Pickensville, Alabama COE Campground

This past Memorial Day Weekend, we stayed at the Army Corps of Engineer campground at Pickensville, AL.  This campground is in western Alabama, just a stone's throw from the Mississippi state line.  It is one of  seven campgrounds that the Army Corps of Engineers operate along the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway.


Knowing that campgrounds (especially those with large bodies of water) fill up quickly for Memorial Day weekend, we made reservations a couple of months in advance.  When we arrived on Friday afternoon, there was a sign at the entrance that indicated the campground was full.

Pickensville is a large campground with five camping loops.  All of the site have electric / water and some have sewer hookups.  The most popular sites along the waterway are first-come, first-serve only.  One of

the unique features about this campground (and I guess all along the Tennessee Tombigbee) is that it is a navigable waterway.  During our stay, we saw or heard several tugboats.  The working boats share the waterway with recreational boats of all shapes and sizes.

We camped at site #44, which was a very roomy spot with woods to our "living side".  This was one of the sites with water/elec/sewer priced at $20 per night.  



This campground is great for children.  There are several playground areas with basketball courts, volleyball courts, and playground equipment.

You can walk on a mostly paved trail that crosses through all of the campground loops.  There is also a lot of area to ride bikes.  Since we had full hookups, we did not use the bathhouses at the campground; however, each loop has a clean, well-lit bathhouse with a washer/dryer.


In the middle of the campground, there are many sites that back up to a body of water named "Clear Lake". The name is a bit misleading because the water is so dark that you can't see anything in it.  It is actually a cypress swamp.

On the other side of the big bridge that crosses the waterway, there is a day use area with picnic tables and a swim beach.  Since our campsite was not on the water, we decided to pack a lunch one afternoon and head out to the day use area to sit and watch the boats go by.  While this portion of the waterway does not get barge traffic, there were a number of recreational boats that zoomed by.  It made for a very nice and relaxing afternoon.

A few miles down the road, you can visit the Dam and Welcome Center.






The Welcome Center was fashioned after an antebellum plantation home.  It looked over the waterway and had a very nice courtyard area.  If you stay at this campground, I would highly recommend a visit to the dam, welcome center and day use area.

Even though we would have liked to be right next to the large waterway, we enjoyed our stay at Pickensville COE campground.

Hitch Up and Go!

The good folks at Hitch Up and Go have added me to their Directory of Camping / RV Blogs.  I discovered their website while looking for other campers that write about the campgrounds they have stayed in.

Hitch Up and Go has a directory of camping websites as well as one for blogs about camping or RVing.  If you have ever been interested in finding out about campgrounds in other parts of the U.S. (and other countries) , what it is like to live full-time in an RV, or how to modify or repair something in your camper, take a look at their expansive directory.

Link - http://www.hitchupandgo.com/index.htm#.Ub0Q1_mG2So

The Road Home on Hwy 61-part 11 of Natchez Trace Parkway Series

For our trip back home, we decided to take Hwy 61 up from Natchez.  This is the "scenic" route but to the honest, its not all that scenic unless you think shacks and miles of cornfields are scenic.  Since I live in a rural area, I am used to seeing shacks and row crop fields all the time.  But, Hwy 61 is a part of the Mississippi Blues Trail and if you are a fan of the Delta Blues you may think you have struck gold.  For more information on the The Mississippi Blues Trail see:
http://msbluestrail.org/     Also, you may wish to read this article in the National Geographic about Hwy 61:  http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/road-trips/blues-highway-road-trip/


One of the big highlights for me was finding The Onward Store.  We had already passed Vicksburg and were starting to get hungry and in need of restroom facilities.  With no prospects for miles (and miles), I was wondering if I was going to have to get Rick to pull over in a cornfield.  In the middle of nowhere, like an oasis in the desert, we came across a store called "The Onward Store".

This place could almost be a destination in itself.  The front was an actual store with snacks, sodas, beer and gifts while the back is a restaurant.  There is a deck on the back with patio furniture and the waiter said they are trying to get live bands.  The food, wait staff, and atmosphere were great.  

If you ever find yourself in Rolling Fork, MS, I recommend that you pay The Onward Store a visit.

http://theonwardstore.com/