Clever Beast travels

[Kayrae51]

Heading back into TN after spending a couple nights at Guntersville Lake State Park in AL. Met some great people & showed off the 'Clever Beast numerous times. Its amazing how the Oliver draws a crowd!

 

We experienced a sudden storm on Tuesday & would have lost our awning for sure if we hadn't been there. Several trailers lost them. Thankfully we got it in without problems. The winds were strong enough to crush our Clam, which also survived. The park was quite busy with all hands on deck helping each other. After 11 hrs without power we truly understood the advantages of owning an Oliver.

 

We are headed to Fall Creek Falls State Park now. Clair stopped at a Walmart in the Dunlap area so He could take a power nap. As soon as we were stopped there was a rap on the truck window....a very nice woman asking if she could see our Ollie. Clair went over and spoke with her husband while I showed her thru. I could tell that they had already done a lot of research. Another amazing day....Such fun!!

[PAndrews]

Hi Kathy!  Glad to see you guys are having fun.  Tell Clair I said hello as well.  Looking forward to seeing you both at the next rally.  Safe travels.

 

-Phil

[Kayrae51]

Clair says Hi Phillip! We are looking forward to seeing you again!

We stayed at the Lake Guntersville SP site that we have reserved for the 2018 rally. It's very open down by the lake (due to the tornado that went thru there) but the sites are all well kept & the restrooms clean as can be. We had lunch at the Lodge restaurant and found the food was great.

All that being said...We have extemded our stay at Fall Creek Falls SP...It is a gorgeous park! I would highly recommend this one!

Smiles...Kathy

[rideandfly]

Kathy,

 

We like camping at Fall Creek Falls SP, too!!  Nice place to hike with beautiful water falls! We want to check out some of the Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds in TN, since we just received our America the Beautiful cards!  :)

 

 

 

 

[Kayrae51]

Bill, We really like the COE parks. Clair has to go over to Nashville for VA matters now & then so we try To stay at Seven Points COE near Hermitage, TN. It's on the J. Percy Priest Reservoir and very quiet. It's not far from the Nashville airport.

 

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We headed to the Cumberland State Park after leaving Fall Creek Falls. Just 30 miles from our home but we weren't ready to head home and decided we needed to stay long enough to enjoy some of the restaurant's dry rubbed ribs on Saturday night.

 

 

[Kayrae51]

Well, we got all of our medical needs taken care of and finally hit the road on Monday.

This time we are staying in a small privately owned park, Long Ridge Campground, in Hiawassi, GA. The park owners placed us on a much larger site this year so we’d have room for our Clam screenroom, etc. Its so quiet and peaceful up here on the hill. Emma thinks she owns this campground, since we come here so frequently. She makes sure we walk her to all of her past hangout areas and has to be walked down to the office every morning to get her treat from the owners too.

 

The Hiawassi Fall Festival and Fiddler’s convention starts this weekend so we try to head this way annually for the music and area craft, etc.

 

We drove over to Brasstown Bald Mountain in Blairsville, GA this morning but it was quite overcast up on the mountain so we will go back another day. I was hoping to get a few photos of fall colors but its a little early for that. Next week should be much better. While we are here we will take day trips over to North Carolina and various areas we’ve visited in the past. This is such a lovely area.

 

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[Kayrae51]

Oops! Double post - could somebody remove the second one for me? Thanks!

[John E Davies]

Oops! Double post – could somebody remove the second one for me? Thanks!

A Moderator can do it, but you can just edit it yourself and delete all the content. Replace it with just the word “Duplicate” if you like. It won’t go away entirely but you won’t feel so much like an idiot. (Been there!)

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[SeaDawg]

I deleted the duplicate. The double post has happened to many of us, including me. Seems to happen most often when I have a slow connection. I think something didn't post, and a minute later... I have two.

I won't delete unless someone asks, because I can't bring the post back.

 

Beautiful photos. Glad you are out and enjoying life in your camper, Kathy and Clair.

Sherry

[KarenLukens]

I can't really tell from the picture but it looks like your awning arm is connected to the trailer and then you staked the tie down rope straight down from the corners right? Or are the arms staked down too? Looks beautiful :)

[Kayrae51]

Thanks SeaDawg...you are correct, we have a slow connection and it didn’t appear to be going thru.

John, I tried deleting content but every time I tried to edit the words out they’d still be there. At least I got rid of the doubled photos ????????????

 

Reed, notice how high our steps are? I had to stack up some of our horse mat pads to be able to reach the bottom step. I guess we need to get one of those aluminum folding platforms. Anyway, back to the awning, we decided to put a light tie down on the one end (not straight down) because at its 4-5ft extension point it was too high for me to get a hold of the front edge in high wind conditions like we had at Lake Guntersville SP. We have since brought the awning out further to drop the front edge because it needs frequent leaf removal. Doesn’t need a tie down now. Sure is gorgeous here today! Smiles...Kathy

[Mainiac]

We noted your parks, and will put on our iteniary planning sheet. Sounds like the places we want to see.  Tell us about your Clam please. It took a beating and kept on ticking? Did you have just screens? 3 or 6 privacy panels? What size? Would you put a heater in there? We have had an arctic breeze come up off a lake and a little warmth would have been nice. Would the panels or screen be enough? As you can tell we have been considering, but have yet to see one first hand. Thanks

[topgun2]

Canoe12 -

 

Using the "search" function will get you a bunch of (almost all positive) reviews and comments concerning the CLAM Shelter (and a bunch of other stuff that isn't even vaguely related to the CLAM - go figure).

