We're in Nashville, TN, Music City!

Nashville, TN      High:  54   Low:  37

Typical Seven Points lake site

It was a hop, skip, and a jump from Cave City, KY, to Nashville, TN, right around 90 some miles...It was an uneventful drive, the kind you like to have...We are at a Corps of Engineer park, called Seven Points, on J. Percy Priest Lake near Nashville, TN. The lake is BIG, about 14,000 acres, so it's a great location for fishing and boating. We are here for three days at 10.00 a night with our senior pass. It's beautiful! Sites on the lake are two dollars more a night, so 12.00 a night. When we reserved online, we didn't realize which sites were lakefront and which ones weren't, but we like our site, #45.

All the sites seem to have fish cleaning tables besides massive stone picnic benches and a fire pit. Sites are VERY spacious...However, the roads in and around the park are very narrow, making for tight turns with a big rig. We did ok in our big rig and got into our back in site just fine, but not without careful attention to tree placement and checking out the site firsthand in the car. Most of the sites are back in, but there are a few pull thrus. When you reserve at this park through reserveamerica.com, you get to see photos of each site, which is helpful...

typical site at Seven Points

It's a small campground, about 60 sites. Sites are water and electric only, 30 or 50 amp....There is a dumping station, a shower house and laundry, a beach and a boat ramp. There is also a nice playground for kids. Some of the sites have terraced patios. Some of the stone picnic tables are round instead of rectangular. Here's another view of our spacious site. The only negative? The water pressure is very low here. We don't know if it's our site, but it is NOT a clogged filter. We checked that. Eldy always runs the water straight off the water line at the site before hooking up the hose to see what kind of flow there is before hooking up the hose and we replace our blue water filter much more often than recommended due to extremely hard water most places we go.

If it wasn't so cold, Sparky would take her Sea Eagle out on the lake. Since when does cold stop Sparky from getting outdoors and getting exercise? When there's a really stiff wind blowing...like 20-25 mph. winds. Sparky can get out on her bike and ride around the campground a few times, or get out on the roads outside the park....

We are close to I-40, and about twelve miles east from downtown Nashville.....So last night, we decided to hit one of the top ten attractions in Nashville--the Wildhorse Saloon. This is one of Nashville's top entertainment venues, and it was pretty amazing! It's a three story warehouse converted into a 66,000 square foot live music and dance destination. They are famous for their fried pickles, but we didn't try any. They have been involved in more than 4,000 TV shows and tapings, so it's a great place to experience Nashville music. It's located near the famous "music row" on Second Avenue. We listened to a country western performer by the name of Jami Grooms, and he was great! The food was good, the entertainment wonderful, and there's line dancing lessons offered about every hour, so a chance to get up and shake your booty, something Sparky always likes to do! (And she did! says E.)

In case you are wondering what the top ten list of things to do in Nashville is, here it is according to Trip Advisor:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/GoListDetail-i16165-Top_10_Things_to_Do_in_Nashville.html

Back to the Wildhorse...Sparky had a flat iron steak, and notice the ticket.....She got it the way she wanted...  :-)

We had a fun time and plan to go back again this evening to downtown Nashville, to a different venue...There's so much to see and do, but we only have three days....Eldy has seen and done a lot here over the years, so we probably won't do the typical tourist things while we are here--Andrew Jackson's The Hermitage, the Country Music Hall of Fame...But we will take in a couple of things, get a taste for "Music City" then head our way to Gulf Shores, AL, our next destination for the month of November. See ya later, partner!

Last Day at Diamond Caverns RV Park....

Park City, KY      High:  57    Low:  32

(Time to get a move on, Sparky! says Eldo....It's too dang cold around here!)  We head for Nashville, TN, for three days tomorrow. For our last day here, Eldy watched football...And Sparky headed out to finish the Mammoth Cave Railroad Hike and Bike Trail all the way from the campground to the entrance of Mammoth Cave National Park.

