(169-miles from Marble Falls, TX to Purdon, TX)
We said goodbye to Tricia's brother last night and today we pulled out of our campsite around 10:00AM.
We have a relatively easy travel day today of just 169-miles, which won't even get us out of Texas. I did manage to surprise Tricia with a special lunch stop at Buc-ee's in Temple, TX and it's the first one we've seen with a car wash in addition to over 100 gas pumps.
Tricia picked out a monster sized Chicken Burrito and I tried the 3-meat BBQ sandwich for the first time. I don't think I'll get it again, it was also huge and I was burping the smoked sausage flavor for the next three hours.
Tricia also picked out a Brisket topped Mac and Cheese bowl and I a small sized Banana Pudding, which was still huge.
The portion of Mac and Cheese that Tricia didn't eat ended up making the perfect sized dinner for me, along with the pudding I saved.
An hour later we were pulling into the Oak Park Campground here on Navarro Mills Lake. It's an Army Corp of Engineers camground so we're paying half price, just $15, for a water and electric site on the lakeshore.
Navarro Mills Lake has 4 Army Corps of Engineers reservable campgrounds around it's shoreline.
Located on the north shore of Navarro Mills Lake you'll find Pecan Point and Wolf Creek Parks, they both closed for the season back at the end of September and won't reopen until April 1st next year.
On the eastern shoreline is where we are camped at Oak Park, which is open year round. Also open year round is Liberty Hill Park on the south shore.
Today we're going for a drive over to Liberty Hill Park to check out their campground. It's just something we always try to do, just in case we're ever in this region again and need a place to spend the night.
(217-miles from Purdon, TX to Haughton, LA)
We were about half way through our 217-mile travel day when we entered the city limits of Tyler, TX.
Tyler, TX is known for being the Rose Capital of the World, thanks to a 14-acre public garden that has over 38,000 rose bushes of at least 500 different varieties. That's nice, but what I'm going to remember about Tyler, TX is the price of gasoline at Walmart on Christmas Eve.
My only regret was we only had room for 28-gallons in our 36-gallon tank.
Right around 1:00PM we finally made it out of Texas as we entered Louisiana on Interstate 20. The Tom Merrill Recreation Area on the Bayou Bodcau Reservoir is the only Army Corps of Engineers reservable campsite in Louisiana. There are two other COE campgrounds on the reservoir, but they are both FCFS (first-come-first-serve). You can bet we'll be checking them both out before we leave here and head over to Mississippi.
I know this campground is sold out for tonight so we should see neighbors before sunset.
This one also comes with it's very own garbage can, not something you usually see.
We had to break out our 30amp 25' electric extension cord and an extra 25' of water hose too.
We hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas today.
We are spending our Christmas in northwestern Louisiana
and looking forward to spending New Years in Florida.
After takin' it easy yesterday, we decided today to go checkout those other camping opportunites in the area.
The first one is right across the street from here at the South Abutment Campground. There we found 5 sites that were walk-in tent sites and only 7 sites where you might be able to park a van, but nothing suitable for THE POD.
The same thing goes for the second campground we checked out. It was basically a boat ramp with a few places to throw a tent on the ground. Again, nothing suitable for THE POD. So I guess we picked the right spot to spend our Christmas Holiday.
On our way back to our campsite we stopped on top of the dam and snapped a couple of photos of THE POD.
(273-miles from Haughton, LA to Forest, MS)
With a relatively long travel day today of 270+ miles we scheduled ourselves a couple of extra rest stops along the route.
Since we still had a half a tank of gas it wasn't important that we fill up before heading east on Interstate 20. Our exit here had gas for $2.69 a gallon, but with a quick check on our Gas Buddy app we learned that an hour up the road gas was going for just $2.14 instead.
Another hour after stopping for gas we pulled off the Interstate again to eat lunch at a Wendy's.
Just a short time later we were crossing over the Mississippi River into the state of, guess what? Mississippi, that's right!
As we approached the western side of Jackson, MS we exited the Interstate and headed to the north side of town where the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument is located.
Medgar Evers, while not as well known as Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in his home's carport on June 11, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. suffered the same fate of being assassinated on April 4, 1968.
Both men were high profile civil rights activists for people of color.
MEDGAR AND MYRLIE EVERS HOME
NATIONAL MONUMENT
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(264-miles from Forest, MS to Dadeville, AL)
We safely made it to Ronnie Dennis' Airstream Nuts and Bolts repair/modification shop by 4:00PM. True to form, Ronnie was there, working on the shop, on a Sunday afternoon between the Christmas and New Year Holidays.
I hope he wasn't there just to greet us as we arrived. We've been there before and knew where to park for the overnight and where to plug into the building for electric.
We'll see plenty of each other tomorrow while he's working on our, and two other trailers, in the shop.
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