Well, the weather didn’t cooperate as well as we would have liked for our first week back on the road in the RV. Unfortunately, it was still freezing and rainy for the first few days, but it wasn’t as bad as I imagined it would be. The insulation in the RV held heat well enough; we ran the electric fireplace constantly and the furnace kicked on when the fireplace couldn’t keep up. We emptied one of our propane tanks within 6 days, but oh well. I was pleasantly surprised at how toasty I stayed during the night, though, with using a small electric heater and electric blanket. We filled our fresh water tank, so the hose wouldn’t freeze, turned on the built-in tank heaters, and made sure the furnace ran occasionally during the night to keep the underbelly warm enough to not freeze. The only inconvenience was that we had to keep the tankless hot water heater winterized, since we don’t have a way to keep the outside pipe from freezing (Randy is looking into how to attach a heat lamp to it, but hopefully we won’t be in much freezing weather after this anyway.) So, living in the RV during freezing weather was not so bad.
We stayed an entire week at Up the Creek RV Camp. The best thing about it was that it was off the beaten path enough to be away from most of the traffic, so it was pretty quiet. No complaints, but nothing really special, either. On Sunday, we visited Pathways Church and enjoyed the service. They were wrapping up a series on the end times, which was interesting. And Sunday night, we went to the Hatfield and McCoy Dinner Feud. The food and show were both good. The show was kind of corny, as expected, but entertaining enough.
We decided to go ahead to Dollywood, even with the cold, figuring we could hang out in theaters until it warmed up a bit. We got a two-day ticket so that we wouldn’t have to rush to try to see and do everything in one day. I’m glad we did since the roller coasters couldn’t run below 40 degrees and stayed closed half of the day. It eventually got up to high 60s and the sun came out, so we were able to enjoy being outside and riding the rides. Then, the second day was above freezing, but it was drizzling rain most of the day. The best part about that was no lines for the rides! But drizzling rain hitting your face while going 60 mph doesn’t feel that great. We were glad that Robert, Randy’s college buddy who lives in Knoxville, was able to meet us on the second day of Dollywood to hang out and catch up. Randy doesn’t do spinning rides, so it was fun to have someone to ride the Scrambler with! Even though the weather wasn’t ideal, we ended up having a good time on both days at Dollywood. I especially liked the Wild Eagle and Lightening Rod coasters. Oh, and we ate cinnamon bread both days, since it was so yummy!
We visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park one day, stopping at the Sugarlands Visitor Center then driving to Cades Cove while listening to an audio tour. The tour was nice, giving us some history and telling a few stories about the families who settled in the cove. There are quite a few homes, churches and mills still standing. We stopped at a few places along the route to get out and explore a bit. I was surprised at how busy the park was in March. Traffic moved very slowly and many of the parking areas were full. But it was a beautiful day, so we just drove slow and enjoyed the scenery along the way. I had the bright idea of driving through Gatlinburg before heading back to the campground, not knowing it would be PACKED! There was an FFA convention going on, so LOTS of high schoolers were walking around. Once we made it through the downtown area, we hit road construction that backed traffic up, too. Our 30 minute trip home took over an hour <sigh>. Oh well, it was still a good day of exploring, even though it took a lot longer than expected.
We were planning to spend a second day in the National Park, to hike to Laurel Falls. But our truck let us know that it was time to change the oil, and the only appointment we could get was at 1pm. We dropped the truck off then walked to a nearby McDonalds to hang out on our computers while we waited. By the time they were done around 4pm, it was too late to finish the hike before dark, so we just went back to the RV instead.
As I am writing this, I’m realizing how few things went according to plan this week. I’m thankful that we were able to go with the flow and still enjoy whatever we were doing, even if it wasn’t ideal. I guess the saying is true, “A bad day of camping is better than any day of working!”
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