Week in review for April 21st – Home, Work, Dinner Party, Bella turns 2!, Pigeon Forge and a Small RV Flood

Week of April 21st

We arrived home on Monday of this week after being on the road for 3 weeks (TX, OK and TN).  Much of the week was spent getting caught up on work items (rally planning), running local errands and getting a few things done around the house.

Tuesday night, as with most Tuesdays throughout the year, was spent out for dinner with many of our Gardens neighbors.  There are two significant groups that go out on Tuesdays.  One group goes exclusively to The Blind Zebra, a sports bar and grill.  Pub food primarily.  The other group rotates through 3 or 4 area restaurants.  We tend to split our time between these groups as we know nearly everyone in both groups.  This Tuesday, we went with The Blind Zebra group.  A great time with friends and neighbors as always!

On Wednesday, Nancy went to a Jewelry Party hosted by a Gardens friend.

Thursday, we spent time cleaning the house, the deck and front porch and generally getting the place shaped up, preparing for a dinner with friends.

Our club member friends, Dan and Karen H were staying nearby in the Cookeville, TN area visiting Karen’s mother, and a week prior, we’d hatched a plan a week ago to have them over to our home for dinner.  As Dan and Karen are going to the Indiana Heartland Owners Club rally in early May as are two of our Gardens neighbors, we decided to invite these neighbors for dinner too.  This would give Dan and Karen a chance to meet and get to know Ray B / Kathy V and Jim / Carol S.

Dinner and fellowship were both fabulous.  Here’s what the menu looked like…

Menu

• Continental Chicken (Jim)
• Roasted Garlic Rosemary Potatoes (Jim)
• Chopped Garden Salad with Italian Dressing (Jim)
• Toasted Bread and Bruschetta for Appetizer (Jim and Nancy)
• Green Bean Casserole (Carol S)
• Bread Stuffing (Kathy V)
• Pork Roast with Gravy (Kathy V)
• Sausage and Peppers (Ray
• Dinner Rolls (Nancy)
• Pineapple Whipped Cream Coconut Cake for Dessert (Karen H)
• Ice Cream for Dessert (Nancy)
• Coffee, Tea, Water and other drinks (Nancy)

Karen took a couple of pictures.  I lifted them from her Facebook wall.  Thanks Karen 🙂

Friday was another day of work, beginning early. We used the hot tub around noontime for the first time in a while. Late this afternoon, we caught a movie – Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier“. We liked it. Stay through the credits to see a preview of the next installment!

Saturday was spent mostly working on rally planning and reloading the RV, making it and the truck ready for travel. But we did take time out to Skype with my son Tony and our grand daughter Bella. Bella just turned 2 years old! She is so precious. She waited until this morning, when we had time to Skype with her, to open her presents on camera with us. What a special time.

Sunday was a travel day. We drove 2 hours east to Pigeon Forge, TN. This was a planned visit to Dollywood as we have season passes. Our passes came with a buddy pass that is good only this week. We invited neighbors Jack and Paula K. They have been gone for the winter and are making their way back home to the Gardens. We’re looking forward to seeing them and spending a day at Dollywood with them.

We’re staying at Bear Cove Village. Bear Cove is just a mile down the road from the Dollywood entrance – so really convenient for Dollywood visits. It’s also easy to get into the center of Pigeon Forge from here without having to fight your way on the Parkway.

We arrived at Bear Cove around 4:00 pm.

MiniRV Flood
Had a bit of a mess after I hooked up to water today. Seems we left the kitchen sink faucet on and when I connected and turned on the water, we got a bit of a mess. During travel today, the faucet rotated on it’s own -180 degrees. In this position, it dumped water right onto the dinette table. We had half the slide room carpet soaked and had to call up cleaners (check out their website). Fortunately, our friends had a small shop vac with them. We had it all cleaned up in no time. I’m still running 2 small fans on the carpet in the slide overnight and will do so until no more dampness can be felt.

The four of us went out to dinner at Mellow Mushroom for pizza tonight. Yummy!

After dinner, I continued to work on rally planning. I believe I’ve hired a DJ!