Covid started ramping up as we reached South Carolina, we had just left Daytona. It was the second day of Bike Week when we left. By the end of Bike Week they were already shutting down vendors. By the time we were due to leave Lakewood Campground Myrtle Beach was starting to shut down beaches, the campground decided not to open the stores and cafe’s they had, the office was limiting access, and the St. Patricks Day Walk in Murrells Inlet was cancelled.
Our next stop was set to be my brother’s for a week in Charleston SC. They were still working so we weighed the pros and cons, talked to my Brother and Sister-in-law about their opinion and decided to continue as discussed. We were pretty careful even in the house we maintained a social distance, we used one bathroom that we kept clean. We still went for a few motorcycle rides, stopped at a few breweries but still maintained social distancing. We were only supposed to be there a week then go to a campground in GA for a week to spend time with Bill’s Sister Deb. GA was ramping up pretty fast so we opted to stay at my brothers another half a week and made plans to stay at Mountain Glen in Tennessee to sort of wait out Covid and to see if the Canadian border would reopen so we could go to Alaska as planned.
While in Tennessee we still practiced social distancing but we did go for motorcycle rides, exploring the area while taking precautions, maybe not enough for some of you out there but it worked for us. The roads in Tennessee did not disappoint, they are some of the most windy and mountainous roads around! We met some real nice people while at Mountain Glen, work campers that were there, Nelson and Lynn, another couple from NJ, a couple from GA as well as a couple from NH. We also were able to visit a few breweries while in Tennessee, some we could have a drink at others we could only take out. Our favorites were Calfkiller in Sparta, Monkey Town in Dayton, Five whits and Naked River in Chattanooga, we even tried some Chattanooga Whisky! We also checked out several waterfalls. Another thing we did to occupy our time was to research the toy haulers we looked at at the Tampa RV Show. We started talking about it again when we were at my brothers as he is thinking about getting one too. We continued to talk about it and even located a dealership in Knoxville that carried the brand we were interested in. Lazy Days in Knoxville was the only dealer around that carried models similar to what we wanted. Long story short, we ordered a new RV due to arrive in August. So at this point we have given up on Alaska and have decided to stay in Tennessee to be back to Knoxville for August.
Even though Mountain Glen doesn’t have a pool it didn’t matter as it was alway 5 degrees cooler on the Cumberland Plateau than in the valley.
We stayed a few days in Alabama at a resort that is part of Ocean Canyon Resorts. They are similar to a time share in that you purchase a site but also you can stay at their other campgrounds or affiliates. The campground was ok, but honestly what they want you to pay I would not pick Mountain Lake as our home campground. The nicest thing about it is it was right on the Tennessee River but the river is pretty dirty.
We have not been to Memphis before so we chose our next campground in the proximity to Memphis. We found a campground in West Memphis, if you are like me you would have thought this was still in Tennessee. Nope, here is a little geography lesson…. You have Memphis TN, West Memphis Arkansas, and South Memphis Mississippi. All bordering each other. Tom Sawyer Campground is located right on the Mississippi River, this place by far has the largest sites with easy access. They even situate the sites so that, which are all pull through, so that if you have a fifth wheel you pull in from the opposite direction so that if you have a large back window you can see the river. The river is too swift to swim or kayak, however we did get to watch tug boats all day long and some where very large. They also offer free laundry, no one does that!! This is kind of where the niceness wears off. There are very few trees, none in the section we were in so it is very hot! They don’t have a pool and the bathrooms were few and far between and just ok. The other nice thing along with the river they had 3 ponds on site where you could fish and they were loaded with turtles. I for one enjoy watching the turtles. It was good for walking and as we found out just before we were getting ready to leave it was also connected to bike trails. We were able to go for a few rides but had we found out earlier we could have ridden our bikes to Memphis, most days were too hot but that would have been fun!
Next we went to Parker Crossroads Campground in Parker Crossroads TN. The campground was nice. We had a pull through site that was easy in and easy out. Most of their sites had a deck with table and chairs of some sort which was kind of nice. They had a pool which we used 1 time and of course a laundry room. Their small store was open but no other activities. The nice thing about this area was some nice riding such as Natchez Trace Parkway, it was close to some state parks for hiking, Natchez Trace State Park and also The Parker Crossroads Battle memorial. This was actually very interesting and hopefully will never be torn down. It’s been a long time since I took history so I had forgotten quite a bit. This park was made up of 7 different locations in town. The first one was the largest and was a park that you walked around and their were different points to stop at where there was a platform that would tell you about that location and what took place there. We drove to every location and walked the ones that had the trails and it was fascinating, just a little reminder about our history in the USA, it was well thought out. The campground also put on a really nice July 4th fireworks show.
Our next location was only about an hour away at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch, what a cool place. First the ones thing that everyone should know is that this place even though you have a reservation it is first come first serve and there is no set check in or check out time. Thank fully we got there a bit early in the day as not all sites are created equal so to speak. Technically they are all pull through sites but because of the way this place is situated the sites are too hilly to pull forward to leave and being able to make the turns. The sites are all really long but they are narrow with some drop off to the side and some of they drop off at one end. We could not pull up so that we could open our back as we would not have been able to level the camper. We had to chalk the truck tires to insure the truck wouldn’t roll down the hill in case of a failure. Despite the sites not being wide or level the campground had a lot of cool things. Now mind you not much is open in the park due to Covid such as the pool or the game room They did have two events while we were there. The first weekend was a Horse Cart racing which drew a huge crowd, mostly in the lower section which we were not allowed unless we paid. The second weekend was dirt bike racing. We were there for 2 weeks but because of the first event we did not know there was a creek for swimming. We tried to kayak it but only made about 1/4 of a mile do to trees blocking the creek, no worries we found that the swimming was great. We spent the next few days enjoying that and met some really nice people. This campground was created by Loretta Lynn as a way to share her home with her fans. This property is actually the town of Hurricane TN which she purchased with her husband over 30 years ago. She later built a house behind the original house to move into and started tours. There is also a museum, a couple of stores and a replica of the mine her daddy worked in that you can walk through and it tells you a story about the mine. Even though this campground needs some serious updating I would go back again.
The next 2 weeks we spent at Old Mill Camp across the street from Cummins Falls State Park. We found this when we first went to see the Falls but they were still closed. This is a fairly new campground, the sites are large and easy to get into whether you get a back in or pull through. They don’t have a laundry room which is a huge downfall but they do have great ice cream! We were able to get a pass to go to the falls for 1 day. This is a fairly steep hike back out but I made it. This particular falls has a nice swimming hole. My most memorable part of this campground was a baby Blue Jay who would come hang out with us, you can check out my FB page to see videos of her. I will go back to this campground and hope to see the bird too!
Now we are in August at a campground in Heiskell TN, Raccoon Valley. The sites are nice, good size, the people are great. We can’t go into the office, the hall is closed as well as the bathrooms, and the laundry room can only have 1 person at a time. We are about 40 minutes from Knoxville. Most restaurants are open with seating inside but spread apart, and masks must be warn. The riding is great but we knew that already, Tail of the Dragon, Great Smokey National Park, Cherohala Skyway!
Now we just hang here waiting for our new Fifth wheel!
Vagabond2019 