Living Our Dream

Little Rock, AR

Little Rock, AR

As we said in our last post, we planned to relax in Little Rock and not do much sightseeing. One way we planned to relax was to eat out a couple of times to give Margery a break from cooking. It was also a good way to continue our 2011 Foodie Tour. Not only that, but eating out saves water when you don't have sewer hookups. See how easy it is to come up with excuses?

In 2009, we met our friends, Alan and Marylin, who were originally from Little Rock, at Maumelle Park before they went full-time. They introduced us to several great restaurants in the area that have become real favorites of ours. One of those restaurants is Larry's Pizza.

Larry's Pizza has several locations around Little Rock, and one of them is right down the road from Maumelle Park. Different locations may have different schedules, but the Larry's near Maumelle has a lunch buffet every day for $6.69 and a dinner buffet on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays for $7.69. We went for dinner on a Tuesday.

Larry's buffet is similar to CiCi's, but the pizza at Larry's is better because Larry's is a lot more generous with their toppings. Larry's also has one of the most creative pizza menus we have ever seen. They have pizzas like loaded baked potato (sliced potatoes, bacon, chives and cheese), honey mustard chicken, chipotle chicken, BLT, cheeseburger, and chicken or steak fajita. Of course, they have all the regular favorites, too, like the pepperoni pizza Margery is about to devour in the next photo.

They also have tasty dessert pizzas such as chocolate chip (plain and with peanut butter), Bavarian cream, and cinnamon.

One of the other eateries in the Little Rock area Alan and Marilyn introduced us to is the Mean Pig, which is located about 40 minutes northeast of Maumelle in Cabot, AR. The Mean Pig smokes their ribs with dry rub, then serves them with either regular or hot barbecue sauce on the side. They also have Shutup Juice, which is ultra-hot sauce. When we went to the Mean Pig a couple of days after going to Larry's, we both had half a rack of ribs with regular sauce and potato salad for a side.

The ribs were nice and meaty and fall-off-the-bone tender. Although they were good, the ribs weren't as smokey as we remembered them being. They also didn't have the sweet barbecue sauce they had last time we were there. The regular sauce was also good, but the sweet was our favorite.

It was hot and humid the whole time we were in Little Rock, and that made us feel even less like sightseeing. We had a few possibilities on our list, but the only sightseeing we did, if you can call it that, was to visit the Little Rock River Market. There are a number of full-time stores and restaurants in the market district near the Arkansas River that are open every day, but we were interested in the Little Rock Farmers' Market that is only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays from May through October. Since the market is downtown along the riverfront, we decided to go on Saturday in the hope of finding easier parking. There is a parking lot along the river next to the market that charges $5, but we found a free on-street parking space right by the entrance.

There was a large, open shelter that was filled with vendors. Some of the produce looked like it was local, and all the produce looked very nice - no "plastic," grocery store tomatoes here.

They even had steel drums for entertainment. The music really gave the whole market a festive atmosphere.

Margery stopped for a tourist photo with a new friend.

Behind the main shelter were a couple dozen more vendors. Most of these were crafts, but there was also more produce mixed in.

On our way back to the car, Paul stopped to admire the live plants. The bright green ones behind him are ornamental sweet potato vines.

The Little Rock Farmers' Market was one of the nicest markets we've seen in terms of size and in terms of the variety and freshness of the produce. The prices weren't bad either. We bought a few peaches and some fresh asparagus. We used to grow asparagus when we had a stick house, and it is one of those vegetables we love and that we don't get very often anymore.

We relaxed a couple more days, then continued on our way north. We'll have a report on the transition to our next destination in our next post.

Back to Little Rock, AR

We left Branson and retraced our route back to Maumelle Park north of Little Rock where we stayed a week earlier on our way north. We really like Maumelle Park with its long, paved, extra-wide sites. We also like the fact that although there are trees, there are still a lot of open sites where we can get satellite reception, and we like that many of the sites overlook the Arkansas River. Paying half price at this Corps of Engineers campground with our America the Beautiful Senior Pass helps, too. The photo below shows our site this time in Maumelle Park, which was next to the one we had on our way north.

