May 31, 2021 The Last Supper

 

May 31, 2021

 

Why are those little humans back and why do they want to touch me?  And why is my human allowing that?  I know my human knows my distress, but I behave… this time.

After my morning walk, the realization sunk in.

We have been at the ‘Laugeness RV resort’ for a week now, and we will be moving on tomorrow.  The main reason for this trip was to visit Paul and Merrillee and their families.  And now comes the next leg of the journey:  ‘while we are out that way, why don’t we…’.  Spouse has never been to the south east so we will be heading to the Smokey Mountains via Chattanooga, then to Charleston and Savannah.  At that point, he will have been in all 50 states.  We have no idea how we will get home, but we will figure it out.  Since hurricane season starts tomorrow, I doubt we will be keeping too far south, though…

But today, we need to get Hannah and us ready.  Cleaning, laundry at the ‘resort’, grocery shopping, organizing and all that.  I am going to miss this WI-FI big time!  I will continue to write daily, but I don’t know if I will be able to post it daily, so please bear with me.

We had a great Memorial Day Barbecue with the clan and said our goodbyes to daughter Lauren, spouse Luke and the three little ones.  Tomorrow will be bittersweet, but it is time.  I am sure Paul and Merrillee want to park in their garage again.  You know what they say about visitors…  they are like fish, they smell after a few days!

 

                                                                

May 30, 2021 Where's Waldo?

 

May 30, 2021

 

Ahem… Humans…  Oh Humans… meow.  Meow.  I am kind of stuck here, can you help me out?  Meow!

Woke up to another brisk morning.  Spouse and I decided to take the hiking trail at Rotary Park for our morning walk.  We grabbed Sadie the dog, and headed to the middle parking lot.  Spouse has a hiking trail app on his phone so he called it up, posted the location of the truck and we headed onto the trail.  It is roughly a 3 mile loop trail through the woods. 

The trail starts as concrete, then shifts to gravel, then shifts to forest mulch.  A large stream is on one side.  There are lots of ferns and other forest ground cover and we are shaded by the deep woods. There seems to be a lot of trails that break off, but we stay on the main one.  Spouse said it would be pretty tough to get lost on this trail… right?  The other trails seem to be for Frisbee Golf.  They have little tee boxes to start and big baskets to end.  You would have to be one great thrower to avoid the trees in the middle but I guess people do it!

After about a mile, we noticed we were getting close to some houses.  Spouse looked at his app… we are nowhere near the trail!  The only trail markers were for the golf so how did we get so far off?  We re-oriented ourselves and headed where the app told us… kind of…  we weaved left, then right.  Spouse saw a structure at the top of the hill where it looks like an exit so we went up to it.  I was against that as I felt if we followed the trail, it was headed in the direction we needed to go, but we needed to stick together.  It was an ampitheater.  We saw the street… but it wasn’t the street we came in on.  We walked a few hundred feet but we knew this wasn’t right.   Spouse said we needed to go off to the right, I said we needed to go off to the left.  Why are there no trail markers?

I took the app, oriented ourselves and showed that we needed to go to the left.  There was a map of the golf course.  Spouse was sure we entered the trail at hole 10 and that is right here on our right.  Spouse… that is hole 18.  Guess again….  We saw a clearing we had walked through the other day.  I had trouble convincing Spouse that we needed to go that way.  He finally agreed and we found the truck.  The only thing was, we were across the stream from it. We had to hike a bit til we found a bridge to get us back.  Now, let’s remember those words from Spouse:  ‘It would be pretty tough to get lost on this trail’.  I guess we are over achievers! As it turns out, we barely took any of the real trail at all!  But it was really pretty nonetheless!

When we got back, Spouse washed Hannah and the truck.  I sat on my ass doing a crossword puzzle and I loved every minute of it.  Poor Rudy got tangled on his leash and wedged it under Hannah’s tire.  I heard a faint mew, then another.  There he was almost attached to the tire, poor guy.  I freed him then had to do all sorts of maneuvers to free the leash.  He can be so creative.

