Ketchup!

I guess we've been having way too much fun! The days have been long and full and the nights, somehow, have been short. Haven't posted anything in about 3 days, so here goes.....
Sept 19
The last I posted, we were heading for Campbellsville, KY to tour Amazon.com. Before we left Louisville, we went to Mass at St Francis Xavier, a beautiful church, we really enjoyed the Mass. We ate at a Waffle House after Mass, just couldn't pass up a southern shot of grease!
Well just let me say Amazon was an eye opener! Don't know what you might understand about how it works but the place was HUGE and there was everything that can be ordered from Amazon is in that warehouse! I figured they middle-man'd the products but they don't, they actually stock every product in every color or style that is available. The way it is organized is down to a science. Well, I guess you can tell I was impressed. (Mo too) We checked out the campgrounds they provide and decided where we wanted to stay. Stephanie, our contact there, was pleased we came by and assures us we have a place there next year.
We left there and decided to drive to just south of Knoxville and stay the night in a Walmart parking lot. It was a long way and we ended up driving after dark (9:30) but we wanted to get past the morning traffic
Sept 20
We woke up to a parking lot vacumn machine going around and around the lot at 4am, then trucks coming in for deliveries. We ended up leaving about 9:30 am, we fell back asleep for a few minutes and then drank a pot of coffee. We had our sights set on a camp ground somewhere around Michael's house, probably close to lake Allatoona. Mo got on the computer and finally found one about 5 miles from his house, a really nice, wooded corp of engineers site right on the lake. We arrived about noon. We got set up and went shopping........
Here's where it gets good, ya ready ??
We had talked several times about getting a Jeep but we just never could get serious about it. We knew the Hyundia was a good car and we sure didn't want to have a car note! It started to make sense to us, though, that a jeep would give us a lot more flexibility in this new lifestyle. Where we would be working, a solid all terrain vehicle might be nessacery even. We asked Michael, our oldest son, who has a Jeep Cherokee, what he thought. He totally agreed and said he would start looking around after we talked some on Monday. He suggested that in the meantime we should visit this used Jeep dealer that was right on the way to the campground. We missed the dealer due to some road construction but after we got set up we both said what the heck, lets go back and just look. Well we found out we knew the owner from a long time ago when we  were in a prayer group together, (1986?) so of course that was good/bad. It was exclusively  a used jeep dealer and Gary had all kinds and colors. Opps, not all kinds, just Wranglers. We looked at a bunch and drove alot, and then we found one that was just the right color...... and price....... and we were in to deep when they offered us more then we thought the Hyundai was worth for a trade. We wheeled and dealed and ended up with a hard top, better tires and the installation of the tow hithch and we did the dddddeal. We wrote a check for the bit of difference and said we would be back the next day to do the swap. That night we had a cookout with Michael and Carin, Declin and Colin and stayed up sharing beers and bull. When they left, we showered and collapsed in the bed.
Sept 21
We had to rise early and drive to a Camping World in Gainseville, GA to pick up the new mounts for the Jeep. It was an hour and a half drive one way so we didn't get back until 10:30am. they said it would be ready in about 2 hours, so no problem, we had until 3pm to check out from the campground. There was a real nice lounge area and Mo had the computer so we made ourselves comfortable. Noon came and went, then 1pm then 2pm and they kept telling us "just a few more minutes". Finally at 2:15 they brought out the Hyundai and we went to the campground, quickly broke camp and checked out at 3pm on the dot. By the time we got back the Jeep was ready. They had a lot of trouble adapting the wireing harness for the tow lights to the Jeep but they said it was ready at last. I had parked the coach across and down the street, so we drove over,  hooked up and checked the lights as always. Well when I put on the blinker, all the Jeep lights flashed, when I put on the brakes the lights worked correctly, but when I turned on the lights, nothing came on. At that point we had had enough, the brake lights worked and all the lights on the Jeep would flash so at least the traffic behind would be warned of something about to happen and we weren't going to be driving at night so I said 'lets' go', I'd figure it out when we got home.

Edit and continue tomorrow.......

Here's a couple of pics in Opileka, AL campground...

We drove out of Atlanta, of course the traffic was thick but I've seen much worse there, and found a camp ground on the internet about 4 miles off I-85 in Opeleka, AL. We made good time and got there about 6pm, plenty of time to get set up and shower. We figred we had about a 4 hour drive to get home so we decided to sleep in and work on stowing some things better. We had unloaded the Hyundai so fast we just stuffed things here and there, the place was a mess. We left about noon made good time and got home finally about 5pm.  We stopped at Camping World about the backup camera and filled the propane tanks for the winter. It was good to be home! Now back to work at the real j-o-b.

Who-da-lotti... I almost fogot, we got the call from Mammoth Lakes...WE GOT THE JOB!!!!
We start May 15th and our completion date is Oct 15th. We  -  are  -  excited  !!
Check it out;   http://www.crystalcraglodge.com/

Check back now and then and we'll post the latest ....