Ozark, Arkansas

We left West Memphis Monday morning and arrived here in Ozark, Arkansas after 275 miles on I-40 and are camped at the Aux Arc Corp of Engineers campground right on the Arkansas River. This park is a hidden jewel with wonderful large paved sites, shelters over the picnic tables, and for $10/night (old fart pass again) is a steal. Somewhere on the east side of Little Rock, traffic came to a complete stop and I-40 looked like a parking lot!  As it turned out a large dump truck loaded with sand had turned over and had the entire west bound lanes blocked. I don't think anyone was hurt, but it had traffic backed up for miles.

This part of Arkansas reminds me very much of eastern Tennessee with lush green rolling hills and is very rural. There is a dam and lock here across the river that is used for flood control as well as generating electricity and is a way of passage for boats and barges navigating the Arkansas River. The facility is operated by the Army Corp of Engineers. The locals tell me the fishing here is good.

Thankfully, the temperatures have moderated with highs in the low 90's. The high predicted today is 87. The humidity is still high, but is bearable. Looks like it's going to get hot again as we head further west. Speaking of leaving, we're pulling out in the morning, after 3 nights here, and headed  for Oklahoma City for one night.  From there we plan to visit Amarillo, Tx. for 3 nights where we plan to hook up with our Texas buddy, Bob Curry. We're not looking forward to the rough road conditions on I-40 in Oklahoma.

This large dump truck loaded with sand turned over in the middle of I-40.

Quite a mess.

Our location.

Google map view of dam  and lock. White building on left is power generating plant, the center section are gates used for flood control, and on the far right is the lock used for navigation. The red push pin in upper left is the campground.

Our camp site, F-10. The first 14 campsites are non-reservable and are first come first serve. The park has another section that is partially riverfront with large hard wood trees, but we liked these sites better. Getting satellite TV had something to do with the decision. 

We don't have morning shade, but do have good afternoon shade.

Panoramic Shot of river and dam 

This shot taken from Reed Mountain on the north side of the river. If you look real hard, you can see our camper on the far side of the river.

Here's our camper at full zoom.

The Crepe Myrtle's here are especially pretty.

Hello From Arkansas

Hello from Arkansas!  Well just barely, we are in West Memphis, just across the state line from Tennessee and are at Tom Sawyer RV Park on the banks of the Big Muddy! We left home a week ago today, and have had a great trip so far. Our granddaughter, Bailey, has been traveling with us this past week but had to go home yesterday to start getting ready for college next month. We really enjoyed her company and was sad to see her leave.

Our first night was spent in Sevierville, Tn. where we stayed at Riverside RV Park.  We showed Bailey around the Pigeon Forge area, where the crowds and traffic were as crazy as ever. We had a nice dinner at Cracker Barrell and turned in early to get ready for the second leg of our trip . We left the next morning headed to Nashville, where we stayed at Seven Points Corp of Engineers campground located on Lake Piercy. We booked our site for 2 nights and enjoyed using our America the Beautiful pass (Geezer Pass) to get the senior rate of $11/night.  We decided the best way to show Bailey around was to book a tour of Nashville. I checked Trip Advisor and found a tour highly recommended with good reviews. The tour was Really Entertaining Tours and lucky for us, they had a slot open for us the next day. The tour was on an electric vehicle similar to a souped up golf cart.  Our guide, Ryan, went the extra mile to give us an excellent overview of the legacy and history of Music City and showed us a great time with his entertaining wit and knowledge. If you know anyone going to Nashville, and looking for a tour, have them hook up with Ryan for a good time. Early Wednesday morning we hit I-40 headed west to Memphis, where we are now. I haven't mentioned the hot weather, but it's been so oppressively hot that we didn't want to be out of the AC for very long and has affected our outdoor activities. We did book another tour in Memphis with Backbeat Tours. Our tour was a group of about 35 and was on a bus with marginal air conditioning. The tour was called the Mojo tour and traveled to areas where the blues genre of music was born, as well as other historical points of interest..  We had a professional musician on the bus who entertained us with songs of the era and spoke to significant events that occurred in areas we traveled. The tour was OK, but not as good as Ryan in Nashville. We also visited the Peabody Hotel to check out the March of the Ducks, which happens every day at 11Am and 5PM. If you're not familiar with them, click on the link for the scoop on the ducks.  One of our favorite stops was the Bass Pro Shop adjacent to the I-40 bridge in Memphis. This Bass pro Shop is housed in a huge pyramid and is the 4th largest in the world. It has a 300 ft freestanding elevator that goes to the top where there is a restaurant and observation decks on 2 sides of the pyramid. The inside is constructed to a swamp theme with spanish moss, cypress trees, several streams and ponds with fish, ducks, alligators and many aquariums. Needless to say, the gators are confined in a glassed in area. The structure includes a hotel, 2 restaurants, archery range and a bowling alley. Pretty cool place.

