We went online this morning, April 8th, and ordered tickets for the Grand Ole Opry. We got tickets for the Saturday 6:30 PM show. We stopped at the General Jackson River Boat booth and picked up a brochure. If the weather holds out we might take a boat ride Saturday before we go to the Opry. On the way home we restocked our grocery supply. We also stopped in area called the “clover bottoms” and took this picture.
Today is Tuesday, April 3rd, it rained all day and then finally let up around 4:00 PM. In the morning I went to Bass Pro Shops to look for some crappie jigs with a bigger bite or gap then the normal ones for Terry and myself (that's hooks for the fish to bite on, not us). Although, we have taken the bait on some lures more often than the fish. I did find SOME 1/32 and 1/16 oz Big Bite jigs that look like they will work. Sandy stayed "home" and worked on projects while it poured rain. The high today was 60 degrees.
The low last night was 49.3 degrees and another storm came through about 4:15 AM. We had a lighting strike close by that tripped the ground fault. It’s still raining at 9:00 AM Friday. We moved from beautiful Seven Points Resort to Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park to be closer to The Grand Ole Opry. The park was OK, but not as private or scenic as at Seven Points. We did a little shopping this Saturday morning. The weather today was cloudy with a high of 61 degrees. At 5:30 PM we headed over to the Grand Ole Opry. There were a couple of changes to the list of entertainers, Jesse McReynolds was replaced by Restless Heart and a Bluegrass singer named Dale Ann Bradley. She was very good and sang Run, Rufus, Run. This is a song she penned about a cousin of hers who ran moonshine for his father.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRfGmofFURM
The show was real good with the exception of Mel McDaniel, I think he was into the Jack Daniels before the show. The pictures I took did not turn out very good, but here is one of Mel Tillis. We were hoping he would have sung “Send me down to Tucson” which is one of our favorite Tillis songs. Each performer sings only one or two songs. Between each performance everthing stops for a commercial break since this is a live radio show. It seems a little strange to pay to listen to commercials but the entertainment is good.
On Sunday we got up to more cloudy skies and a temperature of 51. By the time we finished breakfast at Cracker Barrel, got packed up and ready to leave it had cleared off and turned out to be a beautiful day. Of course, the day was spent driving to Normal, IL. We stopped for the night at a Wal-Mart. It was 67 degrees and sunny.
After getting up we drove 22 miles to Chenoa, IL where I wanted to look at a boat to replace my jon boat. After finishing up there we headed north to Wausau, WI to visit John at King’s Campers. We did this under duress as we had heard that northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin had gotten some heavy snow. Bemidji, MN had gotten 23 inches. We drove under cloudy skies and the last 40 miles had drizzle. The temperature was 38 degrees when we pulled into King’s Campers for the night.
It's Tuesday, April the 8th, and “we’re not down south anymore”, at least that’s what the outside temperature is telling me. The low last night was 36.3 degrees. Oh well, we had better get used to it as they are predicting about 23 for a low on Thursday. This morning we went in to see John at Kings Campers but he was in a meeting, so we went out and sat it the 36 QSP Allegro Bus that they had in stock. We had come to order a new motorhome and had decided on a 40 QSP. We had also considered the 36 foot model as we wanted to have access to smaller campsites. But after we had seen it at the factory we decided we did not like the bedroom layout. Sandy says she can't live without a washer and dryer in the rig and by the time you put a washer dryer in the 36 footer, there isn't much of a closet left. But as long as Kings Campers had one we thought we would revisit it to see if our minds had changed. After sitting inside the 36 footer for 2 hours we came to the same conclusion that we had before and went back in to see John and ordered a 2009 40 QSP Allegro Bus. Too bad we didn’t order that the first time. I guess I was pretty hung up on being able to tow 15,000 lbs behind the motorhome. We found that the extra length and placement of the tag axle kept us from getting into a lot of sites. With this MH we can fit into a 34 foot site if the back is clear so we can overhang the pad. After finishing up in Wausau we headed over to Minneapolis. We are staying in Prior Lake, MN at the Dakota Meadows Campground at the Mystic Lake Casino. We lucked out as they turned on the water yesterday so all is good. We will probably spend a month here and then move to another place as more campgrounds will open up by then. The next few days are going to be very busy here, but that is OK as we will need something to do to keep us warm. The high today was 41 degrees.
Today, April 9th, is our first full day back at our home base in the Lakeville area. This morning it was 33.2 degrees. They are predicting 6 inches of snow on Friday, but next week it is supposed to warm up to 60. We went over to the garage, our home base, and picked up Sandy's car.
We will have to get back there and start organizing and start the process of excahanging items in the MH that we have not used for different items that we will still probably will not use.
Today, April 11th, we are wondering why we came back to Minnesota so early. The weather is cold, we are getting snow mixed with rain and we could be in Arizona where it's 80 and sunny. I know, all you Minnesotans and saying "stop whining--this is nothing compared to the long cold winter". If it hadn't been for some business to tend to we would have stayed south longer. However, it's good to be back home to spend time with family and friends we haven't seem for awhile.
This will be our last Blog post for awhile. So, until then, keep safe and we will see you all later.
Dave and Sandy
1 comment:
Congratulations on the new Bus. I am sure you will like it. Maybe we will meet up again.
Richard & Patsy
Post a Comment