Iron Mountain / Hot Springs

September 21, 2020

We hook up the RV to move on toward Hot Springs, Arkansas and find that we have a tail light out.  It is a strange plug, but we decided to check WalMart and see if they had one.  They did - I was so glad! I was really surprised and a little aprehensive about pulling the rig into an auto parts parking lot.

On the road near Conway, Arkansas we passed a sign for Toad Suck National Park.  Really, who names a park that. It is a Army Corps of Engineers Park!  The story is that there was a ferry that crossed the Arkansas River at that area and that name came from the bar on one side of the river that the men would go to and suck on a bottle so long they swole up like a toad.  LOL.

We are staying near Hot Springs at Iron Mountain our first COE park. We really love the place. The site we reserved on line was so unlevel that we couldn't level the trailer so we had to move across the street.  But that was the only bad thing.  The sites are very wooded and spaced well apart, but there were only about five campers in our loop anyway, so we were good.  They only have power, no sewer or water.  Can you believe we ran out of water on day two.  We were using the shower facilities at the park too. I just wash too many dishes I suppose. We went to WalMart and bought a tub, filled it with water and put it in the tank for the last day, and as we were checking a water spicket by the bath house we noticed a motor home that came in that morning connected to water, sewer, and power at that site.  We had no idea any of them had full hookups and checked the website.  They only list this site as having water and electric, not sewer, but there it was.  We could have pulled in there!!!  

We spent Saturday in Hot Springs. I had never been there.  The down town area was pretty busy. We tried to go to the Superior Bathhouse Brewery but there was a waiting list the whole day.  So we found the Bath House Row Winery.  They had only three dry wines, but they were all really good.  We actually bought the Merlot and the Chardonney.  But we also ran into the Argentinian Coffee and Wine Bar. They have a wall of wine and you fill your own glass and they keep track with a card you insert into the wall.  We did this in Pagosa Springs, but they cut me off at 16 oz.  This place let me decide when I was finished drinking.  Great wine and I even had a baked empanada there with fresh chimichurri.  Delicious!  I noticed in the hallway to the patio they had an oxygen bar and next to the wine wall there are water massagers you lay down in. Interesting place.  Then we took a hike up the stairs to the Hot Spring and then up the trail to the tower overlooking the town.  It was a really steep path but only about a half a mile. We did not take that one down.  We took a longer less steep trail back for safety. We get to the top and they have a store beneath the tower and there is a line of about thirty people waiting to go up to the top of the tower.  They had stairs, but they all wanted the elevator.  I dont think I could have made the stairs either. Dennis said we could do it, we took some stairs up the Eiffel Tower!  But no. Also, they wanted $8 to go up the tower.  They must be crazy.

This is the brewery with the waiting list.  

Love these old bath house buildings.

 

Being in the woods again we tried to find the trails this park has and never could find any of the trail heads.  I am not sure they maintain the trails here like they did in the last area we stayed.

We had out first camp fire here.  We gathered the wood and Dennis built a beautiful fire.  We stayed outside and watched it and called a couple of friends and had a great time.  About 10:30 I decided we should pour water on the fire and get to bed.  Dennis said he would stay with it until it burned down and I went on to bed.  The next morning I see Dennis has a big goose egg and a pretty good cut on his head.  He tripped over the fire grate that was flipped up on the fire ring and fell into the weeds.  Poor guy.

Next destination will be a week in the Texarkana area where we will check in on Dennis' family.

Until then.

Spending time in Arkansas - The Natural State

 September 13, 2020

We pulled into the Ozark Mountains and Shirley, Arkansas pretty early on Sunday.  We pulled into the park, Golden Pond, about 12:00 and the owners were still at church.  They pulled in shortly and we got all settled.

After our busy time in Branson we decided to lay low on Monday and stayed home.  We walked around the park and it is a pretty nice place.  The pool is above ground, and the owner has rigged up a wood burning heater.  We are in Arkansas, remember?  They have a very soothing waterfall area with a nice love seat.  This is all beside the chicken pen and goat / dog pen.  We walked over to the pond and they even have a duck house with several ducks around.  The owners are wonderful and the staff is as well.  They have a restaurant here on the premises that they have closed due to covid, but will reopen on Saturday, after we leave on Friday.  Just our luck.