 

The other good thing about Maumelle Park is it is quiet with no traffic noise and are no trains. There were only a few riverboats pushing barges up and down the river accompanied by some bass boats on the river on the weekend.

 

On our way north, we didn't make reservations because we were only staying one night and it was the middle of the week. We were surprised to find the campground almost full because the local schools were apparently on spring break. On our way south, we made reservations because we were staying five days over Easter weekend. We learned that a lot of people in the south camp over Easter and Thanksgiving weekends, so we thought it would be wise to make reservations. Although it was the middle of the week again when we arrived, we were surprised the campground was only about a third full this time. The next photo shows a view looking down the road from our site.

Eventually, the two loops along the river got pretty much filled up, but a lot of people didn't arrive until Friday evening and even Saturday. We thought more people would arrive on Thursday because they would be off work and out of school on Friday.

One of the things we wanted to do during this stop in Little Rock was to go to the Mean Pig BBQ located a little northeast of Little Rock in Cabot, AR. Our friends Marilyn and Alan introduced us to the Mean Pig when we met up with them last fall in Maumelle Park. They brought a wide variety of Mean Pig menu items to share with us at the campground.

We arrived at the Mean Pig in mid afternoon, and there were several pickups parked out front. Pickup trucks parked at a barbecue joint are usually a sign of good barbecue.

We both had a half rack of pork ribs. The ribs are smoked with dry rub, and more mild or hot dry rub is added when the ribs are served. Mild, hot and sweet barbecue sauces are available. The ribs are very smokey, meaty and tender. We both had the sweet sauce, which was delish. We also had sides of slaw (traditional with barbecue) and smoked beans, which are excellent.

 

Paul again toasts Marilyn and Alan (this time with a pork rib) for introducing us to the Mean Pig.

In addition to mild, hot and sweet sauce, the Mean Pig also has Shut Up Juice, which is a sauce so hot they require you to sign a waiver to even order it. The waiver is probably mostly for publicity, but it also serves as a warning as to just hot the sauce is. The Mean Pig was featured on the Travel Channel program Man v. Food where the host, Adam Richman, had to down a chopped pork sandwich smothered in Shut Up Juice within a certain amount of time. He won the challenge, but not without a lot of sweat and tears!  Our friend Marilyn was at the Mean Pig picking up the take-order for us when the episode was filmed last fall.

We liked the ribs so much we picked up a pound of chopped pork to take back to the motor home for a future dinner. The next photo shows Paul placing the order.

Some of the famous people that have enjoyed barbecue at the Mean Pig include Billy Bob Thornton, the entire band Aerosmith, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, current Arkansas governor Mike Beebe, the band Chicago and the cast and crew of Cirque de Soleil.

We finally got the warmer weather we have been seeking. Temperatures in the Little Rock area have been in the mid to upper 70s to low 80s, and we are finally back into our shorts. Of course, we also heard much of the eastern half of the country warmed up,too. We had one evening of rain that went on into the night; but the next morning, there were just a few fluffy clouds left, and they made for a beautiful sunrise over the Arkansas River.

Spring was a good bit farther along in Little Rock than it was at our last stop in Branson, and that's one reason we headed back south. The leaves on the trees in Little Rock were fairly big; but they were still not full, and they were a tender green color. The redbuds were absolutely gorgeous, especially in contrast to the bright green of the new leaves on the surrounding trees.

 

We had several days to relax and enjoy spring. In addition to eating out at the Mean Pig, we also went back to Larry's Pizza where we ate about a week ago on our way north. Larry's is right down the road from Maumelle Park, and they have a delicious buffet five days a week for lunch and Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday for dinner.

We worshiped on Easter morning at The Bible Church of Little Rock, which was a short distance from the campground. The service was a little more traditional than we're used to, but it was very meaningful for a holiday like Easter. The worship music included an organ, a grand piano, a 50-member choir and a 25-piece orchestra.

We were struck at how well-behaved the children were during the 1 1/2 hour service. They provided not one distraction (did they have no Easter candy?).

