Was It Worth It???🤠

First off... Jelly Stone Park near Jackson, Mississippi, is well worth it. I would head there when it is a bit warmer, but one heck of a place for kids.

Good times had to end, and we needed to continue west in hopes of making it to California for Thanksgiving.

The day started out with dumping our black and gray tanks but I wanted to share a bit of knowledge we have picked up along the way. When you pull into a full hookup campsite, don't even think about hooking up your black tank hose until the very end of your trip. This makes you only have to touch the hose once instead of messing with the sewer system on your rig twice.

Now, Now... I know what the comments will say. But if you don't need to dump until the very end of your trip, then this tip is for you. We have had to dump our tanks when we first pull into our site, and this does happen, and I end up messing with those magical poop gloves more than once.

Oh and Chase got promoted... He learned how to back the truck up to the trailer hitch...

After we dumped the logs, we took off west on Hwy 20 and made a quick stop at Vicksburg National Military Park. We needed to pay for our yearly National Parks Membership, so it was an excellent place to pick one up. The National Park yearly pass is only $80 and has so far been paid for itself.

Vicksburg was pretty incredible. It is a driving park, and you can even listen to the guided audio tour, which was insightful. Kate and I did get that eery feeling driving through the park, as it was one of the last battles between the Confederate and Union soldiers. The last time we got that feeling was at Pearl Harbour.

I do recommend the park and the tour. Plus, if you are pulling a rig, it is very doable. But if you have some bikes or are in need of a long run, this place would be perfect.

After venturing through the park, we continued into Louisiana and stopped at Cracker Barrel for the night. The following day, we decided to make it a driving day, and we continued on to Texas. I can't remember how long our drive was, but when we finally stopped, we needed a drink. No, not water, a drink drink.

Kate found us a Harvest Host called Britt's Winery in Kilgore, Texas. We met the owner, Britt, and many other full-time RVers looking for some wine, pizza, and a safe place to sleep. Britt was an awesome host, and his wine was probably some of the best wine we have had in a long time. It didn't help the owner had grown up in California and went to Wine School at UC Davis near our hometown. So he knew how to make great wine!

The following morning, we continued west and landed in Lake Park Campground, about 40 minutes north of Fort Worth, Texas. Kate found this campground, and for $20 a night, we had lakefront property for the next four days.

We jumped back in the truck and took off for the Cattle Drive. Chase was super excited and looking forward to facing some of these long horns. When we arrived, it was a madhouse. Cars, Horses, and a Train you had to navigate to find parking, but we pulled through town and ended up spending $14 dollars to park. We hopped out and headed for the Stockyard.

The downtown is really cool and is full of cowboy boots, wranglers, and ten gallon hats. We grabbed a couple of beers and started our walk. This town is full of bars, restaurants, and some old-school cowboy get-ups. People were selling souvenirs and touristy stuff. But 4 o'clock hit, and we made our way to the street. The whole town stops for the long horns. For Kate and I's sake, it might have been a little disappointing as there were only about 15 head of cattle, but Chase loved it.

You must be thinking we are a bunch of prudes. But we grew up in a town where cattle drives were pretty common and had hundreds of cattle. Now, this trip was well worth it. If we could do it again, we probably would have stayed in a local hotel and joined in on the beer-drinking, line dancing, and rodeo.