Day 4: Zero Day
Starting location: Pickwick Landing State Park – 72 degrees
Ending location: Pickwick Landing State Park – 64 degrees
Weather: Rain
It has been raining quite a bit, and it was supposed to rain all day the next day. So, I decided to take what hikers call a “Zero Day”. I learned this term from Jay, my friend who hiked the Appalachian Trail (AT as he calls it). A zero day is a day just like it sounds. You stay put. So, that was my plan.
There were a few things I did on my way to Shiloh that did not end up in that post as the visit was so overwhelming. I will use my zero day to catch you up on those stops.
Tennessee Mud
With a dog in an RV it is a challenge to keep the rig clean. They will inevitably get muddy paws and it is a constant battle. So in the last couple of days, I had been learning the hard way about Tennessee mud! It is a clay based soil and really nasty as it gets on everything. This picture shows how deep it runs.
When you think about the Natchez Trace and the wagon trains along with Tennessee Mud you realize this was not an easy journey. In fact some of the stops talk about just that issue.
What is a Stand?
Whenever I hear the word “stand”, I tend to think of a fruit stand, or perhaps more along Shiloh, a last stand, such as in battle settings. So a curious thing about the Trace time period is that they called the stops, where they would sleep in a bed and get food, “stands”. Today we would call them Inns or hotels. All along the Trace there are signs where these “stands” used to exist. Here is a typical one.
Zero Day
So, what did I do with my zero day? You know, it is really hard to remember. It seemed I was busy, but I really don’t remember doing much. I walked Dottie quite a bit (and wiped her paws off before getting back into Clarice). I worked on the blog and did some research about New Orleans. The day slipped away until late afternoon.
On the road you have to pay attention to the weather. There are holding tanks you don’t want to freeze and tornados and RV’s don’t get along very well if you are in their path. So, late in the afternoon of my zero day, below is what I was up against. I had decided the shower house was the place to go if we got a tornado warning. Fortunately, it was just a watch this time.
Springing a Leak
The rain was torrential that came down and lasted a long time. I was nestled into my dinette seat, back against the window on a push pillow reading when all of a sudden, I realized I had a wet butt! How could this be? So, I pulled the cushions out and this is what I found:
So, I guess I spent the rest of my zero day, researching dealers and where I might get this awful leak fixed! So, I was a little stressed at the end of my zero day, which is really not the intent of them at all!