We wrapped up our workamping at Lee Bottom Flying Field on Monday, October 29th. We can truly say we enjoyed our time there and consider our hosts, Rich and Ginger, new friends. It is great to see the work we accomplished, with several group projects too. We look forward to stopping by again, either as workampers or even visitors. In preparation for leaving, we were able to do a deep clean and get a few tasks taken care of in the RV. One was the lovely job of defrosting the freezer. It has been almost 4 months since we did it last and it really needed it. We had tried to eat as much food from the freezer as we could over the last couple weeks so that there would not be much to store in the cooler while we defrosted. Once everything was out, I set hot bowls of water in the bottom and chipped away some of the build up since it was soo thick. I then used the hair dryer to speed up the last bits. Once everything was melted, wiped up and dry, I placed cheap, flexible cutting mats on the back wall of the freezer with the shelves holding them in place. This should allow me to just slide those out next time and rinse off the frost which will take much less time to do this in the future. Fingers crossed it works just as slick as it sounds! From Hanover, IN we headed south to Nashville. As Rick was driving, I was scrolling Facebook and saw that a couple we met at the Grand Design Rally in Sept were heading back home to IN on 65N as we were going south on 65. We were able to stop at an exit parking lot and catch up for a bit. It is true, you really do cross paths again and it is never really good-bye but see you later. We had visited Nashville over 10 years ago for one of Rick's Army Reunions, but only stayed for a quick weekend and did not get around town to see much, so this would be a chance for us to be real tourists. We stayed at Two Rivers Campground on the north side of Nashville, near Opryland. This was on the recommendation from RV friends who just stayed there a couple weeks ago. It is a smaller campground with full hookups, a pool, musical entertainment and a shuttle to downtown, which was very convenient. As with most RV parks, sites were close together but for a couple nights, and us being gone most of the time, that was fine. We took advantage of the shuttle to downtown and walked around Lower Broadway and the surrounding streets while marveling at all the honky tonks and stores. They all had live music and even at 11 am on a weekday. We stopped and had lunch at Luke Bryan's 32 Bridge. There were a couple of guys playing in the bar/lounge area who were really good! We sat and listened to them while we ate. We then took a double decker bus ride around Nashville and saw the highlights of the city such as the Parthenon, Ryman, Capitol and the first Fort in Nashville. The tour guide had alot of great information about the towns history as well. Did you know that Nashville's biggest income stream does not come from country music but from healthcare. There are more than 30 hospitals in Nashville, including Vanderbilt. They also have more than 30 higher education institutions. Who knew?? That night we went to the Grand Ole Opry. They started the evening with an interesting video montage of the history of the Opry, the move to the current location and the flood of 2010. We had a great time seeing some current country music acts such as Carly Pierce, Charles Esten (Deacon from Nashville) Lo Cash and Chris Jenson. There was also some up and coming artists as well as some legends, like Bill Anderson who did a very moving tribute song he wrote about a WWIl veteran, who was actually in the audience. Henry Cho, a very funny comedian also performed. It was a really nice evening and even nicer that it was only 5 minutes from the campground! The next day we took a scenic drive down to Franklin to visit my Aunt & Uncle, who we haven't seen in many years. It was great to catch up with them and see their beautiful home. After lunch they took us on a tour of historic Franklin, which is really an adorable town with a wonderful little downtown area. There is alot of growth in the area and construction is everywhere. On the way back we stopped at the Opry Mills Mall near the campground. I have not been in a mall for awhile, and I can honestly say I do not miss it. I can do without the pushy salespeople that aggressively try to get you to try their product while you are walking by, even when you say "No Thank You.". I quickly got my soaps at Bath and Body and we headed over to the Bavarian Bierhaus for a wonderful german dinner. I may not ever get to the real thing in Germany but this one is a close second! We even left with some Asbach brandy chocolate covered cherries! Yumm! The following day we leisurely packed up for our 1 1/2 hour drive on I-40 E to our next destination. It was a rainy, crummy day but the drive did not disappoint with spectacular color! Unfortunately, the pictures just don't do it justice! SHOP AMAZON HERE
