Mike’s ride on a combine

This morning we walked the few feet over to Frances and Jack’s for a hearty breakfast of waffles, bacon and sausage.

Then in the afternoon I went back to the library in West Frankfort to do more research. Jack took Mike out to the farm where he works and introduced him to Jerry Miller who is in the process of harvesting corn.

From Benton, IL

Mike has always been fascinated by combines and today he got to ride on one while it harvested corn.

From Benton, IL

Genealogy Research & Dinner at Jim & Sally’s

Friday afternoon Mike stayed at the motor home while I drove the 10 miles down to West Frankfort to Frankfort County Library for genealogy research on my Utley and Jones ancestors. My parents, grandparents and great-grandparents had all lived in the area and I had spent the first few years of my life in West Frankfort.

Friday evening Frances, Jack, Mike and I drove down to West Frankfort for dinner at Jim (Frances’s brother) and Sally’s house. Sally had fixed a great dinner with Italian beef, rolls, and pasta salad and it was followed up with her homemade apple pie (a la mode, of course).

From Benton, IL

From Benton, IL

We had such a good time visiting that it was after 11:00 before we knew it. Frances & Jack had left earlier since Jack had been up early this morning to go to work.

Traveling from Cave-in-Rock to Benton

Since we only had 62 miles to travel today, we took our time this morning in breaking camp at Cave-in-Rock State Park. By the time we emptied our holding tanks at the dump station and hitched up the car and left the State Park it was 11:07. There are no dumpsters at the State Park (the dumpsters were taken out to save on operating expenses), so we took our 2 bags of garbage with us.

As we were driving along near the Ohio River, we saw this deep-sea fishing boat going north on the river.

From Cave-in-Rock to Benton

We drove north on IL-1

From Cave-in-Rock to Benton

an Ohio River Scenic Byway for about 12 miles.

From Cave-in-Rock to Benton

Then we drive west on IL-13 for 4 miles to IL-142 the Lincoln Heritage Trail

Visiting Cave-in-Rock

It was in the mid-60's this morning and overcast. This is our last day here at Cave-in-Rock State Park. We put Tinker's harness on him and then drove over to visit Cave-in-Rock this morning.

There are 2 parking lots in the park for visiting the cave - 1 lot is located on the main entrance road into the state park and the other one is up on the bluffs just above the cave. If you park at the lower lot, you have to walk up a long flight of stairs to get to the cliffs and then go down another set of stairs to the path along the river.

We parked at the upper lot this morning and walked down to the trail along the Ohio River.

From Visiting Cave-in-Rock

When we're going on sightseeing walks like today, we tell Tinker we're going "hiking" and he's ready to go.

From Visiting Cave-in-Rock

We followed the trail along the Ohio River

From Visiting Cave-in-Rock

to the entrance to Cave-in-Rock.

From Visiting Cave-in-Rock

Cave-in-Rock was mapped by a French explorer in 1739 and Lewis and Clark passed through here during their expedition. According to legend

Paddlewheel Riverboat at Cave-in-Rock

It was 64° when we got up this morning. The van camper that came in here at the campground last night left this morning. After our morning coffee we took Tinker for a walk around the campground. We stopped to talk with the folks at the pop-up camper and found out that a riverboat was stopped at Cave-in-Rock and it's passengers were exploring the cave.

We decided to take a drive into town, but didn't see the riverboat. Since we hadn't had breakfast, we stopped at Rosie's Kountry Kitchen.

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

It was 9:45 and there were only a few people in the restaurant. We had a big breakfast including biscuits and gravy with our scrambled eggs, hash browns and sausage and bacon. While we were eating breakfast, we found out that the riverboat was still at the cave - so we still had time to see it.

We walked over to the Village Hall and I picked up an Illinois road map. Mike took some pictures of downtown Cave-in-Rock.

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

We then drove through the State Park and parked up on the bluff over looking the river and could see the riverboat at the cave. We saw Lyndal the camp host on the bluff looking at the riverboat. Lyndal was nice enough to take our photo with the paddlewheeler in the background.

