Tom Sawyer RV Park

The biggest reason to go to this park is the barge travel on the Mississippi right outside your campsite. It’s time to contemplate life, nature, and what life would be like living on a barge.

The RV park is a unique because it’s on the river. Walk out at sunrise and you’ll see lots of people sitting on benches watching the sunrise and the barges. At sunset you can walk around the campground and stop to chat with people enjoying the sights. It is all very laid back.

Water was low this time. We could see a big sandbar across the river.

We saw the American Queen sternwheeler pass by.

Besides the river, there are several areas that seem almost hidden away within the park or nearby. The hike along the Mississippi can include some bizarre sights. The concrete pipe is cool enough but the dead tree that ended up on top of them from some previous flood makes the sight surreal.

Near the park was a couple of industries right on the Mississippi. Gravel and grain can be shipped directly on the Mississippi.

Hidden away at the park are a few tree houses. These are big trees houses. This one isn’t complete but should be interesting when done.

Memphis Cemeteries

We’ve been in Memphis before (1, 2) but it’s always a great stop plus things change over time. The pyramid along the highway is now the Bass Pro Pyramid. I guess there is the store, a hotel, bowling alley, shooting range, and an elevator ride ($10/ea) to the top for a view. Didn’t stop but it looks interesting.

We stopped at the Elmwood Cemetery before, but actually I just forgot that we visited it. However, there is always some new detail to notice. This was in a Chinese section.

I thought this was the name of the section of large monuments, “Napoleon Hill”. Turns out the guy who died in 1809 was Napoleon Hill and he is buried here along with his wife Mary.

We also stopped at Memorial Park. There is a place called Crystal Shrine Grotto almost hidden away. On ground level is an area with trees made out of concrete. Below ground is a much larger area with Bible scenes. The cave-like grotto includes artificial stalactites and columns along with crystals from the Ozarks. It was pretty cool!

We didn’t go to Graceland but we stopped at Elvis’s first home in Memphis. He bought this ranch home for him and his parents in 1956 using money from his first record “Heartbreak Hotel”.

Of course I made John drive to a small out-of-the-way barbecue restaurant. Payne’s Bar-B-Que is top rated in yelp. I really enjoyed the slaw as part of the sandwich!

David Crockett State Park

There are all types of Davy Crockett places to visit in Tennessee as he lived in multiple places in the state. He lived along the creek in this park for about 5 years. He built a grist mill, gun powder mill, and distillery along the creek but they were washed away in a flood.

Today the creek was not very big. They call these Crockett Falls so it surprised me how small they were (a foot tall). I can’t see how mills were powered by these.

The park has an aviary area with several owls and hawks. Reminds me of Hedwig.

  

The park has several nice hikes within it. This path was worn down over the years..

The Science of Alcohol

Breweries, wineries, and distilleries are always fun to visit. We’ve visited enough we should be able to make our own alcohol but we are certainly not going to do it in an RV. The tours are interesting. Some are free with free drinks but push you to buy at the end (of course after a few drinks I’m really happy to buy). Most are a minimal cost with a drink included and sometimes a glass to take home. A few don’t include samples when they are in dry counties. But they are all enjoyable.

Recently we visited the Pensacola Bay Brewery in Florida and the George Dickel Distillery in Tennessee. Pensacola Bay sells only locally while Dickel makes a limited amount of whisky. Some distilleries make a big deal about their water like Dickel with the water coming from a spring. At Pensacola Bay, it’s just city water and they say it works fine.

The Pensacola Bay tour was a bit laid back but I enjoyed the beer!

 

On previous tours of distilleries we heard that moonshine stills were found by looking for black trees (Bourbon Trail). The alcohol in the air causes a certain type of fungus to grow.  We noticed that even the road signs have this black fungus on them. It turns out there is a class action suit in Kentucky about the damage to houses and property values. I read where the distilleries at one point said it wasn’t related to their operation which is funny since we’ve heard two tour guides discussing the black fungus.