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These last two weeks have flown by at the air field, literally! We have been busy whittling down the list of our workamping projects, getting in some last-minute sightseeing, getting warranty work done on the truck and making preparations for our departure and subsequent stops. These last two weeks we have been busy with a variety of jobs around the air field. We repaired and stained the porch on the cabin and touched up the stain on the cabin itself. Such a cute little cabin! We also painted some metal disks and washers that will be used to mark property lines and guide planes to parking. We have done a lot of roundup and tree trimming around the properties as well. Our focus then turned to one of the other properties with the airfield affectionately called “the nut farm”. It has a nut barn, nut shed, sunroom off the nut shed, trailer and camping pad off the nut barn and a lot of nut trees. The naming comes from the previous owner’s dedication to planting a nut tree every time he had to take down another tree on the property. There are a variety of nut trees all over the property. This last spring, the nut farm, being in the lower land, on the other side of the road from the air field, closer to the Ohio River, flooded. With that came a lot of clean up. The owners were able to move a lot of equipment and other items prior to the flood, but the buildings themselves and other items that were unable to be moved were all flooded and required a lot of cleanup. We have replaced lights at the nut shop and are using a lot of Zinser mold paint after the shop and sunroom have been sprayed for mold. Rick also rebuilt and replaced 2x4’s that were rotten under and around a window in the sunroom. One of the group projects that we were able to complete is the replacement of the windsock at the airfield. With the windsock being up on a 16 ft pole, it took a couple folks to hold the ladder for the lucky chap, Rich, climbing to the top. The new windsock looks really nice waving in the breeze! We had another couple, Keith and Kathy, visit the air field and spend a couple days with us enjoying the peaceful location, a campfire and local establishments. We enjoyed talking with them about their full-time travels, their planes and history in flying. They know our hosts, Rich and Ginger, through their aviation backgrounds. They are originally from Alaska and travel the US in a 1948 Spartan. Truly an oldie but a goodie! We hope to cross paths with them again. Keith, Kathy, Rich and Ginger were kind enough to help us cheer on the Milwaukee Brewers in the playoffs, but alas, the World Series was not in the cards for them this year. Maybe next year Brew Crew! We are excited to see them at Spring Training while we are in AZ early next year! As for our sightseeing, we wanted to spend one more day in Louisville before we left. We decided to go to the Frasier Museum in downtown Louisville. We have heard good things about this museum and it did not disappoint. It was well done and had sections on the history of the area and the building it was in, a section on bourbon, including a bourbon room that displayed a bottle from all of the Kentucky bourbon makers. There was also a section on Louis & Clark that was very interesting. After spending a couple hours in the museum, we decided to get some BBQ at Doc Crows on Main St in the Bourbon Row. All the buildings in the area have a storied past in the making of Kentucky’s Bourbon and many reminders can be seen in and outside of these buildings. The BBQ was delicious but a bit pricey. Certainly, a splurge for lunch! We then made our way over to Cave Hill cemetery which is highly rated as one of the top places to visit in Louisville. This cemetery dates back 170 years and has an abundance of Revolutionary War and Civil War soldiers and families, famous people such as Colonel Sanders and Muhammad Ali and was painstakingly planned with beautiful grounds including lakes, beautiful landscaping and even a cave. They even conduct walking tours. The crazy part…we never took any pictures! It a was probably because we were in a big fat dually truck, driving on roads, just wide enough for us that had headstones right next to the road!! Yiiikes! That was the theme of our day though, very narrow roads, lots of construction and next to no place to park the big truck. But Rick managed to guide the truck through all of it. We even drove through Old Louisville area were the beautiful old mansions resided and through the heart of the University of Louisville where again, construction forced us to sneak through some pretty tight areas. The challenges we endure with a large dually truck. Our day was topped off with a visit to the Louisville Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular. This amazing event is in its 6th year and is VERY popular! We knew that going in, so we purchased our tickets online and arrived well before the gates into the park opened. With ticket booths and gates opening at 6pm, we got in line at 5:15pm. The website warns that weekend lines could be