28 March 2022 Goodlettsville TN to Carrollton KY

 It was only a 200 mile drive today, so we were not in a hurry. The roads were not too bad, except in Louisville, until we got off I-69 for the drive to the RV park. We got off on KY389, following our GPS. The road turned out to be a narrow country road that was a tight squeeze for our big rig. The bridge we had to take across the Kentucky River was even narrower. We are staying at Two Rivers Campground ($35 per night with senior discount) in the town of Carrollton. It’s a little strange compared to other campgrounds we are used to. In that the office was located across the street from the campground. There were no obvious signs for the office so we ended up wandering around until we found someone across the street who told us there was no check-in (we had paid in full in advance), just go to the spot listed in the email. So we parked and started to set up. But it was unusual in that the power point was 5 feet off the ground and the water hook up was 3 feet off the ground. We also noticed the main utilities for the park were located in towers. Then it sunk in that this RV park is located at the junction of the Kentucky and Ohio Rivers and obviously floods frequently enough to raise all the utilities and bathrooms above the average flood level. Needless to say, we are keeping a close eye on the weather!

Our site

27 March 2022 Jack Daniels Distillery

 On our to do list for Nashville was to visit the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg KY. David had been to it over a decade ago. We took the Flight of Jack Tour ($30 each) which included a tour and a whisky tasting. The tour started with a stop where they make their own charcoal. Jack Daniels is the oldest distillery in the United States. It is a Tennessee Whisky. To be a Tennessee Whisky it must be made with 80% corn and must be charcoal filtered. Jack Daniels makes their charcoal using sugar maple wood that they get from farms within 50 miles. Next we went down to the cave where JD gets its water for their whisky. They use water from this cave because it is filtered by the limestone rock that makes up the cave. This removes iron from the water. Iron causes the whisky to be bitter. They care so much about the water from the cave, they have bought up the farm land over the cave system to protect the water from pollution sources. Next we walked through the fermentation and distilling building. Here we learned the reason why the trees are all black, its called black frost, and it is caused by the CO2 that is released in the fermentation process. Then we went through the filtering room where the 140 proof distilled alcohol is filtered through the charcoal. The filtering process removes fatty acids from the alcohol which makes the alcohol smoother. Next the alcohol is mixed with cave spring water to reduce it to 120 Proof. Then it is poured into barrels. JD makes their own barrels out of American white oak. The barrels are charred on the inside before they are filled. The barrels then go to one of 90 barrel houses spread around the county where they will mellow for up to 4 years. It is not a set time, the time when it is ready is determined by tasters. In the barrels, the alcohol moves in and out of the wood of the barrel. It gets pushed into the wood by the heat of summer and moves out of the wood in the cold of the winter. It is this movement in and out of the wood that gives the whisky its flavor. There is more movement in and out of the on barrels at the top of the barrel house (hotter in the summer) and less at the bottom of the barrel stack (cooler in the summer). This results in a difference in the flavor from barrel to barrel. Single barrel bottling refers to whiskey taken from a single barrel. Usually at the top of the stack. Single barrel whiskey can be anywhere from 120 to 138 proof. For Old No7, they take whiskey from multiple barrels, mix them together to obtain a uniform taste and add cave spring water to bring the alcohol content down to 80 proof. Next we sat down in the first barrel house and did a tasting of Jack Daniels whiskeys (Gentleman Jack, Old No7, Rye) and liquors (JD mixed with flavoring) (Honey, Cinnamon, Apple). Of course the tour ended at the bottle house where we picked up some JD to take home with us. We had a great time and look forward to enjoying our Single Barrel bottles. 

