Living Our Dream

Summerdale, AL to Memphis, TN

West Memphis, AR - Events of Thursday, June 12 to Saturday, June 14, 2014

We pulled out of Rainbow Plantation around 9:00 a.m. on Thursday and had about a 5 hour drive to our overnight stop at Movietown RV Park in Canton, MS. We stayed there once before back in 2010.

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!

Our site at Movietown RV

On this stop at Movietown RV, there were lots and lots of construction workers staying in the park. Most of their trailers were older, and there are quite a few unmarked trailers that look like the ones they used for temporary housing following Hurricane Katrina. However, most of the sites were fairly neat.

View of some of the other sites at Movietown RV

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.

We headed out again on Friday morning with a drive of about three hours to Tom Sawyer's RV Park in West Memphis, AR. West Memphis is located right across the Mississippi from Memphis, TN, and the RV park is located right on the river.

There are three groups of sites - one away from the river that has mostly pull-throughs with a few back-ins, one right on the river that has all pull-throughs where the front of the sites face the river (intended primarily for motor homes), and another right on the river that has all pull-throughs where the rear of the sites face the river (intended for 5th wheels).

The sites all have full hookups and 30/50-amp electric. Some of the sites are paved, but most are gravel. The paved sites right on the river cost $39 a night with a $4 discount for Good Sam, FMCA and Escapees. We got the weekly rate of $234 for our front-row, paved site.

Our front-row site at Tom Sawyer's RV Park

View up the row past our site

The roads at Tom Sawyer are somewhat dusty gravel. This year, they were coming around a couple of times a day and sprinkling water onto the roads which really helped immensely in keeping the dust down.

There is free Wi-Fi, but the signal where we were was pretty weak, and we got dumped off-line frequently. When the Wi-Fi did work, it was pretty slow. We used the campground Wi-Fi part of the time to save on our own data usage, but there was a strong Verizon 4G signal so we used that when the campground system bogged down in the late afternoon and early evening.

One of the reasons we like to stay at Tom Sawyer is the great view it has of the Mississippi River. The photo below is the view looking upriver toward Memphis from our site.

View from our site looking upriver toward Memphis

We occasionally like to sit on one of the benches they have along the riverbank and watch the barge traffic go by. The other great thing about a front row site is we can see the river right out the front window of the motor home. The photo at the top of the post and the one below give you an idea of what some of the river traffic looks like.

Barges heading upriver

One of the other reasons we like to come to the Memphis area is barbecue. We have tried numerous barbecue joints in Memphis, and our favorite for pulled/chopped pork in Memphis, or just about anywhere for that matter, is the Bar-B-Q Shop. We normally hang around the rig on weekends; but we couldn't wait to get some good, Memphis barbecue, so we headed to the Bar-B-Q Shop in Memphis for lupper on Saturday. The website for the Bar-B-Q Shop is a little confusing. As of this writing, it is actually the site where they sell their Dancing Pigs brand of barbecue sauce and dry rub. They are supposedly working on a new website that will give more info about the restaurant itself, including the menu.

The Bar-B-Q Shop

The pork at the Bar-B-Q Shop isn't real smoky, but it is always very moist and tender. Their sauce is a little on the tart side, and their cole slaw is a little on the sweet side. Together, they make a great combo. The crunch of the cole slaw also provides a nice contrast for the tender pork.

We both had chopped pork dinner plates ($10) with cole slaw. Margery had potato salad for her second side and Paul had barbecued beans. Everything was outstanding.

Ready to dig into our chopped pork dinners

We headed back to the motor home and spent the rest of Saturday watching barges go up and down the river. On Sunday, Paul got a nice Father's Day Skype call from Lora and J. Michael.

We headed out sightseeing on Monday. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Little Rock to Memphis

Southaven, MS - Events of Thursday, May 16, 2013

On Thursday, we packed up the motor home, unhooked the utilities, dumped our holding tanks and hooked up the toad - all in the pouring rain. We thought about waiting a while for the rain to stop; but the weather radar didn't show a break coming for quite some time, and we were anxious to get going. We also had our new Frogg Togg raincoats to keep us dry, so we forged ahead.

We got on the road around 10:00 a.m. for a three-hour drive to Memphis. When we went to Memphis in the past, we always stayed at Tom Sawyer RV Park. Tom Saywer is located across the river from Memphis, TN in West Memphis, AR. The campground is located right on the Mississippi River, which is both a plus and a minus. The plus is we like to watch the barges go up and down the river.

