We finally got out of Starkville. Yahoo! It was a rather 'rough' ride back to Hammond though and we didn't end up where we thought we would, but we're back and sitting pretty in another great spot, as you can see in the above picture.

About that rough ride; first of all, due to a missing part for the new air-pump (not enough hose), that was supposed to be overnight-ed to us but took 3 days to arrive, we didn't get on our way until Tuesday.

Secondly, we took a little bit of a risk getting on the road, since after the injectors had been replaced, the truck developed some 'episodes' where it would all of a sudden loose half of it's power while driving. After pulling over and restart, it would be fine again.

But since our savings were getting low, due to the unexpected truck problems, we needed to get back to Hammond and make some money. We also decided to skip the scouting of the gulf coast for now, and drive straight back.

All in all, we didn't do too bad, 'only' had to pull over 4 times, but it was a little nerve-wrecking .... 

Before we left, we'd already found out Hidden Oaks was still closed, so we'd made reservations at Indian Creek in Independence, about 17 miles north of Hammond.

Our site is # 184, all the way up and to the right

With Labor Day weekend coming up and flood-victims taking up the rest of the sites, this was the only campground that had some sites available in the area.

                          

It did also flood a couple of weeks ago, but not as bad as Hidden Oaks and they're up and running already.

It's a nice campground, alongside the Natalbany River, very woodsy and with a creek running through it.

I'm so happy to be back in nature again! I've already walked some of the nature trails that wind all around the grounds.

I found some of my favorite wildlife ... birds:

                                               

            

And a lot of very inquisitive little (Eastern Grey) squirrels ...

This is a Luna Moth, a new one for me. It's huge (4") and supposed to be nocturnal. I think it got a little confused, hanging in the dark shade right under the awning.

And this is a Red-spotted Purple. Not the most creative name, but very pretty. That blue (purple?) is almost iridescent!

Like most Americans, we BBQ-ed on Labor Day:

I guess it's a male (bonding?) thing ...

And afterward we walked over to the band that was playing at the campground. It was called 'Monster Crawfish' ..... only in Louisiana!

OK, so far so good, now for the not-so-good ... the truck is still misbehaving and during a side-trip James had to make to Houston, it got worse and worse. 

Eventually, he got stranded on the way back in Lafayette, after he couldn't drive more than a mile or two before having problems again. He made it to a hotel and overnight-ed there, left the truck in a parking lot and came back to Baton Rouge the next day with a Greyhound bus, and from there to Ponchatoula, with a guy I found on Craigslist that provides rides for a reasonable fee.

                                 

His boss Ronny (what a great guy!), loaned him a truck and trailer and the next day we drove back to Lafayette, picked up the truck and brought it back.

As you can see, it only just fit!

Since the mechanic who fixed the truck guaranteed the work (and the parts), James drove the whole shebang back to Columbus (MS) yesterday. 

So while I'm writing this, I'm anxiously waiting to hear from him, to find out how things are going ... cross your fingers!

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Well, I better get this blog going or I won't be able to finish it before we leave, which will possibly be tomorrow!
I really didn't have much to blog about all the time that we've been here. It was just too hot, and especially too humid, to do anything outside, so other than getting groceries and watching the Olympics, or taking a quick dip in the pool in between thunderstorms, I haven't done a thing noteworthy!

James, on the other hand, has worked hard, as usual, and has the store pretty much ready for the grand opening this coming Saturday.

This store got done mostly without any problems, other than that the air conditioner turned out to be too small to cool appropriately and had to be replaced with a larger one.

He's been waiting on one more part to arrive, so he can install it and we can leave.

 

Everything else went just fine:

At home, we also had a few small calamities that needed to be taken care off. The toilet sprung a leak, but after ordering the (small) part, James managed to fix it quickly.

And our washer and dryer didn't want to spin anymore, which turned out to be the lid switch, also a small part that could (fairly) easily be ordered and installed.
Voila, problems fixed!

That is, almost all problems, because the air conditioners are leaking, and we don't seem to be able to 'cure' that! 
Most likely it is caused by the extreme humidity, the super-moist air just doesn't evaporate enough!

Especially the one above the bed leaks badly, so I have the bed covered up during the daytime when it runs. Fortunately we don't need it at night, when the one in the living room is able to take care of both rooms.
 

Time for Fall to arrive, so that humidity goes down!

My baking and cooking has been rather uninspired also these days, I'm too lazy and too hot to do much else than making a salad and grilling the meat on the BBQ.
The dish on the right is Nassi (fried rice), an Indonesian dish, very popular in Holland (Indonesia used to be a dutch colony), and served with saté, which are meat skewers with peanut sauce. Yummy!

       

The pineapples are 'in season', at $1 a piece, so we eat a lot of them! Does everybody have that handy little core-tool? Best invention since the paperclip!

And than there was that one major mishap we really could have done without ... the injectors of the truck went kaput! Again! After only 25.000 miles!
As you might remember we replaced them all in 2014, but during a call to Rush, the previous truck-shop that did the repairs, we learned that the warranty has already expired, being 1 year or 100.000 miles, whatever comes first. Of course!

