On the 29th of April the Flying Scotsman II landed near the town of Eddyville Kentucky (east of Paducah) and the Outback RV resort. This park is just to the east of the Land Between the Lakes area in southeastern Kentucky.




In keeping with our desire to do different places if we can, this was a new one and excellent. It obviously was an old KOA that has been redone in a very nice fashion. The parking was all paved and excellent and the store was well stocked ... great management! Couldn't ask for a better setting and the weather is excellent.





On the way up through Kentucky we had to pass through the little town of Paris. Those of you who know us know that Paris is our favorite place to vacation in the world so how could we pass up this Paris?

Anyhow after several times around the town square in our monster machine looking for their advertised tower we gave up. I've got to look it up and see where the monument is but the closest we got were the signs with the tower on them.

On the 28th we arrived in Memphis after a 400 mile run. That's about the longest we want to do ... even though the road was nice and for a change there wasn't any wind it was still a long day. We filled up with fuel at $3.50 a gallon in B-CS and we are now getting an even 9 MPG.

The Graceland RV Park is pretty good but we thought it would be more modern rather than the gravel 1970ish look as you see here. Nice park and quiet but old.





For whatever reason we had never been to Graceland even though we have been through Memphis way too many times to count. The RV park is located behind the Heartbreak Hotel right across from Graceland itself.






Here is the latest Elvis impersonator in front of the gate to the King of Rock and Roll's mansion. All we need is the guitar and a black wig.





Even though the place was closed by the time we arrived we got few good shots of the mansion in some pretty good light. The grounds and house are very impressive and well maintained.

Wow what a week!!

On Wednesday the 27th we showed up at Lawyer's Title Company in College Station to close on the house. We unhooked from Aggiland RV park in Bryan and took the Flying Scotsman to the closing ... there's the optimists, eh.

At the appointed time the buyers showed up with their check and we were free to move on to the next phase of our life ... right now as full-timers in the RV.

We left the B-CS area around noon on the 27th and headed northeast for about 190 miles to a park we had stayed at before near Kilgore, Texas, called the Shallow Creek Golf and RV Resort.

This is an excellent park right on I-20 and has all the amenities and nice concrete level sites that are well appointed. As far as the weather goes, what a change! For the last three weeks we have been putting up with the relentless 90+ temps and 15 to 30 mile an hour winds. The wind finally ripped the one slide out awning on the bedroom and I had to Duct Tape it in place. When we left the closing in B-CS it was 94 and a 30 mile wind and on the morning of the 28th in Kilgore it was calm and 42 .... NICE!

Busy times for us as any of you who move regularly know. After the last post we managed to box up almost 80 boxes of stuff ourselves and then the movers stuffed the remaining 80 with the breakable things. Here is the living room in the last shot before being totally empty on the 19th.





I can't say enough nice things about the moving team. Even though local they were among the most professional and efficient that we have had over the 38 years of military and civilian moves ... really good crew. Five hardworking guys packed us up in half a day on Monday and then moved everything to storage on Tuesday in a half day also.

While my birthday was Monday, we opted to wait till the dust settled to celebrate the awesome and incredible 66 years that I've managed to stay alive! Anyhow here is a stupid photo of the birthday boy at our fav restaurant, Cenare, in my dad's hat and under a bit of very famous art ... you can put whatever significance you can to this bit of nuttiness.

And the next morning the reality of life after the celebration hits home with home improvement injuries ... fortunately not a big problem and the Sauder bookcase will be a nice improvement to hold all the travel stuff in the Flying Scotsman.

And the the sunset over the Aggiland RV park which has been our home for the last couple of weeks and will be until we close on the house on the 27th.

Because we have left our departure so late our initial plans to head to friends up around the top of Lake Superior can't happen now. We will take the RV to closing on the 27th and then head out for a direct route to Meaford to meet Leighanne and Brooks and new little Ev there, who will arrive from Dallas on 7 May. We will be rollin' again next Wednesday afternoon ... and it is a great feeling!

Let's see ... 70+ boxes filled with stuff and over 200 nail holes filled and painted. Tonight is our last night at 1913 Debbie. Tomorrow we move to the Flying Scotsman II full time for the future! Packers on Monday and movers on Tuesday will clean out the place and hide it somewhere. Then we'll have the real cleaners come and then we'll complete the spackle/paint process until we close on the 27th. Last night we celebrated, in regards to our "eat, drink, blog" theme at a new restaurant here called Tony Romas. We've eaten at their place in San Antonio many years ago and wanted to see what it was like now . It was awesome and we highly recommend the place for both service and quality of food. Jo-Anne had their Bourbon baby back ribs and I had the mahi-mahi. Both plates were served quickly and professionally and were the best we can remember ... really good food!

And to top off the culinary feast here is the wine toast to the rest of our lives ... with a chocolate martini instead ... Julie Tillema be jealous. Much more from on the road.

OK, so we put the house on the block, "For Sale By Owner," and were ready to take the sign down because there wasn't much interest and then hit the road to Canada on the summer excursion in a couple of weeks ... but some folks came by last Monday and said they would buy it ... wow ... for cash. So much for the housing bust, eh. Anyhow the 27th of April is our closing date. As a result we are frantically booking movers, cleaners, and all the other stuff that comes with moving out for good. We then got the Flying Scotsman out of storage and parked it at the Aggiland RV park for the month so that we have a place to live ... as we are officially "On the Road Again." We have scheduled movers for 18 and 19 April and the cleaners for the 20th and we are frantically spackling and covering about 110 picture holes. The Aggiland park is about a mile north of us and a really nice and new facility with great management ... concrete is good. Today is about 89 degrees and 70% humidity which is a little above normal even for this hot and humid place. And of course our animal photo of the day. This little guy (gal) is about an inch long and lives on the patio, clinging to the screen as it eats bugs. really not shy and can be touched ... never seen one of this coloration ever in my life ... neat animal.