We spent the entire day touring the Kentucky Horse Park. Wow, we thought a horse was a horse but found out there are many breeds. We toured the Horse Museum, saw the history of the horse, watched a movie about horses, rode in a buggy pulled by horses, rubbed horses, talked to horses, saw famous horses and smelled horses. But when lunch time came we found they don't serve horse so we ate bean soup and cornbread. The weather was cool but sunny - a very nice day. Wednesday we drove to Frankfort and toured the Kentucky State Capitol. After the Capitol tour we walked around downtown Frankfort and saw many restored buildings in the old downtown district. We ate lunch at an outdoor restaurant.

North of Lexington is Georgetown where we toured the Toyota plant. The facility is much larger than we imagined. Toyota has 172 acres under roof and produces 200 cars and vans each day. The tour lasted about one hour, then we treated ourselves to lunch (mud pie and coffee) at Cracker Barrel. Norm's son Darren and his wife Martha, from Mt. Sterling, visited us for supper and we gave then the ten dollar tour of the motorhome. We offer anything from a nickel tour to a ten dollar tour so they got the works. It was nice seeing Darren and Martha again and they were our first guests for a meal.

From Lexington we drove to Berea, Kentucky and stayed at Walnut Meadow Campground. We always check the electricity before turning on appliances and we found a problem with their 30 amp circuit. The hot wire and neutral wire were reversed so we plugged into their 20 amp circuit and reported the problem to the campground office. The motorhome is wired for 50 amps but with adapters we can also use 30 amp, 20 or 15 amp. We picked up our mail at the Berea post office and walked the downtown area. At Berea Coffee and Tea we had cheesecake and coffee. We made a mistake in selecting our campsite. We parked under a persimmon tree and the ripe fruit fell on the motorhome so we had to keep it cleaned off to prevent stains.

On Saturday we drove to Lexington and met Darren and Martha for an open house at the Trane Company where Darren works. We were late arriving due to road construction and a detour, going the wrong way on New Circle Road and a long traffic delay for an auto accident. Once we arrived Darren led us on a personal tour of the plant and showed us the products he is involved in making, large commercial cooling and air handling units. After a B-B-Q lunch under a big tent Darren took us to his office in the Engineering Department and explained his job to us. It was enjoyable seeing where Darren works and meeting some of his co-workers. It rained all day, hard at times. We followed Darren and Martha to their home south of Mt. Sterling where we enjoyed coffee and some of Martha's baked bread. It was nice to visit at Darren and Martha and tour their home again.

Linda and I drove back to Berea and ate supper at Boone Tavern. The restaurant is operated by students of Berea College to help pay for their tuition. Our server was Sarah, a freshman from northeastern Tennessee. We ate fruit cups, tossed salad, Linda had bourbon strip steak and I had loin of pork. Each entree' was served with three vegetables and bread. For desert we chose chocolate peanut butter pie. The tab including coffee, tea and tip was $44.64. We were both stuffed. During our last visit to Berea two years ago we met an interesting fellow at the Visitors Center in their remodeled train depot. The gentleman introduced himself as the "self-proclaimed skittle champion of Berea" and Berea is known as the skittle capital of the world. Skittle is played by spinning a top and knocking down obstacles on a board, the more knocked down the higher the score. Norm asked the expert to demonstrate his skill. He wound a string around the top and gave it a big spin. The top bounced twice across the board, jumped the edge, skidded across the floor and slammed into a door. Embarrassed and red-faced, he walked across the room, picked up the top and said, "let me try that again."

Continuing south we drove to Heiskell, Tennessee, just north of Knoxville. This included driving over Jellico Mountain pulling our Honda. This was the first real mountain the motorhome had climbed and we made it fine driving 53 mph all the way up the mountain. We stayed at Raccoon Valley Campground. It is owned by the Escapees RV Club of which we are members so we can stay here at a discounted price. Escapees is an organization for people who travel full-time or most-time. We use their address in Livingston, Texas so we can register our motorhome and car in Texas and get our drivers' licenses there. We also use their mail forwarding service. Escapees owns several campgrounds and this is our first stay in one. The members are called SKPS (skips) and have an unusual greeting, everyone hugs. The first day there we ate a chili lunch with SKPS then drove to Oak Ridge and toured the American Museum of Science and Energy. Early in World War I, the U.S. Government purchased (confiscated) all property at Oak Ridge and gave the residents just weeks to leave. In some cases farmers had only two weeks to get out so they left everything behind. At Oak Ridge uranium was processed to make atomic bombs. The museum contained history and active displays. It was very interesting and admission is free.

