HAPPY THANKSGIVING…Columbus, MS, Stock Car Races, and Troy, AL

Thursday, 11/24/2011

Deer Run RV Park

Troy, AL

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!  Terri and I hope that all of you are having/have had a wonderful holiday.  This is always a day of reflection for me with so many blessings to be thankful for, way too many to begin to list here.  This is the beginning of a new tradition for us.  For many years, Terri and I would fly down to Texas to spend the holiday with my parents until my Dad passed away.  We continued to fly down there every year to be with my Mom.  Then after she passed away, we started a new tradition with some friends in Richmond.  One year we would have them over, the next year they would have us over, and we would alternate each year.  We all got very comfortable with this arrangement, and it seems really strange to not be spending the day with them this year.  So now, we start a new tradition.  We’re going to the park’s Thanksgiving Potluck today.

Here’s an update on where we’ve been and where we are right now.  After spending Tuesday at Graceland, we headed southeast towards Columbus, MS, on Wednesday, the 26th of October, to Parkwood RV Park. 

Parkwood is a small campground with only eighteen sites.  We were in a spacious pull through site with full hookups.  I did a lot of internet research on this park’s location, and I’m glad I did.  It’s located at the end of a dead-end street.  Even with the signs that were posted, I probably would not have ventured down this street if I hadn’t researched it ahead of time.  Most of the sites are occupied by “long-timers.”  It was a quiet park except for the highway traffic noise during the daytime.  It’s conveniently located to Wal-Mart and other stores and restaurants.  We stayed four nights.  We went to Columbus so that I could go to the stock car races at the Magnolia Motor Speedway, also known as “The Mag.”

The pictures of the track were taken on Thursday night.  It was just a night for practice only, no actual racing, with free admission.  It was rather cold, and not too many people turned out to watch the practice session.  The track is only about ten minutes away from the campground.  I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings over at the track while Terri stayed at the campground.  She’s not a race fan, and we determined many years ago that it was better that I attend the races by myself.  We drove around town a couple of different days but really didn’t do anything noteworthy.  We did go to Wal-Mart, and we also stopped and got a dozen of our favorites.

I didn’t take a picture of the actual donuts because I forgot, and they didn’t really stay around long enough anyway.

Saturday afternoon, the 29th of October, I started getting ready for an early Sunday departure.  I dumped the tanks, added some fresh water, and then disconnected and put away the water hose and sewer hose.  I also hitched up the truck to the trailer and checked and adjusted all the tire pressures.  As some of you know, we usually don’t get a very early start on travel days.  Often times we don’t leave until very late, late morning.  I wanted to get to our next stop on Sunday in time to see the NASCAR race at Martinsville on TV, so with that incentive we left the campground Sunday morning just before 7 AM.  That’s really early for us.  Including a stop for diesel and a couple of other quick stops, we got to the campground just a bit after noon, checked in, and got all set up with about a half hour to spare.  It seemed really strange to be done traveling for the day that early.  We both agreed that we liked it and will probably try for earlier departures in the future.

The campground we travelled to is Deer Run RV Park

located about six miles north of Troy, AL, on U.S. Route 231.  We learned about this campground through our friends’ blog.  Jim & Linda stopped here in September on their way south.  They gave the park a good report, and so we decided to give it a try.  We arrived on Sunday, the 30th of October, and decided to stay through the month of November.  They have a really good monthly rate here, and we decided to take advantage of it.  The park is really nice, the people here are very friendly, and we’ve enjoyed our stay here so far.  In fact, on Wednesday, the 16th of November, we decided to extend our stay through December.  Every Tuesday, they have a potluck meal.  The first week was supper, the next week breakfast.  It alternates back and forth every week.  We’ve attended two of the suppers, but not the breakfast yet.  We were told, though, that the breakfast had lots of good food, so we may have to get ourselves moving next Tuesday to try it out.  I’ll take some more pictures of the park and do a more extensive blog post about it soon.  We haven’t really done too much since we arrived here.  Just day-to-day things, relaxing, and enjoying the milder temps.  Montgomery, Dothan, and Enterprise are all places we want to go to and explore.  Hopefully I’ll be able to post about some of those adventures soon too.