After almost 4 months back in our new home, we started getting the itch to get out of the snow and cold of Rochester.  You know what that means….time for our Spring 2017 RV trip to begin!

We left last Saturday for Springfield, Ohio, where the Blue Flame was stored.  We found it in excellent condition!  The weather cooperated too as we needed to de-winterize the coach.

Time to unload the Jeep and load the RV. This year we actually could see over the pile of stuff we hauled from Rochester to Springfield, Ohio.

The biggest fear when storing an RV is rodents invading your space.  We found zero evidence of mice.  Yay!  Granted, we took lots of precautions, such as leaving dryer sheets and bars of Irish Spring soap laying about.  Some people believe the smell from these two will keep the critters away.  I don’t know if it’s true or not.  But every day we are finding soap and dryer sheets in and behind things.  

Our only definite plan for the next 30 days is being in the Phoenix area by March 2.  We are attending an FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) Rally there.  So we have a few weeks to get there.  Which way do we go?  As usual, we made up our mind at the last minute.

Are we connected or what? From left to right…1) Jim’s Windows 10 computer running the engine monitoring software 2) GPS made for RVs 3) Corinne’s Phone running Waze 4) Corinne’s tablet running Google Maps 5) Corinne’s laptop to cover whatever all the rest won’t do. And yes, running multiple GPS’s is VERY useful when you are driving something 40 feet long!  We don’t like surprises.

Mammoth Cave National Park

We realized Mammoth Cave National Park was along our route.  Bingo!  We had our first destination.  We’ve been told the park is very crowded during the busy season.  February is NOT the busy season.  We took a couple of hikes, learned about sink holes, and did a tour of the cave.

Welcome to Mammoth Cave National Park, where no one visits in February.

We took a chilly hike. This is the Green River that run down into the cave system and then reappears miles away. This is also what Kentucky looks like in February.

Inside Mammoth Cave, approximately 350 miles long. The pictures don’t do it justice.

Stalactites inside the cave.

Mammoth Cave has a fungus that causes White Nose Syndrome in bats. As a result, almost all the bats that were in Mammoth Cave are dead. After your cave tour, everyone has to walk over a sudsy mat to wash the fungus off your shoes to keep from spreading it to other caves.

Paducah, Kentucky

After Mammoth Caves, I noticed that Paducah, Kentucky was also on our route.  “Please Jim, can we stop?  Please, please, please….”  Why Paducah?  It’s the home of the National Quilt Museum!  And stop we did.  I spent a pleasant couple of hours viewing the most amazing quilts.  Jim got to sit along the Ohio River and watch the boats go by.  We were both happily entertained.

Do I look happy or what? I’m at the National Quilt Museum!

Paducah is a Mecca for quilters.  However, a lot of the stores were closed in Feburary.  Again, it’s the slow season.  That’s OK.  If the quilt shops had been open, I probably would have bought fabric that I wanted but didn’t need.

You are not permitted to take pictures inside the museum. Darn. I “borrowed” from the Internet the pictures below of some of the quilts I saw.

Flower of Life by Scharon Schamber. The binding on this was exquisite!

Escapade by Libby Lehman.  All the “ribbons” were created by machine quilting with metallic threads, not fabric.

One of my favorites, Birds of a Different Color by Caryl Bryer Fallert.

Aletsch by Michael James. It was inspired by the Swiss Alps.

You CAN take pictures in the gift shop. There I found the DVD Stitched. It’s about three quilters trying to win at the International Quilt Market. One of the quilters, Randall Cook, is a friend of mine. And I’m in the DVD for 30 seconds commenting on his work!  I’m famous…almost.

This is the trailer for the movie Stitched if you are interested.  Or click this link if the video below doesn’t work:  https://youtu.be/v9k9vfK7RZQ

The Mississippi River

Now we are once again camped on the Mississippi River in West Memphis, Arkansas, We stopped at the Tom Sawyer RV Park last year and enjoyed it. (Read last year’s blog post here.) So we decided to stop again this year and spend a week watching the barges float by.  We are going to take some time to finish getting stuff stowed in the coach, do some cleaning, and make some repairs and improvements to the RV. 

Sunrise over the Mississippi

Really, watching the Mississippi River traffic will take away any stress you might have.

This is one of the huge barge trains (I wonder what they really are called) that a tug pushed by right in front of our campsite.

The view out our RV window!

Two tugs with barges passing each other.

I shot a 360 degree video of our campsite to try and show you just how close to the water we are.  If the video below won’t play, click this link:  https://youtu.be/iMrPGpuh-fE

There is lots to see in Memphis, Tennessee across the river. We just aren’t city people.  But we did motivate ourselves to go play tourist this morning.  

I met Elvis at the Memphis Visitor’s Center.  And no, we still haven’t made it to Graceland.  Maybe next year.

Beale Street in the daytime. This is before all the bars open and all kinds of hell breaks loose!

We took a factory tour of Gibson Guitars. Again, you can’t take pictures in the factory, but you can in the gift shop. The tour was really interesting. Jim loved seeing all the wood working going on. And now we can really appreciate why the guitars go for $4000 and more!

I’ll take the blue/purple one in the center please.

The shop clerks asked me if I wanted to play one of the guitars. I remarked it would definitely be a first!!! But I declined…since I would have no idea what to do.

After the Gibson Guitar factory tour, it was time for lunch. Memphis BBQ is good, good, good!

We’ve been told Memphis BBQ is the best. So we made time to have lunch at Central BBQ.

 Ribs and a beer. Yum!

We have a couple more days here accomplish this week’s tasks. Then we leave on Monday and meander towards my brother’s place in Albuquerque. We’ll see what the rest of Arkansas and Oklahoma have to offer as we cross those states.  Stay tuned.