Crossville TN and a visit from Clif!

October 9th..Crossville, TN...Cumberland Mt State Park...Had a great evening last night! Great dinner, those were the best portabellas ever!  We turned on the heater in the camper as it was cold!  Actually for the first time since May or so I actually put on sweatpants!  We went to bed and watched a movie for a bit and then out we went.  Got up about 0630 to a cold morning, had our coffees and got ready for the day. 

Clif came to the campground around 1200, we chatted a bit and then Ken fired up the bar b q!  I have to say they smelled delicious and looked every bit as good! The boys seemed to enjoy them!  We had a really nice visit for a few hours, always good to see Clif!  

After he left, Ken and I looked at the maps planning our trip for tomorrow and then took a walk through the campground.  It is amazing how full this state park is with people camping!  It's really good to see and most of them have TN plates on their rv's..

Not to hungry this evening, so just gonna cook up a few veggie burgers and beans for us.  

I found my cable so am able to upload pics! Yay!!

Don and Dana, the first 4 are for u!! Click on the pic it will get bigger!

From your back deck

Your trees out front!

Your tree out front!

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Cross in Cookeville, TN

Color on a tree in Crossville, Tn

Our campsite!

Color in Cumberland Mt State Park

Clif

Clif and Ken 

Ken, Clif and me at Cumberland Mt State Park

Chasing the fall colors from Cornersville to Crossville, TN

Monday, October 8th..Cornersville, TN...Woke up this am to some rain and cold temps.  Took our time getting ready and decided to head for Crossville, TN where Ken's friend (and mine too)...Clif lives.  We are hoping to get together with him tomorrow before we head for the smoky mountains.  It's still cold, definitely fall is in the air!  

I took a few pictures this am before we left so I could show Don how his trees are slowly changing...got to the campground, snapped a few more and discovered I forgot the cord that plugs into the camera to download the pictures...I am soooo disappointed, because I plan on taking hundreds of pictures and was hoping to post them as I go!! Not happening I guess till we get back..so bummed!!  

The campground, Cumberland Mountain State Park is gorgeous!  So hard to believe how many people are here camped in this cold, damp and cloudy weather.  It is a beautiful campground, we drove through here with Clif when we were here a couple of months ago. The colors are outstanding, all the shades from yellow, to red and orange and still some green..I love Fall !!! 

We have the cabover and the truck this time...diesel was $3.89 in Cornersville.  Don sent a text this am showing gas prices over $5.00 in CA and he said some places are at $6.00. So we'll see as we go.  We both are thinking we can't afford to drive back to CA...may get stuck in the middle til our next paychecks...wow!  j/k....

We're going to have a dinner of marinated portabella mushrooms for dinner..should be yummy!!

Life is so good, onto a new adventure!!

Tupelo, MS to Cornersville, TN

October 5th...We left Tupelo, MS after spending the night in the Days Inn we stayed at in the beginning of our trip.  We went next door for dinner on the 4th..neither one of us were impressed...they make a better breakfast.  We decided upon leaving to just go to Mc Donalds and then stop somewhere along the way for lunch.  

On the road we had a beautiful drive through the rest of MS and then into AL. It was a few hours and just seemed to fly by!  We hit I65 and then we were really moving.  Saw alot of rv's and campers coming down the freeway. You don't seem to see as many here as you do in CA and NV.  Once we got to Don's we figured out they were headed to Talladega, AL for a race. 

We had lunch at a new Mexican (surprise, surprise) restaurant in Athens GA.  Yummy!  So brought the leftovers home to have later.  

Got back to Don's and just relaxed..the colors are just barely changing..Don's trees out front are a prettier shad of red than when we left.  There are also more leaves in the yard...Yep...Fall is here.

October 6th...got up this am to a really cold house, Nashville says it's about 40 degrees or so, it is overcast..Last night we had a great thunder and lightning show after we went to bed..shook the house a couple of times!!  

We stayed home all day, which was really nice.  Had some veggie burgers and oven baked fries for dinner..yumm!! 

Tomorrow the 7th is Lori's birthday. She'll be 34! Wow how time flies..we plan on a trip to WalMart to get supplies for our trip to the smokies this week! hoping the weather holds.

Vicksburg National Military Park to Tupelo, MS

Vicksburg, MS to Tupelo, MS today..Oct 4th...Had a lovely night in Vicksburg at the Days Inn..got up this am and went to the lobby to see what was up for breakfast...not..white toast and a few pastries...not working for us..so we went next door to the waffle house and we both had a great breakfast with real grits!  How do I know that? There were lumps and they were delicious!  We left and headed over to the Vicksburg National Military Park.. 

