Rain and Hot Springs

Hello! As this is being published we should be on our last leg of this week’s journey. We are heading out from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Shawnee, Oklahoma.

It has been a rainy week and the rain seemed to be following us. We have been in 4 states: North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas and today we hope to be in Oklahoma. We’ve made overnight stops in Asheville, NC (boondocked in a very slanted Walmart lot,) Knoxville, TN (another Walmart) Dickson, TN (Cracker Barrel,) Memphis, TN (T.O. Fuller State Park,) Little Rock Arkansas (AFB Famcamp) and finally Hot Springs, Arkansas (Treasure Isle RV Park, for a 2 night stay.)

Mark did his best to try to salvage this 15 year old umbrella but unfortunately it bit the dust! Luckily we have a couple of back-ups ????.

We drove in the rain several days which added a little stress and slowed us down a bit but that’s ok – this isn’t a race. We witnessed a pretty bad accident in Dickson. We were strongly advised not to stay at the first Knoxville Walmart (advice given by the manager) “because it gets a little unsafe at night” so we found a better one down the road. We stopped short of a destination one day because of the torrential rain. But then, any excuse to stay at a Cracker Barrel…

Another day we visited a Bass Pro lot (didn’t feel right) and a Cracker Barrel lot (too small for our rig) before heading to T.O. Fuller State Park in Memphis where we stayed one night.

T.O. Fuller State Park is a really pretty, well maintained park. We wondered about it as we were driving through some not-so-great neighborhoods to get there. Once we arrived it was awesome- hidden away in the trees, beautiful sites and fairly level. A nice little oasis in the middle of Memphis, Tennessee.

The next day we were happy to see Little Rock Air Force Base and the Fam Camp there.

It was a nice stop on our first sunny travel day of the week.

Little Rock Fam Camp is a no-reservation, full hook-up, 14 day max-stay camp. The sites were paved and level and for $15 a night – a real bargain. We wished we could stay longer but we did hike Nubbin Ridge Nature Trail before we left the next morning.

While hooking up to leave Little Rock we found this guy hiding under our leveling blocks…NO HITCHHIKERS!

We headed out Wednesday morning for Hot Springs, Arkansas. We had reservations for Treasure Isle RV Campground for 2 nights. It was only 80 miles from Little Rock so a short travel day too. Treasure Isle participates in Passport America and we enjoyed a PA discount of $17.50 a night. Can I just say Passport America may have been one of our best decisions going into this new lifestyle.

We made reservations for a bath, massage and pool at Quapaw Bath house in Hot Springs. Quapaw Bath house and Spa is one of several bath houses on “Bath House Row” in Hot Springs National Park. It is a more modern, updated version compared to Buckstaff which is also open but has been left much as it was in its original days.

After a couples’ bath in hot mineral spring water, Mark got his massage and I sat in the hot spring pool area. We then toured the Bath house row area of Hot Springs National Park.

We saw lots of interesting artwork, from wall murals to large statues.

There was also a nice trail to walk on.

We took a self-guided tour of the old Fordyce Bath House and learned a lot about the history of the area. They take their water and their baths seriously! Fordyce is no longer open for bathing but is now a National Park visitor center.

People bring empty jugs and water bottles to the mineral water fountains in Hot Springs to fill them up!

Many of the old Bath Houses have different uses now. Superior Bath house is now a restaurant serving craft beer and root beer made with the Hot Springs’ thermal spring water. We really enjoyed our time in Arkansas and hope to return at some point in our journeys.

Looking ahead, we are hoping to get to our “home state” of South Dakota by the end of October. They have already had their first snow of the year but we need to get our South Dakota drivers licenses. We then plan to go somewhere warm. We aren’t sure exactly where yet but you can read about it here!