#51823 Morristown, TN

Thank you for joining me on this gorgeous day! We had a full and exciting week. I feel like we’ve been very active….

First I want to tell about our Mechanical situation. I haven’t heard the flex plate act up lately. I let the key sit in the on position until the clicking of the glow plugs stops a few seconds after the Wait to start light turns off. It seems to help. I also jiggled and sprayed WD40 into the fusebox connection like we did last spring for the injection pump and it does seem to make a difference. Our front brakes started smoking on the way down Lookout Mountain, so I educated myself on engine braking and made it down safely!

Tennessee has been a lovely exploration. We drove down to Chattanooga to see Rock City. In the Walmart parking lot, we met Richard, a very friendly Tennessean who mentioned he had an RV he was gutting that contained a working stove and oven combination and we should come buy the next day to get it out. He’s in construction management and let’s Bill, a kind homeless man habitate in his house as Richard is generally with his sister whose husband recently passed, remodeling her house. If this doesn’t tell you the kind heart of Richard, nothing will. He’s very easy to speak with and keeps himself very busy.

So We drove up Lookout Mountain pretty early in the day. Rock City was a beautiful walk with jaw dropping views. Atreyu was fearful of the tight squeezes and the immense heights. My heart stopping moment was when a small child used his parents momentary inattention to try and climb on the flat surface of the arrows pointing to the seven states able to be viewed from the cliff of lovers’ leap. I froze and started making this repetitive noise of exclamation and the parents’ immediately snapped to action of pulling him back to safety. Complete shook. He just wanted to peak over the edge. The parents were literally just looking out and pointing things out to their other child probably thinking he was paying attention to them. Littles move quick. Everything is okay….

There is so much to see at the Rock City Gardens and such a beautiful maze to walk through. Lot’s of waterfalls and flowers. And a cavern filled with fluorescent fairy tale figures set up in scenes.

After, we drove around the top to of the Mountain to the Battlefield State park and sunset rock just to see what we could see before heading down the mountain that made our brakes smoke and to Richard’s house where we swapped our old oven/stove for the fully functioning one.

I’d anticipated it to e quite the project with getting tools and figuring out of to secure the new stove and clean it out too…. I didn’t think about the propane connections, though…. So I felt unable to finish the project, after having installed brackets for the stove securing. We drove to Home Depot and used the thread chart to ascertain the connection needing to go from a 3/8 compression thread, to a 3/8 compression thread. literally WTF. They obviously didn’t have something straightforward or otherwise and neither did the Tractor supply.

In the morning I walked across the street to a gas station to use their microwave to reheat my coffee leftovers. Walking back, I remembered my stash of surplus propane hoses and connectors from set ups passed. Would you know it, I had a foot of a hose that converted the brass to the compression thread! Bloop bloop and bloop! I got her working like a champ!  AND THE OVEN WORKS!!

I got all of this accomplished before the kids even woke up!

They’d been wishing for an aquarium visit and had found a brochure for one in Gatlinburg which is a major tourist trap with Ripley’s Believe it or Not exhibits, Dollywood, trams, Nature etc. Really the ideal place to exchange a wad of cash for fun experiences! No free overnight spots even close to it’s vicinity. So the Tennessee Aquarium was by far the more sensible choice.

It was beautifully set up. A very bsy day to be there. The kids really enjoyed it. I posted some Tiktoks about it and dumped all the footage into the powerdirector video editing app to be processed for a youtube…. I have some strategy thought out abot it…. we’ll see when I get to it, took me a bit to get to the blogging…….

Mother’s day was a quiet affair for us. We were all pretty exhaused from the last few days… The kids picked me some lovely cards and a little lavender plant to put in our vacant pot of soil.

I called my Uncle in Knoxville, who was packing his stuff for a trip to Ohio for a convention, so unfortunately we missed him.

Instead we went up in the Sun Sphere of the 1982 World Dair and walked that area and up to the church my grandmother had her funeral services held at.

At this point I want to explain that I feel I miss a lot of opportunities and people and connections and I worry about the feelings it leaves with the people who are aware of our path or that they’re being missed. I’m sorry about it, but I also don’t really feel totally in control about it. I make myself feel better about  it by thinking that we’ll be back. We haven’t missed out completely on everything because it just wasn’t the right time. Like I considered going into Memphis to see things and maybe meet up with Birdie, but all the  attractions seemed expensive and didn’t call to me as a must see at that point with mechanical issues. Anxiety on the highrise before we went camping.I didn’t feel capable and I didn’t feel like my presence would’ve really represented myself, so I didn’t detour that way. Didn’t give Birdie a message or call to ask if she had want for some time with us. Just like I missed my dad’s cousin Joy, my aunt Joanie, and the Greenback castle I’ve had marked for at least a year maybe two now….

I’m trying to recharge myself. The last few days have been an easy putter around. In South Knox, we met this lovely Lady named Christy. Her kindness really helped us, so I’m asking y’all to please go buy some tupperware from your local representative!  Pretty please.

I took Atreyu to pick out new Chapter books as he finished his first! We also acquired a kiddie cookbook. It feels like a whole different life with a working oven. We made our first frozen Pizza in bus in a couple years.

Oh mother’s day was a “quiet affair” what a lie. Atreyu woke up mid night puking so it was about resting and cleaning up the mess. At the laundromat I had a fat clonk in the mailbox, a mother’s day gift card and wooden sign saying “Home is where your Mom lives.” Accurate and fitting. So grateful.

I also wanna talk about Linda from Dandridge. Old time Hippie who brought us lots of smiles. Her big smiles and stories and opinions were full of warmth. A story of endurance and conviction for the freedom of all.

The mellow days consist of long morning routines of laying in bed for a bit after waking up, taking time with my coffee. Having the kids watch documentaries in bed, reorganizing or cleaning a thing, playing ukulele, eventually driving to a playground and walking the dogs, late and simple dinners….. Yesterday, I painted on the Bug and Matilda. I can’t say that art is complete, but I like it so far. I’m hesitant about painting on the bug roof because of the solar panel, but I do have tape and plastic bags to cover the things I don’t want to color….

I better go so I can do dishes and feed the children lunch stuff…. Take a walk…. We’ll see. There’s a nice little museum down the road the Crocket Tavern I’m debating checking out. Bet the kids’ would be ecstatic to go, cutting the workbook pages I require in a day to count as school, to less…..

On that note, I must reitterate that we do run mainly on your kind donations. Our excursion, education, and continued existence inherently thrives on your continued support. I greatly appreciate your contributions. Every little bit helps and gets us to explore just a little more of this exciting world. I accept donations via CashApp: $MatildaBugus and paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/matildabugus

If you’d like to peek at our Amazon wishlist follow the link below. We really appreciate those special wants/wishes/deferred needs finding their way to us possibly via your help! https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3LUAOP5L0M5FY?ref_=wl_share

We now have merchandise ready for you to order! Represent and support at the same time! We love these shirts and we love you! Check it out!
https://matildabugus.bigcartel.com

CashApp: $Matilda.Bugus
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I’m so grateful to be exploring this world. Each one of you is such a delightful cherry on top of this slightly melty sunday I call my life.

I hope you feel like smiling. I hope you have someone to exchange smiles with. Stay grateful