More family visits topped off a good day.

 

 

 

May 29, 2021 Brrrrrr!

 

May 29, 2021

 

That dog had the nerve to come over to me and try to get in our house.  I hissed and hummed and showed him who is boss.  I guarded the door big time.  What nerve…

Woke up to a cold morning.  After warm and humid for so long, it was quite the surprise that it was in the 50s.  The high today is supposed to be only 60 degrees.  For my morning walk, I dressed a little more warmly – I had ¾ length capris and long sleeves.  Even after almost 4 miles, I had not worked up a sweat!

After a quick shower, we headed over to the farmer’s market in downtown Clarksville.  We are near the Cumberland River and there is a cold breeze coming at us.  It is COLD!  Looks like a lot of people were unprepared for the weather as I see shorts and flip flops.  At this point, I am wearing long pants that are lightweight, a tee shirt, long sleeve shirt and a gortex ski jacket.  I have sandals on and I am COLD! 

Like most farmer’s market, lots of activity, produce, tchotchkes, and weird pickled things to try.  Merrillee had a phone call to make so we headed on without her.  Daughter Lauren and her spouse and kids met with us as we checked things out.  As they headed out with cranky kids, we stopped at Yada’s for lunch.  Merrillee finally met us at the restaurant.

A little about Merrillee.  She is priceless, and she is a chatterbox!  So it really wasn’t a surprise that we finished through all the kiosks without her.  It’s just kind of who she is. 

As for Paul…  he and Spouse got into trouble in school, were roommates as adults and partied hard.  Paul is like Felix Unger from the Odd Couple.  Spouse was like Oscar… the slob.  So like all young adults, they chafed at each other.  It is fun to hear the stories.  Paul said he broke up with Spouse and ended up with an even slobbier roommate.  Now, decades later they are still good friends.

Now, for the city of Clarksville…  the old town is very quaint.  A tornado ripped through here a couple of years ago leveling some of the buildings.  They have been rebuilt in a fashion that keeps with the city history.  There is lots of personality and charm, pretty fountains, statues commemorating one thing or another.

Paul pointed out a building that was used for slave trading.  It is still standing and apparently has a large stage that could not be seen from the street.  Now, it is a law office.  I felt drawn to stare at the building in awe, not in a good way.  THIS is where THAT happened, for real.

                                        

There are some older residential neighborhoods with beautiful old homes and stately trees.  I love these types of mature neighborhoods.

When we got home, Sadie the dog got out of the yard and came to Hannah.  I invited her in (so we could catch her), and she wanted in, but Rudy was on his chair at the door and he forbade Sadie from coming inside.  HISSSSS, hmmmmmmmmm…..  Nobody messes with Rudy…

 

 

 

 

May 28, 2021 Rainy day foot job

May 28, 2021

My humans keep leaving me all by myself.  MEOWT!  I need lizard meat!  I am all alone.  Oh no, my human brought little people over!  My human is holding me tight so I don’t attack the little humans.  They scare me.

Listen to that… hear it?  It’s rain.  I heard it off and on through the night.  We had talked about a hike this morning but the rain put an end to that thought.  Then it rained hard.  Then it lightened some and I put my rain poncho on and headed on my walk.  It rained lightly for most of the walk.  For a few minutes, I was able to take my hood off, but then it started again.  When I got back to Hannah, it poured!  Once again, timing is everything.

Since being outside does not appear to be an option, we decided to use the ‘RV facilities’ and get our laundry done.  When we leave here on Tuesday, everything will be clean like we are starting fresh.  It is great having a washer and dryer at our disposal!  Spouse even washed the cap of Hannah, getting lots of bugs off.  Strangely, we have not had many bugs on our windshield, yet Hannah has been getting hit.

