Shanghaied by Christians!

Bloody awful hot on Friday. Only made 300 miles or so. Made the mistake of getting off the highway at Pigeon Ford, Tennessee. That's right, home to Dollywood and about 1000 outlet stores, theaters, restaurants and other tourist traps. The main strip puts me in mind of Myrtle Beach, NC. All that is missing are the honky-tonks and strip joints. Pigeon Ford is all about family fun.

Anyway, pulled in to the River Bend Campground after deciding that two previous facilities looked at were a bit too religious, what with Jesus in flashing lights on the office rooves. It was what seemed like a reasonable hour -- 8 o'clock. Darned if the office wasn't closed up tight (turns out we'd crossed a timezone line and didn't know it - it was late, after all). Finally a tall skinny fellow gets out of his motorhome next to the pavilion and introduces himself as "Pastor Ron". Bloody Jesus-folks snuck one by me, dang-it-all! He helped get us signed in, but only after extracting a promise from my wife that we would attend the Saturday night gospel singing! If you hear of a pavilion collapsing on a bunch of gospel singing folk, you'll know why.

We'll be here a few days to play then onwards towards the soggy Northeast.

Fly like an Eagle

My sincere apologies for the unexplained absence. I and my wife are fine, given our limitations and my advancing decrepitude...

My last post caused dissension in the ranks and resulted in some hurt feelings, so I've taken a blog vacation for six weeks or so. In that period, I made a trip to Maine to register the truck and get some new plates – Maine being one of the few places in the country that doesn't have a thriving business in “brokers” who do such things for you. Seems they want you to appear in person to accomplish such a task. Who'd a thunk it?

Tried to go for a camping trip down to Grand Isle, Louisiana, after I got back but had another blowout (other side) of the trailer. This time it was due to an object about an inch in diameter that blew the tire on I-310 outside New Orleans. That ate two days of beautiful weather getting new tires and having all of the wheel studs and wheel nuts replaced. Why? To restore some peace of mind and satisfy the powers that be at the Northern Maine AAA office who were making noises about dropping us due to the stripped wheel studs that were found when the local AAA wrecker came to swap out my blown tire for the spare. At least this time I managed to stop before the tire's tread turned into a strip of trailer-destroying rubber and steel mace. The camping trip was a dud due to gale force winds blowing in from the Gulf of Mexico the entire time we were there. While more-or-less temperate, beach walks were more like a walk through a sandblast booth at a shipyard. Cooking out on the grill would have resulted in Barbecued Steak Sandies... A shame, really, as it is a beautiful place and home to great surf fishing and bird watching, when they aren't being blown sideways across the beach; the birds, that is.

So, back to Baton Rouge we went and that's where I am writing from today. Hope to take off in a few days for parts East and/or South for a little camping before the return to the great frozen North. No sense in going back now when there is still about six weeks of serious winter to get through up there before Jack Frost releases his gnarly grip in favor of the sleet infested grayness we call Spring in Maine.

Oh, while I'm thinking about it, the “Eagle Cam” is back in operation for another season. Not much to see yet (as they just got 16 inches of snow and it's around zero tonight up there). That means the loon cam, also run by the same folks, shoul be going active as soon as the ice is out - say 4 to 5 weeks from now.

Other news will have to wait and there is a bit of news – there's been a new addition to our traveling band of snow bunnies. Details to follow later.