Days 109 & 110 - Thursday & Friday, March 21 & 22 - Iuka & Corinth

 Thursday - We dropped the coach off at Lakeshore (drove it next door) at 7:20AM. I gave Bryan a list of things I wanted fixed and we headed to Iuka, about 10 miles away.

We decided to try the Sugar and Cream Cate for breakfast. This awesome looking 65 (I think) Chevy pickup was parked next to the building. I had a one of these when we lived in Iowa in the late 70's. Mine was pretty rough. Ask Kathy about how you dump watermelons out of a 65 Chevy pickup. Its a good story.

They served real American breakfasts. Note the boards on the wall.

I don't know if you can read it but the one on the left is the "ABC's of Salvation". Admit you are a sinner, Believe in Jesus, Confess Jesus is your Lord. There was a lot of similar material posted on the walls.

When I was paying I  was in line behind several older gentlemen who were wearing car club themed jackets. I asked if one of the owned the truck. One of them said it was his. His father bought it new. It was one of the two trucks his father owned in during his lifetime. The guy I was talking to dragged it out of a creek and restored it. He apologized for it being dirty. He said that it is his daily driver.

From there we went to the Old Courthouse Museum, a few blocks away.

This monument out front tells me the woke crowd doesn't control Iuka, yet. The inscription reads, "Heroes of a lost cause rest in honor and in grateful memory." A note on it says that it was erected by John Marshall Stone and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, in 1902. Before fighting in the War of Northern Aggression Mr. Stone was a railroad station agent in Iuka. He was a Confederate officer during the war. He served as a State Senator and two terms as Governor of Mississippi.

This Indian figure is constructed entirely of arrowheads. There were lots of stone artifacts in this room.

The court was upstairs. Looking from the back. There were 3 wood/coal burning stoves that heated the room in cold weather. One in the front and two in the back. You can see the stovepipe from the one in front, on the left.

From the front. 

Volunteers spend a LOT of hours keeping this place nice.

We had a loooong lunch at McDonalds, mostly so we could spend time on their WiFi. Then it was back downtown to check out Mineral Springs park. A plaque said that Iuka's mineral spring water took first place at the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair.

Then is was back to Lakeside to check on the progress on the coach repairs. One of the items was to fix the front furnace. Bryan said that had it out and back in numerous times. It would work for awhile and then "flame out". He finally decided that the only way to fix it was to put in a new one. We had planned on spending the night at Lakeside so we would just delay our departure until he picked up a new furnace and installed it on Friday.

Friday - We ate a quick breakfast in the coach. We were at the Lakeside door by 7:15AM. We stayed in the waiting room, reading, for a couple of hours and then decided to drive over to Corinth, which was only 35 miles away, and where we planned to spend Friday and Saturday nights.

Our first stop was the Shiloh National Military Park Corinth Interpretive Center. I don't want to go off on a rant so I will only say "Interpretive Center" combined with "the victors get to write history", is fully applicable. I had to leave before I was half way through the place, before my tongue took full control.

Then it was on to the Pit Stop for an early lunch.

Kathy had a hamburger, it had to have been a half pound, and onion rings. I had one of the plate lunches & coffee; Smoked Back Bone, fries, backed beans and a salad. All was good. The total bill was $18.

By the time we left it was beginning to sprinkle. We then went to the Alcorn County Welcome Center, on the south side of Corinth, and only a couple of miles from the RV park where we planned to spend the next two nights. They had a lot of information on area attractions. Then we drove around downtown Corinth doing some sightseeing and finally back to Lakeshore to pick up our coach. It was raining steadily when we hooked up the car and pulled out at 3:30 PM. It was still raining steadily when we arrived and set up at Cross City RV Park in Corinth, about 4:15. It's now 8:00 and it is still raining steadily.

We have WiFi and good cell signals. PTL!

Time for a snack of popcorn, showers and off to bed.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you. He had blessed me.

Day 108 - Wed, March 20 - Travel from Benchmark Coach & RV Park in Meridian, MS to Lakeshore Custom RV, north of Iuka, MS

 Today we travelled a little over 200 miles to get to Lakeshore Custom RV.

