Natchez Trace State Park only 94 more to go

Natchez Trace is a HUGE state park. It is about 1 hour 45 minutes from the house and I had completely forgotten how beautiful it is there. Here is a link to the website http://tnstateparks.com/parks/about/natchez-trace My husband and I had a wonderful time at this park. We actually had a kid free weekend. When you get to the park make sure that you check in at Pin Oak Lodge. DO NOT GO ALL THE WAY TO THE CAMP HEADQUARTERS LIKE WE DID. We decided to stay in a cabin because it was going to be extremely cold. We stayed in cabin number 13. The dog went crazy while we were there running and pouncing and jumping. He didn't really want to come into the cabin at all. The cabin was cute with a gas fireplace, kitchen, living room, bedroom, bath and a deck with a grill and picnic table. It was warm and that was all I cared about. We decided to try to make this weekend as cheap as possible because renting a cabin is not really in our budget so we didn't do things that we normally do like buy wood from the park and buy anything from the park store (t-shirt, sweatshirt, etc.) We scavenged wood. Since the cabin was on such a large wooded area it wasn't difficult to find wood however most of it was rotten. If you have ever smelled burning rotten wood then you know how bad it stinks. It will probably take a few washes to get the smell out of our clothes. On the first night we sat around our rotten smelling camp fire and enjoyed our evening talking about what we were going to do the next day at the park. The dog’s eyes glowed green in the night darkness and my husband’s shoes caught on fire. It was so quite in the woods with our little cabin behind us. We could hear coyotes barking and howling but our faithful dog didn't even stir, he was in heaven and so were we. The next day we loaded up the backpack with lunch, leashed the dog and started walking across wooden bridges that went completely across the river, it was perfectly beautiful. We are still trying to train the dog on the leash which is a job all in itself. He pulls you because God knows he has to be first in line. The park didn't have a ton of people there because of the time of year and it was cold and not a lot of folks were out walking around. We walked about 1 1/2 miles and decided that the dog was getting to be a little too much. So, we took him back to the cabin and got in the car and drove around. We saw signs for "the pecan tree" and thought why the hell not. Let's drive the 8 miles to the pecan tree and see what all that is about. While we were driving I thought that I would Google the infamous pecan tree and see what it had to say. I was 300 years old with a circumference of 19 feet and it would shade 1 acre of land. HOLY SHIT THAT IS A BIG TREE and we were siked about it. So we drove and followed all the signs and we drove some more and some more and we didn't find it. Then I looked back on google to find out where it was...who knows there could have been an address. I read and then I read "it" the tree died and they removed the stump about 3 years ago. REALLY? Why all the signs Natchez Trace? My feelings were hurt I wanted nothing more than to see that big ass tree. While we were out, not seeing the pecan tree, we did a little more hiking. There is a mile hike called Fairview Gullies that was about a mile and we walked that and we hiked to an old kiln. While we were hiking to the kiln the hubs saw a red fox which was pretty awesome. We ate lunch at the kiln and we cleaned up the area from trash...there ain’t no lower class than Tennessee trash. I'm not sure if anyone else remembers that commercial but I think that it has been permanently beat into my brain. We hiked a couple of short trails all in all hiking about 4 miles. In the spring the hubs and I plan on doing a backpacking trip and hiking quite a few miles. One of the hiking trails at the park was called Red Leaves trail which covered 40 miles. What a wonderful adventure. I would love to hike all 40. Something about hiking with everything you need on your back is very appealing to me. I love the idea of exploring places that very few people have ever been, people like me, people who love nature. The next day or the last day, it rained. It rained all night and all day because our chairs were soaked with cold rain. There is nothing more fun than gathering up cold wet camping crap in the rain (note the sarcasm). We drove the 1 hour and 45 minutes back home and our little adventure came to a close. We look forward to having another camping trip just by ourselves again.

