June 7 and 8 - Monroe, GA to Nashville TN

8 little baby chick almost old enough to be let loose

Cows

After a wonderful 12 days we left our great friends on the farm in Georgia for more sights never seen before by us.  Our first day back in 'the saddle' (our van) started out pretty rough and slowly went downhill. After rising early and time spent loading everything back into the van we could not find our keys...a half hour looking for them did not produce anything.  We finally decided since we could survive without them (Howard had brought an extra key just in case) to just leave and have our friends mail us the keys if they found them. Back on the road again we 'trucked right along' just fine until we hit Atlanta...even with our new GPS we seemed to get lost and ended up going south to Florida instead of north to Tennessee.  A hundred miles later we realized what we'd done and turned around.

Jo

Totally from an early morning and much going wrong we pulled into a Shoney's just north of Atlanta and had lunch.  Howard handed me the key to the car and I was to wait for him while he paid the bill.....and wait I did.  Once in the van I dropped the lone key on the floor and leaned down to pick it up and it was NO WHERE to be found.  We spent a good half hour tearing everything apart and ended up calling our insurance carrier, Allstate, to arrange for a tow truck.  The gal was not  very helpful and wanted to know what she was suppose to do.  Well, duh, maybe just tell me what we should do.  We pay extra for roadside assistance on the vehicle but was told we had a $50 deductible (which we'd never been told before) and that we would have to pay the entire bill upfront and then request a reimbursement when we get home.  Me thinks we will go back to AAA once we get home and that Allstate will no longer carry our insurance!  While waiting for the tow truck to show up (45 - 60 minute wait) we finally found the key....between the pages of a book that was on the floor!  Sheesh!!! Quick call to the tow company to cancel and on our way.

Lookout Mountain, Georgia-Tennessee border

We found a KOA in the Lookout Mountains on the Georgia/Tennessee border (near Chattanooga).  Not one of the nicest Koa's we've stayed in but it worked out after an exhausting day.  The view from our cabin was AWESOME but the temperatures there did not cool down much until almost midnight.  Hard sleeping in such warm weather with an AC unit that did not cool down much.  Sleep was good once midnight hit though :)  (P.S. while unloading the van we found the first set of keys buried under a bunch of stuff!)

7-8-2014 Driving into Tennessee

Woke up Tuesday morning feeling refreshed and thankful the one bad day of our trip was behind us.  From now on we expect everything to go smoothly....with no big glitches.  We left by 8:30am and headed northwest to Nashville.  Beautiful drive!  We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast and enjoyed some good old fashion cooking.  The music in the background was an old hymn, The Old Rugged Cross....only in the south would we be able to enjoy this while eating.

On through Nashville and just north of it we pulled into another KOA....much nicer than last nights. Good AC in our cabin and a TV also.  What happened to good old fashion tent camping?  :)  But we figure we've 'paid our dues' and it's time to enjoy the fresh air in comfort!  Internet connections at all KOA's is a BIG plus too!

I sit on the  porch in front of our cabin and enjoy hearing the children play in the pool across from us, also enjoy the beauty of Tennessee greenery.  Life could not be any better.  We'll probably stay here two nights and go into Nashville on Wednesday to check out the sights....we've been once before and did the touristy things then but we've never been to Dollywood and Howard would really like to do that.

P.S. OPPS, no Dollywood - just found out it's a 3 and a half hour drive from here in Pigeon Forge TN and is not on our way to Kentucky.  Oh well, maybe I can find somewhere to do some SERIOUS shopping!