Dismeet in the Smokies 2021! Y'all Come!

[tiggerdad]

The squirrel has landed!






Wears Valley Road was a piece of cake!

Met FtwMike and PaHunter as they greeted us in.

 

[JETS70]

Fall practice is only 4 months away, Jets70, for baseball and us retired folks can go watch.

My Bat Cats didn't fare well again this year. Like a lot of coaches, many are good people. They care about the kids and the program. Unfortunately that doesn't make them effective coaches along with winning games or filling stadiums.

I have to say that I really questioned Coach Mingione when in the first game of the SEC tourney he started a kid who was our long reliever out of the pen. Good for 4 innings. He was put into a weekend role when our most experienced pitcher went down with Tommy Johns. Everyone knew that if we even had a chance to make a regional we needed to win at least the first game of the tourney and playing Florida, that would have been a good win. Why would you not start you most effective weekend starter to give your team the best odds of winning. Seems like a no brainer to me.
Rant over

P.S.....Rumor has it that some influential alumni are going after a former UK coach to get him back in Lexington. Somebody off the Gary Henderson staff. I think they said he was the head guy at some other SEC school. Said they were gonna throw lots of at him.

Just saying.........
Steve

 

[bama_ed]

P.S.....Rumor has it that some influential alumni are going after a former UK coach to get him back in Lexington. Somebody off the Gary Henderson staff. I think they said he was the head guy at some other SEC school. Said they were gonna throw lots of at him.

Just saying.........
Steve

Bama can and would match any outside offer for CBB at this point. And probably outspend UK (in baseball).

We've heard this for YEARS about Coach Nick Saban ("Texas has more money than God") and lately about Coach Nate Oats ("He could jump to a NATIONAL power").

We shall see. Whatever. We can start swapping stories tomorrow afternoon.

Bama Ed

PS - and in true SEC fashion, if someone left us then we would say, "well, we didn't want him to stay ANYway"....

 

[JETS70]

I look forward to meeting you Ed and talking all things good SEC

 

[tiggerdad]

@tiggerdad glad the truck issue wasnt to big of an big issue. Are you sure @SouthAlabama5er is not pushing you

well...

 

[SouthAlabama5er]

I was bump drifting! Got 0.7 better mpg! I'm gonna buy a tow draw bar for the trip home and get some really good fuel mileage,

 

[bama_ed]

Nightly update from Douglas Dam.

Showing a few purchases from Dollar General today:



DW and I took a walk over the hill about 630pm tonight to the other side of the campground near the dam and boat ramp and folks were rolling in for some sort of fishing tournament.



I'm sure plenty of lies will be told about tonight later on.

We were fortunate to see all the boats in the water (many more not in this picture):



get the GO signal and take off for their super secret fishing spot leaving big wakes behind them:





Several campers left this morning but they were all replaced. It's the weekend, ya know.

See ya tomorrow (those that will be at PM).

Ed

 

[Teamubr]

Made it to our overnight stop in Clarksville TN. Exit 1 on I-24. This is normally a 4 hour drive from home. Today we enjoyed the same pain as everyone else, it seems. Traffic.

It took over 5 hours. Sat for an hour trying to cross the Ohio River into Kentucky. Working on the approach bridges. Then 3 other places in the last 100 miles with construction.

I like this campground. We use it often. The sites up front are all pull throughs for the overnight crowd.



Our site (10) is just long enough.




Heading out by 9. That should put us at Pine Mountain right around check in time.

j

 

[bama_ed]

I hope you have a better traffic experience through Chattanooga than several of us have had, Jim. Good luck!

Ed

 

[Bishoparc]

Travel Day

We got everything finished and pulled out from Pace around 4:30.


Have had some off and on rain but nothing too bad.

It appears that this trip has been cursed for everyone. About 2 and a half hours in, heard a boom and sure enough one of our tires had blown.


Thankfully it doesn’t appear to have damaged the camper. Just praying that the rest of them hold on since we are without a spare now. So glad I bought the 4 way tire iron and a jack.

