Road trip . . . to Georgia

We left Jefferson City at 6:30 am on Wednesday. Headed south to DeSoto, Missouri to exchange some blacksmith tools. 

We got back on the road about 10 AM.

At dinner time we pulled off in Manchester, Tennessee. This place looked good.  The parking lot was filling up fast.

This sweet dog was left in the truck. The owner left the back window open, where he was free to come and go. We had a nice one-sided conversation with the sweet fellow.

Prater's BBQ did not disappoint for southern BBQ. It was the sweet tea that sent me over the top.  It was unbelievably sweet, but still delicious.

We drove on to Calhoun, Georgia, where we over nighted in a rest area with a million Semi trucks and one other Casita. I am surprised that we had a good night sleep. The white noise of the trucks lulled us to sleep instantly. We woke at 5:15 and was on the road in a matter of minutes. We wanted to clear Atlanta Georgia traffic before it even formed. 

We found our destination at Country Boy RV park before 8 AM. The office wasn't open. We followed directions on the box, found a lot, set up the Casita and headed to the Lions Club for the Southern Blacksmith Conference. 

All was good until about 12:30 in the afternoon, when the RV park called to ask us to move to a new site. Although it was an inconvenience, it only took a matter of minutes to change. 

The blacksmith spent most of every day watching Steve Parker demonstrate. He's hoping to have him to our place later this year for a trip hammer work shop!

We broke bread for two meals with John Watson and his wife Sally. They had our friends Kirk and Helen staying with them in their camper, same RV park as us. 

John  taught a tin can class making a rose out of 5 lids. He gave me one of his beautiful creation. 

This is my friend Alfred McClure, we are both rejoicing in being cancer free!!!

This picture isn't the true story, but here's how it went. During set up of the portable potties they were all set in one place. The association decided to move them around. Alfred went to lift a port a potty, got it off the ground, when a hand sprung out the door waving!!!!

Believe me, I teased him the whole conference about it.  

He was a good sport!

I took the BAM boutique merchandise and sold $300!  My blacksmith also sold lots of his hand made tongs. 

The lady with a booth next to mine came to visit. She found out I was a quilter, told me to hold on just a minute. She came back with this sweet brooch. 

On Friday afternoon I took a gourd class with my friend Pattie Bagley. Believe it or not this took 4 hours to make. It was the first time I had ever heard of alcohol paints. 

On Saturday we left before noon for home. Not sure if we'd drive the full trip. It is after all about an eleven hour drive without stops.

That is until this happened!  Interstate 24, 6 lanes wide!  BAM! Blowout. 

We made a good team, 18 minutes we were back on the road. 

As we were headed to Missouri, reports of bad weather at home were developing. The closer we got, the more we were determined to go all the way to Jefferson City. Luckily the storms were over and we missed them all.


We pulled in at 1:20 AM, so much for an 11 hour trip.