Spring, Swings, Screen and Cranes

We see signs of Spring busting out all over.  The birds are singing and the flowers and the trees are blooming.

It is a beautiful time of year!

We got a bit of a late start to the day and began with a trip over to see Pam and Joan's daddy.  He is in the cabinet-making / woodworking business and it is always interesting to see what he has going.

We then ran by Wal-Mart and went back to Joan and Mike's house for a few projects.  Pam got help from Michelle and they dismantled the old BBQ grill...

while I did some repairs on the swing set.  A bolt had come loose and the monkey bars needed replacing.
The swingset needed to be stabilized and I just cut and secured some 2x2s with some long screws.

Then the screen in the screen door needed to be replaced so we got some help to do that.  We also put a kick board on the front of the door so the screen won't come loose again down there.

After dinner, nephew Joey called Mike and told him he had a crane at his house and was going to lift a fallen tree out of the back yard.  We hustled over there and watched the process.  Mike helped while I documented the action in pictures.  :)

It is fascinating to see this fairly simple operation (simple for the professionals).  Joey works for Barnhart Crane and senior operator Bill was there on the controls this time.  Mike also is an operator (with Erection Specialists, Inc) and I just stood back and watched them do their thing.

Quite interesting to see a 2,000 lb tree be lifted out of the back yard and placed along the driveway in the side yard.

After that we went back to Mike and Joan's and hung out for a while.  I went over to Michelle and Jeremy's and spent some time talking to them.  It is nice being able to be near relatives fairly often and see them.  That is one of the big benefits of this full-time lifestyle.

We appreciate you viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles today.  Hope you are having a good week.

Nice Way to Spend a Monday

I thought I'd share a little bit of personal information about me :) as told by our daughter on her blog:  PunchInTheFaceDesign...

Yesterday we had the chance to see Bob and Jane.  They are parents of Adam's good friend Tim.  We lived near each other in Fairfax Virginia for years.  Now Jane and Bob have retired and have a beautiful home in the quaint Victorian town of Rugby, Tennessee.

It is a couple of hours from Mayardville, TN where we are staying, so we met each other about half way, along I-75 at Cove Lake State Park.  They have a restaurant there where we met for lunch.

That is one of the best things about being full-timers--being able to see friends all over America!

After visiting for a couple of hours it was time to say goodbye.  We sure love seeing these folks!

Then we went over to the Escapees RV Park in nearby Heiskell, TN.

They are renovating the park and really doing a lot of construction.  I thought I'd give a look for all our Escapees friends out there.  It looks like the park will be doubled in capacity when they are done.

When we got back to Joan and Mike's it was mid-afternoon.  Mike got home from work and did some work on his riding lawn mower.  He fixes a lot a mowers and always has a few in his shed to work on.

By then it was time eat and we had a simple dinner of hamburgers and potato salad.  Yum.

We sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful evening before we went back to the coach and saw a great basketball game.  We had trouble pulling for either team because we are Duke fans but you gotta lover what Butler has done during the NCAA tournament.

That was our day~ hope yours was a good one too!  Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles!

A Beautiful Easter Sunday

It was another beautiful day in Maynardville yesterday on Easter Sunday.

We started out with pancakes for breakfast, then got cleaned up for the 11:00 service over at Ball Road Missionary Baptist Church.

Here's a picture of Michelle and Jeremy with their two, Kayla and Noah.

After church we got another picture that included Mike and Joan.

We went for a drive and stopped by Tennessee RV but they were closed on Sunday.  Mike's works for ESI (Erection Specialists, Inc) and is a crane operator.  It was nearby so we drove past that as we took the back roads home to their house.

Mike and I washed the cars and we spent most of the afternoon outside.

Michelle and Kayla and Noah came over for a while and played more ladder ball and then we enjoyed the afternoon chatting.

Michelle works for Knoxville Employees Credit Union and she gave Pam a picnic blanket that we will put to good use.

We also found out we could join the credit union for $5 and apply online, so we will have to take advantage of that.  It was very thoughtful of Michelle and a very nice gift.  She must work for a great place!

We talked some more, then went back to the coach for the evening and saw some MLB with the Opening Game of the season.  I cashed it in when it was 7-7 in the top of the 8th.  Gotta love the Red Sox vs Yankees!

That was our day--hope you had a nice Easter too!  Thanks for viewing and we look forward to your comments.  And we look forward to getting to 100 Followers soon...  :)

33 Diner, Hammer's and Such...

HE IS RISEN - Happy Easter!

