Posts Tagged ‘travel’

David Crocket State Park – Tennessee

July 15, 2026

We hated to leave Fort Mountain but were scheduled to be at David Crocket State Park today so woke up around 8:30, ate breakfast, finished packing everything and headed to Lawrenceburg, TN. Was a nice drive over except for the traffic in Chattanooga but that was expected. Arrived around 2:00 PM found our campsite and as it turns out was near the bathhouse. The entire camp ground is full, not seeing one site open at this point. Our Site had no shade however and it was 94 degrees with a heat index of 104 degrees. Ouch… wife don’t like the heat so much. 🙂

My best friend ever lives near by so we went over to his place on Saturday to visit and went out for a late lunch. Then rode through Amish country and purchased some corn, tomatoes, peppers, Amish strawberry jam, and a cantaloupe. Had a great day for sure.

Seems as though most occupants packed up and left today, Sunday. Found out from one of the other campers that most were here for a Southern Gospel Quartet singing convention. Wish we had known this sooner, might have been an interesting event to see in Lawrenceburg last night. For those interested they hold these annually. Current info: The annual gospel convention in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee is the James D. Vaughan Quartet Festival, scheduled for July 29 through August 1, 2026. Held at the historic Crockett Theater at 203 North Military Avenue, the four-day event celebrates Lawrenceburg as the birthplace of Southern gospel music with nightly concerts and matinees. You can do a search and actually purchase tickets online ahead of time.

This campground is very nice, clean and up to date if only the sites had more shade for summer camping. Probably consider it again but maybe it should be on the list of cooler weather months for visiting. There are two campgrounds, #2 the one we chose is open year round, has paved roads and site pads. All sites here have electric and water hookups.

In the park we visited the Crockett Museum, a recreation of David Crockett’s office during the 1800s. It’s like a journey back in time. You’ll find artifacts and exhibits that bring Crockett’s story to life and catch a glimpse of the original stones from Crockett’s gristmill on Shoal Creek. It was so interesting to see and read the stories about the famous legend Davy Crocket.

We also visited Crockett Falls, a small, but mighty waterfall. Serving as one of the park’s most picturesque features. We were a little disappointed as we expected much more. When you hear “water fall” your thinking of a huge water fall cascading down a mountainside, right? Well this was not that, it had maybe a two foot drop but it was a nice cool place to visit and was very refreshing. Also near by was a covered bridge.

We were at the campground for about six days and made several trips over to see my friend Bud and spend some time with him. Health is not really good right now but we think he’s getting better by the day. Made a couple more trips over to Amish country and purchased some more of their fresh vegetables. Also visited with one of the Amish guys that makes dinette chairs and tables from maple or oak. Beautiful work and we will likely order some chairs from him as we are in the market for those. We will just have to make another trip up here to get them once they are finished. All made by hand, these people are truly amazing!

In summary we had a great time in Lawrenceburg, the David Crocket Campground and most importantly getting the chance to spend some valuable time with my best friend. We will likely return here again but choose a cooler month to visit.

Will share a few photos below:

Hope you enjoyed this tidbit of our travel experiences. Subscribe to this blog and hit that follow button to see what happens next. We love to ride motorcycles, travel, and experience new adventures.

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Much Has Changed

July 7, 2026

Yes, much has changed since our last post. We have had many travel experiences and adventures but none recorded here so we will do our very best to share some of those with you in the upcoming weeks.

We no longer ride “Black Betty” or any motorcycle though it is still in our blood to do so, Maybe again at a future time and place? Our last ride was not good. We were riding late afternoon, back roads of course, nice highway, cool breeze afternoon with not a worry in the world when suddenly came a few deer that felt a need to ruin our day.

Saw the deer up ahead crossing the road in front of us, on a slight curve, slowed down some to avoid a head on collision. When you see one or two deer you naturally look out for more that might be following. They crossed, felt safe and suddenly my wife screamed that she had been hit. Apparently a lone deer decided to run squarely into her left leg. Pulled off the road as soon as possible as she was definitely in major pain. After stopping jumped off the bike, helped her off and sat her down in the grass on side of the highway. Deer had hit her leg so hard that it burst open a couple of wounds that were bleeding badly. She could no longer ride with that much pain so we called 911 for an ambulance.

Took a while for the ambulance to arrive since we were several miles from any cities or locations that have emergency care. They finally arrived, took her to the nearest emergency room in Crestview, Florida which was about 35-40 miles from our mishap. It’s totally dark now, so I need to take the bike home (approximately 30 miles) get our car and head to the hospital. Many deer were out that night, must have seen at least a dozen or more on the way home.

Good news is she had no broken bones but her left leg and thigh were bruised badly with a couple of puncture holes. Doctor said they weren’t punctures but rather places where the impact caused explosions from the inside out. She had several weeks of infectious prevention care with a specialist plus plenty of days with aching pain and soreness in her left leg and thigh.

