We Begin

If you are a camper, a friend of mine or just like to travel, you probably will enjoy this RV travel blog of sites, sounds, vistas and people we meet along our way.
This trip began somewhat different on the day we left for it was my birthday, and our daughter and her one-year-old son invited us to have a birthday/sendoff breakfast with them.  We much appreciated the thought, food, presents and time spent with them before we went back to our home and actually left our home base and headed North. 

Our first camping night was in Asheville, NC.  Along the way we ate lunch at a Rest Stop in Andrews, NC, at which the lilies of different hues and mountain laurel were really pretty.  Both of us along the intersection of NC enjoyed beautiful beds of yellow and orange lilies to brighten the roadside.  Also, the ditch weeds or Native American orange lilies are beautiful in their bunches of beds along the drive. 
The Tap Campground, at which we stayed, had campers lined up one after the othere, but it was well-manicured, but not much room.  The Swananoa River runs to the side of the campground, but our campsite is not a river site.
The first day of summer found us camping in Louisa, KY, at Yatesville Lake State Park.  Alvin had to set up in a thunderstorm, or chose to do so, and got soaked.  One of the jacks broke apart at the foot, but Alvin was able the next day to get it out of the ground so it would not drag as we traveled. 
Today we traveled on US 23, the Redneck Hwy. as Alvin has heard.  When the soldiers came back after WWII, they could not find work close to home so many of the southern men drove to Detroit to find work producing cars and other vehicles.  Now, the highway is labeled Music Highway.  US 23 is one of the Blue Highways on which Alvin loves to drive as we take these trips.  We do see more of the local color than one would on the Interstate Highways.  In VA and KY the road is cut through the mountainside of rock, and we could see the sides had been terraced and scrubbery and trees with some grasses were growing on the tops of these.  The vistas of the Appalachian Mountains were awe-inspiring colors and shades of green and blue.  For a while we were traveling the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail but left it when we needed to go North and the trail cut West through the Cumberland Gap.
Our third day found us at The Sun Valley Campground in Chillicothe, OH.  As we left this morning we had to drive into Louisa and find a mechanic to repair our jack.  Our new GPS, yes, Alvin finally gave in when he could get a good deal on this technological compass, led us to the mechanic, who repaired our RV jack with his muscle and would not charge us anything.  Alvin gave him some money to take his sweetheart out for dinner.
This campground is nestled in a lovely valley with a lot of green--grass, trees, shrubs, anad flowers.  All the time we stayed at this campground a nice breeze blew.  During the night rain fell, but Alvin did set up in the sun.  Traveling to get here we were on the KY side of the Ohio River with WV on the other side.  As we entered OH by way of a town called Portsmouth, we saw much coal in coal yards and in open-air train cars.  These trains were really long. 
Our stay in Chillihothe lasted a little longer than usual as our next stop in MI would be Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit.  This week the campgrounds and hotels are hosting a square dance convention and there would be "no room at the inn."  If we'd been able to get closer maybe we could have joined the convention as Alvin and I took square dance lessons for several years with the Bent Tree Twirlers and had a lot of fun,. 
About lunchtime on our first day here, we drove into Chillicothe and ate lunch at a local restaurant touted in a brochure, but not too good to me.  Afterwards we rode out to Hopewell Culture National Park, at which the Middle Woodland Indians thousands of years ago created many burial and ceremonial mounds, the most concentrated grouping in the US in Northwest Ohio.  Five such locations exist near Chillicothe.  These are more rounded than the Etowah mounds.  Along the way we always enjoy increasing our knowledge of these cultures and other history. 

Another day we toured the home of Thomas Worthington, the father of Ohio statehood, the first US Senator from Ohio, the sixth governor of the state and a wealthy landholder and entrepreneur.  His mansion was named Adena, or Hebrew for "pleasure."  Many political discussions were held in his house with Henry Clay, James Madison, etc.  The inside of the house was lovely with oil painted rugs, as well as woven ones.  I learned that in this house the woven rugs were rolled up and stored for summer and the rice rugs left down for the summer for the cooling effect.  Another item I saw were both white and brown cone sugars.  When used the servants would cut off some of the sugar making lumps for the expression "one lump or two" began.
Saturday, we reached Van Buren, OH, and set up in a KOA Campground with many campers and children.  The hosts invited us to a Hawaiian Luau in a pavilion close by our site so we joined in with some cole slaw I quickly made  Food and fellowship were both good.  One site we passed when we traveled today to get here was Ohio State University located in Columbus.  We certainly know them from their football skills.
On this Sunday morning we found a United Methodist Church in which to worship, albeit we were 30 minutes late, arriving at 11:00 instead of the 10:30 start time.  The church was not full; they were celebrating a youth activity and seemed to not mind our being late.  We'll try to check on start time next week.