to claim them yet.

Seems like everything is breaking on Scamp.  Andy took to calling it a Winnebreako.  We decided we had a lemon and were most unhappy with our purchase.  I had called several RV dealers in the region last week, but could only get an appointment at Tennessee RV Super Center.  They said they would look at it and order parts, but did not have time to actually work on it for weeks. Our appointment was at 11:30 this morning.  We had time to post registrations at the tent and horse campgrounds before we left. What with a fuel stop and traffic, it took us well over an hour to get there.  I told Andy that, next year, we should volunteer for something in Knoxville.  We seem to be driving there a lot lately.

The list of needed repairs had grown since I made the appointment.  I thought we had some electrical problems as I had smelled a funny smell a few nights.  Clyde suggested a mouse had chewed on some wiring.  We had enough of that here in the past with Sao. The woman at the service desk sighed when I added more work.  We walked over to the Waffle House and ate breakfast while they looked it over.

Happing Camper Getting Breakfast

Later, she came into the customer lounge to report and give us our bill.

They had replaced the motor in the bathroom exhaust fan. That must have been that smell.  The reason our awning would not extend was a bad fuse. Cheap and easy fix. The backup camera/radio/other-stuff monitor stopped working the last time we were out.  The monitor would not work for two reasons, combined.  1. It was set to operate on the house batteries.  2. One of us had apparently kicked the house battery switch to "off" while going in or out the door.  That is a dumb location for it.  It was similarly placed in Sao.  There must be a reason for that.  They also put screws in the shower head bracket that had fallen off the wall the other day. They were all quick and easy fixes so they did the work today.  Yay, we don't have to make two trips. One thing they did not fix is the sliding screen door.  They said it needs to be replaced.  I'll see if I can find a second opinion on that.

On the way home, we decided that maybe Scamp is not a lemon after all. We had seen a terrible tractor-trailer accident on I-40 on the way to Tennessee RV and decided to take a circuitous route through Sevierville and Newport to avoid what must have been a long and horrendous traffic backup with all the holiday traffic on the road. Andy decided we should stop at Doc's 321 Cafe in Cosby for a late lunch.  It is a cute place that Michele had recommended last week.  I liked my sandwich, but Andy was not thrilled with his.

Doc's 321 Diner

Inside the School Bus Diner

 There were bumper stickers all over the bus windows.  Here are a few I like.

My grandma had a washing machine very much like this one.  It was out on the back porch.

We ate outside.

Doc

I asked what kind of a doc he is.  Answer: Barbecue.

As we crossed the Pigeon River heading back to Big Creek, we saw a backpacker who had just come off the Appalachian Trail (in the woods).  He was still on the trail on the bridge but looked lost and confused.  Whenever we see hikers standing there, we stop to point the way.  The man was German and his English was not good enough to understand Andy's directions to Standing Bear Hiker's Hostel across the river and on the north side of the interstate.  We told him to get in the back and we would drive him there.  He was absolutely thrilled!

We were home early enough to help out a few campers.  The tent campground is full tonight and through the weekend.  We have three horse sites occupied and it looked as though there were plenty of horses camped just outside the park.