Chapter 66 Still at Ocean City...

Of course, your Captain continues to meet pretty women at the bars and pubs hereabouts...

Chapter 65 Time at the OC Beach...

Here at one of our favorite RV Resorts (Castaways), we had a few visitors and gave tours of the Queen.  People said the Queen was nice.

...that’s the Atlantic Ocean just past the dunes.

...in both pictures, we are the blue dot...

Since Opie and baby RJ have birthdays one week apart in July, and since we are in Ocean City, the boys get a birthday treat from...

...Dundee’s Dairyland

The Birthday Boys with their ice cream treats

...view from the roof of the Queen...

...where your handy Captain worked to finish converting the satellite receiver antennae’s to DISH TV.

...As a reward, LESLIE treated us to the very best pork BBQ outside of North Carolina...

...Waiting for the great food at Smokers BBQ...

...LESLIE had lunch with two of her good OC buddies, Alison and Judy at Harborside in West OC.

...the 15th Street pool bar.  The entertainer is my oldest son, Troy.  His guitar (one of many guitars) is one I built for him...over 200 hours of labor in this one...

Chapter 64...and they’re off again.

OK team, here’s the plan...

first we proceed Northwest to Interstate 81 which except for the heavy truck traffic, is a beautiful route right through the famous Shenandoah Valley.  Then on to Interstate 64 East at Staunton  Virginia. (The birthplace of our 28th President, Woodrow Wilson)

From there, we proceed to Charlottesville, Virginia (the birthplace of good Ol’ Tommy Jefferson, or TJ as his buddies called him).  And oh yeah, he was also a President.

...cool dude...TJ

Shortly, we pass by Shadwell, VA and Montecello...

...which was Tommy J’s crib...

Eastward we drive, passing through Richmond, Virginia. (the birthplace of Mr. Bojangles, Bill Robinson)

...and he kicked so high, then lightly touched down...

Pressing on, we go around Norfolk, en route to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. ( the birthplace of Mervin Schniklegruber, whose mother Bernice Petunia Schniklegruber, afraid of heights, water, tunnels, and all bridges, gave birth to Merv, somewhere in the second Northbound tunnel.  

Mervin, despite his exciting entry into the world, was quite boring and never amounted to much.  The Schniklegruber name was not elevated by his existence.

The bridge tunnel combo is 17.6 miles long.  It is entirely over or UNDER the Chesapeake Bay.  (Your iconoclastic Captain has also been OVER the tunnels and UNDER the bridges, but that’s a whole nother story)

Now, I gotta tell you, cherished reader, your Captain is a pilot, ex racing driver, 100 ton Ocean Master in the US Merchant Marine, motorcycle rider, etc.  And, yes Marsha, he also drives nearly anything with wheels.  That said, imagine your Captain’s state of mind when approaching the first northbound tunnel in his brand new coach, the Queen...

The sign over the entrance reads “Vertical Clearance 13’6””...

The regal standing Queen is THIRTEEN FEET, FOUR INCHES TALL...(look it up on Google...  Newmar London Aire height).

Having had some experience with government geniuses, I was hesitant to really trust the accuracy of the sign.  But, noting the absolute absence of any visible scars on the concrete overhead (made by previous hapless owners of tall coaches), we proceeded through.  

You didn’t ask about width, but here goes...

The tunnels are 28 feet wide, wall to wall. Oncoming tractor trailers and the Queen are barely missing hitting each other’s mirrors.  Those your Captain really doesn’t mind.  However, meeting an oncoming motor coach the size of the Queen, driven by a rookie is a scary, scary experience which would make our insurance agent cry.  The tunnel walls curve inward, kinda making the driver stay in the extreme left of his lane.  Sometimes he drifts past the centerline...jes sayin.

The exciting portion of our journey over, we continue without incident to one of our favorite stops, Castaways RV Resort in Ocean City, Maryland.  (Birthplace of OPIE)

...Opie

...Ocean City Inlet

... Castaways Party Beach and Tiki Bar... They put something in your drinks to that makes you charming...

We will be here for about 10 days, so more to follow

Chapter 63 Returning to the Captain’s place of birth.

After enjoying the North Carolina Smokey Mountains, we decided to head North to Bedford, Virginia.  The trip took us back down the mountains and over another set of mountain ridges

This ride was about 324 miles...

