Howdy From The Holler.....

Happy Saturday evening everyone!  We sure hope your weekend has gotten of to a grand start.  We're camping at Raccoon Holler Campground in Glendale Springs, NC.  Up here in the mountains the weather is cooler, and of course we had a rain shower this afternoon.

Cousin's Becky and Sharon rode up today, so we just had to have a a cook out.  We grilled hamburgers for a great lunch, and then just sat and visited for several hours.  Once the rain started we were all in Pod for awhile.  We sure enjoyed our company's visit today!

This evening we took a ride along a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Here are a few pictures Rob took for you to enjoy.

That's all for this evening, this internet connection is just slightly slower than dial-up.  Be sure to check back tomorrow, to hear about some excitement Rob had this morning while Trisha was off to the bathhouse.

Until next time stay safe out there......-R,T,&J.

Pillowcases Gone Wild......

Happy Friday evening everyone!  We have survived our first week of back-to-school.  We both have had several 3-day morning meetings, followed by numerous trips to the Dollar Store, furniture swapping, desk moving, cleaning, and most anything else you can think of to get ready for the kids on Monday!

If you remember back a few short weeks ago (seems like a year at the moment), when we spent the night at Ella and Tom's house in Ohio, Ella gave Rob some fabric to make two pillowcases.  Over the last two weeks, as he has had time, Rob has done just that, make pillowcases.  

We were only going to start with the two, but that quickly mushroomed into four cases for Pod, all different.  This required a trip to the fabric store, scoring some perfect finds on the clearance rack, and even a fabric order from Amazon.  

Pillowcase from the fabric Ella gave to Rob.

This is the fabric we ordered from Amazon.

Clearance Rack Fabric.

More clearance rack fabric.

All four cases together.

Pod's bed made up and ready for the next trip!

Thanks for checking by this evening.  We are actually going to the mountains camping for Labor Day weekend.  In fact, Jackson is getting to go on this trip.   Be sure to check back later this week to hear about our first few days of school, and maybe even some camping stuff too!  

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J.

It's The MOST Wonderful Time Of The Year.......

Well maybe or maybe not!  Happy Sunday everyone.  We've not posted in a week.  We've been busy getting loose ends lined up before we go back to work on Monday, Trisha has been prepping for a presentation she's giving, plus we've been getting over "Rally-Lag" also.  

We haven't really done anything blog worthy this week.  So this post isn't about what we've done, but about what we are about to do.  Here in our little corner of North Carolina, teachers go back to work bright and early Monday morning.  The following Monday, it's the students first day.  Trisha gets to deal with brand new kindergartners and Rob gets to deal with freshman high school students.    

So in the spirit of all this back to school joy, here are a few images we snagged from the internet for you to enjoy.....

And Rob's personal favorite......

At any rate, have a great day and great week.  Be sure to hop over to cousin Sharon's Postcards blog to read all about the Rolling Home T@B rally she and cousin Becky are attending in Ohio this week.  

Thanks for checking by today.  

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J.

National Geographic, Frogs, & a Sign......

Happy Sunday everyone.  We are home, Truck is unloaded, and the washer and dryer have been working overtime.  We had a good trip yesterday, although the traffic on I-77 was on the heavy side.

One of the "finds" we made this week happened over a week ago at Ella and Tom's home in Van Wert, OH.  It seems Ella had 20 some years of National Geographic she wanted to get rid of.  She had called schools, libraries, etc., but no one wanted them.  She said teachers were shocked when she suggested they could use them for class projects by cutting them up.  Well not Trisha!!  When Ella offered them to Trisha, before Rob knew it, Tom, Micah, and Caleb had them boxed and ready to load in Truck.

Here you can see two of the four boxes that were packed full of National Geographic!!






The two larger boxes are hiding behind the bicycles in the front of Truck's bed.  Rob isn't sure exactly how much they weighted, but he said it was "a lot!"

Here are all four boxes in the back of CR-V.  Said says he knows he heard Truck let out a sigh of relief after the last box was unloaded.  Then Truck snickered when the boxes were loaded in CR-V.

Next, we want to show you two more frog stickers we got at the F.R.O.G. rally.....

This is "Lazy Frog."

We're not exactly sure what this little guy's name is.  But we are sure we will come up with a good name for him.  Rob is voting for "Larry" or "Joe".


Finally,  we also wanted to show you a "FROG Parking" sign we got at the rally.  Rob mounted it on the front of the shop.

