It's been several weeks since my last blog entry. The repair work on the coach at the Freightliner shop in Ringgold, Georgia, just outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, took much longer than expected. The delay was due to the fact that one of the parts needed to complete the repair was nowhere in the Freightliner network inventory. On Friday, April 16 we finally got the call from Premier Truck Group letting us know the part had arrived and our coach would be ready that afternoon. Not wanting to make the entire 600 mile drive in a single day, for both the dog's and our sakes, we packed a bag with the few things we would need for a night spent in a hotel and hit the road. Travelling a little over 400 miles, we spent Friday night at the Holiday Inn in Bristol, Tennessee - a very nice, very pet friendly hotel just off Interstate 81 on the Virginia/Tennessee state line.
It would have been a relatively short 180ish mile drive to Ringgold Saturday morning if not for the hellacious two-plus hour traffic jam. We never did see the accident as traffic was ultimately diverted off the interstate and along a long, winding country road detour. We arrived at our destination around 4pm.
I paid the $4600 bill at the service desk and asked if it would be okay if we spent the night in their parking lot (connected to their 50 amp electrical service). I was told that would be just fine and that she would let security know what was going on. As it turned out, there were two other occupied RVs in the lot and I chatted briefly with one owner before we pulled out Sunday morning. Upon completion of their repairs they planned to head for some sort of festival in Pennsylvania. I can't recall just what sort of festival it was, but I do remember him telling me it is the largest of it's kind.
******
We spent Sunday night at Anchor Down RV Resort in Dandridge, Tennessee - a very nice resort where we've stayed once before during a homeward-bound cross-country trip...
...and Monday night at the KOA in Natural Bridge, VA, where we have stayed a few times in the past.
******
For some time now Suzanne and I have been planning to sell our townhouse in Northern Virginia and move a bit further out into the country - perhaps closer to our daughter and her family in the Frederick, MD area. It's a beautiful, rural part of the state - only about an hour drive from where we currently live but much more bucolic and serene and not too much more distant from our son and daughter-in-law in DC. Our plan was to start the ball rolling on getting the townhouse ready to sell upon our return from Ringgold - and since our return, have been docked in the parking lot of the 176 acre one-time-golf-course that my daughter and son-in-law purchased a year or so ago and where we spent a few weeks in the coach late last year before heading west on our most recent cross-country journey. It's a great place to stay! Complete with 50 amp electric, sewer and water hookups! We've been here since returning from Georgia, making several trips to the townhouse to prepare it to sell.
And there's more!
******
My daughter and her husband have had their eye on a particular piece of property, a working sod farm on which sits a beautiful house and a small tenant house. They asked if we would be interested in becoming business partners, purchasing the property with them and continuing its operation. We could live in the tenant house, they in the main house (hey, we'd only be 25% partners, it's only fair), be close to them and our grandchildren and have a place to park the coach under cover when we're not on the road!
Done!
We signed the papers a few weeks ago and our townhouse just went on the market - a very hot market. I'm anticipating a quick sale.
******
The old 176 acre golf course is soon to be 176 acres of corn. Actually it's already 176 acres of corn. The stalks aren't very tall yet.