Lighthouse ~ Ferries ~ Spaceship

Since the forecast was for 3-4 days of rain we decided to head to the main land. We left Ocean Wave campground headed towards the ferry. On our way we stopped at the Hatteras Lighthouse-- the tallest brick lighthouse in the country at 208 ft. We couldn't climb it because it was closed for the winter.. boo hoo. In 1999 they moved it almost a 1/2 mile away from shore because erosion threatened to take it. That must have been some sight to watch.
While crossing on the ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke, we met a fun couple from PA, Kathy and Stu. They told us to watch on our way to the next ferry for the pen where they have the ponies fenced in to keep them off the roads. Apparently the wild horses are a danger to drivers on the island like the deer are in Michigan. We did see the pen but the ponies were too far away to get a picture. We got to the second ferry, the 2 and a half hour ride from Ocracoke Island across to Cedar Island. During one of the ferry rides Kathy mentioned that she had gotten a pictue of the spaceship along hwy 12. Well, Bob saw it but of course I missed seeing it. So Kathy sent it via email. I mentioned it to my friend Arlene( during a scrabble move via internet). Arlene is the source of a lot of research being done. If ever in doubt about something I email Arlene. The blessing is that not only does she do a lot of research, when asked she is willing to share it. So we will include Kathy's picture and a place to find out more. Arlene did say it was a restaurant at one time and was a Futuro House by Matti Surronen...supposedly built in Pennsylvania in the late 60's. So if you google that and google space ship on outer banks you should be able to get the scoop.
After leaving the second ferry it was getting into late afternoon. We started watching for campgrounds. They are not highly advertised by bill boards here. We drove by a couple before we saw them. There was one listed in Passport America, even with entering the coordinates the GPS sent us on a wild goose chase..the gps showed our trip on the water but couldn't get us to the campground..wow modern technology. Finally in the dark and rain, we found a KOA. Advertised 2 miles in advance and a sign lit up telling us we had found it. YES!!! We were ready for a nice quiet night of sleep. Since it is raining we opted to stay another day. Not fun sight-seeing in the rain.

NC Truck Show

Sat. Nov 7 the ltlgrntruck made it to the ATHS chapter show in Colfax North Carolina. It was a beautiful day-- sunny & about 70 degrees. There were around 100 trucks of all kinds there-- some that I have never seen, just read about. We open the trailer and got out the guest book. We try to do this at shows, but with so many people we cannot keep up. this show we have over 200 names in the book and missed many. It's fun talking to all these people. We decided after talking to lots that we would go to the Outer Banks and travel south on US-12.
We arrived on Roanoke Island Sunday after spending the night in the trailer in a motel parking lot. It was late and dark so we decided to get a motel as the only 2 campgrounds there were full??? Went to a motel and the clerk said the didn't take pets, she tried to find another place but, no luck other than a $35 pet charge,ha,ha... no way. finally she looked at us and said..you didn't hear this from me but, if you back in that corner you can sleep in your trailer, couldn't believe it but thats what we did. Got up at sunrise and headed on our way east. We arrived on the island during the middle of a marathon, what confusion..two roads and one blocked off, fun, fun. Spent about an hour in the welcome center talking about the area and..guess what else!!) and waiting for traffic to clear. One Campground there so we went and what a neat spot. Only a 1 1/2 years old ,very nice== called The Refuge== the manager said that it is very quiet even during tourist summer.Left Mon. started our tour driving to the North Beaches and Currituck Lighthouse.I climbed to the top while Jan stayed with Grizzly and entertained all the dog lovers. Lots of history, left for the south looking for lunch and found a lot of the places closed for the season. We ate and headed for Bodie Island lighthouse in The Hatteras National Seashore. Then on south to a little town named Rodanthe and a campground named Ocean Waves where we dipped our toes in a cold Atlantic ocean.

Arrived in North Carolina

We left Nashville County RV Park Tuesday morning. Going thru the hills towards Cookeville, TN the truck started losing water pressure and began to heat up. We went to the first truck stop we saw. After checking it out, Bob talked to the service department and they sent us 2 miles back to an International/ Cumings truck repair. They needed the vin# off the motor which was removed by the military before we bought it. After MUCH frantic searching Bob found the certificate from the government to use to apply for a title. YES!!! Jim, from the service center called Cumings with the #. Good, but not good enough. They needed the # off the back of the water pump. The only way to do that was to land at a RV park that would allow us to work on the truck. We headed back 6 more miles to Twinlakes and Catfish Pond RV Park. Bob proceeded to take the waterpump off the truck. Guessing it was the original pump because it had bonded with the motor and did NOT want to leave it! After trying various procedures it finally came apart. Finding several different series of #s on the part, Bob called them in to Jim. Jim called Cumings and called back with the news that those #s worked, Cumings was shipping the part, Jim would have someone deliver it to us in the morning. We received the new waterpump by 11am. Bob had it on the truck and we were on the road again by 1pm.
We were traveling along with a "new noise". Trying to figure out the noise, going down some of the larger hills, Bob noticed the air pressure was dropping, had gone from 120 to 90 and kind of holding there. BUT this was NOT good! We have AIR brakes!! At the bottom of the large hills was a truck stop with a service area. We pulled in there and Bob proceeded to check it out. He found the problem, got a new hose and connectors and within an hour or so we were on the road again. Thanking the good Lord for keeping us safe and putting those truck stops where we needed them.