There we enjoyed a great visit from our friends Brenda, Janice and her hubby Darryl.  

We stayed only 2 evenings there, but drank in the spectacular scenery while we could...

...one of the twin Peaks of Otter in the distant horizon

...Bedford is one of the most beautiful stops we make...

Of course, no visit to the area would be complete without a visit to the Captain’s favorite gourmet food establishment...

...the infamous Texas Inn, purveyors of heartburn since...forever ?

Chapter 62... July 4th,2020 (more generally known as Opie’s 12th birthday!!!!!!)

You certainly know Mr. Opie...

He always dresses for the occasion...

Your dedicated Captain set the alarm for a 7AM wake up on this special morning.  In addition to the excitement over all the fireworks we will see celebrating Opie’s birthday, we will be relocating the Queen to a new realm...Mountain Falls in Lake Toxaway, NC

...the trip was 355 miles.  The last bit, crossing the Great Smokey Mountain ridges, was over some roads which make a plate of spaghetti look straight. 

...the Commodorable, in Happy Birthday Opie attire...

The Captain grew up competitively racing across mountain roads in western Virginia, but decided to play it very safe (given the Queen’s decided lack of sports car handling characteristics), taking some curves at a mere 15 mph.  The 355 miles was an exhibition of the incredible  comfort and handling qualities of the Queen’s London Aire blood line.  The trip was perfect...but for the last 4 miles...

You, Dear Reader, may not know this but, motorcyclists LOVE to push their Harleys, Gold Wings and rice rocket bikes through the “twisties ” at safe, but challenging speeds.   (Most of them)

There was one Harley rider coming downhill in the opposite lane from us as we chugged up at 12-15 mph.  

The rider enetered the extreme switchback turn at excessive speed for the bike and the rider’s skill level...

...this is NOT the road we were on...ours (NC 64) was far more curvy, but this one gives you the general idea. 

 Note well, you forensic investigator types, that the Queen has a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of 54,000 pounds.  The Queen is 45 feet long.  The Jeep is 16 feet long and weighs in at a feathery 5,000 pounds.  Counting the tow bar assembly, we roll down the highway at a total of 65 feet in length and 59,000 pounds of mass.  

By comparison, a newer Harley Davidson Road Glide is about 8 feet long and weighs in at less than 1,000 pounds.

Ya see where I’m going with this?  IF you are on a motorcycle riding a very curvy mountain road, and IF your are going too fast and down a steep hill heading into a blind curve...good counsel would be to remain firmly in your lane.  If, for some reason you were to “meet” a fully loaded motor bus towing a fully loaded Grand Cherokee going the other way... the result could be this, or far worse...

...don’t believe we can buff that out...

At any rate, the oncoming copper-colored Harley was unable to remain in his lane...your heroic Captain swerved, as much as the microscopic width of the road and the guard rail on the right (Starboard) side would allow.  

We missed!  I may have given him another 18-20 inches, but alas, there wasn’t THAT much room. The right rear wheel dropped off the pavement, the Jeep in tow went off the pavement, nearly sideswiping the guardrail.  Seconds later, maybe only one second, the Captain was using all 605 horsepower to pull fully back onto the pavement while steering through a curve so sharp it required hand over hand steering to get around it.

It was only later when the adrenaline had returned to pre-crisis levels that the Captain, in an uncharacteristicly gracious frame of mind reminded himself that he, too, had made a similar mistake in the past...but not into the path of an oncoming behemoth with the necessary mass to nearly vaporize a motorcycle.

Soon enough, we arrived at...

...Mountain Falls entrance...

While Leslie was checking in at the office, your Captain disconnected the Jeep and surveyed the damage...

... these coaches virtually hug the ground.  Dropping off the pavement caused the stone guard to catch on something and it ripped one side completely off!!!

...soon we were settled in on a fabulous lot...

Dutiful Captain wrestled with the remaining fasteners on the stone guard and FINALLY got it detached from the mother ship.  Aforementioned  Captain will no doubt purchase another stone guard while the Queen visits her birthplace in Nappanee, Indiana...

...downtown Nappanee...

