April 4, 2006

April 4, 2006

Raccoon Valley Escapees RV Park, Knoxville, Tennessee

YEAR 2 DAY 291

 

Today was sunny and warm.

This morning I did regular morning chores and preventive maintenance, then cleaned and polished my black shoes. I took Bo for an obedience training walk. As a reward, I then took him on a hike around the last of the 3 trails across the creek. Loop C was the longest, and most difficult of the three hiking trails, climbing about 200 feet in elevation over a quarter mile. When we returned, Joanne wanted to go out for a junk food lunch.

We drove one exit back on the Interstate, then drove up and down Emory Road looking for a desirable "junk food" place to eat. We decided to go to Krystal, a hamburger chain. Their "shtick" is serving multiple quantities of little burgers. You know ... 4 teeny burgers for the price of one big one. I had 2 teeny double cheeseburgers ( isn't that an oxymoron ? ) with chili cheese fries. Joanne had the only "large" regular sized burger on their menu.

Joanne is having difficulty understanding Tennessee accents. HA HA HA ! That's usually my problem. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one. These regional accents have such peculiarities. For example, while in Louisiana ( Luziann ) the last consonant of each word is dropped ( thah really raw maw bow ... that really rocks my boat ), here in Tennessee words with only 1 syllable aren't allowed. For example, the number 5 is pronounced "fie yev", with 2 distinct syllables. Joanne has been complaining ever since we got here that she can't understand a word of the next door neighbour in the Airstream, who is a very friendly old guy, and talks to us every time he sees us. Joanne just smiles and nods at him. HA HA HA HA HA !

On the way back from lunch we did a bit of back roads exploring. When we got back to the trailer, I read for awhile, then napped with Teddy and Bo while Joanne did some housecleaning. When I woke, I worked on preparing Misty Ventures & Developments' fiscal year end accounting. Our corporate fiscal year end was March 31. I summarized the corporate fiscal year's accounting, then prepared an e-mail to our accountant in Ottawa, asking some questions. While I've never prepared corporate income tax returns on my own before, I'm considering doing it this year. Misty Ventures is inactive, and the entire year's accounting is 10 line entries.

While Joanne prepared supper, I did today's personal accounting, and started working on today's journal entry. I prepared some e-mails to family to let them know that we're okay, and survived the horrific storms of 2 nights ago. Although, I suppose, if they were worried about us, they would have phoned by now. I guess that's an indication that they either don't know where we are, or don't know that the storms of 2 nights ago took many lives.

We had supper, then went for a walk around the campground with Bo. A car was driving through the campground, and began honking at us. It was Marcel and Louise Lemieux, friends of ours from Montreal. We met them at the Escapees Alberta Chapter 44 rally in Mesa, Arizona last year. They were accomplished dancers and jugglers, and taught me some new juggling. I introduced them to magic. They became very interested in magic, and are now accomplished magicians. They have been performing dance, juggling, and magic, all over Canada and the United States since we last saw them at the Spring Escapade in California a year ago. At the Escapade, they performed juggling and dance, and I performed magic, for an audience in excess of 2200 people. We went to their motorhome, and they demonstrated some magic for me that I wasn't familiar with. We returned to our trailer, where I reciprocated. Marcel and Louise arrived here last night, and are leaving tomorrow morning, on their way to a dance exhibition, attended by about 500 dancers, before they head back to Montreal.

It was great to see them again. I feel as if I "mentored" what are now quite accomplished magicians.

DSK