Plum Nelly

Man-Of-The-House and I took a couple days for a shakedown and get acquainted trip with the motorhome. We drove to Ellijay, GA and stayed in a private campground. We searched for a campground that had sewer connections on site, because when I had my experience emptying the black water tank, I didn't want any witnessess!  Several friends who are more experienced campers than we are have had some truly yucky and embarassing things happen to them. Also, since The Lady Anne  is a used motorhome, we wanted to clean out the tanks with some equipment  a friend loaned us.  All went successfully, but I have to say that I am glad that I listened to that little voice in my head that told me to buy new sewer hoses and connections. A look at the hoses that came revealed some cracks and holes…what a messy time we would have had. Disaster averted! (at least for this time, I don’t want to tempt fate)

We also learned how to operate our awning-with the kind help of another camper who climbed all over the rig without a moments hesitation. It seems I had pretty much remembered what the dealer showed me, but when he put the awning back up, he let the pull down strap roll up inside, which meant we couldn't bring the awning down. The helpful camper and I moved  the picnic table next to the camper, he climbed on that and manually unrolled the awning as MOTH and I held down the side supports.

Anyway, we had a quiet couple of days, in the shade of trees and awning while the temps were in the 90s. We always had a pleasant breeze, and when we had enough of the heat, the a/c worked well. We became more acquainted with the motorhome and stored some of our gear, tested the different systems.

The campground is named Plum Nelly, and I think we’ll be back. It was quiet and our spot was rather private. Here’s a view of the mountains from our site:

The road traveled around our site, this is from the road, through the trees to our motorhome.

If you look carefully, you will see MOTH sitting against the camper, contemplating and generally enjoying the breeze in the 90 degree heat. The first night the temperatures were supposed to drop into the 60’s, so we turned off the a/c and opened the windows. By the wee hours of the morning, it had cooled off enough that we were chilled, and I had to put an summer blanket on the bed. HOORAY!

If you’ve ever been in the south, particularly Georgia, you may have been introduced to kudzu. It is an amazing plant and grows unbelievably fast. It was imported years ago from (I think) Japan to be planted on hillsides to prevent erosion. The down side is it covers everything in its path, trees, fences, buildings….anything that will hold still for a few hours. This stuff can grow up to 2 feet in a day. At the campground, it was used to make fencing and as a privacy barrier. Looking away from the back of our site, we wondered what the kudzu was concealing:

Well for goodness sake! That would be one heck of a fall. And I don’t think I’d want to end up in that catch basin, either.

And here’s one last photo, just because I like it.

On the crafty front

I haven’t been doing much. My quilting is pretty much stalled, no good reason, just no inspiration. I did begin another pair of socks (two at a time, toe up) and am almost ready to turn the heel. The yarn is  Blue Moon ‘s  Socks That Rock , the color is Storey-time. I’m using the Lifestyle Toe up Sock explained by Charisa Martin Cairn. She gives methods and procedures, you provide the measurements. I don’t have a link, but you can Google it.

Been keeping busy….

but haven’t been posting.  Our last camping trip (back the end of March) to Skidaway Island was revealing for us. While we have loved using our cute little Aliner camper, it became evident that Man-Of-The-House was having more and more difficulty moving about comfortably/safely in the confined space.  We began considering what other options would allow us to continue traveling and camping.  I’ll spare you the soul searching, research and suspense. We came to a decision, located what we felt will suit our needs.  Here it is:

We had to go to Texas to pick her up and then drive back to Georgia.  I’ve never been that far west before, so I enjoyed the trip, and it gave me a chance to get used to driving something this big. The hardest part for me was……all the darn bridges!!! I hate bridges, I have always hated bridges, I have had nightmares since childhood about bridges.  Yes, they are necessary and can be quite beautiful.  They are just fine if I can just look at them, but crossing them???? Not so much.

Now, the low, flat bridges I don’t mind too much.

This one was getting a little bit higher, my knuckles were getting whiter.

The really big ones with all the heavy metal superstructures- we didn’t get a picture of those. The photographer was too busy praying that I wouldn’t completely freak out and drive us over the side.

We made it home in 3 days and met some lovely people along the way.