It's Been Awhile

Smokey Mountains

Appalachian Trailhead

From the Appalachian Trail

Chesapeake Bay

Atlantic City

Wow! It's been awhile since we posted here in our blog. Sorry to keep everyone hanging. So much has happened since our last entry. We will begin with where we left off.

We said our goodbyes at Mountain Lake Campground. We met alot of friends that we'll keep in touch with. Our fellow workampers threw us a little party a few nights before we departed. The area that we were living in was nearly empty, so we broke a couple of rules, cranked up some music and actually danced around in the wilderness.

We left West Virginia and headed to North Carolina to see Craig's parents. We did stop for a night in Charlottesville, Virginia. We went into town and the traffic was...hmmm...scary. Our first thoughts were "take us back to the wilderness"! We had not dealt with traffic for a few months, so it took a little getting used to.

When we arrived in North Carolina, we were able to setup our camper next door to the parents. Their neighbor has a field with water and sewer connections. We ran electricity from the parents house and were good to go. Unfortunately when we arrived, Craig had come down with a bug. It was a nasty one too. His parents were on the receiving end of it, which made us feel terrible. But everyone is better now.

While in North Carolina, we took off for a few days and headed up the coast to Atlantic City. We crossed the Chesapeake Bay on the bay bridge tunnel. Then we crossed the Delaware Bay on the Cape May - Lewes ferry. It was a beautiful trip! Craig got to play in a poker tournament while we were there. We strolled along the beach and the boardwalk. Atlantic City is nice along the boardwalk, but looks pretty rough when you go a block or two inland.

We headed back to North Carolina and stuck around for about 3 weeks. Craig's parents are doing well. It was wonderful to visit with them. It did rain quite a bit the last few days we were there. Other than that, it was a great stay!

Our next job is in Campbellsville, Kentucky with Amazon.com. We were supposed to start the 3rd of October, but Amazon.com called us and pushed it back to the 17th. So we started our journey to Kentucky. We stopped in Asheville, NC for a couple of nights. Very nice! This is the retirement capital of the USA. How could we tell? Well, there were a couple of obvious signs. Everyone drove around with their blinker on. Also, on the on-ramp to the highway (aka the acceleration ramp), people would come to a complete stop. And once you got on the highway, everyone was in the left lane going 40 mph.

Next stop was Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Home of Dolly Parton and Dollywood! Well, it's a bit "touristy" there, for lack of a better term. We did venture into Smokey Mountain National Park. Beautiful. The leaves were just starting to turn. We found the infamous Appalachian Trail. This trail is over 2000 miles long, stretching from Georgia to Maine. We hiked four miles of the trail. It was a tough hike! Nearly a 1000 feet elevation gain. We had a wonderful day and took some great pictures.

So now here we sit in Campbellsville, Kentucky. We start at Amazon.com on Monday. The campsites here are a bit tight. But we've already met some nice people here.

There's a social hour everyday at a neighbors camper. We asked someone what their plans are after leaving here. We loved their response. "Everything's in pencil. We can erase and change whatever we want, whenever we want". Most of the fulltimers here have been on the road for many years. They all seem to love the lifestyle.