Are You Still Thinking Hmmmmm?

 Okay, you've had a while to ponder the place names we have seen so far on our trip. Now I must add another to the list. Toad Suck Ferry, Arkansas. That's correct, Toad Suck Ferry. We drove from Grenada Lake, MS, to Toad Suck Ferry. Along the way we passed Leland, MS which claims to be the home of Kermit the Frog. It is the boyhood home of Jim Henson. Also in Mississippi we passed BB King's museum and the Cotton Capitol of the World!

 

 We had a great site overlooking the Arkansas River.

  

We had a great view of the bridge and the lock. The bridge opened in 1970. Before that, there was a ferry to carry people across the Arkansas River from Conway to Toad Suck. By the way, Toad Suck was named for the saloon which stood on the south bank of the river.

 While staying at Toad Suck, we found a few geocaches, but the weather was so hot that it was not fun!

From Toad Suck we continued on our way to Siloam Springs, Arkansas, to visit Bob's parents. We also needed to recoup our budget to get it back to $75 a day. It just so happened that on our last day in Siloam we helped Bob's mom celebrate her 82nd birthday!

From Siloam Springs it was time to continue our journey. More to come soon!

Has It Really Been a Year?

Actually, it has been more than a year since our last post. It was a busy, busy year. We left Huntsville due to a family emergency and kept busy for the rest of the year. Now I believe I hear Willie Nelson in the background....is that our theme song...."On the Road Again?" Why I believe it is! Yes, Bob and I are on the road.


We took a quick trip to St. Augustine to make sure the rv had no surprises for us. While camped at Anastasia State Park, our neighbors came to spend the day.

  Castillo de San Marcos was our destination. The volunteers shot the cannon as we watched from a safe distance.

After touring the fort we wanted a bite to eat. As we left the parking lot to find a place, the bottom fell out of the sky. Bob drove toward the campground, but we were able to find a place to eat near the park. All but Bob got completely soaked as we hunted the entrance to Panama Hatties. Jim finally knocked on a locked door and someone let us enter.  Bob parked and followed us a moment later.

The weather at St. Augustine helped us find a leak in the slide-out. When we returned home, Bob used eternabond to cover every suspicious nook and cranny on the top of the slide. I sure hope that fixed the leak. I guess we will find out during our next rainstorm.

Saturday, September 1, we set out for our adventure. There are not many ways to travel from Florida to Arkansas that we have not already explored. So once again we set out driving north on US 17, turned west on FL 40 to FL 326 and then onto I-75 north to our first stop--Suwanee River State Park near Live Oak, Fl.

 The plan was to spend two nights at this park (holiday weekend and all) before continuing our journey. One of the things we were looking forward to was hiking the trails. After setting up camp, we did just that, hiked the Standing Rock Trail. Along the trail I spotted this paper wasp nest.

 Then of course there was the namesake of the trail, Standing Rock. We have been to the park in years with normal rainfall, and the rock appears to rise out of the water. Due to a drought for most of this year, you can see the base of the rock and how it connects to the bank.

 Since we were at the park for two days we decided to find some geocaches. It has been too hot this summer to do any near home (and it was still too hot). On a previous trip we visited Falmouth Springs. The water was so low you couldn't tell it was a spring! This time there was a little more water.

 We found the geocache and continued on our way. It was so hot we decided to drive for some others, no hiking!

 As usual when we return to our camp site, Bob and I both say "We're home!"

 Monday morning we packed our belongings and headed to one of my favorite campgrounds. It is located west of Coffeeville, Alabama. It is Service Corps of Engineer Campground. The location is far from any town and we know it is time to turn in to the entrance when we see the War-Bama Club. The sites we like are pull-throughs next to the Black Warrior-Tombigbee Waterway.

Besides being a very peaceful place to relax after a long day of driving, it is also a place to observe tub boats pushing barges along the waterway. This tug is pushing empty barges north along the waterway. On foggy nights, tugs with their barges pull over across from the campground to wait for the fog to lift as there is a sharp turn about a half mile from the campground.

As most of you know, we don't like to travel more than 150-200 miles a day. But, since we have traveled this route many times before, we have picked up the pace to 350 miles a day. We stayed at Service for 2 nights before continuing on our way. Gas prices aren't helping our budget so we need to get to our destination in Arkansas where we can lay low for a week to get our average daily expenditures below $75.

From Service we went west to Waynesboro, Mississippi where we headed north to Grenada Lake, Mississippi.  Bob researched more Corps of Engineers campgrounds and found that North Abutment Park at Grenada Lake got great reviews. The drive was long, but well worth it. We set up camp and drove the scenic loop to explore the area. As we were leaving a primitive campground loop Bob spotted this fawn. It tried to jump the log you see just behind it and couldn't clear it so it stopped to watch us--and we stopped to watch it to see what would happen. The fawn continued to watch until after we snapped the photo and started to drive away. We never saw the mother deer, but knew she had to be some where near by.