The first leg was up and down the big hills for about the first mile...then onto some more level ground. Sparky got distracted with all the beautiful leaves and the little details....like the water droplets on this leaf and no other ones nearby.....Sparky was too busy looking at the ground so she didn't spot any deer on this ride....

Sparky had to stop and take a photo of the red carpet...The leaves were really this red in this section of the forest!

Sparky kept going...no threat of rain today but lots of clouds...the trail split in two directions, Sparky didn't know which way to go. She took the left fork and ended up at a VERY old cemetery. Coming back out of the cemetery, you retrace your steps back to the fork, and the trail goes down VERY steeply. The trail map tells you to get off your bike and WALK it, and Sparky could see why. There are a couple of sections on this 9 mile trail where the trail guide says, "Get off and walk it!" A wise choice....With the loose gravel, you wouldn't walk to get out of control going down a steep descent!


It's very difficult to capture a photo of a steep hill and get an idea of how bad it is, but if someone were to be stupid and try to ride down it, they are taking their life in their hands...There's a deep rock pit on the right side of the curve heading down the steep hill from the cemetery.  Sparky had a hard enough time just walking the bike down the hill without the bike getting away from her...Onward, Sparky!

The trail crosses a couple of wooden bridges with views to the small valleys on one side or the other.....

As Sparky started getting closer to the park, she started seeing the deer. They hang out near the campground and are quite tame. Shame on the people that feed the deer! But it's makes for nice photos as they let you get pretty close, like within a few feet. The one above is standing right next to the bike trail.....This one below was a little farther away but you could still see his white "sox" on his front legs....

Then Sparky saw a buck and just managed to catch him walking through the woods alongside her and then he crossed the trail right in front of her! Darn camera setting---too dark and a little blurry for this shot, but at least he was seen trotting on camera.

And then two tom turkeys, at least Sparky thinks they were toms...their feathers were quite colorful, but just as Sparky went to take the photo, they flew across the road to the other side. No poultry jokes needed here....  :-)

Sparky was pooped by the time she got to the campground store in Mammoth Cave N.P. She was too whipped to do another six miles back, it would have been mostly uphill....Eldo to the rescue! He came in the car to get his Sparky, and on the way back, we saw LOTS of deer and they were all hanging around the trail Sparky had just come from! About a dozen in all....

The literature and online says the trail is a total of 9 miles, but Sparky racked up over 10 miles on the bike odometer by the time she got to the park....Even though it was a dark and dreary day, the leaf color was outstanding, and nature views were wonderful.....Don't miss this beautiful trail if you are here in the fall. Not the best trail for skinny tires, the wider ones on hybrids and mountain bikes are better...Time for a nap! Bye for now...... Tomorrow, we leave for Nashville, TN.......

But before we forget......

Sparky's a Drowned River Rat!

Cave City, KY  Park City, KY...It's all about the same....   High:  60   Low: 44

Sparky decided to bike the Mammoth Cave Railroad Bike and Hike Trail today, despite the threat of rain.....And, she even was going to go all the way from the Park City Diamond Caverns trailhead to Mammoth Cave National Park, a distance of about six miles...The actual mileage of the trail from beginning trailhead to ending trailhead is nine miles.

Eldy kept saying, "It's gonna rain, it's gonna rain....It's coming...Sure you want to go?" Yep, Sparky did. Eldy declined, he saw what was coming...Sparky started off....Up and down those BIG hills right there at the beginning...Get off and walk the bike a few times...Keep going....

The weather got a little darker out..the clouds a little thicker...Sparky rode on...she was too busy looking for deer and acorn caps for a craft project...Deer spotted up ahead! The deer looks like a skeleton, she's so grey and blends in with the woods and Sparky had to ZOOM wa-a-a-y in. But Sparky spied with her little eye....the doe is there. Darn, a biker coming from the opposite direction, somebody seriously into biking, he was bogeying. The deer bolted. Of course!

