Sunday 4-9-23 Happy Easter/ Traveling from Arkansas to Tennessee

 

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a happy Easter, we did. The day started out with drizzle. It was overcast all day until we got to our next destination and the clouds rolled out.

We spent the night in the Walmart parking lot in Hope, Ar. It was great sleeping weather, about 60 degrees. Once in awhile we heard trains but it was early and they were far off in the distance, kind of nice actually. Sometimes sleeping at Walmart can be noisy but this store was terrific, it was far enough from the freeway we didn't hear the traffic and they had a designated area for 18 wheelers, they even had barriers that prevented them from getting into the main parking area. Sometimes there are kids in cars making lots of noise, we had none of that. We slept very well.

Larry woke up at his normal time and read our e-mails, checked the weather and read his news groups. He basically did his normal morning routine. I crawled out of bed about 7:30,  got dressed and started putting things down or away so they won't fall. Larry helped and programmed our route. Once the Minnie was ready we were back on the road.

We left Walmart about 8:00. Before leaving Hope we stopped by Tasty Donuts for breakfast. Larry drove another long day. He drove 375 miles and for over eight hours. We started in Arkansas and ended up in Tennessee. We drove interstates. There were a couple of accidents so there were delays. We were grateful we had our GPS that warned us about the delays and how long they were. The first one was by Memphis but we were able to take a highway that took us around the accident. It wasn't even out of our way. We drove it for a few miles and went back on the interstate. The next one was by Jackson. It was where there was some construction and it slowed us down for about twenty minutes. When we drove where the accident was you couldn't tell what happened. 

During our adventure we stopped now and then to stretch our legs, get gas, bathroom breaks and have lunch. We have the Minnie so we don't even have to go inside the gas station or a fast food place because everything is right in the Minnie. We didn't see too many wildflowers, I guess it's too early because the trees were just starting to get their leaves and blooming. I slept most of the way. We knew we were leaving Arkansas and entering into Tennessee because we crossed a huge bridge that goes over the Mississippi River. The view of the Mississippi River is very nice. 

 

Bridge over the Mississippi River

 

Welcome to Tennessee sign

We arrived at Natchez Trace State Park around 4:00. The road to the park went through a residential area and there were no speed limit signs and no signs to the park. It was very confusing. Once at the park the signage was small, hard to read and not very helpful. Larry had done research on the park via the internet so he knew which campground we wanted and this entrance took us to the campground we didn't want. Larry talked to the host, he had very little knowledge of the park or the area. The host told us the office and lodge were both closed but Larry drove to the lodge and they were open, he got a site for three nights and got information about the hiking trails and the park facilities. We could have made reservations online but Larry really wanted to use an office so he could talk to someone about the park and obtain maps.

The lodge

 

Welcome to Natchez Trace State Park

I helped Larry back the Minnie into the site. Then he plugged it into power. After setting the Minnie up we had dinner. I heated up baked ziti. 

After dinner I walked around for a half hour to check out the hiking trail. They have a lot of hiking. The trail I checked out went 5.5 miles around the lake. I didn't hike much of it. In order to get to the trail you have to cross the lake via one of the two bridges. One went to the cabins and the other went to the day area.  The day area was very nice. It had a building where you can rent paddle boats, kayaks and canoes. The picnic area went along the bank of the lake. There was a beautiful visitor center that's closed. I had a nice walk.

Rentals on the lake

 

Visitor Center

 

Cub Lake

 

 A bridge in the day area

 

 The bridge to the cabins

 

A cabin looking over the lake

When I got back I finished doing my steps. I ended up doing 21,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group for the week with a total of 184,341 steps.