Monday, October 06, 2003
DeWayne Hayes COE Rec Area, Columbus, MS - Sept 17-Oct 6
We researched this park before moving to verify they had no ant (or other insect) problems. This is without a doubt the best engineered park we have ever stayed in. It is situated along the Tenn-Tom (Tennessee and Tombigbee) River system along with many other Corps of Engineers (COE) rec areas. Sites are level, spaced nicely, attractive, & the park has a pleasant nature trail. Plus, this was our first opportunity to use Willie's newly-obtained Golden Age pass, so camping was half price! We were the same 8-10 miles from bridge, and 15 miles from HomePlace. We also travelled to Noxapater a few times, for Tuesday games at the Baptist Church and for the annual Cotton Gin Festival. On one of our trips down we ran into a mile-long traffic backup caused by an overturned pet-food truck. We got the details from Willie's cousin David Humphries (pronounced Um-phries) who works for the Highway Patrol. Turns out they contacted the manufacturer, who decided the best way to get rid of the spilled bags of pet food was to give it away, so as cars drove by slowly gawking at the accident, they were asked if they wanted either dog or cat food. This being rural MS, the dog food was going so fast that they started requiring people to take cat food as a condition for getting dog food.On another trip to Noxapater, while listening to NPR we heard about a concert by the Mississippi Symphony on the Tenn-Tom Waterway (with fireworks!). A few phone calls later yielded the time & location -- that evening only 30 miles north of our cg. We decided to go, so we drove directly there from Noxapater, arriving around 6:30. They had us park in the middle of a grass field. The concert was enjoyable, and the fireworks were impressive, made even more so by a barge entering the lock at the same time. Festivities wound down just after 9pm, which gave us enough time to drive back to the campground before they locked the gates at 10. When we got back to the truck, traffic seemed to be split between straight ahead and back the way we came in. I chose the way we came in, and quickly got bogged down in mud that was hiding under the grass. Only then did we remember that when we almost got stuck in Iowa, the front tires were not spinning when we tried engaging 4WD. The same was true here, and we were truly stuck. Our 4WD needs some sort of repair, but that will happen later. We had to call our emergency road-side assistance, who sent a truck from somewhere in Alabama that wouldn't get there for over an hour, so we chatted with the security guards (who could not leave us unsupervised so near a potential terrorist target) until the truck showed up & winched us out. We then drove back, getting to our now-locked campground at 12:30. We walked the remaining 3/4 mile to our site. Our cats were quite happy to see us!
While in Columbus, we found a very nice female vet, so we took Gracie & Trixie in for their checkups & shots. Gracie was diagnosed with early kidney disease, so she is now on a special diet, which means yet another type of catfood to be stocked in our limited space. We are glad we found such a nice, gentle doctor, especially for Gracie who seems so emotionally fragile. The good news is that she really likes the special food.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 11:12 PM 
