My trip was cut short

I was supposed to go to Chattanooga, TN for the rest of my trip, but I received some good news.  I have a contract on my house!!!!!   If things go well, we will close May 22.  That doesn't give me much time to do everything that needs to be done so I decided to go home early. 

If this goes through, it means I will become a Fulltime RVer on May 21.  I'm not even sure where I will go from here.  I will head out west, probably to California to get the dent fixed.  I also want to get some work done on the RV (Solar panels installed, surge protector installed, see level gauges installed...).   I'll take my time going out west as I adjust to living in the RV.

I have a lot of challenges coming up over the next few weeks.  I am renting a storage unit, but I don't want to store too much.  I'm hoping to get away with a 10 x 10 unit, but I am questioning if that will be big enough.  So what do I throw away, give away, store or take with me???  Luckily I have been thinking about this for a year, so I have already gotten rid of a lot of stuff and I have some ideas on what I want to take and store but it's still overwhelming!

By the way, the last campground that I stayed at was made just for me.  Or I should say for my RV - When I saw the campground, I knew I had to stay at the campground named for my RV!! (For those who don't know I have a Lazy Daze RV).  Here is my RV (and my CRV) at the campground.

Smokies

The first part of this week it was a bit rainy and cold.  I set up camp in Townsend in the rain, luckily it doesn't take too long!  On Monday I headed to Hardwood Cove Nature trail because that is supposed to be one of the best wildflower hikes around.  Just before turning into the parking lot, I came across a traffic jam - The picture isn't great as it was taken from inside my car, but you can see the reason for the jam!   After the Nature trail, I hiked the  Little River Trail/Cucumber Gap/Jakes Creek trail and it ended up drizzling a good bit of the time.  It also rained fairly hard off and on - that made for an interesting hike.  I still enjoyed the hike.  Another day, I hiked to Abrams Fall's in Cades Cove.  This is one of my favorite hikes in the park.  On the way to the falls, I saw the wildflower, Bleeding Heart, for the first time in the wild - it's quite a bit different from the cultivated Bleeding Heart that you may see at a nursery. 

The weather started clearing up as the week went by.  Today, the temperature was almost 80!  Yesterday I realized that I have this great camp site just beside the river and had not even sat outside because I've been so busy (or it was too cold and rainy).  I've yet to learn to slow down and relax - that is until this afternoon.  I did a 5 mile hike at Porter's creek this morning and was back to my campsite by 2:00.  The rest of the afternoon I sat by the river just relaxing and reading!!  You can see the river out the back window from my RV (you might need to click on the picture to enlarge it).   Below are a few pictures of some wildflowers --

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To get here earlier this week, I ended up taking the long way from Moccasin Creek State Park to Townsend, TN because I was not sure about driving through the Smokies.  I've done it in my car many times, but never in a 27 ft Motorhome towing a Honda CRV.  For the most part, I've become comfortable driving the motorhome while towing, but I wasn't sure about my mountain driving skills, so I found an easier way to the campground.  My favorite campground in the park is Elkmont, but I didn't stay there this trip.  I am thinking I will come back in June to see the fireflies (see this link synchronous fireflies) and stay at that campground.  Which means I will have to drive the motorhome down the hilly, curvy and narrow Little River road!! So if your in the park in early June, watch out for Blue Lazy Daze. 

North Georgia Mountains

For a couple of weeks, I'll be in the mountains - North Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. 

I started in Moccasin Creek State Park in Clarksville, GA.  I've stayed at this park several times as it is only about 20 minutes from my mother's house.  If you are into fishing, boating (I saw several canoes) or just taking it easy by the lake, this is a great place.  Lake Burton is a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains.   This picture was taken while relaxing on a swing.  In addition to just relaxing, I hiked the Hemlock Falls Trail.  It's a fairly easy trail, except for the part where the trail was just about gone!!  This is a picture of the Little Falls on that trail. 

The next week or so, I will be in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (or close by).  I was originally going to stay at the Elkmont campground in the park, but I remembered I still have a bunch of KOA gift certificates.  So, that's where I am at the KOA in Townsend, TN.   Out my back window is a nice river, I'll post pictures in a few days.