Lunch with an Old Friend

We had an early morning visitor this morning.  I had just gotten back from walking Sandy when I heard rustling in the leaves in the woods.  There was the deer.  It slowly walked past our site through the woods and out of sight.  Last night we saw three deer on another loop. 

This event was followed by a sad event.  Sandy is nearly 15 years old and has been having trouble climbing the steps into the motorhome.  This morning, as she was climbing the steps, she lost the strength in back legs and fell backwards off the steps onto the pavement under the camper.  I always try to help her up but this morning she began the climb before I could get to her.  Carol and I managed to get her into the camper but she was moving very slowly and has been doing so most of the day.  I gave her two baby aspirins.  Hopefully, it is just sore muscles and she will recover.  We do have a ramp that we had purchased for her and are using it.  It seems to help. 

This is Dena Carvell, an old friend.  Dena and her family used to live on Lakeland Road and attended  church with us.  Her husband, Pat, worked at Firestone.  In the late 1980's  they moved to the Nashville area.  We have kept in contact with each other and naturally, we wanted to visit with her while we were in the Nashville area.

Today she came to the campsite and we all went out to lunch at Demos which is a local Italian restaurant.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch and catching up on the lives of our kids, grandkids, and each other. 

After Dena left Carol decided he needed to  clean off our campsite.   Carol loves using his battery-operated leaf blower.  We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing outside in our chairs (also napping).

After Sandy ate supper, she seemed a little perkier so we decided to take her for a short walk.  As we were walking, we heard a lady screaming at the top of her lungs for help.  Along with this we could hear dogs barking and fighting.  Apparently, her own dogs were fighting and she was in the middle of them.  Other campers went to help but she managed to get the dogs apart.  We don't know what set them off.

During our walk, an old man drove into the campground in a 1932 pickup truck with the bed covered with a tent-like canvas.  He was getting set up so we stopped and talked to him.  He was from Iowa and had been out to the Smokey Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway.  He sleeps in the back of the truck.  He told us he has camped like this in 49 states and six provinces in Canada.  He called this "his hobby."  He says he can accelerate up to 40 MPH if he needs to and averages between 200-250 miles per day.  What a life.  He is definitely not living in the fast lane. 

It was a very relaxing day which we thoroughly enjoyed.   The weather was perfect.  Tomorrow we head for downtown Nashville.