~Friday, June 11, 2021~
Day 362 (Travel Day)
Well, Chattanooga….not much of a visit, but we’ll see you again. Even though we had to pay a little price with getting vaccine Dose #2, we take solace in knowing we’ll be back again soon.
We had to take a little dip into Georgia (about 5 minutes) before heading back into Tennessee, where we realized that dip will be the southernmost point we’ll be visiting until November. Crazy!! Today, we’re heading to what we think is our second USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) campground of the trip, which are generally, very, very nice campgrounds. Definitely check them out. This one brings us just outside Nashville for a few days before moving to another campground a little closer to “Music City”. We couldn’t get a longer visit at this one…...Anderson Road Recreation Area at J. Percy Priest Lake. We’ve definitely had our string of lake campgrounds lately and wouldn’t wish for any less, especially for Sadie, and especially being in The South. We are not used to this humidity, people!
The minute that you drive up to J. Percy Priest Lake, you can’t help but be impressed by the work the Army Corps of Engineers does for these awesome campgrounds. Even the entrance looks awesome. Though Jeff and I opted for no hookups at this campground (hopefully we won’t come to regret that decision since we can’t run an A/C 24/7), they do offer about 10 sites that do, most of which are right on the lake. Thank goodness for generators and thank goodness ours is a quiet one. Our site is beautiful with lushness and green everywhere, and definitely one of the longest we’ve been in, but it could stand to offer a little more width, as we are snug up to smaller trees/shrubs. We had to cut down a few small branches to extend our slides. But we’ve discovered something about loving all that shade and beauty in The South…..it holds in all that steamy heat. As soon as we ventured out into an open area, after setting up, we saw the difference. There are quite a few people arriving today with it being Friday. There were 2 campsites in particular that intrigued us, both right on the lake. They had the longest concrete pull through pad we’ve ever seen, especially lakeside and thought they must reserve these for special events or something. While we were enjoying some water time at one of them, low and behold, 2 women from Nashville showed up in their tiny Prius with my first thought being, oh, they want to check it out too. No…..this is their weekend TENT spot. What? The site is big enough for 2 Class A motorhomes!! Wanna trade? They were very sweet ladies, offering us to not leave on their account. Not wanting to overstay our welcome, we wished them well and thanked them for arriving late.
Next a trip to Kroeger for a few grocery items. Craving one of my Cabbage/Ramen salads with a baked potato, and of course frothy margarita to help diminish the heat. Let me circle back on the topic of humidity. Here is what we’ve come to realize never having been in it before:
If you think your bath towel will dry by the end of the day, think again.
If you think you’ll be refreshed after a lukewarm shower, think again.
Get out those quarters. We’ll be making more frequent trips to the laundromat!
Might want to buy an extra stash of t-shirts since we’re now going through 2/day.
Hey, honey, how about that hike? Not!!
Are you sure the Max A/C is on in the truck?
Is there a nice ice tub around I can just sit in all day?
Sadie: “Let’s just swim at the lake ALL DAY!”
Since we gained an hour, it appears we ate at a good time (before 10:00 p.m.). So we took a walk down to the boat ramp, with the tailend view of an amazing sunset. The thunderheads were pronounced, offering a little lightning show in the distance. The sound of the lake lapping on the shore, and the humid air reminded us a little of Hawaii, minus the floral fragrance. Definitely coming back to this spot tomorrow night.