Rudy wants to go outside.  Ever since he caught a salamander, he has been running to his chair for us to hook his leash on him.  This territory is gold to him.  He keeps rubbing his muzzle on my face as I am trying to write this.  Can you hear him purr?  His food bowl is full…  it is dark… he cannot go outside.  Could it be he possibly wants some attention?

Since it was a slow day, I decided to get a pedicure.  The girl was sweet, new to pedicures and definitely needs some seasoning.  She did an effective job, but it should have been more ah-some.  I showed them the design I had on my toes already and asked if they could replicate it.  They must have thought I was from Mars.  Needless to say, their creativity is totally lacking.   If I knew when I would be back, I would have my appointment with my favorite Tina ready to go!

P and M’s daughter Lauren came to dinner with the spouse and three kids, one of which is a tiny newborn.  The 2 and 4 year old wanted to meet Rudy so I took them to Hannah.  Rudy thought he was going to get to be outside, but when the kids got there, he no longer wanted to be outside.  I had to hold him tight while he gave them stink eyes as they petted him.  They were very gentle, and moved slowly (which was probably good for my health).  Rudy held himself together then ran and hid inside.  But now?  All is forgotten and he is purring at my side.

 

May 27, 2021 Golf in the cow pasture

 

May 27, 2021

 

MEOWT!  I sit in my chair waiting for my humans to let me out and they hardly do it.  I know I look cute and I am sitting right there.  MEOWT!  I got a lizard and I want more!  MEOWT!

I took a short morning walk around listening to my serial killer podcast. Even though we are golfing, I like to walk before to loosen my back.   Today we are playing golf at a small 9 hole course called Mason Rudolph.  It has one par 5, one par 4 and the rest are par 3’s.  Don’t mistake a short course as an easy course.  I have always called a par 3 hole a par 6 hole…  Some of the par 3’s were quite long and there were hills involved so there was some challenges.  The course could use some TLC.  Weeds were sprouting in the sand traps and the grass could be nicer.  But overall, it was fun.

Paul hadn’t played in 4 years since he broke his wrist so he had rust and cobwebs on his swing.  I could tell that the pace of play guidelines that so many golf courses stride for was not a thought here.  Paul wondered while I was already on the next tee walking while they were barely leaving the green in their cart.  I told him it was because they were SLOW!

On the third hole, a ground hog ran across our fairway.  Like really…    So apropos for how we played!  I essentially played bogey golf for a nice 39.  Sounds good but it should have been better.  Maybe I ought to try practicing! 

We had our 19^th hole back at home. Oh wait, in this case, it was a 10^th hole…  Should have split the beer…

We have had some great weather so far.  Today was about 80.  Warmish in the sun, but totally comfortable in the shade.  Paul and Merrillee’s patio is a great place for socializing.

We also started plotting where we go next.  Stay tuned!

 

 

May 26, 2021 Bourbon Country

 

May 26, 2021

 

 

I kind of like where we are staying but they have a dog.  I don’t like dogs.  I will sniff up front.  Is that a bunny?

My morning walk is another around the neighborhoods.  I love looking at the landscaping.  The peonies are at the end of their bloom, darn it!  I listen to podcasts when I walk.  Right now, serial killers…

Since we are in bourbon country, we went to the Old Glory distillery.  This was the brainchild of a pair of brothers (aged 20 and 22) and it is almost 10 years old.  It is great to see homeboys dedicated to their home town.  They both got their degrees but decided office work was not for them and they created the distillery.  They make bourbon, flavored moonshine, vodka and gin.  And during the pandemic, they made hand sanitizer by the gazillion gallons.  And now, they are expanding.  It is a great venue with room for outdoor concerts and weddings and such.  It is really down home and all American.

The tour included a tasting…  we did our tasting before the tour.  Vodka, gin, bourbon, blueberry lemon shine, and strawberry lemon shine.  After a small sip of the gin, they add some tonic so you can actually enjoy it.  I am not much of a shot person, so I sipped some, added soda water to the blueberry shine which made that really good.  I couldn’t tell you if it was good bourbon since I am not a bourbon connoisseur, but it looked good.  The gin was tasty.  It has a wee bit less juniper and some additional herbs and it really worked.

