Bristol, Tennessee

Monday

Once we woke up, ate and caught up on email this morning we prepared to travel.  We were on the road about 11am.  We only planned about 219 miles today.  I followed Randy the GPS and we were on two lane roads for about an hour.  We took US-27 and Tenn 30 which took us North from the park and we finally hit the interstate bound for Knoxville.  We passed Freightliner where I spent a month with the Ambassador a couple years ago.  Then we headed for Bristol.   We made a lunch stop in the parking lot at a Pilot and Bonnie got some Subway sandwiches and treats.  She took over the driving duties for the rest of the trip.

Rolling hills and a lot of traffic

About 90 minutes later we rolled off the interstate past the Bristol Motor Speedway and into the campground.

Thats Bristol Speedway out the window

We were here July 4th 2 years ago

Nice long pull through site

There is a Lake at the bottom of the hill

Nice clubhouse

This is a nice clean campground and is usually only full during race events at Bristol.  Its actually in Bluff City if you look for it.  We plan to be here 2 nights and look around the area tomorrow.

We have full hook ups so Bonnie is working on the wash and both AC units are keeping us cool.  In a few days we will be int he cooler weather.  The WiFi was not working well when we got here but seems to be doing just fine now.

Tuesday

It started to rain shortly after we woke up this morning.  By the time Bonnie did a load of wash and we were ready the rain had stopped.  We hoped to see a few of the sights around here today.  First stop was Bristol Motor Speedway.

Offices and Gift shop

The ticket office seemed very busy.  The NHRA drag races are here also next week.

The stands are huge like a giant football stadium

One of the tracks cars

Picking out just the right shirt

We decided not to take the organized tour but were told we could enter at Gate 6 and explore the stands and look over the track.

Working on my selfie style

 Notice there is a grid iron laid out in the infield.  Tennessee and Virginia Tech are scheduled to play a football game here in 2016.

A Pano taken with the iPhone

We left the track and headed for Ridgewood BBQ we have been looking forward to some BBQ and this place is highly recommended, not to be this is their vacation week.  So using Yelp we chose the Bluff City Diner.  A real diner with home cooking.  It was really good and we would return.  Bonnie had breakfast (served all day) and I had the meatloaf.  We were stuffed, we both could have used a nap.

Instead Bonnie wanted to go to the Bristol Caverns and look for Gems in their dirt.  When we got there she asked where the dirt came from and the owner told her it came from Massachusetts.  She said no thanks and we left.

We had heard about the South Holston TVA dam and it was close by so we headed over there.

The dam was completed around 1952

 This is a TVA project and continues to generate power.  The whole project is well kept and very clean.

At the top of the dam

Looking down the face of the dam to the power house

Looking back at the face of the dam

Weir Dam

 This is a Weir dam.  Kind of a low dam about 6 or 8 feet high.  Besides backing up the water, since water flows over it all the time it adds oxygen to the water and helps the fish.

The resident Heron

One lone fly fisherman.  We did no see him catch anything.

By now it was late afternoon so we headed back to the rig after picking up some bread and milk.  It turned out to be a nice day and tomorrow we will be heading North into Virginia.

Wednesday

Today was a travel day and we were just starting to unhook when I got a message, I called back and what a great surprise.  Rob and Lisa Moor, our first Pastor at Goshen Baptist in Spotsylvania and his wife were 5 minutes from the campground.  They live real close and took the time to come see us.

Rob and Lisa

Its been years since we have seen them, they left Goshen and went to Tanzania as Missionaries and came back about 9 years ago.  The conversation picked up like we had seen them yesterday and before we knew it almost 2 hours had passed and it was check out time at the campground.  So we said our goodbye, had our hugs and a brief time of prayer for family and safe travels.  We finished packing up, dumping tanks, and hooking up the car.  We hit the road about 11:30.

We made good time no construction, but lots and lots of heavy truck traffic.  That always makes for a bit of a stressful drive.  Around the 100 mile mark we stopped for a quick lunch, switched drivers, and I made a quick inspection around the rig.

The rest area was full of trucks when we pulled in, glad some left

We drove through a couple heavy rain storms and thankfully the wipers worked.  At around the 200+ mile mark we pulled in to another rest area, a quick walk around and I took over the driving duties.  We pulled into a very bush Pilot to get fuel about 50 minutes later.

We were third in line and there are 9 lanes.

We fueled up and were on our way in about 50 minutes.  Only 20 miles to go to the campground.
We pulled into Shenandoah Valley Campground and checked in.  The owner and his wife checked us in and their son escorted us to our nice long, wide, level site.  This is a Passport America Park and is half price.  Its a year old and small 43 sites but very nice and convenient.  The owners also own a restaurant and catering business in Lorton Virginia.  They are hoping to sell that and just do the campground.  They also have a hobby farm up the road.  Best deal is that they serve their BBQ in a little cafe at the campground.

This is the $9.99 rib special

We went up and got two meals, of course it rained hard while we returned to the coach.  The rain was followed by a beautiful Rainbow.

View out the front window from our couch

We watched Wheel of Fortune and enjoyed what we could eat of the meal, we have enough for lunch tomorrow.

That catches us up.  Tomorrow we pull out and plan to be in Benezette, PA in the middle of the Pennsylvania Elk herd.  We are hoping to see lots of them.  Downside is it looks like we will be unplugged from the Internet for the next few days at least at the campgrounds where we are staying.  So we will post when we can.  I hear the second round of rain has arrived.

Thanks For Checking In!

"If Your Dreams Don't Scare You, They Are Just Not Big Enough"