This significance of this picture is that it's our first time to fill up WITH Voyager attached. The pic was taken from inside a KFC/Taco Bell combo in Brinkley, Arkansas. When you're rig is as big as ours, it limits what where you can go. We took advantage of the fast food.
Right around six hours later we stopped and a very unique campground called Pickensville Campground, a Corps of Engineers CG, in--you guessed it--Pickensville (Alabama). Ah, let me tell you the story of Pickensville. First off, getting there involved MANY-a-mile of beautiful MS roads with hardly any traffic. Kind of freaks you out when you run into things like that. Most of that mileage was on hwy 45. For this trip to Flordia, I thought I'd camp midway down in Alabama and midway back in Mississippi. This way, I could tag both states as "having camped overnight" in Voyager and vary the trip route. Voyager, of course, is our cutesy name for the Fifth Wheel.
We arrived close to dark, rough parked Voyager (no slides out), and asked the CG manager, Wayne, where a good place to eat would be. He recommended "Down Yonder". Of course, I looked at him expecting, oddly, for him to point to something down yonder. He didn't so I asked, "That's the name of the place?" He gave directions which turned out to be super simple--just up the road and turn left at stop sign for 1/2 mile. What he didn't say was that that's about all there is to the town of Pickensville. We spoke with the waitress at Down Yonder and she said that there's no schools, no post office, etc. The attraction to the town/area must obviously be the fishing/boating on the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway known as the Tenn-Tom. It was steak night so Gina and I ordered the 12-oz Ribeye, loaded tater, salad, and tea. For desert, apple pie for me, NY-style cheesecake with strawberry topping for her. We agreed that the folks at Down Yonder do not know what 12-oz looks like. These two steaks were HUGE and although pan-fried, very good and tender. Props to Down Yonder for this unexpectedly good meal in the middle of nowhere! Enjoy the pics.
I didn't sleep well at PCG. Electricity went off and we lost the white noise of the fan in the bedroom at roughly 5am. It never came back on and as we rolled out, the CG manager wasn't in to ask why. The CG seemed pleasant enough. We could have stayed another day, maybe two if this wasn't an overnighter. On the road to Pensacola NAS, our final destination, we had a scare in Mobile. An RV.net poster warned us of a tunnel that was too small for an RV. We had an "oh shit" moment in the tunnel you see below. You see, we rounded a tight corner to find the thing right in front of us. Gina was visibly shaking for a while afterwords. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the tunnel?? Got a shot of the Mobile Bay Causeway, then on down to Pensacola NAS. Our site was site 51 and upon arriving, met with Paul and Debbie who invited us over for chili. "Just park and come on over. Starts at 5." Paul helped me park Voyager even though I didn't want help. He seems a little gruff so it was an adventure trying to follow his directions to park vs. what I would have done. It was, never-the-less, a nice thing to do for us. Was a little disappointed at the vegetation between us and the Gulf. The park could be outstanding if they'd clear it out and bring in sand or something else for easy access to beach. Anyway, the breeze is awesome. Gina didn't want chili so after trying to find Paul or Debbie in a crowded room of retired chili-goers, we drove on to find Perdido Bay's Oyster Bar.
We were pretty disappointed to learn that the BP Gulf Oil spill killed the raw oyster option for us. Instead, we had blackened oysters, oyster Rockefeller, BBQ shrimp, sauteed scallops, and gumbo. Overall, Gina like it pretty good, but not so much for me especially for the steep price. It's not New England seafood that's for sure. Had an out of the box feel to it for me.
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