In the actual distillery, we saw all the vats and machines and contraptions, as well as Martin the cat.  Our tour guide Paula said most distilleries have cats because they store grain, and where there is grain, there are rodents.  Martin is very friendly but was a little overwhelmed by the two toddlers that were there.

 

Since Merrillee did not partake in the tasting, she got to drive home.  Should we be scared since she is blind in one eye???   (She did just fine!)  Nice dinner and we taught Paul how to play cards… Skipbo.

 

 

5/25/21 Relaxing with friends

 

May 25, 2021

 

Ooh, lots to explore here, but my humans won’t let me roam free.  I have to work on them.

My morning walk took me around the neighborhood.  Nice houses in a nice community.  We were here 7 years ago and it is evident the neighborhood expanded and grew up.  Easy and enjoyable walking.

Spent a lot of time catching up and running errands.  It is so nice not to have to drive!  Also spent a lot of time catching up on my wi-fi tasks.  Feels good!

In the early evening, we took a hike at Rotary Park.  There is a nature center and trails that wind through the woods with streams.  It was starting to get dark, so we didn’t go too far, but it looks shady enough to do it earlier in the day without dying of the heat.  Spouse likes working with Sadie, the dog.  She is a sweet small border collie mix, but is high energy and wants to learn, which is perfect for Spouse.  He has a project for the week!

                                    

 

Rudy wants to roam freely in the worst way.  We are taking him on long walks for him to sniff and snort.

May 24, 2021 On to Paul and Merrillee's

 

May 24, 2021

 

 

My humans let me walk really far today.  Then they brought me over to this really big bowl of water.  I got excited when I saw things moving in there.  Wonder what that is.  I must want it.  Then something big jumped up!  I saw it with my own eyes!  I dragged my human back home big time fast!  Then I had to use my potty box.

I woke up to the calmest body of water on the planet.  I am writhing in pain that I cannot ski it!  But there isn’t even a fisherman out.  I don’t get it.  Spouse started on my walk with me around the docks, and around the property.  It is a mobile home park with an RV park so we wandered up the streets and around.  When Spouse left, I continued across the main road up a side road. Beautiful farms and there were some mini mules that loved having their ears scratched.  A girl has gotta do what she’s gotta do!

        

                                        

 

When I got back to Hannah, we readied her for her next adventure.  Spouse, with great tenacity, plotted a route in Lady Gagarmin, and darned if it didn’t work kind of.  A little kink with the mileage but he knows what it is so maybe, just maybe, we can get along!  We basically headed up some roads to Hwy 79, then headed east.  There is a road that goes up between the Cumberland/Tennessee Rivers called the land between the lakes.  It is Hwy 49 on my AAA map.  That is NOT what the road sign said and I couldn’t find it on Lady Gagarmin.  We passed it then turned around to find it.  It is not a tiny road by any means.  We headed to the visitor center, but… no cell service and we were expecting a call shortly.  Back down to a world with cell, which just happened to be in front of an Italian restaurant.  After the call, and the food, back up the road we went.

Now the road might be between the two lakes, but you certainly can’t see them through the trees.  Haven’t we done this before?  There are roads that lead to places we would like to explore, but not dragging Hannah as the roads are not paved.  We pass a bison field.  They have been increasing the herd size like it was back when…  We stopped at Homeplace 1850, which is a working museum farm from 1850.  Always fun to see things the way they were, especially when the workers are in character.   We pass into Kentucky, and instead of following the road all the way north, we cross over on Hwy 68 to I24 east to Clarksville, Tennessee.

        

Ok, we are done touring for now. Off to Paul and Merrilee’s house. We will be living in their driveway through memorial day.  Spouse went to school with Paul way back when.  Although they are so different in many ways, when someone is in your heart, it is easy to pick right up where you left off. 