We took off to do some hiking Tuesday and Wednesday and found some beautiful sites.  The first trail we took is called Indian Rock Cave Nature Trail.  It has a cave that Indians really lived in and there are actually two bodies buried in the cave.  As we walked the trail there are several other caves as well and some walk throughs that are kinda creepy, but cool.  Dennis would not get off the path with me because while we were hiking in Nebraska he got some poison something.  I don't think it was poison ivy, but something similar and it liked to drove him out of his mind. It went away pretty quick, but it even had him getting up at night to put stuff on it. Poor guy.  So he is not wondering with me anymore through the brush, but waits patiently for me to.  This cave and trail is in a place called Fairfield Bay.  It is a retirement community that is enormous.  They actually have eight restaurants right here in their community.  There are some other trails in town as well, but the lady that gave us all the information at the museum said the falls weren't flowing right now and so we chose to pick some other trails.

 

After that cave we got hungry and went in search of food.

So Wednesday, we checked out several trails.  The first was on Corps of Engineers land, Josh Park Memoriall Trail, and they also have a campground there.  It was closed, but it looked pretty cool. No hook ups, but level sites and far apart too.  The trail was very wide and very well traveled.  We ran into several people out there.  As a matter of fact a couple of guys has somehow gotten into a discussion about fraudulent voters ballots.  How do you get into that type of discussion while hiking?  This trail was pretty much for anybody.  Very easy, not like yesterday at the Indian Rock Cave one.  It was pretty rugged.  We could even have brought our bicylcles, or really even our truck, it was so wide and easy.  Very beautiful but young looking forest. Very few large trees.

 

Next we picked the Mossy Bluf Trail near the Little Red River at the Greers Ferry Dam.  This trail was also a Corps of Engineer trail, but pretty rough terrain and some of it is on a fairly narrow ledge.  I wondered how many people fell from those ledges.  But it is a site to see!  There are beautiful rock formations and the bluff is sometimes covered in moss.  The smells here were amazing as well. The clean water and fresh air!  We finally got completely away from all the smoke from the many fire out west. We never ran into another soul here.  The trail splits at one point and a portion goes up closer to the bluff and the other lower on the trail.  We went lower, and noticed after we headed back that the upper could be used as an enormous short cut. But we were in for the whole shebang anyway.  The end of the trail has an overlook to the dam and I think there was maybe a million steps to get to it.  But we got our obligatory photo from the overlook.  We even went down to the dam after the trail to see the water and it is crystal clear.  You could see the many fish swimming around.  Dennis mentioned that our friend Greg Lynd would be in hog heaven fishing here! 

This is only about two feet tall, but looks like something out of a hobbit movie.

See why it is called Mossy Bluff

Obligatory photo and barbed wire growing through trees here.

 

 

Our next trail is in JFK Park which also has a trout hatchery.  We were unable to see the one in Branson, so we went to check this out.  It is a heck of an operation, but they have some very large trout that are there just for show.  I think that is kinda cruel.  The other tanks are so full of fish they are on top of each other, again, pretty cruel.  So I guess they are doing good things keeping the species going, but get some bigger tanks or scale this operation down a little.  

So on to our next trail - we were saving the best for last.  This one is Collins Creek Trail and is located at the JFK Park with the hatchery and just across the river from Mossy Bluff Trail.  We were looking for the water fall this time.  I do love me some waterfalls.  We did not have to wait long.  Almost first thing you come to the falls and the trail follows the creek all the way to the Little Red River. By the way, the water is not red in this river, it is clear and amazing. The creek water was the same. We found a little girls pair of shoes and pants at the edge of the falls. These trails are covered with some type of grey gravel that was poking me through my shoes and someone had a barefoot child on the trail.  It ended up being a family from Iowa and Texas.  We ran into them on the trail and the girl was maybe 7 years old.  There were a lot of trees over the creek and I even used one as a bridge, they are that big. We found one spot that looked like a huge cave and rock formation but it was only about two feet tall.  I could really just see this thing being way bigger and in some movie.

