Headed South

Our first stop after leaving the Gypsy Journal rally in Celina, Ohio was in Louisville, KY where we planned to pick up Mom from the airport.  Our friend Dee flew with her, then went off to visit a cousin in Louisville.  When we picked her up, Dee said that Mom had tripped and fallen on a curb when they arrived at Fort Lauderdale airport and Mom's rib was quite sore.  We spotted a Health Clinic/Urgent care facility on our way back to the campground and took her in for some X-rays.  Any time we've needed to use a walk-in clinic on our travels, I have been impressed and this time was no exception.  They were efficient, friendly, and took the time to listen.  The X-rays showed no fracture, so they prescribed Extra Strength Tylenol and rest and sent us on our way.

Whew!

So, all is well, but we arrived back at the campground after dark.  I was so hoping that Mom would get to see the Llamas that she had met before at Grandma's Campground one other time when we flew her out of Louisville.  I did get a picture of the Llamas earlier that day.

Sunday we took off - headed toward N Carolina to visit our old and dear friend, Emily.

Beautiful scenery driving thru the Appalachian mountains.

Emily was one of the very first people I got to know in Fort Lauderdale in the early 80s.  She lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for 50 years, but when she met Donovan a couple years ago, she soon decided that living with him in his home in the N Carolina hills (mountains?) was the place for her.  So, she packed up her cats and all her belongings, sold her house and here she is.  It was so nice to see Mom get to visit her too.  Emily and Mom have quite literally traveled around the world together.  (Here's a short clip of their trip to Bhutan)  
We were hoping to park our motorhome at Emily's and have a longer visit, but the last half mile of the road is not paved or graded.  They take their truck up it all the time, but no way we could take Big Boy up that stretch.  Even the paved road up to the bottom of their hill was a bit of an adventure in a large motorhome.

We did unhook the Honda and drove up to the house to visit a while.

Emily and Mom

Donovan in one of the comfy hanging chairs, surrounded by Emily's paintings.

Donovan is an artisan who makes custom moccasins for Catskill Mountain Moccasins.  He sells them at Rennaissance Faires across the country.

Jim in another hanging chair and Emily looking just as content as her cats!

Plan B was to go to a local State Park, so we took the Honda over Hanging Rock State Park to check it out.  Although beautiful, it was just a little too snug for comfort to take Big Boy there.  Yep, that is a drawback to having a wonderful big rig.  In our older, smaller motorhome, this park would have been great.  Everything is a tradeoff.

So, after a short visit, we head out on the road again because we did have a Plan C - there's a Thousand Trails park just south of Winston Salem called Forest Lake.  We knew we could get there before dark.  All is well, it's a beautiful park *and* it has a hot tub.

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