Greetings! Currently I'm sitting (ready to roll out as soon as I post this blog) on the outskirts of TN. I'll be driving around the Smoky Mountains and into North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest where, God willing, I'll honker down for a few days as I'm assured a spot with electric, sewer and water ~ ah, the finer points of living ;-)
I was wet yesterday and and some of my outside stuff got wet. Currently it's sitting in the sunshine, albeit the 'feels like 41' instead of the 43 degree reading. I'm sitting with a view of a mountain range and peak and it is very pleasing to my soul; even if background traffic mars the surroundings. I left Ohio Monday morning and after my few stops of business I had to complete, decided to spend the night in Wayne National Forest; Ohio has only one. It was pleasant enough and I was the only human being there. Remember, dear reader, that the safest place is always in the hands of God, despite one's external surroundings. This truth kept my sanity as my daughter served her time in Iraq over a decade ago. I moved on from Ohio and into Kentucky and stopped in a campground off the freeway in order to plug in for electric; decided not to hook up the water as I was living in the morning. I just filled my pitcher and still have some of that left. ;-) One learns quickly how to best economize. Tonight I am looking forward to a shower & shampoo in the awesome shower that my amazing son built for me. 💞 After leaving that campsite, I travelled to Cumberland Falls in Corbin, KY. I had spoken to and taken good notes on an excellent spot for boondocking near the Falls but after traveling 5 miles into the mountain area on bumpy gravel road with no space to turn around, I decided at the next viable spot to do so and just headed to the Falls. I missed the day rainbow which didn't sadden me too much as I've had the privilege of seeing a few in my lifetime. I spoke with a few other dispersed campers, a couple from CA who built out their own driving travel rig and another couple from Germany who shipped theirs across the ocean. I was able to see the lunar rainbow and with the naked eye, I could not detect color, however, the woman next to me with her extremely fancy camera could see some reds and greens; her exposure time to capture this phenomenon was two minutes! See reminded me of a very dear friend back in Ohio <3 As there really wasn't a spot to safely bunk down for the night, I decided to continue driving towards TN and made it to Gatlinburg or Seiverville, TN. To my extreme dismay, a door & lock that had functioned fine in KY would not now open. I opened the toy door and investigated that way but I still couldn't get the man door to open nor could I stay in the trailer as I couldn't close the toy door from within. I spent the night curled up on the driver's half of the front seat; thankfully I had a small blanket in the truck cab. In my hand-written journal I documented a few trials of the night so as not to forget that event. I waited until 6 am or so to reach out to my son (I'm still pretty brain dead from driving and not really sleeping) and he provided some suggestions. In the end I found a trailer place and although they couldn't resolve the issue there, they were able to notify their Knoxville location that I was on my way and what the issue was. Five hours and rain later, I'm back in the general area I had vacated that morning. Again from my son and per his suggestion, I joined Passport America and found a campground for 1/2 the regular fee. They had already winterized which translate as "no water anywhere to be found" but I took the spot as I need the electricity for the heater. It dropped to 30 degrees last night and was mighty chilly. Heading out now. Enjoy some of these photos. :-) Well it looks like I had to forgo the photos for now. There wasn't enough juice from my phone's hotspot to upload them. Sorry about that. This will follow...
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...mini house on wheels is loaded 🎉 ...departure day has arrived 👏🏼 ...getting a blog posted 🤓 Here are the much awaited photos (next photos will hopefully be sized & spaced better; getting used to working inside this format) ~ and thank you for your patience. And a huge shout out to all of you for your tireless efforts in helping me get to this point. This includes packing up my stuff and moving out of Wadsworth back in the summer (doesn't that seem so long ago already?). For fear of inadvertently leaving off a name and thereby causing unintentional opportunity for slight, I'm just sending out a blanketed group hug to all. Blessings😇🤗🥰 I contemplated how I felt when I saw actual snow falling. Should it be dismay or excitement? I think a bit of both. Dismay because it's been very cold working fervently for six days straight trying to condense a life-time of remaining accumulations into a 6x12 trailer and the back of a 5 1/2 foot pick up bed. Also excitement of seeing the beauty of snow fall, especially the first fall of the season. I like to see the snow on the branches of pine trees. Well, it's either very late or very early ~ either way, the actual journey begins today, Monday, November 15, 2021. To start my day, I'll be getting both the truck and trailer weighed and then heading south on 71 with Corbin, Kentucky as the first official 'fun' part of my new adventure; I'll attempt to take pictures of the lunar rainbow but no promises as I don't have the correct equipment to that type of photography and there is no guarantee for clear skies. More verbiage in next blog 😉 "This is the day the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it, " Psalms 118:24 Godspeed |
AuthorHelen ~ who is on a journey discovering. Archives
February 2022
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