Well happy Friday everyone, yesterday was a great solar day, 137 amp/hrs produced this morning batteries at 87%, had a great day in Gatlinburg and still got back for me to watch three hours of the Masters coverage.

Still hot here in Tennessee was mid 80’s yesterday and only dropped to high sixties overnight, weather is looking a little suspect for the next few days so we have to make a decision as to how far we push today. We are going to head for West Virginia and north through Pittsburg and up I-79 so how far we cover today. Beckley West Virginia is 234 miles, up through Rocky Gap or hunt for a overnight near Wytheville Virginia which is 161 miles.

Well it is 1 o’clock and we are parked in the Beckley rest area for the evening, so a four hour drive to day through the mountains, highest elevation today was 3250 feet and we are at about 2350 here now. Just put the dish up to watch round two of The Masters.

It has been an overcast day so good for driving, no good for solar so we will see quite a difference in the morning readings, this is where the lithium battery bank come in to its own with more usable power, that extra 30% of battery is huge to carry us through a couple of cloudy days. The rain looks like it is coming this afternoon and overnight so another day I didn’t have to drive in the rain although a number of insects did commit suicide on the windshield today.

So a quick check tells me we are less than 500 miles (800 kilometres) to our next park in Stoney Creek Ontario. So it appears we may cross the boarder a day or two earlier that we had anticipated, and that’s ok there are a number of places we can boon-dock for a night or two and it would give us a couple extra days to visit and tie up some loose ends.

Well that’s closer to our normal, 126 miles from the Georgia / Tennessee boarder on I-75 to a Cracker Barrel at Kodak TN where we unhooked and took a little day trip, can you say moonshine tastings!

We hit the road shortly after nine and parked before noon, four days in and still haven’t made it to Butch and Betty’s second day stop somewhere in Kentucky. After we unhooked had a bite to eat (don’t want to drink moonshine on an empty stomach), and headed south thru Pigeon Forge to Gatlinburg the home of Ole Smokie moonshine and whiskey, unknown to us there was a huge car show in Pigeon Forge so traffic was heavy and slow, then on to the Smokey Mountain Parkway and Gatlinburg, beautiful drive, we have found spring the leaves bursting and all the blossoms.

Tasting, well 25 tastings later, a purchase of 12 bottles of whiskey and moonshine, I think it’s going to be one hell of a summer, even got a bottle of moonshine pickles, can you say gourmet hot dog topping, as well many good sipping options, but what a quick buzz, some of these moonshines were 120 proof, and we had lunch first!

Continuing on the tastings theme, a stop at Harry & David’s for some Smokey Onion Pepper Relish and a few Salsas, can you say cream cheese relish dip? All in all a great day, I don’t know as it would be a do over but well worth the adventure, can’t imagine a weekend there, would be a total zoo!

Ok on the solar front 131 amp/hrs yesterday, batteries down to 82%, a long evening with more than 7 hrs of TV. It’s another sunny day today so should be good day again, have the 12 volt fan running this afternoon as we watch the opening round of the Masters. Will decide this evening whether to back track to I-75 or continue on to I-81 and I-77 up through West Virginia.