8th day of travel - interesting drive - Day 870 (Yr 3, Day 137)

Kodak, TN

Kodak is in the same neck of the woods where we had our RV-Dreams spring rally in May, 2015 - near Seiverville, Pidgeon Forge and Gatlinburg.  Wish I had the time to go back to Gatlinburg and do the moonshine tours again!!!

For a change, we were able to hit the road on time (8:15 actually), but I think every driving obstacle there could be, we hit (with me behind the wheel for most of it.  Hey, it's a great way to get over my fears and anxieties!  I'm really proud of myself).

First there were the mountains (hills by most people's standards, but enough for me to feel the engine going into overdrive going up and the engine brakes going down).  Going through the mountains was really beautiful, though.  I can only imagine what it looked like a few weeks ago when everything was in full fall foliage colors.  Now we could only see the remnants of browns and reds.  Still, it was much nicer than passing through all that farmland or empty pastures, and a lot more enjoyable than passing through metropolitan areas with all the malls and big box stores.

Next was traffic, particularly a lot of trucks.  We passed through Knoxville, which is also a major metropolitan area with an impressive skyline.  Not sure if I mentioned this previously (forgive me if I did) - when I first started driving about 30 years ago, I was not only petrified of passing trucks, but driving around curves.  Now I pass them in my big rig, and drive around narrow winding curves as well!  Still, white knuckles!)  There were also several areas of road construction.

Last was a huge mistake that cost us about 45 minutes.  When we started getting upset and panicky, we had to remind ourselves that it's all part of the adventure....  When we got off the exit, the roads here are mountainous and very narrow and winding.  First, somehow we managed to miss the entrance to the RV park and had to go around in a circle on these types of roads to retrace our steps.  Then, when we got back to the road the park was on, the GPS told us we had reached our destination.  We didn't see an RV park sign; just something that said mobile home park, so we turned in.  WRONG!!  The RV park was actually about 200 yards farther down the road.  Of course, this little development was nothing but hills and narrow roads and private homes with no place to make a U-turn.  We pulled into a road with the hopes of being able to back up around a curve.  Oy, oy, oy!!!!!  I believe in Divine Providence and believe an angel was sent to guide us.  45 minutes later, a woman came by.  She said she was watching us; she didn't want to insult us by asking if we needed help but after so long, she'd take the chance.  Her parents owned RVs for many years and were also truck drivers, so she offered to help guide us.  We thankfully accepted.  Unfortunately, she wasn't quite as experienced as she thought and we were getting nowhere, so she decided to go back to the house and get her father.  He came out, took the wheel, and had us backed out and facing the right direction within 2 minutes - 1,2,3!!!  Geez - I wonder if we'll ever get that good at backing up!

We finally pulled into the campground, to find that it is really a huge field with a bunch of spaces for RVs.  It's pretty much totally empty here and is absolutely magnificent (except for all the hills and the white knuckle roads getting to it).  Even when full, there's just so much land.  Here are a few photos from various angles around our rig:

    


There are no lights in the campground that I can see, so if the sky remains clear, we may be able to see a blanket of stars.  I'm also  hoping that Mitch may be amenable to digging out our fire pit and wood and  we can take a bottle of wine outside and sit around a campfire. Stay tuned and learn if we did that or stayed indoors and watched tv.