June 4, 2013

Travelled through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas
camped at Tom Sawyer's Campground in West Memphis, AR

A long day driving and my first experience behind the wheel pulling the rig.  The first thing I had to do was back up!  Just 30 feet or so, no biggie.  We were at a truck stop to refuel.  It's a task to being careful about where we pull into.  We don't want to get stuck in some small space, so truck stops are a stress-reliever.  I spent 3 hours driving on interstate, state highways, and even city surface streets (dang Birmingham, the interstates don't connect there yet!)  I was nervous, but it is easier than I thought it would be. 

The campground is right on the Mississippi River, like 20 feet away.  The water is very high, and moving swiftly.  Lots of debris (full sized trees) floating by.  The barges and tug boats and fun to see, but I mostly enjoy all the birds.  There are swallow-like groups who swoop and dive in the water near the shoreline.  We also see herons, robins and killdear!  I love killdeer.  We have to be careful where we walk because there are nests on the ground all over the place.  We know to look for them when one of the adult birds goes into a "fake injury dance", peeping loudly and flopping around on the ground to distract us from the nest area.  So cool.  I could just sit all day and watch them.

This nest was at the edge of the driveway not far from our door.  I added the sticks to make it more visible.  The momma bird didn't mind the added décor and continued to sit on the nest.

 

We also enjoyed other wildlife we rarely see in Atlanta, frogs. There were deer. turtles and lots of bugs as well. 

 

Being so close to the river, it does get flooded.  There was a big one in 2011.

 

We went to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis to watch the ducks march out of the lobby fountain, back to the elevator to their penthouse for the evening.  The hotel is old and grand, stop in if you're ever in the neighborhood.  The kids got to see something new to them, telephone booths.

 

Alex practicing the proper etiquette of holding out his pinkie while sipping a drink.  We have some work to do.  We dined at the Rendezvous, and, yes, we broke vegetarian and ate ribs.

 

Welcome to the campground.

Big rig on a big flood plane.

BARGE!