Any-who, after searching the web we found a truck repair guy (Black's Automotive) in Columbus, about 21 miles from us, who, fortunately, could accommodate us right away.

We crawled, heavily smoking, our way to the shop, me following in a rental car, and after some diagnostics were done that confirmed the bad injectors, we left the truck there to be repaired.

During some Googling I did later that day, I found that Duramex advises the installation of a pre-filter, to avoid the fairly common problem with the injectors in this model and year of trucks!

We called our repair guy and arranged for a filter to be delivered at his shop, after which he will install it.

If everything goes well, everything will be done by tomorrow, which will give us just enough time to return the rental car within a week.

Phew! Always something.

So, we're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll be able to leave on Saturday. We'll be heading for the Gulf Coast, where we will be scouting out some of the areas and RV Parks where we would like to stay for the coming winter.

We will park the RV for a couple of days each in different areas, such as Mobile (AL), Biloxi (MS) and Bay St Louis (MS).

After that it's back to Hammond, since James has some equipment to return and to close of the job properly.

Hopefully, we can stay at Hidden Oaks again, where we have about 10 days left on a monthly rent we've paid for previously, but that all depends if they've recovered enough from the recent floods over there!

The 190 near Robert

The Tangipahoa River, and many others, flooded again, this time to a record high of 27.4', the highest since 1928! Louisiana declared a State of Emergency, but southern Mississippi and Texas are in a very bad shape too.

'Our' campground, Hidden Oaks, flooded also (of course), and everybody had to evacuate. Poor people, they just had everything restored and up and running again ...

Anyways, I'm looking forward to be 'on the road again'! We'll see where we'll end up!

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After a whole lot of traveling we're happy to once again 'stay put' for a while, this time in Starkville, Mississippi.
James got another job through his previous boss, preparing a vacant store for another Petsense, that is coming in shortly in a small mall here in town.

Here's his office set-up, in the middle of the store ..

                 
 
If things are going smoothly, it'll take about 5 weeks until he's done.

After that we'll probably head back to Hammond/Robert for a little while and see what else will come up.

Talking about Robert, when we came back from Houston, after picking up the RV in Egan and Merlin in Baton Rouge, we were just in time for the celebrations of the 4th of July weekend.

There was a golf-cart parade at Hidden Oaks and some other games and events throughout  the weekend.

 

It was unbelievably hot and humid and lots of people went to the Tangipaho river that runs along the campground ...

Ice-cream was sold by the buckets!

It wasn't easy, just coming out of the much cooler climate of Holland, to get somewhat comfortable to this crazy hot and especially humid weather!
Thank goodness for AC! 

Fortunately, we left after only 2 days for Starkville, where there blew a cooling breeze and where it it was much less humid.
We're staying at The Pines, a manufactured home community, that also has RV spaces for rent.

 

It's a nice, big space, with a little bit of shade in the afternoon by a nearby pine tree, and so far no direct neighbors in the 2 weeks that we are here.

Like always, we immediately checked out the local golf courses and liked the course at the University the best.
James golfs there almost every morning before work and I honestly tried to like playing in 90 degrees, but I just can't do it!
I'll pick it up again when it gets cooler. Let's hope it ever will ...

                             

 

Another thing that holds me back from trumping through the tall grass and bushes, looking for a lost ball, is this:

Yikes!

Chiggers! They are some sort of mites, that bite and insert some stuff to be able to suck your blood, that causes "the insanely itchy welts".

They advise to thoroughly wash your skin when you come back from infested areas (like the golf course) but I guess I forgot to look as high as my thighs ...

It's finally getting better now, after a week, but holy smokes, it itches!

Let's see, what else did we do ...?

Last Sunday we drove part (50 miles) of The Natchez Trace Parkway (also known as the Natchez Trace or simply 'the Trace'.

 

This unique National 'Park' in the southeastern United States commemorates the historic Old Natchez Trace and preserves sections of the original trail. Its central feature is a two-lane parkway road that extends 444 miles (715 km) from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee.

There are no houses, restaurants or billboards along the way, just beautiful scenery, changing from swamps to pine forests to rolling hills ...

                     

Feeling like BBQ for lunch, we ended up at "Bishop's' in Tupelo.

Besides their tasty ribs, we tried our first Fried Green Tomatoes and (leave it to the south to fry almost anything) Fried Pickles!

Crunchy and tangy. Not bad!

While in Tupelo we visited this little town's 'claim to fame', ... it being Elvis Presley's Birthplace.
There's the little white house he grew up in, the church his family belonged to, a fun little museum, nicely landscaped grounds with several statues and memorial plaques, and even an (his?) outhouse ... all rather nicely done, although we thought $17 a piece to have a look in the house or church was a little overpriced so we just went for the 'outside tour'.

Well, that's about it for now, folks ... other than that we are now under a 'massive heat dome' of sorts and 2 days ago we reached the triple digits!
                       
              

It's hot, hot, hot and the evenings very often end with a thunderstorm with an impressive thunder and lightening show.
I'll try to get a picture of it one of these days but it's a little scary to stand outside while it's crackling and thundering all around you!

I'll just end with one of the more serene evening views:

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