The swallows left and so did I

I suppose an update of sorts is in order, so here goes. The barn swallows left southwest Minnesota on September 15th. There was still a large number of them on the evening of the 14th, probably 150 or so, but the next day the wires were devoid of my feathered friends. 

I had planned to stay up north until the cold weather got to be too much in the travel trailer, but plans changed. My youngest girl's boyfriend has had a couple really bad renter/landlord experiences and has been looking for a 5th wheel to purchase and live in instead of dealing with a landlord that refuses to fix anything. He was in desperate need of a place to live after a heavy rain resulted in an inch of water running across the kitchen floor and soaking the carpet which caused mold to grow in wild profusion but so far hadn't found a 5th wheel he liked. I volunteered to lend him my little home on wheels until he found something. He accepted the offer and a flurry of packing up ensued. Heck, the barn swallows were gone, so it must be time to head south, right?

I don't like towing a trailer of any sort through Nashville during the day, there's just too much traffic going way too fast, so I left MN in the middle of the night. Driving straight through I can make the trip in 18 hours, but with 2 dogs and a cat the pace is slower, especially at potty breaks and I figured on 24 hours so I'd hit Nashville sometime after midnight. Perfect!

Dawn came somewhere north of Waterloo Iowa. It wasn't light enough yet to get a photo of the pair of holstein cows standing in a farm yard that someone made out of fuel barrels and cream cans, but a bit later I did get a shot of these folks who are outstanding in their field.

 

There's no other signage, so, um, yeah, I have no idea. They make me chuckle every time I drive past them though. 

I got to the KY/TN border and decided since it was 11PM I'd take a short cat nap at the TN welcome center rest area. I had the alarm set on the phone and woke up just fine, but for some reason closed my eyes again and the next thing I knew it was 6AM. Nashville at morning rush hour was NOT on my list of things to do, but there really wasn't any other option. I made it through in one piece and after arriving at the house I went about unloading everything from the truck and trailer. It's really amazing how much "stuff" you can carry around without realizing it until you have to drag it all into the house. 

After resting up for a couple days I headed to NC with the trailer. I snapped a couple "tourist shots" through the windshield of the Great Smokey Mountains before the road got too steep and twisty for that sort of behavior. 

I spent a day with the almost-son-in-law looking at RV's but he didn't see anything he liked at his price point, so we got the little travel trailer moved into the RV park where he will be living. It's a very pretty spot with a creek running through it, well kept up and mostly permanent residents of all ages with a few snowbirds thrown in. I met a few of his new neighbors and they seemed like really nice folks. The lot rent is a very reasonable $125 a month, that sure beats the $600 he was paying for the house that flooded when it rained. I joked that after he's lived in a 20' TT for a while a 5th wheel with slides will seem palatial!

For now I'm "stuck" in TN with no RV, but this is probably a good thing as it will force me to finally get the remodel of the house finished and start on the Caboose rebuild.