Taking a nice hike today on the Cub Creek Trail in the Natchez Trace State Park, I found that it is certainly not CO, or MT, or SD, or NM…but it is Tennessee. Probably more like Texas than any of the others, pretty flat but marshy in a lot of areas. I think there were probably a lot of Eagle Scout badges earned on these trails, plenty of bridges and walkways created with timber.
Turns out we were not as Far East as we had planned so the suggested local visits of Franklin, etc, will be visited on the way home after “Brett time”.
Tonight we also took the full plunge into redneck camping; after shopping at Walmart we have a potpourri of brats, grilled potatoes, mushrooms and onions…and the nice scent of smoked clothes for a wonderful sleep splendor. Bad news though, unless you are a raccoon…weenie down!
Lead on Queenie.
Wonderful stories from the Ranger, wait…what was the question?!
Driving day – Looking for that elusive temperature anywhere below “Hades room temperature”, we drove 325 miles east until we could actually turn the fan speed down to medium. We landed in this beautiful park and immediately fell in love…with the weather. As we set up, the temperature was a cool 85 with a nice breeze off the lake.
Our plan is to stay a couple of days and drive to recommended cities before escaping north; Leipers Fork, Jackson, Franklin…
Hopefully the weather stays reasonable, we may extend if so…other than no internet it’s perfect.
After several days off from any exercise at all, unless you consider trash eating strenuous, we decided to take a nice little hike into the woods. As mentioned yesterday, I told Joan if she was going to get her precious stamp then she had to earn the privilege to display it. Simple, she spoke to Ranger Marge and she gave us a nice 3.5 “less than difficult” hike with simple instructions to follow.
We decided that, yes that 3.5 average walk would have been great…we decided that after our “more than difficult” 8 mile hike half way around the mountain. Did you know that the colors on the trees actually mean something, well they do?! Little tip for you diabetic kids out there, always take extra snacks…you may need them.
Great news, we got to see some cool stuff…stuff Ranger Marge didn’t even mention.
As we ponder our next location we came to the conclusion we must get away from the heat. That is OK since our plan is to not have a plan. Where is it 75 degrees between us and Brett…help?
THE stamp.
More to come.
Why does every trail lead up?
The fun is just beginning, we just didn’t know.
Always the model.
Follow me, I have no idea where I’m going…but it is downhill.
I guess when you fly by the seat of your pants you don’t always get to do big kid stuff. What are the chances that in Hot Springs over Labor Day weekend that you couldn’t get a last minute massage, or scrub, or foot massage, or facial…pretty darn good as we found out, nada for Marco and Joanie.
Good news was that for a low price of $20 per person, plus tax, we could sit in 4 different temperature enhanced pools. Ok, we took the bait…not bad but still not a massage!
Hot Springs is really a great city, just wish we could have seen Babe Ruth and/or Al Capone…rumor is that they hung around these parts. Bet they got massages.
Best part of the day was going to lunch with my beautiful niece and her family. Just a few years ago I couldn’t have done this, but thanks to technology and the grace of God we were able to connect. She is my oldest brother Bernie’s daughter, Bernie passed in 1985 and it is such a nice thing to have part of him back. I know he would be so proud of the lady Samme is today.
Enough for tonight, tomorrow to the National Park to get Joan’s book stamped…I’ll make sure she earns it with a nice hike.
No massage for you!
How about a hot tub lady…it’s just as good?!
History still happened here, maybe not good but still standing.
What a day to start our next adventure. FOREVER, the weather has been hot and dry…not so much the forecast when we shoved off. We pondered whether we should wait a day and spend another day with Baby Fi, since Joanie retired not really much on our agenda.
So I asked my buddy Noah, nice guy big boat big beard, what he thought. He told me we should take off…”I don’t think the heavy stuffs gonna come down for quite a while.” Short story long, we made our 8 hour trip to Hot Springs in almost 9 1/2 hours.
We made it safely, little Al’s a “mudder” so he took every puddle and splash like a champ…he can’t wait for the next leg. Thanks, mom, for the prayers to start our trip…
1. The PB “Cozy Pom Pom Sherpa Throw” Kate & Blaine gifted me at Christmas. It seriously saved me from freezing to death some nights! It’s the softest thing ever. We had temps of high 30’s-40’s on many nights!
Small Airstream – 19’ Little Al seems small and yes, the bed is a double size so that did take some getting used to, but I just loved coming home to it every day. I got used to sleeping close to the space hog guy that I love.
