Walking the cat

Tom walks Kona our cat.  As you can see it's a tough walk. 

Kona hears a bird chirping.

Enjoying his little cluster of grass.

Our other Cat, Circles, does not go outside since he was Feral.  He might want to take off and we don't want to lose him,  He doesn't seem to be concerned with going outside.   

Racing like kids.

Tom racing in a Go Kart

Our friend Tom chasing not far behind.

Sherri (Tom's wife) and I were taking photo's with our cell phones.  This was no easy task.


They sure had fun although my Tom can't move.  His mind is writing checks his body can't cash.  He is paying for this. 

Merry Christmas....

Merry Christmas Everyone....

Tom making his grandmother's Christmas Pudding for the first time.  

Steamed for 3 1/2 hours.  Looks pretty good.  Now he has to make the Hard Sauce.  We'll keep you posted on how it came out.  It has Suet in it so I won't be eating much of this.  (Suet is cow fat) 

Tennessee, Going once, going twice.....Sold !!!!

We have moved ourselves West to Sevierville, Tennessee which is next door to Pigeon Forge and Dollywood at the base of the Smokey Mountains.  Our plan while here is to meet up with some roadie friends who have been traveling also and look for some land.  The purpose of the land is to hang out on it when we don't want to be traveling and to eventually live on when we decide we won't be doing the traveling thing anymore.

Our home location is on the bottom and these are a few of the ones we found to look at.

So we're here in Tennessee looking around at property going from one place to another.  We find this one property on Repass Road last Thursday.  We hadn't been looking for more than a couple of days.  It's 47 acres and really nice, mountain and lake views, grass land, lots of timber.  Then we realize it's up for auction in 2 days.  How much research can we squeeze in one day before the auction.  We need to look at more for comparison.  I am personally really scared when Tom wants to bid on it.

Traveling around from sun up to sun down on Friday we are exhausted and our heads are swirling.  So we decide to go for it and bid on the property.

Aerial view of the property.  The trees on the bottom of the cleared meadows and above the meadow  are the property lines.

The story behind the property was the family was selling it because their father passed away 6 months ago in a tractor accident.  On the way to the auction we're both nervous and excited.  Tom a little more excited than me.  I am just scared.  The auction starts and our property is number 3.  The bidding starts high around $150,000 and nobody bites.  Then it drops some, still no bites.  Finally someone puts a bid in at $40,000.  That goes for a bit and it sits at 50,000.  We put in a bid at 60,000.  The next bid hits at 65,000.00 we bid at 67,000.00.  Another bid at 70,000.00.  Our limit is fast approaching....

We bid 71,000.00 another bid for 72,000.00  we throw in a bid at 75,000.00 it stays.  The other bidders are out.  I am thinking Oh my gosh we're going to get this.  It stays there.  My heart is beating in my chest and my ears.  I almost can't hear what's happening.  We are going to own this.  The bid assistants are pushing the other bidder to bid just a little more.  But he declines.  Everything starts to move in slow motion.  It seems quiet except for the auctioneer doing his thing.

Then bang back to reality I hear a bid for $80,000.00.  My head is pulled back to the sounds of the auction.  The bid assistant is trying to get us to bid more.  Tom and I both say no.  That was our limit, no more than that.  They try to push us and push. We say no and I put the card away.  The property is sold to someone else.   The auction continues and we move on.

Reflecting back we both pleased and a little disappointed we didn't get it.  Deciding it all happened too fast to really have done the research needed to buy it.  If it had been a super deal then it would have paid to it and resell it.  But we did what we could and didn't want to risk any more than that.

Now we keep looking and we know the right one will come along.  We'll know when we see it and that place will feel right.

Off to explore more of Tennessee.

Hey Asheville North Carolina ....We're back !!!

Tom caught some final images of Atlantic City New Jersey in the last few days we were there

What's left of part of the Boardwalk

This area is missing it's Boardwalk

I don't think this person got the evacuation order.

Now we move on....

Our travels have brought us back to a place we love, Asheville, NC.  We really loved this area when we were here last time and thought it would be a great place to decompress after almost 3 months of being kind of on the go.

We left New Jersey on November 26th and traveled through Maryland stopping briefly when we found a wildlife refuge with what else  Bald Eagles for Tom to photograph. This place is number 8 on the top ten list for the US to see Eagles.  We didn't see many as their migration is still in the beginning stage but Tom was able to catch a beautiful sunset and a couple of Bald Eagles.

They were sitting on some kind of food.

After leaving we went South on the 13 and took the RV over and under the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel(CBBT) is a 23-mile (37 km) long fixed linkcrossing the mouth of the Chesapeake Bayand connecting the Delmarva Peninsula'sEastern Shore of Virginia with Virginia Beachand the metropolitan area of Hampton Roads, Virginia. It replaced vehicle ferry services which operated from South Hampton Roads and from the Virginia Peninsula from the 1930s until completion of the bridge-tunnel in 1964.

This is why they need a tunnel.

Let's just say driving 20 miles in the RV over water and in tunnels is a bit unnerving.  The tunnel was quite small or it felt that way.  The lights and railing flying past my side of the coach at 55 miles per hour mad for a bit a tense ride in the tunnel.  Tom kept it very steady.  

After making it through we made our way to North Carolina and to Rutledge Lake RV Park.  

http://www.campingnorthcarolina.com/

Coffee and Sam have a great place here in the woods to fun around off lease.  They chase squirrels and can sniff their little hearts out.  

Since we like this area so much we decided to look around for some property to buy.  Not sure if we will make that plunge but if we do, we plan on having it be someplace where we can go to be away from the busy world.  There will be a place for our RV friends to come and hook up also.  Those of you who don't have an RV we'll figure out a way for you to come visit too.  Right now we've decided on Eastern Tennessee.  We'll keep you posted.  This will not mean we'll stop traveling though.

Thanks for coming along on our journey.  Happy Holidays.

Check out The Biltmore at Christmas...

http://www.biltmore.com/media/photo-gallery.asp?cat_id=14