Reelfoot Lake only 100 more to go

Reelfoot Lake is about an hour away from my house which is no big deal. Here is the link http://tnstateparks.com/parks/about/reelfoot-lake the drive is beautiful. Every year Reelfoot has an Arts and Crafts Festival that I grew up going to. Reelfoot is ideal for fishing, boating and any kind of water fun. The family (all of us this time) stayed at the RV camp site. Not that we have an RV but we do have a small pop up. Actually it's my parents and they let us use it whenever we want to. The RV camp site is EXTREMELY clean. The bathrooms were equally as clean. We went there on April 18th which was Easter weekend. We arrived on Friday afternoon and pulled in the campsite feeling like the Clampetts. They were crowded, very crowded, and there was about a million kids there. We had just gotten a new puppy the day before we went to Reelfoot and the puppy was the hit of the campsite. All the kids there loved up on that puppy and he had to be held while he slept that weekend. He is a rotten dog. The kids had a wonderful time playing and hanging out with all the other kids there. My husband and I ended up feeding all of the kids at the park. I wanted to ask if their parents forgot to bring food and did their parents even know where they were. Please don’t think that I am being unkind but I got a little miffed when I went into our little sad pop up and there were 4 kids in the pop up and none of them were mine. I immediately told them to get out. Really? The funniest thing that happened or at least I thought it was VERY funny was that we were being watching by a family of campers that "lived" there? I am assuming that they lived there because there was a full refrigerator outside under a canopy. WOW! However, every move I made I could hear two elderly ladies sitting outside their RV (which was extremely nice) talking about what I was doing. At first I thought that I was crazy but it was like I was a movie and they were the commentators. "What is she doing? I think she is going to start a fire". I looked down and thought that maybe I was crazy. I ran into the pop up and got out my dryer lint. Yes, you read correctly, dryer lint is the best way to start a fire. Plus, you are recycling. I took it out to where the fire was going to be and proceeded to shove it into my stick tepee. All of the sudden I heard rather loudly, "well would you look at that, that's a good idea using dryer lint. I'm always a day late and a dollar short." After I got the fire started and I continued to listen to Statler and Waldorf (old guys from the Muppets) commentate my every move. The next day we went to the museum with the new puppy. No pets were allowed in however, no one said a word about the fact that I was carrying the small dog in my jacket pocket with his head sticking out. If you go to Reelfoot, take a trip to the museum and walk along the board walk. It's truly beautiful. There are eagles and owls there and one of the owls must not like people because it kept creepily hissing at everyone. On the board walk there were tons of snakes bathing on rocks which were a nice nature lesson for the kids. My lesson was, "for the love of God get the hell away from them. They will bite you." Water moccasins are not a snake that I find interesting. In all actuality I find no snake interesting. All in all, our entire trip to Reelfoot was a lot of fun and everyone was very friendly and the campsite was clean. Let’s not forget clean.

Petit Jean only 95 more to go

Petit Jean is a beautiful park with a wonderfully romantic love story. Here is the link to Petit Jean http://www.petitjeanstatepark.com/ We went on October 12th. My husband and I decided that we were going to tent camp. We love taking the pop up however, it is difficult driving that sucker 3 or 4 hours on the interstate, up the side of a mountain and down again and Petit Jean is 4 hours from the house. So needleless to say we, 3 kids and a huge dog the hubs and I, were packed in there like midgets in a clown car. We got to Petit Jean and I automatically felt relaxed. The Hubs and I had been watching the weather for the past week and we knew that it was probably going to rain while we were there. We just didn't want it to rain the entire time. I went in the Welcome Center to pay for our second night. When I walked in the lady behind the desk was on the phone and the person with whom she was talking to was cancelling the Yurt that they had for the WEEKEND? HELLO!!! I paid for the camp site and told my husband the information that I had gained about the open Yurt. He asked me if I had lost my mind and told me to turn right back around and rent the Yurt for the weekend and thank God I did. We got to the Yurt and it came with all the extra stuff and it came with a canoe. The kids had never been canoeing before and so that weekend they learned. I am very blessed to have a husband that wants to teach our children awesome skills like that. They now know how to row and not just go in circles. The hubs and kids were out there on the lake for several hours rowing and teaching them balance. I started freaking out while getting in the canoe; I was terrified I was going to flip it over. That is pretty much how my life goes, if I can trip, fall, flip over and do it all in midair that is pretty much what is going to happen. That night while we were all sleeping I woke up sitting straight up in the bunk and heard the rain coming down in buckets. I heard thunder and then I saw the Yurt move. I woke the Hubs up and told him that the Yurt was shifting around a little and he told me it was going to be ok and to go back to sleep. I lay there wide eyed for what seemed like an eternity. The next morning I woke up and everything was wet but everything was ok. Since all of our wood was wet we decided to go to the Lodge to eat breakfast. We went to the Lodge, ate and planned out our day. By noon it had quit raining and we walked the little path to the top of the mountain to see the waterfall. The kids wanted to hike down to the bottom to see the waterfall up close so we did. It was a 2 mile hike and there were signs stating that it was a strenuous hike and man they didn't lie. It was like doing the stair master for 2 hours. I finally had to let our dog off the leash because he was dragging me down the stone stairs. One good thing about the dog is although he will not walk on a leash he will walk and stay with you and not run off. He has to be at the head of the pack when hiking. If you do ever go to Petit Jean make sure you stop off at the little store there. They had excellent fudge that they make there at the shop. I didn't eat any but I was told that it was excellent. Also make sure that you go to the Bear Cave while you are there as well. It is very awesome. I could see how Indians would have stayed there and made it home. It was huge and fresh water trickled in certain areas. My daughter and I talked about where we thought the Indians would have slept and where they would have put their possessions in the cave. It amazes me how life must have been like back then.

