The Heat is On! – Welcome Summer 2011

We’re off! Our plan to visit friends and places in the southeast has come together. After a three-day delay to repair some mechanical and technical malfunctions, the motorcoach has once again made it through all inspections and checks. All the necessities and comforts of home are on board and we’re rolling.

Before heading south, we crossed the Great Smoky Mountains to get one more taste of our favorite backyard camping in Townsend, Tennessee. We spent four days just relaxing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and Cades Cove. We’ve been to the cove dozens of times, but this is the first time we stayed at Big Meadow RV Park, and the first time we were able to observe such a prolific bear population. In addition to spending time in the cove, we toured the Tuckaleechee Caverns and spent a lazy afternoon tubing down the Little River.

We finished our Tennessee portion of our trip with a one-night stop in Chattanooga where the DeSutters, some of our friends from Clemson came out to see us. It rained like crazy, but we enjoyed what time we had to spend with them. Our next stop – Alabama.

We love factory tours and on this trip we were able to tour the Tiffin Motor Home factory in Red Bay, Alabama. I have been wanting to see the Tiffins being built for some time. Anna and I were both impressed with the quality of these motorhomes and the focus on customer service. After our tour was complete we continued south for another quick stay-over to Marion, Mississippi, a small community near Meridian. We stayed at Benchmark RV Park which was a small friendly park where we met several very nice couples.

We pointed our RV toward the gulf and soon arrived in “Nawlins”. This was our first visit to Louisiana. It was HOT!!! We parked the RV at Pontchartrain Landing looking over one of the waterways to Lake Pontchartrain. The highlights of this visit were our visits to the National World War II D-Day Museum in downtown New Orleans, and Houmas House Plantation and Gardens in Darrow. New Orleans was generally very dirty and crime-ridden. It seemed as though everywhere we went people were warning us about the dangers of area crime. The remnants of Katrina were visible everywhere five years later. We are putting the Big Easy behind us and heading to the Sunshine State.

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As always, we hope to see you down the road…