One thing we've learned about overnighting at airports.

It's been four and a half weeks since we left Ottawa and headed to the abnormally cold south east in the motorome. Yesterday, we drove west from Louisiana into Texas and it's been our warmest day yet, with a high around 24C (75F), we were able to open the windows and and still have our t-shirts on.

Finally! But, it didn't start off that way...

Never seen such a big spider web...

Kind of a coasting day yesterday. Nice to have those every now and again, although we still managed to get out and get some exercise. Went out before lunch and did a 5 km (3 mile) hike. Didn't really stop to take many pictures though.... did it more to get out and get the heart pumping.

And after lunch I took our oven burner apart yet again, and did some more adjusting.

This time, I got it right!

One of the things I love about traveling in an RV

Yesterday morning, we headed west through Alexandria, Louisiana early before there was any traffic. Stopped at the Home Depot and used their fast free wifi for a while before going in the store and buying a couple of things we need to finish up a few things on Sherman's interior.

Then, we went to the nearby Bed Bath and Beyond store. We had received a package from Amazon  the other day. We bought a new silk filled duvet for our bed. But now, we needed a duvet cover.

Another great overnight spot!

We were on a mission to avoid some heavy rain. Well, not avoid it I suppose, but at least be parked somewhere on solid ground.

Here in Louisiana, at 60 feet above sea level, puddles tend to form easily! And we didn't want to be parked in some forest campground on low land with a muddy dirt road.

We took the money and ran!

We made it out to do some exploring at around 10:30am. We were waiting for the sun to come out, but it didn't look promising!

I have to admit, we expected it to be warmer getting this far south. But, that's the problem with the southern U.S... decent weather is not guaranteed in the winter. One of the reasons we love Mexico in the winter. Once you are in that country,  you can have whatever weather you want within a four hour drive.

10 days on the Natchez Trace Parkway

We made a 20 mile (32 km) detour off the Trace yesterday to take in a ruins site that Ruth had read about.

Another really interesting story, where this wealthy landowner had built himself a huge mansion back in 1861. After completing the mansion, he died at age 34 only weeks later! The mansion survived the turmoil of the Civil War, only to be destroyed by fire when it accidentally burnt to the ground in 1890.

Clinton, Mississippi is worth a stop...

The city of Jackson, Mississippi (pop 170,000) didn't really offer much that we were interested in, plus the Natchez Trace Parkway goes around the outskirts of the city so we didn't feel the need to go off course too much when we were going through that area.

However, Ruth had seen a media display at the visitors center in Kosciusko that advertised the town of Clinton, which is sort of a suburb of Jackson.

A friendly welcome to Madison, Mississippi

We left Jeff Busby Campground early, hitting the road just after 8:00am. Nice clear blue sky all day, but still a little on the cool side. First stop was French Camp, a sort of recreation of old buildings from the 1800's.

They have a sort of visitors center there as well, but I think I read that it doesn't open until 10:00am.

The batteries will do for another six months or so...

Definitely a nicer day yesterday, with the temperature going up to about 63F (17C). We had already decided to make Monday a non-driving day, and just relax at the Jeff Busby Campground. We took our time getting outside, and finally went out to enjoy the day at about 11:00am.

Not many places to hike in this park, so we did the same route we had done on Sunday, but in reverse. Because we needed some exercise!

Note to self: Don't plan to purchase propane on a weekend!

Slept great at the Tupelo airport, and took off fairly early in Sherman to get to Jeff Busby Campground at a decent hour. We had a turkey to cook!

We had bought a 12 lb frozen turkey on Friday, and it was busy thawing all day Saturday. Of course the inside of the motorhome was about the same temperature as the inside of the fridge Saturday night! So it wasn't in any risk of going bad but we wanted to cook it as soon as possible and if we were going to have Sunday roast dinner it needed to get in the oven round 3:00pm.

Being tourists in Tupelo

Yesterday morning, we drove over to the airport, just to check out if it would be any good to park for a night. We've parked overnight at many small airports, but Tupelo, Mississippi is a little larger of a city. Sure enough they have a decent sized parking lot and less than half full. And, from where we parked, we got a good free wifi signal from the terminal.

I went inside the very quiet terminal and looked for somebody to ask. But couldn't find anybody. I finally went to one of the two car rental counters and explained to the lady that we wanted to park overnight.

Through Alabama and into Mississippi

Our internet allotment was getting low, and we rely on being connected. And Verizon doesn't make it easy to have an online account when you are a Canadian citizen, so we couldn't recharge our pay as you go data pack without finding an actual Verizon store.

Having used cellular internet in many different countries, I have to say that they sure do make it difficult and expensive both in the U.S. and in Canada. Must be something to do with too many rules. Looking forward to getting into Mexico where it's easy and cheap!

Not the nicest overnight stop... but it's not all bad

Only a short drive for us yesterday, just enough to change locations.

Actually, we were on a bit of a mission to empty our holding tanks. They weren't really that full... but we both were due for showers and that would fill up the grey tank to the point where we would want to empty it.

I had read about Laurel Hill Lake which was just off the Trace. We headed there first.

It might take us two weeks to do the Natchez Trace!

The rain stopped, but the skies never really cleared up. Still, it gave us a chance to get out and do some hiking. We chose the loop trail that goes around the property here at Meriwether Lewis Campground on the Natchez Trace Parkway.

Still a little chilly, but so long as there is no snow, and we can hike... we're doing fine!

We don't find it any hardship to be boondocking

Yesterday was a rain day. It was pouring before we woke up, and it continued to rain on and off until well after lunch. We had already made the decision to simply stay put, so we had an indoor day. Other than a few strolls to the bathroom, we didn't even get out for a walk.

