We left Hungrytown Hollow fairly early and had an uneventful drive up and over the Blue Ridge and down the Shenandoah Valley on I 81. We remembered this time that the first Flying J we come to at exit 80 has propane but no dump facilities and is sized for mini RVs. Therefore we continued down the road to exit 77 where there is a Flying J with room and propane and dump facilities. Dump facilities are to RVers like bathrooms in Manhattan, sometimes hard to find and critical when you really need them. Lest I bore the non RVers I will leave that subject for now, but you may be assured it will reoccur and the most inopportune moments. We went looking for a Wal Mart in Bristol, TN that showed in all our guides. It wasn’t where it was supposed to be, it must have grown legs and moved. We gave up and continued to a campground we remember well. Baileyton RV is maybe 20 miles over the line into TN. We stopped there two years ago and had a pleasant enough stay – until we awoke in the morning to several inches of snow. The new owners remembered the storm; they have pictures of the campground that day. It has not happened again, yet. After a good night’s rest we continued down I 81 to I 40.

On one of our first trips down this way in 1988 (tent camping and staying in Inns and B & B’s) I had decided I wanted to take a tour of Oak Ridge, TN. As we got tangled in traffic coming through Knoxville I decided it was a bad idea and we continued back up into the mountains. The idea has stayed with me, but we never got within range of Oak Ridge again until this trip. We located a campground Volunteer Family Park outside Knoxville and twenty minutes from Oak Ridge, TN, it was open, well, sort of open. A quarter of the sites were torn up for upgrading water and electric and the place was a bit of a mess, but they had water, electric and sewer and more to the point WiFi (not free – $2). After setting up and having lunch, this was a really early stop, we drove over to Oak Ridge and found the American Museum of Science and Energy (AMSE) which has a huge exhibit of photos and memorabilia from the days it was the “Secret City” one of the homes of the Manhattan Project. There are still vast tracts of land that are off limits to anyone without appropriate clearances. This is one of those stops that is not worth going way out of your way for, unless you are fascinated with the history of this country through WW II. It is definitely worth a stop if you are passing this way.

Hmm, Tennessee, what else is in Tennessee that I want to see but would not get on a plane or make a special trip to visit? Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN population 361! Just look at a map, it is in the same state and only moderately out of the way from any place one might want to go. So off we went, going cross lots on roads that were lightly traveled and not another RV to be seen. Eventually there was the Distillery right on route 55, the main road to no place in particular. The tour covers then entire plant, even in the rain and cold, from the preparation of the charcoal for mellowing to the mashing and distilling and barrel aging warehouses. Moor County, the home of the Distillery, is a dry county. By special state legislation they are permitted to sell commemorative bottles of the product in one room of the visitor’s center. After the hour and a half tour and a walk into the heart of Historic Lynchburg, we got on the road to Mill Creek RV in no place Alabama. This place is off a back road, off a back road (I am not stuttering) in the boonies. It is about an hour north of Huntsville which is to say it is barely south of the TN line. Nice place, nice people, cold weather! The site was level and roomy and if I were into hunting or fishing this is a place I might come back to many times. I am not likely to be back there again myself.

As I am writing I am sitting in a Wal Mart parking lot. They may mistreat their employees, but they are mighty nice to us RVers. Free parking with all the security you could ask for. This particular Wal Mart happens to be located in Oxford, MS. When you remember what/who Oxford is famous for, let me know. To get here we had to drive past the birth place of Helen Keller and make a stop at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in Tuscmbia just outside of Muscle Shoals. There will be a quiz on who and what these places are famous for when I see you next. The rest of the day included a piece of the Natchez Trace Parkway and sundry roads also not well traveled by our fellows in the big boxes.

Our current plan is to continue across Mississippi to the eponymous river and proceed along its east bank on MS 1 at least to Vicksburg. I’ll provide a report on reality after the fact.