Friday, July 8
Anna and Evan spent the week with us.
Anna spent the week recovering from 3 weeks at Camp Don Lee, where she became a very experienced sailor and learned a lot about herself.
Evan has spent two weeks with us and we've enjoyed every minute. He turned 13 years old on July 3. He is taller than Anna and almost as tall as Papa. In another few weeks, he'll probably be looking down at me.
Yesterday, we essentially finished packing the motor home for our forthcoming 3 month trip out West. Everything on the motor home is working good.
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| On Belle Air Street ready to head West. |
Today we drove the motor home to Lake Jordan State Park and took the kids home. We had a nice visit for a couple of hours and then went back to the motor home to start reacquainting ourselves with all the nuances of living on the move.
Saturday, July 9
We drove about 5 hours to a new area of the mountains for us. I had seen an ad in a magazine for Mountain Falls Luxury Motorcoach Resort near Lake Toxaway.
This is by far the nicest place we've ever stayed. Some of the lots (with a small coach house) on it can cost over $700,000. Quite a bit above our means. But it's nice to dream.
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| Quite a view |
Sunday, July 10
Bill and Jan came over and spent the day. We all ohed and ahhed again at the beautiful location and the "very" expensive motor homes. Our 40 foot Tiffin is definitely on the low range of the motor homes here. Lots of very expensive motor homes!
Monday, July 11
We're beginning to feel like we are really heading West now. After nearly 400 miles and 3 days traveling across North Carolina, we are in Tennessee.
And WOW! What a drive it was today. We headed west from Lake Toxaway on Hwy 64. I keep thinking I've already traveled some of the curviest roads in the country (i.e. The million dollar highway in Colorado and the Dragons Tail in Western NC), but I do believe that today, we reached a new level of narrow, winding, up and down roads. There was a stretch of the road where the cliff (rock walls) we less that 2 feet from the road and rose to well above our motor home. Besides not having any shoulder on the road, the road was unusually narrow. We literally had to stop in some of the curves when meeting on-coming traffic.
For obvious reasons, we have to pictures - it was about all we could do just to drive.
But, it turned out to be a memorable (and beautiful) drive. And quite frankly, one I'd do again in the motor home if the chance ever comes.
We just Northeast of Chattanooga, TN in an absolutely wonderful state park - Harrison Lake State Park. There's a fantastic swimming pool (which happened to be closed on Monday), beautiful facilities and a huge marina.
Although we really enjoyed staying at Mountain Falls, we both prefer something like this state park over the luxury RV Resorts.
Although the pool was closed, I did get in a good swim in the lake. Tonight we had a fine dinner at the restaurant at the marina.
As we head West through Tennessee, we're going to try and stay at state parks. Tennessee has some of the best in the country.
Tuesday, July 12
A very pleasant drive across Eastern Tennessee. We are at the David Crockett State Park. We stayed here last year on our trip from Dayton, Ohio to Red Bay, Alabama. As is the case with all the Tennessee State Parks we've visited, this one is outstanding. It is very obvious that the state takes a lot of pride in their state parks. Everyone we have visited is first class.
David Crockett State Park was dedicated in 1959, in honor of one of Tennessee's most famous native sons.
In 1817 David Crockett move into this area and established a homestead. As the community was quickly developing, he stepped in as a founding member of Lawrence County. He served terms as a Justice of the Peace and a County Commissioner. In 1819, he established diversified business ventures consisting of a gristmill, powder mill and distillery along the bank of Shoal Creek.
Moving from local politics into the state legislature, he began serving his first term as State Representative in 1821. During this time a flood washed all three business operations away. Financial difficulties from this loss caused him to sell of his land and holding to pay off his debts, and moved to West Tennessee where he was elected to Congress.
He died at the Alamo Mission in 1836 while aiding the Texans in their fight for independence from Mexico.
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| Crockett Falls. Although small, it is beautiful |
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We've heard from Anna several times. She is in Beaufort this week, along with her mother, Candace, Candace's mother, Beth, and one of her friends along with Evan and one of his friends. They're staying at the house and as Anna states it, "we're playing tourist in Beaufort" because Mimi and Papa aren't here.
Two down! We’ve left
behind North Carolina and Tennessee and are in Arkansas (just a little
ways). We’ve got Oklahoma, Kansas,
Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana and I don’t know what else.
We’ve stumbled into a beautiful State Park just East of
Memphis, Village Creek State Park. It is
truly amazing some of the State Parks we’ve come across in our travels – some
equaling or exceeding some of the finest resorts we’ve visited, just not as
crowded. Maybe they don’t have all the
fancy amenities (that that doesn’t really appeal to us). This 7,000 acre park has two nice lakes, and
equestrian center with stables (for those who like horses), kayaks, boats,
fishing, 33 miles of trails for hiking and mountain biking, a 27 hole golf
course, grocery store, museum, 10 1, 2 and 3 bedroom cabins fully furnished, tennis
courts, and 96 RV sites.
