WINDY Day!

We went to bed last night with the sound of the wind blowing. We woke up this morning with the sound of the wind blowing feeling the gusts of the wind against Auntie Violet's sides.  We spent the morning listening to the sound of the wind and watching leaves -- and other stuff -- blowing across the lawn of the RV park. We listened to the wind this afternoon and watched the clouds racing across the sky with occasional patches of blue sky accented by black clouds. This evening we ate chicken and dumplings at Tom and Juni's motor home and listened to the wind buffet the sides of their house.

But all of a sudden, it is quiet.  Has it finally stopped? I asked Forry and he immediately hushed me -- "SH! It will hear you and start again!"

I am tired of the wind! It was windy in Arkansas at Tom Sawyer's RV Park. We had gusty winds when we drove into Mississippi. We've had wind ever since we arrived at Mid South RV Resort. I am so tired of the wind!

Tunica, Mississippi

We got ourselves semi-organized this morning and left Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park and went to find the State of Mississippi. It was only a short drive to join our friends Tom and Juni at Mid South RV Resort in Tunica, Mississippi.  They've been here for a couple of days while we were enjoying our time at the River watching the tugs and barges.

Juni and Tom had arranged for a site right beside them, but when we got to the office about noon to register, we discovered that the people in that site had asked for a late check-out and were still there! The staffer gave us a site down the way a bit and said if we wanted to wait, we could move when the people left. So we just parked Auntie Violet and went to visit with Tom and Juni for a couple of hours. We needed to get our puppy fix anyway and Tika and Izzie were glad to oblige!

By 1:30 our site was free, so we drove over and got ourselves set up. It was a gusty, windy day and by the time we had everything done, we were chilled. It felt good to curl up with my afghan on the couch and read. Well, actually to take a nap...

While they were here, Tom and Juni had discovered a wonderful seafood buffet at the Hollywood Casino. It was so good, they were more than willing to go again tonight (it's only on Friday and Saturday nights). We ate King crab and Snow crab, along with lots of shrimp, stuffed crab, scallops, crawfish, frog legs (not me!), oysters, crab cakes, catfish, etc, etc.  It was so good! There was barely room for a scrumptious chocolate cupcake with chocolate mousse topping.

Life on the Mississippi

Juni and Tom left for Mississippi today, but we decided to stay on at the Tom Sawyer RV Park a couple of nights longer -- just so we could watch the activity on the river.  This tug came very close into shore this morning pushing its barges --

It was really moving along putting up a bit of a rooster tail --

This one was a bit farther out. Its barges had some kind of tanks -- maybe oil?

Some of the tugs dropped off their barges for unloading and then tied up a little farther up the river --

This is the office of the RV Park.  It, like the bathhouses and laundry, is on wheels so that it can rapidly be moved to higher ground.  Since the RV Park is on the river side of the levee, it does flood. The receptionist said that the water this year was higher then the power lines -- and she was very thankful they were able to be open.

There was a beautiful sunset looking west on the river tonight --

While to the east the full moon was rising --

It was a nice day to spend watching the activity on the river, but it was chilly enough to need a jacket.  I took the bedspread from our bed over to the laundry and got it washed.  It's a bit too much for Auntie violet's little Splendide washer. Another nice thing about this park -- the laundry is free!  There are two fairly new washers and dryers in the bathhouse near to us and I understand there are a few more in the one at the other end of the park.

There is a "freeze warning" in effect for the Memphis area this evening.  Sounds like the temperature may get all the way down to 32 degrees!

And Now, Arkansas

When we were discussing what we wanted to do in Tennessee besides go to the Grand Ole Opry, I immediately said that I wanted to see Graceland. Well, we were in Nashville and Graceland is in Memphis -- almost across the state.  Tennessee is not a real big state, it's wide and skinny, but it was a good two hundred and thirty miles.  We followed Tom and Juni out of the Nashville Country RV Park this morning headed for Interstate 40 West --

It was long trip, but we finally came to the western edge of the state and approached the Mississippi River --

And right in the middle of the bridge, we crossed into Arkansas --

We had originally planned to stay at the RV Park at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, but Tom was on-line making the reservations and he found this really neat RV Park across the river in West Memphis, Arkansas.  It's called Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park and it really is right on the river!

I'm standing beside Auntie Violet where we are parked beside Tom and Juni in the above picture looking to the right across the gravel --

 And then looking to the left --

The weather forecast is predicting a thunderstorm tonight and the wind is really blowing already, but once it clears off, it should be a gorgeous night with this full moon --

The line of thunderstorms in Oklahoma, Texas and southern Arkansas is predicted to spawn tornadoes tonight, so everyone is a bit jumpy.  We have the NOAA weather radio turned on, even though it's not supposed to be bad this far north...