Rock Island State Park

So, we take the gig as camp hosts for Rock Island State Park in Tennessee. They wanted at least a 30 day commitment, about 25 hours a week from us, and in return we get the free full hook up campsite. No real “job description”, and the only physical labor they wanted was cleaning two bathroom/shower buildings in the campground. The main function they wanted from their camp host(s) was to “meet and greet” campers, kinda the Walmart Greeters of the camping set.  Piece of cake...

The park is located basically in the center of the state, in the middle of the Nashville-Chatanooga-Knoxville triangle. There are two large rivers right here, the Caney Fork and the Collins, with a large dam which is used by TVA to generate power. With that there are some spectacular water falls and a large gorge area. As has been the case for the past month, rain tends to come down in buckets at the drop of a hat and disappear just as quickly, with temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s. The humidity has been bearable, some days a bit heavier than others. We have been taking our time checking out the local sites, as well as nearby towns. Getting used to the local critters and bugs is going to take some time. The park Rangers here said we should not worry about running into Copperhead snakes, a person encounters such a snake about once every 5 years. So much for Ranger math/statistics...We had 2 encounters within one week alone!

Twin Falls, water just pourin' out of the mountainside.

The Gorge just below the dam, a popular swimming hole.

Oops! The Gorge, just after a couple days of rain...

A view of the river, hiking down the Downstream Trail. Water still pourin' out of the mountainside...

Another "view" from the Downstream Trail...Mr. Copperhead blocking our passage.  He was about 3 feet long...

This was "Baby Copperhead" found trying to steal from the Pepsi machine outside the bathrooms at the campground.

One of our eerie friends, just cruisin' through our campsite.

We had to rescue Mr. Snapping Turtle from his wanderings through the traffic lanes of Hwy. 287. He was not too pleased with our unrequested assistance, he nearly snapped the branch off that I used to get him out of the road. Nasty little bugger...

We find flocks of these guys in and around the campground bathrooms...Cicadas, or what I classify them as "house flies on steroids"!

So far, the big towns we have checked out are Chatanooga and Murfreesboro. Jeanne really liked the Murfreesboro area, a town of about 100,000 which shopping-wise reminded her of Santa Rosa, CA. Plus, Murfreesboro is only about 1/2 hour away from Nashville.

The Tennessee River in Chatanooga.

There are a handful of small towns near Rock Island State Park; Sparta, McMinnville, Bell Buckle, Lynchburg (home of Jack Daniels distillery), Manchester, and Tullahoma, just to name a few. Everywhere we turn, Tennesseeans are EXTREMELY polite & friendly, and when they hear that we are full timers looking to relocate in this state, they invariably turn into recruiters, nearly begging us to move to whatever town they live in.

Antique shop in "downtown" Bell Buckle. More like a sight out of the movie, "Back to the Future."

"Vinyl Radio" playing in downtown McMinnville during their summer concert series. "Day on the Green", Tennessee style. They played 70's rock hits...

Well, our hunt continues. Until next time...

Nashville

So we packed up Max and his ma and moved on to the Nashville Jellystone Park. Max had fun there with more “Hey” rides and swimming in the pool. He is turning into quite the fish with his underwater prowess...We stayed at this particular park because it was a bit hard finding places with spaces, we were in the middle of the CMA “Fan Fair” and town was PACKED. We were able to walk around the downtown venue areas and we caught some of the performances in the various stage areas. It was OK, but we did get some rain. OK, a LOT of rain. The drawback to this stopover was that Nashville is a large tourist town and EVERYTHING gets marked up in price, so it can get a bit costly to spend any amount of time here.  Jenn and Max got to see the Gaylord’s Opryland Resort and Opry Mills shopping mall which are very large areas in themselves. While we were in Nashville we took the time to check out the Brentwood and Franklin areas, two suburbs of Nashville. Very nice... All good things must come to an end, and it was time to put Max and Jenn on a plane back to Looneyville (AKA: California). It was a bit tough to see them go.

Hangin' with Yogi and Mom at the Nashville Jellystone RV Park

Dancin' with Yogi's woman, Cindy Bear at Jellystone

Checkin' out Lauren Alaina at the CMA Fan Fair in downtown Nashville

Kickin' back for the ride with Mom on the 4-wheeler

Me and Oma and Opa at Gaylord's Opryland Resort

In front of the Aquarium restaurant in the Opry Mills shopping mall

Having lunch with the elephants at the Rainforest Cafe in the Opry Mills mall

On the walking bridge looking down to the Titan's stadium downtown Nashville

"What, ME worry?"

We then returned to the Rainbow/SKP park in Heiskell for a couple of weeks. The trailer had a small leak in the seals for the bedroom slide, so we had that taken care of while we continued to check out the area. Buddy Gregg RV Sales and Service in Knoxville did an outstanding job of taking care of us, they have a very large service program and an on site camp area for full timers.  We took a short jaunt up to Cumberland Falls State Park in Kentucky, the falls were interesting to see. We snuck over to Rock Island State Park outside of Sparta, TN, to check out a possible stint as Camp Hosts. It was a very green mountain area, and as it turned out, we got the host gig for which we committed at least for the month minimum that they requested, but probably will be there for a couple of months, we’ll see...

Tommy the Turtle came out to see us at the Heiskell Rainbow/SKP Park

My beautiful bride at the Cumberland Falls State Park in Kentucky

Our home at the Heiskell Rainbow/SKP Park

We also contemplated trading in the 5er and getting a Class A diesel pusher and “towed”. We found a 2013 Phaeton 40 footer that we really liked, so we started the process at the local dealer. Unfortunately, we quickly found that it is not easy to get financing if you are a full timer, even with the financing companies that claim to specialize in full timers (Essex being one of the more popular of them). Well, the deal eventually fell through, but we will continue our quest to get into a bus, albeit at a slow pace, no rush, take it easy...

On to Rock Island State Park...