He had to touch the water to see how cold it was.  It was very cold.

At the end of the trail where the Collins Creek meets the Little Red River we found a wake of buzzards.  (yes it is called a wake - I looked it up - Google doesn't lie)  

So many on both sides of the creek.  

Not one was eating anything, they were just resting I guess. 

We got really close and they weren't scared either.

We will be staying near Arkadelphia, AR for a couple of nights and may even check out Little Rock and Hot Springs. So until next time . . .

Sioux City to Nebraska City to Branson

So, I failed to mention our problem with the sun roof while we were in South Dakota.  We were having beautiful weather and had it open and enjoying the day, but when we went to close the thing it acted like the little back crack was open.  I may have tried to use the wrong button and opened it, but we aren't real sure. Especially after I used it again several more times, we were not sure what position it was really in. I ended up grabbing the glass and pulling it while Dennis pushed the real close button and we got it to close - agreeing that we would never touch it again. EVER.  Well, until we were driving through Custer State Park.  I was trying to get good pics of the buffalo all over the road and decided that standing up in the seat and hanging out the sun roof would be my best option.  Except the stupid thing went sideways.  My side was opened half way and Dennis' was barely cracked.  Ruh Ro.  We said we weren't gonna use that thing anymore.  We left it alone until we found a place to pull over and got it to close again, but now we hear air as we go down the road.  Sometimes it is loud and sometimes it seems to suck down and seal better.  Hmm.  We have had rain and it doesn't appear to be leaking, at least not yet.  Dennis says I will not get a sunroof on the next upgrade. He is becoming quite the bully.

Tuesday, Septembere 1, 2020

So we make it out of South Dakota and back into Nebraska.  We land in Sioux City, Nebraska at the Scenic Park Campground.  This campground is another Nebraska Ciy Park and is very nice.  It is directly on the Missouri River, which is a very swift river or we would have pulled out the kayaks.  A very nice place too stay.  

Sioux City, Iowa is on the other side of this river, but even though we spent more time over there Dennis would not let me put my Iowa sticker on our map.  Gotta stay there in the RV he says.  Dang it!  Did I tell you he was being a bully?

As some of you may remember from your history lessons, Louis and Clark explored this area via the Missouri River.  The visitors center is even an old paddle boat, The Sergeant Floyd River Museum, now dry docked.  It is adjacent to a couple of pretty nice museums, the Betty Strong Encounter Center and the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center.  The boat was more of a visitors center, so not that cool, but the others were really worth the visit.  There are many things in the area named after Sergeant Floyd. Apparently, Floyd was the only man to die during the expedition and was buried here in Sioux City. 

As we were touring the museums we saw this guy we had run into at the RV Park on a bicycle.  We were walking around the park and I saw this inverter plugged into an outlet in the tent camping area and there was no evidence of any campers. I had turned to go tell the park manager that it was left behind when he pulled up on his bike. I asked him if it was his and he said yes and we moved on.  But I was really curious about what he was doing traveling by bike.  So when we saw him at the museum I had to ask.  He has traveled over two thousand miles on his bike so far and is primarily traveling US 20.  He is often confilicted about taking a couple hundrend miles out of his way to see something when he remembers, he doesn't really have that much time or money.  So he has a plan and tries to stick with that.  I would be torn as well.  I have been torn on this trip and we have much more ease going out of our way than he has.  He was very talkative and it is really neat to see someone doing that.  In my youth I heard of people (even family) who took backpacks and toured Europe. You just dont see that sence of adventure in people anymore.

Thursday, Septerber 3, 2020

We head to Nebraska City, Nebraska. We are staying a few more days here at the Victorian Acres RV Park.  But we will not have sewer at this location.  I think we had originally planned to stay only 2 nights, but with the other places along the way we had to adjust this reservation and forgot about the sewer thing.  Oh well, we are really close to their bath house and it is very nice.  Besides, I can do 5 days!  This is a really nice place to stay.  The owners think they have found a buyer and are moving back up to Minnesota, so I hope the new owners are as great as the old.