Can you see the skinny little legs?

The trail was beautiful, and after the first rough part, it actually leveled out quite a bit. There is a place, a parking lot where you can pick up the trail a little further west from Diamond Caverns RV Park and avoid the worst part of the hills there at Park City. There are placards along the way that tell you more about the history and geology of the area. Cool!

Sparky was within 2 1/2 miles of the park entrance when she stopped for more photos....PLOP!  PLOP! PLOP! Sparky had not heard the raindrops on her helmet with the bike tires rushing through the carpet of leaves.

Leaf covered trail

(Good girl, she wore the helmet today!) Yep, after reading some reviews of this trail and the loose gravel causing kids to spin out and crash, Sparky got smart and put it on for today's ride.  By the way, Sparky's 2012 Trek, with the skinny tires, did OK on the loose gravel, she had decent traction, but you still have to exercise caution--some areas are packed much harder than others, and the sides of the trail are very loose. This trail is described as more of a mountain bike trail online at Traillink.com

Uh-oh, raindrops...PLOP.. PLOP..PLOP-PLOP-PLOP! It started coming down harder now...Sparky turned around and went back to the last spot where Eldy might be able to see her on the trail, the junction at highway 70. Phone call to Eldy....Signal not working well. Text to Eldy...."COME AND GET ME, PLEASE!" The rain came down harder...Sparky sought refuge under a big ole pine tree...Pretty soon, Eldy arrived....just in time...Sparky was thoroughly soaked thru her windbreaker that was supposed to be water resistant...After a bit, it just keeps coming through...Note to self: Next time, throw a little poncho in the bike bag! No photos of Sparky, the drowned river rat, but she's back home now, drying out!

Sparky highly recommends biking this trail, picking it up a little closer to the park than right at Diamond Caverns. Continue just a bit further west, watching for a small parking lot where you can get on a more level section of the trail. It's mostly level from there to the park, a few small hilly areas, but it's absolutely gorgeous. The trail follows the contour of the hillside which makes for a curvy trail but more level than the road going into the park. Sparky did five miles today, despite the rain!

It's gonna be a cold two days coming up, temps no higher than the 50's...We'll see what's up with Eldo tomorrow!

Where's Eldo and Sparky? Right Here in Park City, KY

Park City, KY     High:  65    Low:  44

We didn't do too much today....A little drive....checked out some golf courses...saw some neat sights along the way....Like this unusual mailbox. The colors are wonderful here in southern Kentucky right now.....

Sparky caught a butterfly sunning itself.....

Sparky spotted a tobacco barn with the leaves drying inside, but the lighting and angles weren't quite right...Eldy stopped any way so she could get a photo...

Did the laundry......Read some.....Sparky is reading "Mac Life", trying her darndest to keep up with technology and reading about all the new features Apple's Mountain Lion offers...Does she understand it? Heck no! But she'll keep trying....She enjoys learning about technology, even if she doesn't always understand it!

Knitted some.......Drove up to Camping World to check out those zero gravity chairs. Camping World can be a magnet for your money when you full time RV. Lots of cool stuff there that you think you need but you really don't! (Now, Sparky, that depends on what you need! says E.) True, true...

The nearest Camping World store is 26 miles from Park City, down in Bowling Green...We checked the chairs out, looked them over, tried them out and decided to wait till we get to our next destination...but it's still fun to walk around and see what kinds of things we need for the rig that we can't do without, or that we should think about buying....like bug screens for the outside furnace vents so wasps and bees can't nest in there. Sparky always thinks about buying more kitchen/living room gadgets, like collapsible colanders or bowls, or storage stuff but never buys them. We really don't need them...Eldy always looks at satellite dishes...he's still thinking about signing up for satellite access.  Just keep thinking, dear....Sparky is not crazy about TV so she's hoping he'll just keep thinking about it. (I can only hold out for so long, woman! I need my sports coverage!)  Sigh.....