Like most churches these days, there was a lot of enthusiastic fellowship and chatting before the service. We liked the immediate response of the congregation to become quiet so the fellowship didn't compete with the musical prelude. In some churches, the visiting continues through the prelude making for quite a bit of confusion that is not very conducive to preparing for worship. Also, we don't know the last time we were in a service where the congregation joined in the singing as enthusiastically as the choir. We did miss the friendliness that is present at a church that is more intentional in inviting and welcoming guests; but all in all, it was a great Easter service. We are grateful for the opportunity to worship with other believers as we travel across the country.

Instead of ham for Easter dinner, we had our pork barbecue we brought back to the motor home from the Mean Pig. The chopped pork was very smokey like the ribs, and it was still moist even after a couple of days in the fridge. Margery liked the sweet barbecue sauce, while Paul liked the mild sauce because it was a little tart, which he thought contrasted nicely with the crispy sweetness of the cole slaw Margery made to go with it.

In the morning, we left Maumelle Park and headed even farther south. We'll tell you all about our next destination in our next post.

 

On the Road Again

First of all, we would like to thank all our friends and readers who expressed their condolences about the loss of our sweet dog, Molly. She was such a good traveler, and we'll miss her.

After delaying our departure from Bushnell, we finally hit the road on Thursday. We made an overnight stop at Pine Lake RV, a Passport America campground near Fountain, FL, in the panhandle. In other years after leaving Bushnell, we stayed at Chattahoochee RV located on the Apalachicola River. Chattahoochee is closer to half-way to our destination in Summerdale, AL; but last year, the river was flooded and some of the sites at the campground had recently been underwater. With more rain this year, we thought we would just drive a little farther and try a new campground that wasn't located near a river. The next photo shows our site at Pine Lake RV.

Pine Lake RV is located about 16 miles from the interstate, but there is still some highway noise from four-lane U. S. Highway 231 that passes by the campground on the way to Panama City. There is a railroad track a few hundred feet on the other side of the highway. Fortunately, there were very few trains because the rumble of the few that did pass was very loud. Fortunately, there is no crossing near the campground so there were only a few, distant toots of the train horns.

The roads through the campground are paved, but the pavement is quite narrow. The sites are a combination of grass and sand, and most are extra-long pull-throughs. The site width isn't too bad for a private campground. Pine Lake has full hook-ups with free Wi-Fi. Some sites have 30 amp electric and some have 50 amp. As you can see from the above photo, there are a few trees, but the office was very accommodating in allowing us to move to another site to get satellite reception. In the first site they gave us we could get internet, but not TV. They are on two different satellites, and a tree branch was blocking the TV signal.

In the morning we hit the road at 8:30, which is a little earlier than usual. We pulled into Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL, shortly after noon. It was a good thing we got an early start because we got the last available site. A lot of Escepees spend the winter in Summerdale; and although some had moved on, others (like us) were stopping on our way north from Florida.

Rainbow Plantation is one of our favorite Escapees RV parks. The roads are paved, and the sites are a combination of grass and sand. There are full hook-ups and free Wi-Fi. Fifty-amp electric is available for an extra charge. Sites are nice and wide, and the campground is quiet.

One of the things we like about the Summerdale area is there are lots of things to do and see. Even though our visit to Summerdale was shortened because we extended our stay in Bushnell, we still wanted to see the azaleas blooming at Bellingrath Gardens over in Mobile. Bellingrath is famous for the over 250,000 azaleas that normally bloom around the middle two weeks of March. Unfortunately, when we checked the Bellingrath web site, we found out the unusually cold weather this winter had delayed the blooming by about two weeks. This delay was confirmed by observing the azaleas in people's yards in the area. Only about a third of the blossoms on most of the plants open, and it looked like the azaleas still had at least a week to 10 days to go before they even neared their peak. Therefore, we decided to save seeing azaleas for another time.

