Busy day tomorrow-

Glad we are closer in to Little Rock than we thought-  Just 8 miles to the city.

Tomorrow I have:

A Trail of Tears stop
the Little Rock Central High National Park visit
The State Capitol for a stamp
The Douglas McArthur Museum
The Old state house museum
The Clinton Presidential Library
The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame
And then the Arkansas Inland Marine Museum

Ought to be a full day, but just about 45 miles of driving.

True roaming and weaving today....

Today was supposed to be a short hop up to Maumelle Lake.   Wrong. 

First off, decided to stop in at Baptist Medical Center, so Bette could have her labs for blood done.  Wrong.

They wouldn't honor the prescription from Florida, and said there were no independent labs in town.  

Bette was freaking, and serendipitously, I saw a Blue Cross Blue Shield office as we were heading back to the Wal Mart, where we had parked.  They said, sure, there's a LabCorp just down the road a bit.  Took us a bit to figure out it was in a 7 story Doctor's building, but when we did, presto, not only were they happy to do the tests, they have a system where you can get the results on line for free!   Slam Dunk.  Yay me. 


 

 

 



By now, it was 1130, so we were ready to head on up to Maumelle Lake.  WRONG!!!!!!

The GPS address that was on the web page was for the office for the park, which was 37 miles AWAY from the park.  So we had to double back, and did find the park, turns out we had driven right by it.  Note to self, now call and verify GPS address for everywhere we go. 

 

On the plus side, instead of being 37 miles out of town to come back in to play, I'm right across the river now.  May be able to cut down my touring to two days versus three.  

 

Nice place, been here before, 50 amp, water, no sewer, right across from a nice bathhouse, two rows over from the Arkansas River-  in the shade.  No TV again- poor Bette is missing her soaps. 

 

 

Tomorrow- Little Rock, and a plethora of stuff to do

Tomorrow is a short 80 miles or so up to Maumelle Lake COE along the banks of the Arkansas River, which we have stayed at before.  Be there for four days, and the list keeps getting longer of stuff to do.  Added some Arkansas Civil War stops, a couple of museums, Bette needs to get her regular blood work done, so it will be a busy time.  Looking forward to the Clinton Presidential Library, there is a submarine there, and the list goes on!

Lots of water tanks from the last couple of days......

Lots of interesting mixes of styles, paint schemes, and so forth.  Cheap fun. 

Second "tireman" of the trip

This interesting work of art was sort of out in a field near the Arkansas Post/Dumas Arkansas area, best as I can remember-  second one we saw that day, but couldn't get a shot of the first one.  Pretty clever.

 

Doc and done.

I was correct- it was a fairly nasty abscess-  which the Doc drained, and surface treated with an antibiotic, and the gave me scripts for an antibiotic and a pain pill and said I should be good as new in 48 hours.  Which is fine by me. 

Bette and I then headed downtown, and stopped off at the new temporary visitor's center and got stamps and a pin- didn't have a hiking medallion. 

As this was a revisit, and the skies were threatening, we made it a short tour, then headed over to Walgreen's to pick up my meds, and are back at the coach by lunchtime.  

Tomorrow, up to Little Rock Metro and Maumelle. 

Off to the dentist soon, then downtown, I hope.....

Luckily, I found a local dentist who was happy to have me come in at 10 this morning, can't beat that....  Has a new patient special to boot. 

Thank you, Dr Danny Haynes!  Hopefully, as I have self-diagnosed, it's just an abscess acting up again, and a Z-Pac will knock it out. 

Then, we will head downtown to the National Park, the Walk of Fame, the town Visitor's Center, and the Gangster Museum, and whatever else we can find. 

Also, changing up the trip a little over the next few days, got to looking at the map, and I'm now going to make the Buffalo River stops a day trip out of Rogers.  That way, I can go ahead and get to Russellville for the Trail of Tears stop, and then go ahead and go to Ft. Smith, which I was going to do as a day trip, then go on up to Rogers, well Lowell, actually. 

