September 4 - 22: Douglas Headwater Campgrounds

 We left Richmond and our daughter's expanded family on September 4th for another family gathering at Jane's sister's in the Nashville TN area for the time period of September 8-11 . We took two days to drive there stopping overnight at an I-40 West rest area in Lancaster TN. One of Jane's brothers and his spouse had already been at Jane's sister's for a day or two by the time we arrived. Jane's other siblings arrived on or near September 8. On that day Jane's brother, whom had arrived before us, was notified a car had hit the corner of their house and continued onward until it directly hit the front door area of the house across the street (at which point it stopped). The driver had some type of seizure. Very fortunately no one was hurt. Due to the damage of his house, Jane's brother cut his visit short and left the morning of September 9th.

The family gathering was fairly low key and included a nice bonfire. I was nominated as the fire watcher (due to my pyromaniacal tendencies?). Since we carry on our old wood stove gloves with us for camp fire tending, they came in handy for the bonfire as well. Here is a picture of the bonfire near its commencement.

We stayed at Jane's sister's after everyone else left since we had an appointment at the truck upfitter we used to manufacture our truck bed the week of September 18. It provided Jane some time to sew in less cramped conditions. I helped out a little with some tree trimming and grass mowing. I also did a little more programming on the quilting design software aid.

We left Jane's sisters on Sunday September 18 and stayed at Douglas Headwater Campgrounds in Sevierville TN. We originally planned to stay there one night and then head to the truck upfitter the next day but the upfitter requested we show up Tuesday morning instead. Fortunately due to campground availability we were able to move from one campsite to a neighboring one on short notice. We had stayed at the companion Douglas Tailwaters Campground in the fall of 2021 so this time we were on the lake side of the dam instead of downstream of the dam. Here are pictures of the camper at the campground and a few of the dam/lake. I believe the mountains in the background of one of the pictures are the Smokies. Our campsite was near the boat ramp but our view was obstructed by trees along the shore line. Campsites on the shore with lake views are more expensive.

We arrived at the upfitters Tuesday morning September 20. The upfitter was under new ownership and management but based on phone conversations prior to our arrival we still felt at ease. That did not change once we arrived and work to be done was assessed and quoted. The new upfitter manager lived a couple of houses down the street and had a hipcamp (https://www.hipcamp.com/tennessee/cedar-rock-campsite/cedar-rock). So after the work assessment was made, we headed to the hipcamp and undocked the camper and then drove the truck back to be worked on. The main objective of the work was to modify the bed so that we don't have to shim the camper up by placing plywood on the truck bed. The back corners of the bed were lowered as a result of the modification since the camper underside is lower in that area because the camper manufacturer designed the camper for a pickup bed not a flat bed. The underside of the camper is hanging out in space in the case of the pickup bed since the longest OEM pickup bed is 7 feet and our flat bed is the shortest option at 8 feet.

The work at the upfitters was done (success!) and the camper docked by late afternoon so we got on the road and headed towards NH. We stopped at a rest area near Roanoke VA on I-81 for the first night and near Cobleskill NY on I-88 the next night. We arrived at our youngest son's newly acquired house and Christmas tree farm on Thursday September 22. We plan to stay at one of our son's houses for several weeks. Our main objective is to help our eldest son complete all the house projects that have been started so he can sell the house. We will also attend my Aunt's 90th birthday party in the New England area. My next blog post will likely occur after we start our trek south for the winter. We will possibly be in Ellijay GA the week before Christmas; more definitively we have reservations the first part of January at Lake Louisa State Park in Clermont FL.