Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - Departure Day!!

After weeks of backbreaking labor, we, at last, hit the road again, and not a moment too soon for any of us. While the dogs may have enjoyed being home, the horses were so bored they were neighing at the horse trailer every time they saw it, and Hubby and I were just about going stir crazy. The good news is that we are leaving feeling more organized with our convoy and happier about the condition we are leaving the house than on any trip we’ve ever taken. We’ve lined up someone to keep the yard tamed while we are gone, and a pest control service to keep the mice in check, both of which we hope will make our next return home a lot easier, regardless of when we might return. We headed out by just after 10:00, stopped once at the Pilot in Crossville, TN, and arrived at our destination, the Barren Fork Horse Camp in the Daniel Boone National Forest before 4:00 local time, having lost an hour moving into the Eastern Time zone. Took us a bit longer to get set up than we had imagine, primarily because of the silly water system they have here. Although there are half a dozen water spigots scattered throughout the nicely appointed campground, none of them had any threads on them, so we couldn’t fill up the RV tank the way we usually do. To make matters more difficult, the spigots didn’t have a handle that turned on, but a push button that you have to push to keep the water running. We found a nice spot where Hubby could get a satellite signal, was level, and right across the road from a water spigot. In order to to speed things up, I drove back to the ranger station and managed to persuade the guys in maintenance to let me use their long hose to fill up the RV and the 55 gallon water drum we use for the horses (which we almost talked ourselves into not bringing, but figured if we didn’t, we’d surely need it, though not this early on the trip!). By the time I got back, Hubby had got the horses up on the high lines, which was a steel cable strung between posts already provided. It was a good thing I got water, because we soon realized the water spigot across from us didn’t work properly. It was supposed to keep dishing out water as long as you had the button pushed, but it didn’t. It petered out after about ten seconds, then you had to wait another ten second before pushing again brought up more water. This was going to be a challenge! We flagged down a passing maintenance guy, who essentially told us to call the office in the morning. So far, every question I had asked anyone associated with the park had been met with the universal response of "I have no idea," even simple questions like, are the trails rocky, and, have the rains damaged the trails. Seems no one leaves the office or the road, or is the least bit curious about anything beyond their immediate job. Our tax dollars at work. Anyway, I don’t suppose we should complain, since it’s only costing us $3 a night with Hubby’s Golden Age Passport. Seemed like a lot of traffic coming in and out, and there’s a train a few miles away that we can hear every time an engine passes. Don’t think it’s going to be the quiet getaway we were hoping for... Oh, well, as long as we get a couple of rides in, we’ll be happy!