Surprise Visitors This Morning

WHERE ARE WE? Witches Dance, Natchez Trace near Tupelo, Mississippi

Woke up this morning to a view of the Tennessee River.  Wow!  Archie was barking at the front door and we didn't know why.  Sue got up and I had placed an empty apple pie box by the door to take to the trash in the morning.  Well there were hundreds and hundreds of fire ants swarming it and they were all around it.  One ant obviously bit Archie because he ran back to bed spitting with a look of terror in his eyes.  Good thing we had a gallon of Home Defense with us and a bit of spray around there and we got them under control.  

Spent the night here

Natives were relocated to Oklahoma

They say there are nice large mouth bass here

We took our time getting ready to go as usual, and in the meantime a couple guys came along and set up a table in the parking lot.  Of course nosey me has to find out what is going on.   They are having a fundraiser for breast cancer so this is one of the stops on their poker derby.  Apparently there will be a lot of motorcycles showing up here to pick a card so the guys said we should stick around to see it.  What the heck, we got the time.  The group are calling their ride, "Scooters for Hooters".   

We waited around for an hour or so and then we could hear the rumbling of Harley's coming across the bridge.  And they starting piling in to the parking lot.

bikes on the bridge

There were 90 of them all came at once to draw a card for their poker hand.  The nicest people you have ever met.  It was pretty impressive.  Apparently there is $500 for the best hand and another $500 for the worst hand.  Good luck to everyone, but everyone is already a winner by supporting a worthy cause.  Yes, we gave a small donation!! 

And then they were off!  Good job everyone!

That was our que to head out as well.  We were going to take it easy today.  First stop was some Indian mounds.  These were sacred mounds used for ceremonies.  Some of them were used for burial grounds as well.  There are lots of them along the Trace.

We have been in Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and now Mississippi in the last couple days.  Maybe we should slow down!!

We stopped at a Welcome Center and I watched a short video on the origins of the Trace.  Early settlers would float goods south to Natchez or New Orleans on barges.  They would then sell everything including the barges and walk back home.  The Natchez Trace was a short cut for them rather than follow the rivers.  It is now a recreational route and is the longest National Park in America.  Some 5 million tourists visit the Trace every year.

Another peaceful drive today and we are parked in a pull off for the night.  We will continue on tomorrow. 

For now we are parked up at a place called Witches Dance.  

I went out with the flashlight to find the piece of dead grass, but saw nothing.  Maybe I will look out the window in the night in hopes of seeing them.  OOOOHHHH!   Good Nite!

The Start of a New Adventure

WHERE ARE WE? Natchez Trace Parkway Parking, Tennessee River, Alabama

Headed out from our nice little spot in the Winter haven Welcome Center about 10.  That's an early start for us!!!  We headed down I-24 toward Nashville.  We saw some evidence of the winds they experienced here from Hurricane Helene.  Lots of the direction signs along the highway are snapped off.  Hey I promise to clean the windshield today!! We have to stop for gas today so I will do it then.

This one escaped the wind

We had hoped to hang out around Nashville for a couple days and do the tourist thing downtown, but it is Friday and we can't find a campground close by, and we would have to find a place for Archie, and, and, and.  Anyhow we have decided to bypass Nashville and get on with our original plan for coming way out of our way to the east.  Yup, we are doing the Natchez Trace from beginning to end, or in this case, end to beginning.  And this is the sign at the end of the Trace!!  So we will start here.

A beautiful drive with a narrow 2 lane road with lots of trees all the way.  It winds up and down and around and we were sometimes doing 45 mph and then we were doing 30 mph.  You do have to pay attention while driving.  The neat thing is that just 500 feet on either side of the Trace in places, is populated areas, farmland and major highways.  But you are in your own little world here as you meander along with no way of knowing there is a real world out there.

Lots of bikers

We stopped to look at some falls this afternoon.  It was a walk of 900 ft so I thought what the heck, I can handle that.  Nobody said it would be straight down and worse still, straight back up!! Oh now that I look at the sign, it does say steep!! My bad!!  And the falls were just a wee trickle of water but it was pretty.

We decided to stop about 4pm today at a free campground.  We were like a dog trying to lay down, driving round and round to find a spot that might support Star Link as well as be level.  We decided on one, but nope, no signal. The trees are a solid blanket over head.  Oh well, we will find something to do.

