Thanksgiving

 Thursday 24th November 2022

Thanksgiving Day.

We packed up and said goodbye to Fall Creek Falls and drove 92 miles to Tim's Ford, Fairview Campground, Winchester, Tennessee.

 https://tnstateparks.com/parks/tims-ford

The Fairview campground has 82 sites and I think every one was full for the holiday. We had site 39 which was in a tiny loop, a back in site up a hill. When we arrived about 10 of the neighbors were sitting around their campfire. Nothing like an audience when you are trying to back an RV into a hard spot. John did great and we got set up and had a non-traditional dinner of vegan fish and chips. The campground was buzzing, lots of people cooking on grills and having campfires.

Love cooking on the Blackstone grill.

The site we got was so beautiful, it was on a headland, outcrop, raised up with views of the lake all around.

How close the lake is to our site

Devil Step Island to the right

There were a lot of squirrels around. We are used to squirrels, had a lot in our garden in NJ but I think southern squirrels are more industrious than their northern relatives. We would see them with mouths full of dry leaves either shooting into holes at the bottom of trees or running up the trees to nests.

A cold quiet few days.

 Monday 21st November 2022

The World Cup Soccer began, being held in Qatar. If you know me, you know this is not said with great enthusiasm, a month of football, yuk. John is a very happy camper! England are in the same group as USA so a bit of conflict there.

The Arctic weather is hanging around with freezing night temperatures, one night the temperature dropped to 19F (-7C)

I spent the work week hiking with Morgan and  researching and booking our next few stops.  December will be in Alabama and the New Year will see us in Louisiana. I missed out Mississippi. I have a 200 mile drive radius set on the map so I look at where we can stay in that area, I begin with State parks and found a cool one so called them up as they only had two spots available and online booking was not available for them. Hello Louisiana State Park answered the lady.......Ros is suddenly very confused, thinking the park was in Mississippi, how did I miss a State?  Where is Louisiana? So I fumbled my way through the call asking about availability, she set up an account for me and I used the old get out of jail clause - I best check with my husband before we book!

John was laughing, so no Mississippi? No didn't fancy it!

This week saw our son, girlfriend, three dogs and a cat take a long road trip to Colorado to start a new life there.

Our site at Tim's Ford Tennessee

The few days leading up to Thanksgiving saw the park rapidly fill up and despite the bitter cold temperatures, there were a lot of people in tents. Music, campfires and kids playing.

No health and safety in the mountains.

 Sunday 20th November 2022

Big hike day, well a big hike for us, 7.6 miles. We walked to the Falls again then turned and followed the trail to Piney Falls. This took us through woods - some of which looked like there had been a bad storm. There were pine trees down all over but then a bit further on there was no sign of it. We arrived at the parking lot for Piney Falls and saw a tourist sign for a lookout area that led us down some natural rock steps and......that's where the Tennessee health and safety department forgot to put up a fence! There was a small boulder then a drop off! If older kids maybe ran down ahead of the adults or a dog off a leash they could fall to their death. I know we are in the woods, wilderness, but this was a marked point that would suggest some safety.

Holding on!

Stone edge then.......

Piney Falls

The Falls were a distance off so we hiked down to see them closer and crossed a suspension bridge. Morgan was ok with crossing until John started to rock it then she dropped to all fours and crawled her way along the rest of it.

Piney Falls

Not sure about this Dad

We saw a rock that looked like a six toed foot. This was a long walk for us, four miles is a  more comfortable distance when you are walking in woods with leaves covering the trail so you have to tread carefully so you do not to trip on rocks or tree roots but it was a lot of fun. Not seeing any wildlife, an odd deer in the distance, maybe they are all hibernating.

Looks like a foot

We have a subscription to All Trails App which helps us find trails near to us, we can read reviews, check the terrain and miles then we can download the trail incase we do not have cell service and it will also track our walk if we have cell coverage. It's cool to see how far we have gone.

You can set the app for which activity you are doing, walking, running, cycling, hiking etc. I wondered what the difference is between walking and hiking? I usually set it as a walk as I'm just taking Morgan for a walk. Google says walking is in urban or suburban settings while hiking is done along natural terrain with elevation changes. Hey we are hikers! 

John finally got to see the Falls.

 Saturday 19th November 2022

After our morning of running errands we had a quick walk to the Falls. It is getting dark by 4.15pm so we could not take too long.

The waterway that feeds the Falls was orange and hardly flowing.

Fall Creek Falls

I have always found the Winter evenings a challenge, getting dark so much earlier is taking some getting used to. The days would not feel so short if I could go out for a walk when we get up around 6am but it's so cold in the mornings I just want to stay inside and snuggle with a coffee and watch You Tube. As my sister said, this is the season to rest and recharge and after the busy year we have had, that sounds like a good plan. 

