Tupelo, Mississippi

     We are definitely well into the South. We passed through the corner of Arkansas and are now in Tupelo, Mississippi. I can remember thinking I was so smart when I learned to spell Mississippi, now it is just a long word to type. We have been listening to the local news. Sometimes we find the broadcasters in smaller communities to be very professional. Tonight the weather forecaster was just a hoot. He had innumerable stumbles and a really convoluted explanation of why it will be cooler in a few days. Whatever the explanation, we will be grateful to have some cooler weather. I have been talking to friends and family at home and hear that Minnesota is having some really hot weather too, so we would be uncomfortable there as well.
     This portion of the Trace had dense forest that was right up to the road in many places. We have been noticing more mosquitoes and thought about how buggy it must have been for the travelers who were walking mile after mile on a narrow path in the dense woods. We stopped at several springs today where entrepreneurs had built small “stands” for travelers to spend the night and get a meal. One of the very popular "stands" provided "entertainment." Hmmm!
    For lunch we planned to picnic at Tishomingo State Park which was just off the Trace. The park had many areas and buildings developed by the CCC in the 30’s. It offered a bunch of cabins that can be reserved, as well as a small campground. Rick asked about picnic grounds and was given a map. The lady at the desk assured him that we could get into the picnic sites. Well, we drove past the picnic shelters and never found a place that would work for us to pull off the road. We kept driving through the park and ended up in the cabin area. No place to turn around. One drawback to our new camper arrangement is that we can’t back up with the car attached. We were clearly warned NOT to do this or we would damage the expensive hitch arrangement. We were about ready to detach the car so we COULD back up and get back out to the highway when Rick found a slightly wider spot and with great finesse managed to get us circled around and back out the way we came. Taking the car off and rehitching it would not have been awful, just really tedious on a hot day. 

     I did not make many reservations at campgrounds for this trip. I figured that it is early in the summer and is a less traveled area. I have been calling one day ahead. Good thing I did that for our current spot in Tupelo. We are at the only campground for about 3 hours in all directions. If we didn’t have a reservation we would have been driving quite a bit longer today. Most campgrounds in this area have sites by the day, week and month. Many folks in RV’s come here to live for months at a time. Some of the RVers from campgrounds along the Mississippi have relocated due to the flooding. We now have reservations for the next three days so that we won’t be stuck in a Walmart parking lot.