Tennessee - Day 20 - south toward Memphis

Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park
Wednesday, 20 November 2019

While I was still in bed early this morning I heard an owl nearby.  It called many times and was really nice to hear.  According to the bird book, it was likely a Great Horned Owl.  So glad I was awake to hear it.

This morning I finally discovered a very weak open wifi signal labeled Blue Bank Guest.  I thought it must be for a nearby bank but used it anyway since my hotspot wasn't picking up anything.  When I was driving down the road later I discovered the nearby unincorporated village of Blue Bank.  Who ever heard of a whole community with a wifi signal?  But now that I've discovered I can pick one up - even a weak one - I'm sorry I've already paid for 5 nights down near Memphis.  This is a really pleasant campground and I've got some catching up to do.  Oh well.  Next time I'll know.

On our last walk around the campground before leaving, I saw a bunch of gulls flying over the lake, though not close enough to identify.  I was surprised until I remembered the Mississippi River is just over a nearby ridge of hills.

female merganser

Paddling around the lake and occasionally diving for food, I saw what I'm pretty sure was a female Common Merganser.  Her red head and size and posture were easy to see at a distance.

today's route

We passed through nearby Tiptonville, which had a sign saying it was the boyhood home of Carl Perkins.  For those (like me) who can't place him, he was an influential singer-songwriter who's best know for such hits as "Blue Suede Shoes" (Elvis only covered it).  Paul McCartney said, "If there were no Carl Perkins, there'd be no Beatles."  That's who he is.  Or was.

I couldn't convince Google to take me near the Mississippi River so I went on my own.  Which is how I learned that the roads that are shown on maps - either the paper ones or the online ones - don't look like that on the ground.  Also that most of them don't have any labels at all.  Or they'd start out with a name or a sign, and then hit a t-intersection, and there'd be no hint what happened in either direction.

Gradually I figured out that these roads were built for the convenience of local farmers and residents, not idiots driving RVs where they don't belong.  The road surface was very rough in places; in some places my lane was exactly the width of my RV, not counting the mirrors.  When I met oncoming traffic - usually huge trucks - I just stopped as far over as I could and waited.  The road was elevated so if I went off the side, I'd go down a foot or more into a ditch.

But I went by a lot of crop fields, including some that still had cotton in them, which was being harvested before my eyes.

cotton still in the field

All along the road today I saw cotton bolls, I'm guessing that had been blown out of trucks coming from the fields.

My RV seems to be falling apart, piece by piece.  A couple of days ago I'd noticed a weird piece of something hanging down an inch or so on the driver's side of the cab, but I didn't bother to stop and figure out what it was.  Well, this morning my door caught on it and pulled it down further.  And as I drove along, the wind pulled it down more and more.

As you can maybe see, it was a piece of trim around a join between parts of the overhang.  When it was pulled out as far as you can see in the photo, the wind flapped it around a lot when I drove, which was very distracting to see out of my peripheral vision.  And it got worse.

I finally just stopped on one of those very narrow farm roads and pulled out the duct tape to tack it down till I could do something about it.  Though I'm not quite sure what I'll be able to do.  Probably by the end of this trip the whole RV will be held together with duct tape.

This area seems to be prime for hawks of various kinds.  But I'm not as familiar with them so had trouble identifying them while I was driving.  If I could have stopped and pulled out the bird book I might have been able to narrow the choices down.

One I'm pretty sure I figured out was a juvenile Northern Harrier, which was known as a Marsh Hawk back when I was first learning them.  My husband Pete told me that Harrier business is the British name and the bird folks are trying to standardize them.

Anyway, I learned to recognize that white patch at the base of the tail, and the bird book says the adults are pale grey but the juveniles are very dark, which is what I saw. 

Then I reached an area where I saw 5 or 6 various hawk types at about the same time.  The bird book said 7 or 8 birds of prey may be here this time of year.  Including the Bald Eagle, and I'm sure I saw one of those flying fairly low.  So it was a weird road for driving, but the bird scenery was pretty hard to beat.

Sorry I can't say the same for the Mississippi River scenery.  I saw signs from time to time saying I was on the Great River Route, but the whole drive south I got only one glimpse of the river.  It seems Tennessee takes as casual a view as Illinois about attempting to follow the river with their designated Great River Route.  Though I don't know why they bother to call it that, unless maybe they get federal funding for it if they do?

I passed a house with 2 flags flying out front:

Confederate Battle Flag

Tennessee State Flag

The one on the left was substantially larger than the one on the right, though I don't suppose the size was some kind of statement.

Disheartening.

I finally ended up back on Route 51, which is the main north/south artery over in this part of the state.  I soon passed a town named Nankipoo, which sounds to me like something to do with babies.  A townsperson says local legend claims it was the name of an Indian chief who once lived here.

A bit farther down the road was Ripley, The City of Hospitality, they say.  Apparently no question about whether we believe it or not.

Soon after that came the town of Henning, author Alex Haley's home.  They have a museum and interpretive center there in his memory.

I continued to see huge fields of cotton still growing - really big fields on both sides of the road.  And cotton bolls covering the sides of the road.

I passed a sign saying I was entering Tipton County, birthplace of singer Isaac Hayes.

I passed a Breyers plant.  By then I'd gotten lost because even though I was finally on the road Google wanted me on, its directions were lousy and I went back and forth a few times along this stretch of road before I finally gave up and pulled out my AAA map.  But I was ready to stop at the Breyers plant to see if they give tours, and if they serve ice cream at the end of them like the Blue Bell's plant in Brenham, TX, does.

Which reminds me, I saw Blue Bell's ice cream in a store in Louisville, KY.  I thought they must have a plant nearby, but the carton just said Brenham, TX.  A long way to transport ice cream.

I passed a sign for the Break Through Holliness Church.  Online they spell it Holiness, but their sign was very generous with the "l's".

I kept seeing hawks along this road too.  They're really active around these parts.

When I called for reservations at tonight's campground, the woman gave me directions that weren't like the ones Google gave me.  But I couldn't find the turn-off Google said was there, and when I followed the woman's directions, her turn-off was there but half her other roads and landmarks weren't.

I found myself driving down many little roads with names like Locke Cuba Road (that runs between the villages of Locke and Cuba) and Cuba Millington Road (ditto), but they didn't always have signs, or the roads would change their names while they were just going along straight, not necessarily with a sign. 

And I was obviously going deeper into the countryside, and seemed to be climbing into some hills, which all made me nervous about whether I'd be able to get a wifi signal.  When I saw this place on a map, it seemed to be close to a major town (Millington) and not far from a major city (Memphis), so I figured I'd be able to pick one up.  I was wrong.

By the time I got even deeper into the mountains, I didn't have a signal for my hotspot or any signal from any other source at all.  The park office has a signal that goes as far as their parking lot, but doesn't find its way a mile into the forest to the campground.

This area is very pretty - lots of trees with leaves falling - and I find I'm one of only 2 campers in the whole campground.

It got pretty warm today.  As I drove through Covington about 30 miles north, I saw electronic signs saying the temp was between 69° and 77°.  The RV's cabin was warm enough that I opened the door and some windows and rolled up my pants and pulled out my flip-flops.  I would have used the AC but I was afraid I might get it so cold it'd be uncomfortable tonight.

But then the Invasion of the Ladybugs started.

I don't know if you can see all the little red dots.  They're ladybugs.  By the time we'd been parked 10 minutes, I counted 40 ladybugs crawling on the RV.  By actual count.  I took this photo of the taped up trim piece, but then I saw the pests.

And with the windows open, they were able to find their way inside.  I started to feel invaded.  They don't just crawl, they fly.  It really started to feel creepy, like we were under siege.  Makers of horror films should take note.

I finally closed the door and windows just to try to keep the bugs outside, though I think they can still squeeze in through the crack in the sliding side window.  I spent time during the evening trying to round them up and throw them outside.  They're lucky they've got that hard shell on their backs - keeps me from being as willing to kill them as I am flies.  And I turned on the fan to try to cool the cabin down.

The forecast was for possible rain overnight and the sky was starting to cloud over.  But I was still walking the dogs in flip-flops though it was already dark by our last walk at 5:30.  Sunset is about 4:45 these days.