As I’m typing this post from our campsite in Notchy Creek, we’ve now hit the 3 week mark in our cross country adventure. We’ve also finally crossed over into the Eastern Time Zone. This is most likely going to be our last real camping experience (as far as RVing can be considered a “real camping experience”) before hitting our turn around point in South Floridaa. We’ll probably have one more overnight stay somewhere, but that will just be for sleeping. More on that in the next posts, for now we’ll stick to recent events…
After leaving Franklin on Saturday we headed over to the relatively nearby Poole Knob campground for four nights. This was to be our longest stay at any one place so far. Poole Knob was another Army Corp of Engineers campground and located on a wooded peninsula at J. Percy Priest Reservoir. This is also where we met up with Lana’s cousins from New Jersey – Toma, Dima and their two kids Jacob and Ellie. They had rented an RV in New Jersey and drove down to vacation with us for the next week. The first night we had campsites that were a bit inland, but for the final three nights we switched to a couple of very nice lakeside sites.
After setting everyone up at the new sites on Sunday, Dima and I took afternoon drive about an hour west where we met a very nice gentleman who owns some land out in the country. Unfortunately for him, he was having issues with some unruly deer who were devastating his garden. Dima and I were there in an attempt to help with that situation (in full compliance with all local laws and regulations). After some very nice hiking through the woods and fields, followed by some very nice sitting in the woods and fields, we headed back to Poole Knob to rejoin our families. There was going to be some work ahead of us.
Monday was actually one of the more gloomy days on the trip. The weather had turned rainy and windy but by the evening the weather had calmed down and we were fortunate to have Bill, Brian and his two kids come join us for a nice dinner of some very tasty back strap. We also managed to get into a bottle of Bourbon, from California of all places.
On Tuesday, Lana and the boys had work/school as normal. Because I had taken the week off I joined Toma and Dima on a quick trip into Nashville. Even though we didn’t really have much in the way of plans for Nashville, I had never been so I was eager to check it out, even if it was just walking around downtown for a couple of hours.
Due to Covid, downtown Nashville seemed very slow. Half the businesses were either closed or empty even if they were open. I can only imagine how much fun this area would have been back in the good ole days of no Covid. It was still nice to walk around and take a few pictures. I’m hopeful that next time I’ll be back in Nashville I’ll have Lana and the boys with me, and that the city will be alive once again.
One of my concerns was that due to Covid we wouldn’t get to try any of Tennessee’s famous BBQ. At least that proved unfounded as we found a Martin’s BBQ Joint location that was open and had outdoor seating. Pretty pretty good…
Back at Poole Knob we enjoyed the lake a bit more, with the boys fishing a bit. They even caught some nice size bluegills, which were pardoned (no soup for us!).
On Wednesday morning it was time to leave. The campground was shutting down for the season that day, we were literally one of the last groups out the gate for the season.
