Day 9 Natchez State Park Natchez MS
Got up about 7:30 made coffee and walked Remi. Teddy didn’t want to get out of bed yet. Came back made coffee and the first propane tank ran out. Got dressed and switched tanks to keep us warm. No internet here and we are out in the sticks, so Gina and I both got the dogs ready and took them for a walk around the loop, We tried one nature path but it lead to a stream with a log laid down for crossing. We thought about attempting it, but with the dogs decided against it. I think that was a good move someone, if not all of us, would have ended up in the crick and it was about an 8 foot fall. We continued the walk and met some RVers from Louisianna, they had a puppy rottweiler named Buddy. He was a former trucker and has travelled all over the country, now retired they do it in their Class A, but they both complained it was too small. He gave us some interesting tips from their travels: Michigan is awesome, Buccanear that is in southwest mississippi. Geronimo State Park (need to check the name) near Carlsbad NM, Maverick RV park near Big Bend TX, The Alaska “Ferry” (again need to check the name) – they haven’t done this yet but plan to. Sounds like you travel up to northern Washington, put your RV, truck, dogs, et al on a Ferry and go up through the strait and the drop you off in Alaska. Saves a ton of road time. Gonna check that out. We said our goodbyes, walked back to the cabin, I got the bikes ready while gina fed us and the dogs. We took a small bike ride through natchez state park, over to the check in area and the lake. Very peaceful and quiet – we found a nice playground to take the dogs and throw the ball. We went back, loaded them up in the truck (with Remi’s ball) and tried to wear them out. Remi rolled in the grass and Teddy actually started running around in circles and jumping over the playground railroad ties. He usually jumps way too early and almost wipes himself out. We shreak everytime he does this. Fortunately today, no major misses cause he is just getting too old for that stuff. Back to RV to give dogs a bath next. YIKES
Gina got all the soaps, towels and everything ready for their bath. The plan was to go to the Bath house, bring the dogs in there – it was heated and had hot water – so we thought. I took remi and gina took teddy. On the way in we met the same park ranger that did nothing about the campsite. He kind of frowned that we brought the dogs into the bath house – but true to his style – he said nothing. The water in the shower was luke warm but not hot. After stripping down naked and getting remi in there I was committed. I lathered him up and scrubbed away – he hated it and so did I – I was freezing and the luke warm water did nothing to help. When I was done, the shower looked like a “black hair bomb” had exploded. Remi sheds terrible and his hair was everywhere. I did my best to clean it up. I dried us both off which was not easy in a 3X3 space but got it done. We beat gina back to the RV so her experience with Teddy had to be the same or worse. Once she got back we did some hair trimming on teddy and both dogs were now fit to get back in the RV.
We then took a drive down to Natchez to get some groceries. I found a produce market that got 4 stars – unfortunately there was nothing there except for butta beans, homemade jellys and eggs. To be polite we bought the eggs and jelly. We tried the Natchez Farmers Market – mapquest took us down some road in a less than desirable area and upon “reaching our destination” there was nothing there! The only other store open was a Walmart supercenter. It seems that everything in Natchez closes on Saturdays and Sundays, On the way to Walmart we noticed a sign “Old South Winery – come and taste our wines”. We turned around and found the place – closed on Saturday! We ended up in Walmart, bought some grass fed beef and other various items for dinner. We headed back to the RV and cooked up a nice dinner of steak and Asian Cauliflower Rice. When the rice was finished the kitchen looked like Hurricane Gina had just gone through! Dinner was great, we lit up the Outland Firebowl, enjoyed another hot toddth outside, it was too cold for teddy so he stayed inside. there is a great pic of him crashed on the sofa while we were outside. When the toddys were done we were in bed by 9:00 reading. I am gaining on Charlies book - Origin! Night was quiet except for a diesel truck that rolled through sometime during the night. Heater was cranking, temp outside got down to 37 but we remained toasty.