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Over the last couple of years we have been staying closer to home due to jobs and kids and activity schedules. That meant finding a campground within an hour or so from our house so we can easily get away for a quick weekend. One of our finds is a beautiful private campground on a lake called Little Black Creek – Campground & Park ( lbccampground.com ) in Lumberton, Mississippi. We love this little gem. LBC features about 100 sites around a pretty, quiet lake. Some sites are right on the water (our faves), some are tucked away in tree covered hills with a decent amount of privacy. There's a group area as well and some lovely cabins. The campground is quite spread out, it takes a bit to get from one side to the other. Time slows down at Little Black Creek. The sunsets on the lake are magical. The people are friendly, the fishing is good, along with canoeing/kayaking (they have rentals), bicycling, and the golf carts putter around but are not overly obnoxious. They have a full disc golf course, which is a good way to spend the afternoon (check Amazon or Academy Sports for a reasonably priced starter pack). We like to bring our Kayaks to fish and paddle. It's mostly fishing, little catching, but the boys don't mind given the scenery. There's a camp store with the basics, and a well-stocked grocery store just down the road (Ramey's). Hattiesburg is about 25 minutes away. I have talked about Hattiesburg in earlier posts. Just down the road is a wonderful Safari Park, Little Creek Landing in Sumrall, MS. Pics below for this sweet little park. They just opened and they're doing a great job; they have about 300 animals and a little safari tram that takes you to see the zebras, camels, a white buffalo, yaks, and a bunch of other interesting animals. It's a great way to spend an afternoon! I'm also strongly considering hosting my kiddos birthday party here next year. Great restaurant, gift shop, and ice cream too! If you find yourself in this neck of the woods, check out Little Black Creek and Little Creek Landing! Links: Little Black Creek - Little Black Creek – Campground & Park ( lbccampground.com ) Little Creek Landing - Waterfowl, Peafowl, Exotic Animals - Little Creek Landing ( littlecreeklanding.com ) Ramey's Grocery - Purvis, MS • Ramey's Marketplace ( rameysmarketplace.com ) Sunset from our campsite A campsite on the water Little Creek Landing Entrance Snuggling with the baby Fennec Fox Fluffy cow in the petting area Brand new baby - born hours before The escaping tortoise. He kept breaking out and finding us!

It's spring, the best time of the year to RV. Of course the RV (5th Wheel) has been in the shop for a couple of months now, having warranty work done. Two of the hydraulic jacks stopped working, the AC only works in the ALWAYS ON (not auto) setting, meaning it's ALWAYS blowing. A window was installed upside down so it leaks into the loft when it rains. So, here we sit, RV-less during the absolute best time of year to get out on the road, and when kids schedules are relatively clear. I imagine it will be ready as soon as it hits 90* and 90% humidity consistently, which starts in a few weeks. As spring break was approaching and we had no RV to drag around the southern US and nothing else on the books, we planned a road trip instead. The first stop was in Hattiesburg, MS where we stopped in the weirdly cool Pocket Museum Alley, a joy for all ages. The alley is home to the most random collection of "pocket" sized dioramas, sculptures, art, sidewalk art, a pigeon departure and arrivals board, and games for kids and adults. We have heard rumors the Hattiesburg Pocket Museum is unusually entertaining but cannot confirm that yet since we haven't been there when it's open, but it's on the list. If you are ever in this neck of the woods, the randomness of the alley is well worth a few minutes - make sure to look in all the nooks and crannies for surprises. It is one of the happiest places around. Our stop was rounded out by a visit to Southbound Bagels and Coffee Shop, home of yummy bagels freshly made each morning by a local restaurant legend and veteran. We piled back into the car to drive north to Oxford, Mississippi (home of the University of Mississippi, better known as Ole Miss). We booked a hotel room to cram the family of 5 in - featuring two queens and a sofa. We miss our RV, sighhhhhh. But, alas, Oxford is beautiful and the flowers were in bloom. The town is cute and quaint with great shops, restaurants, and world-class bookstores - Oxford is hometown to both William Faulkner and John Grisham and other noteworthy authors I'll admit I don't actually know. Ole Miss as a campus leaves quite an impression; it is very stately and beautiful and historic. The football stadium is wildly impressive. The next day found us making our way to Memphis, in spite of everyone's warnings regarding our safety. Booked another name-brand hotel near Beale Street, smaller room than the last, with the same sleeping arrangement. Very cozy and by cozy I mean very annoyingly cramped, with one very questionable bathroom. Still missing the RV. Memphis, however, was lovely. It was mid-week so Beale Street was relatively quiet. The BBQ was outstanding, the people were friendly. The weather was perfect. We tried to see the "famous" ducks at The Peabody hotel but the fountain was under renovation. The hotel is beautiful and the ducks could be found on the roof in a pond with an enclosure. Not the experience we were hoping for, but there it was. Our middle kid's request was to visit the Bass Pro Shop + Hotel mecca in "The Pyramid", which is epic and bonkers and a must for anyone outdoorsy. He really wanted to stay in the hotel but I overrode that request when I checked the price. The interior is... something. Indescribable really. Sportsman's paradise. There's a lake with full-sized boats inside. We lost a few hours there, but managed to spend less than a hundred bucks so yay us! We also checked out the Rock 'n' Soul Museum, which tells the history of Music in Memphis. It was very informative and interesting. Well laid out, on the smaller side so not a huge time commitment. Our youngest's request was the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where MLK was assassinated. I was not familiar with the museum, she heard about it in school and was excited to check it out, so we planned our visit. We were all so glad we did - from the 9 year old to the teens to the... much older adults. It is so well done and tells the story of the civil rights movement as we have never seen with videos, news footage, art, artifacts, interviews, pictures, and a full sized 1960's era city bus to walk through with a gorgeous bronze of Rosa Parks sitting in her seat. The motel is completely preserved back to that day in 1968 and the museum is built into and behind it. If you are in Memphis, this is a must, must-see. It was also a little bit life-changing, in a very important way. We spent about three hours, and could have stayed most of the day because there was so much to see, read, experience, explore, understand. But alas, we were due to get back on the road. Our drive home took the route of the Mississippi Blues Trail, via the towns of Tunica, Hernando, and Clarksdale, among others. Clarksdale is home of Ground Zero, Morgan Freeman's original blues club (sadly closed until the evening) and some fantastic burgers at the aptly named Owen's Burger Shack, where you have a choice of Burgers and/or Fries you order from a window punched in the side of a warehouse next to a gas station. The boys in the family put these burgers in their top 3 of all time. This was followed by a stop in Leland, MS - hometown of Jim Henson - and a visit to the Jim Henson Museum. It features adorable memorabilia and bonus, it's free! We spent maybe 10 minutes here. Admittedly, the Blues Trail is rough, the times have not been easy on the area. But it has its own charm and history, and is important. I recommend a book called Dispatches from Pluto by Richard Grant for a glimpse into the culture of the area, known as The Delta. It is thoughtful, poignant, and laugh-out-loud-funny. Our trip concluded in the Homochitto National Forest near Crosby, MS where I rented an amazing little VRBO for the last night of our trip. I'm pretty sure time stood still for those last 20 or so hours. This fantastic little find was tucked into a National Forest with a small pond and an amazing porch with rockers, a swing, and a fireplace, so it was a little bit like camping. We still miss our RV and it's still sitting at Camping World... maybe we'll be able to break it out one day soon. Fingers crossed. Update from June 2024: We have the trailer back. It also hit 90* this week and all the nearby campgrounds are booked up. Yay. Update from July 2024: another jack broke, our awning no longer works, and all the cables on one living room slide decide to self-destruct. As we're not ready to forego another few months of camping so it can sit at Camping World for an undetermined amount of time, we're going full southern and just making it work for now however we can. I am not giving up my summer and fall too. Hattiesburg Links Southbound Bagels: https://www.southboundbagelandcoffee.com/ Hattiesburg Pocket Museum: https://hattiesburgpocketmuseum.com/ Oxford Links Oxford, MS: https://visitoxfordms.com/ Square Books, Oxford: https://www.southernliving.com/square-books-oxford-mississippi-7104576 Memphis Links Memphis BBQ at Rendezvous: https://hogsfly.com Ducks at the Peabody Hotel: https://www.peabodymemphis.com/peabody-ducks Bass Pro Shop Pyramid Mecca: https://www.memphistravel.com/attractions-activities/bass-pro-shops-pyramid Hotel at Bass Pro: https://big-cypress.com/bass-pro-shops/ Rock 'n' Soul Museum: https://www.memphisrocknsoul.org/ National Civil Rights Museum: https://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/ Mississippi Blues Trail Mississippi Blues Trail: https://msbluestrail.org/ Explore the Mississippi Delta: https://www.visitthedelta.com/ Book recommendation - Dispatches from Pluto: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/25111132 Owen's Burger Shack, Clarksdale: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g43722-d8018927-Reviews-Owens_Burger_Shack-Clarksdale_Mississippi.html Ground Zero, Clarksdale: https://www.groundzerobluesclub.com/ VRBO: Capital Cottage - Cottages for Rent in Crosby, Mississippi, United States - Airbnb

Our greatest RV adventure to date started during a little thing called The Pandemic (eeeek!) In the lead up to Christmas 2019, I found I could not bring myself to buy more toys and gadgets for our kids, items that would end up cast aside, broken, or otherwise discarded. I talked the husband into gifting them an experience instead. I painstakingly planned and booked a European Adventure for our family of 5, to England and France for spring break that coming year. We surprised them with it on Christmas morning, with a scheduled departure date of March 20, 2020. The world shut down March 17, 2020. The husband and I were both about to be on vacation for 2 weeks, our kids had been kicked out of school, grocery stores were empty, playgrounds were covered in caution tape, there was still snow on the ground, and things were getting weird, so we decided that instead of being stuck in our house for the next two weeks, there was no reason we couldn't "quarantine" in our RV instead. We decided to hit the road and head south (it was warmer). We threw all the food we had in the 5th wheel, loaded up a couple of weeks' worth of clothes, jugs of water, the dog and kids, and hit I-25 south out of Denver Metro. We made it to Southern Colorado the first night, to a dingy campground. Someone tried to steal our bikes off the back in the middle of the night. Everything was strange. The next day we drove through New Mexico (we weren't allowed to stop) on our way to Wichita Falls Texas, to a beautiful Jellystone campground with all the amenities including a little farm/petting zoo. Things seemed normal, people were out, kids were running around, farm animals were waiting to be pet. The following day things started to shut down, and we headed out to Tyler Texas. Tyler was again normal when we got there, everything was open, we went out to dinner to celebrate one kiddo's birthday, our always patient middle child, who was supposed to celebrate his birthday in New York City on our way to London. Instead we had mediocre Mexican food followed by cake. A cake we picked up in town. A cake that we failed to notice was made of ice cream. And we put it in the fridge for a few hours. Whoops. Things were not looking up. The next day everything shut down around us again. We drove through Downtown Dallas without another soul on the highways, it was EERIE. We felt like we were on the lam. We landed in Vidalia, Louisiana and camped in a beautiful RV park on the Mississippi River. We spent a day touring Vicksburg National Park (which is a great place to visit; the history is fascinating), went to a drive through daquiri shack, had a nice walk along the river. Once again life seemed normal. The next morning the Sheriff drove through the campground (multiple times) with his bullhorn telling everyone to stay inside. We were already planning to bail to Mississippi that morning, so we threw everything in quickly, buttoned up the rig, and drove off after the sheriff made his next round. Fortunately, Natchez, Mississippi was about 2 minutes away, just over the bridge. We drove through Mississippi on our way to the Gulf Beach RV Park in Biloxi. I seriously had to Google to see if Mississippi had a coastline - I had no idea. We booked a spot for 3 nights, thinking we would make our way to Florida and settle there for a bit. To our surprise we were welcomed to Mississippi with true southern hospitality. We settled into our RV spot (concrete pad, 50amp, view of the gulf, by the pool) and prepared to stay for a few days. A few families had also landed at the Gulf Beach RV Park, but it was maybe 1/4 full. As we were tired of being on the lam, and unsure if we could travel from state to state any longer, we decided it was a good time to stay put for a bit. 3 nights became a week, a week became a month, a month became 3 months. The Easter Bunny even made an appearance. Ironically the husband always said he wanted to live in an RV and travel around the US with the kids. I told him he was insane. Our unexpected three months together were surprisingly enjoyable. We found we didn't need a big house full of things; we had everything we needed in that small space. Eventually we had to return to work remotely during the day when our vacations were over, the kids did online school in the mornings. We worked from the RV, out on the deck, or in the club house depending on the day and the weather. Life had returned to mostly normal on the gulf coast, people were getting back to work. The adults and kids in the RV park became fast friends and we would all mosey out to the deck overlooking the Gulf in the afternoon, bring ice chests full of beverages, dinner, a speaker for music. The kids would run around free-range children style; we quickly became a big Covid Family. We made life-long friends and many very cool memories. We had a taste of living in the south and we were smitten. By the time June rolled around, we had to stop living like Peter Pan and return home to Denver, a very different world from the Mississippi Gulf coast. We sold our house in Denver and moved south exactly one year later. Life is certainly unpredictable. This pic is one of my absolute favorites from that time. Camp socially! Campgrounds: Jellystone Wichita Falls: https://wichitafallsjellystonepark.com/ Jellystone Tyler Texas: https://jellystonetyler.com/ Gulf Beach RV Biloxi: https://gulfbeachrvresort.com/ The Covid Kids