Lawrenceburg, TN to Tupelo, MS

Today was our day to move on. We left Powderhorn Campground around 9:30 a.m. and got back on the Natchez Trace Parkway. The trees weren't nearly as pretty as they were on Wednesday but we managed to take a few more pictures anyway.

I took this barn photo on our way to get fueled up this morning.


Photos along the Trace


Tennessee River


Neat signs along the Trace, looks like Old English pub signs

One of the Pharr Indian mounds


We had Miss Pinky set to take us to the Natchez Trace RV Park and boy did she take a roundabout route. When she said we had reached our destination there was no campground in sight so I called the campground. He claims that GPS units can rarely find him and some are off as much as 36 miles. We were only about 5 miles away. The owner also says that he's only about 800 feet off the Natchez Trace so we'll have an easier time getting back on. This is a Passport America park but they don't take Passport America September to November but he gave us a good rate anyway as we had so much trouble finding him and also he likes people from Ontario.

Our site



Another RV park shot



We have a nice view of the pond out our back window as well as the little cabin. There is another pond a short distance away from us and a hiking trail so I'm in my element! There is a little bluebird that has adopted the bluebird in our truck mirror and he keeps coming back and looking. The owner has also seen an eagle take a fish out of the pond recently so we're hoping that he comes back while we're here. We plan to stay two nights.

Our view


The bluebird on the mirror


Internet is hooked up. I wasn't going to bother having Gordon hook up the TV dish but although we're supposed to get ABC on our aerial, we don't so we're going to get that done now. I can't miss Desperate Housewives tomorrow night!

Shopping, Laundry

It rained all night and most of the morning however we didn't get the thunderstorms that were forecast. I didn't get out to walk this morning so after breakfast got showered and went in to Pulaski, a nearby town to the local Walmart to pick up some groceries. US Route 64 in this area is quite pretty and there are a lot of little cabins that remind me of traveling in the Ozarks. I also stopped at Dollar Tree and got behind a woman who spent $97.00 at Dollar Tree. There were no other cashiers so I was there forever! How can you spend that much money in Dollar Tree?

Here's the HiLo camper that's down a few sites from us.

Here are a couple of photos I took on our way back from Pulaski.


I also got my expense sheet updated this morning. I need to keep on top of it while we're in the U.S. as I'm trying to do it in both US and Canadian dollars. I'll see how November works out to see if I keep it up for the six months we're here and if all that work really tells me anything.

I decided to do some laundry this afternoon so put in two loads. It was hard to turn down 75 cents to wash and 50 cents to dry. You don't see that too often! Although it did take $1.00 to dry each load as I had some heavy stuff in there.

Other than reading and a nap that about makes up the day!

Coming to you from Lawrenceburg, TN

Today was bright and sunny but windy. As we're both tired from yesterday and we discovered that this is a Passport America park, we've decided to stay here for 2 more nights. Can't beat the price at $14/night plus tax for 50 amp. There's some rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow bringing in a cold front so we'll wait and leave on Saturday. Gordon has mapped out two different ways to head to the Breaux Bridge, LA area and since the Trace is a better road, we're going to take the Trace.

We're on the outskirts of Amish country here, about 12 miles away. The lady who owns the campground here said there's about 300 Amish families in the area. We haven't decided if we're going to check it out or not. They apparently have a buggy tour (not run by the Amish) that goes from house to house as they don't have stores and sell from their houses.

Gordon went out with me for a while when I went for my walk this morning. We checked out the washrooms and the laundry which we normally do on arrival at a campground but were just too tired last night. The washers and dryers are cheap here so might do a load or two. There's a hill here in the park so we walked up there and took a photo of the campground. One photo about covers the whole campground. It's pretty basic but very functional and all the sites are pull thru.

There's a sawmill on the property and they make porch swings.

After he went inside I continued on my walk/run and was joined by a little boy here in the park named Odie. He's about nine years old and very friendly. His family travels and he is home-schooled. There are four kids in the family, one of them a baby. He says the baby don't talk much but he throws a good bottle. Gordon said he came up and introduced himself when he was out putting up the TV satellite dish. Not something an adult normally sees in a child of that age.

Last night I had just gotten into bed when the carbon monoxide detector went off. This is an RVers nightmare as you never know when it's gone off for no reason or a good reason. We couldn't do anything to get it to turn off so he finally found the breaker. He stayed up for a long time to see if we were going to be gassed in our sleep but thinks it was a car parked behind us with their motor running as he turned the breaker back on and nothing happened.

I sat outside and read for a while today, it was pretty windy this morning but beautiful late this afternoon. We got up to about 74F (23C).

I made scalloped potatoes for dinner tonight. I was going to make baked chicken too but since there wasn't enough room for both in the oven, I'll make the chicken tomorrow night. We'll have turkey burgers and green beans with it tonight. This will be our anniversary dinner since we just made do last night.

Our 18th Wedding Anniversary, End of October Expenses and Travel

Eighteen years ago today we traveled to Gatlinburg, TN, got our marriage license in Sevierville and on to Gatlinburg where we booked our wedding at one of the little chapels there for 3 p.m. As luck would have it, it started to rain just before 3 p.m. and they had to come and get me with an umbrella so I wouldn't get my dress wet going from the dressing area to the chapel but all was well and the sun was shining when we came out. We've had our ups and downs like everyone else but for the most part it's been a wonderful 18 years and we're hoping to see many more.

