As part of our travels we decided to go to Crossville, TN and we are staying at a KOA. I guess they really like to see people arrive, they literally rolled out the red carpet when you pulled up to the office. I stayed in the coach when Bruce when in to register, after he got inside someone quickly came over and rolled it up again.
Red Carpet
We came here because they have a community built for RV owners. The homes all have attached RV garages that are big enough to park you RV and open the slide outs. For our next home we were wandering if we might be interested in having a home with an attached RV garage. We prefer keeping our RV under cover when it is not in use and have always had that option with our old home as we had the big barn that included a covered parking area with a concrete pad. Most of the homes in the RV community were duplexes where the RV garage for each side of the duplex were next to each other. The regular garages were on either side of the RV garage then you had the housing part of the duplex. There were some stand alone houses and they were very nice looking but very pricy. The community was very well maintained and they had designed it to make it easy to get your RV parked in the garage. We don’t want to live in an RV community but the concept of the homes were interesting. Our concern would be when we decided to quit owning a RV, what would you do with the huge garage. Bruce suggested converting it into a workshop.
While in the Crossville area we went to a Mennonite community about one hour’s drive away. On the way there we were on a road that should be named the white tent flea market road. I lost track of the number of huge white tents we passed on the way that were loaded up with items to sell. This was not even on the weekend and they were all busy with loads of cars stopped at each spot. We did stop at the Cumberland Mtn General Store which was beside a collection of white tents. It turned out to be an antique store and what did I find, dozens of ice picks. Now that I no longer need one, I will probably see them all over. These ice pick had advertising on the wood handles. They were for different ice house that I guess used to exist in the area as they would mention selling block or chopped ice and had names on them. Had lots of depression glass and I did find a green depression glass butter dish that I really liked, but no real place for it in the RV. One of the downsides of living in the RV is limited space to put items like depression glass butter dishes. Bruce suggested I buy it and ship it to either his sister or my younger sister and request they hold on to it until we return. I might do that if I find something I can’t live with out. They did have a cute fifties type diner at the back of the store.
We finally made it to the Mennonite community and they had a general store and a custom leather store. The general store had lots of jams and jellies, bulk bags of cooking supplies (flour, yeast, even already made up fillings for things like kolaches or donuts) and handcrafted items. They had a kitchen section where you could get all kind of supplies for preserving foods. I bought a nifty looking gadget for getting round seals out of boiling hot water when you are canning food. I don’t really need one but thought I could give it to my younger sister as she and her mother-in-law like to can food and generously share their pepper jelly with me. The store also had ice picks in wood cases. Of course I also got some jam and candies to try.
When we left the Mennonite community we went back to the diner at the antique store so Bruce could have a fried bologna sandwich and a root beer float. I wasn’t really hungry so I said I would have an ice cream cone with two scoops of chocolate. Apparently two scoops equates to at least one pint. I had to ask for a bowl so I could drop the second scoop into it as there was a very good chance it would fall off the cone before I could eat it. It stayed in the bowl as I barely finished the first scoop.