Living Our Dream

Shreveport, LA to Hot Springs, AR

Hot Springs, AR

We left Shreveport the morning following our visit to the American Rose Center Gardens and made our way north to Hot Springs, AR. We were originally going to stop in Murfreesboro, AR to try our hand at digging for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park. Because the state park has way too many trees for our satellite dish, we found Murfreesboro RV Park that didn't look like it had too many trees a couple of miles up the road from the state park.

We sent the campground an email to inquire about site availability, and we called twice and left messages; but we never heard back from them. Rather than continue to try to track them down, we decided the weather was going to be too hot and humid to go out into a field and dig for diamonds anyway so we went with Plan B, which was to head to Hot Springs.

It was about a 4-hour drive, including a gas stop. On the way, we were passed by a Walmart truck, and Paul quipped, "Look, they've sent out an escort. Their sales must be down, and they're wondering where we've been."

We pulled into J & J RV Park shortly before 1:00 PM. There was no one in the office, so we figured they must be at lunch. We unhooked the toad and walked into the campground to have a look around. Pretty soon, J. J. (the owner) drove up on his ATV and welcomed us. He told us to pick any site we wanted, and he would be around later to get our registration and payment.

There were some nice back-in sites that had a creek running behind them, but they were oriented so our windshield would have faced southwest. Since it was hot and humid, we picked a pull-though site where our windshield faced northeast so it wouldn't get afternoon sun.

J & J RV has full hookup sites with free cable. Since it was hot, we made sure our site had 50-amp electric. We're not sure, but it looked like all the sites had 30/50-amp electric. The road in the campgound is paved. The back-in sites are mostly gravel with a little grass, and the pull-throughs are all gravel. The gravel is all fresh and plentiful.

The next photo shows a view up the road past our site with the creek-side sites on the right. They got morning shade, but a lot of afternoon sun.

And the photo below shows a view looking up the creek behind the back-in sites.

As you can see, the creek isn't very big, but we could hear the water flowing over the rocks when it was cool enough to turn off the air conditioner early in the morning.

J & J RV Park seemed pretty quiet during the few times we weren't running the air conditioner. With the air off, we could sometimes hear a little traffic from 4-lane U. S. Highway 70 that passed the campground, but that's about it. Oh yeah, there were lots of night sounds from the frogs in the creek; but that's not noise, that's a serenade.

While we were on the way from Shreveport to Hot Springs, Paul noticed what appeared to be a stone chip on the windshield. We're not sure when we got it, but it was relatively small (less than half an inch in the longest dimension). However, it had pointed ends and a couple of fine cracks radiating out from it.

Even though the chip was small and not in a vision area, the sharp ends and the fine cracks are the kind of things that can make a small chip grow into a big crack. Therefore, in order to help prevent having to replace a windshield at some time in the future, Paul decided to investigate mobile windshield repair services. He checked the website for Safelite Auto Glass, and they had service available in Hot Springs. He called, and they said they could have a technician at our site between 8:00 AM and noon the next day.

The technician called about 8:30 the next morning and said he would be there between 9:30 and 10:00 AM. Sure enough, he showed up at 9:40. The repair consists of cleaning the area, attaching a vacuum cup to the glass, then injecting resin into the chip.

A UV light gave the resin a final cure, after which the chip was hardly noticeable. The whole repair only took about half an hour. Paul was impressed with the prompt service from Safelite and the efficiency of their process. Time will tell if the repair holds. The repair has a nationwide guarantee.

With the windshield repair out of the way by mid morning, we were ready for some sightseeing. Since we were in Hot Springs, we decided to first head into town to check out the springs. We'll give you our impressions in our next post.

Memphis, TN 2009

We stopped in Memphis just about this time last year. We liked Memphis and we heard the BBQ calling us, so we decided to stop again this year on our way south and east. We stayed at the same campground - Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park located in West Memphis, AR, across the Mississippi River from Memphis, TN. Tom Sawyer's RV is located right on the river and has full hookup sites with 50-amp electric and free Wi-Fi. The roads are gravel, all the sites are pull-throughs, and most of the pads are paved. The photo below shows this year's site at Tom Sawyer's RV Park. Last year, we had the site to the immediate right.

