Moochdocking Tennessee

In less than three weeks I hope we will find ourselves crossing the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo on the Columbia bridge into the state of Nuevo León in the United States of Mexico. Right now we are parked in the middle of the Volunteer State about as far from a Mexican state of mind as it’s possible to be.  

Variety is the spice of life right? Well here it is about as various and spiced as it can be. Here today, in a friend’s driveway and there tomorrow, in a Pemex truck stop in the highlands of the Sierra Madre. Golly, I hope we are ready. 

GANNET2 is as ready as possible though Rusty is greatly enjoying Barbara’s sewing room for some peace and quiet.  This morning he saw off a full sized white tailed deer though with much caution as they are twice as large as the Key deer he was used to. 

As usual he refused to pose for a picture so I cursed him for seven generations and then gave him a chicken strip, his favorite treat and not found in Costco Mexico so you can imagine what he thinks of Latin America.

While I was having lunch with Webb in Chicago Layne left rusty at home with her cousin for a couple of hours. Apparently he howled, inconsolable the entire time. So as Layne puts it he likes being in a home but he’d rather be on the road with us. 

I of course enjoyed the drive down the mountains to I-40 towards Knoxville and then west over the Blue Ridge mountains past Asheville and even though the boss decreed we take the freeway and not the Maggie Valley backroads the scenery was still splendid. 

There were quantities of traffic of course in and around the cities as we made our way toward Nashville though we did take pleasure in gaining an hour as we moved back into central time after we passed the Oak Ridge secret government facility handily signposted on the freeway offering tours to the public. That one’s going on my list. 

So here’s a lesson in offering to let us moochdock at your place. 

First: expect a pile of parcels to land at your door before we arrive.  Two: access to hot showers. Three: laundry facilities would help. A trash can and a water hose are nice and if the weather is extreme, access to a household plug would be nice to keep warm or cool if sleeping aboard.  We are happy to sleep in the van if your neighbors won’t start creating. 

You have been warned! We have a moochdock planned in Pensacola, an Airbnb in New Orleans and a campground in Houston on our way west so there is some variety in our next three weeks. Texas has no public lands so wild camping is not possible but they do have a lot of rest stops for travelers. 

I can’t say I miss living in one place and reading of one hundred degree waters in the Keys was not encouraging. I had my eye on St Petersburg as a place to settle down eventually but I’ve had enough of Category Four hurricanes, rapid intensification and non existent winters. That’s a bit too much repetition for me. Fires and drought and flooding and burning hot summers.

We did well this summer traveling at high altitude but our comfort was pretty cold when looking at the country as a whole. I wonder what we’ll see traveling south.