Jam packed two weeks..................

     I know........I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last blog posting, but it has been a jam packed two weeks!  We have now been in the Abingdon, Bristol area of Virginia and Tennessee for long enough to start paying taxes.  This area call the Tri-Cities on the border of these two states has been home since the 8th of August in two different camp/park grounds.  Hell let's add the 3 days in Fayetteville, NC visiting family on a surprise visit and we're coming close to becoming "Red Necks."
     It was good to surprise my sister Nancy and her grandson and his family in Fayetteville, we were in the area and with help from Teresa we pulled it off.  Teresa's son and my sisters grandson is stationed at Fort Bragg with the Army, it was a nice reunion for all of us.
     Carlisle and Sherri Cox were are neighbors while living on Tanya road in north Phoenix for like 8 years, where we became very good friends.  There was no way we were going to be in or around Abingdon, Va. where they call home now and not visit.  We spent 6 days in the Abingdon area and had some great memories recalled and new adventures started.  From dinners to a day of pontoon boating on the lake and throw in some golf with Carlisle and one of his school mates, it was much fun and reminiscing.  I must add at this point, we dodged a lot of rain while visiting these folks, down pour here but dry as a bone at camp on and off for those days.  We could play golf in the mornings and have the rain hold off until we finished it seems, all was good.
    Then we have Bristol..............Yes "Bristol Baby" as in NASCAR racing and Bristol Motor Speedway!  My cousin Darilyn and Ed Smith are joined by cousin Robin and Johnny each year (at least for the past 10 years or so from what I can gather) for a week of camping and taking in all the BMS racing and festivities for the week.  Ever since we've been taking these journey's Darilyn has been after us to join them for one of these festive weeks.............and so with Abingdon being just 10-20 miles away we made the commitment to join Ed, Darilyn and their group of friends for this happening!  They have been camping at a place called "Farmer Bob's" for the past 10 years or so and we made arrangements to join and their group camping at Farmer Bob's.  This would be dry camping, yes, dry camping with no hook-ups, all self contained camping in the motor home!  Up until now we have only "dry camped" for maybe a day no more that two, we like our rolling hotel to be hooked to power and water and sewer!  Question was............can we live with 60 gallons of fresh water, 42 gallon tank of solid waste and 42 gallons of grey water waste and generator electric for a week or 8 days?  Let me add right here that it's now the 6th day and we are doing great, still 30 gallons of water and only used up about half of our waste tanks...........I think we'll make it, and believe it or now we don't stink!  Conserve, conserve, conserve has been the word of the day each day.  The group is 16 strong and we all eat meals together and party together and drink apple pie together.........seems like a lot of apple pie (shine.......moon shine........home made stuff)!  One cook, Ed and you better stay out of his kitchen, and what a great job he does with breakfast and dinner, lunches we're on our own, feeding a group of 16 of us can be a real job.
     Now the bad, the rain has not stopped at least part of each day.  It got so bad the other night there was a flash flood that washed out the sight the rest were camping in, Bev and I were across a lane and on a hill side 20-30 yards from their setup.  Farmer Bob's is a cow pasture for all but 2-3 weeks a year, the Bristol races and Drags I guess.  After the rains stopped that evening the group moved their entire camp behind us on the hill in just 2 hours...........a major feat to be sure!
     Beverly and I didn't have tickets to the races, Truck racing on Wednesday night, Xfinity racing on Friday night and Cup racing on Saturday night, and just planned on hanging around camp and watching on TV.  That was fine with us, we were a late committing pair for this week at Bristol.  As it turned out another couple couldn't make it and we were offered the tickets to buy, so now we're going to the races.  Wednesdays truck racing did take place after long delays of rain and drying the track but the evening became very long and they got the race completed.  Now we're all praying the rain comes during the day and stops come evening time, especially the Saturday night event, the big guys.
     Today is Friday the 19th and we are looking forward to tonight's racing, we hope they run without delay and finish at a decent hour, if not oh well...................the past two weeks have been full of fun with friends and family and we're so glad we made these stops.  Along with paying taxes in this area I think we might be picking up bit of that southern drawl, not all bad folks because we have so enjoyed all the southern hospitality shown us and appreciate all that has been shared with us.  Love all these folks and will miss them when we finally head farther west and homeward.

P.S. Yes we bought NASCAR shirts with drivers and Bristol Baby logo's and #'s!!!!  Red Necken!