Category: Tennessee

Today we left Riverview Campground in Madison, IN at 9:45AM EDT. We took US-421 South over the Ohio River to I-71 West and then took I-264 around Louisville to I-65. The traffic through Nashville was minimal and we arrived at Camper’s RV Park in Columbia, TN at 3PM EDT. We stopped for fuel at the Love’s Travel Stop in Shepherdsville, KY and lunch at the Tennessee Welcome Center.

We hit temperatures as high as 102 degrees out on the interstate, but we arrived at the campground to a brisk 99 degrees (it’s a “dry heat”). Our two air conditioners quickly dropped the indoor temperature to 79, but it took a couple more hours to get it down to 73 degrees (no complaints in this heat).

This is a nice quiet campground about one mile East of I-65. When Beth went in to register, she was greeted at the door by a black cat that was nearly identical in appearance and personality to our beloved Mercury. She didn’t cry (much). All sites have full hookups with 50Amp electrical connections. We are located in a small circle of four long and very level pull through transient sites that don’t require disconnecting the tow vehicle from the camper. Each site also includes multiple sewer connections so you don’t ever need more than one sewer hose to reach your dump valves. The campground WiFi is excellent. We have a strong signal with 57/81 Mbps download/upload speeds. Our AT&T hotspot is achieving 91/4 Mbps download/upload speeds. There is a clear view of the southern sky behind the camper allowing our Dish satellite antenna to pickup all three satellites (61.5, 110, and 119). We were also able to pickup all the major networks out of Nashville on our over the air antenna.

On Thursday we went to Embers Tavern & Grille for lunch. It’s another local establishment that Beth discovered on TripAdvisor. It was delicious. They had a drink on the cocktail menu called a “Grape Ape”. Being a childhood fan of the Grape Ape cartoon I had to try it. It was great. It would probably be hard to replicate, but I’d stop in again and have another one. We had wings as an appetizer and they were nice and crispy and their medium sauce was just a hair under both of our heat limits (our sinuses are clear). A large number of reviews commented very positively on their Philly Cheesesteaks so we both had to try one. Beth’s included mushrooms and peppers and she feels it may be the best she’s ever had. Mine was just onions and I’d definitely rank it in my top 5 ever.

On Friday we departed from Reed Bingham State Park at 09:00AM EDT. We stopped for fuel at the Love’s Travel Stop in Jackson, GA. We stopped at this particular Love’s because they have an Amazon Locker to which we had shipped a replacement toilet valve (ours is leaking). We hit three traffic jams in Atlanta at the south end (18 minutes), downtown (10 minutes), and the north end (20 minutes). We stopped at a new RaceTrac in Emerson, GA to use the restroom. We topped off on fuel while we were there.

Traffic in Chattanooga was backed up starting at the I-24 exit all the way through to the western edge of town. We experienced another one hour delay. We reached the Marion County Park Campground in Jasper, TN at 5PM EDT.

We have a nice campsite (#53) but it’s not on the water. When I made the reservation, I was told up front that it was 30Amp (no 50Amp) with water. We had to lift the driver side of the camper 2″ to get level. When I connected the power I noticed a 50Amp breaker so I gave it a try, but it was dead. I hooked up to the 30Amp connection and started both air conditioners separately to avoid popping a breaker. The breaker at the pole never popped, but one further down the line did. I called the campground office and they said they would send out the electrician. He arrived in seconds (he and his family are camped beside us and his wife was working in the office). He reset the breaker down the way and hooked up an amp meter and monitored our current usage. With just our small AC we were at 20Amps (because the converter was also trying to charge the batteries). I think I could have gotten both AC’s running if I had shutoff the converter. This is the first place we’ve been that we couldn’t run both ACs on 30Amps. It took until about 9PM to drop the inside temperature from over 100 down into the 70’s. By midnight the bedroom and the living area were around 71 and we slept well. Unfortunately, while running on just one AC the next day the inside temperature reached 87 again when the outside temperature reached 98. The electrician had been out boating all day and we didn’t want to risk trying the second AC and popping the same breaker while he was gone. We also had water pressure issues starting around noon and finally let it slowly fill our water tank so we could disconnect from water and run off our pump (one less thing to disconnect when we leave Sunday).

We like this campground (particularly the view), but it has been a bit frustrating. The good news is that the half of the campground that we stayed in back in 2017 is completely shutdown for new electric and water (they aren’t allowed to add sewer). So they know they have issues and are trying to address them.

We originally tried the TV antenna and only picked up TBN (and several of its sub-channels). We were able to setup our Dish Network antenna (R2D2) for the first time this trip and pickup all three satellites (61.5, 110, and 119). We are getting between 5 and 30 Mbps download speeds with our AT&T 5G+ hot spot although its reception seems to cut in and out occasionally.

Today we migrated a little further North to Yarberry Campground in Lenoir City, TN. We left Riverbend Campground at 10:30AM EDT and took GA-17 North to US-64. We then took US-64 West to Cleveland, TN where we took a bypass around the city and jumped on I-75 North. The portion of US-64 that follows the Ocoee River is beautiful according to Beth. I was too busy piloting our way through all the hills and switchbacks to look. It is apparently an extremely popular place for rafting because we’ve never seen so many busses loaded with people inside and rafts on top. The campground is just a few miles South of the Lenoir City exit. We arrived at the campground at 2:30PM EDT.

This is a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) campground on Fort Loudoun Lake on the Tennessee River. The dam is just up the road. We have a waterfront site and are quite pleased with our view. It was a bit interesting backing into the site. The pictures don’t really show how steep the hill is coming down into the site, but there were several occasions when the trailer drug the Expedition a foot or two down the hill while I had the brakes locked. We used all four of our wheel chocks before we unhooked and I was sure to leave the safety chains attached to the truck when we removed the trailer from the hitch.

Our AT&T hotspot is achieving 80Mbps download speeds and 60Mbps up. We’ve picked up a bunch of channels on antenna (we are not far from Knoxville, TN). The sites all have 50Amp electrical hookups and water. The sites don’t have sewer connections, but there is a honey wagon that will pump out your tanks for a fee.