Monday September 20th 2021

Today was filled with random quick and heavy rain storms. Every hour or so the weather would quickly change from patchy clouds with a little sun to dark menacing clouds filled with heavy rain. The temperature peaked around eighty with plenty of humidity.

Today started with finishing setting up camp for my weeks stay. I also needed to get used to having usable internet, full TV service, cell phone service and enough electric power that I didn’t have to be concerned about how many things I turned on at time. I enjoyed my stay in the woods at Piney Grove Campground, but the low technology was a bit frustrating at time. It was hardly “roughing it,” but I am used to the comforts of the modern age.

This campground is interesting. It is about three quarters long term and the rest for transients. Last night the transient area was almost full. This morning by 9:30 it was almost empty. It hasn’t filled to the same level tonight. There are clear signs that a lot of work has been put into the park recently. I’m not sure if it is a refurbishment of an older park or a completely new park. There is new sod between the sites, young trees planted between the sites, new gravel on some sites and in the roads along with fairly new utilities. Management also seems very focused on keeping the park cleaned and well maintained. They were pressure washing the charcoal grills this morning.

After almost two weeks in the woods I needed to restock. I found a Walmart in nearby Muscle Shoals. This area has four rather large towns of Sheffield, Tuscumbia, Muscle Shoals and on the other side of the Tennessee River is Florence. Some of them may even be considered cities. The Walmart was busy, but I found it better stocked than the last couple I’ve shopped. One observation is that this area isn’t big on mask wearing. The majority of the customers were not wearing masks.