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?

Stepping South One Week at a Time: Hot Springs, Arkansas

Since August we've been "dancing" diagonally across the country from Montana toward our destination this winter at The Great Outdoors in Florida.  We don't really have a repeating annual pattern other than generally north in the summer and south in the winter.  Sometimes we take the short slide straight north or south, and other times we take the long crossing from corner to opposite corner. As we most often try to, we're taking it slow, driving a couple of hours, often stopping for a week at a time at locations along the way. Some are simply the right distance from the last stop, and may not be particularly exciting, while others are "hot spots" like Hot Springs, Arkansas. 

This is our second visit to Hot Springs. The first was on our RV honeymoon in the tiny rented Cruise America in '09-'10. We stopped for one night on our midwinter rush to get to California. The weather was cold, wet and dreary and Hot Springs looked old, grey, funky and forlorn, but our friends Lynn and Glenn love it, so we thought we'd give it a second chance.

Well guess what, Hot Springs was cold, wet, dreary and still looked old, grey, funky and forlorn. (Sorry Hot Springs, I just had to say it.) 

On the first night I went to the Maxwell McBlade Theater of Magic. Don't know what got into me, but I just wanted a change of routine. Like Hot Springs, it was funny, funky and a little forlorn. An appropriate experience for Halloween. In fact, I'd say that second to New Orleans, Hot Springs might be the most perfect location to spend Halloween. It's historical and mysterious, with a lot of old and/or abandoned buildings perfect for haunting fantasies.  In fact my favorite thing about that evening was wandering Central Ave, getting a glass of wine and an ice cream cone (not together) and looking at all the Halloween decorations in the funky downtown store windows. Spooky fun. 

Why am I wandering the streets alone, you ask? Well, this is football season and Rick's Patriots are doing great, so he's really into it. Me, not so much. That leaves me with plenty of time to explore and adventure on my own.  In addition to the magic show, I also indulged at the Quapaw Baths and Spa on historical Bath House Row in Hot Springs National Park. My indulgence included a private 20 minute steamy aromatherapy bath and a 50 minute massage. (Both were lovely, but there was an awkward and poorly timed 40 minute wait between them, sitting in a bathrobe in a lounge/waiting area. No explanation given. If you go, check the timing of your services.) I also did a little personal and Christmas shopping in the chain stores just south of town. And got a haircut. That was kind of fun. 

In all fairness, I know some of our impressions were due to the rainy weather, and we did have a couple of sunny days that perked up our opinion of the place, just a bit.  The sunnier perspective may have also been because on those two days we didn't go downtown to the historic bath house district, but spent them outdoors in the beautiful natural areas that surround Hot Springs. (There, does that make up for dissing it earlier?)

On our first sunny day we went to the University of Arkansas' Garven Woodland Garden, a first class, scrupulously maintained and developed garden on the shores of Lake Hamilton.  

View of Lake Hamilton from Woodland Loop

The garden was created by Verna Cook Garven who almost single-handedly designed and implemented this gorgeous place and then donated it to the University upon her passing.  It's a shaded garden, so it's a cooling break from the humid Arkansas heat that surprised us after the chilly rain we'd been having.  Despite the deep shade, there are colorful plantings and great ideas for gardeners similarly sun challenged.

Seasonal mum planting

Fall annual plantings

The Gardens are preparing for their holiday light display, which looks like it will be glorious. It starts around Thanksgiving. Wish we were going to be here for that.

Blue lights running down the streams and waterfalls 

Koi pond with matching light sculpture

Fairy Garden

Miniature train display

There are themed sections of the Gardens, including a Japanese garden and a children's garden. We crossed a few architecturally stunning bridges as well.

Full Moon Bridge

Floating Cloud Bridge

Here's one Honey wouldn't cross. Just too wide a gap to jump.  Yes! They allow leashed dogs, for a $5.00 admission fee, which was the first we've encountered. We thought it was reasonable.  

We had a great lunch at the Chipmunk Cafe. This is not your typical attraction food concession. This was really good food. I'd absolutely recommend eating there when you visit, and I'm not just saying this to fill space. (Try the Grilled Chicken Raspberry Chipotle Sandwich. You will not be sorry.)

This guy kept us company during lunch. 

The grand finale of the visit was the Anthony Chapel, designed by Arkansas architect Maurice Jennings.  It is reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's style, but we thought even better.  

It is beautifully integrated with it's wooded surroundings. 

