Bang a gong, smoke a bong – let’s get this party started! Tell me I didn’t just write that! Jeez. I was recently re-reading some of my prior posts and was thinking – who writes this stuff? Some of my comments go careening off the guardrails, while others feel like an errant missile with a blindfold over its eyes. You’re probably saying to yourselves, “Ah, yeah…”
On this Memorial Day weekend, we should first and foremost reflect on those who may serve, are serving, or have served, many who have lost their lives fighting for the lives, freedoms, and rights we enjoy today. Thank you.
Kicking off our summer thang (everyone needs a summer thang), we spent the last few days up at the Tennessee Cumberland Plateau Campground (TCPC) in Crossville, TN. Talk about a most stunningly beautiful slice of the world.
Below are a few photos of our specific campsite… And yes, we have a fire pit and a smoker here, to no one’s surprise.
There was an Airstream rally this weekend where we got to meet old friends, make new friends and meet new members of the park – all pretty cool. Thanks to Lisa, Judy and the countless volunteers who made it a great weekend!
The rally this weekend entailed a number of meals (oh yeah – well done!), a couple of movie nights on the McKeever Cinema in the clubhouse, our annual meeting (arguably the most entertaining of all the events), and a number of other activities.
As for après meal, the Brawners offered their graciousness and hospitality in an evening respite from the stress of the day’s activities, where worldly issues like the eradication of pestilence, world hunger and other major issues were deliberated.
Thar’s flavor in them hills, Tennessee Gold – technically blue, red or green, although you would have thought orange. To mix it up this weekend, Karen offered flavored icee’s (snow cones) from the Trailer Trash Trouble Wagon, our mobile wagon for delivering entertainment, insurgencies and other random events. The entire thing was kept a complete secret right up until the last moment.

The Trouble Wagon was tricked out like an ice cream truck and delivered snow cones (Cumberland Cups – both generic and adult versions) around the park loop, all with the background sounds on an ice cream truck played on endless loop on a speaker system.
The wagon made the loop around the park to the faithful. Once folks got their first serving, we found clusters of people sitting around by the road waiting on our return trip. These are people with issues.
We even had one member offer the crew bites of fried alligator tail. Seriously. No, seriously. My imagination isn’t good enough to make this up.
We feel we have kicked off the summer in good form, and are about to start our journey to Colorado, California and wherever the road takes us. We will be headed from east to west, so get the hell out of our way! Watch for our posts – and see you soon!
[…] amount of time at our getaway in eastern Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau, particularly as a summer kickoff. This was a nice little respite before making (another) sojourn west, ultimately to attend a […]
Safe travels Brad! Your post gives me a chance to see a little of the good things at TCPC. I’m working in Columbus, GA for a while, storing up “credits” and planning on the future of spending them in my real life away from all this work. Luckily, I still enjoy working a little and this is a nice assignment. We are planning on McDowell Mtn for the winter and a bold move to Mexico for the summer. Driving from Loredo, TX to San Miguel is a likely scenario, since we have a dog that can’t fly. Since you are going to be west anyway, would you mind scouting this route for me. Make sure to include if you have any issues with bandits or cartel crossfire on the way? See you on the road, seriously be safe and keep up the good blogging!