Its Just Plain HOT

I just thought the heat wave had arrived Thursday. Yesterday the highest temp I saw was 111. Yep thats not a typo. Today the temp topped out at 108. Theres just not much fun to be had outside when its that hot. Also even though we have shade the trailer struggles to keep up. About 78 is the best it can do. Yesterday we just rode the countryside. A lot of narrow two lane (barely) mountain roads. Susan went to two quilt shops which made her day a success. Today we rode the countryside again for a little while. It is very pretty country around here.


I think Maggie was the only one to enjoy the sun. She stretched out for a little nap.She probably could have stayed out longer but I couldn"t. We leave tomorrow for Indiana. If we had been thinking we would have left today to get away from this heat. It will still be hot where we are headed but the high there is supossed to be 94. Funny how that seems cooler.

Heat wave in Tennesee

The heat turned up today. After a pleasant morning , 61 degrees when I got up , 95 by noon and topped out at 100. I had hoped we left the hot weather back in Texas. The one saving grace is the humidity stayed around 20%. Yesterday and today we just chilled around camp. We did some kayaking and a little swimming.  

Maggie has enjoyed the park. If only she could get loose to chase the squirrels , rabbits and ducks she would just be in heaven.

Late in the evening the wind lays and the lake is slick as glass.We have a half moon in the clear skies right now. As it gets dusky the bats start flying all around. Next the lightning bugs start popping up everywhere.This is such a nice quiet park. We will hate to move on.

Grand Ole Opry

It was laundtry day early on. We went to the nearest town to us which was Carthage. Luckily they had a pretty nice laundremat and we were finished fairly quick. Back to the park we went. Thought about taking a nap but we took a bike ride instead. I"m not liking the little hills in the park when I"m on a bike.

We left early heading to Nashville for the opry. Made a couple of stops at Academy and then Camping World.  After that we headed to an early supper , then on to the Opry. It turned out easy to find and we actually parked very close.

The Opry House really isn"t that big. It holds 4,400 people.The acoustics are great. The seats are pretty comfortable but they are cushioned bench seats. I didn"t take my camera but instead used my phone,  mistake on my part. During the show you can actually go up to the stage and get pictures if you want.

We saw The Whites, Little Jimmy Dickens, Greg Bates, Ricky Skaggs , John Conlee, Kristen Kelley, Rodney Atkins and Marty Stuart. It was a great show. Both Susan and I want to go back again. Oh well another trip sometime in the future.

A Peaceful Day

I got up early  this morning and sat outside watching the wildlife. There were deer moving thru and ducks swimming in the lake. The temp was about 63 and it felt great. When Susan got up we decided that today was going to be a chill out day. We were going nowhere.I got the kayak out and we took a spin on the lake. Later we just floated in the water. After lunch I took a nap and Susan sewed. Sat outside all evening and it was great. Just a good ole relaxing day.

Travel day to Defeated Creek Campgroud

We traveled to just east of Nashville today. Drove the Natchez Trace Parkway again for about a hundred miles. Its just a great easy drive. We got to Defeated Creek Campgound about  2:00 pm. It is a corp of engineers park on Cordell Hull Lake. This is a nice lake and a beautiful park. We plan to be here about six days.Our only issue was our gps took the shortest route from Carthage to the campground. Unfortunately this was a very narrow two lane road, very steep and very curvy. I was in first gear doing about 15 mph with the turbo howling. My truck actually started running hot before we got to the top. We made it though and then coasted down the mountain and truck temp cooled off. We have since found a much easier route to travel.

Shiloh Military National Park

I went to the Shiloh battlefield today. Once again a really nice national park. The visior center had about a 45 minute film on the three day battle which was very informative. It also was a driving tour  which you get out and walk to read the markers and just look around. The Shiloh church was destroyed during the battle but was rebuilt in 1875. I was surprised how small it really was. Once again Susan elected to stay home and sew. Later when I got back we went to Corinth to a quilt shop she found .

Travel day to Shiloh,TN

We drove almost 200 miles along the Natchez Trace Parkway toward Tennessee. It was a nice pretty drive. The speed limit is only 50 mph so you dont get in a hurry. My phone navigation did"t like the trace and kept trying to get me back on the interstate. When I should have listened to it I didn"t so we took a round about way to Pickwick Landing State Park. This a nice wooded park but big rigs beware,  Most of the sites are not level.  I am only 30 ft and there were not that many spots to get in easily. Also the pad widths are narrow. If we had known we probably would have stayed below the dam with a nice view of the Tennesee River. Oh well, we are just here for a day so I can go to the Shiloh National Military Park before heading to Nashville.

