J.P. Coleman State Park Camping Trip

The destination:  J.P. Coleman State Park, on Pickwick Lake just inside the Mississippi state line.  The plan was to leave on Tuesday morning and come home Saturday.

But it rained on Monday, with more rain predicted for the next few days, and we backed out.  I cancelled my trip to the grocery store for camping food and road snacks.  We spent most all day Tuesday looking for other places to go where it wasn't raining, or even places where we'd stay in a hotel instead of camping, but we couldn't agree on an alternate destination.  Finally, we decided to go with the original plan, so Wednesday morning we loaded up and headed out for Mississippi.

Wednesday:  We'd reserved camp site #28, which was on a hill overlooking the lake.  The Husband backed the camper into the camp site.  It was barely long enough to accommodate our camper, but we finally got it in there.  The camp site was not very level, and it took all of the leveling blocks we owned to level the camper.  After putting down the legs and unhitching the camper from the truck, we discovered that the sewer hose would not reach the sewer pipe.  We hitched everything up again, raised the legs, and moved the camper so far back into the camp site that the rear legs of the camper were off the asphalt pad, and the sewer hose would still barely reach.  The ground sloped off so steeply past the pad that we had to build up support for camper's rear legs with rocks and boards that we found at the camp site.  We leveled the camper again, and then discovered that a tree on the front side of the camper was too close to enable us to extend the camper's awning (which we figured we'd need, since more rain was on the way).  As we were standing there, scratching our heads and trying to decide what to do, I was about to tell The Husband, "F* this camping trip," when I noticed that camp site #27 was longer, more level, had no trees to get in the way of anything, and was EMPTY.  We called the office to ask if we could switch to #27.  When they said we could, we hitched everything up AGAIN, moved to #27, and repeated the leveling process.  We were plumb worn out by the time we finally got the camper parked, leveled, and hooked up to the utilities in #27.  Whew.  We rested a while, during which time it rained, then the sun came out, then it rained more, then the sun came out WHILE it was raining, and a rainbow shot up out of the lake.  We just sat under the awning and watched it glow.  Later that evening, we drove to the closest town, Iuka, to raid the grocery store for camper food and supplies that I would've bought on Monday, had we not wavered in our plans.

Thursday:  After breakfast, we drove to Corinth, Mississippi, to look around.  Corinth is a small, old, historic town, but it has surprisingly good shopping and restaurants.  When we were researching things to do in the area, we read about an old drugstore on the town square (Borrum's) that served handmade milkshakes, and we headed there first.  By then, it was almost lunch time, and the place was PACKED, with a line nearly out the door.  We decided to look around a little more, and come back for milkshakes later.  We'd heard about Corinth's famous "slugburgers," which feature thin, deep-fried patties made from a mixture of beef and pork (we did not inquire about which parts of the cows and pigs went into the mixture) and a vegetable or grain filler.  No slugs.  (Back in the early 1900s, they cost a nickel, hence the term "slug.")  We bravely tried them.  They were not bad - tasted sort of like a truck stop hamburger (pickles, onions, and mustard).  Afterward, we toured the Crossroads Museum, drove around the old part of town to see the stately old homes, did a little shopping, and then went back to Borrum's and ordered milkshakes (yum).  On Thursday nights in Corinth, folks gather on the square to play bluegrass music.  The "regulars" noted our "new" faces and were very friendly.  One guy, the spokesperson for the group, asked our names, and then welcomed us by name from the microphone before the music began.  We waved and said "hey" when he called our names.  ;)  The bluegrass music was awesome!  But storm clouds started to gather.  My sister texted me from her home, "Batten down the hatches, a storm is headed your way."  We kept watchful eyes on the sky, not wanting to leave, for Wayne Jerrolds, an amazing fiddler from Savannah, Tennessee, was supposed to perform with his group later in the evening.  As the skies grew darker, the crowd virtually disappeared, and the musicians began packing their instruments into their cases.  I commented to one of the musicians who had performed earlier that I regretted not getting to see Mr. Jerrolds play.  I saw her walk over and speak to Mr. Jerrolds, and to our delight, he and his group unpacked their instruments, settled down on the courthouse steps, and played (to an audience of about 10, including us) some of the best bluegrass we'd ever heard.  When a few fat raindrops began to fall, we all skedaddled.  It rained on us all the way back to the park, but we'd had a fun day.

Friday:  My sister and brother-in-law drove over from Memphis to hang out with us for a few hours.  We drove around Pickwick Lake, had lunch, and did a little flea market perusing before they headed back home.  By then, the weather was perfect for camping - sunny and warm, with a cool breeze coming off the lake.  We cooked our supper outside on the Coleman stove, ate outside, and sat outside until long past dark, enjoying a surprisingly bug-free evening.

Saturday:  Going-home day is always a busy day for a camper.  It always seems to me that we have to pack up, unhook, and re-hitch far more at the end of a camping trip than we'd unpacked, hooked, and unhitched at the beginning.  But we took our time over a leisurely breakfast cooked and eaten outside, and then set to work readying the camper for the trip home. 

As always, it was good to get home, especially since our next stop would be to visit a brand new granddaughter (8 lbs,, 1 oz.) who was born while we were gone.