After our unexpected extended stay in Elkhart, we began a complex set of maneuvers designed to meet up with family while continuing our move south.  In retrospect, we made this harder than necessary and transitioned into the southern climate way earlier than ideal given the blazing September and October temps in Georgia and Florida, but we will chalk that up to a lesson learned and plan better next year.

We started the scheme with a run down to Nashville, Indiana (not the other one) to meet up with Dad and Marcia again.  They had social and business obligations there, it was on our route, and we generally like the Brown County area.  We secured reservations at the very large Brown County State Park, but since we did not get out of Elkhart until mid-afternoon we didn’t arrive until after dark.  We enjoyed a cocktail or two with Dad and Marcia to unwind, but had to make it a relatively early evening since I had to get Rose to the airport an hour away in Indianapolis the next morning.

Having failed to take any pictures while in Brown County, I am forced to punctuate these paragraphs with unrelated photos.  Enjoy these peppers and other vegetables.

While Rose visited family in Virginia, I stayed a couple more days in Indiana exploring Nashville with Dad and Marcia.   In addition to a couple of short outings to geocache, we hit several nice places for drinks and food.  The martini at Big Woods Distillery made me reassess my preference for the vodka over the classic gin version, and the meals at The Story Inn and The Hob Nob were both excellent.  I am not sure how the waitstaff kept track of the orders and checks for our big group of 16 diners at the latter restaurant.

This is Serenity in the shop, and yet I have not mentioned a reason for Serenity to be in the shop thus far this post.  This is called foreshadowing.  

After a couple days it was time for the long drive down to Atlanta, which I broke up with a three days stop at the Arnold Air Force Base Family Camp in Tennessee.   My five hour drive turned into a seven hour ordeal when that tire I purchased in Iowa blew out on the interstate.  My roadside assistance through Progressive found me a place truck tire place only nine miles back up the road, and since the blown tire was on one of the rear doolies, I was able to nurse the rig there, and they had me back on the road only $350 poorer.

I made it to the AFB in time to set up and even work in a quick swim before dark.  This is one of those great value military parks in a very tranquil setting with many spots, lke mine, right on the lake.  It offers power and water for $18 a night, and word must be out this place because I was only able to get a late reservation for the weekend due to someone else having just cancelled.   I seem to recall working wifi last visit, but this time I could not get it to function at all.  I managed to get a full day of geocaching in during this stay, setting a new “finds in one day” personal record of 25 caches.  Plans to continue the fun the next day fell victim to heavy rains.

While I was living it up in Indiana and Tennessee, Rose was Linda, Jayson, and the ever growing families of their three sons in Chesapeake, VA.  She was there to help celebrate Jayson’s birthday, and participate in the general chaos associate with nine grand children under ten years.  They took Linda on an outing to perennial favorite Dollar Tree, where Chris, who had never been in one before went a bit nuts because OMG EVERTHING IN HERE IS ONLY A DOLLAR!  Noob.

Linda and Linda Rose

From Tennessee it was on to Atlanta to visit more family and pick up Rose, but we will hit that next post.