Day 212 – We’re leaving today so we should have a signal at some point and can publish the blog posts. We owe some phone calls and e-mail to people, also. Will catch up with that soon. We departed Reelfoot State Park at 10:15 a.m. after dumping tanks and getting fresh water. It was 46 degrees and partly cloudy.
165 miles
Reelfoot Lake State Park, North & South Campgrounds, (731) 538-3356 or (731) 253-8003, www.tnstateparks.com. There are two separate campgrounds, one near the top of the Lake and one at the bottom of the Lake. Both are operated out of the south campground which is located on a fairly busy highway with lots of activities & amenities, and there are 86 campsites without much privacy between sites. Busy location, The North Campground is where we stayed for five nights. It is small, quiet, private, and hardly anyone goes there because it’s in a fairly isolated area. We loved it. We had site #11; there are only 16 campsites with electricity & water, plus a few tent, primitive sites with no hook-ups. There is a dump station at the campground and a boat launch. Off-season rate was $20 & change per night. A very convenient location from either campground for visiting Reelfoot and Lake Isom National Wildlife Refuges. We would definitely stay there again.
It wasn’t long before we crossed the Mississippi River and entered Missouri. From then to close to our destination, the land was flat as a pancake, then we approached the rolling hills of the Ozarks.
Crossing the Mississippi again. This time East to West
We made several stops which caused our travel time to be longer than expected. We went to a weigh station and had the RV & tow car weighed and found we were weighed down more than what’s recommended in the rear (found out we have too much junk in our trunk) – we will work on moving things around a bit. We stopped at the only grocery store within many miles – a Walmart – and stocked up on some stuff, and we had lunch. We finally arrived at Wappapello State Park at 2:35 p.m., 55 degrees, partly cloudy.
When we were here last month, the Park Office was closed, it was off-season, and most of the campgrounds were closed. This time we were able to talk to a Park Ranger who allowed us to drive through all the campgrounds and loops, with a map where she’d crossed off the campsites which were already reserved for any time during our stay. We picked a great campsite, #41, paid for 5 nights at $12 per night with senior discount, in-season rates; excellent price. Our site is large and no other campsites are near us, it’s on a hill & overlooks Lake Wappapello (with lots of trees in between), it has electric hook-ups, and there’s water spigots & a dump station near by. Behind where the RV is parked there’s a deck with picnic table & grill overlooking the Lake. At this time no one is camping in this loop at all; the campsites that are occupied are at the Lake campground. We are at the Ridge Campground.
We unpacked and settled in, then we sat outside on the deck. There were lots of birds flying around and lots of squirrels rummaging through the fallen leaves on the ground. The girls have lots of sun at this site and were quickly rolling around on the dashboard in glee. All is well.
Red-Headed Woodpecker, Lake Wappapello State Park, Williamsville, MO