That's not like us, but a one day break isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Fast cars and a slow motorhome

We were up just after 6:00am yesterday morning. We had been parked right beside the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky and we wanted to be there right when it opened at 8:00am.

Sure enough, we were pretty much the first paying customers of the day, although there were quite a few people around because they had a staff meeting just finishing up when we arrived.

It's gonna get chilly...

Interesting weather forecast as a cold front is moving into a big part of the eastern U.S.... and we're going to try to avoid the worst of it! I see that Lexington, KY will have a high around 66F (19C) today, but by Wednesday it will only be 46F (8C) and by Friday 34F (1C). Yep, that's the high.

Yikes. So we did some driving yesterday, and we'll do some more today. Gotta head further south!

We're here to see the moonbow!

Just a short drive yesterday to Cumberland Falls State Resort Park.

The campground here is open year round, which we found kind of strange since most of the sites are geared towards small trailers or tents. But, they are on a self pay system in the winter and the water lines are shut off. Most sites have both 20 and 30 amp electric, and one site even has 50 amp, even though a big rig might have a difficult time getting up here.

Also, all sites are at a flat fee $20 USD ($26.40 CAD) per night. We wouldn't normally pay that much, but there's a reason we are here!

All Aboard the Pequod: Travelling from the Great Lakes to Java with the Moby Dick Crew

Seafaring has always captivated humankind as a means of travelling and exploring – and few literary works depict life at sea better than the renowned novel Moby Dick. As avid travellers ourselves, we decided it would be fun to board the novel’s whaling ship Pequod (in our imagination) and discover the most fascinating spots along its route.

No luck at the RV junk yard

We packed up and left Koomer Ridge Campground yesterday morning. We weren't going very far... there was another trailhead only about 3 miles (5 kms) to the Gray's Arch trailhead that one of our readers had enthusiastically recommended.

We had to take a potholed dirt road to get to the parking area.

Hiking in Daniel Boone National Forest

We did a short 2.5 mile (4 km) hike yesterday morning, came back to the motorhome for lunch, and then went out for another fairly short hike in the afternoon.

They were calling for some showers yesterday afternoon, but we only had a few drops despite it being a generally overcast day.

November Expenses

Here's our November expense report.

Considering we were the first two weeks of the month in expensive Barbados, I suppose it's not too bad. But it's still a little higher than we were planning for. It's easy to see where the problem is...we've spent money on things that we're not using yet! That, plus the Canadian dollar has dropped in value again, meaning that everything we buy in U.S, dollars is that much more expensive.

We spent a total of $2,873 CAD ($2,270 USD) for the month.

Great site at Koomer Ridge Campground

We got packed up and left our friends' house in Lexington at about 10:00am. We decided to backtrack a little bit because we wanted to see some more of Kentucky, and the Red River Gorge area in Daniel Boone National Forest was only an hour or so away.

I had read about a good National Forest campground called Koomer Ridge... so that's where we headed. And we wanted to get there fairly early in order to hopefully get a good site.

Gluten free lunch, and Southern Lights

Spent some time yesterday cleaning up Sherman. We had gone on some wet dirty roads before arriving here and he needed a sponge bath before we could carry on!

Plus, I've got a few motorhome improvement jobs lined up for when we're parked up for any length of time, so I got one of them done yesterday as well.

Finally, a visit to downtown Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington is all about the horses. But the famous and popular Kentucky Horse Park is located a fair bit outside the north end of the city, and often many travelers and tourists don't spend much time in the city itself.

And we were exactly the same. We have been through, to, or around Lexington a couple of times before. But we had never made it downtown!

Lexington, Kentucky is having some great weather!

Finally seems like we've traveled far enough south, and that cold band we were in seems to have lifted. Nice bright sunny day yesterday and the sunshine is forecast for the next few days with highs around 15C (60F). Beautiful.

Staying with our friends here in Lexington and it was a perfect day to go to the park and feed the ducks...

In to Kentucky, and some cheap gas!!

It's funny, but we've been to Lexington, Kentucky several times... yet we've never been to downtown Lexington. We're staying on the southern outskirts of the city this time so maybe we'll take a day and head into the central area to see what there is to see.

We woke up yesterday morning by the river in St. Albans, West Virginia. I peaked my head out the window to see if the sun was coming up yet...

The Wonderbag!

When we were in Europe, we learned about a simple method of slow cooking that uses very little energy. The Wonderbag.

Being frugal RV'ers who like to conserve energy while boondocking, Ruth thought this might work really well. She often makes a stew, or curry, or other crockpot style dish. Our Wonderbag was delivered when we were at Connie and Barry's house last Monday, and so we tried it out on Tuesday!

Great views, and another free overnight spot!

We got up yesterday morning, and drove the short distance to the New River Gorge visitors center. We knew that it didn't open until 9:00am, so we sat in Sherman and had some breakfast. When we were ready, we went up to the entrance.

"Closed due to Thanksgiving. Will re-open Friday at 9:00am".

Hmph.

There are no straight roads in West Virginia!

Which is fine.... Sherman likes driving on curvy mountain roads.

We've never spent any time in West Virginia. In fact, our only recorded travel here was through a tiny corner of the state back in 2010. And we don't think we stopped. So really, this is our first time here.

Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike Tunnel

Woke up at 6:30am yesterday morning, put the heat on and went back to bed for another 20 minutes. It was a bit chilly on top of the mountain! But the skies were clear and it wasn't long before the sun was shining in Sherman's windows.

It was close to 10:00am when we headed down the mountain to try and find the abandoned highway tunnel.

A great travel day, and a good boondocking spot

Yesterday was the first day that we truly felt we were back to our style of RV travel. A short travel day on back country roads, followed by a hike and boondocking on top of a mountain.

In a word, fantastic!