Lots of plans were added this morning too to Metro Little Rock, and to the Rogers area as well, since I now know about the Arkansas Civil War Passport program.  

Will also go to Wal Mart today, I reckon, to get medicine I might need, and some vittles. 

Beautiful weather today, it was actually pretty cool last night compared to what we have been having. 

A crooked trip over to Arkansas Post National Memorial

Again, since we were as close as we were going to get to this park, we made a 112 mile bee line for it today-  and parked the coach at the town of Dumas, Arkansas, about 16 miles away, and then I headed on over to the park, my 255th of 401. 

This park is about the Arkansas "Post", or trading post, that was around for perhaps 300 years or so, but then was abandoned-  and sadly, there is nothing here that says fort, or trading post, or anything, no ruins, just a nice movie, and some exhibits.  Did get a nice pin and hiking staff medallion though. 

After that, we headed another 112 miles or so over to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and luckily, found a beautiful site in the campground located within the park boundaries. 

50 amp, full hook up, 12.00 a night, thank you very much.  No TV, but that's a good thing.  Got the CD for Smetana in, and all is good.

Sadly, I think I have another one of my famous tooth abscesses,  and the pain is killing me.  For real.  Think I may try to get into a local dentist tomorrow to see if I can sweet talk them into an x-ray and a z-pak.  Almost certain that is what it is, the pain is identical to what I had at Aunt Skips two years ago. 

We have the whole day tomorrow to do Hot Springs, there is lots to do and see here, can't run Bette around all day, we have some chores to do too, post office, Wal Mart, the Park, and then we'll see what else. 

Then we are on to Maumelle (Little Rock) for a nice 4 day stay there.  Man this trip is the best yet!!!! 

Sniff, Sniff, bye to Julie and Lawrence

Sadly, our time in El Dorado is through for this visit.  We had a fabulous time,  we love those folks so much!!

Since the tire was no big deal, thank goodness, we decided to meet downtown at a wonderful place called House of Wylie.  Had a terrific egg sandwich, and downed several cups of coffee. 

Lots of hugs and handshakes later, we walked by another piece of downtown art,

Then, sadly, we headed out of town.  Hopefully, we'll see them in Florida next. 

Yay!!!!

Our pal Lawrence was on the spot this morning and got his pals at the tire store to show up first thing this morning at 0730- 

Notice the Commander, providing her usual close supervision- 

Anyway, turns out that the valve extension had worked itself loose, so there was a slow leak.  No damage to the tire, no nails, no replacement, he aired it up and was gone in 10 minutes...  Checked all the other tires and they were spot on. 

Bullet dodged!!!

So now, we will meet Julie and Lawrence for breakfast in town, then head on over to Dumas, Arkansas, drop the car, then I'll head on over to Arkansas Post, then we'll head on over to Hot Springs, hoping we can find a spot at the campground right there at the park- it's a first come first served, but we're hoping since it's a Monday, there will  be room. If not, we'll head a few miles down the road to Crystal Springs, COE. 

Monday is a toss up

First thing that has to happen tomorrow is that we'll hear back from either Coach Net or our local buddy Lawrence about getting the tire looked at, either have it pumped up, then drive to the tire shop to have it taken off and checked, and then make a decision about replacing it or all the rear drive tires, which would be 4.  I had planned to replace them anyway next season- so we'll see. 

I imagine we'll see Julie and Lawrence before we leave, we had an absolutely super visit this time, as we always do, and they are wonderful hosts.  We are so hoping they can make it over to see us in Florida. 

Then, depending on how the tire situation goes, we'll probably head on over to at least Dumas, Arkansas, park and unhook and then run over to Arkansas Post, which is kind of rural, then if we have time, we'll head on over to Hot Springs- 

It's a couple of hundred miles, all told, but haven't been to Arkansas Post, and it looks like this is the closest I'll be to if for a long while, so off we go. 

