Living Our Dream

Dixon Gallery and Gardens Plus More Barbecue

West Memphis, AR - Events of Tuesday, June 26 to Wednesday, June 27, 2012 

We have been experiencing a lot of hot, humid weather here in the South. Our air conditioner has been running 24/7 since we arrived in Vidalia, LA several weeks ago after our detour to Pittsburgh. The hot weather continued through our stay in Little Rock and here in the Memphis area. The weather forecast was finally calling for a slightly lower temperature and lower humidity on Tuesday. Temperatures several days after that were predicted to be 97 to 104º, so we decided Tuesday would be a good day to do some outdoor sightseeing at Dixon Gallery and Gardens across the river in Memphis.

Dixon Gallery and Gardens are part of the estate that was built in Memphis in 1942 by Hugo and Margaret Dixon. The Dixons were community leaders and philanthropists who established a foundation to enable their home, gardens and art collection to be opened to the public and to be maintained after their deaths. The Dixons died within a few months of each other in 1974, and the home and gardens were opened to the public in 1976.

Paul standing by the Serpentine Wall outside Dixon Gardens

Admission to Dixon Gallery and Gardens is $7 for adults and $5 for seniors. Admission is free on Saturdays; and on Tuesdays when we were there, admission is "pay what you wish." We paid the regular $5 per person senior rate. Dixon is entirely privately funded and receives no government subsidies of any kind, so we felt it was only fair that we would pay the senior admission price.

In the years since the gardens were first opened to the public, there have been expansion projects. One of those projects is the cutting garden that was built in front of the conservatory in 1997 by the Memphis Garden Club. The cutting garden is planted with perennials, annuals, herbs and vegetables and has something in bloom nearly 12 months of the year.

Cutting garden near the conservatory

Some of the flowers in bloom in the cutting garden include (l. to r.): celosia, okra, zinnia

Two types of ornamental peppers in the cutting garden

Another view looking toward the cutting garden

A fountain celebrates the four seasons with a different bronze sculpture in each corner.

Four seasons fountain

Conservatory with the fountain in the foreground

There are several trails through a woodland garden that contains oaks, hickories, dogwoods, ferns and hostas. Many of the trails in the woodland garden are dotted with sculptures, but it was so shady we didn't get any good pictures.

At the eastern side of the estate is the formal garden.

Formal garden

We stopped for a photo by one of the planters.

Margery in the formal garden

One of the paths extending out from the formal garden led to the south lawn where we got a good view of the house.

Dixon home - now an art gallery

The home that previously belonged to the Dixons has been turned into an art gallery that houses the Dixons' collection of 26 paintings. Generous gifts and donations and purchases over the years have increased the collection to over 2000 items that include paintings by Gaugin, Renoir, Matisse and others. Traveling exhibits are also featured.

We went to Dixon primarily for the gardens, but since the gallery was also included with our admission, we went in to check it out. Unfortunately, photography isn't permitted inside the gallery, so we can't show you any of the artwork. However, there was a traveling exhibit of works by Lee Littlefield, and we can show you some of his larger pieces that were displayed outside.

Works by Lee Littlefield on display at Dixon Gallery and Gardens

Littlefield's works are made primarily from branches, twigs and vines that are assembled to look like trees, flowers and bugs. His brightly-colored sculptures look like things that may have come out of the Little Shop of Horrors.

After visiting Dixon Gallery and Gardens, we headed back to the motor home to relax and cool off in the air conditioning.

On Wednesday, we went to Walmart in the morning to restock the fridge and pantry, then we went to Roadside BBQ right off I-40 at Exit 271 in West Memphis for lupper. Roadside BBQ isn't fancy, but they got good reviews online for their barbecue.

Roadside BBQ

After we ordered, they handed us a felt-tipped marker. All their first-time guests are asked to sign the wall.

Margery adding our names to hundreds of others on the wall

We both had chopped pork plate that included two sides for $8.50. Margery had slaw and onion rings for her sides, and Paul had slaw and potato salad. As we said, Roadside BBQ isn't fancy. They serve their dine-in food the same plastic clamshells that they use for take out.

Margery about to dig into the pork barbecue

The pork wasn't real smoky, but it was very moist and tender. Although portion sizes were a little smaller than the Bar-B-Q Shop where we ate a few days prior, the price was less, too. Roadside BBQ has hot and mild sauce, or you can do what we did and have half and half. The sauce was thick and sweet with a little bit of a kick. The slaw was good, but not quite as good as what we had as the Bar-B-Q Shop. The potato salad was also good, and the onion rings were outstanding.