Mike and I went to a favorite restaurant in Maynardville.  It doesn't look like much from the outside.  Or from the inside, for that matter.  And I always have a faint smell of grease when I leave the place...

Kind of like smoke on your clothes after a game of pool at a local hangout...but I LOVE the 33 Diner.  We had a simple breakfast of eggs, sausage, ham, biscuits, gravy and coffee--and it was good!  It looks surprising like the few pictures of the place I took last time we were in town  :)

Mike and I took a drive up Highway 33 across the river.  They are widening the highway into four lanes and also widening the bridge.

Mike is a crane operator but it is a different skill to be operating one to build bridges.  His company lays steel to construct buildings mostly.  

Then we went back to Joan and Mike's house, got Michelle, Kayla and Noah and we all ran some errands. First we went to Wal-Mart, then Hammers

and finally over to Food City and the Dollar Store.  We picked up a $5 pizza at Little Caesar's for lunch.

Then we spent the rest of the day back at Joan and Mike's.  Pam and talked of taking out the TV in the basement so I did that.

It is big and bulky and we hardly ever watch it so I took it out along with the sliding swivel tray.  It didn't take long to fill that space back up with things...

Next it was time for a siesta and a little PGA golf on TV.  I wish Phil Mickelson would get his game back.  Maybe he is subconsciously saving it all for next week at the Masters.   Later, Mike and I ran into the hardware store to pick up a bolt to fix the swing set.  We sat around a bit on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

Noah and I played a few games of ladder ball, then Mike and Noah took a turn.  Before long, we sat down for a nice turkey dinner, with chocolate birthday cake.  Yum.  After dinner, we watched a little NCAA basketball.  Butler and Michigan State were battling in a great game.

I decided to go over to Michelle and Jeremy's, a few houses away from Joan and Mike.  Jeremy was in the garage and we talked for a while before we went inside and he dug out some old family albums.  He likes history and family history.  We saw that his granddad was in World War II and spent time in Normandy and Czechoslovakia.  Cool.  By that time it was time to return to the coach so I said goodnight.

Pam told me Butler pulled it out in a close one with Michigan State.  We watched Duke and West Virginia go at it for a while.  We turned it off before half time with Duke well ahead.

That was our day in Maynardville--thanks for viewing view and hope you have a wonderful Easter Sunday.

Maynardville by Dinner

First of all -- thank you Kathleen!  She asked me on Facebook why she keeps getting two notifications when I post a blog update.  Fred said he gets three! Ugh!  Not good!!  I had no idea I was spamming people.  How many others of you also get double notifications (or more?).  I APOLOGIZE!

Once I finish my post, I view the blog, then go to the upper left hand corner of the post and 'Share' with Twitter and Facebook.  From now on, I will just 'Share' with Facebook and see if that corrects the problem.  Please let me know...
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It keeps getting warmer the farther east we drive.  It was 84 two days ago in Louisiana followed by yesterday's 94 in Tennessee.  We are loving the weather these days!

Back in our Mississippi campground where we started the day, I decided to get a couple of things done before we left.  My left front tire has a tendency to be a few pounds light, so I got out the air compressor and filled it.

While I was at it, I undid and retightened the sewer hose connection so it did not drip when I hooked it up to the black tank.  I also hooked up an auxiliary hose to spray the inside of the black tank.
It was only 7:30 in the morning, but two trains had come barreling through near our campground so I figured anyone who was asleep was awake by then.

We then filled up with diesel at a nice Shell station near our exit.  $284 later we were on the road.  It was about 8:30.  I drove for a couple of hours and Pam said she wanted to drive.

We changed at a Rest Stop in Mississippi and Pam took over.

I made the sandwiches for a change.  Key to  digestible sandwiches is French bread that is not as hard as a brick... Oh well, you go with what you've got sometimes.  Good thing the bananas were OK.

After lunch, I retreated back to the sofa for a quick nap.  'Quick' turned into almost an hour!  We found another Rest but Pam informed me she just wanted to go to the bathroom and still wanted to drive...  Sounds good to me.  You know me, I am always the agreeable type...  :)

What she didn't plan on was a long long stretch of jersey walls and road construction for the second day in a row while she was driving.  Usually I get them.

This is a picture of the easy stretch, with only one wall on the right.  The harder ones are where there was a jersey wall on each side of a two lane stretch.  She really earned her stripes there.  She did a great job and is getting more and more comfortable with driving this big thing.