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

We drove a little farther along on the bluff and parked where we had a better view of the

Driving to the Ohio River & riding on the ferry to Cave-in-Rock

It was 45° when we got up this morning. Since we only have 80 miles to travel today, we took our time breaking camp. We left Western KY RV Park at 10:50 and drove north on US-431 less than half a mile to Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway and then west for 50 miles. It had now warmed up to 61°.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

We turned north on KY-91 at Princeton driving through rolling hills and farmland.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

We saw signs on KY-91 showing that it was the original route of the Trail of Tears

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

and drove through the small town of Fredonia where we got just a glimpse

Central City & Everly Brothers Monument

It was 45° this morning when we got up at 8:00. This morning after breakfast I gathered up our laundry and went to the laundromat in Central City. The washing machines cost $1.50 a load which isn't too bad, but the dryers were expensive - 3 minutes for a quarter.

After the laundry was done, I stopped at the IGA Foodliner to look for some things Wal-Mart didn't have yesterday and I bought a Sunday newspaper while I was there.

I got back to the campground about 11:30 and then Mike and drove into Central City. We had bought some postcards yesterday at the National Corvette Museum and we went to the Post Office to mail them.

We drove around Central City taking photos of some of the homes there,

From Central City, KY

From Central City, KY

businesses,

From Central City, KY

and murals.

From Central City, KY

There is a monument to the Everly Brothers

National Corvette Museum & Driving to Central City, KY

It was even warmer this morning 64°, but it was comfortable while we broke camp. Since we only had electric and water hookups Fishing Creek, we had to drive up to the dump station to empty our tanks this morning. The dump station slopes downhill and the gray water tank wasn't emptying. Mike put some leveling blocks under our front jacks and I raised up the front of the RV so the gray tank would drain. We hitched up the car while we were at the dump station.

We left Fishing Creek Campground just before 10:30 and drove east on KY-1248 to KY-914 and then north to Louie B Nunn Cumberland Parkway. We had driven about 18 miles when we crossed into the Central Time Zone. We were driving through farmland and I managed to get a photo of this barn quilt

From Somerset to Central City

and then a little later we saw a lot of classic cars and trucks driving east on the Cumberland Parkway and I was able to get a few photos of them.

From Somerset to Central City

We were thinking about stopping somewhere around Bowling Green for lunch and saw this sign for

Last 2 days at Fishing Creek Campground

It was 45° yesterday morning and then it warmed up to 77°. Mike called some of the campgrounds we plan on staying at in October that don't take reservations to check availability for the time we plan on being there.   He was told there would be no problem in getting a campsite when we arrive. He did make reservations at two of the campgrounds since we'll be staying there over a couple of weekends.

Mike and I also called and made our doctor and dentist appointments in Dothan for the end of October. We also made a grooming appointment for Tinker after we get in at Dothan.

I spent Thursday morning going through our cabinets and rearranging them. I spent the rest of Thursday working on genealogy and making a list for doing research when we're in Illinois.

It was much warmer this morning when we got up - 57°. Today I vacuumed, mopped and cleaned.

Mike taped up the tear on the living room slide-topper with EternaBond tape and the caulking on the front end cap had come loose and Mike taped over it with EternaBond tape.

Since we're leaving tomorrow, we folded up the patio mat and Mike packed up our grill and put it and the mat in one of the bays.

It really warmed up again this afternoon to 77°. We had a few RVs come in here on Thursday and some more came in today for the weekend.

It's really been nice and relaxing here at Fishing Creek. We didn't go anywhere, just stayed here and caught up on a few things and relaxed the rest of the time.

Chilly & foggy this morning

It was chilly this morning when we got up - 46° and foggy over Lake Cumberland.

From Fishing Creek Campground

Last night I was thinking how nice it would be to sit outside this morning and drink our coffee, but I changed my mind after I walked Tinker and saw that it was 46°.

We spent today planning the rest of our trip before returning to Dothan, AL. I looked at the area we would be traveling through and scheduled in a couple of stops for genealogy research. After working out our route and the campgrounds that we wanted to stay at, we have pretty much gotten a route planned.