This time of year, we always run the risk of bumping into the minus...flooding along the Mississippi. Local officials order the campground to close any time the river level goes above 31.5' in Memphis. We got an e-mail from the campground ahead of time warning us they would probably be closing, so we made reservations at EZ Daze RV Park a few miles to the south of Memphis in Southaven, MS instead. As it turned out, it was a good thing we did because the Mississippi crested at around 34' a couple of days before we arrived in the Memphis area.

As we approached the bridge to cross the Mississippi from Arkansas, Margery snapped a few photos of the high water. In the next photo, the water is supposed to be behind the row of trees in the distance.

High water along the Mississippi

Another view of high water along the Mississippi

We pulled into EZ Daze RV Park around 1:00. EZ Daze has about 85 sites, 14 or 15 of which are pull-throughs. The roads and pads are paved, and there is a small, paved patio for each site. The patio is better suited to 5th wheels than motor homes because it located toward the rear of the site. There is well-manicured grass between each site and there are a few very small trees.

Our site at EZ Daze RV Park

View down the road at EZ Daze

The sites all have full hookups with 30/50-amp electric. There is free cable and free Wi-Fi that was fairly fast except for a few evenings when everyone in the campground must have been trying to get online at the same time. There is also a pool, a hot tub and a dog run.

The rates a EZ Daze are $40 a night including tax or $240 a week. The weekly rate works out to a little over $34 a night.

Judging from the small size of the trees and the bright appearance of the concrete, the campground seems to be relatively new, and already they are expanding. They are adding 49 new sites across the road. Unfortunately, the noise from the construction was pretty loud a couple of the days we were there - even on one Saturday. Fortunately, it was hot on those days, so we just ran the air which drowned out most of the construction noise. EZ Daze is located only a short distance from I-55, so there is a fair amount of traffic noise all day and all night.

Depending on the direction of the wind, the campground can also be on the flight path of Memphis International Airport. Memphis serves as the hub for FedEx, so if the wind is right (or maybe we should say if the wind is wrong), there are lots of planes flying over, especially in the wee hours of the morning as planes depart to deliver their overnight packages to the intended destination cities. There is also another series of take-offs in the late afternoon, but the ones at 2:30 to 4:30 a.m. are a lot more annoying.

A couple of days after we arrived in Memphis and after the Mississippi had started to subside, we decided to drive back across the river in the car to see if we could get a look at Tom Sawyer RV Park to see what shape it was in. Unfortunately, the entrance road was as far as we got because the road was still under two feet of water about a quarter of the way into the campground.

Entrance road to Tom Sawyer RV Park under water

One of the things we like about Memphis in addition to watching barges on the Mississippi is the barbecue. This year, our stay coincided with the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

New Orleans to Little Rock

Little Rock, AR - Events of Wednesday, May 8 to Thursday, May 6, 2013

On Wednesday morning, we finished packing up the motor home, then we unhooked the utilities and headed to the dump station. After dumping our holding tanks, we hooked up the car and were on the road around 9:15 a.m. headed to Little Rock, AR with an overnight stop in Vicksburg, MS.

When we leave New Orleans, our route out of the city always takes us across the Mississippi River by way of the Huey P. Long Bridge, which is to the west of the bridge we take when we arrive in New Orleans. The Huey P. Long Bridge is a long, narrow bridge with what seemed to be a maze of ramps leading to and from the bridge. We can't remember for sure about our first stop in New Orleans in 2009, but the bridge has been undergoing renovation for at least the last three years since our second stop in 2010. The bridge is narrow enough to begin with, but the lanes have been narrowed even further for the construction. It's a bit of a white-knuckle experience to get across with a large vehicle like a motor home.

Huey P. Long Bridge construction

We're happy to report, although the construction seems to be never-ending, the improvements to the approach ramps are essentially complete and are a big improvement. It's not nearly as difficult to find your way to and from the bridge as it used to be.

Our drive to Vicksburg was supposed to be a little over 4 hours. To make a long story short, it turned out west-bound I-55 was completely closed just to the west of Jackson, MS due to an accident. All traffic was forced to exit west-bound I-20 to local roads to bypass the site of the accident. The heavy traffic and the detour added over an hour to our drive, and we finally pulled into the Ameristar Casino RV Park in Vicksburg about 2:30.

The Ameristar Casino RV Park has paved roads and pads. There is a small, poorly-placed, paved patio at each site (the patio was located by our back tire). There is well-manicured grass between the sites and a few small trees here and there.

The spacing of the sites isn't too bad, but the paved pads are a little narrow. The RV park has all full-hookup, pull-through sites. There are a few sites with 30/50-amp electric, but they cost an extra $7.50 a night, so we settled for a 30-amp site for $22.50. There is free Wi-Fi that was pretty fast and there is also free cable.