Lake Degray only 96 more to go

Every year my family goes to Lake Degray for a family reunion for my husband’s side of the family. Lake Degray is a beautiful state park. We went to Lake Degray on September 19th. Here is the link http://www.degray.com/ We have done every type of camping at Lake Degray, tent, pop up, and then we booked a Yurt. We were at Yurt 3 to be exact. It was love at first sight. The Yurts book up very fast so we decided to book it a year in advance. It sleeps 6 and so we used the extra bunk for storage. Yep, you read that correctly BUNKS. I felt like I was a kid again sleeping in the bunk bed. It also comes with the norm like a picnic table, fire ring, charcoal grill, water and electrical. The extras are folding table, cooler, folding chairs, two eyed gas burner and a battery operated lantern. It was perfect. We all felt like we were living in a tepee. The site that the Yurt was located on was absolutely the BEST camp site I have ever seen. Trees surround you and your closet neighbor was about 300 feet away. It felt as though you were on your own private island. The previous guests had made a fire ring out of rocks farther away from the Yurt and right next to a huge rock. We were also about 20 or 30 paces from the lake. The kids went swimming and I got my feet in. The kids also decided to have a mud fight and that broke up shortly after my son threw mud in my daughters eye and she screamed bloody murder. It's all fun and games until someone pokes an eye out. That evening after all the kids were asleep my husband and I grabbed a bottle of wine and took our chairs down to the lake to sit and listened to the water and look at the stars. The sky was full of stars and there were so many of them. We saw 13 shooting stars. I didn't think that was possible to see that many in a lifetime much less in one evening. It was one of those moments when you closed your eyes to soak in the perfect moment. One thing I can say is that Lake Degray doesn't have very many hiking trails. They have a few but they are all very short and not enough to really break you out into a sweat. The next day we went to Hot Springs. It's about 45 minutes from Degray and the drive is beautiful. The National Park is in Hot Springs and so of course we had to check that out. If you ever decide to go to Hot Springs fill up your water bottles there. That is the best water that we have ever drunk. It's 100% pure water with no filtration involved.