There are three sets of stables for horses
Village Creek State Park is located in east-central Arkansas
just 50 miles west of Memphis. Pioneer
settlers moved into the area during the early 1800’s. In 1821, Congress authorized construction of
the Old Military Road. Completed in 1929,
it provided the first real access to the area for settlers. It became a major route for Indian Removal
for Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and 600 Cherokees between 1832 and 1850.
The 7,000 acres comprising the park are situated entirely
upon an unusual geologic formation called Crowley’s Ridge. Covering most of this rugged terrain is a
mixed hardwood forest, which differs distinctly from any other area of
Arkansas.
Thursday, July 14
I had picked Hot Springs National Park some time back as a
potential stopping point, and today we are here. I wasn’t sure what to expect. The park is actually partially located in
downtown Hot Springs, which in itself is rather unusual for a National
Park. It’s also a rather small Park (one
of the rangers told me it is the smallest land mass of any park in the county).
Hot Springs Downtown
Hot Springs has been a destination for tourists and those
seeking the benefits of the warm waters for hundreds of years. In the late 1800’s, it became a rather posh
resort, bringing many who were looking for the health benefits of the mineral
laden water. Bathhouses sprouted and
became very opulent. Today, many of the
remaining bathhouses are a part of the National Park and are used as museums,
park headquarter, a couple of functioning bathhouses, and a craft beer brewery
(extremely unusual in a National Park.
In fact, according to one of the docents, it is the only one in the
system) - and they have good beer – I
tried it. May go back for more.
This bath house (6 of them in a row) are part of Hot Springs National Park
Yep! I tried several of the beers. The brewing vats are in the background
The bath houses are truly opulent
Late this afternoon we had a horrific thunderstorm with
strong winds and lightening. We arrived
back from downtown about 1 minute before it hit. Just after we got the awnings retracted
(Lesson: Never leave the awning out when
we are gone), it hit with 50+ mph winds and driving rain. As we started to pull the slides in, a big
gust hit and messed up one of our canvas slide toppers.
After the storm
Almost immediately, the power in the RV Park
(Catherine’s Landing RV Resort) went out, along with our battery charging
system.
A river runs by the park and the water source comes from the bottom of a reservoir upstream a mile or so. The water temperature is around 69 degrees. The cold water combined with 90+ degree temperatures creates a fog on the river
A fishing boat emerges from the fog
So, we spent the night without power. Thankfully it was cool - and the 10,000 watt generator on the motor home works perfectly.
Friday, July 15
This morning we were up early trying to figure out what had
happened to our charging system. After
fretting for a while, Clara suggested I check the electric circuit breakers,
and sure enough, apparently the lightening had caused a surge and the breakers
controlling the electric system were tripped.
Then I start on the slide topper. Eventually, I am able to manually get it in,
but this isn’t satisfactory. After a few
calls, I find an independent RV Technician who lives about 30 miles away who
says he can fix it – next Tuesday. His
truck is broke down and he won’t be able to drive over until then. I suggest that I come and pick him up – and
he agrees. So after two 60 mile
round-trips, the awning is fixed. A long
day recovering from last nights storm.
We decide it is time to begin celebrating our upcoming 50th
wedding anniversary by going to a great restaurant – which serves seafood. I got catfish. It was good.
Saturday, July 16
We had considered staying one more day in Hot Springs because we had lost yesterday to storm recovery. However, there still is no power at the RV Park and I'm tired of having to run the generator to keep the motor home cool.
So we head North to Fort Smith, Arkansas and Fort Chaffee. Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center is an Army National Guard installation in western Arkansas, adjacent to the city of Fort Smith. Established as Camp Chaffee in 1941, renamed to Fort Chaffee in 1956, Fort Chaffee has served as a United States Army base, training camp, prisoner-of-war camp, and refugee camp. The base was closed following the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission round. Since that time, the Arkansas National Guard has been using 66,000 acres as a training facility. The State of Arkansas received 6000 acres, about half of which have been redeveloped as of 2014.
Our GPS systems (we generally have two set for our destination when traveling) were not in agreement for the entire trip. They were set on the same destination, but there was 45 minutes difference between the arrival times. That should have been a clue of some sort. We followed Google Maps GPS - right to a street that dead ended at a wire fence. We had to disconnect the car to get turned around. Then for about thirty minutes we drove around in the car trying to find the base entry. In fact at one point we could see the RV's in the RV Park, but couldn't figure out how to get to it. Finally, we found the right place to get on base and to the RV Park. The Park is located on a hill in the middle of the base. A nice park, but not much around. I did go to the gym for a mild workout, but no pool.
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