 

I think that I'm in the minority in that I got the small (4 panel) CLAM.  It is great for one or two people but as many as four can get in with chairs.  This past summer I used my Mr. Buddy Heater and three of the "rain/wind" panels and just about roasted myself out of the thing.  They are easy to put up, easier to take down, fit in the closet of the Oliver and when staked out they will take one heck of a wind.  Best screen shelter I've ever owned hands down.

 

Bill

[Kayrae51]

Canoe12

So happy to see that Bill spoke up about the Clam. Ours is still new to us. Sounds like we chose a larger size since it takes 5 wind panels. I know they come in tan/brown, green and camo. We have a tan/brown one. I don’t have a lot of info on them but they sure are easy to put up and take down. I can tell you about the storm that hit us in AL....it was quick and intense, we had our Clam up with 3 wind/privacy panels in place when the storm hit and while we were busy taking care of the Oliver awning the gusts of wind pulled the ropes loose from the well driven in stakes and pushed in 3 of the sides. As soon as we could We pushed in the remaining sides and lowered the top to the ground, weighing it down with our chairs & everything else we could find. After the storm passed we prayed all would be ok. It set back up as if nothing had happened. We Haven’t tried heaters or anything like that yet. We currently have ours set over a large picnic table with pleny of room to move around it.

[Mainiac]

Very helpful, thank you all. Now if someone ask what I want for Christmas........!

[KarenLukens]

  Reed, notice how high our steps are? I had to stack up some of our horse mat pads to be able to reach the bottom step. I guess we need to get one of those aluminum folding platforms... Smiles…Kathy

 

We use our step a lot, be sure to get the adjustable legs on it because there have been places that we camped that each leg was set at a different height to level it.

 

[Try2Relax]

Tell us about your Clam please. It took a beating and kept on ticking? Did you have just screens? 3 or 6 privacy panels? What size? Would you put a heater in there? We have had an arctic breeze come up off a lake and a little warmth would have been nice. Would the panels or screen be enough? As you can tell we have been considering, but have yet to see one first hand. Thanks

 

Bob, your always welcome to stop by again, we've had our CLAM up, in the yard, since we got it in the spring. With all the winds we've had this summer the only issue is the roof popped down. It's the large one and has the 5 panel covers. I wouldn't hesitate to put a heater in it, if needed, but with the panels on your only limited by air temp.

 

Currently, for the last 2 months, it has only been staked down at the ground points, not the center screen tie downs, this works really well and eliminates the trip hazards.

[Mainiac]

Canoe12 wrote:

Tell us about your Clam please. It took a beating and kept on ticking? Did you have just screens? 3 or 6 privacy panels? What size? Would you put a heater in there? We have had an arctic breeze come up off a lake and a little warmth would have been nice. Would the panels or screen be enough? As you can tell we have been considering, but have yet to see one first hand. Thanks

Bob, your always welcome to stop by again, we’ve had our CLAM up, in the yard, since we got it in the spring. With all the winds we’ve had this summer the only issue is the roof popped down. It’s the large one and has the 5 panel covers. I wouldn’t hesitate to put a heater in it, if needed, but with the panels on your only limited by air temp. Currently, for the last 2 months, it has only been staked down at the ground points, not the center screen tie downs, this works really well and eliminates the trip hazards.

 

Randy, Thank you, guess we have decided. Now just to decide size and price.

[Kayrae51]

“We use our step a lot, be sure to get the adjustable legs on it because there have been places that we camped that each leg was set at a different height to level it.”

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Your step platform looks just like the one we have been checking out. I agree that “adjustable” legs are a must have.

Thanks for the photo...love your traveling companion! Smiles....Kathy

[Kayrae51]

Beautiful Day in Hiawasee, GA.

The day started with a trip to the Bell Mountain County Park and Historical Site. The 18 acre mountain summit originally belonged to the Cherokee Indians who were forced to leave on the Trail of Tears to reservations in Oklahoma in the 1830’s. The property was drawn in the 1832 land lottery by William Taylor and ownership changed hands several times over 183 years. In 2015 it was deeded to Towns County. The summit is interesting with 50 years of historical graffiti on surrounding rocks, the Hal Herrin Overlook, and a 115 step observation deck to view the area. Posting views of Lake Chatuge and surrounding Appalacian mountains. The following photos were taken with my old iPhone 5s, so not the best quality but still some awesome photos.

 

Following our trip we headed over to the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds for the fall festival and enjoyed a Bluegrass contert featuring Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. All in all, a very fine day!

 

 

 

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