A Clear Start, Few Morning Bumps, Smooth Sailing, Evening Jiggles-Literally

Cracker Barrel, Knoxville, Tennessee

We woke up to a clear sky and that looks like frost on the windshields next door. I can’t believe that we were both in bed shortly after 8:30 last night! I knew I was tired right out and figured that Bill had to be even more so. You’d think we would have been up at 4 am on Sunday, Nov. 3^rd but no, it was 5:30 when I first woke up and although he told me later he was up at 2 for a couple of minutes, Bill was still in bed too. We got up at 6. I had a great sleep.

Clear sky meant a cool night too

Now those windows look frosted!

We had our blue flame heater on but it was acting a bit wonky yesterday and kept going out on us so we put the furnace on after coming back from dinner last night. Trying to regulate the heat, we crank it up for a thorough warm up (I was chilled to the bone from the rain) and then when it got too hot, we turned it down. I didn't know that Bill turned it right off and that explained why I couldn’t warm my feet up and was bundled in my chair like a mummy.

Yup one of the things we want to avoid!

It was down to 65F in here! That’s when I decided to go to bed for warmth although there was no heat up there either. Curled up in a ball, the two of us eventually warmed each other up and the bed sheets. I'm ashamed to say that I've been wearing my socks to bed the last couple of nights. That's just not me! So, back to this morning, we made our hot drinks and sat reading blogs for a bit. Bill noticed one of our Suite tires was low again, the same one with the problem last summer, so he got out his compressor and topped it up as well as all the rest.

Pretty quiet interstate this morning and look at that sky!

Bob had his own bump by blowing a fuse when they turned the hot water heater on. Then, he ran out of gas in his generator and needed to plug into ours. No problem for us. Bill thought that we had a half full gas can in the truck but that was empty. Fun, eh? They are learning lots within the first couple of days! Experiences, bad or good, teach us better than anything else. So, we dealt with the small stuff and Bill nipped into the restaurant at a few minutes past 6 to pick us up 4 ‘just out of the oven’ biscuits. This made us think of Rob and Pat.

Hot biscuits for breakfast

We were on the road at 8 am, standard time. Bill remembered to turn our clocks back last night. I would have forgotten. My sister back home said they forgot because they were so excited that their Maple Leafs went into overtime and won the game. They are die-hard Leaf fans 😊 so we are happy for them. It is such a treat to be travelling and still have communication back home at the touch of a fingertip.

And of course, some water towers!

We got onto I-75S easily enough and were headed in the right direction. Big thumbs up to that, directly into the blue, sunny skies and warmth. Once we got close to Cincinnati, we started seeing signs for the I-275 bypass so watched for it, ignored the gps’s and took it. It may have meant about 20 miles around the big metropolis but we avoided downtown traffic. So far, the interstate had not been busy on this Sunday but downtown could be a different story.

Things that caught my eye today

Around 10:45 we were entering Kentucky and nearing the split onto I-75/I-71S. It was 11 am and we were back on the road again towards Knoxville, our evening stopover. First things first, we both needed fuel so pulled off at Exit 181 to a Speedway with a good price of $2.89/gal for diesel. Bill and Bob also filled up their diesel cans as well as their gas cans for the generators. Now, we should be prepared for most anything!

I had to twist, stand on my head and stick a leg out the window
to get this but our friends are still with us!

Around 12 we stopped at the Rest Area near Georgetown, a pretty water tower, and we had a nice break. It was 53F by then and that is pretty darn nice. After sufficient leg stretching, eating our prepared lunches and oogling over an Ontario motor home beside us in the parking lot, we pulled out. It was 12:30 and we had about 2 ½ hours to go. The drive was beautiful from there on and when we were 30 minutes from Cracker Barrel and out of the mountains to get reception, I called to see about overnight parking. We went from 900' elevation to 2,260' within half hour. 

More interesting stuff

The Manager was excellent on the phone but we soon learned that he didn’t know what he was or we were talking about. He said we were very welcome and that they didn’t get much traffic on Sunday. Duh! 

The place was packed, the rv spaces, which are too small anyway, were full of cars. We drove around and Bob got in a tight spot and eventually we did the same thing. Waiting for patrons to leave so we could jiggle our units in better. We arrived around 4:10 and went in to eat around 6:30. Customers were coming in as quick as others were going.

The sun set while we were waiting for people to leave spaces around our units

We had no wait whatsoever inside for a table but when we returned to the lot after eating, not much had improved. The vehicle behind us had left so Bill was able to get straightened out and in closer to the curb. That is where we put down jacks for the night. I turned the Blue Flame heater on to warm the Suite up. I enjoyed the late meal tonight, but kept it simpler with no heavy carbs.  A grilled chicken caesar salad and a hot creamy tea went down well. We all hoped the late meal wouldn't keep us up.

We parked here while we ate and there was an suv behind us
that had moved after supper so we jiggled back and forth to
get in here straight and against the curb

Bill worked on Google maps looking at tomorrow’s route. More finagling with bypasses will be in order as we journey through Tennessee and Georgia to reach our campground. This was a much nicer driving day, in all aspects. The difficulty only came into play when we arrived here at Cracker Barrel. We could have moved on down the road to Sam’s Club but we were tired after another long day and really didn’t want to go any further.  Bob walked around and found a better spot for Big Red (my name for it, not theirs) near the back of the store away from Interstate traffic noise. 

Bob and Jo-Anne started out here but it was right next to noisy traffic

My sensible supper

Bill and I were content to stay where we were and sat inside with our laptops and I tried to read a few chapters of my book. Last night was such an early bedtime that I really didn’t want to repeat it but the evening will play out as it does with not too many expectations!

And some views of the Tennessee mountain climbing

So pretty - just a prelude to what's coming
Good night y'all!

Thank you for the visit today!