May 23, 2021 Lady Gagarmin's revenge

 

 

 

May 23, 2021

 

 Human, human, are you awake?  Let me turn my purr box on.  Are you awake now?  Let me tap your muzzle with my handsome paw.  Are you awake now?  Oh goody!  Let me lay on you.  Oh, my food bowl could use some more in it.

This morning, Spouse sat with the GPS (which I now refer to as Lady Gagarmin) and tried to shape a custom route to our next destination.  Keep in mind, Spouse is dyslexic and Lady Gagarmin can be very cruel.  I tried to help.  I showed him the course on the paper map – which for me, is ALWAYS on my lap.  I had him write things down.  Lady Gagarmin changed the orientation so up was down and down was up and I could no longer handle it.  I went on my walk, while Spouse’s determination to plot a route went unchecked.

Meanwhile, Legion State Park is a small park, with lots of woods, a few cabins, a historic cabin, and a small lake with things swimming in it, but I could not be sure what they were.  It was pretty but short.  Back at Hannah, Spouse is beyond frustrated.  He got stuck on Interstate 22.  I told him we were taking Hwy 22, not Interstate 22 but I could tell this was just out of his league.  Frustrated as all get out, I put Lady Gagarmin back in the truck and charted the first leg of our joumey.

    

We readied Hannah and started out of the park.  Hmmm, Lady Gagarmin can’t find the satellite.  Let’s get beyond the trees…  oh no…  Spouse keyed in the next stop in our trucks GPS so we could continue.  I drove so Spouse could try and figure out what was going on.  I think she was pissed at me for all the bad things I have said about her.  I tried to apologize, but I am sure she saw my fingers crossed behind my back.  I begged her not to go…  Finally, Spouse decided to reset her to factory settings…  all things lost…  but at least she started to work.

Up Hwy 25, to Starkville, I82 to Hwy 45 north to Tupelo.  It is really very pretty here.  Wide open green spaces with small homes, large homes, ranches and farms spread all over the place.  Trees here, creeks there, definitely lots to look at.  When we got to Tupelo, we saw a sign for Elvis Presley’s birthplace.  What the heck, we needed to stop for lunch anyway, why not at the King’s house, right?

                                                            

What can I say about Elvis’ birthplace.   The original house is still there.  It is tiny and you can buy a tour to it if you are there when it is open.  I sat on his porch swing for a picture, but neither of us felt the draw to wait til it opened.  There are 15 acres of Elvis stuff, they are definitely milking this for all they can get!  We didn’t go in any of the museums, but we did have lunch, then continued on 45 north into Tennessee. Just for reference, I liked Elvis until I was about 8 years old, then I dumped him for Paul McCartney.  But I do respect his talent.  Saw him Vegas once and it was a great show.  I am sure by the time I was 9 or 10, I probably dumped Paul for someone else.  So fickle…

        

Now, with Lady Gagarmin, I have been entering little steps a bit of the time so she will get us on the right highway.  Then we came to blows…  see Leslie blow a gasket…  First of all, the highway numbers (these are actually backroads with numbers) don’t always correspond to the AAA map.  Then, some of these roads do not appear on the paper map at all.  So when Lady Gagarmin tries to direct us, I have to scour the map.  And what do I find?  She is evil.  Based on the map, Leslie’s course is 14 miles north.  ‘Her’ course is 16 miles west, 14 miles north then 18 miles east…  Really???  If we just stay on this road, we shave 34 mile off the route.  Now Spouse and I are going at it because Lady Gagarmin is his new love interest and he wants to believe her but I pitched such a fit he went my way.  It was amazing that after about one mile, 34 miles dropped off Lady Gagarmin’s estimation.  Spouse would follow her blindly and never know the difference.  I will ALWAYS have a map on my lap…

With all that aside, it was still a beautiful ride through open lands, farms, streams and green.