Tomorrow Mike is going to call the campgrounds we want to stay at to check availability for the dates we will be there. Some of the campgrounds take reservations and some don't and a couple don't have web sites, so we want to be sure they will be open in October.

It's just nice to sit here in the cool weather and relax. Our high for today was 64°. It's supposed to be cool again in the morning, but then it's going to start warming up.

Rain, rain and more rain

It rained all of last night and was still raining this morning when we got up. We've had about 1½ inches of rain since last night and the water in Jonathan Creek has risen so much that the Mallards are sitting on the creek bank. It was 60° and still raining when we broke camp and hitched up the car. We left Pride RV Resort at 10:00 and drove 1½ miles north to I-40 and then west.

From Waynesville, NC to Somerset, KY

We crossed into Tennessee at 10:45 and decided to stop for lunch at 11:15 at a rest area south of Douglas Lake near Oak Grove.

From Waynesville, NC to Somerset, KY

After lunch we continued west on I-40 to Knoxville where we took I-640 around the north side of Knoxville and then north on I-75. We crossed over the Clinch River just south of Lake City, TN and took a photo of the silt from Coal Creek emptying into the river.

From Waynesville, NC to Somerset, KY

The mountains around Lake City were covered

More photos of campground

Yesterday afternoon I drove over to Sylva to visit with my cousin Jean again. Mike stayed home while I visited with Jean. Her daughter Connie was working and wasnt' able to join us. I had a great visit with Jean talking about our family and looking at old photos. I spent about 4 hours visiting with Jean and left at 5:45 to drive the 27 miles back to the campground.

I stopped at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Waynesville to do some shopping. By the time I left the Supercenter it was almost 7:00 and I stopped at Bojangles to get some chicken fingers for dinner. It was 7:30 by the time I got back to the RV.

This morning I did laundry here at the campground. This afternoon Mike put our gas grill and patio rug away in preparation of our leaving here tomorrow. Then late this afternoon we took a final walk around the campground and took some more photos.

From Pride RV Resort

From Pride RV Resort

Trip down Blue Ridge Parkway

The last few mornings we've had a heavy fog when we get up, but it usually lifts by mid-morning. My cousin Jean called this morning to tell me that she had located her genealogy notebooks with the information she and her mother had accumulated. I told Jean that I had wanted to visit with her again before we left the area, so I will go see Jean tomorrow.

After lunch we took Tinker and went for a drive over to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We left about 1:30 and drove south on US-276 for 31 miles to the Wagon Road Gap entrance.

From Trip down Blue Ridge Parkway

We have traveled on the Blue Ridge Parkway before, but not this far west. After entering the Blue Ridge Parkway at 2:30 we turned south and our first stop was at the Cold Mountain Overlook.

From Trip down Blue Ridge Parkway

As usual it was hazy over the mountains, giving them the bluish cast that earned the Blue Ridge it's name. We saw Looking Glass Rock that reflects light when ice or water are on the rock's granite face.

From Trip down Blue Ridge Parkway

Every so often we would meet

Trip to see Resident Evil: Retribution & shopping at Sam's Club

We had an early lunch today and then drove 33 miles south to the Regal Biltmore Grande Stadium 15 theater to go to the 1:20 showing of Resident Evil: Retribution in 3D & RPX (Regal's large screen similar to IMAX). The theater is located in Biltmore Park located south of Asheville and is a planned community with apartments, shops and restaurants.

We found a parking place (free parking) in a parking garage near the theater and walked over to the box office and paid $12 each for senior tickets and got our 3D glasses. The theater was already dark when we went in and it was really hard to see after coming in from bright sunlight. Mike used the flashlight app on his cell phone and we could see the floor and steps easily.

We enjoyed the movie (no spoilers here) and we left the theater at 3:00. We decided to drive around the Biltmore Park Town Center a bit and we were very impressed.

Our next stop for today was at Sam's Club in Asheville which is 10 miles north of the theater. After doing our shopping there we stopped at the gas station and filled the car's tank and paid $3.739 a gallon. We have seen some gas stations charging as much as $3.899 a gallon in this area.

