Sunday, October 30 In no special hurry we posed for a picture with the Silvermine, and headed out of the driveway at 10:00. . . for our last planned trip of the season. We had reservations at our usual campsite #41 at East Fork State Park in Cincinnati, and plans to have dinner with Micah-- Is it even possible that we are celebrating Micah’s 42nd birthday? It was a nice enough drive, but by the time we arrived at 2:00 rain was in the air. At 4:30 we drove the 12 miles to Micah’s house, and picked him up for a run down to the Hofbräuhaus House in Newport. It was surprisingly busy on a Sunday evening, and a live band was set up playing some German favorites. The truth about the band: they sounded like a high school throw-together band . . . that had forgotten to practice! They were in full Halloween costume and there was something really appealing about them, and everyone enjoyed the um-pah music! There was an active group for the Chicken Dance! Tom and Micah got the Grillhendl Roasted Chicken, and I got the Black Forest Ham sandwich on a pretzel bun, smothered with cheese sauce. We, of course got pictures with the birthday boy, the band, and Micah with the waitress! We had a great meal and extra time to visit with Micah as a fresh batch was not quite ready! We always enjoy Micah’s man-of-the-world presence and the great stories he tells us about his work and play. It was dark as we walked out of the restaurant, dropped Micah off, and returned to the campsite. We both had movies and books to last the rest of the evening. Monday, Oct 31 Unusual for us, we didn’t crawl out of bed until 8:45! We only had 225 miles to drive to our next destination – Indian Mountain in Jellico at the TN/KY border. The weather was a bit grey and mid-60’s and very nice for traveling. Today is Halloween, although it seems most trick-or-treating took place over the weekend. We did see a few remnants of decorations . . . such as this one at the truck stop! We reached our campground, 2 miles off I-75 at 2:15. A drive through the downtown of Jellico assured us that there was absolutely no reason to come back for a better look. The town was run down, very dirty, and only 20% of the stores were in operation. It was very sad. We have been to this campground before, and we had the same campsite – backed right up to the nice little pond with an expanded concrete pad. We were a little surprised that the leaves were well past their fall color, and about 60% are on the ground. We are wondering what the leaf-peeping situation will be at Elkmont! The temperature crawled up to 68 and was very nice for sitting outside and reading. There were only a dozen campers, making for a very tranquil afternoon. As the temperature dipped down, I snugged Pippa up in her jammies, and wrapped a blanket around her while she sat in her chair. At 5:30 we started working on supper –spaghetti squash, T-bone steak, and spiced apples! As it got dark at 7:00 we took a last loop around the park and surrendered to the cozy interior of the Silvermine. Tomorrow we head for Elkmont and the Great Smokey Mts. National Park. There is no cell phone service and I feel no need to hustle around to write in my blog every day. We have made this trip once a year for many years, and I feel like it has all be covered previously!
1 Comment
Michael Miller
11/4/2022 04:37:50 am
Best to you both for the home trip and TN visit. We will miss seeing you both as we prep to pull out next week for our Southwest winter adventure.
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October 2021
We don’t go camping any more . . . we go ‘streamin’ ! The “SIlvermine and His” is our 2018 25' Airstream Serenity with Salsa interior and front twin beds., and ‘streamin’ is the name we use to describe our adventures. Stream along as we document everything from weekend trips to longer summer excursions and full-blown vacations. You know what they say: if you’re not in an Airstream – you’re just camping!
Tom & Ella Brown |