The park is incredible! We watched about a 20 min movie on the battle of Vicksburg..wow..the history there is something else!  We took the driving tour which was about 15 miles long and it took us more than a few hours! You could spend days seeing this park.  I love doing things like this, as you see so many other people there from so many other places just enjoying as we do..I'm stealing from my dear friend  Irene,,,"Now this is America!"  and I don't mean the fact that the Civil War was American upon American. It's the beauty of the National Park system! I can't explain the feeling it gives to see the history..

We left there knowing we had to drive to Tupelo, MS which was about 200 miles away and we wanted to take the Natchez Trace Parkway.  

Well, we made it so we can proudly say we have seen the 444 miles of the parkway from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS!!!  It was beautiful, I told Ken, it's like driving through a park the whole way, and not alot of traffic.

We are at the Super 8 we stayed at last week here in Tupelo. Nice motel, and the gas station has a restaurant we had breakfast at last week...Dinner tonight!

Tomorrow we head to Don's, should be an easy drive..can't wait to see how his trees have turned. 

Inside the visitor center of Vicksburg Military Park

Outside the visitor center

The state of Illinois has an impressive memorial to the Civil War Soldiers..

Inside the Illinois Memorial

Looking up through the hole in the top of the memorial

Ken inside the memorial

The Illinois Memorial...Incredible!!

The best part of the park....THE SHIRLEY HOUSE!!
Only surviving structure in the park.  Headquarters for Illinois.
Members of the military built shelters around it to protect themselves

General Ulyssess S Grant

The USS Cairo...It was sunk in Dec 1862 and brought back up 1964..

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The Cairo

This was the ships bell..they found it and after all these years there was
an air pocket inside..so the Yazoo river was bubbling when it
was brought up...so cool! And the bell is beautiful!

Sailors silverware..doesn't compare to the officers silverware..

US Marine Corps dress cap insignia

The ship exhibit...incredible!

The paddle wheels

2and 1/2 inch steel plates with 12 to 25 inch wood behind
so it wouldn't shred apart when hit with artillery!

Side of the ship

13000 of 17000 Civil War soldiers are unknown.  Beautiful cemetary

More of the unknown

There are some WWI, WWII and Korea veterans buried here
They stopped burials in 1961 when they ran out of plots

Don, thought you would like this!

And of course the Arkansas memorial!

America is so beautiful, and so glad we are getting to see alot of it on this trip.

From Natchez MS to Vicksburg MS

October 3rd...Had a good night at the Days Inn in Natchez, MS and a good breakfast at there at the motel.  Got out of there and thought we'd take a drive and see the antebellum homes.  We did, didn't go into any of them but drove by quite a few.  We parked and took a little walk through the town which was nice.  Natchez sits right on the Mississippi River so it's very nice.  Eventually it was getting late enough so we decided to have lunch "under the hill" the part that used to be the seedy side of town. Apparently Jerry Lee Lewis got his start down there before he moved on to Memphis. 

We ate at a place called the Magnolia Grill it was delicious, Ken had a good looking burger and I had the grilled portabella mushroom...yummmm.  We left there and found the Natchez Parkway and got about 60 miles under our belt.  

We drove to Vicksburg, MS about 16 miles off the parkway and are at another Days Inn.  This one overlooks the river and the room is incredible! I reserved a king size bed and when we got here, we told the woman checking us in how good their reviews were on trip advisor, so I guess she decided to give us best of the house.  From what I can see there are only two rooms that are like this. We have two couches, a four poster bed and it's huge! 

Talked to Russell and the boys last night along with Cheryl.  

Got a sad call after we went to bed, Bev Henderson passed away yesterday. They were camping and she got sick turns out she had a massive stroke. Gary called to tell me..so sad, she was a great friend, she and Gary didn't have much but they were always there for me.  

Well, this am we're going to the Vicksburg Battlefield and then back to the parkway..about 410 miles from here to Don's.  

Slave quarters at the mansion below

One of many antebellum homes in Natchez, MS

Anther one in Natchez, Rosalie is her name

Endicott home downtown historic district

Under the hill, Natchez, MS

To the left of this building is the Magnolia Grill..the little off white building..yumm

The only standing Inn along the Trace it's in  MS

Rooms inside the inn

Beds inside the inn

A bell out back of the inn..Don has one like it at his house in TN

The soap making machine...glad I don't have to do it that way!

The church

Sign from the Methodist Church above

Graveyard out back of the church...alot of babies :(

Our room at the Days Inn in Vicksburg, MS

The bridge from Vicksburg, MS to Louisiana from our room at the Days Inn...

The first mansion we saw in Natchez...