Chickasaw only 97 more to go

We went to Chickasaw on October 4th with my sister, her husband and son. We camped there on October 4th. It was a hoot. We were only able to stay one night. Here is the link to Chickasaw http://tnstateparks.com/parks/campground/chickasaw the campsite was slightly crowded not too bad but close enough to hear your camping neighbors fart. Our campsite was small and we were right across from the playground which made the kids happy. We got to set up the tent (no pop up this time) and got the fire started before everyone got there. I walked the dog, notice I am not saying puppy anymore, around all the campsites saying "Hello" to fellow campers. We got a crappy campsite all of the other ones were beautiful. My sister and her family showed up with enough wood to build a house. It was awesome. My brother in law cooked all the meals which were extremely nice since I am normally the one that has to do all of that. I was a little disappointed at the bathrooms at the park. State of Tennessee please send them money for a bathhouse revamp. The camping was cheap because there is no electricity there. We didn't care because what is the point of camping if you are worried about all that. It was cool that night which is great camping weather as far as my family is concerned. Since we were only staying one night we tried to cram as much as we could in that one day. We did a 2 mile hike and my sister and I picked wildflowers along the way. I know you are not supposed to do that but I (we) could not help ourselves. It helped with the camping ambiance or at least that is our reasoning behind it. My sister and I are very closely bonded. We love each other unconditionally. I could have stayed several more days at Chickasaw. Also, one other thing that was disappointing was the bridge over the lake was out. Again I repeat....STATE OF TENNESSEE PLEASE HELP CHICKASAW. It's a beautiful place that needs a little love and attention.

Devils Den only 98 more to go

Devils Den was so awesome! I cannot rave enough about how beautiful it was there. Here is the link to their website http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/devilsden/ We could have stayed a month there. The bathrooms were very clean and very nice. There was a group of us who went to Devils Den. My family and three of my girlfriends went with us. I have some of the best friends and I love and cherish them, they make everything fun. It's a 5 hour drive. We went on July 11th. It was hotter than a 4 balled tom cat when we went. We brought the pop up thank God. The campsite was right next to the bathrooms and I would suggest getting that site. Right behind our camp site was a nice trail head to a hiking trail. The trail head when right down to a creek that was perfect for any family to swim and get your feet wet, we tried to take full advantage of that. One of my friends that went with us brought a disco ball. We hung it up right next to the fire and when night fell and the light from the fire hit the disco ball we felt like we were at a rave. We even had glow sticks. The kids and hubs had a blast and so did I. We ate until we couldn't eat any more that day. My 3 girlfriends brought tents and my daughter wanted to sleep in the tent with one of my friends. I certainly let her. On the first night when everyone was going to sleep, one of my friends and I decided to go exploring just because. I had a head lamp on and it didn't aluminate very well. We were trying to go down to the creek so we could go swimming. We never found the creek but we did walk a country mile in flip flops and a poorly lit head lamp. It was falarious. We did a lot of dancing and played corn hole. If you are not familiar with corn hole here is a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornhole It’s a fun game that anyone could enjoy. We were so freakishly hot and sweaty it was disgusting. We hiked about 3 miles of the butterfield hiking trail but because it was so hot it zapped the energy out of all of us. We ate lunch on the hike and the puppy as a hit there as well. He is getting rather large now and still doesn't listen to me. He swam and swam in the water. I don't think he wanted to leave either. I would highly recommend Devils Den to anyone. It is breathtaking there. It's defiantly God's country.

Village Creek only 99 more to go

Village Creek was a family affair. My family (hubs, kids and myself) along with my sister in laws family (husband and 2 kids) went to Village Creek on May 16th. The campsite was perfect, complete perfection. Here is the link to their website http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/villagecreek/ I cannot remember the site number that we had but I must tell you it was perfect. It was right across from the bathrooms on the right hand side. What made this campsite perfect was the size of the site and the fact that behind it was a trail that went to the lake. A five minute little hike would take you to a perfect little spot to sit and drink coffee. Walking to the little spot was my refuge. When the kids were playing a little too loud I would sneak off. My mother and father in law came up to the campsite and brought the essentials. You know beer, bread and something else. I only remember the beer. We ate steak and cuscus and drank mass qualities of beer. It was a mighty fine meal. My mother in law, sister in law and myself walked down the little path and took a little time to enjoy the lakeside spot and chat. My mother in law walked the puppy with the leash thank God. My frustration level was a little high with the dog. He kept getting all tangled up in the leash and I was getting pissed. I cannot threaten the dog like I can my children. He looks at me like I am stupid and acts like he cannot understand me....I know he can. I keep telling him he needs to get a job and pull his weight around the house, but I digress. My mother and father in law stayed to for a little while and we all laughed and had a great time. They left and the kids started winding down. Shortly thereafter the hubs and my brother in law went to bed. My sister in law and I stayed up and drank the rest of the beer. We were a little inebriated....ok, we were pretty shit faced. We proceeded to go out into the woods to find wood to burn. We found a HUGE tree that had fallen down and drug it up to the camp fire and threw it into the fire. We felt VERY manly until the next morning where I proceeded to puke my guts up in the woods. Yep, I even lost my cell phone. It was bad. That same day we went on a 2 1/2 mile hike and ate lunch while we were hiking. My sister in law came up with the idea of picking up all the trash from the trail while we walked back. It was a great idea but it was sad to see the amount of trash that people were throwing out because they were too lazy to take it to a trash can. The hike was great. The kids were acting great and the adults were getting exercise. I wasn't nauseous anymore. I felt much better. Thank God all the beer was gone. Village creek was great.

