It's Moving Day!

Today I start moving my stamping and crafting supplies from the RV into the Crafty Cottage. Tim has worked really hard on getting the electricity set up correctly and making sure all the lights and outlets work so I can move into the cottage and have the light I need. There is still a couple of things that we need to get for the cottage. I think I have finally found the curtains for the windows and we will be buying a small TV to hang in the cottage too. I know it will take me a while to organize but the nice thing is I have the space and storage and we will finally have some storage back in the RV. Right now out of the 20 cabinets we have in the RV 12 of them have been devoted to my stamping and crafting supplies. Tim will finally get a cabinet of his own! Now that the rain looks like it might be done for a little while (it has been raining for a solid week) Tim and I can now begin building our new storage shed. While I am moving into the cottage Tim will be finishing the leveling of the ground where the storage shed will be built. If the weather holds for a while then we should be able to finish the shed by the end of next week. After the shed is set up Tim and I will be heading down to Jacksonville to clean out our storage unit and bring all of our stuff to the storage shed. Of course while we are in Jacksonville we will also be seeing family and friends too! Check back tomorrow for progress on moving day!

Kingsport, TN

During our trip up to Johnson City we also visited Kingsport, TN. Kingsport is a city in Sullivan, Hawkins and Washington counties in Tennessee. It is the largest city in the Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Kingsport is also part of the Tri-Cities region. It is commonly included in what is known as the Mountain Empire which spans a portion of southwest Virginia and the Mountainous counties of Tennessee to the east. The name 'Kingsport" is a simplification of "King's Port", originally referring to the area on the Holston River known as the King's Boat Yard, the head of navigation for the Tennessee Valley. It was an area that was used as a staging area for pioneers heading to the west. During the Civil War, a battle was held in Kingsport where the Confederate Army held the Union Army at bay for two days. The Union Army then won the battle and several Confederate soldiers were taken as prisoner and sent to the Knoxville prison camp. One interesting fact that happened in Kingsport is still talked about today. The execution of Mary the Elephant. In September of 1916 Kingsport residents demanded the death of circus elephant Mary (an Asian elephant who performed in the Sparks World Famous Shows Circus) for the killing of city hotel worker Walter Eldridge who was hired the day before as an assistant elephant trainer by the circus. Eldridge was killed by Mary in Kingsport while he was taking her to a nearby pond. Mary was impounded by the local sheriff. Leaders of several nearby towns threatened not to allow the circus to visit if Mary was included. The circus owner, Charie Sparks, reluctantly decided that the only way to quickly resolve the situation was to hold a public execution. On the following day Mary was transported by rail to Erwin, TN where a crowd of over 2,500 people assembled in the Clinchfield Railroad yard to watch her hang from a railroad crane. In September, every year, this story is reported on and it was one of the first things that I had heard about Kingsport when we came to the area.

Johnson City, TN Part Two

Lisa and I headed back up to Johnson City yesterday to pick up some lights for her new house. While we were there we decided since we were up in Johnson City to take advantage of some stores that we like to shop, and don't have the opportunity to, and that the guys do not like too. We even had lunch at Panera, one of my favorite places to have lunch. We did have to fight the rain and wind all day but seeing the fall foilage, even in the rain, was still beautiful and worth getting rained on to take some pictures. Now part two - Johnson City's history. William Bean, traditionally recognized as Tenneessee's first settler, built a cabin in 1769 near Johnson City's location. He was a Trans-Appalachian pioneer, longhunter (an explorer and hunter who make expeditions into the American Frontier wilderness for as long as six months). Bean was with Daniel Boone's long hunters. His cabin became a stopping point for new frontier people. In the 1780s Col.John Tipton established a farm just outside of where Johnson City is now located. In 1788 Tipton and his men had an armed engagement with the forces led by John Sevier, leader of the Franklin Nation. Johnson City was founded in 1856 by Henry Johnson as a railroad station called Johnson's Depot and became a major hub for the southeast as three railway lines crossed in the downtown area. During the American Civil War Johnson City was briefly renamed to Haynesville, honoring a Confederate general, but was changed back to Johnson City in 1870. Johnson City became a booming town with railroads and commerce until the depression of 1893 which caused many railroad failures that resulted in a financial panic. The city began to grow again in 1901 when the mountain branch of the National Home for Disabled Veteran Soldiers was built. That was followed in 1911 when the Eastern Tennessee State Normal School was built across from the Veteran's home and is now known as Eastern Tennessee State University. In the 1920s, during prohibition, Johnson City had ties to the bootlegging activity in the Appalachian Mountains and was nicknamed "Little Chicago". Gang boss, Al Capone, was a part time resident of Johnson City because of most of th bootlegging in town was his. After prohibition, Johnson City continued to grow to what it is today. One intersting municipal code that is still active in Johnson City is called the Barney Fife Ordinance that empowers the city's police force to draft into involuntary service as many town's citizens as needed to aid police.

Johnson City, TN Part One

We took a drive to Johnson City, TN yesterday which is the 9th largest city in Tennessee and is located in three counties in Tennessee which are Carter, Sullivan and Washington counties with the majority of the city located in Washington county. It is ranked #14 as Best Small Place of Business Centers and ranked #5 in the 10 Least Expensive Cities For Living in the USA due to the low cost of living because of the affordable homes, below-average utilities, transportation and health care costs. It is part of the Johnson City Metropolitan Stats area that includs Carter, Unicol and Washington counties and makes up a componant of the Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol commonly known as the Tri-Cities region. Some notable people from Johnson City is Steve Spurrier, Head coach of the South Carolina University Gamecocks, Washington Redskins and Florida Gators, went to High School at Science Hill HS in Johnson City. The football field at the high school is named after him. Country singer Kenny Chesney and Actor Timothy Busfield are also from Johnson City. There are several NFL players and NASCAR drivers from Johnson City too. We went to Johnson City to shop because it has all the major big box stores. George and Lisa had to pick up more items for their new home so Tim and I decided to join them. It was a day long trip as we went to as many places as we could. We even had a late lunch at Carrabba's, a favorite Italian resturant whn we lived in Orange Park,FL. Tomorrow I will feature the history of Johnson City as Lisa and I head back to Johnson City again today!