Traveling

While driving through Alabama, we saw a rocket along the road. This was in Huntsville at their museum.

Near an RV park I saw what they call “mock oranges”. It’s also called “monkey ball” or “horse apple”. The owner mentioned that they are a major problem. They decompose into a sticky mess. I just walked to look at them and my flip flops were covered with the goo along with lots of seeds. These plants are very good at having others transfer their seeds!

I took my morning hike along a lake in Barton Springs Tennessee. Suddenly I saw a head stick out of the water and heard snorting. At first it was far enough away that couldn’t really see it but I knew it was too big a head for a turtle or snake. Finally I realized it was an otter. I know they are small, but they are a bit scary when you hear them snorting directly at you. Instead of a killer rabbit in Monty Python, they should have had a killer otter!

The water level is very low in the lake.

We’ve been south so long I forgot what colored leaves look like in the fall. Plus we actually had to wear long pants instead of shorts!

Navarre Beach

We’re staying in an RV park along a beach on the sound in Navarre. So my walk was along a beach. This heron was enjoying sunrise. 

The snail trails were extensive here. I saw a swarm of dragonflies in the air but couldn’t get a good picture. Lots of paw prints. Maybe raccoon or opossum?

 The law is that you must allow access for people to walk along the beach. Most of the home owners had an open beach. If they built a dock, they built it high enough at the beach edge that you can walk under it. Another built steps to walk over the dock. However, one owner blocked the path so you either had to crawl under or crawl over the dock. At the same time they painted a sign along the dock saying “Love Your Neighbor”. What! Other owners decided to bring in big ugly black rocks right up to the water line. You can still walk along the beach by going into the water, but it ruins the beach. Plus, the black rock crumbles into the water making the white sands dirty looking in that area. At the same time they are ruining our walk, they actually make the beach unusable for themselves. I’m not sure why the law isn’t enforced in Navarre, but we don’t plan to visit again.

To offset all of that, I met a great home owner who was out feeding the birds. He told me about eagles in the area along with a ‘pet’ heron that sat near him when he fished. He had decorated his beach area with a collection of pieces that he found along the beach. Cool and fun!

 We’re in the panhandle of Florida right now. Clear skies and no affects from the hurricane except that the RV parks are completely full here. We were very lucky to get a spot!

25th Anniversary

Somehow a wedding anniversary isn’t quite the same when you are RV’ing. There was always a thought we would do something big for our 25^th anniversary like travel to Europe. Instead, we traveled in our RV. It was a very “special” day.

It started when we were trying to turn into our next stop in Navarre Florida. We were on a 4-lane parkway with high speed traffic. The first left into the park (where the phone gps told us to turn) didn’t have a left turn lane so we went to the 2^nd left (where the RV gps told us to turn). Unfortunately, the only vehicle that could make that left is a small car. We couldn’t get back out on the road going west so John had to try to make the U-turn. By going in the grass, he almost would have made it but then there was a mail box in the way. We all ran out and disconnected the car. You have to picture that we are stuck across the 2-lanes going east. There were no cars when we tried to make the turn but now cars were stopped watching us disconnecting and moving the vehicles back and forth to get out. In reality, we probably only stopped traffic for a minute but it seemed longer and cars were REALLY backed up by then.

We got to the RV park. I didn’t make reservations since our schedule had been rather fluid. They told us they didn’t have anything! As we were working out how to get to our backup place, we were told we could have a spot for 2 nights. OK… After we got set up, we found we couldn’t get their cable to work and there was no TV antennae reception. We spent about an hour with the owners trying to get cable to work but no luck.

Around 3 pm I started looking on yelp. Turns out fine-dining isn’t one of Navarre’s specialties. The best rated restaurants had tacos and burritos and closed at 2 pm. The best one we could find that was open was a burger joint. At least it was a burger joint with beer.

OK, the good news was that John surprised me with a card. Given that most of the time we’re together when we shop, that was pretty amazing. I wasn’t as good…no card from me.

Just to make this a more positive post, here’s what you see when you geocache. They were watching me!