Constructed completely of wood and glass above the stone foundation, not only does it let the light and views of the trees in, it reflects the images of the trees in the glass...

...and reflects the shapes of the trunks and branches in its structures.

We thought it was architectural perfection, down to the last detail.

The Chapel is part of a five building complex that is popular for weddings. We could certainly understand why.

The Anthony Family Trust Carillon

While here in Hot Springs we are parked at Catherine's Landing, one of the RVC Outdoor Destinations.  RVC is not an ownership park, it's just a corporate chain of RV parks that are very nice. They have a modern feel to all the facilities, rather than the more traditional rustic feel we encounter at so many RV parks. We got a nice long, level, concrete, full hook-up pull-through down by the river.

Site 84 at Catherine's Landing

What I'm calling the river is actually part of Lake Catherine, created by damming the Ouachita River. The park is nicely situated on the river, with a marina and boats for rent, and is surrounded by many many acres of woods and fields with a very long trail winding through them for comfortable hiking and dog walking close to home. They've got a beautiful saline pool and a nice fenced dog park. (Oh, there's a good dog park in Hot Springs as well, just a couple of miles up the road from here.)

Lake Catherine

There's lots of wildlife in the area, including many deer who frequent the dog park. Yes, inside the fenced dog park. They just jump in and out at their pleasure.

Some of the local wildlife

On our other nice day here we kayaked Lake Catherine in a leisurely manner up toward the dam and back. 

View of our rig from the river

More local wildlife along the river

We're wrapping up our stay here tomorrow and moving on to Little Rock. We'll be at the Downtown Riverside RV Park for our next week.  If you're there, let us know!

West Memphis, Arkansas: Tom Sawyer Mississippi Campground

I don't usually write too much about the campgrounds where we stay; there's just so much information out there describing and reviewing RV parks, that we don't think it's much of a contribution. (By the way, my favorite place to find campgrounds online is RV Park Reviews.)  This one is so unique though, that I thought it was worth noting.

Tom Sawyers Campground is right on the banks of the Mississippi, on the river side of the extensive levees that protect West Memphis, so it floods regularly. You can understand why the park has not developed its landscaping too much. There are three large sections, two on the river and one under the trees. The sites on the river are long and wide, many with concrete pads and all with full hook-ups. One section is for 5th wheels and the other for motorhomes, so that the hook-ups are on the correct side to have your picture window facing the river. Nice touch.

Everything in the park is set up to minimize damage when flooding occurs. Above you can see how the power box is built up on stilts. Below you'll see the laundry room, on the second floor of this little shed, with the 2011 high water mark indicated on the side.  (BTW, the laundry is brand new and FREE!)  There is a second laundry/bath house on wheels, so that it can be moved to higher ground. Smart. 

The park has a lot of open space, and since it's shoulder season, there are not many guests. That explains why there are almost no other RV's in these pictures, which were taken mid-week when we arrived to a near empty park. It did fill up a bit on the weekend, so that we had neighbors on either side. 

There is an extensive, well maintained, and wide trail system woven around the perimeter and interior of what must be at least 40 acres of property. This was my favorite part of the park. Great bird watching too. We saw a pair of pileated woodpeckers, lots of warblers and smaller woodpeckers, a clump of large white birds hanging out on the river (too far to ID, maybe swans), an American kestrel, a pair of red tail hawks, great blue herons and lots of killdeer. 

Here the trail goes up onto the nearby levee. 

There are three large ponds stocked with fish, and the river offers ever-changing scenery. Many barges and tugs of all sizes going by all day and night. The Mississippi is alive and well as a shipping corridor, for those of you from other parts of the country.

The park is just outside of West Memphis, which is not a city I'd recommend for any purpose, except that it could be a great commuting town into Memphis (if it weren't so depressed). It takes about 10 minutes to get across the river and into downtown Memphis from here. Easy-peasy for sight seeing.

Nice benches placed all along the river. Because of the great trails I was out walking or bike riding many times, and because of some great sunsets and a full moon, I was taking a lot of pictures too.

Rick says "Where the heck is she now?"

Addendum: There were many, many tornadoes in the midwest and mid south yesterday, just north of us, and it isn't even tornado season. Our hearts and prayers go out to all those who lost their homes or loved ones. It reminds us to be grateful again that we have had so few problems with the weather, as being in an RV does make one more vulnerable to extreme weather.