Boy; what a long couple of days it has been. Saturday morning the 26th we were up at 0500 and out the door by 0630 for the 130 mile trip up to Fairfax to see Dr. Herr for Neil’s eye appointment. He got his contacts prescription checked, got a couple sample pairs to see if any of them help his reading vision without affecting the distance, and we drove back down 130 miles to Chesterfield. On arrival we quickly finished up stowing the house and headed out for the dump station. By the time we got dumped and on the road it was 1400 and we still had another 155 miles to our overnight stop. By the time we got to the Lee Hi Travel Stop in Lexington VA (home of the Virginia Military Institute or VMI as you probably know if) we wuz tuckered. We quickly got checked into our reservation and parked in site 42 for the evening. We stayed hitched up and Neil only brought on power as we had enough water in our fresh tank for overnight.
Getting up again early Sunday morning (we got to sleep all the way until 0600) we had coffee and breakfast then headed off to St. Patricks for Mass at 0800. After that it was back to the park, disconnect power and we were on the road before 1000 for our remaining 325 mile drive to Sevierville TN.
We had a little adventure getting into the park…the GPS didn’t know there was an opening in the median on Parkway to turn into the park and was telling us we needed to make a U turn. As a result…we were looking for the U turn and hence didn’t see the easily available left turn lane…Neil almost didn’t make the turn onto the little street the box wanted us to turn on but decided to do it anyway. Bad move we found out as it was a little neighborhood with tight streets. We finally found a place we could turn around by backing around a corner into another street and got back out to the main road. From there we turned right in our original direction of travel and after another 1/4 mile or so found a parking lot we could make a U turn on and get headed north again on Parkway so we could make a right into the park. Right as we turned into the park we noticed the previously unnoticed left turn lane from Parkway going south…Doh!!!
Anyway; we got set up in site 428 here at the park.
We’ve got the awning in as the wind keeps coming up and trying to blow it away…it’s supposed to be nicer after Wednesday so hopefully we’ll be able to put it and the flag out by then. Neil’s sister MJ and her daughter L came over and had a pizza with us before heading back to their home over in Knoxville 20 miles away or so…then we headed off to the campfire for the rally participants that were already here…probably 50 or so of them.
Monday we didn’t do much; Connie worked a bit and Neil went to Walmart for food. Tuesday was more work and a haircut for Neil with the rally activities starting this afternoon.
One more nice picture we got the other day…after getting parked at Lee Hi Travel Stop we just headed on down to the restaurant conveniently located at the travel stop…it was named Berky’s. The food was OK but not outstanding…but then we were so tired that all we wanted was food anyway. They have a little section of the restaurant set aside as something called the Tin Toy Cafe…here’s a shot of that.
Once we sat down we saw this young lady in a backless evening gown over in the other section…turns out that it was Prom Night and all the other places in town had a 2 hour wait. I’m sure the young lady felt a bit out of place in a country diner in a gown and 6 inch stilettos but it was a really pretty gown so we appreciated it anyway.
I don’t know if we’ll get any fun stuff in this week…probably not at least until Sunday but we may get in a hike at one of the close by places either Sunday afternoon or Monday depending on how tired we are and how much work Connie has piled up.
Cyas.
Travels with Gunther and Kara 
Could I ask which park you are staying at in Sevierville? We’re heading that way later this year and haven’t decided where we are staying, yet. Do you have any particular pros or cons (other than the “hidden” left turn lane)? Thanks with smiles, Sue Castle
Hi Sue…
We’re staying at the River Plantation RV Resort which is pretty nice…we’ve been here once with the RV and once as a non RVer rally attendee. Both times it was picked by the folks doing the rally so we just got a reservation at the park they chose.
The turn lane actually isn’t hidden at all…and we couldn’t remember whether we turned left before or made a U turn past the park (U turns in a car don’t really stick in your memory like they do in the RV ya know). However, both my truck model Nuvi GPS and Connie’s iPhone Garmin app wanted us to make a U turn.
Despite the fact that we knew pretty much were the park was we sort of got zoned in on the U turn directions instead of actually looking for the park entrance. If we had done that it…it woulda been easy.
There are other parks but once you get a couple miles down into the tourist part of town they’re probably more expensive. If you’re looking to go to a lot of shows and stuff this would be a good place to stay but if you’re more interested in woods, hiking, or being away from the crowds then you might want to look elsewhere.
If we were coming here not as part of a rally then we would look around for something a little more non resort-y/more state park-y looking but if there was nothing good close and we wanted to be close to town we would stay here again.
We’ve also stayed at a park over in Knoxville at the Racoon Valley RV Park which is an Escapee’s park…it’s very nice as well but is much more of an out in the woods type of place (although it’s really not too far outside of civilization but it is a more semi-rural area then here in Sevierville).
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