And now – a mashup of many days of travel

From dad’s house I drove to Hot Springs National Park. I didn’t know what was there, but I felt like being in a campground instead of a walmart parking lot. I arrived to a town, not so much a park. Although the park system does keep and maintain many of the old bath houses, as well as providing lots of informational signs, it wasn’t quite the park like setting I had been expecting.

 

I did see water, which is the whole point:

 

And pretty plants, which are watered by springs:

 

There is a really pretty ‘hot springs recovery center’:

 

So, after walking around the town for a while, grabbing a quick bite to eat, and allowing the dog to water every bush in sight, I headed for the campground. It was idyllic. Set off the highway a ways, with lots of walking trails leading over the hill to the bathhouses, and filled with people. I sat myself down on the picnic table, read a bit, drank some whiskey, and went to bed as the rain started to fall.

 

I woke up to an odd noise outside my truck. And then Scrappy started going wild. Turns out there was an unknown interloper roaming around the grounds:

No tags, nobody knew her, and she was looking awful skinny. I gave her a bowl of dog chow, ate my own food, and headed for the high road. I was off to Tennessee.

 

I ended up in Memphis for the night, and proceeded to do the touristy thing: went to Beale St. to see blues and have a drink!:

 

I was early, so wandered around for a while before catching a show. As I meandered  I saw tons of people taking pictures. Yep Tourist City!  I came back the next morning to get my own shot, uncluttered by the masses:

 

The blues was okay, the food and drink were over-priced as I’d expected. Overall – meh. I didn’t need to spend a second night in Memphis.

 

I stopped in Lynchburg for a tour of the Jack Danielle’s distillery. It was very fun, loads of info, and I even got my picture taken with Jack:

followed by a quick jaunt to a town called McMinnville to sleep for the night.

 

Waking up early, I headed to Fall Creek Falls state park on the advice of my father. It was great. Lots of great waterfalls. Lots of fun:

 

 

I stayed the night in the campground here, enjoyed hanging out for hours with the dog, reading, writing, and whatnots. It was a good time.

 

Woke up before sunshine, took a shower, and rolled out in the dark. I wanted to be in a city for the halloween weekend. I had my eyes set on Chattanooga.