We plan to hit the road again in the morning (Monday) and plan to travel to Ozark, Arkansas where we plan to stay at Aux Arc Corp of Engineers park for a couple of days. Stay tuned for more updates and whisper a prayer for our safe travels.

Riverside RV Park, Sevierville, Tn.

Our Site, 215

General Jackson Paddewheel boat on Cumberland River in Nashville. Nissan stadium, where Tennessee Titans play in background.

Broadway Street in Nashville at night.

We were sure glad to have this nice shade.

Our Site, 32 at Seven Points COE

 

My Co-Pilot conked out!

Our tour bus wasn't air conditioned like this one!

Music City Center

Our Tour Vehicle

Panoramic Shot of Nashville

Scenic overlook with our group. Can you tell we're hot!

Our Site at Tom Sawyer, 95

The tall good looking guy on the right is Ryan of Really Entertaining Tours.

                                               

Entrance tp Peabody Hotel

Here come the ducks. Best picture we could get because it got really crowded.

They save the inside for children, as they should!

The guy in the red coat is the duck master

The ducks walk the red carpet to ride the middle elevator up to the penthouse,  er, duck house on the top floor!

Waterfront park alongside the Mississippi. You can see the Pyramid in the background.

You can see the swamp theme.

Crickett and Bailey in front of Bruno.

Bailey at observation area near top of pyramid.

Looking down

Panaromic Shot from the top.

I had to twist MeeMee's arm to get her on the observation deck.

I-40 Bridge across the Mississippi. The river is the Tennessee/Arkansas state line.

On the Road Again!

Hello to our family and friends in blogger land! Are you ready to share another adventure with us? Crickett and I are in the final stages of preparation and plan to hit the road Sunday, July 17. This trip will be ambitious in that we plan to travel about 8500 miles which will take us through about 20 states and will take about four months. We plan to visit some of the same areas and attractions as our 2014 trip and will further explore those areas as well as take in many new parts of our country. Our granddaughter, Bailey, will travel with us the first week of this trip as far as Memphis, but will have to return home to get ready for her freshman year at Western Carolina University. The rest of the trip will just be my co-pilot and myself. We have several friends we hope to connect with along the way and look forward to seeing them again. Basically, this trip will be another large loop where we plan to travel I-40 west to Albuquerque and then turn north into Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana before turning west into Washington and then travel south down the entire west coast into San Diego where we will turn east and begin our trek back home. I've included a map that shows our planned route, but is tentative at best. The yellow blocks on the map are navigation waypoints and have no significance. There is a saying among RVer's that travel plans are made in jello, and that certainly applies to us and this trip.

I would like to welcome our new blog followers and hope you enjoy riding with us on our next journey. The pictures in the blog are enlargeable by clicking on them and then clicking on the X in the upper right hand corner to return to the blog. Our two previous blogged trips can be accessed by scrolling down to the bottom and clicking on the “older post” link on the bottom. Also, in the right margin are links to blogs I follow. The counter at the top of the page is a running count of the number of page views of the blog. Comments are welcome and can be left in the comment link at the bottom of the blog, or can be replied to in the email notification. If anyone wants to be removed from our notification list, drop me an email and I will be happy to do so. 

Merry Christmas

As we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Crickett and I want to wish all our family, friends, and blog followers a joyous Christmas and a blessed and prosperous new year. It's hard to believe another year has passed, but this year has been a good year, and one we won't soon forget.

We have a yearly tradition of venturing to the NC mountains every year in search of that perfect Christmas tree and this year was no exception. We made the trip this year with our daughter, Pam, her husband, Rick along with our grandchildren, Bailey, Zach and our grand-dog, Cooper.  We went to the Twin Pines Nursery in Newland, NC and were successful in our quest! After getting our trees we went to the Mason Jar Cafe in Newland for lupper, which was pretty good but in no hurry to return. On the way back down the mountains, we were treated to a beautiful sunset that was one of the most unusual I've seen. The whole sky was illuminated with beautiful pastel colors of all shades and was impressive against the silhouette of the mountains.

We do have more travel plans on the drawing board for the coming year and are looking forward to making more memories on the road exploring our beautiful country.

Crickett and I with our tree behind us. We had to cut about 2 foot off the bottom of the tree as it was too big but couldn't find another we liked as well.

Crickett and I with our grandson, Zachary.

Our grandson, Zach, our daughter, Pam, our granddaughter, Bailey, and our grand-dog, Cooper.

Our tree after we finished decorating it.

One of our favorite ornaments. The ornament in the top right hand corner is one I had when I was a child, It's about 60 years old!

Stunning sunset we were treated to. Most unusual.