Thursday, November 7, 2019

Heading south for the winter. Can we out run the arctic weather?


11/05/2019 – 11/7/2019

Tuesday – 11/05/2019 – We are back on the road again heading south for the winter. It seems like winter is arriving early in Wisconsin. We had 5” of snow on Halloween! So we are happy to be on our way. We would have been gone earlier but had to wait to meet with our health insurance agent so I could sign up for health care. Tuesday morning we spent about an 1 hour winterizing the house and were on the road by 8:00.

We drove 342 miles today arriving at Kickapoo State Recreation Area around 2:00. This park is located about 30 miles east of Champaign Illinois. It is a large park on the site of an old surface mining operation. It is 2842 acres with lots of outdoor recreation. The campground is open all year.

This is the first stop on our winter travels. We have reservations at a RV Resort in Yuma for February and March but we are taking the long scenic route to get there. From Wisconsin we are heading toward Nashville to get on the Natchez Trace Parkway. This is a 444 miles long National Park Road that meanders across Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. Once we reach Natchez we will drop down to New Orleans to spend a few days there. We will be spending Thanksgiving near Galveston then leaving on a one week cruise. After the cruise the plan is to keep moving south to check out San Padre Island and the Rio Grande Valley area then meander west. We want to be in Benson Az. the end of December to meet up with all our friends at Saguaro SKP Park and attend the annual Polar Bear Party. Then on to Quartzsite and ultimately Yuma.

Wednesday – 11/6/2019 – Another pretty pleasant day of driving. We drove a few miles east on 74 then turned south onto Highways 63 and 41. This is nice four lane divided highway that ends up at the southern Indiana border. Some stop and go lights near towns and driving through Terre Haute is kind of a pain but otherwise pretty stress free.

We arrived at Eagles Rest and Fletcher's Fork RV Park around 3:00. This is a military RV park which is part of Fort Campbell however they allow non-military guests as well. The day we arrived it was kind of noisy has there were folks skeet shooting at the adjacent shooting range and army helicopters buzzing over every 15 to 20 minutes. The helicopters were still flying after dark and every time they flew over we lost television signal!

Thursday – 11/7/2019 – Woke up to rain this morning so we decided to take a break from driving and explore the area. We checked out the visitor center at nearby Clarksville to see what might be interesting to visit in the area. Clarksville is located where the Red River flows into the Cumberland River so was a great place for a fort during the Civil War. Fort Defiance Civil War Park and Interpretive Center is a nice museum located at the site of the old fort. We watched a short video, strolled through the museum and spent some time talking to the museum assistants.

We also visited and took a tour of Old Glory Distillery. This distillery is only 4 years old and was started by two brothers that wanted to do something besides sit behind a desk. With the help of their father they built the distillery building and began to produce various spirits.

Where we are parked: Kickapoo State Recreation Area – Oakwood, Illinois – Site 91 – 184 sites- The gravel sites are nicely spaced with about half the sites with electrical hookups. $20 per night.


Where we are parked: Eagles Rest and Fletcher's Fork RV Park – Fort Campbell,TN – Site 14 - 42 full hookup sites, at least 20 of them are pull-thru. This is a military park however allow non-military guests as well. $25 per night/$23 with Golden Age Pass.





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