July 19-20, 2024
Three hour drive north into Tennessee to Harrison Bay State Park – near Chattanooga. Much of the ride was through torrential rain and I was afraid I would be setting up in the rain (again). The other memorable part of the drive was realizing that I was in “hill country”. The hill country term has become more popular these times as Trump just selected JD Vance as his running mate and Vance had written a book about his childhood being raised in hill country.
I also thought, with near 100% certainty, that I was going to my second back in site.
Check in time was 4PM and I arrived around 3:30PM. The rain, thankfully, had subsided but there was still a drizzle. I chatted with folks at the at the check in office, they were extremely friendly, from Clermont, Florida, near Orlando. They escape the Florida heat every summer – usually to North Carolina. They have been RVing for years and amongst the chit chat I mentioned this was my 7th night and 2nd time at a back in site. Well, as it turned out I reserved a pull through site, they were there as I was informed this and chuckled a bit.
Here I am set-up at site B34 and a map of the park. This is by far the most crowded park I’ve been to yet.
As I entered the park I saw several deer …
The next morning, July 20, I met a man walking through the park as I was returning to the RV from the bathroom. He asked me about the Airstream and said he had been in a RV 20 months full time before settling in a house 1/4 mile from the park. He was interested in the Airstream as he is planning one more RV trip to Alaska and thought an Airstream the size of mince would be ideal for he and his wife.
He walks every morning a couple miles through the park. He said he had seen ~20 deer before we met and offered to wait for me to put on walking shoes and walk/ show me the park. It turned out to be an hour walk with good conversation. We walked to the marina and chatted with two fisherman at the boat ramp that were having boat problems – they said they needed a kill switch, had left it at home. But honestly, these fisherman had such a southern (or hill country) drawl that I could hardly understand them.
I went for a second, solo walk, and captured a couple pictures (yes, it rained) ….
The temperature an humidity difference is so refreshing. The nighttime lows are around 70 and daytime highs 90ish. Getting out of the Florida summer heat is a major reason for this journey.
After the walks I went into Chattanooga for some supplies. Maybe most importantly coffee bit also protein and vegetables. Google pointed me to a local coffee roaster and a Whole Foods. I’ll judge the coffee tomorrow before my departure – Kentucky up next.
And one more thing, Phyllis and her two pugs (aka mouth breathers) arrived around 2PM. We chatted for a couple hours and although she got a picture of us I did not.