AstroGypsies

Roosevelt State Park is on the SW side of Bienville National Forest…fishin’, lots of fishin’ here. I told Mike Groot will not forgive him for forgetting the rod and reel! We started to run into the God billboards leaving Tuscaloosa headed there on the I 20 where it turned off to the I 59. Some are the regular dial 83 for truth but there was a scary evangelical one too…Comin’ Clean Kingdom Marketplace Ministries...yikes, did they just want their portraits on a billboard? I had to google them, but didn’t come up with anything, bankrupt Marketplace ministries now maybe? Billboards keep me amused:)

It was a long jump, three plus hours from Oak Mountain to Roosevelt. Gamora was squeaking…are we there yet? Every hour, on the hour. Next trip the big bad spray water bottle will accompany us and I will most likely get hissed at, the indignity of being sprayed while yapping is extreme. She’ll only need spraying once, after that, just showing her the bottle is enough to get a hiss! A reminder that the drivers ears don’t like being yowled in!

Roosevelt State Park is another oldie. The roads are really narrow. In 2019 I’d booked a site, we couldn’t back into it as there are no shoulders and steep drop offs, it was mid week so not a problem, we took a site on the end we could back into, very steeply slanted but with Mike backing all the way to the end I could get the trailer level manually. The campground map isn’t very accurate, site 95 looks like it is up in the woods when it is actually on Shadow Lake, a 150 acre reservoir. I managed to book it for Friday and Saturday. Weekends are always the problem, never week days!

We are the only people here with an out of state plate…out of country for that matter! In Oak Mountain a pleasant older couple (Ok, maybe they were our age, they LOOKED older! Ha!) were parked in the site next to us in a small A class. We chatted about the cats, and leashes. She said she never managed to get hers to walk on one. I did explain that they walk us, we just follow them around, only Gamora will trot off down a trail happily, Groot has to stop and sniff EVERYTHING! Mr. Molasses I call him. “Where ya’ll from? She asked and we explained. They were from South Carolina, I’m half Confederate and half Yankee she told me, if civil war breaks out, I’m moving to Canada! “Ya’ll be safe!” she told me as they left. I have to make a point of wishing people bon voyage:) It did get me thinking, I saw one question asked on the Warriors Path State Park “Can you carry a gun there?” the answer…no one may carry a handgun in a Tennessee State park unless they have a concealed handgun permit or enhanced handgun permit. Okeedokee:) Ya’ll be safe maybe is more appropriate.

As we pulled off the highway onto the narrow two lane highway that leads to Roosevelt State Park, no shoulders at all, nowhere to pull over on highway 13, a funeral procession was just making it’s way past us, a police car with its lights going was leading the parade of cars, as cars passed us on the other side of the road some asshole gave us the double finger, taking both hands off the wheel to do so, perhaps how his friend left this earth, as we didn’t pull over, we couldn’t, welcome to Mississippi I thought but no and yes, there are assholes everywhere. I have read since it is a Southern thing. Some states have laws, some don’t, but pulling over was not an option with nowhere to go with a 20,000 lb, trailer. It’s not as if we cut through the procession or did anything other than very slowly motor by. So much to learn, at least he used his right to free speech with his middle finger:) I come from a funeral-less family…torch ’em and scatter them only:)

So many berries, as it was getting dark I spied a bush and said, I’ll get a shot in the morning, a deer must have eaten all the berries overnight! Drats! They were so cool, like triangular shaped blueberries with ridges. Maybe if the sun comes out tomorrow I can go looking for another bush. It dawned foggy and cold this morning, 42° flintstone scale. A few avid fishin’ folk were out on the lake, a Grebe popped up, then dove. Children were screaming from a nearby campsite, Groot and Gamora seemed hesitant to go out, first child scream had Rocket under the bed comforter hiding!

It seems people come to these beautiful parks for recreation, not quiet, not nature, but to DO things…Why can’t they just sit still and enjoy the beauty. Maybe too much to ask for a generation that walks their dogs (and children) in the park while staring at their phone. The wild gang of 4 or 5 redneck trucks (very loud bad sounding exhausts), screaming children, and I mean ten screaming kids and giant A-class that arrived Friday had packed up to go by 4, I guess they considered the check out time of 2 to be a suggestion;) then quiet returned to this sleepy park. Even Rocket went out to go explore near the lake, he hissed at a few smells, danger mommy, danger, looking up at me, ha, what a goof! Maybe I’m becoming an older, tell me I’m not old yet curmudgeon…very possible! Ha!

We’re off to Louisiana today, I think Mike picked the spot based on the fact there was highly acclaimed crawfish shack nearby. I’m not going to argue;) Stay tuned!