Alabama - Day 3

Point Mallard Campground
Tuesday, 3 December 2019

I spent the day sitting here in the campground.  I came up with planned routes of sightseeing for tomorrow and the next day; I did a load of laundry and took a shower; I spent hours editing the photos I took at the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis (still working on that post); I spread a tarp on the picnic table at this campsite and left the dog beds outside to air out all day long.  You know, your basic chores.

It was seriously cold with a stiff breeze blowing for much of the day.  I waited until mid-afternoon to do the laundry when it had finally warmed up to the low 40s.  December, sure enough.

This campground appears to be exactly what the Yelp comments online had said - a city-owned campground that has mostly long-term campers.  Normally such a place would be rundown and junky, but this place isn't.  They collect the trash 3 times a day, don't accept old RVs, keep the facilities clean - just generally a decent place to stay.  I got lucky.

When I'd first got here on Sunday I paid for only one night, not knowing what kind of place it was.  But it didn't take long for me to see it was okay, my site was clean and level, and the facilities were reasonable, as was the price.  I went back to the office then and changed from one night to one week, which was cheaper - just over $150 senior rate.  Decatur is centrally located here in northern Alabama and, with the scarcity of open campgrounds, I decided it'd be okay to serve as a base of operations for sightseeing up here.

In the campground's laundry I met 2 other women who had both lived in Alaska and were talking about their experiences.  So of course I joined in.  We all agreed the odds of the 3 of us meeting were pretty long - Alaska's not the most populous state in the Union, after all.  We exchanged stories of seeing Northern Lights, and keeping car batteries from freezing in Fairbanks in the winter, and seeing stunning scenery everywhere, and meeting amazing people everywhere.  We'd all loved it up there.

The energy level in this RV without the dogs is amazingly low.  I miss them very much and am absolutely delighted I'm not having to walk them 4 or 5 times a day and feeling guilty about it not being more.  I've had Lily for a year now - adopted her just before Thanksgiving last year - so she's adjusted to the dogs just fine.  But I'm sure she too is delighted to have the space and my attention all to herself.