Flatbread at Custer’s Battlefield Trading Post – I listened to a podcast that described this Indian Flatbread at the Trading Post and I just had to try it. It lived up to its expectations! It’s similar to a chalupa but instead of a crunchy tortilla shell, it’s on flatbread that tastes so dang good!
Rand McNally Map of 50 states. Best ever when WiFi is so spotty for research. Thank you Karen!
Cleanliness!! – I hate trash and the states we traveled to were so clean! The sides of the road did not look like Texas roads. How sad for Texas…”Don’t Mess With Texas” definitely needs a new slogan like “Don’t Mess An Opportunity To Throw Their Trash Out in Texas”. Come on Texas, we are better than that!
Finally we get Joan’s side, here we go…in Joan’s words:
Me?, Moi? A Guest Blogger he asks? Sure, I’ll take a shot at it although I don’t have the humor ol’ Marco does.
My Top 5 are a little different than Marc’s top 5.
1. South Dakota is number one on my list and it took me by surprise! I had always pictured SD as flat prairie lands with cattle grazing, but it’s so much more. It was my favorite state with a mix of beautiful grasses, Black Hill mountains, cool weather, Badlands National Park and quaint towns of Custer and Hot Springs. We stayed in a nice little campground in Custer, but next time (??) will stay in Hot Springs where The Mammoth Site is an active paleontological dig site, and boasts the largest concentration of mammoth remains in the world! I’ve got to see those mammoth bones and I know Marc will be 100% as excited as me, not…
2. Jenny Lake boat shuttle and hike to Inspiration Point for awesome panoramic views. Jenny Lake is part of the Grand Tetons National Park in Wyoming and is absolutely beautiful. I had a few friends recommend the lake and now I know why. The boat shuttle was fun and hiking to the top, which we HAD to do so I could check it off my list was breathtaking.
3. Pagosa Springs, CO – We’ve been there a few times, so it was a favorite stop to visit our friends. The first weekend was spent with me celebrating 2 friends turning the big 60. The big laugh was deciding on a hike. “Which way do we go, which way do we go?” Well, we ended up going opposite of where we were supposed to, but that didn’t stop us from having a nice little picnic at the Continental Divide near Beaver Creek, and seeing a pretty little waterfall on a short hike. It was a fun girls weekend with lots of excitement, some of it was games and alcohol related, and some was firetruck and ER related! I love those Texas girls! Later I shifted and joined Marc at another friend’s home and we hiked and played our new fav game, pickleball. Marc was idolized by a new friend Jeff with his beginner pickleball skills. I’ve got to give a shout out to Brenda and KayLane whose wonderful dinners have inspired me to try a little harder at cooking! PS is a cool community of fun people and I love that place.
4. Mt Rushmore – No need to describe this very much, but it was pretty awesome driving in the mountains of South Dakota to get there. You keep looking and looking for those faces and finally, there they are! This was on my bucket list and did not disappoint. It was really like, “Wow, how did they do that in the 1930’s?” They have set this National Memorial up very well with a nice little museum that has facts and video clips of the progress. Check!
5. Campground in Grand Tetons National Park – This was the only National Park that we could get a reservation at. Everyone is wanting to get out during this pandemic and since we didn’t have an exact travel plan, we weren’t able to reserve other parks. We stayed in the Colter Bay campground which was on the lake and was so pretty. It had a great camp store and even a restaurant for takeout which we did one night. The pine trees were so beautiful surrounding our Little Al. We would walk up to the picnic area and have our coffee while Marc would blog so he could get a WiFi signal. It was just a lovely campground except for staff scaring you to death about those damn bears!
Girls weekend.Girls weekend.Pickleball.Hiking.Jenny Lake.Jenny Lake.Pagosa house.The blogger at The Grand Tetons Park.Runner up – Sunsets #nofilterSouth Dakota – Little BighornMount Rushmore.SD OK…there are a lot of grass lands with cattleSD Badlands NPSD – Badlands Who is that Masked Bandit?Jenny Lake hike.
1. The Window Incident. Without placing any blame, let’s just say that “it could happen to anyone”. I would say, “I love my Joanie but sometimes she can be a little aggressive”. And on day 1!
2. Montana. Really, you couldn’t just have one road sign like all the other cool kid states?!
3. The Bear Spray. If only I could have sprayed one bear it could have been in the top 5. But since I now have a $49.99 can of worthless spray…
4. The Pandemic. Believe it or not, the media is not killing all of these people…there is something real in the air. Closures at just about everywhere we went left us wondering, what if…
5. The End. The worst part of starting a trip is…the end. We had so much fun, saw so much of our beautiful country, were able to visit friends while still social distancing and all of this with my best friend. Can’t wait for the next one.