Our site at Ameristar Casino RV Park

View down the row behind us

There is traffic noise from nearby I-20, and there is a railroad track down over the hill in back of the campground. You can't see the trains, but you sure can hear them. Fortunately, there weren't that many trains. It is also fortunate there are no crossings nearby, so there were no train horns; but there was a lot of rumble when the trains passed. All in all, however, the Ameristar Casino RV Park is not a bad place for an overnight stop or for a couple of nights to visit the casino and/or the Vicksburg National Military Park. We stayed at Ameristar back in 2010 to visit the military park and battlefield. Click here to read about our 2010 visit.

We were on the road by 9:15 again the next morning for a drive of a little over four hours to Maumelle Park in Little Rock, AR where we had a site reserved for a week. This time, we didn't run into any traffic delays, so we pulled into Maumelle around 1:30.

Maumelle is a Corps of Engineers Campground with paved roads and pads and large, gravel patios. There are water and electric hookups only. Maumelle Park has some 30/50-amp sites, but the sites we like along the Arkansas River that are good for satellite reception have only 30-amp electric.

As with most Corps of Engineers campgrounds, the sites at Maumelle Park are very large; and as with most Corps of Engineers campgrounds, they honor America the Beautiful passes for a 50% discount. A riverfront campsite for only $12 a night is a real deal even if it doesn't have full hookups and only has 30-amp electric.

Our riverfront site at Maumelle Park COE

View down the road from our site at Maumelle Park

We have a number of favorite eateries in Little Rock, and we're planning to hit several of them while we're here. We're also investigating some sightseeing possibilities, so stay tuned.

Berlin, OH to Vidalia, LA

Vidalia, LA - Events of Tuesday, May 29 to Friday, June 1, 2012

On Tuesday morning, we said our good-byes to Lora and J. Michael and pulled out of Scenic Hills RV Park around 9:20 AM and headed south. Lora and J. Michael, who had a fairly short drive back to Pittsburgh, left a bit later than we did.

Our original travel plan before our detour to Pittsburgh and Ohio was to leave Summerdale, AL, then spend about a week in New Orleans. From New Orleans, we planned to drive north to Vidalia, LA where we had reservations for a front-row site along the Mississippi River for three weeks. In order to fit in the detour to Pittsburgh, we eliminated the stop in New Orleans and shortened our stay in Vidalia.

We had to travel four days in a row after leaving Scenic Hills so we could make it to Vidalia in time for our modified reservation. Some of those were longer travel days than we usually like.

Our first day was a drive of about 6 hours. On top of the scheduled 6-hour drive, we had a 20 or 30-minute delay north of Louisville getting past an overturned semi in the median. The accident was probably due to heavy storms that passed through the Louisville area earlier. Fortunately, the storm missed us. We didn't pull into Grandma's RV Camping in Shepherdsville, KY until almost 3:30.

We stopped at Grandma's last year when we visited Louisville, and we stopped there about two weeks prior on our way north. Grandma's has a combination of pull-throughs and back-ins. The roads are paved, and the sites are all gravel. There are small, paved patios that are not well placed, so they aren't very useful. The sites are all gravel - there is no grass. There are full hookups with 30/50-amp electric and free Wi-Fi. The sites are fairly close together, especially the pull-throughs. There is a good bit of traffic noise from the interstate, and there are also trains.

We got the same site at Grandma's heading south as we had going north.

A view down the row behind us at Grandma's

Our second day of travel was a bit shorter at only 4 hours. Not only that, but we gained an hour going into the Central Time Zone. We pulled into our second night's stop at Parkers Crossroads RV Park in Yuma, TN around 1:00 PM CDST.

Parkers Crossroads RV has mostly pull-through sites. The sites are all full-hookup. We're not sure about the sites in other parts of the campground, but all the sites in the area we were in had 30/50-amp electric. There is also free cable and free Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi seemed a little slower than our Verizon 3G, but it was usable.

Parkers Crossroads also has a nice swimming pool and a fishing lake.

The roads and most of the pads at Parkers Crossroads RV are gravel, but there are 6 extra-long pull-throughs in the back section of the campground where we were that have concrete pads. Some of the gravel sites didn't look too level, so we're glad we got one of the paved sites.

Three of the paved sites have a good bit of space between them, and the other three don't. The sites are angled which helps create some privacy. However, the angle is so severe that the three sites that are close together have their neighbor's driveway passing right through their living space. We had one of the more closely-spaced sites, and there was no room for our picnic table on the door side of our motor home - it was located on the opposite side of our site. That wasn't a problem for us because we rarely eat outside anyway, especially since the weather was very hot.

