July 1, 2013

Happy July!

Finally laundry bags are empty again! It’s sort of funny what makes me feel happy some days, but when you are living with 5 people in a little over 200 sqft 3 full laundry bags really get in the way. Especially when there is room in the cupboards for all these clothes. I really owe a big thank you to my friends, Erika and Debbie, who let me do laundry at their places. That was such a blessing as I have only needed to use the laundromat facilities two times this trip, which are outrageously expensive for a weeks worth of laundry! Ok, enough about laundry. All clothes, towels, etc are clean and put away.  A new week can start.

The kids took advantage of the late start of the day with some good quality swimming. (didn’t get any pics)

Carboy is really feeling under the weather, but he has been asking for swimming for several days so we had to let him get a dip. He’s going to need a low-key day today.

Time changes heading east are getting to us. A few days back we switched from mountain to central and then back to mountain and then back to central again, all in one day. Today we are in central, but by the end of day we will be in Eastern. Back to what we started from. It didn’t really bother me on the way out but on the way back I am feeling it more.

We got some lunch and then headed East towards Nashville. Tennessee is lush with green and the hills are rolling. (No pics of this part of KY, either… I’m slacking!)

We just bought popcorn… We skipped the possum!

We traveled up some  long hills in the mid-day sun. Flyer is taking them like a champ. I think tomorrow we’ll rent a car for our tours around Knoxville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg and give her a day of rest to get up her energy for the Smoky and Blue Mountains that lie ahead.

Sister Bear found a cowgirl hat at a gas stop

Then settled in with her book.

We crossed the Tennessee River

In Nashville we found the Grand Ole Opry and Sparky took Sister Bear and Legoboy in for a tour, while Carboy and I stayed behind to hang with Oscar and take a snooze.

East tonight towards Knoxville.

We have some friends here but with our decision to rent a car tomorrow we want to stay close to the airport to save time and miles. We have put on just a little over 6000 miles in 23 days. Or original thought was we would travel 5000 total but that quickly went out the window.

Thanks, Jeff, for the offer of the plug in, showers and laundry. We hope to catch up with you another time we are in the area. We know Sparky will be here again soon…

We parked at Wal-Mart, a few miles from the airport. We’ll grab a car in the am.