My brother Bryan was able to take the long drive from Tulsa on his Harley to visit us for one night and we really enjoyed seeing him.  There is not a lot to do around here, so we really just hung out and visited, but he got to ride his bike and I got to hug his neck.  All good things. A picture of us the morning after.  I really could have picked a better time to take our photo.

 

After we said goodbye to Bryan we found the Arbor Day Farms.  It is a local apple farm and park - they even have a lodge on the property.  They have a beautiful forest that they have put down wood chip paths and it is a beautiful place.  They also have 11 tree houses you can climb from one to the other over rope bridges and stuff.  That was pretty fun.  I know, it is for kids, but we are kids, okay! Such a peaceful place and they even make wine there, but we decided it was probably sweet wine so, nope.

 

 

 

 

While we were at the Victorian Acres park they had this little guy there. It looked like a caboose.

Tuesday, Septeber 8, 2020

 

So the weather was spectacular in Nebraska City until we were ready to head out.  It was a cold 48* and raining.  Since we had not had sewer all week, we not only had to break camp, we had to go dump.  The dump station did not have a threaded intake so we had to stand out there with our foot on the end of the hose thing to keep it in the hole.  It was really windy on that side of the RV too.  It was pretty miserable.  

It was a pretty miserable drive all the way into Branson.  Fortunately, by the time we got to our RV park, Branson View Campground, it had cleared off and was warm again.  We are right on the edge of the park over looking Branson. It is a pretty nice view, but the slip we are in is a full 4 bubbles off level, not to mention that we dragged on the way into the slip and will likely have to back out to keep from tearing up the RV and hitch on the way out.  The area is very hilly, but my goodness. They have the slips reserved for certain size RVs and I get that because of their length in the slip, but they should also consider the type.  I think a Class C would tear less up getting into this site than us.  I really wish I had recognized it before we pulled in.  But as we pulled into the slip we dragged the frame about 4 feet on the asphalt and we are not the first.  You can see all the marks. 

Then we had to get her level. I decided the only way to do that was to raise her in stages. I got her on two blocks, then put three blocks for her to move up on and then finally put 4 blocks and that got her almost perfectly level.  It just looked and felt precarious to me.  Then we look around and I am not sure we will be able to get the drivers side slide out.  They have railroad ties to hold back the dirt for the next slip because it is so much higher ground than we are and I am afraid there will not be my needed three feet there.  Come to find out, it actually barely went above the wall there.  If not, we would have had to move over a tad more and be more unlevel.  I wasn't sure I had enough blocks for that.  If we were in a different spot I would say I love this place.  It is beautiful. There are trees everywhere and the hills are really steep.  Nice to look at, but they do not even allow bicycles the roads are so treacherous.

We had breakfast at Clockers the first morning.  It was pretty good.  Saw it on the Branson channel on TV our first night here. It is like we're in a hotel and they have the local info channel.  Didn't know that was just broadcast TV in Branson.  We went further into downtown and found the Amish store.  I bought a new wallet there.  Then some guy tried to tell me it isn't really made by the Amish, it is made in China. I chose not to believe that!!!

First show we saw was the Grand Country Comedy Jamboree.  It was fun, they actually took an intermission and had the camera scanning the audiance.  It landed on me and said I had been abducted by space aliens.  I don't know how they knew!!!! Then they pulled us up on stage and asked a few questions about our first date, had comedians re-inacting it with us dinging bells for things they got right and honking horns for things they got wrong.  It was hilarious.  We got two free meals at the Grand Country Buffet for being good sports.  The food was really good and I was starving.  So it worked out.

My recliner broke. Dennis has it temporarily fixed.  

Trying to see if we can get a new cable assembly or have to replace the whole shebang!