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Askew Landing Campround

The campgound we"re staying at used to be part of the Bridgeport Plantation which was founded in 1859 by the Askew family. The 300 acres of campround and lake is owned by a 5th generation Askew. The front office is the original commissary for the Plantation. The barn at the front entrance is an original building also. There is also a nice mural depicting the battle at Askew"s Ferry Landing which the Union army destoyed. Its a nice campground in a country setting.

Vicksburg-Day2

I went to the Civil war battlefields this morning.Susan stayed home and did some sewing. Right before I got to the battlefield she called and said a breaker tripped. The old hair dryer did it again with our ice maker,tv, and computer charging all at the same time. Our breaker box is in an outside compartment  so I talked her thru a reset. In the meantime she couildnt get sattilite tv to work. 

When I got back home had to work on tv. Finally unplugged eveything and then reprogrammed eveything and we are back in business.

Vicksburg Mississippi

 This was a travel day to Vicksburg. I wanted to travel some back roads thru Louisiana and we did. We saw some pretty country and at times some rough bumpy roads. The weather was actually pretty nice. We stopped in the parking lot of Bethany Baptist Church and made sandwiches for lunch, as there were no towns on the road we were on. 

We arrived in Vicksburg about 2:30 pm. We picked an RV park that was about 15 miles east of town. It is called Askews Landing.  Its at the end of a narrow two mile dead end road. Its my kind of park in a country setting. It has a lake and all the sites have plenty of room. We got a shady site under the trees. There were several sites that had limbs too low for me to get into but we managed to maneuver into this spot.

After getting set up, we decided to run over to Jackson. I wanted to look at laptops and notebooks for me. We went to Best Buy and yep, I found a small laptop.  After that we went and ate Mexican food then headed home. After setting up my new laptop I wrote this blog.  Tomorrow I'm headed for the civil war battlefields and Susan is going to a quilt shop.

Lake Charles,La

>We didn't travel far on our first day. Left home about 1:00 pm. It took us about two hrs to get to Lake Charles. We decided to stay here one night so we could eat at Susans favorite spot Steamboat Bills. This will probably be the last chance to eat good Cajun food for awhile. It was really good, we ordered enough to take a box home for supper tomorrow night.Maggie likes walking around the park.She really liked the pet area where she could run loose.

Canyon Lake,Tx June 11-17

We headed out on Monday morning to Canyon Lake. We carried our three granddaughters. We met our friends the Templetons who carried one daughter and two grandaughters with them..  The girls watched movies all the way . Its only a 4-5 hour drive but to them it seems long. We stayed at Potters Creek which is a Corp of Engineers park. The park is really nice and a great place to take kids.

The girls rode their bikes, pulled a wagon, and took walks around the park. Also the Templetons brought thier golf cart so they took evening rides around the park. We did a lot of swimming also. I bought a Sea Eagle kayak and we tried it out there. It worked great and is going to be a lot of fun..The girls also did a lots of arts and crafts at the picnic table. The weather was great. It did get hot but their was always a good wind blowing. One day a storm got close to us but no rain. We did get some straight line winds which blowed everything we had around. Almost lost our awning on the trailer. Touch and go for awhile but managed to get it down without too much damage. Next time I will be a little quicker in putting it down when a storm is in sight even if I think it will miss us.

 There was a lot of wildlife in the park. Deer came out every morning and evening to feed. There was two nights when were visitied by a young skunk who came ambling thru camp. I almost picked it up the first time  because it was dark and I thougtht is was my dog Maggie.  Oops guess it was friendly because it didnt spray.
 We are back home preparing for our next trip. I hope to keep my blog updated a little more often now that I dont have three grandkids to keep me active.  

Getting Ready to Roll

We have been home since our last trip to Riverside. It seems like a long dry spell waiting to head out again. In some ways though the time is going fast as we try to get all the things done at home before we leave for the summer. We have made all our dr appointments except one and have our prescriptions updated.  I cleaned out all the storage compartments in the trailer and almost have everything back in. When finished will give the trailer a wash and maybe at least wax the front cap. Susan has cleaned the inside and hemmed the curtains she put in the Bay window. I still have a few minor repairs and we will be ready to roll.

  We had the Grandkids for Memorial weekend. Actually I went and picked Sammi up on Wednesday and then got the other two after school on Friday. Oh yeah dont forget the granddog Lexie, she also came.. Our daushaund "Maggie" really doesnt care much for Lexie. She still is a puppy and to active for Maggie.   The girls had a fun time sewing with their Nana..  Mackenna and Sammi got up early every morning while Ashley slept in. Maggie liked sitting on the couch with them early in the morning.  We just got back from a fish fry at a cousins house. The temp has warmed up to about 93. I would really like to take a nap but I guess I need to finish mowing the front pasture so that I have another thing accomplished on my list of things to do. .