Things to do in Meridian, Mississippi.

Nothing.

We're outta here tomorrow morning.

Did We Miss Something? Where'd Everybody Go?!

My car was hit by a rocket this morning!  Okay - it was a smallish rocket and it didn't do any damage but seriously...how cool is that!  We're sitting here at the US Space and Rocket centre, right next to a huge model of the space shuttle.  There's even a space camp for kids - who get to shoot off little plastic rockets that bounce off total strangers' cars.

We drove through more rain yesterday to arrive at Huntsville, Alabama.  This morning, we took ourselves off to Cullman, home of the Ave Maria Grotto on Saint Bernard Road (or, as the GPS informs us, the "Avenue Maria Grotto, on Street Bernard Road).  You gotta love the people who program these things.  This is a spectacular little park, with dozens of replicas of famous church-y type things including a small scale model of Jerusalem.  There are also lots of little fairy castles and troll houses. I guess I missed that part in catechism class.  I kinda nodded off after all the begats.  If I'd known there were trolls, I might have paid more attention!

The rest of the day was spent lazily driving through downtown Huntsville, which was absolutely deserted.  I don't think we saw more than 4 or 5 cars and never did see a pedestrian.  We went to the Constitution Village museum which was open but featured only a bunch of empty buildings.  Not exactly inspiring stuff, so we had an iced cappuccino and left.  We then drove around on nearly deserted 4-lane freeways and almost empty mall parking lots.  It gives you a funny feeling.... like you're in one of those sci-fi movies where the city is deserted but then you find out that everyone lives underground and they are all transparent Cyclops with bad attitudes and a taste for human flesh.

We leave for Mississippi tomorrow...unless the one-eyed albino cannibals get us.

Flea Land and Fire Ants

We made it to Kentucky in time for torrential rains.  That’s the beauty of an RV…. You just sit there and push a few buttons and voila… instant set-up.  No need to get wet, unless something vital falls off your unit... like a jack spring.

The KOA we stayed at was a bit of a dump and our neighbours had a very yappy dog.  Given the volume of guns per capita (I estimate at least 9 per person, and that includes babies), I just can’t understand why someone hasn’t thought of shooting it.  But, they all seem to be pretty laid back here in ‘ol Kentuck….

  

It turns out that the trek to the Lost River Cave and underground boat tour would have involved rappelling down steep inclines worthy of a Sherpa guide.  Nui may be many things, but a billy goat she ain’t.  Also Prybar and Mamalou had already done a cave tour, so we cancelled that plan.  The Corvette factory tour would have been fun but we forgot to factor in that no one works on Sundays, so scratch that too.  But this was the weekend for a corvette anniversary event and there were lots of the little spiffy sport cars around, driven mostly by middle aged, balding men accompanied by women with big hair.

In the end, we decided to try geocaching (without much luck) and did some shopping at Camping World and Ganders which sells, amongst other things, guns and stuff that goes with guns and clothes that you can wear when you’re carrying a gun, including a full coverage suit made out of grass.  I’d be a little nervous wearing a grass suit in an area full of men drinking a lot of beer.  But I digress….

 

Parked right next to us were a couple of very impressive jets.  We have no idea why they were parked there, but they were cool so we took pictures.

 

Then off we went to Flea Land, which is a great flea market full of both new and used stuff and, of course, gun accessories.  We didn't buy much but it was fun just watching people trying to figure out what we were saying because our Canadian accent is so horrendous. We gave up trying to understand anyone after we left Michigan.

Then back to the RV where Prybar acted as natural bait to a colony of fire ants who seem particularly drawn to his white skin.  This took his mind off the fact that he developed a world-class head cold and can hardly get off the couch.  
 

A Spring In Our Step

Finally!  The Beast was brought in for repairs today and we took ourselves off to the RV Hall of Fame and then to Linton’s Enchanted Gardens.  The Hall of Fame is phenomenal and the tour was great.  We tried to get to Thor industries to watch an RV actually being made, but the tour wasn’t on until 3 pm.

After paying for the Beast’s facelift (all new springs and a camera that works, not to mention a generator that finally actually generates power to key appliances), we decided to start the trip South.  Tonight we’re at the Indianapolis KOA and tomorrow we head for Kentucky.

Gosh, Just Gushing on Goshen

We had a bit of time to kill while the Beast sat neglected at MasterTech, with its springs still sprung and its monitors still dark.  Naturally, the only cure for this sort of thing was to eat something fattening.  So off we went to Goshen, Indiana and the South Side Soda Shoppe to sample at least one of their 50 pies.

It’s a great little place, in the middle of nowhere and the staff are very friendly.  They can’t seem to remember orders (Prybar is always the last to be served because they always forget to produce his order – in this case, a mug of chili).  We had our pie, which was very nice but not up to the standards that our father set over the years.  Still, dad didn’t have an old trolley car sitting next to the kitchen, so the SSSS is one up.

After a very tiring day, we again withdrew to the Beast for the night, listening to thousands of trains backing up.  It turns out that is what the noise really is.... A bunch of trains in a rail yard just up the road.

 

 

Why I'm Putting a Curse on RV Repair People

We made it to Elkhart last night, driving through an impressive thunderstorm, and wheeled into MasterTech Rv just as it was closing. I had an appointment for Wednesday to have the engine air conditioning repaired. However, this was superceded by the broken jack and burned out back-up camera.

Naturally, they can’t just replace one spring, they have to do both. And, not surprisingly, they highly recommended that all four jacks be done. What the heck…. I know the others are just waiting to pop so I said go ahead. And while they’re at it, I told them to install a new camera.

Last night we slept on the grounds of the Rv repair shop, right next to what is either a thousand trains backing up all at once, every minute of the night – or a foundry that really really really needs to oil its machinery.

So today we got up at the crack of dawn (that’s Dawn, not Don), pried open our eyelids and headed off to Shipshewana by 10 a.m.  It turns out the Amish get up really early too – the place opens at 8. My brain is so addled from fatigue that, at one point, I even contemplated buying a puppy until I remembered that puppies are just very small dogs - and I'm a cat person. Anyhow, we spent several hours and lots of money, wandering up and down the rows of stalls, happy in the knowledge that the Beast was being repaired.

Nope – not so. We got back to find it sitting in the exact same spot as when we left it. But we were promised that we were going to be looked after first thing tomorrow morning. Uh huh… and apparently I can buy a bridge in Brooklyn for only $24.95!

We’re going out tonight to buy a voodoo doll and some pins. I have plans.

Puttin' Around in Michigan

We left on Monday, heading for Port Huron Michigan. Naturally, the back-up camera chose to stop working again – and no amount of new fuses is going to get it going. Poor Prybar also had to crawl under the Beast to manually push the jack (with the broken spring) up so we could travel. But, we managed to get under way and travelled the back roads to Sarnia with hardly a hiccup. We even managed to cross the border with no hassles. The twinkie in Seattle should take lessons. We arrived at the KOA in Port Huron Michigan, ordered pizza and firewood and went for a stroll, where we found an amazing mini-putt course and water bumper boats. One of us (I won’t name names but she sells Avon), didn’t want to get wet. So, we putted around for 18 holes. Although I lost miserably, I did manage to get the only hole in one of the game. Yay for me! I understand it’s tradition that I buy a round of beer for everyone but, lucky for me, they don’t drink.