A low key kind of day....Nice to have those...Sparky needs to learn how to do those more often...(You heard it first, here, on Where's Eldo? documents E. -- in case I have to remind her...You all are witnesses!)
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Mammoth Cave Visitor's Center

Cave City, KY      High:  82    Low:  55

Geez, it's hot...we've had the AC on in the car, but not in the rig...we're cool enough with the fans going and the awnings out.....Sparky actually had to put on sunscreen to go bike riding today!

First, we checked out the visitor's center at Mammoth Cave National Park...They were working on it last year when we passed through, and more has been completed. Even if you don't want to take any of the tours for Mammoth Cave, the interactive visitor's center is not to be missed!

Sparky loves technology...and when there's buttons to be pushed, phones to pick up, videos to watch and lights that sparkle and move like running movie theater lights, she's hooked! Mammoth Cave National Park's Visitor Center delivers all this and more.....

Lots to learn here about EVERYTHING Mammoth Cave and the surrounding area.....You can see the ice age advancing and retreating through the different geologic time periods by pushing buttons for each era...It was interesting to see the equator was not always running through the center of the earth, the equator used to on a much more skewed angle. Sparky didn't know that. There are a LOT of things Sparky doesn't know, but she likes learning new things! Eldo does, too!

After visiting the visitor's center, Sparky headed out for a bike ride along the Mammoth Cave Railroad Bike and Hike Trail.....Sparky did the trail the first time on the part that is right across the street at the Diamond Caverns site. The trail was rigorous and VERY hilly--too much even for Sparky! It's beautiful though, this time of year.....The trail actually tells you to get off your bike and walk it for bits of the trail here and there. It is loose gravel and with all the leaves covering the trail, Sparky was not as comfortable riding today...(Because she didn't have her helmet on! Tch! Tch! Tch! chides Eldo.) So, Sparky turned around and went back, downhill all the way...WHEEEEEE!  However, if you can handle the hilly trail on this section, there are a lot of things to see along the trail...openings lead to informational signs about the geology of the area, points of interest like historical cemeteries, buildings, and other stuff. There are more level sections of the trail nearer to the Mammoth Cave National Park right outside the park and they appear to be a more packed surface. We are going to ride that tomorrow.....Right, Eldy?  Right? Right!

Later, we visited the South Central Kentucky Cultural Center in Glasgow, a FREE museum that has the early history of the geographic area known as "The Barrens"--a system of five counties in Kentucky from the past to . It is housed in an old pants factory and is 30,000 square feet of history. Some really cool stuff there....Sparky saw things from the fifties that really captured her imagination--A Betsy McCall paper doll set...Sparky remembers playing with those the minute she saw the exhibit. But it took the exhibit to pull that memory out....

The museum is on Water Street in downtown Glasgow, KY, about a half hour from Diamond Caverns Campground. Tools, firearms, a log cabin, a gristmill from the mid 1800's, a general store, a 1940's kitchen, a pharmacy, an extensive military collection, a doll collection, a one room school house and a town square as it looked at the turn of the century. This was quite a museum for being free, and it was fun to relive certain memories of growing up in the fifties and sixties....A nice collection of memorabilia, beautifully displayed...and FREE, but they hope you will consider making a donation.....

What we did in the fifties--a Cultural Center display

The last thing we did today was visit Barren River Lake State Resort Park, about 10 miles south of Glasgow, KY on highway 31....A beautiful day to explore the park...We didn't stay too long, but saw a nice bike trail, a scarecrow trail......

And some beautiful scenery......WOW! We'd definitely like to revisit this state park!

See you tomorrow......

A Diamond in the Rough

Park City, KY     High:  81    Low:  54

We are in Diamond Caverns RV Resort for a few days, three more days to go....We are enjoying the park very much. It's the kind of park where you feel very comfortable sitting outside and not doing much of anything..which is VERY difficult for Sparky to do...So off she went to the Diamond Caverns on a tour today...Sixteen dollars, no discounts for seniors, but a 2.00 discount if you are staying at the Diamond Caverns RV Park.

