Piney Grove COE & Tishomingo State Park, Mississippi - Bagel run

I woke up early this morning and had a craving for a bagel and knew the store across the street from us had them.  Luckily, I asked to see them and then ask for the price.  The owner of the establishment looked me in the eye and said $3.50 each.  What?  They were just bagels that came 6 to the bag and couldn't have cost that much for the whole bag.  No, I didn't want a bagel that bad and thanked him and left.  He also said he could wash and wax my motorhome for only $320.00.  I declined that generous offer and beat a hasty retreat from his store.

The local mini mart didn't have any bagels, but they did have sausage patties on a biscuit and were two for $2.89.  That was more like it and I bought four.  We couldn't finish all of them and have one for breakfast in the morning.  Later in the day we found a Piggly Wiggly that had bagels 6 to the bag and bought them for $3.25.  I think I may buy about 60 of them and sell them to the campers here at camp Tiffin.  $3.00 each sounds like a good price.

There is a campground at a COE Park and another at a State Park nearby to Red Bay.  We took a ride to both of them today and had mixed results.  The Tishomingo State Park in MS was built a long time ago and has small sites that not only are short, but narrow.  Of the 60 or so sites we could possibly get the Allegro Bus in 3-4 of them.  That's after driving through low hanging branches on a narrow road.  There were a few campsites occupied, but it was mainly empty.  We wrote it off as a destination for us.
 
The park is named for one of the last great Chickasaw leaders, Chief Tishu Miko, born not far from here in Lee County, Mississippi, c1735. Modern Chickasaw occasionally make pilgrimage to the park to visit the areas where the famous Chief fished and hunted.

Chief Tishomingo (the modern form of his name) served a brilliant career in the US Military, distinguishing himself in such actions as the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the  Red Stick Rebellion and the War of 1812. His influence became powerful and extended into Washington, DC. He was a principal signatory to a number of important treaties, including the Treaty of Pontotoc in 1832 (negotiated at great length with Andrew Jackson but never ratified by the Senate). His most momentous and perhaps most difficult signature was put to the 1837 Treaty of Doaksville, which he affirmed only under heavy political pressure. This document, in large part a lease agreement with the Choctaw Nation. Incidentally compelled the removal of the last Chickasaw from this area to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. It is believed that, in May 1838, Chief Tishomingo succumbed to small pox at the advanced age of 104, near Little Rock on the Trail of Tears. His burial site is unknown.

It was on to The Piney Grove Campground on Bay Springs Lake, along the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in northeastern Mississippi. It's ideal for families and groups of friends looking for lots of water recreation.
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The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway extends 234 miles from the Tennessee River to the junction of the Tombigbee River in Alabama. The man-made waterway connects the nation's midsection of commercial water transportation with the Gulf of Mexico. 

The gate attendants gave us a pass good for 15 minutes to check out the campground.  There are 141 campsites there and we found a number of them that we could park the Allegro Bus.  The interior roads are narrow in places and vehicles parked in the road would make it difficult to drive through the area on the weekend when the park is full.  We would camp there during the week if we wanted to chill out and not leave the area.  The lake is beautiful and it looked like it would be a good fishing spot.  In addition, they have a beach area that looked really nice.  I would give it a thumbs up.

On the way back we stopped at a roadside restaurant called Rita's and ordered their seafood buffet.  They had catfish, two kinds of shrimp, frog legs, chicken, crab cakes, and fried quail.  I'm not sure what sea the quail came from, but it was good.  Gerry said it was something to eat one time to say she had done it.  I don't think it was her favorite item on the menu.  The meal also included a salad bar and a dessert bar.  It is only open from Wed-Sat and seemed to be a favorite of the locals.  For the most part we enjoyed the meal, except Gerry's breaded shrimp which wasn't cooked enough.

We managed to pick up one geo cache at the entrance to the Tishomingo State Park.  There were other caches in the area, but we didn't take time to find them.  The ground was soaked from days of rain and I didn't want to take a chance on getting stuck.

We had a great day and wound up tired and worn out and are ready to hit the hay early.  

Good night all.