It wasn't as warm here this morning, time to move on. The day is supposed to warm up a lot though.

We left Nashville just after 9:30 a.m. The skies were bright and sunny. We got to the Natchez Trace Parkway and it was just beautiful. So beautiful that we didn't make it far today. Gordon was stopping at almost every parking area there were so many photos to take.



We took our anniversary photo at the first one.



Here are photos taken along the way.

Beautiful bridge


Buffalo River



We hadn't planned on how far we would go today or where we would stop so as it got on to 3 p.m. we thought we'd better make some arrangements so we got off the Trace. I checked on Miss Pinky and found a KOA that was on the east side of Lawrenceburg, TN about 17 miles away. We got there and no KOA nor did anyone know about it. Fortunately there was another RV park across the road from where we stopped to ask directions. It's a nice little park called Powderhorn Campground. So we're here for tonight. That's all we've committed to for now. I'm exhausted and can't imagine how tired Gordon must be.

I took so many photos today it's hard to decide what to post.

Tobacco Barn

These horses happened along at one of the stops



Here's our site at Powderhorn Campground

Along the Trace


Old Natchez Trace



October Expenses
Our biggest expense this month was the purchase of travel medical insurance, without that we would have only been about $100 over budget. We also stocked up on some foods that we can't buy in the U.S. and campground fees were quite expensive. So we'll have to try to make up some of this over the winter!

Some Nashville Sightseeing

Today was my kind of day 77F (25C), bright and sunny! I was up early this morning and didn't even need to bundle up. There isn't a lot of place to walk or run here but I managed to put in about 20 minutes then back to the RV for my exercises. Looking around the park this morning, we're probably in the worst spot in the park. The park doesn't have the famous "it" factor but it's not bad. The showers are very nice, lots of hot water, big enough to move around in and good water pressure and also clean.

The dog walk area

Around the park

Crossing the Cumberland River on our way to the Parthenon


Gordon had some things that he wanted to look at today so he had Miss Pinky programmed. First stop was The Parthenon. It's a full-scale replica of the one in Athens, Greece except it isn't ruins. Nashville is known as "The Athens of the South". It's situated in Centennial Park, a pretty park with a little lake and lots of Canada Geese. They beg for food down here too! They were shooting a GM commercial for the Country Music Awards when we were there.

Parthenon in the reflecting pool which is actually called a lake.

Me beside one of the columns
This is the ceiling outside of the building. We only went inside to use the washroom.

Side view of the Parthenon
This is the rear view
The lake with the geese
We walked around the park for a while then headed downtown to see the Capitol building. Gordon did some walking there to try to get some good shots but I didn't walk far. I didn't have much energy today. From there we drove to LP field where we had a view of the downtown skyline.

Capitol Building


LP Field

Nashville Skyline from LP Field


I had written down the address of a health food store as I needed to get some more apple cider vinegar so we went there, then on to a Kroger grocery to pick up a couple of items. In between we stopped and had lunch at Taco Bell. I wanted to go back to the RV park the scenic route but we couldn't find it so returned via the freeway with Miss Pinky's assistance.

When I got back I lay down for a nap, then had a nice shower.

Gordon is having a flare up of plantar fascitis tonight so he's doing his exercises for that. There may be less walking in his future for a while!

We're on our way south on the Natchez Trace Parkway in the morning.

Lebanon, OH to Nashville, TN

Here is this morning's sunrise at Lebanon, OH.


We left Lebanon, OH at 9:30 a.m. 55F (13C) under clear, sunny skies. I was up at 6:15 a.m. as we wanted to be ready to go after returning from the bank. The Fifth Third ATM ate my card on Saturday so I had to go in and retrieve it and get them to change the password. That was done in a matter of seconds. I tried it at their ATM and changed my password and everything works.

Crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky

We arrived at Nashville Country RV Park at Goodlettsville, TN which is part of Nashville on the north side at around 2 p.m. and booked in for two days. It was 75F (24C) when we arrived and I was actually sweating a bit for the first time in what seems like weeks! The park claims to have free wifi and cable. The cable works but the wifi only works with our high gain antennae. We didn't set up either of the satellite dishes. We're also now in the Central Time Zone.

This is a Passport America park but still costs $20/day for a 'big rig site'. We practically had to grease the RV to get it into our site but we're here, we're set up and it's beautiful weather! However, there is a dog that is barking almost constantly behind us, sure glad we only signed up for 2 days!

Our site - I had the blinds open this afternoon and was looking at the man in the motorhome next to us that was sitting in his living room.

A couple of campground photos


I've had really bad heartburn since we got here this afternoon and nothing seems to take it away. Really annoying!

Another leg of our southern journey down!

Getting Ready to Move On!

I had set the clocks back last night so got up at 7:30 EST. It was 48F (9C) this morning, much warmer than it has been lately. I went about my usual morning ministrations and after breakfast made Gordon the bean soup that he's been requesting.

While that was cooking I vacuumed and cleaned the bathroom then on to the couch to read and of course take a nap.

This morning when I was out walking I saw a lot of these things that look like tennis balls but are actually osage oranges. I don't recall ever seeing them before when we've been here.

This afternoon was more of the same, read and a nap. When the soup finished cooking, I went and had a shower. Gordon got the tanks dumped and cleaned for our trip tomorrow.

I made cornbread to go with the soup and that made up my day.