Downtown art work in El Dorado

Here in Julie's hometown, they have lots of sculpture displays, here are a couple:

We had a great dinner out last night at a nice restaurant downtown with Julie, their son, daughter, and his lady.   Wonderful night! 

Still waiting for the folks to come about the flat tire, looks like that will now happen early Monday morning.  Hope we can get someone local to come by.  I'll be talking to Lawrence about that this afternoon, as we will be heading over there for a Father's Day cookout. 

Travel plans are now a bit up in the air, we had planned to driver over to Gilette, Ark. to go to Arkansas Post NB, then over to Hot Springs, I had allowed two days at Hot Springs, so we may cut that down to one.  Then we are up to the greater Little Rock area for four days. 

Better this time at Clinton Birthplace

Did the 77 miles over to Hope, and had a much better visit this time to the Clinton Birthplace NHS.  The last time Dan and I were here, in 2008, it was just a state park-  with the addition of National Park Status, there is a much better and larger Visitor's Center,

and the tour of the house, which was Ranger led, was much much more informative, with many anecdotes about each of the rooms-  The young Ranger did a very good job. 

Spent about a half hour here, got two pins and a hiking medallion, they didn't have any postcards I liked. 

Then drove home, got the car washed, then got a call from Bette about the tire, so I delayed another visit I had planned. 

Saturday June 15- Over to " A town called Hope"

Slept in a bit today, and will head on over to Hope, Arkansas this morning to revisit the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace NHS.  I was here several years ago with my pal Dan Kingston when we were in Arkansas passing through from a trip to Texas, but the house wasn't a National Park then. 

It's a little over an hour over there, if I don't make any stops.  Around 75 miles or so. 

The Kingston Curse.......

In honor of my best pal Dan, we have been struck with the Kingston curse.  Seems poor Dan had more than his fair share of road mishaps on his RVing trips. 

I got a frantic call from Bette while I was out getting the car washed this afternoon that we had a flat rear driver's side outside tire.  Well, it's not totally flat, but at least has a leak of some kind. 

Called our Coach Net buddies, but it being Sat afternoon in a one horse town, as Julie calls it, they couldn't raise anybody-  They spread the calls out to cities 30-40 miles away with the same results, so they will try again in the morning- 

Lawrence is also working the phones for us to see if he can raise anyone locally to help out, that may be what we wind up doing, having someone come in Monday morning, air us up, then drive over to their business to see what the result will be. 

double crap. 

Evening out with the Waschkas

At 430 this afternoon, Bette and I headed over to Lawrence and Julie's-  they have a lovely home here in town-  Lawrence showed me his still to be completed railroad layout-  wow, will it be super!

We then went out to dinner at Mel's, a great little seafood place here in town.  It was great to see them again!!

Tomorrow, I'm off to Hope Arkansas to revisit the Bill Clinton Birthplace NHS, which is a new park for me, the last time I visited with Dan Kingston in 2008, it wasn't a National Park yet.

Today's water jugs

Bernice, LA.,  looks like it still has the Christmas decoration on it. 

Ruston, La, home of La Tech

Appropriately enough, Start, La. 



Junction City La.

Vicksburg, Miss, had this one before. 

212 Miles to El Dorado, but a crash to start......

Did the 212 miles over to El Dorado, Arkansas this morning, but unfortunately had a bit of a wreck on the way out of Le Fleurs Bluff State Park. 

I was trying to negotiate a very narrow exit gate, and didn't notice a big concrete gatepost on my right rear, and this is the result:

Damaged three  bays a bit, bent, think they can be repaired, scrapes are a bit deep, hope we don't have to repaint-  anyway, something for the boys at Alliance to fix.  Crap. 

It's beastly hot here, we'll rest up, and then join Julie and Lawrence for dinner tonight in town somewhere. 

Mississippi Governor's Mansion

Right in downtown, the Governor's Mansion is about 4 blocks or so from the Capitol.  It supposedly is the longest occupied governor's residence in the US.  It was being repaired, so I didn't do a house tour, or see if they had a gift store.