Tuesday October 5th 2021

The rain began shortly after 5AM. It was a heavy rain that sounded like a continuous roar on my roof. I’m parked under an Oak tree, so I had the added noise caused by the tree leaves to contend with as well. When I woke up a second time around 7AM, it was still raining heavily. By 9AM the pattern for the day was established. It stopped raining for two or three hours before starting up again. The rain passed through the area in waves of heavy rain. In between the waves the sun managed to come out a couple of times. The pattern is forecast to continue through tomorrow night. There is a flash flood watch out for all of northern Alabama.

Yesterday when I tried to make reservations for my next stop starting Friday, I had no success. I realized that I had allowed a holiday weekend to sneak up on me. The Columbus Day holiday is a state holiday in Alabama and Georgia as well as a federal holiday. The first thing on today’s agenda was to find where I was going to go next. I haven’t had any success in my direction of travel. Worst yet, I’ve learned the problem continues all of next week. Next week is the fall break for schools in the southern part of the country. Many of the school systems in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi have next week off. I’m used to northern states that don’t have a structured fall break.

The key phrase in the last paragraph was “in my direction of travel.” The RV parks I’m aware of and those that I can find on the internet to the east, southeast and a few I checked to the north are all booked for next weekend into next week. I did find openings 200 miles to the west at my go to from the summer, Sam’s Town Casino RV park. I haven’t committed to a 400 mile detour, but it is nice to have a fall back. I’m continuing to search for options this evening. Google search, Google maps and my other references are getting a real workout. If I don’t come up with a better plan, I’ll lock in the back track route in the morning.