Nearby is the town of Norris where we toured the Museum of Appalachia. Daughter-in-law, Martha Payne, suggested we visit the museum and we are glad we did. The museum of Appalachian history was very interesting and there are many log cabins, log schools, log churches and other period buildings on the grounds. At some of the buildings there are demonstrations and country music. At the end of the tour we watched sorghum molasses being made. In the 1930's Norris Dam was constructed. We visited the Dam and took a nature walk by the river. For supper (dinner for you northern folks) we joined thirty-four other SKPS in a caravan to a Chinese restaurant for a buffet.

Our original plan was to spend a full week at a campground in the Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg area, but we were enjoying Raccoon Valley and the SKPS so much we decided to stay there. We drove to Gatlinburg and walked up and down the main street. It was so crowded we decided to leave. We drove along the western edge of Smoky Mountain National Park to Cosby, then took a back road to Pigeon Forge. As we headed out of town the traffic was backed up for miles trying to get to Gatlinburg. Between Sevierville and Kodak is the Lee Greenwood complex consisting of a hotel, restaurant and theater. We ate a seafood buffet at the beautiful restaurant overlooking Broad River. For us a quick seafood buffet takes two hours and we ate several pounds of crab legs, shrimp and other delicious food. At the theater next door we attended Lee Greenwood's "Portrait of America" musical. It was two hours of song and dance from across America. The props and lighting were beautiful and Lee finished the show with his hit "God Bless the USA." We highly recommend attending Lee's show.

Saturday we ate a pancake breakfast with the SKPS, then washed the Honda and most of the motorhome. Sunday Norm waxed part of the motorhome, then we attended an ice cream social with the SKPS. After eating ice cream we talked to a very interesting couple, Herb and Lucille Hofmann from Boca Raton, Florida. They are seventy years old and have traveled extensively since their retirement fourteen years ago. They have flown to Alaska where they camped in a pup tent five weeks, took a freighter to Labrador, traveled the USA in a motorhome and told us about other exciting trips they have made. They brought us books, maps and brochures of interesting things to see and do, then gave us hugs as we departed. The best thing bout traveling is the interesting people we meet. Our week in Raccoon Valley has been great - interesting people, great sights and beautiful weather. It has been sunny with highs in the seventies and lows in the fifties. Cooler weather is forecast so it's time to move further south. Tomorrow we'll pack up and head to Chattanooga for a few days.

We left Escapees Raccoon Valley Campground at Heiskell, Tennessee. We were late in leaving as many of our new friends wanted to wish us good luck in our travels and they gave us tips on campgrounds and places to visit across the USA. After hugs and handshakes we were on our way to Chattanooga. Several people had advised us to visit the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga and we found it to be the most unique aquarium we have seen. The tour begins outside on the fourth floor with trees, waterfalls, fish and other water life. The tour circles and descends to the first floor as you walk through rain forests, by the rivers of the world, the Gulf of Mexico, and the lakes and streams of Tennessee and Georgia. The aquarium contains many beautiful and unique fish. The most interesting exhibit was "Jellies" which displayed jellyfish from birth to adults. Jellyfish are 95-97% water and one of the species glows like ever changing neon lights. The jellyfish exhibit alone was worth the price of admission, but the display will drift away the end of 1999. After leaving the aquarium we attended an IMAX 3-D movie about dinosaurs.

In 1932 Frieda Carter opened her mountain top rock garden to the public for viewing. Her husband, Garnet Carter, came up with a clever idea. He convinced farmers to let him paint their barns for free if he could paint on the roofs "See Rock City." We visited Rock City and eased across "Swing-Along Bridge," slithered through "Fat Man's Squeeze," saw seven states from "Lover's Leap," saw the nursery rhymes at "Fairyland Caverns," and enjoyed the many other well known sights.