The day was better than gorgeous and the outdoor thermometer topped off at 94!  We loved it!

We got to Knoxville and then on to Maynardville in time for dinner.  We parked at Mike and Joan's place where Mike had carved out a pad for us last summer.

After dinner, by little buddy Noah helped me set up a game of ladder ball.

Then we sat outside and talked with Joan, Mike, Michelle and Kayla for a while.

We went inside after a while and I jumped on the RV-Dreams chat line for a little while.  Been a long time since I have done that.  I was asking for help in finding some good campgrounds that are open this time of year near the Ferndale/Port Huron area.  Many are not open yet.  As I had hoped, I got some help and will be looking through RV Park Reviews.  I have gone there before but forgot about it.  Not sure when we will be leaving Tennessee but we will be here for a few days.

And Welcome to our 94th Follower:

Ali

Happy Easter everyone!  And thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Galveston Ferry to 84 Degrees

We departed the RV campground at the Island Community Church in Galveston about 8:00 AM.We drove down to the seawall and pulled over to hitch up the Honda.  While we were parked there for a few minutes, I took another shot of Galveston beach and shoreline.

I love Galveston.

Then it was on to the FREE Galveston Ferry!

We had one Rest Stop and a couple of driver changes along the way.

Unfortunately, there was a bit of construction along the way and the double jersey wall thing happened while she was driving.

She did great!  Although it was very narrow--- she did fine.  Especially with me sweating it in the passenger side....

After that, we had a looong day of driving and went over 450 miles to a campground outside of Meridian Tennessee.  It took us about 9 hours driving before we got there.

Pam suggested a KOA.  But I thought it might be more expensive so we got spot at the Woodall 4 star rated Nanabee Creek Campground.

So much for the four stars thing....it was not real bad...just bad.  If you were thinking of staying here, I'd recommend not...and probably try the KOA down the road.

We had a pretty good meal of 'TV dinners' tried watching a little TV but the reception was not great and we gave that up.  We went to bed about 9:30 PM and listened to a couple of trains.  Apparently the tracks are nearby.

We will be heading to Knoxville today and will take it easy for a few days.  We have been talking with Adam a little and things are OK so no need to rush up to Detroit like we were going to.

Can't believe Good Friday is already here.

Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Feel free to add a comment and/or 'Follow' -- we love hearing from all you folks!

Garage Doors and Luan Floors

Been thinking a lot about Meghan in Canada lately.  If you are on Facebook go to:  For the Love of Meghan and send her a some encouragement...

Our leader Joe was a bit late yesterday morning (maybe 30 seconds but enough time for us to shut out the lights and surprise him when he came down the hall and into our dark meeting room.

Joe, Jerry and I went back to Johnnie's place and finished up the garage doors.

They weigh a ton and we were concerned about week hinges.  It took all three of us to get them in place.

But Joe got some good hinges and it swings nicely and Johnnie should be happy.  In fact she is more than that -- very grateful which is nice.  Jerry finished up with some electrical stuff and a piece of trim and we joined the group for lunch.

We went to Shrimp and Stuff which is one of the best fish houses we've been to in Galveston.

Then we went over to Ethel's house and put down luan in one of the bedroom floors.  Doing that sure makes the floor flat and smooth for linoleum (kitchen) or for carpeting.

Kit and Pam tacked it down while Jerry and I cut pieces to fit.

Meanwhile, Paula was caulking and painting another bedroom, Don was hooking up the plumbing for the bathroom sink

and Bill and Joe put down the linoleum in the kitchen.

It goes nicely with the cabinets Bill is working on.

By the time quitting time came, we were ready.  We got a lot done yesterday.

After work, Jerry was a tremendous help in getting our new Blue Ox Braking system set up.

It took a while to check it out and get a feel for how to calibrate it.  I feel pretty good about putting it in place and hooked when we head out tomorrow.

We all decided to pitch in for pizza and have one last meal together.  We got together where our day began -- in our meeting room.

We feel like we need to head to Detroit and bypass Red Bay (Tiffin factory) this time so we are going to leave later today.  We have enjoyed meeting some truly wonderful people here.  We will miss them.  It is amazing how connected you can get some folks in only two or three weeks.  We have made some great friendships here.

It will take us for or five days but we will be going right through Knoxville and get a chance to see Pam's family.

Thanks so much for sharing our journey with us and view the Roadrunner Chronicles today!  Hope your week is going well.