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!