Chattanooga is a dead city coming back to life. Many buildings in the downtown area are closed, but new developments are rising. Driving downtown during a business day we were amazed at the lack of traffic. We walked across four-lane streets at will since there were seldom any cars to stop us. We took a long walk by the Tennessee River on a new park and walkway. Next we visited the Chattanooga-Choo-Choo. The old train station served the city for sixty-four years. It has been restored and the old waiting area is now a beautiful domed Holiday-Inn lobby. Other parts of the train station contain restaurants and shops. On the tracks sit many rail cars that are the hotel rooms. The larger suites encompass an entire rail car while there are five rooms to a car in the small suites. Chattanooga is a city travelers zip through traveling north or south. We are glad we stopped a while and learned about the city.

One big rock and a lot of imagination - that's Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta, Georgia, our next stop. A park of 3,200 acres was built around Stone Mountain. We stayed in the 400-site campground by a lake with tall Georgia pines. We rode the skylift to the top of the mountain and walked to all edges, then rode on a train around the mountain. The Scarlet-O'Hara, a sidewheeler roamed the lake and we took a forty-five minute ride on her upper deck. At the Antebellum Plantation old original houses and buildings have been reconstructed. Since we are retired we had plenty of time to read all display signs and talk with the craftsmen and character actors and actresses. The Antique Car and Treasure Museum was very interesting and could have been called a Car and Music museum for it also has a large diplay of player pianos and musical instuments. We also visited the zoo, grist mill and covered bridge.

The face of Stone Mountain was sculptured with three Confederate Civil War heroes, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, mounted on horses in their military apparel. The carving towers 400 feet above the ground, measures 90 by 190 feet and is recessed 42 feet into the mountain. Saturday night we attended a very entertaining laser light and fireworks show. The lasers' lights play on the surface of the mountain in beat with fireworks and music. At one point the soldiers and horses came alive and ran on the mountain. The night of the show it was cool (47 degrees) and windy so we took two blankets, one to sit on and one to cover us. Our neighbors in the campground, Keith, Leann, and their fourteen year old son Josh, rode to the laser and fireworks show with us. They are a nice young family from Pensacola, Florida.

The park allows washing motorhomes so Norm spent two days cleaning the roof and washing and waxing the entire motorhome. We attended two pot luck suppers and a Halloween party at the clubhouse. Sundays they have ice cream socials.

There is much to see and do in the area. We drove to Gulf Shores, but it was too windy to walk on the beach so we toured Fort Morgan which is located at the end of a peninsula at the mouth of Mobile Bay. The land the fort sets on has been owned by seven countries. The fort was first built for the War of 1812 and was updated and used in the Civil War, Spanish American War and World Wars I and II. From Fort Morgan we took a ferry (with the Honda onboard) across the mouth of Mobile Bay from Fort Morgan to Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island. The four mile ferry ride was very enjoyable. Pelicans flew over the water in formation and dove in the water seeking their lunch. There are many oil derricks in Mobile Bay and in the Gulf and we ferried by several.

Dauphin Island was first settled in 1699 by the French and from the Island they governed all of the Louisiana Territory. We did not have enough time to tour the fort so we'll have to return some day. We drove to the end of Dauphin Island to view the unique seacoast houses. The island is about one-quarter mile wide and six miles long with a road down the middle. All houses are built on stilts in preparation for hurricanes. The houses are all colors, shapes and sizes, and set at various angles. Some are very large three story houses with decks on the roofs. It was interesting to see such large houses built on poles thirty feet off the ground.

Always looking for unique "one of a kind restaurants" we drove for one and a half hours before finding it - it being the Original Oyster House. We dined by a glass wall overlooking Mobile Bay and watched the sun set over the U.S.S. Alabama battleship. We ate shrimp and baked potatoes and wanting to sample local cuisine Linda ordered turnip greens with tabasco peppers vinegar and Norm ordered red beans and rice with tabasco sauce. We washed it down with several glasses of iced tea.

We will be staying at Rainbow Plantation at least one more week.