The Virginia Beach KOA is the largest at which we’ve ever worked as far
as the total number of sites, including tent, RV, Kamping Kabins, and
Deluxe Cabins. Shown here is a family enjoying dinner the
cul-de-sac area of the campground.
These beautiful flowers were on a berm between the front door of the
campground store/office and the swimming pools.
This museum is home to one of the largest private collections of military aircraft that date as far back as World I. The most amazing thing about this place is that nearly all of the planes are airworthy and flown either at the museum during flight demonstrations or at airshows. One can even schedule a flight in one of the planes. The collection was extensive and quite amazing. It consists of the main museum area, which houses planes and other memorabilia, and then another hangar, which houses an extensive collection. A third building is the mechanical workshop where restorations and repairs are conducted. The idea for the museum took developed in the fall of 1994 when the museum’s founder was attending a convention in Hamilton, Ontario. Shortly after returning to Virginia Beach, he started looking for World War II-era aircraft to acquire. The first plane to be restored was a wrecked Curtiss P-40E Warhawk recovered from the Arctic Circle. As they say, the rest is history. They now are displaying seventeen plane from WW I and more than 40 from WW II. Of course, the museum’s holdings increase year over year.
Byron is pictured in front of the Sopwith Strutter, a British aircraft of
the First World War. It was the first British aircraft to
enter service with a synchronized machine gun.
Martha stand in front of a fully restored B-25J. The WWII bomber
is named “Wild Cargo” (not referring to Martha). The Mitchell medium
bomber was in the opening months of the war. The entire air bombardment
concept owed itself to Gen. “Billy” Mitchell. The B-25 is
the only U.S. aircraft to be named after a person.
The campground at Virginia Beach looked rather empty
on the day that Florence was to make landfall. Those with
reservations for Customer Appreciation Weekend had
cancelled in fear of being caught by the hurricane.
Had we stayed, there would have been no guests
for whom customer service was needed.
We spent a couple of nights in Lenoir, North Carolina, about 30 miles south of Boone and east of Asheville. However, once we saw all the other guests leaving with their rigs, we decided moving on north and west across the Appalichians into Tennessee might be a wiser choice. We were parked on a creek, back in a holler, and under power lines: nice spot for more casual weather but not for what we could see coming. We decided riding out a flood and the possibility of downed power lines was not our best option. So, we packed up and headed toward the western side of the Smokey Mountains.
Our site at Green Mountain RV Park was nice with a babbling creek
behind and a concrete pad on which to park.
We spent six nights in Sevierville, Tennessee on the banks of the French Lick River at Two Rivers Landing RV Resort. This was, perhaps, the nicest location at which we have ever stayed. The location was 14 years old but well maintained. The price was very competitive. And, we were safe here.
Our motorhome is nestled in between the shrubbery that divide each site at
Two Rivers Landing. Each site is also marked by a crepe myrtle bush.
And, handy to the highway while away from the heavy traffic in Sevierville.
We attended the United Methodist Church on Sunday and heard what churches in the area were doing for expectant mothers on oppioids at Susannah’s House in Knoxville. Other exploits while here took us to eat at the Apple Valley Grill and a day drive into and around Townsend and Cades Cove.
No caption necessary.
From Sevierville, we traveled to one of our favorite parks, Riverpark Campgound on the banks of the Nolichucky River in Jonesborough, Tennessee for a visit with Byron’s brother and sister-in-law, Lewis and Marcia Songer.
On the banks of the Nolichucky south of Jonesborough, Tennessee.
After dinner in the refurbished area of downtown Johnson City, Tennessee.
After our visit with Lewis and Marcia, we spent one night at Bean Pot Campground in Crossville, Tennessee before moving on to Diamond Caverns Campground just inside Mammouth Cave National Park. While there we took a the 2-hour Domes and Dripstones tour seeing a very small portion of the 412-mile cave system known as Mammouth Cave.
The Domes and Dripstones Tour ends in an area of Mammoth Cave,
one of the dying-cave sections. This is where the
stalactites and stalagmites are formed. To us, it isn’t dying.
However, our ranger and guide presented a good
explanation as to the meaning and the
differences in the cave environments.
While in the area we went to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. Yes, the vehicles recovered from the sink hole colapse several years ago are on display along with many other Vettes spanning the history which began in 1953.
There are a vew “period” areas of the museum in which some
of the vintage Corvettes are shown. A 1958 model is shown in this image.
As we recall, there were five of the damaged Vettes on display.
Upon checking with our “home” campground, we found that we could arive two days earlier than planned since they had a few cancellations. We headed for Add-More Campground in Clarksville, Indiana on Saturday, September 29. Now we can catch-up with friends and family before moving onto Florida for our winter jobs and taking some opportunities to visit with our grandchildren and daughter and son-in-law, Michael and Ashley.
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