Tomorrow the guys at Lakeshore are going to make a few minor repairs to our coach. The coach parked next to us was serviced today. It is a 10 year old Allegro Bus. The owner is from North Carolina. He got fed up with having dealers work on his coach, he heard about Lakeshore and is now coming here for service. His wife is out in Arizona taking care of her sick brother. Tomorrow he leaves here for a 1,500 solo miles drive to Arizona to join her. (He probably drove 6-700 miles getting here.)

Parked at Lakeshore. 

We arrived around 3PM and had plenty of time to enjoy the awesome weather. We sat outside and read for over an hour.

We are up in the northeast corner of Mississippi. We are about 4 miles south of the Tennessee border and 2 miles west of the Alabama border. In this area the Mississippi/Alabama border is the Tennessee River.

We bought fuel today in West Point, MS. We paid $3.67/gal. That is the most we paid for fuel since we went through Mississippi on our way down, we paid $4.05/gal when we filled up in Missouri before we left. The last two fill ups, on our way back up here from south Texas cost us $3.22/gal and $3.19/gal. Our average cost per gallon for the trip has been $3.52. Our fuel mileage calculates to be 7.1 mph but it is slightly higher than that. I let the coach run for over 20 minutes while parked at Lakewood in Harlingen, just to let the engine warm up and circulate fluids. Also we ran the generator for almost 2 hours, mostly to "exercise it". This coach gets one full mpg less than the 40' 2004 Dutch Star we used to have. I'm sure most of that drop is because the Cummins diesel in this coach has 400 hp with 1,200 #-ft of torque. The CAT diesel in our Dutch Star was quite a bit smaller. It had 330 hp with 860#-ft of torque. Also, this coach weighs almost 2,000# more than the Dutch Star and the Ford Flex we pull weighs quite a bit more than the CRV we pulled with the Dutch Star. The Dutch Star/CAT did everything we wanted but the extra power in the Allegro Bus/Cummins is sure nice.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He had blessed me.

Days 106 & 107 - Monday & Tuesday, March 18 & 19 - Stocking Up & Travelling

 Monday - Our last day at Rainbow Plantation. I went for coffee with the guys at 8AM. There were 13 guys this morning. Several of them mentioned they would be heading north during the next week.

We went to Publix, Aldi's & Walmart to pick up a few things before travelling. We also managed to get in another meal at the Chinese buffet.

We packed away some things getting ready for tomorrow's travels. I did manage to get in 5 miles of bike riding during the day, before loading it into the back of the Flex.

Tuesday - It got cold last night, cold for here. The overnight low was 36 degrees, the average overnight low is 56 degrees for this time of year. We pulled out of the park a little after 10AM. Once we were on I10 and headed west we had to decide whether to follow the route shown on our Garmin RV GPS or Google Maps. We have been this way before when travelling by car (minivan) from Centertown to Gulf Shores. We followed Google Maps which routed us down Alt-90, its good road with minimal traffic and you get to cross the cool cable stayed bridge over the Mobile River.

The Mobile River.

I have to give you some statistics on the bridge. The main span is 781' long and from the water to the bottom of the bridge is 140'.

I had found two campgrounds that looked like good prospects for the night. Benchmark RV Park in Marion, MS, 175 miles from Rainbow; and Country Dogs RV Park in Starkville, MS, 250 miles from Rainbow. The plan was to drive around 150 miles and see if we were ready to stop. If we weren't we would call Country  Dogs and make a reservation for a site for the night. About 20 miles from Marion I called Country Dogs and learned they were full up for the night, so we pulled into Benchmark RV Park around 1:30PM. An early stop but I had spent a fair amount of time searching for RV Parks and while I am sure there are many of them along US45 its very difficult to spot one while driving, get slowed down to turn in or make a U-turn to go back to it. From here it is only 205 miles on up to Lakewood Custom RV tomorrow.

Benchmark RV Park - Marion, MS - It must have rained hard here yesterday. Our site is one of the higher ones in the park but the area around the water/power connection post was depressed. The water was at least 1.5" deep around the post. The park manager and a helper were working on the porch at the office. I went over and asked if he has a piece of 4x4 I could use. He gave me an 18" long piece and it work just fine as a step.

