A Rainy Day in Canton, MS

It was raining this morning so we decided to stay an extra day. We had checked the weather radar online and when I was in chat last night there were some heavy systems passing through Texas so we decided we were better off staying where we were and letting the systems pass.

Our tree through the raindrops on the window



I got up at 8 a.m. It had stopped raining so I got to go for my walk/run. In fact it only started raining around 10 a.m. and then only on and off. We went up to the office and paid for an extra day. Hopefully we'll be able to move on tomorrow.

It didn't rain much during the remainder of the day but we didn't go anywhere. Gordon rested, we had showers and I made a couple of necklaces.

Day 2, Canton, MS

Today is my brother-in-law's birthday. Happy Birthday, John!

It was cloudy and 58F (14C) when I got up at 7:30 a.m. I can handle this! I went out for my exercise and saw an egret flying overhead. That's my first egret sighting on this southern trip!

Downtown Canton, MS photos - these photos aren't pretty due to power lines, vehicles and the like and it would look better on a sunny day but it is what it is!





The forecast for this afternoon was rain so after breakfast and reading some we decided to go out and see what we could see. Gordon had already been out early this morning. We checked out other RV parks in the area. None of them are too great. Then we went to Barnett Reservoir. We saw two blue herons along the water but no photos as we were traveling and I wasn't fast enough. On our way back we did see some egrets. Here's a photo but they're quite far away.



Then back to the Cypress Swamp. The log below has all kinds of fungi growing on it.

Another photo of the bald cypress in the swamp.



On our way home we stopped at the Piggly Wiggly for some groceries. I took some photos of the court house and around town but it had started to rain then so home we went. We had only just gotten in and while I was unpacking groceries it really started to rain.

Court House decorated for Christmas


Beautiful old home on one of the back streets.

I have no idea what this is, it was near the house above and in a residential area.


It will depend on the weather tomorrow if we leave or stay. So, stay tuned!

Now in Canton, MS

We left Natchez Trace RV Park in Tupelo, MS this morning at 9:55 a.m. We had a couple of incidents of road paving but we weren't stopped long. We did stop a few times at pullouts on our way to take some photos but the most interesting spot we stopped at was Cyprus Swamp which is close to Canton, MS. We walked a ways on the trail there but we’ll go back probably tomorrow.

Construction


Part of the Old Trace


Cypress Swamp - you can see the boardwalk in the background

More of Cypress Swamp - you can see our RV in the background


Cypress knees


We did see some wildlife today but no photos, they're just too quick. We saw three white-tailed deer romping in the meadow and another one trying to cross the trace. Luckily the guy ahead was watching and slowed to let the deer cross. We also saw some wild turkeys and a little black daschund. Sure hope his owner found him before he got run over!

Right now we’re ensconced at the Movietown RV Park at Canton, MS and we’ve signed up for two days. There is no ‘it’ factor to this campground but the sites are reasonably level and wide. You have to be careful choosing a spot due to all the fire ants around. The lady in the office told me that they don’t try to get into your RV. Sure hope she’s right. I did put some comet around the tires just in case. The first and last time I was bitten by fire ants was in Vicksburg. I don't want to repeat the experience.

Our site

The RV park - the roads are wide and the sites are a good size



Canton, MS is apparently a site where a few movies have been made, thus the name of the RV park, among them, John Grisham's "A Time to Kill".

There are a few sights to see here other than the Cyprus Swamp so we’ll be looking those up as well. Instead of going to find a Walmart which is about 11 miles away we’ll stop at the Piggly Wiggly in town to pick up some fruit.

Gordon really needs to get some rest. He coughed most of the night last night. We think it’s probably due to the cold weather so it’s warmer here, hope it goes away!

Around the Tupelo Area

Back to colder temperatures this morning - 36F (2C) and it didn't get that warm during the day. It got to 53F (12C).

Here's a better photo of the cabin on the pond behind us.


We were lazy this morning so didn't go out till nearly 11 a.m. We drove back north on the Trace to the Visitor Center about 14 miles away. We missed it yesterday as we got off the Trace too soon thanks to Miss Pinky. While there we looked at the exhibits and watched a movie (12 min) about the Trace. While there I picked up some brochures of the Trace for our RV park as he was out of them.

We stopped at one of the waysides today where there are 13 graves of unknown confederate soldiers.

A Tarzan vine



On our way back to the RV park we drove in to Tupelo and stopped at Elvis Presley's birthplace and took some photos. Here's the house where he was born and lived till he was 13.

Here I am sitting on the porch swing.


We drove around the city a bit and I was quite surprised to see how clean the city is. In our experience cities in the east aren't all that clean while cities in the west are (for the most part). There isn't much here so we fueled up for tomorrow and headed back to the RV park for a nap!

Tonight I'll watch Desperate Housewives and have an early night. We're back on the road tomorrow!

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!