Monday October 11th 2021

Today’s weather forecast called for rain as a cold front passed through the area. The really severe weather along the front was forecast to be well north of here. Instead of waking to rain, I woke up to the sound of wind. The orientation of my RV home to the wind direction was just right for noise. The wind direction caught both of the slide out room toppers end on. They billow with each gust and noisily clatter as the ratchets return the awning taught. The wind was reported at fifteen miles per hour constant with gusts in this area up to forty. It continued until mid afternoon.

This area did not get any significant rain. A few rain drops may have accompanied some of the wind gusts, but not enough to wet the ground. I drove through a couple of very heavy downpours to the east of my RV home while I was out on a grocery run. Visibility was bad and road conditions were hazardous. By mid afternoon the wind let up and the cloudy sky gave way to bright sun for the last couple of hours of daylight. At sunset there weren’t any big clouds to reflect the light of the setting sun. The real trouble with the cold front was well to the north in the Indiana and Illinois area. There are tornadoes in that area.

There is a Piggly Wiggly grocery store a few miles south of here, but grocery stores of any size are about 30 miles away in the town of Hernando Mississippi. I found a Kroger and a Walmart. The Walmart wasn’t the biggest or the best I’ve been in, but the familiarity of products and layout made it my choice. The shelves were well stocked and additional items were located in the bigger aisles. This made it difficult to navigate. It was easier to park my shopping cart at the end of an aisle and wander up and down a couple of aisles picking up the things I needed. The good news was at the checkouts. They had plenty of live people staffing the registers.

Sunday October 10th 2021

Yesterday’s high thin cloud cover was gone today. The sky was clear blue all day. A regular breeze out of the south kept the mid to upper eighties temperature from being oppressive. Overall there was nothing about the weather to complain about.

I am not very good at identifying what is planted in the fields I pass by on my travels. Last summer, when I was in this area, I saw acres and acres of green fields planted with a low bush plant. I didn’t know if it was soybean or cotton. This fall it is obvious. The fields in this area are all covered with dying plants filled with white puffy balls. The primary crop in this area is cotton and it is harvest time.

While I was out driving around this afternoon, I passed cotton fields that had already been harvested. There were huge cylindrical bales of harvested cotton at the ends of the empty field. In one area, a long way from the road across unharvested fields, I could see huge pieces of farm equipment crossing the fields harvesting the cotton. The big cylindrical bales are dumped out the back as they fill up. I wonder how much of the processing is taking place in the machine as it is harvested.

On my drive I found the area a little more active than this summer. The weather is a little more amenable to outdoor activity. There are several golf courses in the area that probably serve to augment the draw of the casinos. Judging mostly by the number of cars in the parking lots, the casinos are fairly busy. I was in the Sam’s Town Casino last night. It had a lot more activity going on than it did during my summer visit.

Friday October 8th 2021

It was another foggy start to the day. Visibility during the first few hours of daylight was very low. I could see the RV across the street, but the ones at the top of the hill less than a couple hundred feet away were hidden in the fog. It took until 9:30 or so for the sun to burns off the morning fog.

The fog slowed my preparation for travel down a little. It created more of a mental slowness rather than an actual obstacle to preparation. I knew I wouldn’t leave until visibility improved. I pull off my site shortly before 10:30am to the boat launch parking lot. I used that space to hook up the car for towing. It was around 10:45 when I pulled out of the campground. That was about forty five minutes later than my plan.

My destination was two hundred miles to the west. The combination of the holiday weekend and school vacations next week made it difficult to find a reservation to the east along my intended direction of travel. I probably checked a dozen places online and two by phone without success. I chose to return to Sam’s Town Casino RV Park in the Tunica Mississippi area along the Mississippi River. It had plenty of space when I stayed during the month of August and it isn’t a place that families with kids are going to be camping. There are more sites occupied tonight than I saw any of the nights I was here in August, but there are still plenty of available sites.

The route to get here was a straight drive across northern Alabama and northern Mississippi. Most of the drive was on US72 a good divided highway with a few traffic lights and a couple of major communities to deal with. Next week I’ll return east on the same road to continue my journey east toward Jacksonville FL.

I had one stop for gas along the way that was relatively easy as gas stops go. I only had to circle the pumps once before I found a nice end island pump available. Gas was a little more expensive than my last fill up at $2.899 a gallon. Two other events highlighted my journey. I passed an accident that had happened a few minutes ahead of my arrival. There was an overturned vehicle in the middle of the road. There were plenty of people stopped to help and it didn’t look like there were any serious injuries. I had to drive partially in the median to safely pass the incident. It is not fun to encounter accidents, but my day wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the people in the overturned vehicle.

The other event was a wrong turn near the end of my journey. I’m going to blame bad signage, because I knew right away that I made a wrong turn when I should have continued straight. The signs indicated that Interstate 269 was ending and Interstate 69 and 55 north exited to the right. I found myself on Interstate 69 north along with 55 north. The road I needed to be on was Interstate 69 south. There were no signs for 69 south or the towns I was heading for. I needed to make a U turn at the next significant exit and backtrack to correct my mistake. Throughout all of this traffic heading north into Memphis was very heavy. Overall it probably added ten to fifteen minutes to my journey.

I arrived at Sam’s Town Casino RV park shortly after 3PM and got checked in at the hotel lobby before continuing on to my site in the RV park.

