Back home to ground zero.

We are back from a wonderful time at the Georgia and Alabama Fall Samborees. They were both great with some fantastic entertainment, vendors and hospitality.

It was an expensive trip. We stopped in Pell City, AL on Wednesday evening 9.10. When we tried to put our driver side slide in on Thursday morning it would not go. We called ERS and a couple of hours later the service man arrived and got it back in manually ($140). We were on our way but much later than planned. We called Charles Newton, Georgia State Director to let him know we were running late. He suggested that we call Bleakley RV at Unidillia. They had the slide motor and luckily a mobile RV repairman was there. He picked up the motor and was at our rig in Perry about 7:50 AM Friday morning. He installed the new motor (gear box was bad)($754.xx for motor). The labor and service call was $150. The good thing is that the slide works better than it has in some time.

Monday afternoon we received a call from the neighbor that picks up our mail and watches the house. Water was running out the front door. We called our son, Chip and he and a buddy went over ans cut the water off and got ServPro out to begin the cleanup. They pulled up all carpet but the front bedroom, about half the laminated tile in the sun room and vacuumed up about 500 gallons of water. It took until Saturday to get the humidity levels down to 40 percent with a number of fans and 2 dehumidifier running. They came back on Monday this week to clean up the scraps of carpet and padding that was around in every room. We have water damage to the kitchen and master bath cabinets. Several base boards were removed to get moisture from the walls.

The insurance adjuster came yesterday (Monday 9.22) and did his thing. We expect to hear from that tomorrow.

We are also working to get everything ready for the Tennessee Fall Samboree 10.16-19.

We are not stressed over the house. It is only stuff and could have been much worse.

More later as we go to TN and MS Fall Samborees.

Fall Samboree Time.

Tomorrow, October 10th.,we will be off to our first three fall Samborees. We will be going to Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. But first, Betty will do a doctor visit with Emily, our daughter in law. She is getting another sonogram and they may be able to tell her the gender of the twins. Yes, we are going to become grand parents for the first time. We are all excited!

More later from the road in Georgia.

Camping at Columbus-Belmont State Park, Kentucky

We camped at a wonderful Columbus-Belmont State Park near Columbus, Kentucky this past weekend. We were camping with the Big Cypress Sams from Weakley County in Tennessee. This is a beautiful park with an abundance of mature trees overlooking the Mississippi River. It is a very clean and quiet park. We definitely enjoyed our stay with this Chapter.

Big Cypress Sams is a fun loving group. We played chicken foot dominoes most every night. We enjoyed a campfire one night. The pot luck dinner on Friday night was great with enough food to feed a larger group. After the Chapter meeting on Saturday morning, we all headed to Sikeston, Missouri for a more than filling meal at Lambert's cafe which is home of the throwed roll.

We certainly enjoyed camping with Big Cypress Sams.

Camping at the Intn"l Rock a billy Festival with Rive M Sams

Over the weekend of August 7-10 we camped with the River M Sams at the Jackson Fairgrounds Park during the International Rock a Billy Festival. We enjoyed great meals with the group at the Dixie Castle Restaurant (great steaks), the Bakers Rack (great quiche, strawberry salad and deserts) and Catfish Cabin (good catfish and hush puppies).

The festival had various groups performing Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Most of the groups were really good. We also visited the Rock a Billy Museum. There were displays for many of the stars from that era.

We had a very enjoyable time with the River M Sams.

And on to Columbus Belmont State Park.

Camping at Defeated Creek COE

What a fantastic time at a super campground. Defeated Creek is located about 17 miles north of I-40 at Carthage Tennessee. It has large sites, some with full hookup. It is very hard to get reservation for a weekend. They do have a few non reservable site. We were lucky enough to get one (site 23, 50AMP/water).

We arrived on Tuesday afternoon to visit with the Cumberland Mountain Sams. This Chapter is from the Crossville area. Since most of them retired, they normally camp during the week. They are looking to expand their Chapter and plan to have some campouts during the weekend in the near future. This is the second time we have camped with this group. It was wonderful to share dinner with them on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. We have gotten to know them as a dedicated, hard working Chapter.

For the weekend, we stayed put and camped with the Tennessee Sunshine Travelers from the Clarksville area. This Chapter is about two years old. They have really come together as a Chapter. It must be all the fun loving activities they have at their campouts. We really laughed after the great Hawaiian Hamburgers on Saturday evening. Mike Smith had us rolling with his "Show and Tell" presentation.

We always enjoy coming together on Sunday morning for an uplifting worship time. This group has some of the best.

We stayed over on Monday to spend time with Jerry and Lila Cowell, ASD's for middle Tennessee.

Til next time..................

Camping with Cotton Patch Sams

This past weekend we camped with Cotton Patch Sams at Village Creek State Park near Wynne Arkansas. Linda and Harry Warren, ASDs for west Tennessee joined us. They had great turn out with eight rigs camping.

This Chapter has really struggled this past year with members moving away from the area. However, Christy and Lisa have done an excellent job of recruiting new members. They are a great group and we look forward to more growth and wonderful camping experiences.

Village Creek State Park has renovated one of the upper camping areas. They now offers full hook up sites with 50 amp power in this area. We had a fantastic weekend enjoying the rain Saturday morning. The rain brought a cooler day for Saturday. The pot luck dinner was typical of one at a camping event. We all had plenty to eat.

Thanks you to Cotton Patch Sams for a great weekend.

Til next time.............

Tennessee Spring Samboree a HUGE! success!

We arrived home last night 6/8 from the 2007 Tennessee "Wild, Wild West Spring Samboree. What a great time meeting old friends and meeting new friends. We had 208 rigs from 17 states. We were greeted each day by the Wilson County Saddle Club. What an added attraction that was. They were on site for 4 days riding their horses and welcoming everyone to the Samboree. On Thursday and Friday they offered buggy rides.

It was hot! However, everyone stayed focused on having FUN! We always enjoy having the vendors and RVs from Bankston Motor Homes.


There were many wonderful activities throughout the week. Wednesday night found us all enjoying an early bird pot luck supper. We have some fantastic cooks in our family of friends. This may be a keeper for future Samborees. Everything from the "Oller Comedy Hour" and games to the presentation of many awards earned by the chapters. Many of the chapters held raffles for their charities. It was a busy week but well worth all the time spent with our friends both old and new. We have begun working on the fall samboree in Jackson, TN in October.

We will be home for awhile to rest and finalize the Spring samboree. Right now we haven't made any definite traveling plans. We hope that everyone has a nice summer. Be sure to stay cool and avoid the heat as much as possible.

Be safe on the roads and come back soon to see what we are up to.

Terry and Betty