Warming up to Thanksgiving

In this life there are so many things, great and small, to be grateful for, and the approaching holidays have inspired me to think about them more often. Here are just a few of the things I've found myself feeling grateful for this past week.


The Clinton Presidential Park Bridge in Little Rock.

We stayed at the Downtown Riverside RV Park in North Little Rock, and this was the view from our window.  It was just a hop, skip and a jump to the bridge and across the Arkansas River to the Clinton Presidential Park. It made the city seem so much more accessible and friendly. The light show changed all night.

Dog parks.

Every day I'm grateful for dog parks. We frequented two nice ones in Little Rock: McArthur Park (in town and grassy) and Burns Park (across the river in North Little Rock and woodsy).  Then we discovered a spectacular one in Memphis: Shelby Farms Park, which was the dog park to beat all dog parks. One hundred acres!! On the day we visited that worked out to about 1 acre per dog. About eight ponds for swimming, long grass for rolling in, shade for cooling off and many other happy dogs and people to play with.


Gus's Fried Chicken in Memphis.

I am not a fried chicken person. I can go for years without even thinking about it. But when we hit Memphis, I couldn't help but think of Gus's. That's World Famous Gus's. For good reason. We ate at the original location a few years ago for the first time. This time I tried another location, but got the same great chicken. They are small places, tightly packed, friendly, busy, sometimes a little loud. They only serve chicken with a few sides. The chicken is crispy, perfectly cooked and moist inside, and just a bit spicy, so it has a kick. You gotta try it.


RV parks with walking trails. 

Lately this has become my favorite feature when selecting an RV Park, but it's really hard to discern before you get there. Lots of parks say they have walking trails, but that can mean anything, like saying they have a pet area and it's the size of a 3x5 card. But we've found some parks with serious walking trials, like Tom Sawyer's in West Memphis.  (Honey and I saw a fox last night during our walk on the trails.) It's great when the trails are mowed and pass through a variety of landscapes. A couple of other parks with great walking trails are Catherine's Landing in Hot Springs and The Nugget RV Park in St. Regis Montana.

Catherine's Landing's Trail

Free Radio

Remember when all television and radio used to be free?  Boy it's been a long time since I watched free TV. But I listen to free radio all the time. I love the local stations for the community news and weather (especially fires, flooding and tornadoes), what's happening (rodeos, farmer's markets and football games), what's important (like corn, soy bean and pork belly prices), and what kind of music they like (country, rap or mariachi). Thank you free radio.


What were you feeling grateful for this week?