Sunday, March 17, 2024 -Pin Oaks Campground, Natchez Trace State Park, TN, Day 2 - 0 Miles, 5,775.6 Miles for the trip
My stomach survived the BBQ. By 12:00 we went from a full campground to 3 trailers left in this section, and a couple in the section next door.
I decided to do a load of laundry since the machines were $2.00 each, but discovered that I was out of Tide pods. The dryer takes 2 $2.00 runs on high heat to dry a normal washer load of clothes.
I packed up the laptop & both modems and headed to Walmart 10 miles away. Of course I bought more than the pods, but then sat in the parking lot, fired up the modems & had a usable signal on the AT&T. It wouldn't do FaceTime with either my daughter Karin in Takoma Park, MD or the Guidos somewhere in Florida, but voice worked OK.
Back at the campground I started the 30 minute timers for the heaters in the bathroom (there are 2 gas fired heaters, one for the main area & another for the showers). Started a load of laundry next door, then headed for a shower. Not bad for a state park. No bench in the drying area, but a high shelf that is reachable from the shower, particularly because there is no shower curtain. About 1/2 the drying area floor gets wet. 3 Hooks, no shelf in the shower. Good low volume shower head, and plenty of adjustable hot water. While there is no bench in the drying area, there are 4 showers, and a bench outside the shower drying areas that runs the length of the showers and gets most of the heat from the gas fired heater. Overall a B.
Since I washed the pants I was wearing, a deciding factor on the replacement pair was tomorrow's weather report. Morning temperatures at Henry Horton State Park (tomorrow's stop) will be 23°F. While I won't be getting there until at least noon so it is likely that it will be warmer, the high is only going to be 47°F, and the next couple of days have highs in the 50's, so my flannel lined cargo pants seemed to make the most sense.
Not all that warm here at 58°F at 2:00, but no wind, so I sat outside reading. I finished Screwed, the second (and last) in the series by Eoin Colfer. I'm also listening to one of his audio books - Highfire. I usually try to avoid the same author on both, but they are different enough that there is no confusion between the two. I started The Exchange of Princesses by Chantal Thomas. It was a slow start, and I found a copy of Steve Berry's The Omega Factor in the laundry room & decided to read an actual book. The princesses will have to wait. An interesting observation - my Kindle is set up so that the time is at the top of the page. I have become so used to looking at the top of the page for the time that I keep doing it reading the paper book. Somehow that doesn't work!
Anyhow, I opened the truck tailgate to pull out my second favorite chair (my favorite is a rocker, but a pain to open & close. As a slid out the chair a mouse jumped out of it. The chair is an air cushioned version that has an air bladder behind the 2 layers of the back cover. The mouse chewed through the back, filled it full of stuffing, and moved in. He couldn't have been there long - I used the chair at Village Creek. In any case, he jumped out and ran into the truck bed. I opened the folding bed cover & pulled out everything without finding the mouse. Finally, I thought like a mouse & looked in the hollow handle of my jack. The mouse was looking back at me. He wouldn't shake out, but a baseball like swing sent him flying into a tree. Unfortunately for him, he didn't recover. So, I tossed the chair & put everything back in the truck. I didn't get in as much reading as I expected.
Still no internet connection at the campsite, so I'll make a trip to the lodge to post this & check my mail after dinner.
Dinner was a Butterball turkey burger and the rest of a batch of fresh asparagus.
Until Tomorrow -