While the Captain wrestled with stubborn bolts, bent washers, and an inadequate tool set for the job, lovely bride meets our new neighbors, Kurt and Michelle...

...they are friends with our friends and neighbors in Naples, Ann and Lance.  It’s really a small world.

Later we went down the mountain for a bit and had a good lunch at MICA’s restaurant.  Our lady server referred to me as Leslie’s BoyToy.  I love this perceptive service person and her keen and instinctive sense of Who’s Who.

Soon, we will do some tourist stuff, maybe...

...this is our view...

The next day we were delighted by a visit from my pretty sister Dianne and her really cool hubby of 40 years, Bob Clark...

...Dianne is the one in the white shorts...really cute for a granny...

Later we walked about and took more pictures of this spectacular location...

It turns out that this magnificent scenery attracted George W Vanderbilt to build his monument to a pre-income tax era in the United States...known as the BILTMORE ESTATE...

...under construction circa 1890...

Finished “home” in 1895...

The home:

     Was built between 1889 and 1895

     Is on a 125,000 acre estate

     Has 250 rooms

     Has 35 bedrooms

     Has 43 bathrooms

     Has 65 fireplaces

     8,000 acres of FORMAL gardens

     175,000 square feet of living space (over 4 ACRES). The Captain’s home is .055 acres living area...

Question.  Does John Deere produce a riding vacuum cleaner/floor polisher?  Ol’ GW would certainly need one at Biltmore.

The home was built by 1,100 men using 11,000,000 bricks which were produced right on the estate.  

The 30 year old owner/builder of Biltmore.

Later...

We had a great wash, wax and detailing of the Queen, who after being rained upon for days, need a good spa session😎😎.  Turns out that the young man who did the work (Mitch) is the nephew of Mark Fields who is the premiere coach spa master in the Naples area.  Mark has been our go-to guy since 2014, when he took care of the Beast for us.  

Chapter 61....Music City, USA

Here’s the route from Orange Beach to Nashville

481 miles mostly on the interstate highway.  We saw all of Alabama from the Gulf of Mexico past its northern border with Tennessee.  A truly nice drive.

Near Nashville, Leslie has made reservations at a local huge water park...this should be fun!!!

Yes, dear reader, it really is a WATER PARK, inasmuch as the heavens are parking all its waters here in the form of a massive rainfall!

The Queen of course is bathed in rainy road grime once again.

...Baby RJ being comforted during a nasty thunderstorm.  (He is very afraid of them).

It was here that your Captain received an overnight delivery from Newmar of a needed charging solonoid which would allow the starting batteries to charge properly.  An hour later, all is working properly thanks to the superlative mechanical and electronic skills of your multifaceted Captain.  ( Luck IS a skill isn’t it?)

On the left, the charging bridge solonoid, on the right, a puppy butt.  

...our site is on the lake...one of the purple ones...

...lots of thrilling rides.  We rode the last one called The Lazy River...for over an hour...

...our spot on the lake...

Now, on our last day in Tennessee, we must decide what to do...Our choices are:

1. Do nothing but relax

2. Go downtown (to Tootsie’s Lounge) and listen to great country music...(yes, Karen, that’s a thing).

3. Go back to the water park

4. Go visit Nashville’s own PARTHENON.

...the Parthenon in Nashville, an EXACT replica of the one in Greece, minus the crumbling stones.  This thing has enough columns to support a small country, or Rosie O’Donnell at least.  

This is the world's only full-size replica of the ancient Greek temple. It houses the tallest indoor sculpture in the western world, a statue of Athena, ancient goddess of wisdom and learning, the deity for whom the original Parthenon was erected.  Originally built for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in 1897, the building became unsafe and was rebuilt in 1929. It is an exact replica of the Greek temple, its architecture including not a single straight line; no two columns are the same size, nor are they placed the same distance apart. No two steps are the same size and the floor is not square or level. (With all that, it sounds like a monument to imperfection, if you ask me).  A proud symbol of Tennessee’s Capitol city, the “Athens of the South,” the Parthenon houses the city’s permanent art collection, plaster casts of the Elgin Marbles, a gift shop, and visitors center. 

Our good friend Ron insists we visit here.  Maybe we will.  Only time will tell...

By the way, this MASK CRAP HAS GOTTEN TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL...

...when, oh when will it end???