We ended up at Birdsong RV park right on the Tennessee River.  Still no wi-fi… A little too close for comfort for us, but we are right on the river so what can you expect.

We took a walk around the docks.  Let’s just say that redneckery is at its finest right here!  Hillbilly twangs, long beards, and jugs of…  but everyone is really nice.  They must not realize we are from California!

May 22, 2021 Pretty can get boring

 

 

 

 

May 22, 2021

Sometimes, I just don’t want to be moved.  My humans will come get me when I am peacefully sleeping and move me from the big house that moves to the little house that moves, or maybe the other way around.  I let them know of my displeasure.

My morning walk took me around Maynor Creek Park.  Spouse started with me.  The campsites are large and some of them border on the lake.  The lake is calm, and I have a problem understanding why nobody is skiing it.  I don’t know if skiing is allowed but I do see a big inner tube on a boat, so I assume it is skiable.  But I betcha one of those bass fishermen would take a skier down with their weaponry!

After Spouse left, I continued walking down the road to the launchramp.  There is a nature trail through the woods.  I took it for about 300 feet and got tired of flailing off spider webs, so I got myself back on the street where all I have to do is fight off cars!  Actually, nobody is on the road so that isn’t an issue.  Lots of beautiful trees.  The water is lukewarm… perfect for skiing…  argh…

Looking at the map, we had this great idea that we double back west a wee bit and pit up the Natchez Trace Parkway out of Jackson.  It is a historic trail and it passes through Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.  We could take it almost all the way to our friends in Clarksville.  So west we go on Hwy 84, then north on 49.  I wanted to take a shortcut on 28, but old Madam Garmin wanted to go the long way so I can’t fight both her and Spouse.

It is a pretty drive on a 4 lane divided highway.  Although town activity intersects, there isn’t much action til you actually get into fair sized towns.  Our lovely Lady Gagarmin directed us into the middle of the town of Laurel (best known for the HGTV show Home Town).   We had it in the GPS as a way to chart our course, but ‘she’ felt we needed to go to the center of town.  It really wasn’t the center of town, but it was in the middle of a spectacular neighborhood with beautiful homes and majestic trees and it was worth walking around and gawking.  It kind of reminded me of some of the neighborhoods in Pasadena.

 

Back on track, we stopped at an urgent care (my urinary tract infection was getting worse by the minute and I could not turn it around on my own so I needed some big guns), and then at a WalMart to get my prescription then we continued north.  About 10 miles south of Jackson, the roadwork made it slow going, but we eventually got to I55 and headed north to a turnout for the Natchez Trace Parkway.  We are by the Ross Reservoir which is a huge recreational area.  There are bike trails and historical markers.  This looks like it will be fun, right?  We checked out an RV park on the water but Spouse was overwhelmed with the size and crowd.  It is a Saturday night, you know.  I didn’t see much in the way of campgrounds going north but I let him off the hook.

As we get further from Jackson, the bike trails disappear.  There are beautiful trees, a creek now and again, a bayou, and occasional open fields.  Then there are trees, trees and more trees. It is an easy drive but the bore-o-meter is starting to peg.  There are no RV parks, campgrounds, hiking trails… Nada!  We planned on taking this for 300 miles.  We have gone 50 and we are done!  It is beautiful but enough is enough! 

We got off on Hwy 14, which is really a two lane back road in the middle of nowhere.  Rolling hills, lots of green, trees, farms, farm houses… you know… things you can look at that make the drive interesting.  We thought we would take a chance at the Legion State Park.  They only have 15 RV sites and it is a Saturday night…  It is almost empty.  Once again, a state park with huge sites, fire pits, full hookups… except for Wi-Fi.  Will I ever see wi-fi again?

 

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

There seems to be a running theme on the highways across the south:  Dollar Generals by the millions, Billboards advertising personal injury attorneys by the gazillions, and of course, churches too numerous to guestimate!