Gladbrook, Iowa June 20 - July 1, 2010

Left Gladbrook for a weekend to attend David and Karin's wedding.

Staying at Mavis' (Kirk's mom).
Damon helping Grandpa Kirk spread dirt in Grandma Mavis' backyard.

Corn Carnival is a huge deal in Gladbrook and also for all surrounding areas. We arrived in Gladbook at Kirk's mom's house on Sunday the 20th. She lives in this 2-story, 100 + year old house all by herself. Heather and her son, Damon (grandson) who is 5 years old came to visit early in the week. I was able to convince Damon to spend the night in the RV with us. He had a great time. Lily totally enjoyed having someone to sleep with. The next morning, Damon and Papa Kirk worked in the yard. Damon really enjoyed doing things with his Papa. All of Kirk's family, except for Craig were at his mom's for the weekend. Bev and her fiance, Al; Gena and her kids and a couple of her grandkids; Heather and Damon. There was a parade on Friday night and the family ALWAYS sits in the same spot every year. It was also good to see Dan and Amy, some very good friends of ours that also live in Gladbrook. Saturday of that same week, Kirk and I flew into San Antonio for Karin and David's wedding. What an awesome wedding! We drove our car back to Gladbrook and stayed a couple of days and then left for Ben and Nicki's in Wisconsin.

Relay for Life Golf Outing June 17 - 20, 2010

First Place Women's Team! Coordinator of the Relay for Life Golf Outing, Penny.

Memorial on the 16th hole for Bob.

Arrived in Monmouth, IL (my hometown) on Thursday, the 16th of June. We stayed at the Citizens Lake Campground. It's very nice except that the city won't break down and put in 50 amp service, and it's too close to the highway. Other than that it's great. It's near the lake and the city pool. Thanks to Elena and Jim though, as we were able to swim in their wonderful pool while we were there. Rudy and Bev arrived on Friday and stayed in the spot next to ours. Elena and Jim had a pool party Friday night for family and friends with lots of food and fun. It was great getting to see everyone. Saturday was the golf outing. This was the 6th annual golf outing for Relay for Life, however, the last 4 have been in memory of my brother, Bob who passed away from cancer in March of 2007. We had a great turnout and time. Our team which consisted of my sister, Elena; my sister-in-law, Bev; and her daughter-in-law, Mary; and me won the Women's team portion of the outing. Their was also men's team, and mixed. We all went up to Danny's bar afterwards for prizes and food. Penny Mackey and her team did a wonderful job of organizing the event. Lori Todd, the Rehns, and the Lybargers came out to our campsite saturday night to visit. We all had a great time. Oh yeah, I can't forget to mention our great caddy and cart driver for the event, Alex Almaguer. Without him out team may not have placed :-) Great job on the t-shirts Alyssa. Love you.

Nashville, TN 6-10-10 to 6-16-10

We arrived in Nashville on Friday. This was the week of the Nashville Country Music Festival. We really hadn't planned on going to the festival so didn't have tickets to the big concerts. We drove downtown Friday night and did manage to see Matt Ramsey and his band at the WildHorse Saloon. This is a very cool place. The food was good. Our waiter was great. They had line dancing lessons which we decided to pass on. The Saloon was host that night to the Midnight Talk Show in which they were interviewing country music stars and allowing questions from the audience. We went downtown again the next morning. Lots of street venders, free concerts, and activities going on. The Riverfront Park had some of the best bands, however, it was extremely hot although we did manage to stay and listen to several of them. Nashville is a very interesting place. We stayed at the Nashville Country RV Resort in Goodlettsville, TN about 15 min north of downtown. We left tuesday morning and headed towards Monmouth, IL. We stayed the night in Crawfordsville, IN just west of Indianapolis at the Sugar Creek Campground. We arrived in Monmouth on Wednesday, June 16th.

Finally out of Red Bay

We were finally able to leave Red Bay Monday afternoon. Apparently 2 wires had become loose and were reconnected incorrectly. All in all they found the problem and we left town immediately. Nineteen days was much longer than we wanted to be there. Our first stop was in Huntsville, AL where we spent the night at Monte Sano St Park. ALWAYS suspect that Ms GPS is not always correct. She had us going up some windy, curvy road that does not allow "trucks" over 30 ft long. So, we had to stop, un-hook the tow, back up (with me acting as a traffic cop), and re-route. Another stressfull trip. But ended okay. Next day we took off to Pigeon Forge, TN, but not before stopping at Costco in Huntsville to stock up. I LOVE COSTCO! We are now at Kings Holly Haven RV park in Pigeon Forge. Home of Dollywood and various other Dolly Parton/Country stuff. Best of all though are the Smokey Mountains. Today we took the Cades Cove drive up in the mountains between Townsend and the Sugarlands. Beautiful. Saw a few deer, turkey, and bears. The scenery is gorgeous. This afternoon we went to the Dixie Stampede (recommended by Chrystal from Tuscumbia) and highly recommend it. Go hungry, cause the food is more than one eats in a week.