 Our campsite at Grenada Lake was on a small fishing lake just off the big lake. Once again, the heat prevented us from doing much hiking. I have to say we are tired of 100+ degree weather!

 Now as Bob and I were driving this trip we noticed several things. The first and most obvious was a nuisance. Yes, a nuisance. Not only does Florida have love bugs in September, but southern Georgia and Alabama also have those nasty little creatures. At our campsites in Florida and Alabama we had to wash the front of the motorhome to make sure it was still white. Another thing we noticed were the names of places that make us go, "Hmmmmm?"  Each time we travel US 84 through south Georgia we drive through Climax. We have traveled US 84 many times and this is the first time we noticed a creek in Alabama--Murder Creek. There was also Burnt Corn, Alabama, Issa Bena, Mississippi and Hot Coffee, Mississippi. Just some names to ponder until my next post.

Huntsville, Alabama

Since we were traveling on Sunday, we weren't sure if the office was open at Redstone Arsenal--we thought it should be, but no one answered the phone. Everyone recommends reservations for the campground and we didn't have them. We tried calling 3 times during a two hour period. Then we decided to drive by the Outdoor Rec Center to find out about a site. To our amazement, it was open and manned by 3 people! We were able to get a site for a week. Our last trip to Huntsville was during Superbowl Weekend and it was COLD! This trip we wanted to visit as much of the area as possible without melting--the temps are still in the 90's.

After setting up we walked to the commissary and exchange to see if there was anything we couldn't live without--nothing jumped at us so we went back to plan our week.
 
Monday the temp was supposed to stay in the upper 80's! Imagine that, a day we could possibly hike without dissolving in pools of sweat! Our choice for exploration was Monte Sano State Park which overlooks the area east of Huntsville.

The park was once a resort and sanatorium--the name means Mountain of Health. After a trip to the camp store, we headed for the Japanese Garden.

According to brochures, the garden was built by a volunteer and often houses tea ceremonies.

Our next adventure was to hike North Plateau Loop which would afford us some gorgeous vistas at various overlooks. Of  course, we were able to find a few geocaches along the way.

 As we hiked, we saw a sign for Von Braun Observatory so we detoured to take a look.

 The planetarium operates two Saturdays a month.

And yes, part of the park was built by CCC workers during the 1930-40's. This building overlooks the west part of the park.

We enjoyed our hike and the vistas of the area. We were glad that the sky remained overcast so the heat was bearable.

After enjoying a picnic lunch, we headed back to Redstone Arsenal to plan the rest of our week.

Surprises in Corinth, Mississippi

Next stop, Corinth, Mississippi. Bob researched places to stay and came up with Corinth RV Park which is a Passport America campground. It is also home to Corinth Gun Club. We knew we wanted to tour Shiloh Battlefield again so we decided to stay 2 nights in Corinth.

After making our way through Memphis--did I mention we hate traffic, we had a short trip to Corinth. We followed clouds most of the way with only a few raindrops daring to hit our bug-filled windshield. At least the temperature didn't go above 100 degrees!

We found the rv park with no trouble and picked out a pull through space. There were a few other campers, but not enough to limit our choice of spaces.

After setting up and resting for a bit we drove into Corinth. We made a quick trip to the visitor center. We marked it on our GPS as it would be a good overnight stopping place in cooler weather.

For a small town, Corinth has many sightseeing opportunities. National Park Service operates Civil War Interpretive Center. There is a Coca Cola Museum, Contraband Camp, Crossroads Museum, and an antebellum house just to name a few attractions. We took some brochures to plan our visit. As we left the visitor center, we drove around town to get our bearings.

On our way back to the rv park we stopped for gas next to 'The Slugburger Cafe.' The name definitely caught our attention. It seems that when ordering a burger in Corinth, one needs to specify beef or slugburger! Seems there is even a slugburger festival every year.

The next morning we started our visit at Civil War Interpretive Center.

The center was interesting and had many artifacts. The fountain behind the center had blocks representing battles. The larger the block, the more casualties suffered in the battle.

From the center, we drove north to visit Shiloh National Military Park. We visited in 2009, but Bob wanted to visit again. This time we just took a quick driving tour of the battlefield.

We decided to splurge and have lunch at a local restaurant with some historical interest--Catfish Hotel .  We enjoyed our lunch, but had much more than we should have eaten. And no, we didn't eat catfish, although the plates that went to other tables looked delicious. Bob and I both had shrimp--fried for him and stuffed for me.

On the drive home we did some geocaching. There were caches at or near many of civil war sites along the road.

We enjoyed our visit to Corinth and will probably visit again someday as we only did a portion of the sightseeing available.

