Boondocking in the City

Many RVrs don't think about Cracker Barrel as a place to overnite, but we've stayed there often. This one is at exit 210 just west of Nashville, TN. There is also a pretty good WallMart to overnite at nearby but we wanted supper and this site looked friendlier. Almost all of the Cracker Barrel locations have RV parking and they encourage staying overnite. The only exceptions are in the high tourist areas like Pigeon Forge. The picture is lit with the rear floodlight from the building which was on until daylight, but that didn't bother us at all and adds to the security. One thing about Cracker Barrel, the RV parking is always out back right near the dumpster. And they pick up and dump the dumpster every night. So you can count on hearing a big crash bang sound in the middle of the night. The sights are usually sloped, as well, although this one wasn't, but we can usually get around that. And I40 is about 100' in back of that big pine so there's some traffic noise but, again, this doesn't bother us so staying here is a good option for us.

We left Creekwood RV Park about 10:00am yesterday and enjoyed a pretty good day of travel. Temps were in the high 60's to low 70's and there were a lot of clouds so I didn't have to drive right into the sun too much. We stopped for a bite to eat at a Waffle House about 80 miles east of Nashville and after we left there, I was pushing against a headwind the rest of the way. We crossed into the Central Time Zone along the way and made into Nashville about 3:00 local time.

We had visited Nashville three years ago and really enjoyed it. We went to the Grand Ole Opry and took a dinner cruise on the General Sherman. Both of these attractions are located adjacent to the Opry Mills Mall, so, of course, we did that too! After our visit that year, the next spring the Cumberland river rose to flood stage and completely flooded out the Opry and the Mall. so this time around we were curious to see how the area had recovered. Well, everything is completely refurbished but the mall still has a few vacancies. Some stores have left and some new ones are there and some are relocated in the mall but the mall is going great guns.

There's Diane doing what she does best. We certainly didn't come away empty handed. The mall is similar to the Concord Mills Mall near home, being a circular layout with Bass Pro Shops on one end and movie theaters on the other. And it's a long circle. I wound up pushing that wheelchair around it twice! The exercise was good for me but my back was hurting by the time we were done.

After that, it was head out here for the night. A front has moved through overnite and it's raining now but nothing major at all. We'll drive away from it today and tonight should see us in Arkansas.

It's been interesting watching the fuel prices. We had $4.05 for diesel in Burlington, then $4.18 in western NC. On the way through eastern TN, I saw it as low as $3.88 and around here it's $3.99. I'll get fuel later today closer to Memphis where I should find $3.95 or a little better.