As you can see, there were puddles along the road. The Memphis area, along with much of the South, has had a lot of rain this year. Maybe that's the reason the campground has lost a lot of the grass that used to be between the sites. There were many bare, muddy areas, especially along the edges of the pads and around the utilities. That made it hard to hook up the utilities, to get into the outside storage bays, and to find a place for our dog Molly to go when we took her out.

It rained heavily the night before we arrived, and the rear of our pad was covered with mud that had washed onto the concrete. We got out our hose and washed off as much mud as we could to make it easier to unhook the car. It rained every day we were there but one. We got some standing water on our pad from all the subsequent rain, but no more mud.

One of the reasons we like Memphis is there are a lot of things to see and do. Last year, we spent 9 days in the area, and we were out sightseeing almost every day. We saw botanic gardens, rode the trolley around the city, (Click HERE to read post) saw 5 or 6 museums (Click HERE to read post) and ate out three times. This year, however, with our ambitious summer travel schedule that took us all the way to the Pacific Northwest and with mostly cloudy weather with a chance of rain every day, we decided to spend much of our time in the Memphis area relaxing.

While we relaxed, we watched the barges go up and down the river. We had again reserved an extra-cost, front-row site at the campground so we could see the barges from our front window.

And what better way is there to help us relax than to eat out and not have to cook? We both like barbecue, and we found several good barbecue joints in Memphis last year. Click here to read the post. Although we stayed in Memphis only four days this time, we ate out two of those days.

Our first stop was for a late lunch at The Bar B Q Shop located at 1782 Madison Ave. in Memphis, a Diners, Drive Ins and Dives feature.

We both had chopped pork sandwich platters with fries and slaw. The pork was nice and moist with a smoky flavor, and it was piled so high on the buns we couldn't pick our sandwiches up. The barbecue sauce is thick, rich, tangy, and not too sweet. We both like slaw on our barbecue sandwiches, and the slaw at the Bar B Q Shop provides a nice crunch and a sweet contrast to the somewhat tart barbecue sauce. In the next photo, Paul is getting ready to dive in to his meal.

The service at the Bar B Q Shop is prompt and friendly. The next photo shows our server Carl, who was the same server we had when we were there last year. You can tell by his smile he is just a real pleasant guy.

The next day, we went to Leonard's Pit Barbecue for lunch. Leonard's has a lunch and dinner buffet every day, but they only have ribs on the lunch buffet on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Since we both wanted ribs, we went on Thursday. Leonard's Pit Barbecue is shown in the photo below.

In addition to pulled pork and wet and dry-rub ribs, Leonard's had fried catfish, chicken, and roast beef on their buffet. They also have assorted sides like green beans, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, ranch fries, hush puppies, as well as assorted desserts like red velvet cake, chocolate cake, and Key lime pie. In the next photo, Paul is loading up his plate with dry-rub ribs.

Leonard's barbecue sauce is dark, thick, rich, and a little sweeter than the sauce at the Bar B Q Shop. Paul was a little disappointed in the ribs this year. He thought they weren't as flavorful and smoky as he remembered them being last year. The catfish and roast beef, however, were outstanding.

While in the Memphis area, we made time for a Walmart run. Well, we actually had to make three stops at Walmart because we kept forgetting things. We spent the rest of our time in the Memphis area chilling out. From Memphis, we continued our way east and south. We'll let you know where we land in our next post.

Little Rock, AR Part I: Clinton Library

It was about a three-hour drive down U. S. Route 65 from Branson to Little Rock. Actually, we stayed a little north of Little Rock right across the Arkansas River from the town of Maumelle at Maumelle Park. Maumelle Park is a Corps of Engineers campground just upstream of the Murray Lock and Dam.

Maumelle Park has 129 RV sites with electric and water hookups. Some of the sites have 50-amp electric, and some sites have a nice view of the river where you can watch the barges that occasionally pass by. The roads and pads are paved, the patios are gravel, and the sites are widely spaced with grass between. The campground was nice and quiet, at least on Loop B where we were, even when it filled up on the weekend. All those nice features coupled with half-price camping provided by our America the Beautiful Pass at this Corps of Engineers campground skyrocketed Maumelle Park to near the top of our list of favorite campgrounds. The photo below shows our site at Maumelle Park.

And the next photo shows the sunrise over the Arkansas River from one of the river view sites across the road from ours.

