The Subaru is packed and ready to go. Robert has rigged up our power supply for our little travel refrigerator and our traveling office. That consists of two extra 12v AGM Deep Cycle batteries, an inverter and several connectors that do a lot of cool things. He had been busy with the prep work for days. I don’t know exactly what everything does, but he’s happy and I’ll be happy to have power in remote places. Our goal is to stay off the Interstate as much as possible. We want to take as many scenic drives as possible and go at a slower pace.
Here it goes…Day 1
We left Springfield at about 5:20 a.m. and headed east on Hwy 60. I tried something new that I’ve been reluctant to do… I began to work some on my computer while Robert was driving. This is a big step for me since I fight motion sickness when we travel. I took my Dramamine and cracked open my computer. Robert was great to let me know if hills and curves were ahead so I could look up. I couldn’t work the entire time, but I didn’t feel awful either and best of all, I was able to get some things done.
We made it to Poplar Bluff, MO by 8:40 a.m. and took a break. We needed to take a client call and it was a perfect time to regroup to see where we wanted to stay for the night.
By 11:00 a.m., we decided to head south on Hwy 53 toward Holcomb. At Holcomb, we got on Hwy 25 south to Kennett, then shot across east on Hwy 412 toward Dyersburg, TN. We arrived at the Tennessee Welcome Center in Dyersburg at 12:30 p.m.
Originally, we were going to be headed toward Hohenwald, TN and stay the night at Meriwether Lewis National Monument, but after talking with the Welcome Center Volunteer, we discovered there was a National Banana Pudding Festival in Centerville the very next day. We looked and the map and decided that we had our fill of driving and set our sights to Chickasaw State Park near Henderson, TN.
We arrived at our campsite by 3:30 p.m. It may have been early in the day to set up camp, but we were ready to unwind. We soon realized as the afternoon passed that just across from us was going to be a big group of pre-teen girls for a birthday party. There was a lot of giggling and screeching going on. We weren’t bothered much though. Listening to them try to tell ghost stories was quite humorous. Their campsite got quite quick when the rain started.
Our first official night in our penthouse suite was chilly but perfect. A few sprinkles, but we stayed perfectly dry.
Our little photo album of Day 1:
