Waterfall, Unclaimed Baggage & Festival

 Location: Jackson County Park Campground; Scottsboro, Alabama

When I was making reservations for the trip to the RV Rally, I couldn't find a campground in this part of Alabama/Tennessee that struck my fancy. I thought I was "settling" with this campground, but it has turned into a very nice stop and I would definitely stop here again in the future. Yes, there are a lot of RV's permanently set up, but very few have people living in them full-time. As I suspected in my last post, most of these RV's belong to people who keep them here year round and leave their boats (mostly pontoon style) tied up to one of the many docks scattered around the campground. They come and stay for the weekends and holidays. It's a really nice set-up and these people are lucky to have this county park.  

There are heavy storms blowing through here which started last night and continuing today. They last about 30 minutes and have heavy rain and strong lightening/thunder. So far, there has been three come through today and I can hear the rumbling of more in the distance. The good news is the storms drop the temperature about 15 to 20 degrees almost immediately. 

One of my planned explorations from this campground was to go see Little Canyon Waterfall. It's about an hours drive east of here and into the beginning of the Appalachian Mountains. It was a nice drive and the falls were flowing good which made the trip worthwhile. I also took the long way back to the campground by driving along the rim road of the Little River Canyon. There were a couple nice pull-off scenic views but not worth the extra mileage or time.

The campground is equal to the elevation of the river down below. This shows how high the mountain range is that runs next to the river. The mountains are higher on the east side of the river compared to the west.

Little River Canyon Waterfall. Not spectacular, but still worth the trip to see it. 

I stumbled onto this scene as I was driving along the canyon rim road. The front of the truck has a cable anchored to a large tree about 50 feet in front of it. A climbing rope is attached to the rear of the truck and goes through a pulley then off the edge. I looked over the edge but couldn't see anything. At first I thought it was a rescue mission but when I asked about it, one of the guys gave me a short, quick answer of "No". I then asked if it was training, again "No". After a few seconds, he said "survey". He was looking at me strange and I understood it was his job to keep me away but I still got a bad vibe from the people and situation. I was glad to drive off. 

The other thing to see here is the Unclaimed Baggage store. It is the only one in the country and has new and used items for sale. They said it is about 75% unclaimed freight and the rest is baggage from airlines, trains and ships. I walked all around the place but didn't find anything that I couldn't do without. I picked up a few things but came to my senses before checking out. Some of the prices were real good however, others were in the range of a good Walmart sale. It was still worth going to see the place. 

Unclaimed baggage. They were bringing people in by the busload. There were 4 women standing in front of the sign with another woman taking their picture. I offered to take a picture of all of them. If they arrived on the bus, they must have been drinking or was hyped up on getting inside this place. It was strange.

This was taking from one of the upper levels. It's a big place. For me, it was a one time trip, I won't be back. As my father used to say,,,, "Why would I go back, I didn't lose anything there".

On the way to the Unclaimed Baggage, I passed by the Jackson County Courthouse and was surprised to see an early 4th of July festival going on. It had booths selling all sorts of things, but again, nothing I couldn't do without. It was mostly a walking and people watching type of place for me. There was one thing that I have never seen in all of the festivals I've attended. There was a church group giving out free bottles of very cold water. It was a hot and humid part of the day when I passed by the booth and a few people were getting their water. I walked on around the courthouse to see everything there was to see then headed back to the water booth before leaving. As I stopped, a guy asked if I wanted a bottle of water and I answered, yes, I did, but I wanted to pay for it. He said no, but I then told him it was a donation and they could surly use it to buy more water. He looked at the "boss" of the booth who said, OK, and thanked me as I was thanking them. Other booths at the festival were selling the same bottle of water for $2.00. As I told the guys at the free booth, there were people that couldn't afford the price of $2.00 per bottle if they had a few children in tow. The guys said, that is why they were doing it. It's the small things in life that make a difference. That water sure hit the spot both physically and spiritually.

This is Jackson County's monument to the service men/women who lost their lives in WW1, WW2, Korea and Vietnam. It is simple and to the point. It is similar to The Wall in Washington D.C. I saw thing at The Wall as I saw here. People touching the name of someone they knew. I saw an older woman touching the name of someone from WW2. You could see the emotions flowing from her body. 

This was looking down one side. The booths were on all 4 roads around the courthouse. It was a nice surprise to find it. Serendipity, Ya'll. :)

Tomorrow is moving day and it will be a little less than 100 miles to the next campground. The campground will be a Tennessee State Park located a short distance north of Chattanooga on the Tennessee River. It looks like a nice campground, but we will see. 

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe, I'll Cya down the road.