We headed back to the motor home with our bellies full for an evening of TV. We still have plenty of time and plenty to do in the Memphis area, so stay tuned.

Little Rock to Memphis

West Memphis, AR - Events of Friday, June 22 to Saturday, June 23, 2012

Paul was up early the day we left Little Rock (Friday) hoping to catch one last sunrise. Unfortunately, there were clouds to the east that pretty much blocked the sun as it came up over the river. However, a little later, we got a different treat as a hot air balloon came floating over the river.

Hot air balloon over the Arkansas River

The balloon went a little to our south, then began to descend behind the trees.

Balloon descended to the south of Maumelle Park

After the balloon was out of sight, we had breakfast and finished packing up. Then it was off to the dump station and to the boat launch parking lot where we had enough room to hitch up the car.

The drive to Memphis was about 3 hours including a fuel stop. We pulled into Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park, where we have stayed twice before, a little after noon. Tom Sawyer's is located overlooking the Mississippi in West Memphis, AR right across the river from Memphis, TN.

The campground has one section back from the river under the trees where they mostly put their seasonals and two sections right along the Mississippi. The section along the river where our site was located is primarily for motor homes, and the sites face the river. The other riverfront section is primarily for 5th wheels, and the sites face away from the river so you can get a nice view if you have a picture window in the rear of your rig.

The main entrance road into Tom Sawyer's RV Park is paved, but the interior roads are fairly dusty gravel. About one third of the sites in the two sections near the river are paved, and all the rest are gravel. There are full hookups with 30/50-amp electric and free Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi signal was a little weak where we were (two bars), but the connection was fairly fast. We used the campground Wi-Fi most of our stay even though we got dumped off occasionally. Using campground Wi-Fi when possible allows us to stretch our Verizon Broadband to keep us from going over our 5GB data limit.

We had reserved a front row site, and they gave us a great site right on the end.

Our end site at Tom Sawyer's RV Park

The sites are a little narrow, but our site had a lot of extra space and a nice, big tree on our door (south) side. Unfortunately, the tree was located in just the wrong spot that it blocked the signal to our rooftop satellite dish. We probably could have moved the motor home all the way to the rear of the site to make the rooftop dish work, but we preferred not to park the car in front of the motor home so we would have an unobstructed view of the river out our front window. Therefore, Paul had to get out our portable dish and tripod. This was the first time in almost 6 years of full-timing we had to use the tripod. Setup of the portable dish was easy once Paul remembered to switch the input to the receiver from the rooftop dish over to the new cables he ran a while back for the portable dish.

Most of the front row was filled by late afternoon, but much of the rest of the campground except for the seasonal area under the trees was empty.

Front row of sites

Tom Sawyer's has a much better view of the Mississippi than Riverview RV Park where we stayed recently, and there seems to be more river traffic here than there was down around Natchez. We were still in the process of setting up when the first tow boat went by heading upriver.

Tow boat and barges

The campground has a nice, grassy area where there are several benches along the river bank. On our evening walk, we paused on one of the benches a while. Another tow was headed downstream.

More barges heading downstream

At the same time, a small tow boat and a work barge of some sort was chugging upstream.

Work boat heading upstream

There are lots of things to do in and around Memphis beside watching the barges go up and down the river. We have numerous possibilities we are considering. However, one of the most important things we want to do while in Memphis is sample more of the delicious barbecue for which they are so famous.

The one barbecue joint that stood out in our memory from our two previous visits to Memphis was the Bar-B-Q Shop, so we headed into Memphis on Saturday afternoon for a late lunch.

The Bar-B-Q Shop

We arrived at the Barb-B-Q Shop around 2:30, and even though it was the middle of the day, the place was fairly crowded. We had gone there before, not only in the middle of the day, but also in the middle of the week. Therefore, we weren't used to seeing so many people in the restaurant. It took much longer than usual for our food to arrive. We found out later there was a large group in the next room. Judging from the fact they left just about the time we got our food, they must have arrived a little before us, and that must have created a bit of a backup in the kitchen.

The food was worth waiting for. We both had chopped pork dinner plates for our late lunch. Margery had slaw and fries for her sides, and Paul had slaw and beans. The pork was tender and moist, even without barbecue sauce. We prefer slightly tart (but not sour) barbecue sauce, and the sauce at the Barb-B-Q Shop is just about perfect in our book with just the right amount of sweetness to offset the tartness. We also love their cole slaw because it is slightly sweet with just a hint of tartness. The slaw and the barbecue go great together with the slaw also adding a nice crunch to the tenderness of the pork.

Chopped pork dinner

Margery had slaw and fries with her chopped pork.

