Let's try a little Catch up

Well I haven't posted for several days cause I been freezin' my butt off and just didn't feel creative. The temps have been downright frigid for a flat-lander from the 'Sunshine State' like me. Thursday's high was 22 degrees, Friday's was 35, Saturday was more like it at 55. Our water froze in the fresh water tank in the camper twice goin' down the highway cause we can't run with the heat in the camper when we're travelin'. Made for some interestin' times when we stopped, till we figured what was goin' on.

Started down the 'Trace' on Thursday but it was so cold that we didn't get out an' walk to a lot of the sites. Havin' to bundle all up with coats, hat and gloves each time we stopped was a pain and the weather was bitter.

A Double Arched Bridge at Birdsong Hollow

Here's one of the flowing streams we stopped at on Thursday, "Frozen"

Stopped at Meriwether Lewis Campground, beautiful but it's to cold to stay at 6 degrees this morn. We stayed the night at J.P.Coleman State Park Thursday night in the corner of TN, AL & MS. All the sites were on Pickwick Lake and we stayed for the Senior rate of $14. I got a kick out of the entrance to this resort park in Mississippi's system, thought maybe I was out west somewhere.

You have to drive through the stream to enter the park

Friday morn' started down the 'Trace' once again, I'm still frozen from two days ago and don't want to get out of the warm truck. Some sites are just a pull-off on the road and aren't worth stoppin' at.

Didn't know Bucky lived this far south

Stayed Friday night at Legion State Park, old park, small run down campground, charged us $18, no water, even in the bathhouse, cause of the freeze. Strange, we stayed in a park north of here, where the temps were much colder and they had water, go figure.

Well Saturday brought some warmer temps and I was eager to get out of the truck. We detoured off the Parkway to go to Vicksburg National Military Park. It commemorates the Battle of Vicksburg, lots of monuments, but also lots of narratives making this much, much more interesting than Gettysburg. The salvaged remains of the 'Ironclad' Cario are reconstructed here. Seems the ship was the first to be sunk by underwater electronic mine. The museum and the resurrected ship are quite impressive.

This is the Illinois Monument

Not bad for lying on the bottom for over 100 years

All of this is original ironwork, 2 1/2" thick, backed by 6" oak timbers

This is the area of the ship the 'Mine' took out

Saturday we did an overnighter at Wally World. The temperature was quite warm. Sunday was back to the Military Park to finish up and then back to the 'Trace'. The weather had warmed enough for us to stay the night at one of the National Park's free campgrounds on the 'Trace'. We pulled into Rocky Springs Campground and surprisingly we weren't the only ones here. We tried to get some water for our tank but all the outside faucets were shut off, the only option was use a 'Water Thief' & get water from the restrooms. But the Camp Host came to the rescue after my sad tale of how we stayed at a state park and they had all the water turned off and I wanted a shower. We filled from his water service and we were all set. All three of these campgrounds the Park Service has along the Parkway are excellent camps, paved level sites(for the most part), table, grill, and fire ring. They are nicer than some states parks we have been in and these are FREE. We did our mandatory three times around the loop and chose our site. It always seems to take us three loops of the camp to choose a site. We may pull into one or two or more but always seem to have to circle before we land.

Here we are in Rocky Springs Campground

Tomorrow we finish the last 40 miles of the Parkway. Don't know what happens from there, we'll play it by ear.

Maybe we'll see ya down the road as we're,

Dancin' on the Wind.