First long stay

 Sunday 13th November 2022

First time striking camp in the rain, not a lot of fun.

 Drove 142 miles to Fall Creek Falls, Spencer, Tennessee. 

https://tnstateparks.com/parks/campground/fall-creek-falls

Tennessee mountain roads are beautiful but when driving a beast of a truck and towing a 40' RV they are very scary. John decided it was best if I did not look at the roads, just to stop me letting out scared squeals!

This was our first long stay at a campsite. John is still working fulltime so we need to be set up for him to begin work on Monday so we have decided to stay in one spot for 2 weeks. Travel day will be on Saturday, we will have Sunday to do something like a hike, work Monday to Friday then have a whole weekend to tour the area, another work week then we move again. If we moved weekly we wouldn't have the time to see where we are and what would be the point? 

Fall Creek campsite was very big - though with the loops and sites being in the woods it felt more private. We were on a small loop of 8 sites that were all occupied when we arrived but after a few days everyone left and we had the area to ourselves for 2 days - then as Thanksgiving approached the sites filled up again. The bathhouses were clean and toasty warm.

 An Arctic Blast hit the country and despite our efforts to get south and be out of freezing temperatures we got caught. So glad I packed for four seasons, the wooly hat that makes me look like a gnome kept me warm. We took precautions for the freezing night temperatures using a heated hose pipe during the day and at night we disconnected it and kept the heat on low to make sure the pipes did not freeze.

Our main heat source is a propane furnace that has air ducts in the floor, it is very effective but eats propane so we were wary of having it running too much as we would have a long drive to get the tanks refilled. Once we got the RV warmed up in the mornings we would turn off the furnace and rely on the electric fires and a plug-in ceramic heater to keep us warm.

Despite being stingy with our propane usage we did run low so had to get them refilled. Sounds easy? You have to remove the 40lb tanks from the RV hatch and get them onto the truck and tie them up, then call the nearest propane fill up place that this time was 15 miles away. We called them to check they were open got an answer service that said yes they were. We drove there to find they closed for lunch. So we went grocery shopping while we waited then returned to find the guy who does the filling was not working that day! We did get them filled another day at the third place we tried. Another lesson: if you see propane fill-up places, get them refilled and call ahead to make sure a) they are open all day b) they have a guy there to do the fill up.

View from our living room window (pic blurry has fly screen on the window)

The trees were now bare but the area had a lot of holly bushes that added some nice greenery.