April 5 through 17

April 5, 2016, we headed out, stopping at the Interstate Battery place in Jasper.  The man came out and checked our batteries, said they were OK, and said we should go to an RV service place about 7 miles away.  We did, they were out of business, and it was back a 1 lane road and not a great place to turnaround.  We decided to keep going to Vidalia, LA.  We went about 230 miles, and checked into Riverview Campground, for 2 nights.  We went to Lil’ Dago’s and had fantastic pizza!

April 6, 2016

We got up and drove up to Lorman, MS, which is the home of ‘The Old Country Store’, better known as Mister D’s.  I’ve written much about this place in previous blogs.  We love it!

There was absolutely NO place to get RV service done, either in Vidalia, LA or Natchez, MS.  I did some research and discovered that Greywolf Mobile RV Services was in Vicksburg.  I called them and they said when we got in, let them know where we are and he’ll come take a look.  In the meantime we had talked to Murphy (Matthews RV Repair) a couple times, and he maintained that it was the batteries, no matter what that Interstate man said!

April  7 – hitched up the night before, and headed out to Vicksburg, to the Ameristar Casino RV resort.  We’d been there before and it is a nice clean park to use as a  base to ‘do’ the area.  Once we got settled in, we called Tom (Greywolf) and he came over immediately.  He looked at the batteries, said yes, that was the problem.  He left to get 4 new batteries, came back about 45 mins later and said they only had 3, but would have another in the morning.  He said he’d be back about 8 am. 

We met a really nice couple from Canada, Mike and Marilyn, and although they have our blog address and email and phone, I didn’t get their information!  We had a nice little yammer together, until it was time to hit the hay!

April 8 – Tom came back with the batteries, installed them, hung around and made sure they were charging properly then he took off.  We made the decision to stay another night to let them charge fully before we went up the road.

I unhooked the car and Marilyn and I did a WalMart run.  I had put a nice roast in the crockpot for dinner, and wanted some fixin’s to go with it J  She needed to grocery shop because their car was on a dolly and to unhook was a major undertaking.

When we got home, everyone had a bite of lunch, naps, then it was time for Happy Hour!  David and Mike had some 15 YO single malt Scotch, which they thoroughly enjoyed (Mike had it stashed until he found someone that liked it), while Marilyn and I enjoyed an ice cold beer, cashews and conversation!

April 9, 10, 11, 12 – We hitched up and left Vicksburg and made our way to Jeff Busby National Park Campground, free camping, no hookups.  It was a learning curve, but we figured out how to use our Inverter/batteries, making our days very enjoyable.  We were in our spot and set up by noon, and by 3pm the campground was FULL.  No reservations, so first come first served.  Do NOT wait until late afternoon to try to get a spot in one of the 3 free campgrounds going up the Natchez Trace.  I felt very sorry for the people that came later and had no place to park!

On Monday we got up to lots of rain, but we were expecting it, and had put away all our gear.  We decided to go for a drive, and David found a restaurant he wanted to try in a little town named Ackerman.  It was “Pop’s” and really, save your money.  Hole in the wall, over half the menu was not available, and NOT inexpensive!   

Tuesday we went down to French Camp, once again a place I wrote about extensively before.  We had lunch at Council Bluff’s House, where we shared a fantastic BLT (10 slices of bacon, heirloom tomatoes, homemade toasted bread, house made garlic mayo), and I had potato soup, David had Chili.  It was a delicious lunner, and dinner later on was popcorn J 

April 13 – We left Jeff Busby campground and headed to Arkabutla Lake COE park where we have a wonderful huge site, with water and 50 amp electric, for the princely sum of $10 per night.  We’re staying for a week! 

Weather is wonderful, cool enough that you don’t need the AC, and warm enough that you don’t need a jacket!  We did a drive around, a WalMart run, and went to Tunica MS to check out the casino’s.  We also went to the Horseshoe Casino in Robbinsville, because I had a $25 coupon for the seafood buffet.  I sat down at a penny machine, put in a 5, and won 20.  So for about $8.00 we had a great seafood dinner, and several hours of fun!  Can’t hardly beat that!

April 18 – Memphis, TN tour…stay tuned!