De Ja Vu All Over Again

As we got off the interstate and turned onto the road where the campground is I had this sudden feeling of de ja vu.  When I mentioned it, Rog agreed that the road looked familiar.  Then we spotted a Home Depot sitting on top of a hill across the entrance from the RV park.  "Yep," he said, "we've been here before.  I remember driving around that parking lot with the trailer while you went into a sandwich place and got lunch for the road that day."  Inadvertently, I have chosen an RV park for tonight that we have stayed in before - Sept 24, 2008.   It took me  a while to find it - the travel log that it would have been noted in was on that funky iWeb program that Apple has seen fit to discontinue.  (I, fortunately, have copied and pasted it and printed it out, but I can't find it on the computer.)  What I did find was a calendar entry.  So I know when, just not any comments we made about it.  We were on our way south to Pensacola that trip and the night before had been in Memphis. Weird feeling.  We are in Pehlam, AL just south of Birmingham. 

We left early this morning - around 8:30 in hopes of beating the rain that was predicted.  We had sprinkles off and on around Pensacola but no hard rain.  We did encounter a few isolated rain cells as we made our way north in Alabama, though.  It looks as if it has been raining here - the ground under the RV is muddy - but right ow we have huge white clouds and intermittent sunshine.  It is 87 degrees at 3pm and the humidity is "your shirt sticks to your body without moving" high.  There is a breeze and we are sitting outside in the shade while the A/C works its wonders on the inside. 

As we hit the rain, Rog traded his sun glasses for his regular ones and the lens fell out.  Fortunately, he carries his old beat up pair in the door of the truck and was able to use those.  

Then he turned on the lights because of the rain and the trailer lights didn't come on.  We checked them this morning before we left (as we always do) and they worked fine.  So, until we found a place to pull off of the interstate, all we could think about was what kind of electrical problem we might have.  Our problem turned out to be a loose plug - the one from the RV to the truck.  Somehow it had worked its way out of the socket enough that there was no connection.  That was an easy fix and a big relief.  

There wasn't a whole lot to see today.  Kudzu covered forests on both sides of the roads.  Florida had a few paper mills and we did see quite a few loaded logging trucks.  In Alabama we passed a huge Hyundai plant.  There was some planted fields but I couldn't tell what was planted.  Mostly trees.  In the southern part of Alabama we did notice that the dirt roads are very red.  Not sure what that says about the soil.  Clay? 

Interstate 65 is a good road for a change.  Hardly anything was dislodged in the RV when we stopped.  The shoulders and median were pretty trash free and the grass was mown.  Wish all our roads were like that! 

Alabama has nice rest areas but dogs are not allowed near the picnic tables.  We did find a place that had two tables way off into the "pet area" so we grabbed our stuff and hiked down a little hill to get there.  We watched a woman let three standard poodles out of their kennels so that she could toss the ball and give them exercise.  Beautiful dogs and well behaved.  Not so much the woman - she stood and watched her dogs do their business and ignored it.  I wanted to go give her a poo bag but was afraid she might get nasty and she had one of those throwing sticks in her hand.  Gets me all worked up when I see people who obviously train and care for their dogs but don't clean up after them.  

It looks like the WIFI here is pretty strong.  We are two sites away from the tower so we should have no issues tonight when Rog wants to watch his woodworking videos and I find more RV parks on our route.   

Our neighbor came over and asked Roger if he would settle a bet between him and his wife.  Apparently they spotted Roger who is "lean and trim" and they were betting on whether he was here for the Senior Games.  Rog had to tell them no.  I guess the Games are in Birmingham, AL over the next week.  This guy is competing in the pickle ball competition.  The RV park is filling up - wonder how many of them are going to compete in the games?  

Tomorrow we plan on being in Clarksville TN and will spend two nights there. Stay tuned. 

Today's Route