NICE!!!! Spot

[Gunny]

Food Porn.. Looks good.

Rob

 

[IanC]

Another cat person!  Awesomeness.  My traveling companion is a feline too.  She’s a great little traveler and companion although getting up in age now.  She just turned 17.  Good to hear yours returned after half a wet night out on the town.  

Yes, that area seems to have an especially nice aura about it and I have been through lots of small towns in the past 2 years.  As far as being in Tornado Alley, everywhere has something to be cautious of weather and climate related.  My motto is to keep current on the weather, fires, floods etc and go from there.  

 Mine is 16.  When I got her she had never walked on grass and was a real fraidy cat - wouldn't even go outside unless I was with her. Today she's a woman of the world - loving her new found freedom.

Tornadoes, yes, but name a single other region that isn't prone to something or other, yet somehow people have survived here for hundreds of years.  I think we might too.

Did you know that Hohenwald is the home to the Elephant Sanctuary - ten, formerly captive elephants living out the rest of their lives on 1,000 acres.  Pretty cool to think those guys are someplace close to here enjoying these same forests.

https://elephants.com/

 

[Gunny]

He made it to the ripe old age of 22, yesterday was the Anniversary of his death.

Rob 

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

Did you know that Hohenwald is the home to the Elephant Sanctuary - ten, formerly captive elephants living out the rest of their lives on 1,000 acres.  Pretty cool to think those guys are someplace close to here enjoying these same forests.

https://elephants.com/

I was going to mention the elephant sanctuary today, my good friend is a huge animal lover and she donates to it, she's always posting their updates on FB.  Small world.  

I got curious and started looking at other real estate in the area, that place seems like a genuine steal compared to other local real estate.

 

[IanC]

I was going to mention the elephant sanctuary today, my good friend is a huge animal lover and she donates to it, she's always posting their updates on FB.  Small world.  

I got curious and started looking at other real estate in the area, that place seems like a genuine steal compared to other local real estate.

I knew the woman, Carol Buckley, who started it, initially as a retirement for an elephant she owned.  She built it up to the prominence it has. For reasons that are unclear (though I have an idea - partially because she was very hard on staff and volunteers) , she was ousted by the board of directors.  Her original plan was for 100 elephants, but the original herd of 17 or 18 has dwindled (most of the elephants are quite old when they get there) down to 10 or eleven and they haven't taken a new one in for some time.

I couldn't find that place for sale - GPS didn't recognize the address.  I'll have another try tomorrow when it's supposed to be nicer weather.  I saw another, house which is a rent to own - selling price 55,000.  The rental price is $350 month.

 

[rondaj]

I wasn't aware of the elephant sanctuary. Very cool. Maybe that being there is part of what creates the nice vibe in the area.

Interesting about the unrecognizable GPS location. Keep us updated!

 

[IanC]

Just a last post from Tennessee before I head into Alabama this morning. I can't say enough about how nice everyone I've met in Hohenwald is. When you go into town in the morning, there's a young officer directing traffic in front of the elementary school, waving at the kids and their parents as they drop them off, and smiling and waving at the drivers passing through. I went back to the barber shop to pick up the fresh eggs the lady there had promised. She had left for the day, but there were a dozen eggs in all sorts of speckles and colors I'd never seen before. She also has donkeys, so I stopped by Walmart and got some bags of carrots as a thank you. I'll sure remember that lady.

There's a certain old fashioned politeness about the people here - very nice and hard to put into words. I'll definitely be back to Tennessee.

Now it's Alabama, a visit to my sister-in-law in Atlanta, then a few days in South Carolina and up to my sister's house in Cary, NC, a couple of days in Virginia and then back in New England and my first 6 months will be through. Then the tough choice - do I do the needed work on my rig and keep going or do I start looking for a rental house down South and make that move. Whatever, this has been one awesome 6 months.

 

[rondaj]

Safe travels IanC!

I lived in Charlotte, NC for almost 20 years and have family in the Chapel Hill area, right outside of Cary. Small world. If you want a nice place to stop and let Todd get some exercise before getting into the big traffic of the Raleigh area, check out the Uwharrie Nat'l Forest. Very beautiful there. Free camping too.

I'll send you a pm with my contact info for if you decide to return to the Hohenwald area.

 

[rvpopeye]

When I lived in Nashville , my fave thing to do was travel the back roads to see what/who I might find.....

 

[Dgorila1]

I've found in my motorcycle travels that all of the land around the Blueridge Mountains in TN, KY, VA, NC and GA is beautiful. Camp on the Blueridge Parkway if you get a chance.  I'd like to have some "retirement" land somewhere there, possibly VA or NC.  Great thing about the East is there's plenty of water and great growing seasons vs. the dry, water barren deserts of the West. Downside is it gets real hot and humid in the summer, and we get lots of violent thunderstorms. But that's the point of going mobile and just having one or two "base camps" to stop in from time to time.

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

I've found in my motorcycle travels that all of the land around the Blueridge Mountains in TN, KY, VA, NC and GA is beautiful. 

I had the exact same experience as you,  did a Motorcycle trip through all those states and really really enjoyed everything about it.  It's some of the nicest country i've ever had the pleasure of visiting, and just like Ian, had particularly fond memories of Tennessee.  Just something about the feeling there, hard to put into words.

 

[ArtW]

My motorcycling trip to NC was with a bunch of guys who were way faster than this flatlander on those tight twisty up n down roads we were riding, I was Captain Slow with a Seat Mohawk

 

[Dgorila1]

My motorcycling trip to NC was with a bunch of guys who were way faster than this flatlander on those tight twisty up n down roads we were riding, I was Captain Slow with a Seat Mohawk

The twistys are what make the mountains fun! I highly advise anyone that does any mountain riding to take an advanced rider course to learn proper cornering. It literally saved my life on day 1 of the parkway ride!