Since it's raining like crazy and has been since early yesterday, I'm sitting comfy and cosy in the van and working on getting this blog up and started.

I left Barrie last Tueday morning bright and early and after a few minor adventures made my way to stay with friends in Michigan. Driveway surfing at it's best! Thank you Beth and hubbie (yes, she's Beth too!)

Crossing the border was kind of fun with the border guard playing 50 questions with me. No search which I was kind of expecting but I think he knows most of my life history now...silly man!

The best laid plans can be thrown to the wind in an instant when Verizon becomes involved. A simple trip to a local store to get a US phone number resulted in a new phone and almost three hours in the store...sigh! Hey, the new phone can be used as a Wi-Fi Hotspot so at least I don't need a jetpack now! After that delay I asked for another night in the driveway - ask and ye shall receive.

We headed out for a golf disk course, Since I throw worse than a girl and really didn't want to embarass myself I pretended I was the audience at a golfing event and followed the players around the course. Neat stuff, I think I might even try it mself next summer at the course near home. Who knows, I might even learn to throw with enough practice.

Many thanks for the wonderful company, babysitting me at the phone store, the driveway and the extension cord and all the rest. It was much appreciated!

Thursday finally had me on the road and I made it almost to Louisville before stopping for the night at a Flying J. Another good day of driving on Friday got me to the south end of Nashville where I spent the night in a very nice WalMart parking lot nestled under a large oak tree which attracted a whole pack of Blue Jays the next morning. With free internet courtesy of Lowes and only a few miles to go before I started doing the tourist thing, I was in no hurry to leave. I did some last minute shopping and was on my way.

I only got a few hours of the Natchez Trace Parkway in before getting off to go get gas...lesson learned, fill up BEFORE you leave town. Once back on the parkway I realize that getting to my planned spot for the night was going to be more important than more sightseeing. Good thing I decided to make a run for it - only a few miles down the road and uh-oh, detour signs. Yep, Parkway closed, follow the red signs please. It was only about 20 miles to detour around 4 miles of the parkway...not bad. I got parked in a nice campsite just before dark and here I stay. I'll head back north tomorrow and pick up where I left off....too many interesting things to see to skip them and now that I'm finally getting to play retired tourist, I can take all the time in the world.

I will learn to post photos, I will, I will, I promise.