“Forsythia is pure joy. There is not an ounce, not a glimmer of sadness or even knowledge in forsythia. Pure, undiluted, untouched joy.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Rolling south into Tennessee, we noticed the forsythia is in bloom. That was always my sign to put down crabgrass preventitave on our lawn. Those days are over, as we don’t have a lawn anymore! It is odd little observations that remind us that life as fulltime RVers is an entirely different life. My first such observation was driving down the road on a Thursday and seeing trash cans by the road. First thing in my head was ‘I need to take out the trash!’ Nope. No house, no curb to haul the trash to. 🙂
We have been RVing for years, taking two week vacations and long weekends when we could. We’ve known about ‘same house, different view out the windows’ aspect of RVing, but the point was really driven home today. We were planted in Michigan for 6 months with the same view, and we weren’t able to open the windows, as it was too cold. Today, we are in Nashville, TN with the windows open and a completely different vista to explore! It is a liberating feeling, for sure.
Saw this beauty in a rest area in Kentucky. This is a mid 1970’s GMC motorhome. There are a lot of folks out there who buy these and restore them, as they are unique. We love seeing them out on the road again.
We are at the Yogi Bear campground in Nashville, not far from the Grand Ole Opry. They need to do a little spring cleaning, but the air is fresh and the trees are starting to bloom! It is 75 degrees outside right now and we are loving it. We used our Passport America and saved 50% on our camping. 🙂
Part of this trip is a baseball memorabilia delivery mission. This is a doozey. Back in the 1970’s when Diana’s brother, Dan, was a 5th grader he won a letter writing contest, making him the World’s Greatest Al Kaline Fan. For those of you unfamiliar, Al Kaline was a teenage baseball phenomenon out of Baltimore who started with the Detroit Tigers right out of high school. He played his entire career in Detroit, and stayed on with the team after he retired as a player. At 80 years old, he still is with the team. That , my friends, is loyalty at its finest.
Anyway, the family got box seats to the game on Al Kaline Day, and Dan was able to go to the clubhouse and meet Al. Part of the prize was a 4 foot by 6 foot framed photo of Al that was to hang in Dan’s elementary school….which it did for years. Finally, the principal contacted Dan to have him take it home, as he was concerned it would get damaged in the hall of the school. Dan moved to Florida out of high school, and the photo remained in Michigan with his mom and dad. Dad passed away in 2008, and Mom has been storing the photo.
We wrapped up the photo of Al in a shipping blanket and are hauling him in the fifth wheel! I hope he likes camping!
One other thing I wanted to mention: March is Passport America savings time, for all of you campers out there.
For just $44 a year, you can save 50% on campsites at a LOT of campgrounds around North America. We joined last year and it paid for itself on our third night camping. What is unique about March is the Refer A Buddy program. Use my name and number and you get an extra 4 months free (and so do we).
James Belisle
C-643950
Just go to Passport America and sign up. Enter my information in the ‘referral’ section of the application. It’s a nice little bonus for both of us!
Well, that’s it for today! The forsythia is calling to us!
exploRVistas 
That GMC motorhome is very cool! Hope you guys and Al are enjoying Nashville before you’re heading to the coast:)
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Yes, those GMC’s were way ahead of their time, Inger. It is fun to see some of the older RV’s like that. 🙂
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Two summers ago we were at Blackhawk Park (De Soto, WI) and a rally of GMC’s pulled in for a week. It was grand to see so many older coaches so well taken care of and to have a chance to pick the owners brains about innovation.
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I missed this and the last comment somehow, Peter. All that driving kept me occupied!
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I bet it is nice to get into the warmer weather and get a head start on your spring. You two certainly deserve it for what you went through this winter! Enjoy your time down south.
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Thanks! We are south of Nashville and just saw row of daffodils along the road. Beautiful! Diana (Jim’s driving 🙂
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Gosh, I thought I was the world’s greatest Al Kaline fan!! Lucky number 6! 🙂
We don’t RV, but did you know that Elks stay free (or close to it) in the many Elk lodge RV parks? We discovered some very nice ones in Florida and California. Plus the lodge amenities (food and drinks). John is an Elk, so whenever we travel we like to visit the local lodges:).
Enjoy your time in sunny FL! Hope to see you this summer.
Your cousin
Barb
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So many great memories of Al, Barb. I remember him commentating during the last game at Tiger Stadium before it closed. Robert Fick came up to bat and Al was saying how he told him to go out and “hit a home run tonight, Robert”. Bam! Fick hit one off the facing of the 3rd deck. Last home run ever hit there. I was so happy and so sad, all in one night.
Yes, we knew about the Elks from reading other blogs. I’m not a member, but it sounds like a great organization! My dad was a member for awhile in Findlay, Ohio.
See you this summer!
Jim
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Change of weather, change of scenery ! Everything sounds good ! Forsythia are not in bloom yet in Belgium, maybe this week 🙂
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Spring is springing everywhere!
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One of the things I love about reading other RV’ers blogs is hearing the things that they ‘notice’ about RV’ing, or appreciate, or contrast. The ‘different view out the same window’ is one that surely never gets old.
Funny — we have our Passport America membership and rarely use it.
Loyalty is an interesting concept. I wonder how our grandchildren will think about it? With job tenures shortening and shortening not many people have any sense of loyalty to a job anymore. And I wonder whether with our politicians constantly putting our men into this war and that war for reasons that aren’t always very transparent how ‘loyalty’ will be seen by the generation after the Millenials. Not sure how a people build a ‘nation’ without more loyalty than I see today.
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A funny thing happened after I posted that. I pulled the shades for the night, and Diana pointed out that she could imagine the view behind them to still be that of the camp in Michigan. I felt the same thing. I wonder if you will experience that on your first night out of Palmdale.
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Interesting. We stayed in the same place in OR (that little USFS boneyard) and the first night away we had already put the view out of our mind. I’m not sure that’s something we retain in our memory the same way — though having said that the view out the lounge window at Grenada DID stick with us.
What stuck with us from OR was that Peggy needs more of a distance view. When we were working for the forest service we were literally in the middle of a NW conifer forest and there wasn’t much open to the sky — since then we have been careful to give her more of an expansive view. (you know how it goes…. happy wife, happy life)
And here at Palmdale she gets a broader view.
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We are with Peggy on the view. Not having rigs next to us all winter is what got us through. That and the meteorological anomaly of the sun shining most of the time on West Michigan! 🙂
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