Last year when we passed through this area, we stopped and met a couple for breakfast who had been following our blog. Marilyn and Alan, who live in the Little Rock area, are interested in full-timing, and we had been corresponding with them by email and answering questions about the mechanics of getting started in the full-time lifestyle.

Since we were staying in the area this time, they offered to show us around town; and they reserved the site next to us at Maumelle Park. It was great to have locals who knew their way around point out interesting things to do and good places to eat. The photo below shows them in their RV Pilot and Co-pilot shirts.

Little Rock is the home of the Clinton Presidential Library. While we don't want to turn our blog in a political direction, those who know us know we aren't big fans of the Clintons. Yet, we realized the library might provide an interesting view of the Clinton presidency and the times that surrounded it, so the four of us headed toward downtown Little Rock one afternoon. The archives of the Clinton Presidential Library are the largest of any of the presidential libraries containing 2 million photographs, 80 million pages of documents (which proves how wordy politicians can be), 21 million email messages, and nearly 80,000 artifacts from the Clinton presidency. The library was opened in 2004.

William Jefferson Clinton was born in 1946 in Hope, AR. After attending Yale Law School, he became a professor at the University of Arkansas. Clinton was defeated when he ran for the House of Representatives in 1974, then he ran unopposed for Arkansas Attorney General in 1976. At age 35, he was elected as the youngest Governor of Arkansas in 1978. Bill Clinton was defeated in his run for re-election as governor in 1980, but was successfully re-elected in 1982 and served as governor until 1992 when he was elected the 42nd President of the United States defeating George H. W. Bush. He served two terms as President defeating Bob Dole in the second election.

The new President got a new limousine when he was inaugurated in 1993 - a Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham. The limousine, which it more properly called the Presidential State Car, has a 454 cubic inch (7.4 liter) engine coupled to a GM half-ton pickup truck transmission. The truck transmission was required to handle the extra power from the big engine and the weight of the beefed-up car. The car can carry up to 6 passengers and had state-of-the-art communications.

This is the last presidential limo that will be put on public display. When future vehicles are replaced, the old vehicles will undergo security testing which will likely result in their destruction.

The next photo is taken from the upper floor of the library and gives you an idea of the layout. There are alcoves with information on various phases and accomplishments of the Clinton presidency. On the floor below, the panels form a time-line that highlights the events of Clinton's 8 years as President. The alcoves in front of each panel have corresponding photos, documents, and artifacts.

As you may know, Bill Clinton played the saxophone. Back in high school, he won the state band's first chair in the saxophone section, and in his younger years he briefly considered devoting his life to music. By the time he was 16, however, he realized he wanted to hold public office. The next photo shows a display at the library of several saxophones presented to Bill Clinton over the years.

The museum has a replica of the Cabinet Room. In the photo below, Paul is trying to look presidential in his T-shirt while sitting in the President's chair. Margery is occupying the spot that would belong to the Secretary of State.

One of the features of the library that we liked the most was the replica of the Oval Office as it appeared during the Clinton administration.

On another day, Marilyn and Alan took us to Little Rock Air Force Base, which is the home of the 19th Airlift Wing and the training facility for C-130 transport aircraft. The base isn't open to the public, but Alan was stationed there as an aircraft mechanic during the first part of his Air Force career. As an Air Force retiree, he has a pass for the base, and we went as his guests. Marilyn also worked there until recently in a civilian job.

The photo below is a composite of several of the aircraft they had on display at the base.

The description of the planes (clockwise from the upper left) is as follows:

1.  C-130 Hercules troop/cargo transport. The particular plane pictured stands at the front gate of the base and was the last transport plane to leave Viet Nam one day before the fall of Siagon in 1975.

2.  B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber

3.  C-118 "Packet"

4.  B-57 Canberra bomber

The facility was also a Titan Missile base back in the 1960s and 1970s. There is a scale model of a Titan Missile in the background and a nose cone that has been made into a time capsule.

There is also a memorial to two airmen who lost their lives in the recent conflicts in the Middle East.

We got to see the BX, the commissary, some of the base housing, the movie theater and bowling alley, various buildings used as offices and for training, and the flight operations area (from a distance - access to this area is restricted). It was the only time either of us can remember ever being on an active military base, and it was quite interesting. It was like a small city.

