A silent 360° timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 184 miles from Lena, Mississippi to Red Bay, Alabama, including a portion of the Natchez Trace Parkway. Drag to look around anywhere while playing the video.
Month: January 2025
Red Bay Acres RV Resort
We stayed at Red Bay Acres RV Resort in Red Bay, Alabama. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Our fourth stay here, and third in 2024.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-12-15
- Check out: 2024-12-21
- 6 nights
Weather:
- Some cloudy days, and some rain and thunderstorms
- High temps 51-65°F, lows 31-58°F
- A bunch of wind, gusts to 21 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train horn noise
- Hourly clock tower noise
- Negligible neighbor and tech services noise, since the park was mostly empty
Site:
- #32, back-in, concrete
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Level site; used hydraulic leveling
- Concrete driveway about 60 feet long by 12 feet wide
- Grass between sites, 15-25 feet wide on passenger side, 15 feet wide on driver side
- Picnic table
- No trees
- Clean site
- Elevation 660 feet, front facing NW
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 60 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, fairly conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 370-400 Mbps down, 45-55 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
- AT&T: 110-125 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 75-95 ms ping
- Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 125 ms ping
- Campground Wi-Fi (in Yacht Club): 6-8 Mbps down, 4-6 Mbps up, 65 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage pickup from site
- Package delivery to office
- Onsite restaurant
- Pond
- Hometown of Tiffin; local RV repairs
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Still the best place to stay in Red Bay
We’ve stayed here several times while getting our coach serviced in the Red Bay area, and it’s still the only place I would choose to stay. The lake in the middle is pleasant and we love having the on-site cafe. It is a little disappointing that they seem to be cutting back on the menu there (pretty much only sandwiches now, when you used to get wings and other hot items). I also wish the concrete pads were a bit wider, as it rained nearly every day, and the infamous Red Bay mud was inescapable when hooking/unhooking for our service appointments. December is a bit of a mixed bag as the town closes the week before Christmas through the New Year. Having the campground to ourselves was nice, but services were harder to schedule. We camped at Red Bay Acres RV Resort in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: After several trips to Red Bay the big question is, why did it take me so long to discover the majesty of Big Star’s bakery? I’m still dreaming of their chocolate chip cookies….
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
On a frosty morning, you can see the framing of the coach:
A thunderstorm rolling through:
Red Bay Yacht Club:
Pond:
Other sites, mostly empty throughout our stay:
The week before Christmas was a good time to visit, other than being rather cold. We don’t have any current plans to go back to Red Bay, but it seems inevitable that we will in due course, and will stay here again when we do.
Video: Lena, Mississippi to Red Bay, Alabama motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 184 miles from Lena, Mississippi to Red Bay, Alabama.
Travel from Lena, Mississippi to Red Bay, Alabama
We drove our coach 184 miles, about three hours of driving, from Lena, Mississippi to Red Bay, Alabama.
Here’s a map showing our route (kinda), heading north:
That wasn’t actually our route, as we decided to take the Natchez Trace Parkway, which the RV routing didn’t like, but I examined closely and determined it’d be fine for us. Here’s an interactive map of the actual route:
A branch and lots of leaves by our truck:
A narrow road from the campground:
A sharp turn from the park road; not too hard for our coach:
Another Allegro Bus passing us:
A drizzly drive:
Entering Natchez Trace Parkway:
Lunch stop at the Jeff Busby area:
Loose dogs roaming around:
Leaving Natchez Trace Parkway for I-22 East:
MS-25:
Turned into MS-76 (a newer and much nicer highway):
Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama:
Arriving at our destination, Red Bay Acres:
Mostly empty RV park:
Oooh, a Zephyr (top of the line Tiffin motorhome):
Our site:
Leake County Water Park
We stayed at Leake County Water Park in Lena, Mississippi. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice county park.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-12-13
- Check out: 2024-12-15
- 2 nights
Weather:
- Mostly cloudy
- High temps 59-65°F, lows 42-55°F
- A little wind, gusts to 25 MPH, but sheltered amongst trees
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train horn noise
- Some neighbor noise (kids and dogs)
Site:
- #15, back-in, concrete
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Somewhat unlevel site; high on passenger side and front; used hydraulic leveling
- Concrete driveway about 50 feet long by 10 feet wide
- 50 feet to neighbor on driver side
- About 180 feet to neighbor on passenger side, though a path about 30 feet away
- Grass and occasional trees between sites
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Tall trees
- Mostly clean site
- Elevation 310 feet, front facing SW
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, very conveniently located
- 65 PSI water, very conveniently located
- Unthreaded sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 65 Mbps down, 3-8 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
- AT&T: 10-22 Mbps down, 0.05-0.3 Mbps up, 125-780 ms ping
- Verizon: 2.5 Mbps down, 0.1-7 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Pool
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Quiet park under the trees
This was a great stop for a couple of nights on our way through Mississippi. The road to get to it is a bit sketchy (it’s more pothole than road), but once you get in, it’s peaceful and the sites are nicely spaced out. There is a short walk to the day use area, which wasn’t very busy in December, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. We camped at Leake County Water Park in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Day use area near our site:
Bridge to primitive camping area:
Floating dock:
Trees and other vegetation in a little bay off the river:
Boat ramp to Pearl River:
Fish of Pearl River:
Other sites:
Playground:
Swimming pool:
We’d be happy to stay here again, and for longer.
Video: Springfield, Louisiana to Lena, Mississippi motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 186 miles from Springfield, Louisiana to Lena, Mississippi.
Travel from Springfield, Louisiana to Lena, Mississippi
We drove our coach 186 miles, about three hours of driving, from Springfield, Louisiana to Lena, Mississippi.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:
An interactive map:
Convertible Beetle:
Flooded road in front of our first site:
Our first site was a little damp:
An interesting sign near the entrance of the park:
A closer look:
Narrow road from the park:
Petro fuel stop:
We had lunch while driving, with me feeding crackers with salami and cheese to Jenn:
Welcome to Mississippi:
A sign for the Lynyrd Skynyrd Monument… so of course we had to play Free Bird and songs seeded from that:
Roadworks on I-55 North:
Watching a Sinclair Trails timelapse travel video while traveling is always a little disconcerting:
Paladin asleep, touching my foot:
Rest area:
Exit from I-55 to route 25:
Paladin asleep:
Late foliage:
A narrow road to our destination:
Leake County Water Park:
Our site:
Broom hanging grippers
We keep a mop and broom hanging in our half bath, as a convenient place to keep these long tools. They hang on the wall with Command Broom and Mop Grippers, available from Amazon. They are mounted using self-adhesive Command Strips, so can be installed and removed without drilling any holes or damaging the wall at all.
Very handy.
River Bottomland Hardwood Trail hike
We went for a nice stroll along the boardwalks of the River Bottomland Hardwood Trail in Tickfaw State Park in Louisiana.
Pavilion:
Boardwalk:
Bayou:
Tickfaw River and bridge:
Closed area:
Bridge:
End of the boardwalk:
Video: a timelapse of a flooding RV site in Tickfaw State Park, Louisiana
A short timelapse of our RV site flooding; watch the right side to see the water creeping in, and see how much it rises overnight! We changed sites when it kept rising.