Running errands is a lot more exciting in new places.

 Saturday 19th Novemer 2022

We went for an adventure to find the elusive propane, fill the truck with diesel and get groceries. Running errands like these would not take long when you are in your home town and know where places are but out in the mountains of Tennessee it took a while.

After two stops at gas stations, one was closed the other only sold diesel for farm equipment we found a great gas station with a cool shop and café. American gas station shops are amazing, you can find all sorts!

Lots of crisps (chips)

Pickled eggs?

The only thing that stopped us trying the
chicken livers or gizzards was us being vegan!

The drive took us forty miles through some amazing views towards Chattanooga.

After a stop at a Walmart for groceries we made our way home over the mountains.

An 80 mile round trip to run errands. Makes me think about how remote would we want to live in the future?

Laundry Day.

 Thursday 17th November 2022

How do I do laundry?

Panther Creek State Park campsite had laundry facilities at the bathhouse that you could walk to (quite a luxury!), but you had to drive to Fall Creek Falls laundry which was next to the park shop. Some State Parks do not have laundry facilities and I will have to go into the nearest town to find some.

Our RV has plumbing for either a combo washer/dryer or separate washer and dryer but if we got either option we would lose one or two of our closets along with much needed clothes hanging space. I watched a Youtube couple who had worked out the financial aspects of having your own machines versus going to a laundry and it would take five or six years to break even as RV machines are about $1000.

I figure it gets me out n about and I get to chat to people at the laundry. While I waited for the washing I got to look around the shop and found Moon Pies - not vegan and not in any way healthy but pretty tasty!

A wash load costs $1.50 for a normal cool wash, $1.75 for a warm wash and $2 for hot water or heavy loads. Dryers cost $1 and are mega hot even on the gentle setting so I will have to take care with underwear and sports type clothing. Prices will vary depending on State and if at a State Park or private campground.

Try not to get lost.

Monday 14th November 2022

For the next few days Morgan and I enjoyed some great walks venturing further from the RV as we got more confident. I had initially thought I would not be able to access the trails as they looked like they were accessed by roads with no sidewalks but I found I could make my way through the woods at the side of the roads then hit the trail heads.

It was great fun walking with Morgan though I was conscious of being  a woman on my own and of not getting lost!

Spot Morgan.

I hiked to Fall Creek Falls 3 times on my own and once with John, it was about 3.5 miles with some small hills. The Falls were not very impressive as there have been droughts. The park information sign shows the Falls can be big. Hard to tell from the pictures that you are very high up looking down into a big bowl of stone that the water has slowly made.

          Fall Creek Falls lake.

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.

That was too scary!

 Friday 11th November 2022

We set off for Norris Dam for what we thought would be an easy 70 mile drive but we did not envisage a road closure that sent us up a mountain and back down. Then a road we needed to go down was marked "No Trucks", so we took  a different turn which the RV GPS app rerouted us onto that took along teeny tiny roads a mountain goat would have had trouble with. How John got us out of there and how we didn't bottom out the truck or RV I do not know. Even the access road to the campsite was major sketchy with blind hills that felt like the drop on a roller coaster. This campsite should be marked as not recommended for big rigs!

Friday traffic in the rain

No that's not me on a roller coaster at Disney,
 that is me on mountain roads in Tennessee!

Prior to hitting the road we did a lot of research on road navigation and debated on buying a RV specific GPS (sat nav) or using RV specific apps. Most people recommended a paid subscription to RV Life and Trip Wizard as you can research campsites and the route then have it accessible on your cell phone. You enter your tow vehicle dimensions so it can make sure to not take you on roads for example with low bridges but so far we have not been happy with it and are using a truckers app on my cell as a back up. We may end up buying a Garmin RV GPS.

I looked into the No Truck sign, it usually refers to tractor trailers as in this case the road led to a dam where they would not be allowed to cross. 

We stayed in the East campground site 23. We didn't love this campsite, the access was scary, the pitches were very very close and the bathhouse area was old and run down.

https://tnstateparks.com/parks/norris-dam

 

Mr Red Cardinal popped by for a visit.

Saturday 12th November was cold, wet and dark. We had a quiet morning hoping the weather would perk up but it didn't, so we wrapped up warm and went to the Dam. It was a great place to walk around with a visitor center - just wish it had been a nicer day. Though the bad weather did mean we had the Dam to ourselves!

View from the dam.

At the bottom of the Dam.

We enjoyed visiting the Dam but were happy we were only staying there 2 nights.