A very long few days....

Our Location: Big Buck Resort

(205 Sparks Road, Hornsby, TN)

Tuesday, Nov 6, 2018 post

(All photos taken our drive between Louisville and Hornsby)

Sorry I've been out of touch but it's been a bit hectic with us. When last I posted we were at Buttercup Ridge in Roseneath, near Cobourg, Ontario. We had visitors in the form of four legged friends but they didn't bother with the Igloo, no they visited the Dogsled leaving behind evidence of their visit by a message flashing across the dashboard. I managed to limp the Dogsled to Cobourg to Bill Spencer Chevy Dealership where the news was not good on this day of impending departure. I would need a rental car to make my appointment in Hamilton with the Rheumatologist, the good Dr. Bobba. Leaving the Big Dog with the dealership for it's operation I headed off alone at the wee dark hour of 6 am for my drive to make my appointment at 9:45 am on Tuesday, October 30 across from St. Joseph's Hospital in downtown Hamilton. I hustled my way along and managed to make my appointment with about 25 minutes grace. Of course we all know the time we spend with doctors is short, in fact I dealt with a resident from one of the local hospitals for about 10 minutes, and spent maybe 5 minutes with the doctor in the same room but only spoke with him for about a minute. I needed a new blood work requisition form. So I was in out of the office in less than 20 minutes. Back in the car by 10:40 am (blood work also completed) I managed to make it back to the dealership in Cobourg to pick up the Big Dog by about 1:30 pm.

Louisville, Kentucky in the early Saturday morning light.

The Big Dog was out of surgery and good to go. Wires chewed off at the very edge of the boot for the fuel pump caused me to have a bill of  around $650 CAD to repair that little issue, it was an easy fix but very difficult to get to and things had to be moved to accomplish this feat. I hurried back to Buttercup Ridge.  We hooked up, said our goodbyes to Janet (Dennis was away) and headed off down the road to Hamilton again. Twice in one day for me. How fun!!!

The Great Smoky Mountains early Saturday morning.

Arriving in Hamilton by 6 pm, we immediately dropped our Igloo at Walmart before heading off to Brantford to meet with Bradey and David and to see their newly purchased house. A very nice little house on a quiet street, a beautiful kitchen and a generous back yard are just a couple of the appealing things about it. I'm certain as time goes on they will settle in and make it a home, not just a house. Congrats again on the house!!!! We had dinner and a catch up chat before Riley and I headed back to the Igloo. I fell into bed and didn't hear a thing until 5 am. I think I was tired. 

You have to love the views, don't you?

Morning found us at the dentist. A visit with Marianne at the reception desk informed us that Lisa has left and is off exploring new possibilities. We wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors. Chatting with Marianne and the new lady (Shelly, Sharlene, Sharon????) we managed to cram a fair bit of catch up in those few minutes. I was good to go less than 25 minutes later, however Miss Riley has a few cavities. One that would require work or it would be causing issues before we get back home. So we opted to delay another day. Back at the Igloo we managed to accomplish a few things and enjoyed a quiet evening. Morning found us waking up to a parking ticket, we were the only one to receive one, not the trucker or the stealth camper of a truck with a cargo trailer. Oh well, we had asked and been told they couldn't say yes or no but people often parked there with no problems. We took a gamble, worked one night, but not the second. If not for the second dentist appointment we would have been gone.

A bit of colour but not too much yet. Lots of green leaves in there still.

Back at the dentist office a little before 9 am, we arrived early and they managed to squeeze Riley in early. Having completed the necessary work and letting us go, we were on the road toward Windsor by noon. We decided to by pass the onRoute at Tilbury and continued on to the Walmart in Windsor on Dougall Ave. We won't tell you about the blue air in the truck cab due to the GPS but we eventually found what we looked for. Parked and realizing there is an issue with the Igloo batteries, even after being plugged into to shore power for so long they were only at 1/3 and we hadn't used them for much of anything. I stopped into Walmart for a chat with the fellow handling the automotive desk. Very uninformative but they sold me a battery they assured me would be fine for use in the Igloo. I just wanted to have lights for the evening. Got it into the battery area, hooked up and no difference. Still only reading 1/3. We opted for an early night and knew we'd be to Big Buck in a few days and that we would make due until then. Up early and eager to get on the road, no such luck. Dogsled won't start. Hmmmm....I forgot to unplug the Igloo from the Dogsled. Auto club came by to give me a boost, driver told me the battery looked old, I should replace it. However the parts guy at the local dealership told me it sounded like it just needed a boost due to the Igloo issue. Stopped at Auto Source, had them test the batteries, both were good, nothing wrong with them the fellow told me. So two people in the business of knowing indicate it's probably just the Igloo draining the battery, we should be good to go. Okay it's now pushing noon and we're heading out. The border crossing was backed up and we waited our turn for about 30 minutes. Nice young man asked us a few questions, noted our plate number and sent us on our way. 

An impressive start to their fall colours.