Nashville,TN

We arrived at the Nashville Country RV Park in Goodlettsville, TN Saturday Oct. 31. We spent Sunday afternoon exploring the antique shops in downtown Nashville. The only thing we managed to find was a framed picture (from an old calendar) of a 1909 WHITE steam car. President William Taft chose this automobile as the first official automobile of the president of the United States. Learn something all the time!!!
Monday we did something we have never done before. We did a bus tour ----of Historic Downtown Nashville, Fort Nashborough, State Capitol, Bicentennial Mall, Music Row, Studio B,and Vanderbilt University.
Then we were given time to go on self guided tours at the New Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, could have spent hours there. From there we went to the Ryman Auditorium, the "Mother Church of Country Music" for another self guided tour. The last stop was at the Legends Corner on Honky Tonk Row for a drink and live music. It was well worth the investment to us since we were dealing with limited time. No hassles with trying to find a parking place or trying to find the right streets.
Our driver on the trip back to the campground was a lady our age and she told us of her experiences as a singer in Nashville. The glamour and glitz of the stars achievements in the music business is not all that glamourous when you hear stories from an insider. Tusday was another sunny day-- two in a row I think for the first time since we left Michigan---and we headed for North Carolina for an ATHS truck show on Sat. where they predicted sunny weather all week..

Car Show in Reed City, MI

Since we are doing very little of interest now, I thought I would post one of our highlights from this summer while we were in Reed City (Hawkins). We posted very little from Hawkins since that was virtually an "internet dead zone".
While in the area I spent some time trying to find old pictures of the Oseola Refinery and their semitrucks. My father drove for them sometime in the 50's, possibly early 60's. I have one picture of my dad with his truck but was looking for more and any information as we may do another "home" with an International like he drove.
During this time we went to a concert at the Crossroads in Reed City on a Thursday night. We got talking to some people there that had been involved with the refinery. We showed them what we were traveling around in now. A son-in-law (who was involved with the car show that coming Saturday) saw the picture of our "home" and asked if we could bring the whole rig to the show.
My best friend's husband had just finished restoring his '64 Falcon. So I called them to see if they were going to the show. Nelson, her husband, had to work but with lots of encouragement, his wife, Joyce(my best friend) was talked into bringing the car to it's first show. Hopefully we have started a tradition. Maybe Nelson will even be able to go with us and relish in the attention that his car received. People were impressed with his car and told of the memories they had of one just like it.
We managed to set-up next to each other which was great because she still lived in the area and knew everyone. I had been gone for 45 years and knew very few. Through
out the day I met a man my dad and youngest brother had worked for in Baldwin at a gas station. Then one of the daughters of another driver came over with her husband whose dad had also been a driver and introduced themselves. What a great time!!! Hearing all the old stories!!
Around 4 pm they were giving out rewards for the show. Life even got better, "Green
Ache-rs" placed in the top 25 and received a plaque! WOW! Who would have thought!!

Tennessee

Here we are in Tennessee back on the Natchez Trace--we traveled north on it this spring from Louisiana to Missouri on our trip home to Michigan. Now we are back after leaving MI. going through WI. and then Ia. and into MO. We left Savannah Mo.--traveled to Tightwad where we stayed for two very rainy days and then headed to Owensville Mo. through California Mo.and Jefferson City-- the state capital. It is amazing the different towns we have traveled through on the backroads of the country.We got to Lost Valley Resort the day after they received 5 inches of rain. We were there 2 weeks and I think we had at least 5 more inches. Our Canadian friend Chester stopped for two days on his way for 6 months at a house he rented in Mexico. It was rainy so we went to the hottub and mostly stayed at the trailer and caught up on things with him. It will be real interesting to hear about his stay in Mexico. We arrived in Tn.and the Trace with the trees still green and now the colors are really coming out. The campground we are at is 800 acres with a 3 mile long lake and we are only about 2 miles off the Trace. We are staying here another week and then plan to head towards Nashville for afew days and then on to North Carolina for a truck show and then south for Florida. We are having fun traveling with the ltlgrntruck to new places and states so no destination is firm --- just plans as we go.

Missouri -Show me state

I'm beginning to think the clouds and rain is over US. We seem to take the bad weather with us irregardless of what weather is in the forecast! We actually woke up to frost on the windshield Thursday,the 30th of Sept in Nekoosa,WI. We quickly left there and went to Frenchman's Landing at Eastman, WI. What a welcoming bunch of people. The managers and work campers made us feel quite at home. We felt like we had known them forever.
After lunch with John and Linda,the workcampers,Bob and I spent the rest of Friday afternoon in town visiting the Villa Louis mansion in Prairie du Chein. What history in that little town!
When we got back to the campground we found a sticky note inviting us to an impromptu supper at the office. We were visiting with some people from Manitoba parked by us when Linda stopped by to see if we were coming up for chili. The people from Manitoba were, also, invited. What a lively group we became. Nothing better that good food, good people and good conversation!
The next day we left early enough to stop at a benefit breakfast for the first responders with John and Linda. Then we pulled ourselves away from our new friends and headed towards Madrid and some old kewpie friends.
We managed to meet with June Anderson and her son,Bob, Monday afternoon. Not only does she have a vast collection, June is a walking encyclopedia about Kewpies and Rose O'Neill. And ORGANIZED!! She has always been a wealth of information and always willing to share it. After a fun filled afternoon, the 4 of us went for pizza at Polk, MO where one of their main toppings is sauerkraut. Hmmm, maybe we'll try that the next time.
We left Madrid the next morning headed towards Savannah,MO and Mabel Dray's collection of Kewpies on display at the Andrews County Museum. I was impressed with the Kewpie Mountain, of course, and all the other rare kewpies in her collection. The museum had a lot of information about Mabel's brother (Harry F. Duncan--Founder of "Little Tavern Resturants")and his collections and about the "the rural way of life"in early Savanah. Definitely worth the time.