Now, Diamond Caverns is a privately owned cave, and it's much much smaller than Mammoth. So if you want to be WOWED, and have a BUNCH of different tours of differing abilities and challenges, go to Mammoth. Mammoth is a DRY cave (they don't sell alcohol there, haha, laughs E.) It's a constant 54-56 degrees. Diamond Caverns is a WET cave...It's about the same temperature, but it's got 100% humidity all the time, so it's damp, damp, damp! Puddles everywhere and drips coming down all the time.. If you want a nice, lower key, one tour fits all, interesting in a different sort of way tour, be sure to check out Diamond Caverns. The headquarters for Diamond Caverns is beautiful, modern and the center visitor's area is beautifully decorated.

The gift shop was wonderful! The geodes (a rock with a hollow center cavity lined or filled in with minerals or other composites) are AMAZING, beautiful, and come in all price ranges and colors. If you should by accident, knock over or damage one of these huge geodes by the fireplace, you break it, you buy it to the tune of $5,000! There was a matching one on the other side, and they were taller than five feet!

more geodes, less expensive!

Sparky liked the gift shop almost more than the cave tour. There were all kinds of interesting minerals, rocks and cool stuff in there. The photo below is an ammonite--an extinct creature from 45-65 million years ago...They thrived in warm shallow seas. As they grew, they formed chambers, kind of like nautilus shells. When they were fossilized, the chambers filled in with minerals and calcite. These have been polished. Sparky thought they were absolutely gorgeous...(But did ya buy anything? Eldo wants to know.) He knows she likes sparkly things and just about anything the color of the ocean.

Nope! Not this trip....But Sparky might head back. What would she do with a geode on board the RV? Not a wise choice for a souvenir...so she got a pressed penny for Diamond Cavern to add to her collection instead.

Wanna buy an onyx and marble turtle? It will set you back about $2500.00. They had cute little ones for LOTS less.....

Down the stairs on the tour we went...about 80 feet down...Not very many stairs, just a few steep ones going down at the beginning and coming back up at the end. Everybody was breathing hard, including Sparky. Was it a good tour? Yes! Carmon was the tour guide for all three of us, Sparky and another couple. We learned some interesting facts about the blind creatures that live in the caves...How the cave cricket drills holes in the "sand" floor of the cave to lay her eggs, how the cave beetle comes along and finds the cave cricket eggs, how when the cave beetle eats the cave cricket eggs, it gives off such a strong smell, that the cave cricket can find the predator of her eggs, and eat him! Nature's paybacks are HELL! We also learned that if the cave cricket doesn't make it to the surface every four or five days to obtain additional food, he eats his own back legs off! UGH!

We learned some more interesting stuff about the "cave wars" in the 1920's and 1930's. Such competition for the tourists' dollars back then led to claims about "you don't want to visit _______ Cave, they have tuberculosis there..."  People got married in the caves, often enough in Diamond Caverns way back then, that an altar was built for ceremonies!

After cave protection laws were passed, weddings ceased to be held in the caves and the cave owners began protecting the cave formations. What's amazing, is that tourists came in droves to the caves, women wearing their long 1900's dresses and hard soled shoes to explore the caves. They crawled on their bellies, they got muddy, they got dirty. Guys, they always did that! People didn't see much of the caves with what little candlelight and torches they had in those days, yet they still came in droves to explore them....You had to wonder why....

Sparky enjoyed the tour today......above ground and below....and she didn't get claustrophobic!  Tomorrow, we'll show you the visitor's center at Mammoth Cave National Park.....

Where's Eldo? In Cave City, KY!

Cave City, KY    High:  80 (!)  :-(         Low:  51

Eldo was a travelin' man yesterday...All the way from Elkhart, IN to Cave City, KY....About nine hours of driving and about 380 miles. It was a beautiful drive and the trees are about two weeks behind the foliage peak of Elkhart. They were on fire! The hills were gorgeous! The temperatures kept climbing...

