Month: May 2017

Even though it is mostly known for the famous singer, a drive through the countryside around Sevierville shows there is more than just an amusement park to look at.

What would a visit to Tennessee be without a visit to the local moonshine distiller. Made from corn and filled straight into the bottle it has a high alcohol content and per our local moonshine professional lends itself to produce great margarita.

We had to go and see the covered bridge from 1875 and compare the sight to all the covered bridges we had encountered in Pennsylvania. Interesting to see that the bridge is very similar to the northern version.

Born in Sevierville and the famous daughter who came back and started Dollywood.
Her likeness now sits outside the Sevierville County Courthouse

After a day of rest, mainly due to the storms that hit us last night and lingered on all day, we decided to check out the neighborhood and drive through Pigeon Forge to the NP.

As we headed towards the mountains traffic was fairly light.

It turns out this is one huge amusement park, sprinkled with all kinds of eateries and motels in between.

We finally got to the National Park and found the Visitor’s Center more than crowded, unable to stop we took a road into the park that was not closed.

Unbeknownst to us, the main road through the park was closed, as the heavy storms downed several trees and made the roads unpassable.

So we turned around and drove back through Gatlinburg, TN, knowing we had another 12 days to visit.

As we were leaving the Greenville-Spartanburg area and headed through Asheville, NC towards Tennessee, the scenery started to gradually change from hills to mountains.

Crossing the southern portion of the Appalachian Mountains is always a challenge with the RV. Telling that we have to climb in the truck only lane and slowing down to 40 mph as we go up.

We finally reached Sevierville, TN at the bottom of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

So we set up camp and look forward to the long Memorial Day weekend.

Wow, the week went by faster than we thought. Got here on Sunday afternoon and are already leaving tomorrow.

Lots of work during the week and of course 2 dinners and 1 lunch with customers, the main reason for the stop.

All went well, the Campground is beautiful and quite, but unfortunately a bit far away from Greenville, SC. With the traffic as terrible as it is on I-85 it took us almost an hour to get to our appointment.

Spartanburg was convenient to get to, shopping at ALDI was no problem.

Here are some impressions from the Campground.

On the way from Walterboro, SC to Roebuck, SC (a suburb of Greenville-Spartanburg) we did one of our usual pit stops at Pilot/Flying J to fuel up, fill up DEF, coffee, water and whatever else is needed.

I remembered Don asking where we fueled up on the way and this picture is for you Don.
We are the 2nd from the left, just in case.

So here we are, on the road again.

After the Texas trip and the not quite satisfactory repairs on the RV, we made an appointment with REV Group in Decatur, IN and decided to build our next trip around the appointment.

Having met Brian and Barb in Cedar Key over Christmas 2016 we decided to make them the northern most focal point. As you may remember, they own a campground in Mio, MI.

So we got most everything done in the 6 weeks since Texas, and off we go.

First stop is Walterboro, SC, the campground we stayed at 2015 when we did the SC, TN, GA trip. We knew it to be convenient to get to and from and big enough to park.