Southbound I-75 is under construction and poorly marked, it took us a while to actually get to the right detour road but we managed and continued on our way southward. The weather was cool, damp and some rain drops greeted us on our drive. We pushed harder than we like to push but we wanted to get southward quickly. We pushed on until we reached Carrollton, KY where a Walmart associate that answered the phone told us we could certainly park in the lot over night. Upon arriving just as dark was settling in we noted the signs in the parking lot saying NO PARKING. A trip to customer service also had us informed of NO PARKING. No explanation as to why we would have been told we could on the phone only to now be told we can't. A neighbouring TSC (Tractor Supply Store) allowed us to park in their lot over night and after a long day's drive we were happy to fall into bed and get rested. Morning dawned in a blanket of fog, of course being in the Great Smoky Mountains might be the reason for that. It was at this point I discovered that there are no travel lights working on the Igloo. The brakes, turn signals and four way's work fine but no other lights working. The fog lifted and we headed out as the sun was shining and we were highly visible to those around us and the other lights working would allow all to know the most vital information.We crossed the time line before 10 AM and so we moved our clock back ONE hour before noon. A good travel day, sun shining and the temps climbing slowly and steadily all day. A few delays had traffic at a crawl for about an hour just as we approached Elizabethtown, KY. Once again we started rolling along and soon were exiting the interstate heading toward Jackson, TN and onward to Hornsby.

A nice day, getting warmer with each mile we drive.

Checking in we were greeted warmly by owner Tina and a had a quick catch up with her before moving off to park in our spot, #24. We are beside Dave and his wife (???), not far from his brother Kenneth, and wife Tina. (Not the same Tina as mentioned above). We've been parking in this same area each time we are here and are becoming more acquainted with these friendly folks. Dave is the campground handyman. We reached a high temperature of 64F/17.8C on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Low's were in the comfortable range of 50F/10C, although rumour has tonight dipping to the freezing mark, apparently a first this fall. The trees here are just starting to turn, the grass is still green and was freshly mowed on Sunday afternoon in a part of the park. We've had two days of rain, Sunday and part of Monday. Today was beautiful sunshine and warm temps. Asian beetles and lady bugs are once again becoming an issue due to the weather today. They just seemed to appear suddenly and can creep in the slightest opening. 

Note the fresh cut grass, they were cutting grass late Friday night on the road sides as well.

Sunday morning we were going to head out and do laundry as the baskets are piled pretty high. Hmm..Dogsled won't start. This is not a good thing. So instead we spend the day inside as it rained anyway but just resting up. Monday morning another call to the auto club, a boost from Mike Woods, nice fellow from the auto club here in this area. He sent me to Brooke's Automotive service in Bolivar, TN just up the road. Kevin Brooks worked on the Dogsled finding the issue as a bad battery. The Auto Source guy hadn't disconnected the  battery cables and so both batteries read good as one was feeding the other. I had him replace both batteries, keeping the still good battery for a back up just in case. Each battery was $150 US plus $85 US labour, add taxes, and a few other charges that accompany batteries, the bill coming in at around $440 US.  Expensive but now I'm no longer concerned about the Dogsled. Back home to pick up Miss Riley and we were off to Walmart to do some grocery shopping.We spent the remainder of the day tidying up and watching a movie or two. The evening found me on the phone with daughter Courtney, Dad, and my friend Linda. Daughter Bradey's call went straight to voice mail. I'll try her again another night.

A bit of colour along the Tennessee River.

This morning found me up early and the sun shining wonderfully bright and inviting. I spent 2 hours on the phone with Verizon getting my jet pack back up and running. Computers were slow today and a number of issues also impeded the progress. However Dante managed to stick with me through the whole thing and we are now up and running with internet service again. I then headed outside to do a few things, Dave next door, the handy man spent some time checking out the battery issues. We couldn't find anything, the batteries test as good, we couldn't find any blown fuses and no broken wires. So I'm at a loss as to why they won't charge when we're hooked up but they will charge while on solar on a sunny day. We couldn't determine the reason for travel light issues on the trailer either. There is a fellow here in the park that supposedly works on RV's back home in Maine and so I may ask him to look at it tomorrow. I'll have to see how the day goes but laundry is also on the agenda.

This is part of the Tennessee River but it's called Kentucky Lake or Lake Kentucky, I'm not sure which.

 
So there you have it. A number of things have conspired to cause me some headaches but I know I'll get them fixed up shortly. We have a few more days here at Big Buck Resort before we head on and hopefully we'll be able to head out on Saturday as we've planned. If not we'll have to do what it takes to get things fixed. Ah the joys of home ownership just keep following one along don't they? No matter what kind of home you own there is always something to fix. 

Do you know what that is?

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. I'll be spending the next rainy day catching up on my reading and hopefully I'll be back in blogger land again on a daily basis very shortly. Hope all is well with everyone out there where ever you may be and whatever you may be doing.

Baled cotton of course.

Until next time... take care, be safe. 





Deb