On our way back to the campground, Marilyn and Alan suggested we go to Larry's Pizza for an early dinner. Larry's has several locations around Little Rock, and there was one right down the road from Maumelle Park. Larry's has pizzas and sandwiches that you can order from the menu and they have a pizza buffet that is outstanding. If you're interested in the buffet, check the schedule for the individual locations because times and days vary. Their pizzas are very creative. In addition to pizzas with the usual toppings, their pizzas also include chicken fajita, chicken honey mustard, steak Alfredo, chicken Alfredo, baked potato, BLT, meat lover's, and cheeseburger. Their dessert pizzas were up to the same high standards and included chocolate peanut butter, blueberry, peach, chocolate chip cookie dough, cherry, and vanilla. They also have a salad bar.

Our friends Marilyn and Alan had more ideas for interesting things to do around Little Rock, so look for our next post.

Memphis Part I: Botanic Garden and a Trolley Ride

After leaving the Oklahoma City area, our next destination was West Memphis, AR, which is just across the Mississippi River from Memphis, TN. It was a little too far to make in one day, so we stopped at Toad Suck Corps of Engineers Campground near Conway, AR. Actually, we had two nights to spend before the start of our reservations in West Memphis. We made those reservations in West Memphis several weeks in advance because we would be arriving at the start of Labor Day weekend.

Toad Suck has a fairly high percentage of non-reservable sites, and since we couldn't tell from the website or a satellite view which sites might be suitable for satellite reception, we thought we would try getting a site without making reservations. We called the day before we planned to arrive, and they said they thought they would still have a good many sites available for two only nights. When we arrived, they told us which sites were available so we unhooked the toad and drove around to take a look.

We picked the one site that was left that looked like we would have a shot at getting satellite reception. It was nice and long with plenty of privacy. However, we ended up having to pull into the back-in site frontwards in order to have our satellite dish, which in on the rear of our motor home, clear the trees. We had to use both our water hoses and our 30 amp extension cord to reach the utilities, but we were glad we were able to make it work. The photo below shows our site at Toad Suck.

It was nice to be back into nature again, away from parking lots, lights, and interstates. Paul put Molly out before we went to bed the first night, and it was DARK! We could hear the cicadas, katydids, and crickets at night and birds during the day. Toad Suck has paved roads, paved pads, gravel patios, lots of grassy space between sites, and water and electric hookups (some sites have 50 amp). There are a number of sites that have a view of the river and the locks, but only one of those would work for our satellite and that one was taken.

We always like Corps of Engineers campgrounds because they usually have generously-sized campsites, are usually located on a river or lake, and we can stay there for half price with our America the Beautiful Senior Pass. However, most COE campgrounds, Toad Suck included, also have lots of trees which is not good for satellite reception. We did find several COE campgrounds last year crossing Kansas that didn't have trees, but those are the exception rather than the rule.

Now, you are probably wondering where the name Toad Suck came from. We certainly were. Toad Suck is located on the Arkansas River. A postal route and ferry were established in the area in the early 1820s. Sometime between 1830 and 1850, a tavern was built on the western shore of the river. The tavern was frequented by travelers, riverboat roustabouts, and locals. The tavern patrons were serious drinkers prompting one traveler to comment, "Those fellows suck at a bottle 'till they swell up like toads." And that's how a riverside tavern, a settlement, a ferry, and now a modern lock and dam got the name Toad Suck.

We spent two quiet days at Toad Suck. Paul did some maintenance around the motor home, and we did a little shopping.

From Toad Suck, we went to West Memphis, AR to Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park. Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park, as the name suggests, is right on the Mississippi River. Their claim to fame is that you can watch all the river traffic pass by right from your campsite. We paid a little extra to get a front-row site so we would have an unobstructed view of the river. The campground has extra-long pull-throughs and full hookups with 50 amp electric. Roads and sites are gravel, except for the sites in the front rows which have concrete pads. There is ample space between sites with well-manicured grass. The photo below shows our site at Tom Sawyer...

...and this was the view of the river from in front of our site.

As you can see from the above photo, there is a lot of exposed riverbank on the opposite shore indicating the river level was quite low. This is normal for late summer. We couldn't help but think about the high waters we experienced in Iowa in the spring and what that must have looked like here in Memphis a week or two later. Spring is about the only time there is any danger of flooding at Tom Sawyer, and they say there are never flash floods. The Mississippi is big enough to absorb any runoff from sudden rains that might occur, and there is ample warning of any flooding coming from farther upstream. We were glad to hear that because hurricane Gustav was in the Caribbean heading for the Gulf Coast about the time we arrived in West Memphis. The exact path was still unknown at that time; but it looked like it was heading toward New Orleans, which is less than 400 miles due south of West Memphis. When we checked in, they said they had a lot of inquiries from campers farther south.