over 2 hours long. I believe it, looking at the line we had on a Thursday night, even prior to the gates opening. Once the gates open, you wind your way through the Iroquois Park Amphitheater area which is well stocked with vendors selling all sorts of snacks and beverages to keep you busy and warm while you wait for the pumpkin trail to open. The 1/3 mile trail opens at dusk and you walk through at your own pace, marveling at all of the spectacular carvings. It is really hard to describe just how amazing this experience was, and the pictures below don’t begin to do them justice. There are over 5,000 carved pumpkins, with over 100 intricately carved masterpieces, carved by various artists that come to the area for the event. The trail is illuminated and there is music and special effects for each themed section of the trail. To preserve the pumpkins, they are kept cool with small computer fans inside and moth balls to keep the animals from nibbling on them. The event is open for a month and some pumpkins will need to be replaced during that time. The artists are on site, carving replacements in a cooled trailer. We took our time looking at all of the amazing pumpkins and photographed several and it took us 45 minutes to walk thru. If anyone is in the Louisville area in October or the beginning of November, we highly recommend going to see this. We are coming into our last week here at Lee Bottom Airfield and will be busy wrapping up workamping projects and getting the RV ready to roll. We also will be going thru everything and pulling together many things to take to Goodwill. Remember our rule…one thing in and one thing out. Thanks for stopping by! SHOP AMAZON HERE
Have any Amazon shopping to do?? Do it from our Amazon link above! We participate in the Amazon affiliate program and we appreciate you using our Amazon link above to make your Amazon purchases. It does not cost you anything additional and helps us to support our blog. You can even save our link as a favorite and use that whenever you search Amazon and make a purchase. Thank you!!! Last week we were able to get more things accomplished at our workcamp location. We completed the door replacement on the bath house, which turned out to be a bit more involved, but turned out really nice in the end. We also were able to get some trees limbed up, other "weed" trees cut down, round up applied to areas and some hay wagon boards replaced. It was a productive week! We also were able to get some work done around the RV too. I took off all the screens and cleaned them and the windows, boy were they dirty! Rick also installed and tweaked an external antennae for better TV reception. He also further diagnosed an issue we are having with our electric hot water heater and we are waiting for the part to arrive. We then took some scenic drives to explore the area more. We are located along the Ohio River Bottom, so we took a lesser traveled narrow dirt road that skirted the river into town and found a great point to see the barges that travel the river. You can see on the other side of the river that the water is down from where it was just last week. We are currently in the midst of continual rain for several days, so I expect that level will rise again. Flooding in the area is a big concern and we have seen markings on buildings and pictures of just how high the water can get in the area and how devastating it can be. I also wanted to try and give an idea of what the narrow road is like that we travel to get to our location. The pictures don't do it justice because you can't really see the grade and continual curve of the road, but it still amazes me that we got a 42 ft RV with a dually truck down this road. To locals, I am sure this is nothing for them to zip up and down with their car, but even with just our big dually truck it is a hold the breathe sort of moment in hopes someone doesn't come down the hill, because there is nowhere to go on this one and a half lane road. One day when we were out on our adventures, and also completing some more of my WeGoLook work, we stumbled upon a great little Mexican place for lunch. From the outside, Diegos doesn't look like anything, but their food more than makes up for it! Each chair in the place is carved with the logo and they had cute little salt and pepper shakers to boot! The food was delicious! Rick had their signature enchiladas and some of their homemade pico de gallo. He loves his pico and this was really good. I had the polo locco which had a yummy cheese sauce. The portions were huge and we were more than full for the rest of the day! Hopefully the rain here will stop in the next couple days as we are planning a trip into Louisville to check out Churchill Downs museum and hopefully a horse race. SHOP AMAZON HERE