So I sat outside listening to the 2 Neighbours generators.  I decided to clean the windows like I promised to take my mind off them.  The generators serenaded me all the while I was cleaning.  Went and sat inside and stared at Sue for a while.  It was 32 degrees and we were hot.  We have no cell service either.  After an hour or so, she said that it is only about 9.5 kms to a nice spot by the river that some people told us about at the start of the Trace.  I'm in!! So we broke camp and headed out.  We drove for about 20 minutes and her phone came to life.  That 9.5 kms was actually about 95 kms so now we have a trip ahead of us.  And it is starting to get dark and there seems to be more traffic.  But we did see some lovely sunset colours.  

We drove for about and hour and a half before taking a wrong turn into the parking area we wanted.  It took us down a road that had no turn around for 10 kms and it is now pitch black dark.  I never thought I would get to the point where I didn't enjoy driving at night, but I am there.  We got turned around finally and got parked up beside the river where we were supposed to be.  Archie was not impressed with the shenanigans.  

We will probably stick around here for a while tomorrow.  There are barges going up and down the Tennessee River here and I love to watch them.  Hope to get some pictures tomorrow.  Here is a map of our travels today and where we ended up.  No picture cause its dark!!!  Good Nite!

We made it to Kentucky

WHERE ARE WE? Whitehaven Rest Stop, Paducah, Kentucky

We headed down the road again today.  We stayed in Vandalia a couple days longer than planned because it was a beautiful campground and we also wanted to spend another evening with Chuck and Angie.  So todays goal is to make it half way to Nashville.  That's what we did.  Here was our trip today.

When we got closer to Kentucky, the farmland started turning into some rolling hills.  We stayed on highway 51 for as long as we could because there was way less traffic than the interstate.  

We generally try to travel about 250 kms each day.  When you don't get on the road till noon and you want to be done by 4 or 5, that is about as far as we can go.  Since we left home we have travelled 2800 kilometers and have been on the road for 16 days which is an average of 175 kms/day.  Actually we are doing real well and have been staying in places for a while.  Our schedule says we need to be in Mission TX on October 26 and we have about 1900 kms to go.  So at 250 kms a day it will take about 8 days driving so we have 15 days that we can just hang out wherever we want.  And Nashville is just down the road.  Hmmm what should we do???  Stay tuned.   Anyway we arrived in Paducah around 4:30 today and had a nice nap before checking out the rest stop we are in.  It has a neat period house on the grounds which begged for a picture.

This is where we are for tonight!  Good Nite!

Day 3 of our 1 Day Stay

WHERE ARE WE? Vandalia Lake, Illinois

Another beautiful day here at the lake.  We enjoy watching the pelicans fishing away outside the motorhome.  Archie is a little wary of them.  He likes to bark until they fly away, but these guys were having none of his woofing!!! They just kept on fishing.  

And there was a grey heron over on the other side just enjoying life.  

Then I went to work on a couple of projects.  First one was checking to see if the little O2 extender I bought at NAPA yesterday would fit.   No such luck so I will have to return it this afternoon.  I will order the right one online from Walmart. 

Next was fixing the Ebike.  I have been having trouble with the On/Off switch so I took it apart and had a look at it.  There was lots of corrosion around the switch so I cleaned it as best as I could and put it back together.  It seems to be working for now but I need to get some electrical contact cleaner.  That's for another day.

Well then on to the furnace.  It quit working a while ago and I need to find out why.  I did a bunch of checking but the power is not going through to the furnace blower.  I decided to save that search for another day.  Remember we are chasing warm weather so shouldn't need it for a while.  

After lunch I headed downtown to return the part that wouldn't fit on my O2 sensor.  I noticed this mock up of the St Louis Arch, only its only about 35 feet tall.  Kinda cute it is.

Chuck and Angie joined us for supper tonight.  They have had a busy day and it will be nice to visit tonight.

I got the fire going so we can sit around it to tell our tall tales.  It was very enjoyable.

Its been another great day here at Vandalia Lake but our time is coming to an end.  This will be our last sunset here.  

There is nothing like a fire to make the ending of a day perfect. 

When Chuck and Angie headed home, we followed them to check out the fire breathing dragon by their RV Park.  You buy a token at the liquor store and when you put it in the box, it shoots out fire!!!  It's the darndest thing ever!!  Good Nite!