Roaming Free In An RV

Greetings from Tennessee…no…Mississippi. It gets confusing when we live in one state but our mailing address is for another state. A common occurrence down here due to mail delivery. It’s equally confusing that grocery shopping takes place in Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi, depending on the store we need. Just Southern Living we guess!

Our RV is tucked away in storage as we have on site housing at the marina. That means, Buckley had to get used to another new space and this time, that took awhile. He’s all happily settled in now and has his favorite napping spots based on the sun. Sunny days, he’ll be on a pillow absorbing the sunlight or in his hammock. Cloudy days, he’ll be under the covers. We wish we could hide under the covers too on cold, cloudy days. The hard life of a cat. 💙

Winter weather here in the south is definitely warmer than the Midwest but definitely not as warm as Florida. We’ve had to wear winter hats and gloves more than we thought but snow is pretty uncommon here so that’s a big plus. January and February are the coolest months here so it will be interesting to see what spring and summer are like. One weather report we didn’t anticipate was tornados. We’ve been told it’s uncommon but since January, the tornado siren has gone off three times. Luckily, no touch down occurred. If tornadoes happen in the winter, what’s going to happen in the spring and summer? Yikes!

Exploring around here has been good, as we have been to states we haven’t previously visited. We have driven through Mississippi but hadn’t explored the state. Our first hike was at Tishomingo State Park, just across the border for us. It’s a small state park with multiple trails, including a portion of the Trails of Tears. The day we went was chilly so we saw a couple small frozen waterfalls and the geology was pretty with large boulders and raised cliffs.

Alabama was a new state for us to visit and not only have we been there twice to donate blood, it’s where our favorite grocery store is. It’s an hour drive but we manage to go once a month since the local grocery stores do not carry a few items we like. We tend to head to Cane Creek Nature Preserve first and hit the store after. The nature preserve is really awesome because not only does it have lots of hiking trails and is free, it’s run by a couple that just wanted to preserve the land. How cool is that? We’ve explored multiple trails there, seeing waterfalls and a cool small creek with portions of clear, emerald water.

Another spot we like in that area is William Bankhead National Forest. Driving to the trailhead is tricky and thank goodness for Alltrails, which gives perfect directions. The parking lot is a small dirt patch off the gravel road with no signage. The only indication that it’s a trail is a couple of parked cars. The forest is bland with fallen trees and bare branches, one would not think anything exciting awaits. The closer we got to the waterfalls, the more the scenery change. Dark green moss, boulders, jagged cliffs and a rushing stream. The waterfall itself was impressive. Glacier green and blue color water flowed heavily down into to stream where one can it for hours. Listening to the calming, steady sound of the waterfall and the cool forest air. We saw two waterfalls that day and cannot wait to go back to see more.

Also, in Alabama we toured a Frank Lloyd Wright house called The Rosenbaum. The house was built in 1939 and was home to a family of 6 until it was donated to the city in 1999. We’ve always enjoyed Wright’s designs and it was neat to learn how he built houses to match the landscape and all the small and big details he thought of were amazing.

For Brad’s birthday in December, we went to Ole Miss. This campus is the cream of Southern charm and is famous for The Grove, a pretty tree filled area for tailgaters. We had dinner in the charming square, walked about the lovely campus, and watched the basketball team lose to UFC. Oh well, teams have good games and bad games.

We’ve been to Tennessee before but not this side of the state, which is much different than the Smoky Mountains. We have small hills here no mountains but there are still lots of outdoor activities. We’ve been to Memphis to watch a basketball game, rediscovered why the Nutcracker ballet is so enjoyable and dined at a local favorite restaurant, listening to live music.

All the state parks are free in Tennessee (the ranger looked at us funny when we inquired about buying a pass, lol). Pickwick State Park is close by from and is good for a quick, after work hike. The paper mill is down the street from there so it might be a bit, um, unpleasant at times😝 Big Hill Pond State Park is the other Tennessee park we like to hike. They offer lots of trails, from a secluded hilly trail to a popular boardwalk hike over a swamp , leading to the top of a fire tower.

We definitely have a lot more exploring to do around here and have found some great trails for the summer. Spring colors of purple, white, and green are slowly popping up and sunnier days are approaching.