Is There a Doctor in the House???

Before I begin this blog's subject, I came across this picture on my computer while getting ready to post tonight's entry and I had to include it. Last month, after we returned from Louisville via Red Bay via Louisville via Hershey, We got to spend some time with all of our boys! Chad flew in from LA with Renee; Mike, Lisa and Ava came up from Newport, RI, where they had spent the early part of the week, and we were all together for the first time in a long time. It was really great to actually spend time as a family, without outside influences, and just talk and reminisce. As part of our weekend activities, we played "Banana-Grams", which is kind of like "Scrabble", only free-style. If you've never played, take it from me, this is a great game and can be lots of laughs, as evidenced by the photograph!

OK, on to today's topic.

Shreveport, LA - Friday, September 24

We arrived in Shreveport this afternoon from a small Mississippi town called Canton. Ever hear of it? Canton, MS in host to the Nissan Manufacturing plant. It is quite a large facility out in the western side of Canton, right off of I-55. As we were driving through Canton on our way to the campground, there were banners hanging on the light posts describing Canton as a city with a "bright future", and others touting it as the "home of NISSAN". The town itself is not very impressive. Kinda like Mayberry, RFD, if you know what I mean.

What were we doing in Canton, you might ask? I refer you to the title of this blog entry. Earlier in the day, after leaving Tiffin Motor Homes in Red Bay, AL, we decided to travel down to Jackson, MS via the Natchez Trace Parkway. If you will remember, we drove north to Nashville on "the Trace" last month, again after leaving Red Bay. Anyway, we stopped for lunch on "the Trace" and Kathy made sandwiches while I walked the dogs. Shortly after having lunch, I started experiencing what I can only refer to as severe abdominal distress (cramps). It got so bad that we pulled over again and I stretched out on the couch for a while to see if I could get the cramping to stop. After a while, when I realized that they weren't going to stop that easily, we continued on our way south to Jackson. As the afternoon wore on, the cramping seemed to be getting progressively worse. We decided to find a campground to spend the night where I might possibly find medical assistance if we needed it. The closest campground happened to be in Canton, so.... Long story short, after getting set up in the campground, I started feeling feverish, so I took a couple of Tylenol and went to bed. When I awoke a couple of hours later, I felt much better, as the cramping had subsided completely (phew! Thank God for that!!).

Needless to say, I did not eat anything last night! This morning I awoke feeling so much better and more rested than I had felt since we left Hamilton two weeks ago. I had a light breakfast (cold cereal/banana), and experienced no recurrence of the cramping. After a 4.5 hour drive, we arrived here in Shreveport a few days early for our next show, which starts next Wednesday and runs through Saturday. We have never done this show before, so we are hopeful that it will be a good one.

Stay tuned for my next post and I will have news on this show. Until then, hope everyone is well.

On The Road Again....

Wednesday, September 22 - Red Bay, AL

When last I posted a blog, we had spent a week in Louisville, then made another trip down to Alabama to have the motor home worked on. We were in the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures in the high 90's.

We are now back in Alabama to have more work done on the motor home, and the temperatures are still up in the 90's during the day. It is now 7:45PM and the temperature outside is currently 85 degrees. Oh well, at least it's not snowing and freezing cold.

We left Hamilton on September 11, headed to Hershey, PA, to work another RV show. We made a brief stop in Rye Brook, NY to visit Mike, Lisa and Ava before heading out, since we will be "on the road" now until November, when we will end up back in Florida.

The show in Hershey was pretty good, but very long! We arrived in Hershey on Sunday, 9/12, and checked into the campground. Then we headed out to the show venue, the Giant Center in Hershey, to set up our booth. The show began on Monday morning with what they refer to as "Trade Days", when RV dealers come to the show to look at the newest models and place orders. The trade days went from 9AM to 4PM on Monday and Tuesday. The actual show opened to the public on Wednesday at 9AM and ran until 8PM daily, through Saturday. On Sunday, the last day, the hours were 9AM to 5PM, then we had to break down our display and pack it up. We were both exhausted by the time we got back to the motor home, and were in bed early. On Monday, we visited the Chocolate Factory, where Hershey candies are made. We were on the road by 1PM, headed down to Atlanta to pick up more product.

We spent Monday night in a Walmart parking lot in Virginia. We were awakened on Tuesday morning at 6:45AM with some guy knocking on the door. When I got up to see who was there, we were informed that we would have to move out because they were painting lines in the parking lot! So much for sleeping in! We were out of there by 7:30AM. We drove to South Carolina on Tuesday, arriving in Townville, SC shortly before 5PM at a campground where we spent that night, so that Kathy could get some laundry done. We were about 90 minutes from Atlanta.

This morning we rose and set out for Atlanta to make our pick-up. Now, I know that you are going to find this hard to believe, but the "human compass" (me) screwed up when mapping our route. We had planned to park the motor home in a Walmart parking lot and drive the car to make the pick-up, since we were not sure of the area and did not know if we could actually drive the motorhome into the area. The Walmart I selected was northwest of Atlanta, in Marietta, while our pickup was on the southeast side of the city, in Forest Park. When we realized our (my) mistake, we drove the motorhome down to the Forest Park area and found the location of our supplier. As luck would have it, they were located in an industrial area, with plenty of room for the motorhome.

After making our pick up, we left Atlanta and headed out to Red Bay, Alabama, where we are now. We have an appointment tomorrow morning to have the jack leveling system checked out, then we will head west, again, toward Shreveport, where our next show will be held. This one starts next Wednesday, but we have to be there by Tuesday to set up.

Check back often for updates. We will be doing some sightseeing along the way to Shreveport.