Sites at Parkers Crossroads RV Park with paved pads

Our site at Parkers Crossroads RV

The other minor problem was the height of our concrete pad. The others were a little high, but the surrounding ground sloped up to meet the level of the concrete. Our concrete sat about 4" above the ground on the door side. Our steps hung over the edge of the concrete making the last step about 10" high. Fortunately, either the campground or a previous long-term guest left a nice wooden platform to ease the transition from the last step to the ground.

The campground itself was quiet, but there was a fair amount of traffic noise from the 4-lane road that runs past the campground. Fortunately, the traffic diminished at night.

The price at Parkers Crossroads RV of $28 a night isn't bad for full hookups, free cable and free Wi-Fi. We recommend requesting one of the longer, paved, pull-through sites especially if you have a big rig.

We hit the road again the next morning for the third leg of our trek to Vidalia, LA. It was another 4-hour drive to the North Abutment Corps of Engineers Campground in Grenada, MS. We usually don't stay at Corps of Engineers campgrounds on travel days because very few of them have pull-through sites, but this one does.

According to the reservation web site, many of the pull-through sites are non-reservable. That meant there was a good chance we could get a pull-through in the middle of the week without making reservations so we could save the reservation fee. Half-price camping of $9 with our America the Beautiful Pass made it even better.

North Abutment COE is a beautiful campground located on Grenada Lake. There are several camping loops, and all the loops have a mixture of back-in and pull-through sites. Many sites are shaded, but some are open. The roads and pads are all paved, and the sites are gravel. The campground is either fairly new or it has recently been redone because all the pads looked like new concrete, and all the sites have 30/50-amp electric. There are also water hookups.

The campground is set up for self-registration, at least that's the way it was when we were there in the middle of the week. We found a nice pull-through site that was out in the open so we would be able to use our rooftop satellite dish for TV and not have to fuss with the tripod. Another plus was the fact the site had a nice view of a small, secondary lake.

Our site at North Abutment COE

View down the road at North Abutment COE

North Abutment COE was nice break in our rather hectic travel schedule. It was nice to be back in nature at a quiet Corps of Engineers campground with widely-spaced sites rather than at a private campground close to our neighbors and close to the interstate.

Speaking of being back in nature, we had a persistent visitor while we were at North Abutment. There was a bluebird who kept returning to our mirrors all afternoon, all evening, and the following morning to try to chase away what he must have thought was another bluebird that was invading his territory.

Bluebird trying to chase away the other bluebird in the mirror

We were on the road again the following morning for the final leg of our journey to Vidalia. It ended up taking us about 5 hours including a stop for fuel. We pulled into Riverview RV Park around 2:00.

Riverview has mostly pull-through sites, full hookups with 30/50-amp electric, and free Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi was faster most of the time than our Verizon 3G; but the Wi-Fi dumped us offline frequently, especailly in the evening. There is also a swimming pool and hot tub that are open year round. The roads are gravel, and most of the pads are paved. The sites have grass between them, and they are fairly widely spaced.

Our site at Riverview RV Park

View up the road at Riverview RV

The campground is located on the earthen levee on the Vidalia, LA (western) side of the Mississippi River directly across from Natchez, MS. The levee is slightly higher than most of the sites, which means you can barely see the far bank of the river from your RV. You have to walk to the top of the levee to watch the riverboats and barges pass by. However, the levee is a little lower at the south end of the campground, so if you have one of the last 6 or 7 sites, you can not only see the river from inside your RV, but you can see it from sitting under your awning outside your RV. We had the 5th site from the end in the front row, so we had a great view.

The view across from our site at Riverview RV

As we mentioned, Vidalia is located right across the river from Natchez, MS. Established by French colonists in 1716, Natchez is one of the oldest settlements on the lower Mississippi River. It has a rich history as a ceremonial and trade center for Native Americans and as a center of commerce for European colonists and American settlers. Natchez remained largely undamaged during the Civil War, so many historic homes and buildings remain today. Natchez was the main reason we decided to stop in this area, but there are things to see and do on both sides of the river, so stay tuned.

Little Rock, AR to Kansas City, MO

Lee's Summit, MO

Our friends, Alan and Marilyn who are full-timers originally from Little Rock, are workamping for the summer at Branson Lakeside RV Park. We needed a place to make an overnight stop on our way to Kansas City, so we decided to swing a little to the east to make that stopover in Branson so we could say hello. Alan and Marilyn were on duty when we pulled in. Marilyn got us checked in, and Alan escorted us to our site.

