Travel Day

Yesterday was a travel day for us but since we were only going a little over 100 miles we took our time tearing down and got on the road about 10:30.
I had done a little research trying to find a spot on the way to Alabama where we were meeting friends from Indiana, Rob and Jany Runion. They were taking a week off and wanted to find some warmer weather to do some motorcycle riding. Their decision was narrowed down to Alabama but were waiting on the weather forecast to narrow the choice to a certain area of the state. They are hoping to stay in the Northern 1/3 to decrease travel time and we have been talking by phone and email bouncing ideas back and forth.
I found a Passport America park near Decatur Mississippi that sounded nice and got good reviews on http://www.rvparkreviews.com/ . The park is called Turkey Creek Water Park and is owned and operated by the state. There are only a few sites but all have water, 50/30 amp electric and sewer. There is also a large lake here and the rate with PPA discount is less than $10 per night. I figured we could spend a few days here before heading into Alabama to meet Rob and Jany.
I called the office and made sure we would fit and they had open sites before we headed that way. The roads into the park were not too bad, a little narrow and winding but do-able. When we arrived they gave us a list of open sites and I hopped into the Dakota with Rudee to check them out. The sites are paved with parking spurs at the rear of the sites and each has a large patio area as well as a fire pit and picnic table. We chose site #8 across from the shower house since it looked to be the easiest to get into and we could park our extra vehicle at the shower house parking lot.
The campground has full shade with tall pine trees. I wasn't holding out much hope for our Tail Gator dish to pick up a TV signal :-(.
We registered for 4 nights and got the rig parked, we even had room to leave the semi hooked up to the 5th wheel, barely!
Once we got parked and set up I found a problem, one leg of the 50 amp power pedestal was not working. When this happens you only have power to one side of the rig on our 5th wheel. I simply got out the 30amp cord and plugged it in. Problem solved.
I have a cheap compass I use to check out the satellite heading for Dish Network and thought, hoped, prayed that if I put the dish "right here" so it was pointed through that little hole in the trees I may get a signal. Rudee had her doubts but puts up with me anyway :-).
I got the dish out, chained it to a tree for security, and hooked the cable up. I went inside and fired up the receiver with my fingers crossed. The dish receiver goes through several checks and then tries to acquire the signal. This is all done automatically and takes about 15 minutes. Any hitch in the set up and no TV :-o. The checks all went smoothly and then it started looking for the signal. The TV screen shows a bar graph with 5 colored bars that turn green to show the progress. Once it gets to 3 green bars you are home free, if it stops at 2 bars, or less, it is a no go and it starts all over again. This part is agonizing, will it go past two bars, will I get to watch the Datona 500, the stress is killing me! Yippee ...... 3 bars! Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause!
The downside is we do not have much of an internet signal so photos will be few and far between but I will try to post one or two.

Rudee got into a cooking mood last evening and baked a raisin cake, threw it out because she forgot the soda and it was flat, then baked another one :-). She is also slow cooking a roast for Monday and made a Mexican Casserole for Sunday evening supper! Is she super or what??!!

Tomorrow we plan to explore the area a little bit and enjoy the natural surroundings. I'll keep you posted.