Also if you click right HERE, you can see our online photo album of all the factory tour pictures Rob took this past week!  Tomorrow Truck and Pod are both getting baths, the yard has to be mowed, and we both have little projects to do.  Thanks for checking by today.  

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T, and back home with J! (woof woof)

Country Roads.....

Happy Friday evening everyone.  We sure hope your weekend is off to a great start.  Today Rob was up early to get one more maintenance item completed on Pod by the Forest River tech.   Then we finished breaking camp, went to breakfast one last time with the gang, and pulled out of the Fairgrounds about 10 am.

We decided we wanted to see more of the beautiful Ohio countryside today.  So our route was a little convoluted, maybe a touch further, but we bypassed all but one of the big cities.  

We left Goshen, IN via US 33, used the bypass around South Bend, IN (the only interstate we drove on all day) then hooked up with US 30 to take us back to Van Wert, OH.  Rob took a few pictures at the rest area just outside of Van Wert on US 30.  

For this next part, you might want to get your Ohio road map out, or just pull up Google Maps on your computer.

Our route from Van Wert, OH was US 127 to US 33 to US 68 to US 36 to OH 54 to OH 4 to OH 54 to US 23 to US 35.  We got to pass through both farm country and small Ohio towns such as Bellefontaine, Urbana, London,  and Mt. Sterling to name a few.  We both really enjoyed seeing both the flat farmland, and rolling hills of rural Ohio.  The old homes in the small towns were also a treat to see, along with the city parks, courthouses, and unique small shops in the downtown areas.

This evening finds us in the city park campground in Point Pleasant, WV, just up the street from the huge bridge over the Ohio River.  We have 300 miles to go tomorrow before pulling in our driveway.

Thanks for checking buy today.  We may take a day or too off from blogging to catch up around the house and just rest!

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T, but no J.  (We get to see him tomorrow!!)

Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds......

Happy Thursday afternoon everyone.  Today's post is about where we've spent the week camping.  We are staying at the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds.  This is a HUGE facility, and it's a county fair.   We both believe you could put the NC State Fairgrounds down inside this facility and have room left over.

There are nearly 900 campsites dispersed all over the fairgrounds.  There are approximately 370 campers in attendance of the F.R.O.G. rally this year.  This has been quite an event for sure.

Today was a hang around the campsite, visit with friends, wander the fairgrounds type of day.  We also started breaking camp since we will leave after breakfast in the morning to make our way back to North Carolina.  

Here are a few pictures of the buildings and landscaping at the fair for today.....

One of Trisha and Susie's favorite "finds" here at the fairgrounds was the Chocolate Milk Machine.  Fresh, cold, yummy chocolate milk is only a dollar from the machine.  Needless to say, Mark and Rob had to hide their dollar bills.  

Thanks for checking by today.  Tomorrow we hit the road, so we're not sure where or if we will be blogging. 

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T, but no J.

A Plant Tour.....

Happy Wednesday everyone.  Wow, this week is just flying by.  We are having so much fun visiting with friends and all the other activities, we are really going to hate having to start home.

Today's highlight was the Forest River Factory tour of the r-Pod/Surveyor plant.  We all loaded up onto a nice motorcoach, and in just a few minutes we were there.  

Kristen G., with Forest River Sales was our tour guide this morning.  She did an awesome job of making sure we saw everything there was to see and explaining the manufacturing process in detail.  

We were most impressed with not only the speed of the production flow, but the attention to detail and quality.   The workers really worked as a team to get the trailers built.  It was amazing to just be able to stand there and watch it all.  Many thanks to everyone at Forest River for putting up with us today as we toured your facility.

While Rob as usual took a bunch of pictures, here are just a few of them for you to see.

Pod wall frames.

R-Pod Only is what was written on this container.

A completed pod wall.

Routing out the windows and doors on a laminated wall.

Kitchen sinks ready to go in.

Adding the cabinets.

Setting the axles on the now up-side down frame.

Propane Gas and water hoses custom made on-site.

Flipping the trailer frame.

Moving a fridge into place.

Can't forget what we're building.

Setting the roof.

Pods ready for final quality check.

A good looking tour group.

Kristen doing an awesome job of leading our tour.

Quality components.

How the trailers are moved sideways through the plant.

The crew moving the trailer sideways to the next station.

A worked taking time to answer a question from furpod!

Adding the end cap on a new Surveyor!

The lamination of the side wall.  That press has 5,000 lbs of pressure!

Once again many thanks to the whole Forest River Crew for the plant tour!!  Thanks for checking by today.  Be sure to stop back by tomorrow for another FROG Rally update.

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T, but no J.