One of the other things we like about the Summerdale area is the close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico which means there is a lot of delicious seafood available. Last fall when we were in the area we discovered Shrimp Basket restaurants. Shrimp Basket is a chain of about a dozen restaurants with one in nearby Foley. Paul was hungry for fried shrimp, and the Shrimp Basket has all-you-can-eat shrimp baskets on Wednesdays and Sundays, so we headed down to Foley on Sunday.

 

After spending the weekend at Rainbow Plantation, we hit the road again on Monday. We were heading to Branson, MO, for the wedding of Heather, who is our daughter Lora's best friend and former roommate. We were friends with Heather's parents from our former church back in Pittsburgh, and we were pleased to have been invited to participate in the festivities.

With extending our stay back in Bushnell, our recent travels were a bit less leisurely than normal. We usually plan to travel no more than four hours a day, but this time, we would be traveling 5+ hours a day for a couple of days in a row. Our next overnight stop was at Movietown RV Park in Canton, MS, a little north of Jackson.

Movietown RV is a nice RV park. It has gravel roads and pads with full hookups and 50/30 amp electric. Sites are mostly pull-throughs and are fairly wide with grass between. Even though the campground is conveniently located near the interstate, there is surprisingly little traffic noise - and there are NO trains!

Apparently, the name of the RV park comes from the fact that quite a few movies have been filmed in the Canton area. Canton even has a movie office and a couple of movie museums. Maybe we'll go back some day for a longer visit, especially now that we know a good place to stay.

From Canton, we drove north to Little Rock, AR, in another 5+ hour travel day. We stayed at Maumelle Park north of the city last fall when we met up with our friends Marilyn and Alan. Since that time, Alan took a voluntary layoff when he found out the company he worked for was planning a cut-back, they sold their house, and they are now full-timers.

Maumelle Park is a Corps of Engineers campground located along the Arkansas River. The campground has paved roads and pads and gravel patios. There are water and electric hookups (30 amp) only. As with most COE campgrounds, sites are very generously spaced. The photo below shows our site at Maumelle Park.

We didn't make reservations because we were uncertain about our arrival date and because we thought the campground would be empty in the middle of the week in March. Boy, were we surprised when we arrived and found the campground was almost full! It looked like a lot of families were spending the week at the campground, so we're guessing we hit spring break for the Arkansas schools. There were also some college kids on spring break, and we're pleased to report the group tenting on the site next to us were very well behaved. The next photo is a view down the road from our site and gives you an idea of how crowded it was.

We normally look for a campground with pull-through sites when we make a one-night stop, but we liked Maumelle so much, it was worth unhooking the toad. Not only that, but Marilyn and Alan took us to Larry's Pizza when we were there last fall. Larry's is a chain of about a dozen restaurants around the Little Rock area, and, fortunately, there is one right down the road from Maumelle Park. They have a lunch buffet every day, but they only have the dinner buffet on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Luckily for us, we were there on Tuesday, so we had another good reason to unhook the car. The next photo shows Margery loading up at Larry's. Yum!

Here Paul is toasting Alan and Marilyn for introducing us to Larry's.

The next morning, we headed out for an unprecedented third straight travel day. The distance was a little shorter, and we were only on the road for about 3 1/2 hours instead of the 5+ hours we had been doing. We pulled into Escapees Turkey Creek Campground near Branson, MO, a little after noon.

In contrast to Maumelle Park, the campground in Branson was nearly empty. Late spring, summer and fall are the most popular times for Turkey Creek Campground, and we were a little early. But that was OK because some of the sites are also a little small, so we had plenty of elbow room with the campground almost empty.

Turkey Creek has gravel roads and pads, full hook-ups (there is an extra charge for 50 amp electric), free Wi-Fi and cable. Although the temperature was in the 60s when we arrived, we opted to pay extra for a 50 amp site because the weather forecast was calling for rain and falling temperatures so we thought 50 amp would make it easier to do laundry and use the electric heater at the same time. The photo below shows our site at Turkey creek.

We'll be spending a week in Branson, so we'll have time to relax a little between the wedding festivities. We're also looking forward to seeing Lora and J. Michael. We might even come up with some other activities or possibly a good restaurant, so stay tuned.