Lynchburg Square

Taste of Whiskey

Jack

Cave Spring

The Label

The visitor Center

Historical Marker for the oldest distillery in the US

25 March 2022 Slide Out Academy

 David went out in the morning to inspect under the Wanderer and consulted with the slide out mechanism owner’s manual. But it was not clear what the issue was as the hydraulics were working correctly. He could New Horizons but got the service centers voice mail. Next, he called the front desk at the RV park and they informed him that there was a Mobile RV repair mechanic working at a site nearby. So he walked around until he spotted the mechanic, Neal from Road Ready Repair, and had a talk with him. After he finished work on the rig he was at, he stopped by our site and diagnosed the issue in 10 minutes. Seems a shear pin on the shaft that transfers torque to the back-end gear drive from the front-end gear drive had broken at the front gear drive. The hardest one to get to due to water lines and other stuff in the way. Seems they had a grade A ¼ inch bolt in the drive shaft that had broken off. He was headed to the parts shop to get a new water pump for the other rig he was working on so he would be back in a few minutes with a new bolt. David asked him to get a couple of spares in case this happened in the future now that he learned how the mechanism worked. Sure enough, Neal came back with the new bolt and had it fixed in 30 minutes. Neal was a real nice guy and he and David talked longer than it took him to complete the work. 

24 March 2022 Cottendale MS to Goodlettsville TN

 We got a late start today. The roads in Alabama were actually pretty smooth and in good repair, but when we crossed into Tennessee, they got really bumpy. Due to our late start, we hit Nashville and prime rush hour traffic. It took us an hour to get through Nashville. We are staying at the Grand Ole RV Park ($46 per night). When we went in to register, they took one look at our rig and asked David if he was a good driver. Seems they had us slated for a tighten back in site. After some debate by the staff, they changed us to a nice pull through site. We are right next to a very busy railroad track but luckily, they don’t blow their whistle as they go by! When we went to run the galley slide out, only the front side would move. When we tried to pull that side back in, the back side moved out. Several neighbors came over to “help”, as RVers tend to do, but no one could see what the problem was. So David wiggled the slide in and out until he got it fully extended. But it is obvious we would need a repair guy to help us fix it to be able to leave. Since it was after 5PM by this point there is not much that could be done until the morning. 

Our site

22-23 March 2022 Mississippi Mounds

 Our first day here was a chance to catch up with work. David spent our first day working remotely and Leslie caught up on chores since we had decent water pressure in this park. Strong thunderstorms came in after dark with tornadoes passing near to our location but we did not see any damage. Our second day, we ran down to Moundville Archaeology State Park. It’s another large Indian Mound site, but these were built between 800 and 1400 AD by the Mississippian Indians, the fore fathers of modern-day Muscogee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Southeastern Indians. The gap between mound building societies between 1100BC and 800AD has not been explained by scientists. In its day (800-1450AD), the Moundville site was the second largest mound city in North America. The largest Mississippian mound site was Cahokia in Illinois but had fallen in decline when the Moundville site was reaching its zenith. The Moundville site was home to up to 10,000 people with 30 mounds between 5 and 60 feet tall (only 21 survive today). The purpose of the mounds is not fully known. They believe having a home on top of a mound was a status symbol. Some mounds might have been for religious ceremonies. The sides of the mounds are aligned with the four cardinal directions. There are over 200,000 Indian mounds across the eastern United states. Most of these mounds are on private land. There was an intricate trading network from the great lakes to the gulf coast. They showed off their wealth with copper jewelry, carved sea shells, stone tools, furs, feathers, and bead work. 

Moundville Archeological Park

Park map

View from top of Mound B

Exhibit in the Museum of a bridal cerimony

View of the mounds across a lake in what was a borrow pit

View from the top of Mound P behind the museum.

 

21 March 2022 Hattiesburg MS to Cottondale AL

 Reluctantly, we pulled out of Hattiesburg to head north. We went up I-59 to I-20 east. The roads were pretty rough until we enter Alabama, then they were well maintained. We are staying at Sunset RV Park ($32 per night, no discount) in Cottondale, just west of Tuscaloosa. This is mostly a layover on our trip north, but we found out there are some more Indian Mounds nearby we intend to explore. Our site is fairly level with full hookups. The park WiFi was not working when we arrived, they got it fixed later that night. We are expecting some strong thunderstorms to come in tomorrow with very heavy rain. Hopefully the creek across the road from us will not flood. 

Our site at Sunset RV Park

18-20 March 2022 Hattiesburg, MS

 We came here to visit our good friends, Darrel and Gay. We went down to their home each day and hung out with them. We went out each day to try the local restaurants and had a great visit. We already miss them.