In addition to chopped pork, the Barb-B-Q Shop has ribs, chicken, turkey and sausage. Sandwiches are $4 to $6, and our dinner plates were around $10.

We got our visit to the Memphis area to a great start with some great barbecue. We have more barbecue joints to check out, and plenty of sighteeing possibilities for the three weeks we are scheduled to be here.

Little Rock, AR

Little Rock, AR - Events of Sunday, June 10 to Thursday, June 21, 2012

On Sunday, Paul was up early again and caught another beautiful sunrise.

Sunrise over the Arkansas River

A couple of squirrels were running around the campsite, and they were scurrying up and down several of the nearby trees. One of them paused several times to keep a wary eye on Paul.

A squirrel eyed Paul warily

After breakfast, we did our weekly cleaning, then we chilled out and watched the NASCAR race. We also watched many of the weekend warriors leave the campground. The funny thing is the campground never really empties out in the summer. About two thirds of the people left, and the rest stayed another day or two. Every day during the week, a few RVs left, and a few others arrived. Maumelle Park is close enough to Little Rock, we think a lot of people stay beyond the weekend or arrive during the week and just go to work from the campground.

After making a stop at Walmart on Monday morning and stopping back at the motor home to put the groceries away, we drove to Cotham's in Scott, AR for a late lunch. Marilyn and Alan, our full-timing friends who were originally from Little Rock, introduced us to Cotham's when we met them at Maumelle Park in 2009.

Cotham's Mercantile

Cotham's has two locations - one in downtown Little Rock called Cotham's in the City and the original restaurant located in Scott, AR about 30 minutes east of where we were staying in Maumelle Park called Cotham's Mercantile. The one in Scott is called Cotham's Mercantile because it is located in an old general store built in 1914. Cotham's Mercantile added a small eating area to serve lunch in 1984. Soon, people from Little Rock discovered Cotham's. It's list of customers includes former President Bill Clinton whose office was in the capitol building in Little Rock when he served as governor of Arkansas from 1983 to 1992. Cotham's Mercantile has also been featured on the Travel Channel program Man vs. Food.

Inside Cotham's Mercantile

While Cotham's has plenty of southern favorites like fried catfish, chicken fried steak, fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, and fried okra (note the frequent use of the word "fried"), it is famous for it's Hubcap Burger. The burger, which supposedly weighs about a pound, has a diameter of about 8 or 9 inches. We shared one between the two of us, and we also shared a large order of onion rings. A large order consists of 10 very large, hand-cut rings.

We split a Hubcap Burger and a large order of onion rings.

 
Paul had trouble getting his mouth around the Hubcap Burger.

The restaurant has antiques hanging on the walls, and the side of the restaurant where the cash register is located is set up much the way it was back in the day with old bottles, cans, toys and tools on the shelves and in the display cases.

Plenty of antiques are on display at Cotham's Mercantile.

We did a little shopping on Tuesday. We are back in the area of the country served by Kroger, which was and is Margery's favorite grocery store chain. We stopped at Kroger for Margery and at Home Depot for Paul.

On Wednesday, we drove about 40 minutes northeast of Maumelle to Cabot, AR for lupper at the Mean Pig Barbecue. Marilyn and Alan also introduced us to the Mean Pig. The Mean Pig is another area restaurant that was featured on the Food Network program Man vs. Food. In fact, Marilyn was at the restaurant when they were taping the program.

The Mean Pig Barbecue

Cute sign inside the door at the Mean Pig

The Mean Pig has sandwiches that range in price from $4 for a regular chopped pork to $7 for a super jumbo Black Angus beef. Ribs are $8 for a half rack and $15 for a full rack. You can add two sides for $1.79. Paul was hungry for chopped pork. Since they didn't have the pork available as a platter, Paul got a super jumbo chopped pork sandwich and only ate part of the bun. Margery got a half rack of ribs.

Margery had a half rack of ribs.

The pork was moist and tender, but Paul thought they put a little too much sauce on the sandwich this time. In the future, he'll ask for the sauce on the side. Margery's ribs were smokey and meaty. Although the ribs were good, they weren't as tender as they were on previous visits.

After our lupper at the Mean Pig, we headed back to the motor home to relax for the rest of the afternoon. Paul was up in time for the sunrise again the following morning.

Another beautiful sunrise over the Arkansas River

Last time, Paul was visited early in the morning by a couple of squirrels. This time, the resident geese came by eating the seeds from the tall grass on the river bank.

Geese feeding on the seeds from the tall grass

We had Thursday to relax some more before we headed out to our next destination. We'll tell you where that was in our next post.