Getting back on the road to Gadsden. Wish us luck. The drivers have been absolutely awful today. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been cut off and had to slam on my brakes. The worst was I had just finished passing a semi, had my blinker on, halfway in between lakes and this idiot flys around me on my right side causing me to have to serve back over to the left lane. Camper starts swaying like crazy. Was an awful experience. Why are people so self absorbed these days?!

We pulled in to the campsite about 9:45P at the Cove RV resort in Gadsden. It’s pretty full, more full than I’ve ever seen it.



Off to bed. Going to try to rise early and figure out the tire situation.

 

[Teamubr]

I hope you have a better traffic experience through Chattanooga than several of us have had, Jim. Good luck!

Good news is I don't have to deal with Chattanooga this trip. Nashville is the only major city tomorrow. We'll be taking 321 through Maryville and Wears Valley so I don't have to deal with Knoxville and the traffic down 66/441.

j

 

[bama_ed]

Good news is I don't have to deal with Chattanooga this trip. Nashville is the only major city tomorrow. We'll be taking 321 through Maryville and Wears Valley so I don't have to deal with Knoxville and the traffic down 66/441.

j

Oh that's right. I24 comes down to C but you can take I40 straight across.

 

[bama_ed]

It appears that this trip has been cursed for everyone. About 2 and a half hours in, heard a boom and sure enough one of our tires had blown.
View attachment 579934

Thankfully it doesn’t appear to have damaged the camper. Just praying that the rest of them hold on since we are without a spare now. So glad I bought the 4 way tire iron and a jack.

Getting back on the road to Gadsden. Wish us luck.

Oh wow!

DW and I are stress-eating for you!



Safe travels the rest of the way.

Ed

 

[tiggerdad]

Got to see all the gang here currently this evening hanging around PaHunters site. Good to see everyone.

Bishop, safe travels on up. Did you see if a tire shop in Gasden had a replacement for your tire? If not, several options here.

I checked over some sites for some of you coming in tomorrow. Not an empty site in the joint tonight. I did note that site 26 has clear view of Southalabama5er, PaHunter, and my campsite. Guess we'll need to be on best behavior.

 

[Bishoparc]

Bishop, safe travels on up. Did you see if a tire shop in Gasden had a replacement for your tire? If not, several options here.

We just rolled in so everything is closed now. Trying to decide if I want to deal with it first thing in the morning or wait till I get up there. Thinking the taxes are probably less here than PF so I may do it here.

 

[PaHunter]

So last night we were sitting outside after dinner when Mallory brought her hoomans along with her. Got to meet Mr. Garnes, and the rest of the crew showed up. Everyone stayed until dark and then turned in for the night. Was a nice visit. Not much planned for today. Probably a bucket of soapy water to wash the cicadia's off the front. I also need to wipe the motorcycle down as the last time it was out was during pollen season.

 

[Bishoparc]

Day 2 Leaving Gadsden, AL

So we got up early this morning to be the first in line when they opened at 8. We’ve heard Goodyear Endurance are the way to go so that’s where we went. I’ve heard nothing but awful things about these Sterling Sports that are the factory tires on the Heartlands so since they had 4 new tires we went ahead and swapped them all out. Will try to find one for the spare later.

While we waited for them to swap the tires we explored downtown Gadsden. I had no idea how nice this area was. So many cute stores.






While walking around we found a coffee shop that also had pancakes. The folks weren’t too friendly but it was at least something to kill time and it was cute.





Well turns out they only had 3 of the tires we needed so we’ll have to get the fourth and the spare in Pigeon Forge.


Back on the road we go.

 

[PaHunter]

Well sitting outside enjoying the weather, watching them park cars like sardines for show across the street. Some campsites are open, @bama_ed, no movement at all on your site.

 

[tiggerdad]

Just an FYI. Tomorrow is youngest DD birthday. Since we going to be at Dollywood, we are going to have cake and ice cream tonight around 7pm. We got big enough cake if you are here and want some PLEASE come by. It'll make her feel good since she didn't have party at home.

If you go out for dinner come by our site for dessert! Even if it's after 7pm.

 

[Sjm9911]

Sending birthday wishes from nj. Lol.