70 Days and 8,000 miles Later

Yes our first winter adventure has ended. We arrived home March 26th to a warm afternoon in PA. Since then it has turned cold and damp, Les wanted to go south again! But we are sure that the Spring we experienced in LA and MS will arrive here soon. Living in it for a few days sure was nice. The picture below is Robi in the canoe we rented at Chicot Lake SP in Villa Platte, LA. What a nice park. Unfortunately, we were unaware that Easter was a big camping weekend for folks in this part of the country. It makes sense, since the weather is spring there. But we, from the north, were unprepared for that and did not make reservations. The park had a spot for us Wed. but not anymore for the rest of the holiday weekend. So we enjoyed the lake and moved on.


Here you see some of the wildlife we observed while on the lake. An alligator here or there did not bother me, but when we started seeing more of them swimming around not far from the canoe, I became nervous. Probably silly, but ……



This picture if of the campsite we found for the Easter weekend. It was 47A. Can you see how they set up the A and B? A bit close? Well, it turned out great because our “pad partners”, Tom and Cindy, were a very friendly couple who were with a group of very friendly Mississippians. We had the privilege to get to know them the 3 days we were there. They invited us to share their campfire each evening and gave us tips on things to do in the area. We were in Natchez SP outside Natchez, MS. We toured some of their antebellum homes, and a Muscatine winery. And we had some of the best BBQ of our trip in the Pig Out Inn. Oh, and some great peach cobbler one evening at our campfire compliments of Grammi and Papaw. Yum!


We took the Natchez Trace NP roadway that runs from the Mississippi river to Nashville, TN. A very nice route. A two lane 440 mile road with not one stop sign, 50mph. Beautiful territory and tons of historic stops available along the way. There are also 3 campgrounds available on a first come basis that are free. No hookups of course. We jumped off that and caught I40 east stopping at Edgar Evins SP, TN. The picture below shows the interesting campsites at that park. Remember this is TN. This park had a big lake and marina but absolutely NO flat ground. All the camping was on “floating” pads. At least that is what they looked like to us. Can you see the pads in the woods? You would literally camp in the trees there. We could not imagine putting big campers on them.

Well, this blog has kept you up to date with our first winter trip. It was great to see all the different areas of the south. But we know we just scratched the surface of what this beautiful country offers. And we truly appreciate the great blessing it is to be able to travel like we did. If you are interested we are heading off to Alaska this summer, leaving around July 10th. We will do this blog again for any who are interested. God Bless!