Tuesday, August 30, 2022

We woke early this morning, packed up and headed North. We often take smaller highways when possible to avoid Interstate traffic.  It's a little longer but we're not in a hurry.  We rode up Hwy. 57 to 50 to 51north which took us through Vandalia, Illinois.  

Vandalia was the state capital of Illinois from 1820 to 1839.  This state capital was the spot Abraham Lincoln took his first political office.  It's the oldest surviving capital in Illinois.  

Riding north on Hwy 51 was mostly corn and soybean fields.  And of course...

windmills everywhere!

  

We stopped for lunch in Forsyth, IL at a Best Buy parking lot and faced their green space.  The wind was blowing and it was so nice to enjoy cooler temperatures.

We headed a little west towards Peoria, IL to stay along thee Illinois River at a sweet little campground we've stayed at before and we love it.  Nothing fancy, just beauty on the Illinois River.  The owner rides around in his golf cart and visits with the campers. 

We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset and the cool night with our little fire.

I think we found FALL Y'all!

Monday, August 29, 2022

We decided to take a relax day without travel and enjoy our time by the lake. We hung around and explored a little.  

We watched sunrise on the Lake which was awesome.

The Core of Engineer Visitors Center had a little exhibit of local plants, butterflies, flowers and animals.  There was also a working beehive exhibit that was kind of interesting.  It was a live hive that was open on the back to outside.

Sunday, August 28, 2022

We woke this morning, packed up and headed North.  That's about as far as we got towards planning. LOL

We drove up North through Tennessee, Missouri and ended up in Illinois.  I found a Core Of Engineer campground located on Rend Lake. Rend Lake is on the Big Muddy River in southern Illinois.  Rend Lake is named after William Patrick Rend, a retired Civil War colonel who operated a local coal mine in the 1920's.  

There is a visitor center near the west end of the dam.  It has interactive exhibits including live reptiles and fish from the area.  It also contains a working honey bee hive.  The bees are able to travel indoors to the native plant garden where they collect pollen and nectar to take back to the hive.  Can't wait to see this!

We scored a camp sight at the Gun Creek Campground with full hookups right on the water. 

Gun Creek Campground is in Benton, Illinois adjacent to a golf course and so beautiful.  The sites are full hookups with a generous amount of space and all for $13 a night with our America the Beautiful pass.

After setup, we headed out right behind our camper to sit near the water and enjoy the rest of the evening.

 

Saturday, August 27, 2022

We woke around 8:00 a.m. and packed up.  We actually pulled away at around 10 am and headed back down through Memphis and North East towards St. Louis.

I had a bad headache so we pulled over at a rest area for lunch and to take a break.  Clay hooked up the generator and I took about a 30 minute nap.

We passed through the little town of Henning, TN and I saw a sign that said Henning was home to James Lucius Hickman and Alex Haley.

 

James Lucius Hickman, nicknamed "Gentleman Jim", was an American professional baseball outfielder and first baseman. He played 13 seasons in Major League Baseball for the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals. Born: May 10, 1937, Henning, TN     Died: June 25, 2016, Henning, TN

Alex Haley was born in Ithaca, New York, on August 11, 1921, and was the eldest of three brothers (the other two being George and Julius) and a half-sister (from his father's second marriage). Haley lived with his family in Henning, Tennessee, before returning to Ithaca with his family when he was five years old.

We found a small park in Henning, TN called Fort Pillow State Historic Park that looked like an interesting place to stay for the night.  

According to Wikipedia:

Fort Pillow State Historic Park is a state park in western Tennessee that preserves the American Civil War site of the Battle of Fort Pillow. The 1,642 acre (6.6 km²) Fort Pillow, located in Lauderdale County on the Chickasaw Bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, is rich in both historic and archaeological significance. In 1861, the Confederate army built extensive fortifications and named the site for General Gideon Johnson Pillow of Maury County. It was attacked and held by the Union Army for most of the American Civil War period except immediately after the Battle of Fort Pillow, when it was retaken by the Confederate Army. The battle ended with a massacre of African-American Union troops and their white officers attempting to surrender, by soldiers under the command of Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Interpretive sites are part of the park. Because of its strategic location controlling traffic on the Mississippi River, the fort was attacked and captured by the Union Army, which controlled it during most of the war. On June 4, 1862, Confederate troops evacuated Fort Pillow, enabling Union troops to take Memphis, Tennessee. 

We arrived here around 4:30 p.m. and were able to enjoy a little walk around the park.  The museum is closed for the day.  There is also a butterfly sanctuary on the grounds.

After dinner we were able to walk around the park a bit.  It's a tiny park but very clean, wooded and hilly.  Our spot was very spacious with water and a 50 amp connection.  

 

Friday, August 26, 2022

We had a very restful night's sleep and woke up late this morning.  After breakfast we scouted and booked a spot for tonight, then packed up and were off.

Today's drive ends at a Harvest Host location called Pop's Market, a Farmer's Market owned by Bill and Tammy McCallum, in Guy, AR where we will be staying and testing out our first night on the new generator.  

We arrived early enough for me to do a little shopping in their little Farmers' Market store.  I scored some white chicken chili and a couple of beautiful tomatoes to have with tonight's salad.   The store is filled with Tammy's homemade soups, chili, preserves, pecans and desserts.

It was 94 degrees when we arrived and oh so hot!  Our generator was working but was having trouble cooling (something we were doing wrong).  We were contemplating packing up and heading towards a regular campground with hookups when Bill, the owner, drove over in his golf cart.  He offered us his 50 amp hookup which we gratefully used for the night.

We had a nice visit with Bill and Tammy and a very restful COOL night. Thank you Bill and Tammy!

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Day 1 - The Beginning

We left Maurice, LA late, at 11:00 a.m. in the pouring down rain.  Its been raining at home for days and days with our pack days consisting of non-stop rain.  The gully washers made it really difficult to pack and haul for this trip.

We're finally on our way!  

Lucy loves to sit on my lap and see everything until she gets tired and climbs back into her bed for a nap.

Lucy loves to look out and watches everything going by.  She is so curious.

Our objective this trip is to travel using our Harvest Host Membership and stop at some of the Host sites along the way.  There weren't very many along our route that we found compatible with our needs, so we opted to stay at a state park.  We found a full hookup pull through site for the night at Caddo Lake State Park, Texas.  Clay has been wanting to stay at this campground for awhile now, so I was really glad we were able to do so.

Caddo Lake is a nice size park with a lot of hiking trails, ample places one can ride a bike and boat rentals.  We arrived here around 5 p.m. and was grateful to be able to sneak in a little walk before dark.

After setup, we had a really nice dinner at our table while we enjoyed our view of the woods. Clay was even able to watch a little bit of the Packers Game, so I caught up on stuff I needed to do with my free time.