Natchez Trace Parkway, Tishomingo State Park

Natchez Trace Parkway runs from Mississippi through Alabama and into Tennessee. We stopped when it entered Tennessee. It reminded us of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We drove in the car, not the motorhome.

At the beginning of the drive we decided to stop at Tishomingo State Park. This is an old park that at one time was a very nice park with a large swimming pool, large playing field and lots of nice picnic areas. They also had a small lodge with kitchen included that at one time was used for large group events for an all day event or evening event. No sleeping facilities. But it appears that over time this place has lost its appeal, probably due to the updated water related facilities around the TomBigbee Waterway. Unfortunately I somehow deleted most of the pictures, so not too many of the State Park or Natchez Trace Parkway.

Swinging Bridge at Tishomingo State Park

Are you sure we can walk over this?

Its got duct tape, should be fine.

Well, its a short drop.

Example of signage along Natchez Trace Parkway. Very much like the Blue Ridge Parkway in the way this is designed and all the trees along the Parkway. Unfortunately misplaced the rest of the pictures.

Coon Dog Cemetery near Red Bay Alabama

We were on our way back to Red Bay from Florence Alabama and we were on Alabama 247 near Red Bay when we saw a sign for the Coon Dog Cemetery, so we decided to drive by. This is for real. Cemetery was started in September 4, 1937 and I later found out that this appeared in the movie Sweet Home Alabama.

Camp Red Bay - Tiffin Service Center

Ours is the 2nd one on the left. This is just 1 row of 4.

Well, here is what it looks like at "Camp Red Bay" which is now officially called the Allegro Service Center. At one time this was a small plane airport that Tiffin bought and put a couple of large buildings on the site for service bays. That is why is is also referred to as the runway.  Red Bay Alabama which is in the northwest corner of Alabama and about an hour northeast of Tupelo Mississippi. All these Tiffin motorhomes lined up on an old runway waiting for their turn to get into a service bay. We were here primarily to get 5 windows replaced, the dual pane had failed and the interior of the dual pane turned white and you could no longer see out of it, and to get the microwave vented to the outside.

The Sunshine Dog Food factory is about a mile away and they make dry dog food that is packed in bags. When the wind changes to just the right direction you will smell the dry dog food and it is not subtle at all, its really obvious. The factory lets Tiffin owners use their scales to weigh their motorhome. Ours weighed 11,000 for the front axle and 19,300 for the rear axle for a total of 30,300. Our Buick Rainier weighed 5000 with me in the driver seat and a bunch of stuff we just bought at Walmart, so we have a total of about 35,000 pounds going down the road.

Then we talked to Chris Berry and found that if we were willing to extend our visit to Red Bay another 10 days through the July 4th shutdown that Chris could work us in. So we spent a total of 3 weeks here instead of the 7-10 days we originally planned. But now the motorhome has much more storage and feels much roomier now that the booth and the sofa are gone. Now that it is done and we have spent a lot of time in it, we really enjoy the new arrangement. Very comfortable and things in the motorhome are a lot more accessible.

Temperature averaged around 95 degrees the whole time we were here. The asphalt just soaks up the sun and it really feels like an oven when you step outside the motorhome.

One of the small local places we liked eating at was Wayne's Catfish Haven in Russellville, Al about 20 min drive from Red Bay. For fried fish, it was cooked really well, not oily and they must clean or replace the oil quite often. We got the combo plate and split it, plenty of food: oysters, scallops, shrimp and of course catfish(filet or whole).  Here is a picture of the interior of the place. The roof area on the little houses on the wall was used as advertising for local companies. This placed was crowded around lunch time so we came back at 3pm for lunch. I was told by others at Camp Red Bay that it was crowded for dinner too.

Wayne's catfish haven

Topsail to Meridian Mississippi

We definitely want to come back to Topsail and hope that the beach looks just the same.

Today we travel I10 West then go north on US90 to pickup US45 to get to Meridian Ms. All the roads today were really smooth and hardly any traffic, very enjoyable drive. US 45 is mostly a divided highway the whole way with 2 lanes each direction. We chose to go north through Mississippi instead of going through Birmingham since we had heard I65 is a bit rough in places and we thoroughly enjoyed our drive today. Nice roads, little or no traffic.

Here is a picture of US45 as we are about to drive through a thunderstorm. Notice there is very little traffic on US45 and it was like this pretty much the whole way to Meridian.

Topsail Beach Florida

By the way, today is Debbie's birthday but that is all I can say about that. Happy Birthday!

This is a really nice State run RV Park that was private and was taken over by the state and the beach is being preserved as a natural area. The interior roads of the RV Park are all paved as are the RV sites. We happened to find a site on one of the lakes in the park.

There is a shuttle that will pick you up and drive you to the beach, its about a 1 mile walk so with beach chairs and a cooler, it is nice to have the open air shuttle to pick you up. A lot of the regulars have little mini trailers hooked to their bikes to haul their stuff back and forth without having to take the shuttle.

The sand is like sugar, great to walk on. There is a tradition here where everyone leaves their shoes and flip flops at the beach side of the walkway that crosses over the sand dune. Walkng barefoot on the sand here is the only way to walk on the sand according to the regulars. This is such a beautiful beach and area, we hope the oil spill doesnt damage this beach. We did see some small dark pieces that looked like 1" pieces of tree bark but its really small pieces of oil. The regulars said those were not normally here. On the east coast of Florida you will see these pieces of tar now and then so that is why I asked if this is a normal occurrence or not.