The Flowers Explore - Jackson Mississippi - 2022/04/17-20

Louisiana was a quick stop, but fun. Now it's time to move on!

Our travels today will take us through Louisiana and then up north into Mississippi. 

We've spent our night in the parking lot of the Faubourg Brewing Company. Because we're boondocking we don't have any water or electrical hookups. We've been keeping an eye on our battery levels, making sure we've got enough power to get us moving in the morning. 

As we were getting things packed up the next morning to move around 10:30am, with our battery levels showing 25%, suddenly the lights blinked for a moment then everything electrical in the RV died. Everything. Not even the little indicator LEDs are on. And with no power, we can't pull in our slides. Hmm. 

And so like everything else that breaks on the RV, I got to work trying to figure out what was wrong. I flipped a few switches and breakers from the solar install we had done, but nothing helped get the power back on. 

I went to the truck to grab my electrical multimeter to figure out how far power was getting from the batteries down the line, to figure out what piece in the line wasn't working. 

Turns out it was this bus bar that carries power from the batteries to the rest of the system. The power cables are held down by screws and nuts and this particular nut has worked its way loose. It must have been loose enough to have a little bit a resistance, because it was hot enough to melt the plastic cover to the screw post, keeping me from getting the cover off. 

After working it back and forth a bit, finally the plastic cover just snapped off and I was able to get to the nut to tighten things back down. This nut shouldn't be this loose. The cable wasn't making a good connection to the bus bar, and so we had no power. 

With things tight again, current could flow and power was restored! 

Everyone else gets moving early. We're one of the last to leave the parking lot, rolling out just before 11am. 

The kids roll with the punches. I'm happy they're so flexible. Give them an iPad and snacks on a travel day and they're good to go. Today was Easter Sunday, so the kids opened up their baskets and had plenty of treats. 

Today's travels will take a little over 3.5 hours so not too bad. We crossed the Mississippi state line yesterday on our way into Louisiana. Now we're picking it back up again.  

It's nice traveling with your house attached. Any time you need something, you can park at a rest area and use a clean bathroom, cook lunch, or whatever. 

Instead of staying at an RV park, we're going to be staying with another Boondocker's Welcome host family. This is the Back Forty Farm in Crystal Springs Mississippi, and it's just a couple people who have space on their land and let people park there. They've made improvements so it's easy to pull in, like this long driveway instead of a sharp turn. 

Plus a large entrance and solid road. 

Hosts Billy Joe and Fran McDonald were waiting for us outside on their porch. They are retired poultry and cattle farmers who moved into an RV themselves and decided to go travel. 

Billy Joe helped me back up Beauty right next to their carport where they have electrical, water, and sewer hookups. 

Fran and Billy Joe are very social and get along with pretty much everybody. Fran showed Theresa the tomato sprouts she's waiting to put into the ground. I'm sure they'll be delicious. 

And their cat Tigger made an appearance.

We sat together under the carport, swapping stories about life on the road, and chit chatting. 

I'm glad we arrived when we did. It didn't take too long after we arrived for the skies to open up and the rain to come pouring down in buckets. 

We're not the only RVers staying here tonight. There's another couple, and they brought along their adorable puppy!

She was such a cute little girl, licking and sniffing. The kids loved her. 

Since it's Easter, Theresa made chocolate covered strawberry treats with the kids. We also made pizza and shared both with our hosts and the other RVers. They were appreciative.

After dinner we joined everyone under the carport to chat and socialize again. We told the kids they could stay in the RV playing games if they wanted, but they both asked if they could come talk for a while. 

We're here in Mississippi to see family, which I'll post about separately, but we did have a few hours here and there on the Back Forty Farm. Tigger was fun, always being nearby. Alli loves animals. 

The kids saw Fran tending to her garden and other plants and asked if they could help out. She gave them odd jobs, which they loved. Later Billy Joe and Fran told us that they were pretty awesome kids, sharp and smart. We agree. We're awful lucky. 

Alli - Daddy, can you get a picture of this Star Flower? 

That's a pretty cool one Alli. 

Using wood that he found, Ian spelled out Alli's name. 

Before we go, we better make sure we get our new sticker on the RV. 

With 3 nights here, we can add Mississippi to the map!

There's a few more Mississippi stories still to come plus a few taste tests! Stay tuned!