Oh, by the way, bike had no marks, scratches, or bruises. That deer only hit her leg in that small narrow space without touching anything else. It didn’t knock us over, in fact I barely felt the impact only knew it happened when she screamed with pain, and I could hear her well since we always used blue tooth communications in our helmets.

Video below is the last video she took while we were riding together. Within thirty seconds after she stopped filming the deer happened. She never rode again and declares she never will, don’t blame her, totally understand.

I rode a couple of times after the incident but only very short rides. No longer felt right to leave her at home while I rode, knowing how much she loved our rides together. We later sold the bike and have not ridden again.

Though we don’t intend to ride motorcycles again doesn’t mean we have stopped living. We still love adventures traveling and camping. Purchased a neat little camper that we intend to use quite often to visit places of interest in this country. We love camping and we love traveling. Seeing things we never seen before especially places with historical value.

Hit that follow button to see what happens next. Just an old man that loves to ride motorcycles, travel, and experience new adventures.

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END OF MAY THRU JULY 2023

December 22, 2024

Though we enjoyed our trip very much, had lots of fun, saw some things we had only read about in books, magazines. or seen in movies, we were glad to be back home if only to get some rest and reflect on our adventures.

We had planted a garden back in March and it was time to harvest this thing upon our arrival home. Our next few days were focused on doing just that. Here are a few of our results. Lots of other things were planted but were either eaten by the local deer or just didn’t do well. We did get some corn and fresh green peas that we were able to freeze but the big crop was potato’s and zucchini.

Sunflowers we planted around the garden, Patty is 5’4″ 🙂
Some of our potato harvest.
Me as a farmer, not a watermelon but rather a zucchini, and we had lots of them.

As we drifted into June we did a baby’s reveal for my Grandson here on the property. It’s a boy! Did some visiting with relatives, some back road riding on the Victory then planning our next camping trip. In July we decided to set up a couple of camping trips back to back, first one is Fort Mountain in Georgia. Though it was July was very nice and cool especially at night up on the mountain. Did a little hiking, went down the mountain a few times to eat, sight see, and do some shopping.

Campsite-Ft Mountain, GA
Some hiking at Ft. Mountain

We had some extra time while there so went to tour “Brasstown Bald” the highest point in Georgia. Fantastic views with lots of history in the making, recommend a visit if your in the area.

Notice temperature, was in month of July.

After about a week at Fort Mountain, we proceeded to our next campsite, David Crockett State Park in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Great clean campsite, was a little crowded because unknown to us there was a huge quartet festival in Lawrenceburg which drew a lot of campers to town. It seems that Lawrenceburg, TN is the birthplace of southern gospel music so each year in July they celebrate with this festival. The official name is the James D. Vaughan Quartet Festival should you like to look that up and attend?

That pretty much gets us through the end of July. When we were actually home there was always the occasional motorcycle ride usually in late afternoon on the local back roads of NW Florida. 🙂

Hit that follow button to see what happens next. Not a “biker” by definition, just an old man that loves to ride motorcycles, travel, and experience new adventures.

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The Trip Continues

December 9, 2024

Lot’s has happened since I last posted here but feeling so guilty about not finishing this TRIP, so here’s my attempt to get this done.

We left the beautiful cabin and our friends on the 21st of May 2023 around 7:30 am, drove 592 miles to The Lodge at Deadwood in South Dakota. Great scenery on the way such a beautiful drive. Really great place to stay, we plan a few days here plus it has a Casino. It’s convenient to the places we wish to visit while here.

Our agenda today (May 22, 2023) was to visit Sturgis and Deadwood, both near by. Sturgis was first on the list even though it’s not rally time, not many motorcycles but we did visit a lot of shops, got our t-shirts etc. and did a tour of the Motorcycle Museum. Another check off of the bucket list. Took lot’s of photos and then we’re off to Deadwood.

Deadwood was certainly not what we expected, maybe we never found the old town version. What we did see was lot’s of hotels and casino’s. We checked out a couple of the casino’s, played some, got tired and went back to our own hotel and casino, The Lodge @ Deadwood.

Next day 23rd. of May we were on our way to Mount Rushmore. On the way found this quaint little restaurant, Sugar Shack and ate a huge breakfast there. Had always wanted to visit Mount Rushmore, can now check that off the bucket list. Spent a good amount of time there, very interesting how it was built and the background behind it.

On our way back to the hotel we ran across this very interesting place Dahl’s Chainsaw Art in Keystone, SD which later we found had multiple locations. The art work was fantastic and hard to believe this could be done with nothing but a chain saw.

Then back to our hotel after a long beautiful day. Was raining by the time we got back to the hotel. Made decision to head home starting tomorrow, booked a room at the Harrah’s in Counsil Bluffs, Iowa for tomorrow night. Only $85 for the night, not bad. 🙂

Hit that follow button to see what happens next. Not a “biker” by definition, just an old man that loves to ride motorcycles, travel, and experience new adventures.

Please leave comments, suggestions and hit the like button. Feel free to share this on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or your preferred social media. Subscribe to my YouTube channel, link below. Thank you so much for your time.

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