We were going to stop at the Kentucky Welcome Center on I-65 because you can stay overnight in rest areas in this state. We knew that from our "State Lines" app....But after getting sandwiched in between semis which kept coming in and going out and smelling the exhaust fumes, we decided to head another 61 miles to Cave City, where Eldo intended to be eventually. The rest area/welcome center is very nice, and there were spots on the ends that would have been just fine to spend the night but they were already taken at 6:00 PM. We ended up arriving after dark at the RV park, not the best scenario with a big rig and tow, but we got in and found a spot using the car first to navigate and pick one. So, here we are! At Diamond Caverns RV Resort in Park City, KY, just 6 miles outside Mammoth Cave National Park. Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system in the world. Over 390 miles of the cave system have now been mapped and explored. There's a NEW visitor center that has been built with awesome interactive exhibits and movies. We're going to check that out!

The RV park owns an 18 hole golf course nearby in which you can get a nice discount if you are staying at the RV park. You can golf for less than 20.00 a person with a cart early or late in the day. The golf course looks to be not in the best condition nor the prettiest, but it's a nice perk. Looks like our golf clubs are finally going to come out of hiding in the rig while we are here! Here's our site view from the back...there's a hillside covered with beautiful fall foliage....

It's wonderful! Sites are mostly gravel, there are some concrete pads but not sites all level. We can see some people having trouble when they come in. We didn't...Depending on where you park your rig, sites can be close together on one side. We had only a few feet between our slides and theirs on the driver's side. The park alternates hookups between the fronts and backs of the sites, making the sites much closer together. But, we had a nice neighbor the first two days were were here, which always helps.

On the other side of our site in the "C" section, there's PLENTY of room, because we are on the corner. There are 73 full hookup sites, some 50 amp, some 30 amp, electric and water hookups, some pull thrus, a laundry, mini golf that has been kept up, the usual horseshoes, playground and other activities in season and really nice clubhouse facilities with a big screen TV. (Looks like that's where I'll be watching the Notre Dame game on Saturday, says a happy E.) We can only get four channels with our antenna at our site so Eldy is happy to see a place where he can watch the big game if he needs to.

Clubhouse room

Cell phone signal seems to be weak at the park (AT & T) and in the surrounding areas. At our site we have to move around in the rig to get a better signal. It bounces all over the place while you are on the phone...4G with one bar to E with half a bar, etc. We're in the HILLS of Kentucky, baby! Sometimes you gotta be happy with the scenery and the heck with technology! (Well, I wouldn't go THAT far, says E. Sparky would be the first one wanting to move if there was no internet.) We're good-- Sparky can still do the blog, the Verizon mi-fi is working well. Whew!


They have a "spa" room! Tables with passive exercise equipment where you just lay there and the tables have machines that vibrate different parts of your body while you relax. Hm-m-mm....
somebody could have a field day with that one! Well, not sure else how you can describe these machines...There's a leg one, a full body one. Here, maybe this will help......................

They have a little reading room, they have a pavilion where the free internet is really fast..The front porch to the activities center has rocking chairs and a porch swing, nice touch! There's a hot tub around here somewhere..There's a really nice family game room...The grounds are lovely....
It's got the atmosphere of a park in the country and with a nice "feels like home".You know how when you pull into some parks, and you think, "Ugh..Not gonna want to stay here very long!"? And others, you pull in and immediately say, "Oh, I like this!"?  Sparky knew even in the dark the first night we pulled in, that this was a nice park...Plenty of trees but nothing right on top of you, a nice pool which is now closed for the season, AND there are biking, hiking and walking trails nearby. Woo-hoo! (But they are VERY hilly! :-(  And did she say, it's a beautiful area? Yep, it sure is!

