"Parsons' Law"

I am sure that most of you are familiar with what is know as Murphy’s Law (apologies to Murphys that we know) “Any thing that can go wrong, will go wrong.” This has now become “Parsons’ Law”. Another saying comes to mind that could be our sub-title, “If we didn’t have bad luck, we would have no luck at all.”

The site we received at Poole Knobs campground was so tight that we could not get the RV and truck straight into the area. We were at a “crazy” angle when we un-hitched, and the truck was heading down hill. We managed to get everything positioned and were thankful to be settled, however, for only two nights. But as it turned out, the campground had no other “suitable” site for our rig to move into. So, we told them to cancel our reservation, which had been paid in full for two weeks, and we left on Sunday, getting out of the up-and-down hill site, clearing the back of the RV off the ground by only a mere three inches. We will, however, get our money back.

We found a campground about 35 miles from Poole Knobs that we could get into for what is remaining of our two week stay in the area, Countryside Resort Campground in Lebanon, TN. It seems to be a very nice campground with all the amenities; electric, water, sewer and free WiFi. Our site is a pull-thru with ample room, but not quite level side-to-side. We propped up the left side tires with the supports that we normally used, un-hitched, hooked up, put out the slides and went in.

When we got inside we found the RV still slanting to the left, not level at all. This would not do! We put in the slides, took off the electric and water hook-ups, hitched the truck once again to the RV, backed off the left side supports and figured what else we could do. There was a build-up of asphalt on that side of the gravel site. Do you suppose that it is there to level with? Hum!, I wonder. We pulled the trailer over with the wheels on top the asphalt “hill” and checked the level bubble. Nope! Still not right. We need more build-up.

The twelve inch square, two inch high plastic things we had bought for this purpose kept slipping when we tried to pull on them. No good! We next rounded up all the pieces of wood that we normally use under the “landing legs” (the levelers that raise the trailer front-to-back), the back stabilizers and some extra pieces we had, and one we found on the site that someone had left behind. Finally we had a level support of about four inches under the left wheels plus the little “hill“. Now, it is un-hitch, level the trailer (front-to-back), chock the wheels, hook-up the “land lines”, let out the slides. Now we can go in, turn on the air and cool off. Does this seem like a lot of work to you? What we don’t go through for the “joy” of the road.

We are now settled, and find this campground to be comfortable. It is a mile just walking around the campground, so we do this at least twice each day. We have met some more interesting people in the campground. There is a family of five next to us that are from England, Essex, east of London. They are here touring the country for two years. They sold everything they had to do this. They home-school the kids, ages 12, 9 and 4. They have been to nine states so far. They have been here for nine months now and have been in this campground for one month waiting on a renewed visa. We have had interesting conversations. They love America.

We had time to return to the old farm house where Carolyn grew up, pictured above, near LaVergne, TN. She lived in this house from age 3 ½ to age 12. At this time the family sold the house, kept some of the farm land and began to build a new house. They were able to get the basement completed to live in and stopped construction for another time. She was living in this basement house when we met and married. The old house, as you can tell from the pictures, is in disrepair and empty. It is now part of a horse farm. It was a trip through the past.

We still have those doctor appointments to do and the truck to get fixed before we head south again to Georgia for a week and then on to Florida for two weeks before heading back north and west. We will fill you in on the rest later.