Rain, Wind And Football

Yesterday was almost a complere washout. It rained, it poured then it rained again. There were moments, literally moments when the rain quit. By the late afternoon the rain did quit for more than a few moments. Then the wind began to blow and is still blowing this morning. The way we are facing with the RV we are protected by trees but do you know what happens with windy conditions and the fall? Acorn bombs! We felt like we were in a war zone with the way the acorns were dropping and hitting the RV. It sounded like gunshots and/or someone knocking on the door. Needless to say Shadow was not too relaxed yesterday and jumped, in the beginning, constantly. As evening came Shadow seemed to relax a bit. The winds blew all night long and at times were strong enough to rock the RV a bit. Today, the rain is suppose to be gone until tonight but the windy conditions will continue. We are headed to Johnson City and Kingsport, TN. It is north of us and sits alomst on the border of Tennessee and Virginia. Tim and I have never been there before so it give us a chance to see more of north eastern Tennessee. Both cities are also higher up in mountains so I am hoping to get some good pictures of some fall foilage. Now, let's talk football. It was not a great week end for my teams. Saturday only one of my six teams won, two had byes, so I have to thank Oregon for winning their game. NIU, Florida and Missouri lost. South Carolina and NAU had byes. Now on to NFL Football; I did a little better there but won't know how I did with all of my teams until after tonight. The Bears WON!!! YAY!!! So did the Broncos and in fairness eventhough the Jaguars lost it was a good game. The Jags new Quarterback played very well and now if the rest of the team would follow his behavior the Jags could start winning some games. Right now they are 0-6. Not a good season as yet! The 49ers play tonight on Monday Night Football. Go 49ers! Check back tomorrow and see if I get some decent fall foilage pictures!

Parrottsville's Heritage Day

It was a rainy day yesterday and we were suppose to go to Parrotsville Heritage Day and we figured the event was probably canceled due to the rain. The rain finally stopped around noon so Lisa and I drove to Parrottsville and Heritage Day was going on. Last week we went to the Newport Harvest festival and it was okay but I was happily surprised at Heritage Day. There were a lot of vendors, almost all crafts, demonstations of what life was like when Parrottsville began, civial war soldiers, both North and South, live bands and some pretty good food vendors. Why was I surprised? Newport is a much bigger town than Parrottsville and so I thought it would be a bigger event but it wasn't. This was Parrottsville's 15th Annual Heritage Day and it was held at Parrott-Larue-Myers Park. The park sits between the main road in Parrottsville and a creek. It is very well laid out. The crafts were really nice. There was a lot of local artists at the event and I started my Christmas shopping for "someone". Lisa also did some Christmas shopping. We had lunch while we were there and it was really a good price. Lisa and I split a lunch which consisted of 2 hotdogs, fries and 2 sodas for $6.00. It was pretty good. I also bought a Pumpkin Roll for dessert after dinner last night and that was really good; I wish I had bought a second one. It was a great day and it was sunny while we were there but after we left the skies opened up again and it began to pour. In the last two weeks we have visited Newport's Harvest Festival and Parrottsville's Heritage Day. Next week we head to Cosby for their fall festival. Two fall fests down four to go! I love Fall!

The October Project

Every month, for the next few months Tim and I have a major projects planned. September was the Crafty Cottage and it took a little longer to finish up on it then we had planned but we still should be able to complete October's project in time. Our mission is to build the shed, go down to Jacksonville and clear out our storage unit and bring all the stuff up here. The Crafty Cottage is complete short of moving all my craft stuff in it but the electricity is on temporarily because the outlets are being rewired to meet the highest standards set. In the house that George and Lisa are building they were required to put in child resistent outlets and George wants us to have them in the Crafty Cottage just to on the safe side for the final electric inspection. Tim has the outlets out and when George's contracter comes he will put in the new outlets. I will then begin to move my stamping and craft supplies into the cottage. So now it is time to begin our October project which will be building a storage shed. Almost every fulltimer RVer has stuff in storage, due to limited space in the RV, and we do too. When we sold our home there were some things I just did not want to get rid of so we have had a storage unit, in Jacksonville, FL, for four years now. What is in our storage unit? Family scrapbooks and photos, Christmas, clothing, more craft supplies, tools and more. We knew at some point we would settle down and we would have room for the stuff in the stoage unit. To do so we need to build a storage shed. Our new storage shed will also house our washer and dryer and a freezer. So we bought a 10 foot by 14 foot storage shed that Tim and I will build together. Tim started clearing the ground yesterday and will continue to work on that today if weather permits. We have a busy day planned today, it is Heritage Days in Parrottsville, so we will be checking that out and then watch some College Football. Right now Tim is digging out and preparing the ground to build the storage shed. We chose a metal shed with a barn roof because it met our needs and our budget. When we lived in Florida we had built a metal storage shed for our well pump and it is still up today, 20 years later. So with that kind of success we think this shed will work out well for us. We are going to insulate the shed too. So now you know what our October project is: The Storage Shed and I hope you will follow along as we constuct it!