17 March 2022 Delhi LA to Hattiesburg MS

 We drove from Poverty Point Reservoir State Park Louisiana to Hattiesburg Mississippi. Were here to visit with our friends Darrel and Gay. We’re staying at the Hattiesburg/Okatoma KOA ($47.88 per night with KOA discount) where we stayed back in 2020. This time we have a very large pull through site with full hookups. The drive was only 4 hours and the roads were in pretty good shape. 

Campsite

16 March 2022 Poverty Point National Monument

 David work yesterday morning and did income taxes in the afternoon. It was raining yesterday so we really would not have been out and about. Today we drove north to the Poverty Point National Monument, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site is named after the Plantation which previously was on the location. We first went to the visitor center/museum to pay the entrance fee for Leslie ($4). David did not have to pay a fee since he is 62 and over! Welcome to Senior Citizenship! We watched the park movie about the site and explored the exhibits. The site contains 4 major mounds and 6 C shaped ridges that were built between 1800 and 1100 BC. There are over 1000 Indian mounds in Louisiana but these are the largest in the country for this period. Archeologist estimate the builders moved over 100 million basket loads of soil to build the expansive central court yard, the three mounds and the 6 C shaped rings that are perfectly centered with the courtyard. Mound A is the largest mound raised during this time period (it would not be surpassed for 2000 years). This site was the epic center of an enormous trading network and would have been the New York city of its time. The trading network extended from the Gulf Coast to the Canadian Border, and from the Appalachian Mountains to the Rocky Mountains. Although not located directly on the Mississippi River, during that period, it was only a 6 mile journey down the Bayou. 

We walked the 2.8 mile World Heritage trail. From ground level, its hard to picture the 6 ridges after 3000 years of erosion and 100 years of being plowed. They leave the grass longer on the tops of the ridges to help you visualize the ridge locations. They once were 6-9 feet above the swales in between but today are barely 3 feet. One mound on the site was built by the Cold Creek society over 1500 years after the site had been abandoned and two of the original Euromerican settlers are buried on the top of this mound. Mounds B and C are hard to visualize but Mound A is very distinctive. It is theorized that it was built to resemble a bird in flight. The view from the top of Mound A helps you visualize how large the site is and how organized the society had to be. We spent about 3 hours in the park and saw everything there was to see.

For a Work Heritage Site, we were pretty disappointed in how the site is maintained. The park is run by the state of Louisiana (it was a state park before it was named a National Monument). But it definitely needs a lot of maintenance. 

 

When we returned to the state park, we hiked some of the trails in the state park with Etta, but found them wet and muddy from the rains the previous days. 

Entrance Sign

Local Art

Site Map

Mound A from the top of Ridge 6

View of Poverty Point from the top of Mound A

Swamp in the State Park

14 March 2022 Mansfield TX to Delhi LA, Bye Bye Texas

 We left Fort Worth and Texas today as we drove to Poverty Point Reservoir State Park ($23 per night). We were sad to leave Texas but are excited about our coming travel year. We were on I-20 for most of the 7 hour drive. I-20 through Shreveport in horrible. Huge bumps, pot holes, etc on that stretch of I-20 that jarred our teeth and even put Etta airborne! Never again! Next time we go through there we will take the I-280 bypass rather than drive that stretch in Shreveport again. The rest of the drive was on pretty good roads and we arrived at the park around 4:30 (they close at 5) just as it started to rain. We have a HUGE pull through site with water and electric but no sewer (there is a dump station on the way out). We are here to visit Poverty Point NM (named after the plantation that used to own the land). This will be our first park to visit this year, so we are looking forward to it. 

Campsite

28 Feb – 14 March 2022 Home Town Visit

 We spent two weeks in the DFW area visiting our friends, doctors, dentists, chiropractor, financial advisor and most importantly family. The doctors all agree we will live. So no major ailments and the usual advice (more exercise, lose weight, improve our diets, etc). Leslie got her back worked on by our wonderful chiropractor, Dr. Adams, after she pulled it saving the dog from the Love seat (a whole other story). We had dinner with our friends Rick, Jim and Kelley at Pappadeaux. We had dinner with our friends Jim, Sharon and Mona in downtown. We were lucky and it Sharon’s Birthday. We were so happy to celebrate it with her. Leslie had lunch with her Mom one day, and David Joined them for another lunch another day. David had dinner with his friend Rick to get the latest on his house construction in Big Bend area. Leslie had a girls dinner with Mona to catch up on all the latest downtown gossip. We had a wonderful dinner with June, Anne and Bill at their new condo. And to wrap up our visit we helped Cynthia and Felix load up the family air Lomé dining room table from their Mom’s storage unit to go to their new house in Houston. Then had a family Lunch at Mi Cocina in Dallas. Everyone seems to be healthy and doing well. So it was a very busy two weeks! 