Spaces are a little tight here but Kathy's an excellent driver. I think someone with a 45' rig, and with a tow vehicle, would find negotiating the turns really tough. The spaces are long enough, if you can get turned into them.

For the first time in over a week we have both a good cell signal and campground WiFi that is excellent. 

The manager said that it got down into the high 20's here last night but tonight's forecast low is 38. 

Again this year it seems like we have headed north at least a week early. During the next 10 days there are only 3 days in Harlingen with highs in the 80's. I ask myself why am I enduring nights with lows in the 30's, in an RV? 

An observation: It seems that the ratio of types of campers has changed over the past 10 years. If I remember correctly there used to be about equal numbers of motorhomes and 5th wheel units. Now it seems that 5th wheel units significantly outnumber motorhomes and that there are a lot more travel trailers. I counted them as I walked through this campground this afternoon; 10 5th wheel units, 9 travel trailers, 3 Class A motorhomes and 1 Class C motorhome.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Day 105 - Sunday, March 17 - Church Day

We went to Fish River Baptist Church for Sunday School & Church this morning. When we were here 2 years ago a couple who now live down here year around invited us and we attended at least 2 Sunday's with them. Both Sunday School and the Sunday message were good. 

After church we went to Saraceno's buffet with them. We had a nice lunch and good visit. Before we finished eating the skies opened up and it RAINED. No significant wind but a LOT of rain. I got soaked going out to get the car and drive it up so that Kathy didn't get overly wet when leaving. On the way home I was down to 20-25 mph in places, both because it was hard to see with all the rain and there were large pools of water ponded on the road.

We are in the highest part of the campground. It's reasonably flat around us. When I got out of the car to unlock the coach door the water was at least 3/4" deep on this sandy soil.

Our antenna can't pick up FOX down here so our usual afternoon entertainment of having the NASCAR race on while we nap or do other things didn't happen. (And even though AT&T's map shows 5G coverage in this entire area our cell signal is so pathetic that access to the Internet is SLOW and streaming is impossible.)  Kathy told me that Denny Hamlin won so we were fine with not getting to see the race since he is one of our least favorite drivers.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Days 103 & 104 - Friday & Saturday, March 15 & 16 - Enjoying our Time at Rainbow Plantation

Friday - It was cloudy and felt like it was going to rain all day, and it did in the late afternoon and evening. I had coffee with the guys in the morning. 

We didn't leave the campground. We both worked on a puzzle over at the clubhouse for a while and then in the evening Kathy dug one out of one of the coach cupboards and we put it together on the dining room table.

We pass this truck on our way in and out of the campground. It is NICE! I don't know the model year but think maybe its no newer than a 2008, help me out if you know what year it is (guess I could just walk down and ask the guy). It has Minnesota plates. I'm sure this truck is not driven on MN roads in the winter.

An observation, my recollection is that there used to be about an equal number of 5th wheel units and motorhomes here. This year there are significantly more 5th wheel units, and most are pulled by dually pickups.

Our neighbor works for Trane. He has an F150 company truck. He and his wife have a pretty good size travel trailer. I asked him if he pulled it with the F150. He doesn't, he pulls it with a Toyota Tundra that is parked over in the extra vehicle parking lot. Their trailer had a 11,285# GVWR. He told me that his Tundra is rated to pull a 12,000# trailer. He said he had no problem pulling this one here from Dallas, TX. They have been here since last fall and are trying to decide if they want to buy a home or a lot and build one. They really like the campground and are in no hurry to make a decision.

Saturday - No coffee with the guys on Saturday morning. Instead I  had breakfast at the clubhouse. Below is my $5 breakfast. Scrambled eggs, a biscuit & gravy, breakfast casserole (it was okay but I'd trade it for a 2nd biscuit & more gravy) & 2 sausage patties. I passed on the OJ. There was also a French Toast option.

After returning home I worked on some chores around the coach while Kathy went up to work on the latest puzzle. Big Daddy's is one of our 3 favorite restaurants down here. We had lunch there today. 

The view from our table.

Kathy had shrimp & oysters, I had blackened whitefish. Her shrimp was great but the oysters were a little disappointing. My fish was very good.

The Fish River was pretty today.

Then it was back home for ice cream on the patio.

