kTombigbee State Park, Tupelo, MS
One of the bright sides of pulling into a campground late at night is discovering what it really looks like in the morning. We did a bike ride around and just loved this little gem. Lots of campsites right on the water! We saw several rafts and floaties so assumed this was a good swimming lake too. (You never know which lakes the gators are in!). As we checked out of the site we asked the park host, so is it okay to swim. "Sure" she said. We followed up with, "and there are no gators?" She waited a second too long before answering, then laughed and said, "Well...". Ya, just sayin'.
We had a long haul across Georgia, Alabama and then into Mississippi today. Our big outing was going to visit Natural Bridge. It's touted as the longest arch rock east of the Rockies. Who could pass that up?
We were ready to stretch our legs and take in this natural wonder, along with the artesian well, Indian head and mile nature walk.
There's a sweet little garden in front of the gift shop. It all looked very promising, but what really caught our eye was the HUGE tree that was ready to be felled.
There was a 100 ft pine tree that the owner wanted taken down for safety reasons. Well, forget about the Natural Bridge, this was so much more interesting. We hung out for a good hour or so watching them try to figure it out. At one point there were three trucks hooked up to ropes pulling on it!
The owner, David, has quite the personality. He was so concerned about everyone's safety and terrified that his gift shop was going to be taken out. He hung out with us and we learned a lot about the local history, his family and Southern accents. If all this drama wasn't enough, the skies opened up and just POURED just as the tree was getting ready to fall.
The picture on the left is one of the workers scaling the tree to readjust a rope. This was AFTER all the cuts had been made.
The picture on the right is the tree falling...timber!!!
It was quite the scene.
In the pouring rain we decided, what the heck, let's go check out this natural bridge. We took umbrellas and I did the 100 yard walk in my flip flops. It was very wet. So wet that we decided to forego the mystery carved Indian head, didn't take the nature trail and never drank from the artesian well. We paid $3.50 to see the natural bridge, but the real bargain was watching that tree being felled. And that was free!
Thanks David and Natural Bridge for a very entertaining afternoon and a much needed break.
We enjoyed your hospitality.
We were appreciating the rain and the cooling effect on the temperature. Winnie's A/C went out earlier today just when the temperature hit 90 degrees with 63% humidity. Ugh. We were expecting it, but nevertheless...As we pulled into Hamilton, we asked around and were pointed in the direction of Brock's repair job. A very humble establishment, but a super nice guy. He gave Winnie a freon charge and $26 and half an hour later we were on our way. I also had a good time playing with the little kid in the auto shop. His name was CJ and he kept "shooting" at me with a 1980's circuit board with knobs on it. Good times.
Tonight we are camped at a small campground, only about 20 sites. The weather had cleared by the time we arrived. In talking with our fellow campers we found out the electricity was out most of the day due to the thunderstorm. Lucky us, dry weather and everything works.
Looking forward to getting caught up on some sleep. We have another long day tomorrow, but never fear I got some fun activities planned!
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