Scoping out Cookeville/Smithville

June 24, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 91 °F

Well, we had a busy day! We Left Center Hill Lake with the intention of looking at Smithville, McMinnville, Sparta and Cordell Hull Lake. Long journey short, if we were to live in this area, it would be between Cookeville and Smithville. Sparta and McMinnville were too far out and didn’t give good vibes.
We then headed up to Cordell Hull Lake with the intention of spending a few days. It turned out to be very muddy. 😖
After some discussion, we decided to head back towards Nashville. My dad was stationed at Seward Air Force Base for 6 1/2 years in the late 50s. In 1965, it was flooded and became J Percy Priest Reservoir. I still wanted to go back to see if there was anything left. SO glad I did! I started taking pictures of buildings that looked like they were old enough and sent them to dad. They were absolutely the aircraft hangers from when he was there. (He worked on the aircraft’s electronics.) He and I had a teary-eyed moment over the phone. Too cool!
We moved on south to Murfeesboro to stay at a Harvest Host brewery. Unfortunately, we would have been parked next to a patio full of people and we didn’t want to run our generator for the air-conditioning. We headed over to Cracker Barrel, only to get there and find our Lithium batteries for the van (not the engine) were dead. Since most of you don’t own a class B van, I will explain why we felt utter horror and vulnerability!!
• Fridge full of food dead: Could not switch to propane because the igniter is electric.
• Generator (electrical back up): Could not start because the LED screens run on the battery and were dead.
•Lights: All dead.
•Water pump: Dead (no faucets/no toity flush)
•Ceiling fan, mounted fans & AC: Dead (91° and humid)
I don’t know about John, but I was doing my best not to freak the fuck out! John started looking for circuit breakers and I got on a Facebook group of Pleasure-Way owners. I found an old post that described the problem and we hit the correct breakers. Success!
We will head to Chattanooga in the morning.Read more