Vidalia, LA to Little Rock, AR

Little Rock, AR - Events of Friday, June 15, 2012 to Saturday, June 16, 2012

On Friday, we left Riverview RV in Vidalia, LA and headed north. We had about a 5½-hour drive, including a stop for fuel, to Maumelle Park in Little Rock, AR. Maumelle Park is a Corps of Engineers campground located on the Arkansas River just to the northwest of the city.

The roads and pads are paved, the patios are gravel, and the widely-spaced sites have grass between them, although the grass may be a little sparse on some of the heavily-shaded sites.

The campground has water and electric hookups only. Some sites have 30-amp electric, and some have 30/50 amp. Since it was the middle of June, we wanted 50 amps. Not only is it hot in Little Rock in the summer, but the nicest sites that are along the river face southwest. That means the hot afternoon sun will beat into the front windows of the motor home. Using our sun screens and pulling the front blinds only helps a little, so running both air conditioners is a must unless you have one of the shadier sites or unless you want to pull into the site frontwards. A lot of people with motor homes pull into the riverside sites frontwards so they have a nice view of the river out the front window, but the electrical pedestal would have been right where our door was, so we backed in. Many of the riverfront sites also have shade, but we usually want a site that is at least partially open so we don't have to fuss with the tripod for our TV satellite dish.

We used the satellite view on Google Maps when we made our advance reservations to pick a site that several large trees on the door (north) side of the motor home, and an open view of the sky to the south.

Our riverfront site at Maumelle Park

View to the right from our site

One of the things we like about Maumelle Park, other than the views of the Arkansas River and the half-price camping with our America the Beautiful Senior Pass, is the fact the campground is usually nice and quiet. There is no traffic noise, there are no trains, and even when the campground is full on the weekends, it's still pretty quiet.

Our full-timing friends, Marilyn and Alan, whom we met through our blog, used to live in Little Rock. We met them at Maumelle Park in 2009, and they introduced us to several fantastic restaurants in the area.

One of the restaurants is Larry's Pizza. They have several locations around Little Rock, and one of them is only a few miles from the campground. We couldn't wait to get another taste of their pizza, so we headed there for dinner shortly after we arrived.

Larry's Pizza

Larry's has a pizza buffet that is similar to CiCi's Pizza, except Larry's is more generous with their toppings, and they have a more creative menu. They have things like loaded baked potato pizza (baked potato chunks, bacon, and cheese), BLT, chicken Alfredo, Buffalo chicken pizza, and Canadian bacon with cheddar. For dessert, they have things like Boston cream, chocolate chip, cinnamon, and apple pie pizzas. The pizza was delicious, and we were stuffed when we left.

One of the joys about Maumelle Park is you can see beautiful sunrises over the river if you are up early enough. Paul, who is an early riser, caught the sunrise shown below on Saturday morning. 

The first of several beautiful sunrises over the Arkansas River during our stay

Little Rock has an excellent farmer's market at the downtown riverfront on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. We discovered it last year when we were in Little Rock. We were impressed by the quality and variety of the produce, so we decided to go again during this stay.

The farmer's market is part of River Market, which is a collection of about 15 permanent merchants in a large, open hall. There are foods such as breads, meats, pastries, and gourmet coffee. The market is in the Market District, which is a collection of numerous shops, boutiques and night spots. It is also adjacent to Riverfront Park with an amphitheater that hosts numerous concerts.

Last year, we went to the farmer's market on Saturday because we thought it might be easier to park downtown on the weekend, and we went on Saturday again this year. Sure enough, we got a free, on-street parking spot in almost the exact same place as last year right near one of the entrances to the market.

There is a large, open shelter with several dozen produce vendors. All the produce is very nice, and the prices are decent. We bought a couple of tomatoes, a zucchini, some cilantro and several jalepeños.

A view of part of the large selection of produce at the farmer's market

Margery picking out zucchini

There is also a smattering of crafts as well as some new merchandise such as jewelry and T-shirts.

There are also a few crafts at the farmer's market.

The weather was supposed to be hot the entire time we were scheduled to be in Little Rock, so we didn't know how much sightseeing we would do; but we were scheduled to be there for a whole week, so we knew we wouldn't just sit around the whole time. We'll tell you about the things we found to do in our next post.

Jefferson College

Vidalia, LA - Events of Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Jefferson College was incorporated by the first General Assembly of the Mississippi Territory in 1802 in the small town of Washington, which is about 5 miles east of Natchez. Washington is the same town we talked about in our last post when we wrote about the slave market at Forks of the Road. One of the roads at the intersection where the market was located led to Washington.

