Tennessee Comforts
After almost six months touring the United States, we have established somewhat of a system for traveling to new locales. It usually goes like this: Find functioning wifi or adequate cell connection for research, and use it to figure out where we are headed to next, and establish how far away that is. Then search for free campsites nearby, or along a convenient route. We strive to never drive more than 6 hours in a given day. Sometimes we will make route adjustments to accommodate free camping with good reviews, 2 criteria that often seem to be mutually exclusive.
We are thus really excited when we find dispersed camping that feels safe, is free, and is located in a scenic area. Such was the case at our stopover point in Tennessee, a point in between Mammoth Caves National Park, and the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.
The site was literally in middle-of-nowhere Tennessee, in a village of probably 500 people. It was a city park in which the city had decided to allow unofficial camping on its grounds. The park was on a peninsula with a land bridge small enough to make it feel like an island. The peninsula was small enough that you could throw a rock to hit any shore standing anywhere within its boundaries.
There were just enough campers around to make it feel like you had neighbors, without feeling too imposing, at least mostly. There was one guy that oddly / creepily sat on a picnic bench a few feet from our campsite and just watched us set up, kind of mumbling a response when we said “hello”. [he did become more talkative after we had set up, and it turns out he just didn’t want to disturb us while setting up. He had been watching because he was intrigued by our trailer set up. He was still a little odd, but in a very innocent shy old man sort of way]. Odd encounters aside, we set up our campsite right on the water. It was close enough to throw sticks for Dusty-swimming right from camp!
Originally we had planned to only spend one night, but we enjoyed the campsite so much that we opted to spend a few days there. We took out the paddle boards to explore the large sized lake, and paddled around an island in the middle. All in all, it was incredibly relaxing, and just what we needed after traveling so many miles in such a short time. Less than a week prior, we had been in Maine, after all!