We arrived back at the campground at 5:00 and had driven a total of 73 miles today.

Visit with Jean & Connie

We got up at 8:00 (we set our alarm last night) and after walking and feeding Tinker, we walked over to the Pride Cafe for the breakfast buffet. There were several couples already there when we arrived.

From Pride RV Resort

We paid for our buffet ($5.99 each) and started down the buffet line. We had a choice of biscuits, sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, grits, sausage patties, bacon, fresh fruits, pancakes and fried apples and coffee or tea. If we hadn't wanted the buffet, we could have ordered a la carte items. Everything we had was good and we were definitely full when we left to walk back to the RV.

From Pride RV Resort

After having such a large breakfast, we decided to have a light lunch. We left the campground around 1:30 and drove 27 miles south to Sylva to visit with my cousin Jean in her new apartment in Jackson Village.

Jean has only been in her apartment for a month and is still getting settled in. After Jean showed us around her apartment, we decided to sit outside since it was so pleasant. We hadn't been there very long when Jean's daughter, Connie, arrived and joined us.

From Visit with Jean & Connie

Mallards at Pride RV Resort

When I went out to walk Tinker when we got up this morning, I saw the ducks feeding in the creek and grabbed the camera. Mike came out and joined us and took some videos of them. There were about 3 or 4 pairs of Mallards with their young feeding along the bank of Jonathan Creek and in the water.

From Pride RV Resort

We enjoyed watching them the last time we were here and it was nice to see them again.

From Pride RV Resort

We had planned on having breakfast at the Pride Cafe this morning, but

Bandit's Roost to Pride Resort

We got up at our usual 8:00 and after breakfast and coffee started to break camp. It was 60°this morning and felt good while we were getting ready to leave.

 While we were preparing the RV for our departure, I started up Streets & Trips on my laptop and started the GPS because it sometimes takes a while for it to locate satellites. After I finished my inside work, I went outside and helped Mike some. Our neighbors John and Mary came over to say goodbye while we were working. We stopped at the dump station to empty our holding tanks and hitched up the car while we were there.

We left Bandit's Roost Campground at 10:20 and headed back down Jess Walsh Road to SR-268 west and then south on Boomer Road that was a nice 2 lane winding road for 3 miles. Our Garmin GPS is working, but the GPS for Streets & Trips still hasn't connected with any satellites.

We then headed south on SR-18 through farmlands and rolling hills.

From Bandit's Roost to Pride Resort

At the town of Lenoir we continued south on US-64 to I-40 West at Morganton at 11:15. As we traveled west on I-40, our views of the Blue Ridge Mountains got better.

From Bandit's Roost to Pride Resort

We drove for 21 miles on I-40 and stopped at a rest area near West Marion at 11:45 to fix lunch. Streets & Trips still has not connected with any

Genealogy Research & More Campground Photos

I drove to the library in North Wilkesboro this morning to do some research on Mike's Phillips and Woodruff ancestors. I found some more information on them and even found out that Mike's 3rd great-grandfather Gideon Woodruff is buried in Yadkin County and found a photo of Gideon's gravestone in book on the Woodruff family

I spent about 3 hours at the library doing research and left about 12:30. I could have spent the rest of the day at the library doing research, but I needed to catch up on some things at the RV.

We had a motor home come in to the site next to us and they drove forward into the site so they would have a view of the lake through their windshield.

Mike wanted to take photos of the pull-through sites here in section A, so we started out for a walk before dinner. We met the couple who had just pulled in next to us, John and Mary, from Mount Airy. Mount Airy is about 50 miles from here and they are meeting some friends here.

After talking with John and Mary for a while, we walked over to the pull-through sites that are on a small peninsula.

From Bandit's Roost Campground

We've decided that site A28 which is on the end of the pull-throughs is the best site and if we come back here again, we'll try to reserve it.

From Bandit's Roost Campground

There is an unobstructed

Visiting Mike's ancestors' gravesites

This morning before lunch the family that had been tent camping across from us came over to see us before they left for home in Hickory. They had come in to the campground Friday night about 9:00 and started setting up their tent. Mike noticed that they only had 1 flashlight with them, so he took one of our bucket lights and an extension cord over to them so they would have some light. He also loaned them another flashlight and 2 of our folding chairs since they hadn't brought any chairs with them.

