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
KAYAKING AT THE NWR.
Day 211 – Beginning of Week 31. Got up this morning to a sunny day, 30 degrees. It just may warm up enough for us to go kayaking. Tomorrow we leave Tennessee, starting our journey north to get the work done on the RV. We’ll be going back to Wappapello State Park and Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Missouri. We were only there for a short visit about a month ago when we stopped there on our way to the St. Louis area. We decided to take a few spare days and go back again on our way north.
REELFOOT LAKE VISITOR’S CENTER, LAKE ISOM NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, ETC.
Day 210 – Brrrr, 22 degrees this morning, partly cloudy and windy. But the heat is working in the RV. YAAAA. We had another Wildlife Refuge to visit today. The weather is supposed to be warmer tomorrow, our last day here, and we wanted to go kayaking, weather permitting. We wanted to finish visiting all the places in this area so we could determine which place would be the best place to go kayaking.
Day 209 – 28 degrees when we woke up this morning, and snow on the ground. And it kept on snowing for a couple of hours. In addition, we didn’t have heat last night so it was quite cold in the RV. Rob installed the new control board and we soon had heat again. But when he went outside to do that chore, he noticed that we had a flat tire on the Honda. Another one. Mr. Fix It was busy this morning. Meanwhile, it stopped snowing and the sun came out.
REELFOOT LAKE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE.
Day 208 – We have very little connection here for either internet or phone. That means we don’t know when we’ll be able to publish the blog posts. It may be days…….
Day 207 – We departed the campground at 10:30 a.m. after getting fresh water and dumping. It was cloudy and 42 degrees. The drive was quite similar to what we’ve been seeing lately in TN and traffic was light. Reelfoot Lake State Park has two campgrounds, both on the Lake. The North Campground was the original site of the State Park, then when they opened the South Campground, they moved the Visitor’s Center, Park Offices, and most of the amenities down there to the newer site. We didn’t know which campground we wanted to stay at, and decided to check out the more-isolated North Campground first. If we didn’t like it, we’d stay at the larger, more popular South Campground.
122 miles
BIG SANDY UNIT – TENNESSEE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE.
Day 206 – Last night was scary – there was a pack of coyotes very near the campground and their howling so close to us was creepy. Freaked the cats out, too. Much colder today, but gorgeous out. Sunny and a high of 50 degrees. We spent the entire day slowly driving the various roads throughout the several sections within the Big Sandy Unit of the TN NWR.
DUCK RIVER UNIT – TENNESSEE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE.
Day 205 – It was around 50 degrees this morning when we got up, cloudy. A front is coming through & it will be warm today, rain tonight, and tomorrow should be sunny & beautiful. Today we’ll go to the Tennessee NWR Unit closest to the campground, Duck River. There hasn’t been much information about this Unit, so we don’t know what we’ll find. It’s primarily for hunting and fishing. The Unit farthest south is fairly unaccessible, so we’re confining our visits to Duck River today and the much larger Big Sandy Unit with its new Visitor’s Center and lots to do, all day tomorrow; it is located about an hour north of our campground.
Day 204 – Beginning of Week 30. Rained during the night, 40 degrees and cloudy at 8 a.m. this morning. We sat around in the RV catching up on some things online. It rained a little bit here & there. We had chores to do, and since it was supposed to rain most of the day, we headed to the closest town of any size, Camden, TN. First priority – coffee beans – we were almost out and this could be critical. We had to do laundry, one of our least favorite chores, but the laundromat we found was located next door to a Pizza Hut – that made it better. Then off to get gas in the Honda and to buy a few items, including the coffee beans, at Walmart.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HELEN! WE HOPE IT’S PURRRFECTLY WONDERFUL!
Also, to those who celebrate it, HAPPY EASTER! And then there’s APRIL FOOL’S DAY, too.
Day 203 – Supposed to rain today, a good day to move to the next destination, a campground near to the three units within the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge. We are slowly working our way to Elkhart, Indiana, refuge by refuge, towards our first appointment for work to be done on the RV. It was 49 degrees and cloudy at 11:35 a.m. when we left the Elk Harbor Campground, after dumping tanks & refilling the fresh water.
60 miles