Time for an Update!

When we left Natchez, we were less than two miles from an entrance to Natchez Trace Parkway. We enjoy traveling along the parkway as no commercial vehicles are allowed and the speed limit is 50 mph. The scenery is great and the wildflowers are in bloom.

We made two stops, one at Mount Locust--an old stand from when The Trace was a booming trail. It is one of the oldest buildings still standing along the historic trail. The front porch has new floorboards, but the main room (which was the original house) has the flooring from 1780!From Mount Locust we drove a short distance to Bullen Creek where there is a nature trail. After walking the trail, we continued along The Trace to Port Gibson on US61 where we exited and began our drive to southeastern Arkansas. Of course we stopped at the Wal-Mart in Vicksburg to get a few supplies before getting on I20 for a short drive to US 65 which was our route to our next campground.
US 65 is The Great River Road--it parallels the Mississippi River north from Louisiana into Arkansas. Once in Arkansas we looked for a place to pull over so we could get out and stretch our legs. That place was the welcome center in Lake Village, Arkansas. We were able to get information about the places we would visit before reaching Siloam Springs.

Once on the road again, we drove until we were just outside Pine Bluff. Rising Star COE Campground would be our home base for the next three days.
We were lucky to get a waterfront site. We thought the campground would fill for the weekend, but it didn't come close! Most of the waterfront sites filled, but not the wooded section!
Bob downloaded some geocaches southeast of Pine Bluff for to find and Friday morning we were off to explore via caches. Our last stop for caching was a nature park along Bayou Bartholomew. It was a great trail that wandered along one of the longest bayous.
We found most of the caches we were searching for and headed back to the rv for a relaxing evening. We couldn't ask for a better day or site.Saturday morning we headed north of Pine Bluff to search for caches. The search led us to the
entrance of Port of Pine Bluff.
From there we visited two more Corps of Engineer recreation areas. Then on to a regional park along the Arkansas River where we ate a picnic lunch before backtracking to the Railroad Museum. It was in an old building where locomotives were once built and repaired. Inside were several locomotives and train cars that we could explore. This sleeping car reminded Bob and I of the movie Some Like it Hot with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.
This car was a guard car complete. Of course we took picture after picture, but unfortunately the camera went dead about halfway through the museum.
So you will have to guess what the building and the locomotives looked!

Sunday was another travel day and we were headed to a campground west of Hot Springs, AR.