Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina

May 2-7

Bassfield, MS

We woke early on Thursday and headed to Mississippi to visit friends. Where we planned to stay for a few days. We stopped at the Mississippi visiter's center as we entered the state and viewed the "mighty Mississippi".   

We arrived at Chuck and Anita’s mid afternoon.  Just in time to have a cocktail before dinner.  When we opened up the rig we found a one gallon jug of water that I thought was safely stashed where it couldn’t get hurt had cracked and leaked water all over the back of the rig.  We grabbed all the towels we had out to sop up the water.  Then got out the fans and set them up to blow the carpet dry.  We weren’t in Arizona where the humidity is so low you don’t worry about water on the carpet because with 10% humidity the carpet will dry in an hour or so.  Not so in the south.

Chuck and Anita left the next day for a planned event up in Jackson.  T & I stayed at their place and spent time cleaning up the camper after the days of dust from traveling.

On Sunday I drove down to Gulfport to visit some girlfriends, Cherri and Gay.  We met at the IP Casino, had lunch, visited and gambled for a few hours before I headed back to Bassfield.  I won $50, enough to pay for my  gas.  It was great seeing friends and catching up.

Chuck and Anita got home mid afternoon and T & Molly were there to greet them.  We spent the next couple of days visiting before hitting the road again.

                                                                                                                                                                                                           May 8

Calera, AL

Vizinni Winery

Tom Vizinni & Glo

We arrived around 2:30pm, after an uneventful trip from Bassfield.  When we setup the camper the first thing I did was hit the wrong button on the leveling system.  The leveler retracted the jacks - oops! The whole trailer sank to the ground and stopped.  Once we figured out what went wrong and I got my proper scolding for not reading the directions correctly, we leveled out the trailer and opened it up.

A miner catastrophe had occurred.  Our one gallon water dispenser had slid off the counter onto the floor and dumped water out onto the rug.  It was then necessary to hook up the generators so we could turn the fan on and dry out the rug.  Having all that in place, we headed up to the tasting room; met Tom, the owner, tasted wines and learned a bit about him and his family.  His grandfathers were from Sicily and both were wine makers.  He imports his grapes from Texas and Virginia because he lost his crop to the heat.  I was looking forward to tasting his Sangiovese, but unfortunately he had sold out of all he had bottled.  What he had was still in the barrels and not ready to be bottled.  We tasted a Viognier for the first time. Different?!  We tried about eight different wines and bought six bottles, some cheese and crackers, took a pictured with Tom.  We then retired to the rig for our afternoon cocktail hour.

May 9

Helena, AL

Cherokee RV Park (FH) **

We began our day by taking a walk, buying breakfast and bringing it back to the winery, having it on the patio sitting in the sun.  We then hooked up the rig and headed to Helena, a little town just outside of Birmingham.  I’d never visited Birmingham and wanted to see a little of the city.  

Martin Luther King, Jr & Glo

We were setup by noon and headed into the city.  We spent a few hours walking around the historical part of the city.  We walked through Kelly Ingram Park.  Called a “Place of Revolution and Reconciliation,” the park served as a staging area for demonstrations in the early 1960’s, including the ones in which police dogs and fire hoses were turned on marchers.  Park sculptures are interpreted by an audio tour.I was moved by story the “Freedom Walk” tells.  Memories of the news flashes on TV in the sixties came to mind.

We went to the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame where there is a collection of memorabilia from some of the greats in Jazz: Nat King Cole, Clarence “Pintop” Smith, and Ella Fitzgerald to name a few. 

From there we walked over to the Peanut Depot. It’s located on an old cobblestone street.  The Peanut Depot began in 1907 and uses antique roasters that were purchased used when they first opened, so the roasters are more than 103 years old.  They roast the peanuts without adding oils or preservatives. Harrison was proud to show us how the roasters work.

Glo & Harrison in front of antique roasters @ Peanut Depot

We had an early dinner at Niki’s West a restaurant recommended by RoadFood.com.  A Meat and three restaurant.  Basically it’s a restaurant where food is served cafeteria style.  You can have a traditional meal with meat and veggies or your can select veggies only.  You can guess what I chose.