The next morning, we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise and were reminded of the old saying, "red in the morning - sailor's warning."

With possible rainy weather heading our way as a result of the hurricane, we thought we should take advantage of the sunshine so we headed across the river to the Memphis Botanic Garden. Memphis Botanic Garden covers about 96 acres in Audubon Park just east of downtown Memphis. Late August isn't a great time to visit a garden because there isn't much blooming; but it's been a while since we have been to a botanical garden, and Paul was interested in reconnecting with some garden memories.

Visitors to the garden are greeted by this fountain when they step out of the visitor center into the garden.

A short distance from the fountain was a pool with water lilies.

And near the water lily pool was the rose garden where a few varieties were still blooming very nicely.

Memphis Botanic Garden has a very large Japanese serenity garden. The photo below shows one of several stone lanterns with the lake in the background behind the trees.

This Canadian goose on the lake in the Japanese garden was looking for a handout of food. You could buy fish food for the hundreds of huge koi in the lake; but the geese liked the fish food, too.

The lake in the Japanese Garden also has a picturesque bridge.

As we left the Botanic Garden, we stopped for a photo by the parking lot. Paul was fascinated by the huge, elephant ear plant to the left of the photo. He grew elephant ears successfully back when we had a stick house, but was never able to get the leaves to grow bigger than about 18 inches long.

On Labor Day, we headed to downtown to Memphis. A number of the museums are right downtown, and we thought the holiday would be a good time to miss some downtown traffic. We stopped at the visitor center to find the location of several attractions and best places to park only to find out many tourist attractions were closed. They weren't closed because it was Labor Day, but because it was Monday...they are always closed on Mondays so we decided to ride the trolley around the Riverfront Loop.

It only costs $1.00 per person, and it would give us the lay of the land. This time, it was a real trolley, not a bus dressed up to look like a trolley.

There was no narrated tour, but we followed the map we got at the visitor center so we knew where we were.

We decided to get off the trolley at Union Ave. and walk two blocks to the Peabody Hotel. The Peabody is a AAA Four-Diamond hotel in downtown Memphis that is famous for its ducks. They have five mallard ducks that are marched to the fountain in the lobby of the hotel every day. The tradition began back in 1933 when the general manager of the hotel came back empty-handed from a hunting trip. Two friends decided to play a prank and put several ducks into the Italian travertine fountain in the hotel lobby. The reaction of the guests was enthusiastic, and the tradition was born. The photo below shows the Peabody ducks in the fountain.

The five ducks (one drake and four hens) are housed in the "Duck Palace" on the hotel roof. The Duckmaster marches the ducks to the lobby every day at 11:00 AM by way of an elevator, and they are returned to the roof at 5:00 PM. A local farmer raises the ducks for the hotel. The ducks spend only three months at the hotel after which they retire to live out their days on the farm.

Near the end of our trolley ride, we passed the Memphis Pyramid, which was built to symbolically link Memphis, TN, to its namesake in Egypt. The Pyramid is a 32-story, stainless steel, 20,000-seat sports arena and entertainment complex. Built in 1991, the Pyramid, which is owned jointly by the city and the county, is the third largest pyramid in the world behind the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. The Pyramid was the former home of the University of Memphis men's basketball and the Memphis Grizzlies NBA basketball team until both teams left for the newly-built FedEx Forum. Today, except for a few special events, the Pyramid sits mostly idle.

We returned to the motor home and checked up on the status of hurricane Gustav. Fortunately, it seemed to deliver only a glancing blow to New Orleans. Although there was a good bit of damage in the Gulf Coast region, they were spared the devastation caused by Katrina. Almost 400 miles away from Gustav where we were in Memphis, the skies become increasingly cloudy as the outer bands of the storm crept northward. The wind had picked up from a breeze in the morning to 20+ mph wind later in the day and overnight.

With rains coming, we planned to visit some museums. There are so many to choose from. We'll let you know which ones we visited in our next post.