Mammoth Cave and a cruise to Nashville

October 24
We left Rough River and headed south towards Mammoth Cave National Park. Much has been made about Mammoth reopening their accessible cave tour. We needed to get the stamp for our national park passport book and of course see the cave.

 Some cool vehicles in the parking lot. Someday I will have a Jeep like this for my dolly rig behind a driver RV.

 The handicap accessible tour is given once a day at 12:30. It wasn't cheap either. Forty dollars for the three of us and that was with the park access pass discount. We lined up in our vehicles outside of the visitors center and convoyed over to the elevator. The accessible tour was closed fourteen years ago because the elevator would get stuck. The elevator dropped us into the Snowball Room where lunch was served until 2012. The elevator was used until then to move food and trash out of the cave. It would frequently get stuck and when we rode it, there was a box of food and water and other supplies in case it stopped again.

The snowballs

Across the room from the snowballs was the local billboard. The names appeared to be painted on but in reality were painstakingly applied with a beef tallow candle. Some of the large heavy names took hours to apply and each was formed with the small dot of soot from the candle's flame. 

O-H-I-O!

These gypsum deposits continue to grow in the cave. This delicate curl is about the size of a silver dollar. The gypsum once hung like a beard and swayed in the wind when someone walked by but that was when the cave was fist being explored in the 1800s.

We left the cave slightly disappointed because it wasn't as cool as some. There were no incredible formations like Carlsbad and the tour was quite short no more than a half a mile walking on a paved path. It was billed as two hours but didn't last that long. The guide did an excellent job of telling the history and explaining the formation of the cave and its delicate features. I carried my own flashlight to help illuminate the photos and because well you can never have to many back up lights in a cave.
From the cave we went south and the GPS took us to this on the edge of the park.

We decided to backtrack and go out a different route. I'm not sure we would have fit.We rolled down south to Nashville and stayed at Two Rivers Campground near the Grand Ole Opry.

This campground was pretty nice with paved sites or small gravel. The bathrooms were labeled with handicap accessible signs but they were not. Our definition of handicap accessible means I can get into it and use the shower or toilet. A five foot turning radius in each and grab bars. This had none of that. It must have been old people accessible.

We made it out of Ohio

We left Ohio on Sunday October 23. I spent Saturday watching football with my brother-in-law as was our normal custom. I'll miss doing that. It was time to roll south though as last year we had snow at the beginning of November. This year was record heat. 

A last look at our view from our summer campsite. The last six months have been eventful but its good to be on the road.

Our goal was Rough River State Park but their campground was closed because the state is making repairs to the dam. So we settled at Army Corps of Engineers AXTEL campground. The plan was to visit with Evan and Terri Young. Terri runs a Facebook page called RVing with Disabilities or Chronic Illnesses.

As we came through Cincinnati we could see the Bungles playing and the jam packed stadium.

The blending bridge of 71 and 75 crossing into Kentucky.

We came into Louisville and enjoyed the scenery.

 I missed the turn for 60 west and continued down 31W. It allowed us to see the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox.

The GPS took us down some very narrow roads and landed us at AXTEL which was a nice campground. The lady told us she didn't have very many sites open. She should have said she didn't have many sites in use. I could see in the summer the place would be packed because it was right on the lake with its own private beach. The campground had two handicap spots and shocker both of them were full. One was where the truck is parked to the very left of the below picture. It had a small path that connected it to the bathhouse. It was accessible meaning I could get my chair into the shower and it had grab bars and a bench.

The evening was capped off with dinner at the Rough River State Park Lodge restaurant. We ordered the specials and all of us were stuffed.

Two Evans in wheelchairs.

Remodel Follow up

We finished up the remodel in the middle of October in beautiful fall weather. Thank God for the heat wave!
  We started on September 9th with the demolition. A few photos of the before demo. 

The door jamb was completely busted along with the jack and king studs. It took dad eight hours to replace the door.

The guy went bonkers and put a lot of holes in the walls. This was the worst. It didn't help they also had a dart board they hung in multiple locations.

The washing machine overflowed and damaged the floors. It didn't help that I used stick tile over luan. I should have known better.

 Pictures during the remodel. I started using ceramic and hardwood because it seems to last much longer. Its a larger up front cost but over the long term is much cheaper.

 Becky said we needed an accent wall. It was a hit with the woman who rented the place. She thought it was the perfect color.

So that's what we spent September and October on. I'll have another to do next summer. When we finished up, we had a week to get everything ready to leave. It was a hectic week cramming in lots of last minute things.

Remodeling

September 24, 2016
On September 9th the bailiff served the writ to my tenants and they were gone! Thank goodness. The place was empty but they left a mountain of trash in the front yard and a $556 water bill including a hefty charge from the trash collectors for picking up their piles.
We ripped out flooring which was warped and buckled from water damage in the bathroom and the kitchen under the washer. Cabinets went because drawer fronts were missing, drawer slides were AWOL and the cabinets had water damage as well. Plus the boss (my wife) told me to get rid of them. So they went into the dumpster. Out came all the laminate hardwood and carpet in the bedrooms.
Since then we have tiled the bathroom and kitchen, repaired about a hundred holes in the walls and some structural cracks from settling using five gallons of drywall mud. Becky has become quite adapt at fixing and filling holes. Trim has been pulled down and primered. We replaced the front door because the frame and the structure around it was broken in the wall, the bedroom door was missing, the second bedroom door had a fist hole in it and both closet doors were broken. The back door frame was pushed out of wack by half an inch. The only door we didn't need to repair or replace was the bathroom door.
I have a whole laundry list of things that need to be repaired and replaced. We seem to be making headway now and once we get the walls painted we can put in the hardwood floor and then its finishing the trim and getting it rented.
Then maybe...maybe...we can get back on the road...well to Florida where we'll spend the winter.

Thanks for reading the blog and I hope you are enjoying it. This year has not gone nearly as I planned and we haven't done as much traveling as I wanted. As Meade Breeze says in the Ed Robinson series...."Shit works out."

Update

Since we got back from Florida we had a family get together with Becky's family where we camped in her uncle's yard for three days. One of the highlights was making tie dye t-shirts. Becky made one for me while I was in a euchre game.

 Patrick was in charge of making trophies and Becky won third prize for her shirt. Patrick gives her her cowboy hat and a plastic spoon.

 Dinner in a can!

 My niece turned 18 while we were in Florida and I promised I would take her sky diving. So I took her to Skydive Greene County. He tandem master was a cool guy who quit the construction business to be a full time sky diving instructor who travels the country in an RV to whatever school needs an instructor.

 I wished I had brought a better camera than my cellphone so the pictures would have been better but this is what we got.

I gave two apartments 30 day notices to leave before we went to Florida and the plan was to get them cleaned up and ready to rent in the month of August. Only one of those tenants moved and the other I had to file eviction on. In the mean time we got things rolling in the one apartment. I smelled so badly like smoke and the white fridge was yellow after the lady lived there a year.
We painted and cleaned.

 Becky slipped while cleaning the mirror and broke the sink basin so we had to replace that too.

I also got my new chair that I've waited about six months for. It fixes many of my issues but it heavier and larger than the previous versions.

 The old chair.

 The new chair with a custom molded cushion and hard back.

 One of the things Becky lamented when we were traveling was that I had no push handles. Now I have them and they adjust in height and angle. None of my other chairs have push handles and someone asked me why that was and I jokingly said it was because I didn't want anyone pushing me around and he asked why did you get married.

I had hoped we would be back on the road by now but instead we are going to be doing some major work in the next apartment to get it ready for a new renter. The plan is to be out of here by October because the trailer isn't designed for cold weather and neither am I.