We had two different friends recommend to us that we should go to the Trout Hatchery and it is temporarily closed.  I had also wanted to go hiking in the Lakeside Forest Winderness Area, but the dang weather was rainy and gross during the last couple of days.  The Shipwreck Museum sounded like it would be interesting as well. They have artifacts from shipwrecks that happened way back to even more recent ones.  I called and they never answered the phone and the voice mail box was not set up.  As soon as I hung up from them I received a text saying they were sorry they missed my call and how they could help.  I returned the text asking the cost of the exhibit and they never responded.  We went by there when we went to Branson Landing and they were open.  Not sure why they did not want us to come see them. 😕

Next thing we did was the Dolly Parton's Stampede Dinner Attraction.  Recommended by my good friend Belinda Fountain.  Thanks! It was a whole lot of fun.  They did trick horse riding, dancing with horses, and even had dog and piglet races.  The whole thing was very patriotic, but the ending was very much so.  We both enjoyed the entire thing.  We were first row, but I do not think there would be a bad seat in the whole arena.  They served us a biscuit and soup for the first course, a whole cornish hen, 1/2 a potato, earlet of corn and a slice of pork tenderloin for the second course and after all of that followed an apple tart.  Dennis ate every single bite of his.  He and I usually split a cornish hen at home and have leftovers.  He said he was hungry, but WOW!!!!  I think my doggy bag weighed 5 pounds. It literally took me two other sittings to finish it off. And no, I didn't share with Dennis.  LOL.

 Dreary day and we are all lined up waiting to be let in. 

They actually took your tempurature and asked if you had been exposed to a confirmed case of covid.

 

They had a buffalo drive, a cattle drive and even a wagon train.

 

Didn't have anything to do until 7:30 one evening and it has been kinda dreary weather here.  We noticed that none of the shows have alcohol availabe, nor does there appear to be a full blown bar anywhere.  So we went out seeking one.  They had a 'Starvin Marvin's' so we thought for sure they would have a full bar like the one in Beaumont did. But no.  They started to send us to a Mexican Restaurant when I found Crazy Craig's Cheeky Monkey on the map.  What?  We know Crazy Craig so we had to go there!  They had a pit smoking meat and a few bikers. they greet you with some Deep Eddie's Lemon Vodka shot called the Easy Sqeezy Lemon Breezy.  Funny.  We sat outside and had a couple of drinks. The staff was super cool.  They work well in tandom and are a real team.  They were really pretty funny too. See this story about the real Crazy Craign below:

I really wanted to go see an illusionist while we were here, but couldn't get into see Rick Thomas.  I thought that was the only one here.  We had been seeing signs for Reza, but had no idea what it was until we had booked the other two nights we are here. Yes, he is also an illusionist.  Dang it!  Dennis keeps saying we need to leave something for next time.  I guess the Illusionist will be that for Branson.

We did get to go see the Acrobats of Shanghai at the Mickey Gilley Grand Shanghai Theater.  Did you know that Mickey Gilley is still alive and performing here with Johnny Lee.  He is 84 and Johnny is 74.  They call it the Urban Cowboy.  How funny!  Anyway the acrobat show was cool, the brochure showed a lot more challenging feats, but even the performance we saw was pretty amazing. I've seen better, but the strength of these guys, WOW! Still a fun evening.

They had this pretzle lady and a balancing guy

 

Of course the tight wire guy and this other balance guy.

 

Then the girl who dances with ribbons and guys that fly through rings.

  

All of these shows had a comedy element and that is always good for me.

We went out to the Branson Landing to have a drink before the boat ride this evening and they have a Guy Fieri restaurant.  I really wish I had known that.  We hit the Landshark because it is right next to the fountain and we enjoyed a couple of drinks there.  Next we went down to the Black Oak Grill and got a drink there too.  They have a happy hour, so we saved some money! We are on a fixed income you know. It is a real nice place. I kinda wish we could have had a meal there too.  

Next up is the Showboat, on the Branson Belle, a paddle boat.  It is a dinner cruise on Table Rock Lake.  We chose the evening cruise because the water is just so peaceful at night.  The food was really good and they had dancing and singing with a little comedy thrown in there too.

All in all we had a really good time in Branson.  I must say I was a little surprised how many venues are currently closed and the buildings for sale.  I hope this doesn't mean that Branson is peaking.  Maybe it is just the darned Covid hurting so many people right now.  I hope they are able to overcome. It is a really family friendly fun place.

We will be in Shirley, Arkansas tomorrow at the Golden Pond RV Park.  I will be looking for Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn while we are there.  May have to find that movie and watch it. 

Until next time!  Yal'll be safe.