This Good Sam campground has full hookups with 30/50-amp electric, free cable and free Wi-fi. The roads are paved, and the pads are gravel. There are both back-in and pull-through sites.

Lakeside RV Park is operated by the City of Branson and is situated on the banks of Lake Taneycomo. The sites are a little narrow, but we had a nice front-row site with a great view of the lake. Paul took the photo below with a couple of fishermen on the dock and mist on the lake early in the morning from the front windshield of the motor home.

Lake Taneycomo lies between Tablerock Lake and Bullshoals Lake. It is a dammed up section of the White River between the two larger lakes, but it's more of a widened section of river than a lake.

Several weeks ago, Lake Taneycomo flooded when the Corps of Engineers adjusted some of the floodgates at the dam, apparently to prevent worse flooding elsewhere due to heavy rains. Although the campground is back in operation, there is a bit of fine, sandy silt along the edges of the roads and sites.

The next photo is a view down the road behind us showing more of the pull-through sites. The campground was pretty quiet in spite of construction on the bridge in the background and in spite of the railroad tracks that run past the back of the campground. Fortunately, there aren't many trains, and the nearest crossing where the trains have to sound their horns is pretty far away. It was also hot and humid, so we ran the air conditioner all day and all night which helped drown out any outside noise.

The sites in the back rows of the campground have plenty of nice shade.

Of course, we needed sun for our satellite dish, but we also liked having a view of the lake. There are a lot of Canada geese that make their home at the lake. The photo below shows a few of them hanging out on the shore near the marina.

Alan and Marilyn got off work at 5:00 PM, which gave us a little time to visit before heading out the Casa Fuentes for dinner. We ate there with Lora and J. Michael in the spring of 2010 when we attended Lora's roommate's wedding. We liked Casa Fuentes so we suggested it to Alan and Marilyn.

The food was as good as it was on our first visit. Prices for combination dinners are about $7 to $9.

After we returned from dinner, we hung out for a while with Alan, Marilyn and some of the other workampers, then we made our way back to the motor home. The following morning, we headed out to our next stop just outside Kansas City, MO.

We had reserved a site at Blue Springs Campground in Lee's Summit where we stayed when we were in this area last summer. Jackson County operates Blue Springs and two other campgrounds. Blue Springs has 87 sites - some with electric only (30 amp), some with water and electric (30 amp), and some with full hookups (30/50 amp). Most of the sites are back-ins, but there are a few pull-throughs. The roads are a little narrow, but they are paved, and the sites are all gravel. Sites tend to be grouped in twos and threes, and there are wide grassy areas between the groups of sites. The photo below shows our site at Blue Springs.

There is some traffic noise from the I-470 bypass that runs about a mile from the campground, but the noise lessens somewhat at night. Otherwise, the campground was pretty quiet.

The campground was fairly empty when we got there, but it filled to about 2/3 capacity on the weekend later in our stay.

Unfortunately, we had a bad thunderstorm with high winds during the weekend at about 1:30 Saturday morning. Our weather radio went off earlier in the evening with a thunderstorm watch, and it woke us about 1:15 AM with a severe thunderstorm warning. Since the warning mentioned high winds, we pulled in the main slide and stowed the satellite dish.

It was too noisy to sleep with the wind and the thunder, so Paul sat up and watched the lightening and the small tree outside the motor home window bowing in the wind. He kept checking the wind speed on our weather station, and it showed a sustained wind of 20 to 30 mph for over 45 minutes. There were many gusts over 40 mph, and the strongest gust we recorded was 53 mph.

Paul saw 6 vehicles leave the campground during the storm, and he saw the ranger drive through twice, once accompanied by the local police. In the morning, we realized how bad the storm really was as evidenced by our neighbor's tents that had collapsed...

...and our other neighbor's tent trailer that had overturned. No wonder so many people left. To our knowledge, no one was hurt, but the canopy in the center of the photo above and tent trailer below were toast.

We're grateful there wasn't more damage, and that we made it through the storm with no problems.

The tenters returned Saturday morning and stayed the rest of the weekend. On Sunday afternoon, we watched them stuff their mangled canopy into the dumpster before they left.

The people who had the tent trailer also returned on Saturday. A bunch of guys turned the trailer back over onto its wheels, then began trying to figure out what to do with all the bent up supports and trying to stuff all the canvas back inside. We left to do some sightseeing, and the tent trailer was gone when we came back so they must have been successful getting the thing into shape so the could tow it home.

Kansas City is the home of delicious barbecue, so we'll be adding a couple of stops to our Zeller 2011 Foodie Tour, and we also have some interesting sightseeing to report on. Stay tuned.