May 10-12

 Hixson, TN 

Chester Frost Park (W/E) ****

Beautiful park!  We had a spot right on the water. Got in mid afternoon and relaxed a bit before meeting Lonnie & Cynthia J. for dinner at Back Inn Restaurant.  We’d eaten at this restaurant before.  Wonderful food and the view of the river made it extra special.

Current Medals of Honor
One each for  Navy, Army  & Air Force

First Medals of Honor given during the Civil War
One for Navy and One for Army

Saturday, we went to the National Medal of Honor Museum in Chattanooga.  It was amazing what some the men and one woman did to receive the medal.  I did say/write woman.  Yes!  There was one woman who received the medal, … The medal was first given during the Civil War.  prior to that only officers received medals.  The first medal of honor was given by the Navy.  Reading the stories of these heroes brought chills.  It was unbelievable what they did.  Later that afternoon we went to Rock City and did a some window shopping and had dinner at two restaurants.  We had sushi for an appetizer at a Japanese restaurant, the name of which I don’t remember.  Probably because the food wasn’t memorable.  We strolled across the Walnut Street Bridge, first built in 1891 and is now a pedestrian bridge. It was the first “non-military highway bridge across the Tennessee River. We then dined at 212 Market Restaurant where we sat upstairs on the balcony and watch pedestrians going to and fro while we dined.  And because we needed the exercise we walked back across the bridge to the car and headed back to camp and turned in early.  

Sunday, Mother’s Day, we met Lonnie at Savage Gulf for a hiking adventure.  Savage Gulf is one of Tennessee's most scenic wilderness areas.  We hiked 6 miles through some beautiful woods.  We probably shouldn’t have done the hike.  I had a bum foot from when I stubbed my toe

Savage Creek 

Savage Falls

a week before and Lonnie had a bad back.  Non the less we had a great time.

The drive to Savage Gulf was interesting.  Lonnie told us what exit to meet him and that he was driving a jeep.  We thought we got off at the right exit, but Lonnie was no where in sight.  We called , got more directions and were back on the road.  We had no idea what our final destination was to be.  We followed a car which we thought was Lonnie only to discover it wasn’t Lonnie.  Back on the freeway,got Lonnie on the phone and more directions.  We finally caught up with Lonnie in his jeep pickup.  T thought Lonnie was in a Jeep Cherokee.  The drive to Savage Gulf was beautiful, with awe inspiring views of the mountains and trees.  Of course after spending the afternoon hiking we needed sustenance, so to dinner we went.  After dinner we said our goodbyes and headed to camp.

May 13

Norcross, GA

Mary Lee & Kenny S.

We were able to connect with some old high school friends, Kenny & Mary Lee S. We hadn’t seen them in over 30 years.  We spent the afternoon and evening catching up and talking about old times.  Of course we needed sustenance so to dinner we went.  Kenny and Mary Lee live in a little town called Suwanee and after dinner they took us for drive through town to see what there was to see.  We said our goodbyes and were on our way back to camp.

May 14-16

Before leaving Norcross we were able to connect with some RV friends, Ed & Bernice H. we’d met last summer in Camden Maine.  We met them for breakfast before getting on the road .

Ninety Six, SC

View from our Campsite @ Lake Greenwood

Lake Greenwood SP is a beautiful park not to far from our friends Judy & Dan H.  We got in mid afternoon and called Judy to let her know were were here and would be over shortly.  While we were setting up Judy and Dan came over and took us out to dinner.

We spent Wednesday & Thursday hanging out with them, just relaxing and of course drinking wine and eating.  When I say relaxing I truly mean relaxing.  I took pictures of birds coming into our campsite.  Of course Molly was watching closely, too.

Blue Jay

Blue Jay watching me.

After looking at pictures of myself it is easy to see that I've been eating out A LOT. It's time to get back to walking everyday and managing my intake.