Our Road Trips

8/20/2015

8/15-19/2015

We were up and on the road by 10 am, headed south into Tennessee. The GPS led us to Bowling Green and then south on US 231. It is a nice road with very little traffic and passes through some small towns. As we go, we pass into Tennessee, the road becomes 2-lane but it is a fun drive. I love driving through small towns, seeing how people live. We feel like Charles Kuralt at times, just wish we could stop and chat sometimes…he had a fun job. At Lebanon, TN, there is a Fair going on…lots of folks going to the fair, being directed by the local cops…small town America at its best. We get by all of that, stop and fuel up the camper and head east on I-40. There is lots of truck & other traffic but we are fine, only 34 miles and we are at out exit, 5 miles south and we are at Floating Mill Park, another Army Corps Park on a beautiful man-made lake called Center Hill Lake. It is a reservoir, created by Center Hill Dam, which is 64 miles long and has 415 miles of shoreline, an outdoor paradise…lots of folks taking advantage, since it is Saturday. We check in and drove to our reserved site…holy cow!! We have reserved the prettiest site in the park…40 yards from the water, nobody between us & the water, 50 amps, water & decent internet. We will be here for 4 nights, wish it was going to be more. We sit on the picnic table talking until almost midnight…nice breeze, no bugs…gorgeous sunset and lots of stars…wonderful night.

We spent the next 3 days getting rested from our hospital visit, visiting the dam and the towns close by for groceries, a light bulb for the camper and just looking around. We also looked at the other ACE parks nearby, scouting for a place on our way north at a later date and closer to I-65. There are plenty of choices. We think we have found a place NE of Nashville that will work just fine.

On Wednesday morning, we packed up and headed east again, Bristol Speedway the destination. It is about a 4 hour drive, a time zone change and lots of traffic. We have been to Bristol for 18 years starting in 1985, but we quit going after the 2002 race…prices got crazy and there were too many (140,000) folks trying to squeeze into a place developed for 35,000. We are going to give it another try and see how it works out. We have a nice camping spot with 50 amps elec., and a shuttle to take you to the track. A lot has changed since we were here last, but some of those changes have been good. We got set up and relaxed a bit before catching the shuttle to the race track. We are camped almost at the end of the drag strip, so it would be a hike to the track, thanks for the shuttle. We arrived and took our time getting to our seats. One cool thing, we were getting in line to buy our tickets and a guy walks up to Barb and hands her 2 FREE tickets…very cool, saved $60. As soon as we got inside, it started raining. They never did get the race started, so we sat and talked to other fans while sitting under the grand stand staying mostly dry. One guy from West Virginia knew exactly where we had spent our time at Summersville so he enthusiastically wanted to hear about our adventures…he seemed most interested in our Alaska trip. Then at 730, they had dried the track and they got the Truck race underway…good race interrupted once, with 40 laps to go, by rain. They dried the track again and got it completed. We headed back and heard them trying to get the Modified races going again but we kept going…it has been a long day…time for some rest. Shortly after we got back to the camper, it rained hard for about 30 minutes…we did not hear any more race cars, they probably had been through enough. Evidently, the race officials decided with us and called it a night…plenty coming up.

Steve & Barb Larson