April 2, 2006

April 2, 2006

Raccoon Valley Escapees RV Park, Knoxville, Tennessee

YEAR 2 DAY 289

 

Today was partially cloudy, humid and warm.

This morning after regular chores and preventive maintenance I went to the laundry room to get online. I wanted to edit my last blog entry, correcting a couple of grammar errors. I posted yesterday's entry to my blog before I had proof read it. When I returned to the trailer, Joanne was already starting to wash it. We spent the rest of the morning and the early part of the afternoon washing the trailer. We also waxed the front end cap. It gets so dirty with bugs I have to use an abrasive scrubber to clean it, and that removes the wax. When it's waxed, the bugs are easier to scrub off, so after scrubbing off the bugs, we waxed the front again.

We had lunch, then went to the clubhouse to watch the regular Sunday afternoon Bluegrass Jam session held here at Raccoon Valley. It was a pleasant couple of hours. There was a violinist, a banjo player, a slide guitarist, and about half a dozen guitarists. Most of them took turns as vocalists. Joanne thought it looked like something out of Deliverance, which, by the way, was filmed not too far from here. The most talented musician was an old man with few teeth ( Joanne thinks he had only one tooth ) who was playing the violin, the slide guitar, the banjo, and singing. There was a man with his teenaged multiple handicapped daughter. She enjoyed singing and clapping along with the music < rolling eyes >. There was the family of barefoot freckled redheads. The barefoot freckled redhead daughter occasionally got up and danced to the music < rolling eyes again >. A good time was had by all, yessirree ! Welcome to Tennessee ... yee-haw !

After the Bluegrass Jam, we returned to the trailer, and took Bo for an obedience training walk. We rewarded him by taking him to a fenced area and having an off leash tennis ball play session. He has finally become manageable off leash. We realized that for the first time playing in the dog park in Charleston, South Carolina. We returned to the trailer to change from the 4 foot training leash to the 30 feet retractable leash, then set off to hike the second of three hiking trails across the creek. As we crossed the culvert over the creek, Bo jumped down into the creek to have a drink of water. We were in the trailer about 30 seconds earlier, where he could have had a drink out of his water bowl, freshly filled with bottled water, but did he ? ! ? NOOOOOOOO ! Much better to drink in the muddy, algae filled creek. Stupid dog !

After hiking around the loop B trail, we returned to the trailer, and I got the printer out of the basement pass through storage area. I printed the March bank statements, and all the investment data updates I downloaded yesterday. I reconciled the March bank statements. We ...

Holy Shit ! A violent thunderstorm started a couple of minutes ago, and just now there was a crack of thunder that sounded like lightning hit right near us. And now here comes the heavy rain. Anyways ... we went to the regular Sunday evening ice cream social, had a bowl of ice cream, and chatted for a couple of hours. WOW ... another lightning strike / thunder clap. Bo is freaking out ! Uh-oh ... more thunder. Now Teddy is freaking out. I'm going to have to stop this for awhile, and go comfort them. YIKES ... HAIL ... BIG HAIL ! !

Oh, man ... it's dark outside, so I can't see much, but the hail stones vary from the size of grapes to the size of golf balls. Teddy and Bo are terrified. I wonder if there is any damage to the truck or trailer. The hail only lasted about 10 minutes, and now everything is calming down outside.

After the ice cream social, we took Bo for a walk around the campground, and chatted for a few minutes with Terry Ellis, another Escapees Ontario Chapter 18 member we know, who is in the campground. The mass migration northward has begun. HA HA HA ! We came inside, Joanne started preparing supper, I started working on this journal entry, and the storm began.

We had supper, then I spent the evening working on updating and analyzing my investment files. Oh ... well done ! Our investments have just passed the point where I promised myself a new truck.

Very late in the evening I went to the laundry room to send e-mail again.

DSK