Wednesday, October 17, 2012
We all got up before breakfast and hit the showers at Big Hill Pond CG, TN. The water came out of the shower head with such force it was about like standing under Multnomah Falls, where the water drops a couple of hundred feet. The flying mist got everything in the shower stall wet. You had to put your clothes on a board that was above the shower partition to keep them dry. Washing your hair and rinsing your face was something like the old Indian water torture. All that being said by “Barney the Wimp”, there was lots of hot water and you came away clean and refreshed. And, ready for a breakfast of pterodactyl eggs, biscuits and gravy. After breakfast we loaded up and headed for the VC for a couple of stamps for our passport books.
There was a small dog in the campground that was very friendly. Never made a sound but came running right up to you acting like he needed to be petted. Also wouldn’t have minded a bite or two of breakfast. We wondered if he had been left behind, but found out it belongs to the ranger. 
We drove down to Travis McNatt Lake, which is on Big Hill Pond park property and looks to be about 100 acres in size. No motors are allowed on the lake and you can keep 20 fish per day 10 of which can be bass with no length limit and us with no canoe or license.
We headed east on route 57 then turned on route 22 to Shiloh National Military Park to check on stamps that we didn’t get last year. There were three specific stamps that we knew we didn’t have, and only one of them was available. The man on duty in the bookstore said he didn’t have any others and that he would have them out if he had any more. Then he remembered one that was in a drawer in the office. So we got those stamps and were early enough to watch the video of the Battle of Shiloh and spend a little time in the museum. It is very sobering to realize that after this 2 day battle, during the Civil War, there were over 23,000 dead, wounded or missing. More men died during those 2 days than had died during all US conflicts to date.
After the visit to the VC, Betty went back to the bookstore to ask about a picnic area. She was soon back fetching Fred to go back to the bookstore about the missing stamp. Someone else was on duty, so it was worth a try. He came out a little later with two stamps different than we had before. Luckily the first man didn’t show up while Fred was getting help from the woman now on duty. We still think we are missing one, but what more can you do?
We left the park proper and stopped at a picnic area for a bite of lunch before continuing north on route 22 then east on 64. We found a Wal-Mart in Savannah, TN where we stopped for some groceries and fuel. We continued east on route 64 to the Natchez Trace. We went north on the Trace about 15 miles and pulled into the Meriwether Lewis Monument and Grave Site. Near the monument is a campground where we located a couple of sites and are bedded down for the night in the cave mobiles. We have a couple of very “interesting” neighbors in the campground that would love to talk for hours, but we headed inside for a while. It was almost dark before we had a light supper out at the picnic table. It has been a good day.
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