Fort Pillow 1st camping trip only 101 to go

Fort Pillow is very close to where we live and so we thought that it would be a great first trip. We went there for the weekend on October 13th 2013. Here is the link to Fort Pillow, http://tnstateparks.com/parks/about/fort-pillow Fort Pillow is not an RV campground. If you want to primitive camp, this is the place to go. I love it here and the fact that it is only 30 minutes from my house makes me love it even more. When we went to Fort Pillow we thought about what we wanted to do as a family instead of just sitting at the camp site. They have a beautiful museum there with awesome Civil War relics. The great thing about their museum is that the staff. They are so knowledgeable and kind. You can tell that they have great pride in their state park. We also decided that we would go on a hike. On this camping trip it was The hubs, the 3 year old and myself. The other two kiddos were not available. My husband and I were a lot heavier when we decided to go on a hike. We had no idea how long the hike was we just knew that we wanted to go see the Fort. We had no idea that it was a 5 mile hike. Since I had never been hiking with a 3 year old I had NO idea what I was in store for. We brought 2 bottles of water and that was it. I think that my husband was wearing flip flops. It was bad…. very bad. We got to the Fort finally and had no water left. I was parched or rather we all were. When we left I spotted the Holy Grail. There is a water fountain and a place to sit. THANK YOU LITTLE BABY JESUS. I am so glad that someone had the foresight to put a water fountain there for idiots like us. My husband took some beautiful pictures (he is a photographer) and then we made our trek back. We were about a mile from being back to where we started and my 3 year old started crying and stated that he wanted me to hold him. Actually his exact words were "Momma, I want to hold you." I thought about it for a few minutes and decided that I was NOT going to pick him up. I could see the future in my mind. Every camping trip and every hike I would have to carry him. NOPE, wasn't going to start that at all. So, I turned and looked at him and said, "Sorry love, I think you need to carry yourself." Well you would have thought that I said I was never going to pick him up again. He threw himself down on the ground and started pitching the biggest fit. I just walked away. My husband looked at me like I was cruel. I didn't care. I just kept telling my little man as I was walking away that we were going to leave him lying there and maybe the raccoons were going to get him. Needless to say he got up rather quickly and ran to us. We had it back to our camp site and he promptly feel asleep for over an hour. YES!!!! I love hiking and camping. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER carry a child when you are hiking and they are completely capable of walking. TRUST ME!

Our Idea

My husband and I love to camp. We have 3 children ages 13, 10 and 4. Every year we go to Lake Degray in Arkansas to camp for the weekend. We always have a blast and look forward to it every year. My husband is from Arkansas and I am from Tennessee so of course we both have a great love affair with the mountains. In our opinion you cannot get any closer to heaven than in the mountains. A long time ago, when I was in college, I would pass by several state park signs and thought how much fun it would be to check out the different state parks in my area. I can remember driving by them and counting how many I would pass along the way. I am very fortunate that my husband shares my love for the outdoors. We came home from our yearly Degray camping trip and I looked at him and asked him how many state parks there are in AR. He wasn't sure so I looked it up. There are 47 of them. I also looked up how many there where in TN and there are 55. Totaling 102 state parks in Arkansas and Tennessee and I wanted to see them all. So, I proposed an idea to my husband. “Honey, what would you think about going to all the state parks in Tennessee and Arkansas before the kids grow up and move away never to be with us again?" He thought for probably about 2 seconds and said. "it's whatever you want to do babe." I love that man. So there began our plan to go to all 102 state parks in Tennessee and Arkansas.