Have any Amazon shopping to do?? Do it from our Amazon link above! We participate in the Amazon affiliate program and we appreciate you using our Amazon link above to make your Amazon purchases. It does not cost you anything additional and helps us to support our blog. You can even save our link as a favorite and use that whenever you need to make an Amazon purchase. Thank you!!! Last Tuesday we woke to yet another quiet day at the Hardy Lake State Park campground. With only two other campers and the hosts, we felt like the place was all ours. We took a morning walk around the campground and while it was nice to be here when it was quiet, I don’t think I would enjoy it as much when it was full on a busy weekend. The sites do have a bit of room between them but there is no privacy between sites and it felt like any noise traveled quite far. If we were here with a group I probably wouldn’t mind as much. We packed up and headed out to meet our workamping host, Ginger, at a parking lot on a country road. She would need to help get us to our site and block any oncoming vehicles as we slowly made our way down the bluff road which was a one and a half lane paved road in trees with tight turns and a switchback thrown in for extra excitement. Rick was able to navigate us down the ridge with no problem and then we wound along next to the Ohio River to Lee Bottom Flying Field. Sorry no pictures of the hairpin turn, I was a bit preoccupied and I don't think my hands would have unclenched enough to hold the phone. To get to our parking pad, we drove down the airfield, hoping a plane would not decide to come in at that moment! Our site is just off to the side and midway down the field. We took the rest of the afternoon to get set up and take in the sights of this beautiful lush green hidden gem. We even had a plane fly in. This workamping job is unlike most as we are not at a campground and there are no other campers here. It is just us. Our hosts, Rich and Ginger, own Lee Bottom Flying Field and it is certified as a public use grass airstrip. There is no tower or public use hangar, but it is well known in the flying community. It is a perfect place for vintage and small aircrafts to land and enjoy the peace and quiet, have a picnic lunch or read a book. There are also local police and military entities that utilize the field. We have seen several planes now either stop to use the restroom, take a picture of their plane at the airstrip or just practice take offs and landings. In addition to the airfield, our hosts own a couple other properties surrounding the airfield and we are here to help with some repair projects and get things ready for winter. Our first completed project was to rebuild and paint the wooden box on the back of the golf cart and give the it a bath. We have also done some storm clean up and cut up a fallen tree and hauled off another. We have a good list to keep us busy and being able to relax and enjoy the planes and wildlife coming to visit and is an added bonus! While here we plan to explore the area and try to “live like a local” since we will be here about two months. We have already visited the local grocery store, laundromat, Walmart and propane company. We have checked out a couple of the local food fare and had the opportunity to meet up with some friends we met at the RV rally for dinner, to help them celebrate their 38th Anniversary. Congrats again Melanie & Tom! Look forward to meeting up with you again further down the road. Also, while we have been here, we have tackled a couple projects in the RV as well. As we mentioned in our last update, our microwave had decided to take its last breath at the rally and Grand Design was going to order us another one. Well that arrived in a big, heavy crate on Thursday and we installed that with little problem. Rick then wanted to solve for an issue with our main living room AC intake. It seems that when the AC kicked on the middle baffle separating the intake and cool air area would get sucked over to the intake, allowing the unit to keep sucking in all the cool air and not allowing that cool air to come out into the room and the vents near it. MacGyver was on the job!! First Rick used foil tape to tape up the leaking areas around the inside of the unit so that we were not losing cool air into the ceiling. He then took three metal sign stakes he bought and cut them to size and installed them on either side of the middle baffle to hold it in place. Once that was done, we cleaned the intake filters and reassembled and walla, air now coming out the vents and the baffle has stayed in place. Rick also hooked up the On The Go Double Water Softener since the water is very hard. It really works well and only takes 2 lbs. of table salt to recharge it. He then flushed out the hot water heater with his new flush tool and got quite a bit of calcium buildup out. Finally, we mounted the WeBoost RV cell booster to a PVC pole and the heavy-duty antenna suction cup holds it to the RV. It works wonders and stays in place, even through the torrential rains and wind of last weekend. We are now working on replacing the restroom building door and cleaning that area up. Stay tuned for more of our Kentuckiana adventures! SHOP AMAZON HERE
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