Friday, March 30, 2012

Travel to Bandy Creek Campground



A decision is made! We’re packing up and heading to the Bandy Creek Campground, which is in
Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, Oneida, TN. First, we did some projects before packing up and leaving Deer Run. Missy and Jeremiah used the sawzall to cut a hole in the white shelves in the garage. Somehow this was necessary so the scootie could be driven in frontwards and access the tie-down. They both seemed quite pleased with the end result. Missy cut up the smelly carpet from the bedroom. We thought we’d have to buy some replacement, but luckily we discovered the linoleum continued all the way. I had to back up the truck to the spigot to clean out the antifreeze that Jeremiah spilled. He punctured the jug when tossing in the scootie ramp. We also emptied out the broken gas can and junked it. Jeremiah spent hours trying to figure out a new ROM for his phone. Finally, as noon started to roll around, some storm clouds showed up so we finalized our pack up and pulled out just as it started to rain.

We talked to Josh, and found that Mom was being discharged from the hospital. She is recovering
very quickly. She’ll be in a nursing home in Crystal for a week to recover.
Stopped at Walmart for supplies we needed and stock up on groceries. We made final calls on the
way to Josh and Ed because we read a comment that there was no phone coverage in the campground. We got to Bandy Creek (which was back into Eastern Time…it’s tough going back and forth) at around 4 pm. We parked at the entrance and took the scootie around the 3 loops to look for the best campsite. It was tricky finding one. The campground is open year round, but from April 1-Nov 1, you can reserve sites online. So we are in the strange position of having to go find a site for a first-come-first-served basis for the last 2 nights of March, but then having to go online to make sure no one had it reserved starting April 1st. (No one was manning the office).
Luckily, we had phone service! So we could go online and see what was available. We finally decided on B11, which was one of only 5 sites to have 50amps electric. (All sites have water and 30 amp). $22/night. We are psyched for the extra amperage because it’s sposed to get into the 80s, and this means we can run the air conditioner and have the fridge and water heater going at the same time. The sites aren’t very private, but for now we are the only people in loop B. Hopefully it will stay that way for our week.

We made supper and then got a call from Josh. He was with mom at her new digs. We finally got to talk to Mom! She sounded fantastic! I’m so glad she’s healing quickly. Mom had to go to dinner after about 10 minutes, so we chatted with Josh a bit more. Made plans to try skype on Sunday morning.

Jeremiah and I (and the pooches) drove to the takeout for our next run. Leatherman Ford(?) on
the Cumberland. It’s only about 5 miles from our campsite! I love camping close to the runs! The river is wide, and green, but it’s running fast, so that bodes well for a fun run. The gauge shows that this level is just on the low side of acceptable, so I’m hopeful for a fun run tomorrow. The takeout is very nice, with changing rooms and plenty of parking. This is the start
of a trail for horse riders, so there was plenty of big trailer parking. I took the dogs down river for a bit of a hike. It was getting dark, so I only got about 20 minutes. The dogs sure found lots to sniff and investigate (sometime straight up the mountain, so I had to call Buddy back so he didn’t hurt himself).

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