Dinner with Sharon, Mona and Jim in Downtown

Lunch with Mom.

28 Feb 2022 On the road 2022!

 We pulled out of Conroe for Mansfield today. Happy to be back on the road. We will be in the DFW area for two weeks to catch up on doctors, dentists, financial advisor, friends and family visits. Out plan for 2002 is to work our way up to Canton Ohio during March, stay there for 3 months to help Veronica clean out her home and get it sold, then work our way up to Maine by the middle of July for four weeks, then down the east coast to the outer banks before heading back to Texas. Its going to be a busy year! We are so looking forward to it! 

On the road again!

14 Feb 2022 Winter of Batteries

 We have decided to call this the winter of batteries. In January the two batteries in the Behemoth went bad. David decided he wanted to replace them with AGM batteries due to longer life, low corrosion and low maintenance. But when he went to the Interstate Battery center in Conroe, he found out there is a supply shortage of AGM batteries. But they loaned us two refurbished batteries until they could get in the two replacement AGM batteries. He also learned that you cannot mix different types of batteries on the same charging circuit because AGM and flooded batteries have different charging profiles. Knowledge that would come in handy. 

 

Then in early February, when we went to take the Wanderer to the body shop to get some minor fender damage repaired, the slides would not budge. A quick diagnosis found the house flooded lead acid batteries had almost boiled themselves dry, despite having just been filled up 4 weeks prior. All six batteries (4 cells each) had water levels below the top of the plates. It was clear that these batteries would need to be replaced as well. David filled them up, and we were able to pull the slides in and make our appointment with the converter/chargers help. While we stayed at Cynthia’s and Felix’s, David researched replacements. Again, he wanted to go with AGMs and selected Lifeline batteries since they seemed to be the most reliable and are built to Military Standards and are used by the US Military in a lot of their applications. He checked the local dealer and they indicated a 12–18-week delivery timeline due to the supply shortage. So, he got on line and found a dealer in Nevada with 6 batteries and free shipping. They arrived a week later and today he installed them. This involved disconnecting the old batteries, dragging them out of the battery compartment, cleaning up the spilled acid on the floor of the battery compartment and repainting (the acid had dissolved the paint), cleaning all the corrosion off the connections, loading the new batteries into the compartment (6 batteries at 68lbs a piece on his hands and knees), reconnecting everything and applying lithium grease to prevent corrosion. He also had to change the charging profile on the solar charging system since the Lifeline AGMs have a special charging profile. It took about 5 hours. The new batteries have more storage capacity, less maintenance, and should last 6-8 years. We briefly considered going with Lithium Iron Sulfate batteries, but given we don’t boondock very often and double the cost, it just wasn’t worth the added expense. The new batteries are working great. Happy Valentines Day!

Old Batteries leaking acid

Clean new batteries virtually maintenance free

31 Jan – 4 Feb 2022 Wanderer Body Repair

 We took the Wanderer to High Class Body Repair to get the damage from this years travel accidents to both rear fenders repaired. When we went to take the Wanderer to the body, the slides would not budge. A quick diagnosis found the house batteries had almost boiled themselves dry, despite having just been filled up 4 weeks prior. We were able to fill them up, but had to use tap water since we only had a gallon of distilled water at hand. We made it to the body shop and then drove over to Cynthia’s and Felix’s house to stay while our home was being repaired. While there, we took the Behemoth into the Ford dealer to get the annual maintenance done and state inspection (we had put new tires on the week prior). Gerson did an outstanding job again (he fixed the nose cap the year prior) with the body repairs and the Wanderer was ready for pick up a day early. The Wanderer is back to its usual beautiful self. 

Passenger side damage

Diver's side damage