Heather, Jason and their children, Joel and Rose, brought our bucket light and extension cord and flashlight over to us (they had brought the chairs back yesterday). They also brought a thank you card and a potted Mum to thank us for loaning them the items they had forgotten to bring.

After lunch Mike and I took Tinker and drove east to Elkin

From Visiting Gravesites of Mike's Ancestors

and then out to the Greenwood Cemetery

From Visiting Gravesites of Mike's Ancestors

to look for Abner Phillips' grave who was Mike's 4th great-grandfather and who was 76 years old when he died in 1813.

We found the gravestone in the back of the small cemetery and took some photos. Whoever engraved the stone made the letters so large that he had

Genealogy Research at the Wilkes County Library

Friday morning I gathered up our laundry and drove 7 miles into Wilkesboro to go to the Wilkes Laundromat. There were only a few people there when I arrived and lots of laundry machines, so I didn't have to wait for a machine. I took a book with me to read while I waited for the laundry to finish. I was back at the motor home by 11:30 in time to fix lunch.

Mike stayed at the RV while I was doing laundry and he made an online reservation for Fishing Creek Campground for later this month. Fishing Creek is a Corps of Engineers campground just west of Somerset, KY on Lake Cumberland and we stayed there 6 years ago.

Mike spent Friday afternoon planning our route over to Illinois and I worked on genealogy in preparation for my trip to the Wilkes County Library today.

This morning I loaded up my laptop and research notes and drove the 7 miles to the Wilkes County Public Library in North Wilkesboro. I dropped some mail off at the Post Office in North Wilkesboro and stopped to take a photo of this house before driving over to the Library.

From Bandit's Roost Campground

I arrived at the Library at 10:45 and stopped to take a photo of the front of

Our front view and we got our 3G service back

Mike took this photo this afternoon through our windshield and I wanted to show off our view here at Bandit's Roost before I write about our day.

From Bandit's Roost Campground

I still had no 3G data service this morning on my cell phone, so after breakfast we drove into Wilkesboro to go the library and wi-fi.

From Bandit's Roost Campground

There is no laundry at Bandit's Roost Campground and we stopped by the Wilkes Laundromat to check it out. The washer are large front loaders and cost $2.50 a load and for every quarter you get 7 minutes drying time.

Our next stop was at the Post Office to buy postcard stamps and to mail a couple of postcards. We then drove across the Yadkin River to the Wilkes

Problems with Power Management System & Cell Phone Service

We all slept in this morning later than usual, so we got a late start on our day. Mike took photos today of our campsite here at Bandit's Roost. Yesterday we had a real good view of the lake from our windows, but today 2 RVs came into the 2 campsites next to us and are blocking part of our view.

From Bandit's Roost Campground

From Bandit's Roost Campground

While we were at Lynchburg Preserve we had low voltage at the campground and our Energy Management System kept shutting off the power to our motor home so the low voltage wouldn't damage

Gladys, VA to Wilkesboro, NC

We did something last night we don’t normally do – we set our alarm clock. We wanted to get up this morning at 7:00 since we had 192 miles to drive today and needed to make a couple of extra stops along the way. We left Lynchburg Preserve at 9:30 and drove west to US-29 and then south through Danville to the North Carolina state line.

From Gladys, VA to Wilkesboro, NC

We stopped at the Piedmont Triad Visitor Center on US-29 just south of the Virginia-North Carolina border at 11:00. While Mike walked Tinker I went inside the Visitor Center to get a North Carolina map and I picked up a couple of travel brochures. We decided to stay at the Visitor Center and fix lunch. We were back on the road at 11:45 still driving south on US-29.

When we were just south of Ruffin, NC, we took US-29 Business south to US-158 at Reidsville. We saw several fields of tobacco crops

From Gladys, VA to Wilkesboro, NC

and then just north of Stokesdale we saw all these pumpkins