Mammoth Meanders to Massachusetts, Day 2

Memphis to Cumberland Mountain State Park, TN

Tue 6 June

 

Bye, Mississippi River!

 

 

 

 

 

They had the high water mark on some of their buildings:

 

 

 

We got a remarkably early start--9:15.  With only a short pee stop and then an unnecessarily long gas stop (20 minutes), we arrived by 2:35. So the 5:10 drive took us...5:20. Wow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And it was a horrible drive, too--the traffic to Nashville was awful; Nashville itself has a confusing maze of bear left, bear right, bear left...intersections; then we got into the hills of western Tennessee which quickly turned into Mountains (with a capital M). The traffic being just as awful there as in Nashville, we couldn't hardly get up them.

 

 

After we piddled along up a 5-mile long grade and over the worst of the mountain range, we finally came out into a fairly long plateau and the turnoff for the park, Cumberland Mountain State Park. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a lovely place, neat as a pin, and I even saw a couple of chipmunks on our walk.  The campground was awfully hilly, but there was a nice nature trail along the water with signs indicating activities for the kids. I tried to get a good picture to send to Ethan, but nothing was just right.

Then Ed and I ate at the Homestead Harvest Restaurant in the park. Not sure of the meaning for the name--it wasn't a homestead and had nothing to do with a harvest. But the food on the buffet, although sparse, was decent--taco bar--and the desserts were banana pudding and warm apple cobbler. Both were good, not great, but nothing to turn up your nose about.
 

  

View from the restaurant:

 

 

Birds seen: Eastern Towhees! Lot's of 'em--I know they're just an oversized sparrow, but I love them and have missed seeing them ever since moving from Kentucky.  Other than that, I mostly saw Chipping sparrows, Robins, Brown Thrashers, and I heard a Wood Thrush who appeared to have a bad lisp.