We are staying for FREE for six nights on our Thousand Trails/Encore zone membership. Can't beat that! If you are not a TT member, it costs 33.00 a night to stay here.

We'll be exploring the ground ABOVE Mammoth Cave as we did the one of the below ground cave tours last year. Sparky felt a teensy bit claustrophobic on that tour, so we probably are not going to do any more underground Mammoth Cave tours this week. BUT--Sparky IS going to take the Diamond Caverns tour. It's privately owned and Sparky wants to see the difference between the two cave tours. At 16.00 a head, Eldo decided he'd rather not. Sparky will do it once to say she's done it and then that will be enough subterranean exploration!  See you at Diamond Caverns.....

Time to Leave Elkhart

Elkhart, IN     High:  63    Low:  48

All good things must come to an end...Eldo has indulged Sparky to no end, uh, wait, make that to the tune of about five pounds this month...Sparky has been able to imbibe and eat at her most of her faves-Hanayori of Japan on Grape Road in Mishawaka......Hanayori is a Japanese style restaurant where they cook your food to order at the table, crack corny jokes and play with fire. :-)  Here they build an onion volcano, set it on fire and sprinkle salt on it to make it sparkle.

This is Sparky's favorite restaurant in South Bend for celebrating special occasions for over 30 years! Many birthdays have been spent here....

We've also visited Heinnie's Back Barn with Eldy's friends, Chubby Trout, both in Elkhart, Carrabas in Mishawaka....Eldo has gotten to eat Columbo's Pizza, his absolute all time favorite pizza place anywhere....We've visited with our family, seen our good friends, got all our doctor, dentist and eye appointments out of the way with great reports, and we're good for another year. We biked the Pumpkinvine Trail three times and tried to get our exercise despite the weather which was unusually cool and wet for this time of year. The leaves are really flying off the trees now....

On our last visit to the Pumpkinvine today, Sparky took some family photos of Kristi, her husband Ted, and their son Connor. Sparky's favorite one is of Ted and Connor....

Connor had fun in the park where we took the photos..Oh, to be that young and limber and able to bend over and straighten back up without something popping and crackling!

Eldo has had hitch itch for the past week and a half...Sparky not so much, she's been enjoying the cool fall weather, soaking up the colors of the leaves, and enjoying the really cool fall temperatures. But the leaves are past their peak color here, and the high winds lately have blown many of the trees bare.

She's not ready to head back into temps in the eighties, but---we've been here a month....Time to move on...and just when the weather is heading into the seventies in Elkhart this week! We have reservations for a month for November in Gulf Shores, Alabama. We're going to take our time getting down there and it looks like we'll be in the Mammoth Cave area in Kentucky for a week for starters? That's a question mark because you just don't know where Eldo is going to go! Sparky loves new scenery and exploration. We visited Mammoth Cave last year but it was a short visit. Sparky is ready to go back and check out the area some more.

It's hard to say goodbye to family and friends, but our immediate families are coming to Florida for Christmas, so we'll see them again soon!

There were a few things we missed seeing while we were here...Sparky is putting Defries Garden on the list for next year...A thirteen acre homestead with a 1830's Victorian style home surrounded by perennial gardens and a CALENDAR garden located on County Road 46 in New Paris, IN. The calendar garden is a giant circular garden and flowering calendar. The paths are a compass that leads to a pond in the middle. It has the equinoxes and solstices with native plantings and others that follow the seasons through the year. Sparky would love to see this next year so on the list it goes.....

We didn't visit the RV Hall of Fame in Elkhart, we did that last year, but it's an awesome tour of lots of vintage RV's and their history and shouldn't be missed! We didn't play frisbee golf this year at Oxbow County Park's 18 hole disc golf course, but it's on the list for next year. And there's so much more, if you count South Bend in on the list of things to do and see.....We love coming back to the area for all these things and for our friends and family....It was wonderful to be "home".....Even though "home is where you park it", we will always consider Elkhart/South Bend to be our hometown.....It's on the road we go!