Another week in Red Bay, AL

Dismall Canyon near Red Bay is a must see.

Kirk golfing in Red Bay
Parking at the Rattlesnake Saloon

Well, the RV looks like new (considering it is new), thanks to Jeff and Jeffey at Red Bay Body Shop. I can't say enough about these guys. They are great!! That was Friday morning the 4th. We then headed back to the bays at Tiffin to get our cruise fixed. Done. We decided to spend one more night then head out on Saturday morning. We went back to the Rattlesnake Saloon for dinner and karoke (just to listen, not to sing). Had a great time, AGAIN! We want to thank Chrystal, Shane, Roger, Sue, Aubrey, and Sharon for the great company. You guys were a hoot! Oh yeah Roger, we found a picture of you on your horse from the first time we were at Rattlesnake. Just how weird is that? And then to meet up with you guys on our second visit. Next time we come back this way, you have to take us horseback riding, okay? Kirk and I did get a chance to golf last week at the Country Club here in Red Bay. It is a members only course, however, they let the RV'ers golf whenever they want. The only thing I have to say about the course, which is very nice, is that they should mow the fareways that don't have players on them at the time, and a remodel of the club house probably wouldn't hurt. Yesterday, Sunday the 6th we went to Dismals Canyon. Now why no one told us about this place is beyond me. I happened to be looking online for things to do in the area and only then I found it on someone else's post. It's a gorgeous area about 30 min. from Red Bay between Russellville and Hamilton on Hwy 8. We spent a couple hours on the trail and got some beautiful pictures and exercise. I would not recommend taking your animals. So as you can probably guess, we didn't get out of here on Saturday morning as planned. We were all set and ready to go, slides in, car hooked up, and the hydraulic jacks would not retract....UGH!! Okay, so I'm not even going to tell you about Kirk. I'll leave that to your imagination. Regardless of everything we tried, and McKinney's across the road, nothing worked. So, we had to stay the weekend and wait for someone in the bay to look at it on Monday. We are in the bay right now and they are doing their best to try and figure this one out.

Rattlesnake Saloon

Kirk listening to Karaoke at Rattlesnake Saloon

Luxury ride in the Alabama limosuine to Rattlesnake Saloon

Rattlesnake Saloon

Kirk and I finally made it to the Rattlesnake saloon on Friday evening. It was so much fun. Our waiter, who happens to be the owner's son gave us a little history on the place. They opened in September of 2009. His grandfather used to raise hogs in the area the stage is now. Most of their revenue came from the silo cottages and horse stables. The grandfather got tired of bringing feed down to the pigs so he drilled a hole through the rock from above and ran a pipe through it. They were now able to send feed down through the pipe to feed the hogs. If you saw the path to get down to the saloon, you would understand why he did this. While we were there, some would ride their horses down and tie them to the hitching posts near the tables in the open area. There was also room inside the saloon to sit/eat/drink, but the fun is outside near the stage. Friday night is karaoke night. There were some "so so" singers, but there were also some excellent singers. All ages were there, and the kids loved it as much as the adults. Lots of dancing too. The burgers, which is what we had were great. They serve sandwiches, appetizers, and sodas/tea, and beer. The Alabama limosine, a 4-wheel drive truck with benches in the back took us back to our car. This place never advertises and generally draw around 200-300 people on Fridays, and 400-500 on Saturdays when they have a live band.

Red Bay continued.....

This week has been busy with going in and out of the express bays at Tiffin. They had to order a part to get the cruise control working. The part was supposed to be in today, but we haven't heard from them yet. We've had some cabinet and counter work done also and other miscellaneous warranty stuff. We did get the RV into the body shop on Wednesday. They tell us it should take approximately 5 working days. There is a 3 day weekend because of Memorial Day. We are staying in the RV in the body shop garage.....weird, but okay.

On Monday, we were downtown and saw a man carrying a cross walking down the street. We were curious, so we stopped and talked to him. His name is Paul Schweigert from Hoover, AL. He has been doing this 15 years going from county to county in AL. He told us about why he "Walks with a Cross", and then gave us a book about his first few years doing this. Just google his name and you can read all about him.

On tuesday, Kirk and I celebrated our 7th anniversary. We took the morning tour at Tiffin Motorhomes here in Red Bay. The process in making one of these RV's is amazing. Of course, it wouldn't be much of a tour without "Red" the tour guide. I believe Red told us he was 83 or 84 years old and has been giving tours for 9 years. And, as you can imagine, we learned as much about Red as we did about the making of the motorhomes. He was wonderful. We ended the day driving to Florence, AL about 45 min north of here and eating at Rosie's Cantina. Very good top shelf marguerita.