The next morning we packed the rv and headed for Huntsville, Alabama. Our plan was to stay at Redstone Arsenal.

Back to Siloam Springs

Bob and I stayed at Lake Eufalula State Park for another night after Bobby and Cathy left for Dallas. We enjoyed our site by the lake.

We also did a little geocaching while we were there. We had some travel bugs we needed to drop off so they could continue their journeys.

The next day we headed the rv north again toward Siloam Springs. On another trip we passed Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, so this time we decided to stop. This was a bakery at the fort. It is still used in cooler months.

 

Have I mentioned that this is the hottest weather we have experienced in years? Well, it reminds us of one our first trips in the Windsport when we stopped at Montgomery and Mobile, Alabama and it was miserable hot. When we got home, we had the windows tinted and awnings installed over each window!

The day we visited Fort Gibson the sky looked ominous and as we walked to the main fort, it began to rain. We waited out the rain in the fort.

From Fort Gibson we took the scenic route along the Illinois River back to Siloam. It continued to rain for most of the trip. I think it was only the second rainstorm during the month we have been on the road.

Once back to Siloam, Bob and his dad played golf. They also helped a friend with her sprinkler system. That turned out to be a major job.

Dot and I shopped and looked for clothes for our cruise in October.

Of  course, we visited the casino a few times while we were there.

Once we got back on the road, the next stop was Little Rock AFB. Bob found some caches near Camping World so after we did some shopping, we went caching. We found 53 along Route 70. When we got back to the rv we realized that there were over 150 caches along Route 70---we could've broken our one day record! But, alas, we had a flat tire on the CRV. The next day was spent at Sam's waiting for it to be repaired.

After spending an extra day at the base, it was time to move on to Corinth,Mississippi. Bob wanted to tour Shiloh Battlefield again and Corinth was a convenient stop.

Branson and Silver Dollar City

Bob, Bobby, Cathy, Chris, DeAnna and I were ready for Branson. The drive was a little over 2 hours. We took the scenic route to our campground which meant we drove over Table Rock Lake Dam.

We were scheduled for 2 nights at Ozark Country Campground. We purchased one day tickets for Silver Dollar City after 3 p.m. so our second day's entry was free.

It was so hot, all the kids wanted to do was stay in the Geyser Gulch play area.

We did ride some of the rides in the Exposition area before watching the evening show at the amphitheater.

 Once again it was a great show! We could tell the economy is down because the crowds were smaller than usual at Silver Dollar City. The evening show is usually packed, but the night we attended  empty seats were the norm.

The next day we had to wait at the park entrance for the others to arrive. Great Grandpa Bob dropped Bobby, Paula, Donna, Cathy, and Great Grandma Dot at a tram stop before parking. Unfortunately, he couldn't park in that area and rode a different tram. The stop with everyone was not frequented often by trams!

 One of our first stops was River Adventure. Everyone got soaked!

 After a few other rides the kids wanted to return to Geyser Gulch.

They had a great time, but the heat was something else. We decided to return to the campground and spend the rest of the afternoon in the pool!

The next morning (Monday) we packed our stuff and headed back to Siloam Springs so Bobby and Cathy could get their car. We ate lunch, then headed south to Lake Eufaula State Park near Checotah, Oklahoma. Cathy's parents were expecting them to arrive on Tuesday in Keller, TX.

Once again, signs of the bad economy and the heat were rampant. The park was empty! One other camper came in our first night--that meant 2 of 100+ sites were occupied.  We had a great site overlooking the water.

Tuesday morning, we said goodbye to Bobby, Cathy and the kids after some fooling around.....

and some photo sessions!

Bob and I look forward to seeing Cathy and the kids next fall!

Siloam Springs and the Grandkids!

Bob and I arrived just after Bobby, Cathy and the grandkids! Boy, have they grown in the last year since we left them in Washington state! 

After many hugs and kisses, it was time to play. Bob and I took Chris and DeAnna to the local playground. They had been traveling for 4 days!

The next day we took them to Natural Falls State Park in Oklahoma. For those of you who aren't familiar with the area, the end of Bob and Dot's street is the Oklahoma state line. Natural Falls is six miles from their house. There is a nice waterfall--even during a drought since the water is now pumped from the pool to the top of the falls. 

It is also the site where the film "Where the Red Fern Grows" was filmed.

 From the waterfall, we hiked down to the lake and threw a few rocks.

After an enjoyable hike to the falls and the lake, it was time to check out the playground.


Chris and DeAnna had a great time.DeAnna likes to hang upside down.

Chris clowned around in the green tube going from one slide to the other.

Bob took a rest under a nearby tree as the kids played.

Did I mention lately that it is hot? Well, most days the thermometer has hit 99 and above and it is too hot to do much outdoors. 


Our next adventure is a trip to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO.