Pretty rough storms rolled through last night right at check-in time after a long day at the doc-in-the-box and truck repair place. Lots of branches down, winds, sideways rain, etc. Ridiculous situation at the gatehouse with no power--no computer, and the kiosk for passes was useless. Had to retreat to my rig and go online with a laptop and hotspot on battery power to go through a 20 minute process on Reservations.gov.   Instead of handing the nice lady $13 in cash and being done with it.   SO many things now heavily computerized that just don't need to be.   

I had been so impressed earlier in the week when I saw that by noon after a bad storm, the National Park Service had gotten all the downed trees removed from the Natchez Trace, and neatly stacked. Amazing what well-organized people can do, and I'll bet computers played no part whatsoever.

Charmion, glad you could step up and be a good friend that way. Listening and reassuring can be all the difference to someone in trouble.

Seasonal clothes: yes, at the storage place I've got bins for sweaters and jackets, a couple of cheap dressers where i can switch out shirts etc., shelves for my treasures, some boxes of travel books that get swapped out, etc. Lots of cookware type items and tools that were in the way on the road have been stored for use at a home base some day.   I move things in and out as needed in the upcoming months.

Strangely, one does have to keep quite a variety of clothes on hand because I’m out in the elements a lot. Even in summer, if you go to northern latitudes or mountains you still need some days worth of warm layers. (Not like you can have 1 or two warm outfits and launder every day).   I tried leaving boots in storage this spring and got snowed on May 1 in Wisconsin. Luckily they have a vast array of ladies' boots in Kenosha and it was time for a new pair.