After desert Kathy went back to the clubhouse to work on the latest puzzle. I went up and worked on it with her a little but it was way  to difficult for me. I went for a 6 mile bike ride around the campground instead.

Then it was back to sitting on the patio until it got uncomfortably cool around 6:30.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He had blessed me.

Days 101 & 102 - Wednesday & Thursday, March 13 & 14 - Enjoying Rainbow & our Favorite Restaurants

 Wednesday - I went for 8AM coffee with the guys at the clubhouse. 13 guys were there swapping stories and having a good time. It lasts an hour. At 9AM the "gentle exercise" class starts so we have to be out about that time.

There are now Aldi's stores down here, Kathy was so excited. We went to Aldi's for some groceries and stopped at Walmart to buy a new sewer hose for the RV. The sites here are large, but you are not supposed to back in so far that your back tires to past the electrical pedestal. The sewer lines run back there and they don't want the duals running over them. When I directed Kathy into the spot I stopped her so that the duals were several feet in front of the pedestal. When I hooked up the sewer I found out that the hose wasn't long enough. That wasn't a problem since I have a 2nd hose. Once both were connected I started to drain our tanks I found out that the hose I normally use had a decent size hole in it. I bought a new one at Walmart. I had to work and work to make the connections to the new hose. The plastic "clips" are REALLY stiff.

Then we stopped at Saraceno's for lunch. What a great place to eat! We arrived shortly after noon and were 13th & 14th in line for the buffet. Everyone goes through the all you can eat buffet line. The price is $14.35 for adults.

Many different dessert choices.

 

The problem is that the food is so good we can't help but overeat.

In the afternoon Kathy found the puzzle room at the clubhouse and disappeared for several hours. I got in a 5 mile bike ride, several laps around the campground.

While we were sitting outside enjoying the great weather I had a visitor come check me out while I sat in my lawn chair. This was one big bug. It sat there looking at me for at least a minute and then flew off across the street. Watching it fly away reminded me of watching hummingbirds.

Thursday - There were 16 guys at coffee this morning. One of the guys was telling stories about humorous incidents during the 12 years he and his wife traveled to craft fairs selling their wares. 

Kathy and I both worked on a puzzle until lunch.

We had lunch at the Jade Garden Chinese Buffet today, another of our favorites. Then we stopped at a Publix grocery for some fresh bread.

Back home Kathy took a nap and I read.

At 5:30 we went to the clubhouse for a potluck dinner. We sat with a couple who live on an island off the coast of Door county Wisconsin. I think they said Washington Island, which is about one-third as big as Cole county, MO.

One shortcoming of Rainbow Plantation is that they don't have WiFi and the cell reception here is terrible. When we were here 2 years ago I asked several people what they did for internet access. They told me they used their phones and that T-Mobile was the best carrier. My cell phone is a dual SIM phone so I tired to add a T-Mobile account on it so that I would have access to both T-Mobile and AT&T. I wasted many hours over several days before getting the T-Mobile working and learning that it wasn't that much better than AT&T. I can use my phone as a hotspot for blog posting but it isn't a smooth process.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Days 99 & 100 - Monday & Tuesday, March 11 & 12 - Baton Rouge Bass Pro & Travel Livingston to Summerdale

 Monday - Lots of things are closed on Mondays, but Bass Pro wasn't one of them. Kathy was feeling a little under the weather so I went to the Bass Pro in Baton Rouge to poke around.

The aquarium. That's an elevator in the background.

Looking at the other side of the aquarium from inside the elevator.

Looking down into the aquarium.

In another area they had an indoor "pond" with fish and a 192# "alligator snapping turtle" named Fred.

A mountain bike? It would take a real man to pedal this thing up a mountain. I think the price was $1,500.

Tuesday we drove from Livingston, LA to Summerdale, AL, a little over 200 miles. We are now 863 miles from Lakewood, where we spent most of the winter.

The Pearl River forms part of the border between Louisiana and Mississippi.

The Mississippi I10 Welcome Center. We parked here and had lunch.

I hope you can see the items sculpted into the brick.

I wish I could read this, it was posted above the urinal.

Heading for the tunnel under the Mobile River.

Mobile Bay.

By 3:30 we were all set up.

Looking down our street.

Thank you Lord for safe travels.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.