Thursday October 7th 2021

The day began with the cloud cover at ground level. By midday the sun had won the battle with the fog to produce a nice sunny day. It was the first day since Monday that I didn’t have to be concerned about the weather. The temperature peaked in the upper seventies.

The peace and quiet of the campground was interrupted today by lawn mowing day. This necessary and perfectly normal activity continues to annoy me. There isn’t a lot of grass in the immediate area of my site, but the noise from the mower, trimmer and leaf blower carried throughout the area. It looks nicer after it is mowed and walking through the grass areas doesn’t produce wet shoes with shorter grass. Why I continue to have a negative reaction when I hear the mower remains a mystery.

Today was a chore day around the RV combined with a travel preparation day. I’m moving on in the morning. Between the chores I got in a couple of walks around the park. The boat launch was active with fishermen putting in their boats. It is interesting that most of boats seem to be occupied by solo fishermen. They must fish alone often, because they seem to have the task of launching and landing the boat down to a well orchestrated dance. I’ve watched teams have a lot more difficulty.

I begin my two hundred mile detour to find an open campsite in the morning. My goal is to get started about 10AM. I have a reservation for a week at Sam’s Town Casino RV park. Casino RV parks don’t draw families with kids, so the holiday weekend and school vacation week aren’t an issue getting a reservation. The detour is a necessary consequence of not planning at least a couple of weeks to a month ahead.

Monday October 4th 2021

Today began overcast and a little foggy. The sun burnt through the gloom by midday. The general result was a nice warm fall day. Unfortunately, the rain returns tomorrow, Wednesday and probably Thursday. The TV weather talkers are calling for two or more inches of rain over the next few days.

My activity level today reflected the weather conditions. While it was overcast outside, I was dragging out my breakfast and watching the morning TV shows. As the sun broke through the clouds, I got outside to explore more of the campground and the shores of the Tennessee River.

This seems to be an attractive fishing area. Everyday I’ve seen several fishermen actively fishing from boats toward the shore around the campground. There also seems to be a lot of action with fish breaking the surface of the water. Some are feeding on surface insects, but other times the water boils with fish responding to a probable predator fish below. On every walk around along the shore I see some evidence of fish in the water.

I’ve been carrying fishing gear in the basement storage of my RV home since I got on the road. It has not seen the light of day since I stored it. At locations like this I think about getting a fishing license and dropping a line in the water. Perhaps if I was here longer I would. Most of the places I stay for longer periods of time don’t have attractive fishing nearby.

Sunday October 3rd 2021

It was a rainy day. About 4AM this morning I woke to the sound of rain on the roof of my RV home. After a brief check to close windows, I went back to sleep. It was still rainy lightly when I woke around 8AM and it continued most of the morning. During the afternoon there were periods without rain, but the sun never made an appearance.

The weather was a perfect excuse for spending the day in front of the TV watching NFL football. As I’m writing this blog entry, I’m watching my third full game of the day. The early games were interrupted by two different walks around the RV park, but tonight’s Buccaneers vs. Patriots game is getting more of my attention. The return of Tom Brady to Foxborough is an event not to be missed. The coverage is also over the top with prepared tribute pieces aired before the game. The Patriots are my team based on the location of my birth and where I lived most of my life, so I won’t root against them. Still I was happy to see Tom Brady lead the Bucs to the Super Bowl victory last year and would like to see the aging veteran continue to do well. Tonight I expect Tampa will prove to be the better team.

The campground didn’t empty out as much today as I expected. About a third of the sites emptied out. Many of the rest seem to be occupied by people that leave their rig on the site during the week while they return home for work and school. Late this afternoon many of the RVs were empty. It is very quiet tonight without a lot of outdoor activity.

While I have been writing this blog entry and watching the game on TV, the over the air television signal went away. I’ve experienced a similar issue other evenings in this area. I’m not sure if the broadcaster is dropping the signal strength to a level that I can’t receive or if I have some internal issues in my RV home. The bottom line is I can’t watch the game right now. I’ll have to switch to watching something on satellite TV.

Saturday October 2nd 2021

I woke this morning to an overcast day and it went downhill from there. Rain is in the forecast for Sunday and Monday, but it got here a little early. A few light showers were added to the overcast this afternoon. Today’s temperature peaked in the mid seventies. Overall it was an OK day.

Today followed the usual first day at a new location pattern. I got the rest of the setup tasks complete for my week long stay and got familiar with the campground. The campground looks like it was developed by the Army Corp of Engineers or probably the Tennessee Valley Authority given the location. The layout of the sites and other recreation areas along with the poured concrete picnic tables are some of the signs. It’s possible that it was developed by a private company to similar specs, but more likely was leased or sold to a private concern after it was built with public funds. There are signs that it was upgraded in recent years. New power, water and a few sewer utilities are on most of the sites. Some sites have been removed and the area replanted, but the old electric utility boxes are still there. They probably added new sites to other areas of the park, but needed to keep the total number of sites constant. The result is an interesting mix of an old style campground, modern campground amenities and a family oriented clientele.

The campground is located about four miles from the nearest major road on the south bank of the Tennessee River. This section of the waterway is know as Wheeler Lake. The Wheeler Dam, Lock and Hydro electric facility is down river a few miles. The view in most directions from the campground is of water and green tree lined banks. The one exception is on the north bank of the river. The industrial looking area is actually the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant. An interesting neighbor for a campground.