The historic college is open to the public for self-guided tours, so we decided to drive over to check the place out, especially since admission is free.

The college was named for Thomas Jefferson, who was President of the United States when the school was first chartered. After several years of financial difficulties, the college transformed itself into an a preparatory school in 1811.

Enrollment fluctuated over the years prior to the Civil War from only 11 students in 1811 to a high of 98 in 1830, but it usually ran around 50. Jefferson Davis, future president of the Confederate States of America, lived in Mississippi for a time as a youth and attended Jefferson College in 1818 at age 10.

Jefferson Davis as a young man

The school was forced to close in 1863 because of the Civil War. It reopened in 1866, again as a prep school. In 1893, Jefferson College became a military prep school and changed its name to Jefferson Military School. Due to falling enrollment, mostly as a result of negative reaction to the Vietnam War, the school closed in 1964.

The historic college was restored by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History which maintains the building and grounds today. In addition to being open for tours, they have numerous special events such as a Civil War reenactment, vintage baseball games, summer camp, and various activities for school groups.

The East Wing (on the right in the photo below), which was built in 1819, is the oldest remaining building. It was a multi-purpose building that contained classrooms, offices, and housing for faculty and students. The West Wing was built in 1839 housed the dining hall and offices.

East Wing (right) and West Wing

Dining hall in the West Wing

Behind the East and West Wings are two kitchens that were built in 1839.

Two kitchen buildings provided space for cooking and storing food supplies

To the right of the East Wing is Raymond Hall. It is a dormitory built in 1915 as a result of increased enrollment due to the military program that was started around 1893.

Raymond Hall

The visitor center, which was also a dorm for cadets, was built in 1931. Today, it has photos and displays about the history of the college. There is one room set up as dorm room.

Cadets' dorm room

Jefferson College has been the site for the filming of several movies in its later years. The first was Horse Soldiers starring John Wayne filmed in 1959 while the school was still operating. There is a year book from the college on the table in the dorm room open to a page with pictures of John Wayne and other members of the movie cast. There is a photo of John Wayne with some of the students in the lower right and telegram containing a Christmas greeting from John Wayne to the students in the upper left.

Year book page with pictures of the making of the movie Horse Soldiers

There were several other movies made at Jefferson College after it closed including Huckleberry Finn (1973), North and South (1985 TV mini series), and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1992). Proceeds from the movies helped fund restoration efforts.

Adjacent to the college grounds is the college president's house. It was built in 1835 and originally belonged to the town's physician. It was purchased by the school in 1842. Today, it is privately owned. If you look closely, you will see a window air conditioner and a TV satellite dish.

College President's house

We talked in our last post about slaves being brought down Natchez Trace from Virginia. Since the terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway lies between Natchez and Washington, we took a little detour on our way back to the motor home to drive up the parkway a short distance. Natchez Trace was a game trail, an Indian trail, and the trail used by keelboat and flatboat men in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The boatmen would float their boats loaded with cargo down the Mississippi River to Natchez or New Orleans where they would sell the cargo and sell the boats for lumber. They would then travel back up Natchez Trace on foot or on horseback to their homes in Kentucky and Ohio.

Construction of a two-lane parkway that follows the approximate route of the Old Natchez Trace was begun in the 1930s. The 444-mile long Natchez Trace Parkway runs from Natchez to just south of Nashville. It has gentle hills and curves, no traffic lights, no stop signs, and access is somewhat limited. Commercial traffic is not allowed (RVs are permitted), the speed limit is 50 mph, and there is usually little traffic. All that coupled with all the trees and grassy areas lining the road make for a very pleasant drive. On nice weekends, however, you may need to watch for bicycles.

Natchez Trace Parkway is a very pleasant drive.

There are numerous locations of historical interest along the parkway where you can pull off. These include many places where you can still see Old Natchez Trace.

Old Natchez Trace

As we mentioned, Natchez Trace has been used by wildlife, Indians, boatmen, and slaves. The Trace was also designated a postal road by President Thomas Jefferson in 1801 for the delivery of mail between Nashville and Natchez, and the Trace was used as a military road following the War of 1812. With the advent of steam power for both steamboats and railroads in the 1820 and 1830s, use of the Trace declined. An old photograph at one of the roadside stops shows how parts of the road had become sunken after so many years of use.

Old photo of Natchez Trace

We only went a few miles north on Natchez Trace Parkway before turning around. It was after 1:00 PM, and we were getting hungry, so we headed back to the motor home after a quick stop at Walmart to pick up a few items.

On Friday, we pulled out of Riverside RV in Vidalia and headed north. We'll tell you all about where we went in our next post.