Into To Arkansas

September 7 – 13, 2021

   

Out of Oklahoma and into Arkansas we go. The environment slowly changing, more trees and mountains as we enter the Ozarks. I'm not sure how to express this but there was a shift inside me. I felt lighter, a contentment I didn't know was missing filled me. When we stopped at a rest area for lunch, we took a walk around and it hit me. I knew these mountains and these trees, no not these in particular but the nature of these. They were familiar, they were of the east, they spoke to my soul and I didn't realize how much I missed them till then. Large leafed oaks, maples, hickory, I could easy name the trees as I saw them, the mountains were as I know them in my heart. I was home.

The west is beautiful but it has a harder, more rugged feel. The immense-ness that is the Rockies, Cascades, and Olympias, can be overwhelming. The desert is fascinating but hard, dry, arid, with it's gray green colors of creosote and desert sage bushes, starkness that goes on for miles and the sharpness of cacti. The flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest, many are the same as the East Coast but bigger, denser, with evergreens that seem to go on forever. Incredible beauty all of it, and I look forward to going back and experiencing so much more of it. For now I breath differently, my soul sings: I am home.

   

Our first stop in Arkansas was in Russellville:

 Lake Dardenelle State Park. Wow, did we pick a good one. What a beautiful park. We were lucky enough to score a site right on the water's edge, actually we were first to be a different site, upon checking in we asked if any of the lake front sites opened up. Lo and behold, there had been a cancellation just an hour before we got there! Oh this is going to be a nice relaxing stay. Lovely walkway along the lake, great roads for biking, even a short trail for hiking. The staff so friendly, the visitor center large with a store, huge aquarium with fish from local area, and nature center, boat rentals, marina, playgrounds, large sites, and clean facilities.

 Wonderfully wooded and that lake, what a lake. 34,000 acres of beauty. A boater's dream. Several Red 
Headed Woodpeckers played in the trees around our site, this was a first sighting for me. Striking birds with that bright red head and large white patch on tail feathers. Two great herons liked to fish in front of us, you want to talk patience, watch herons fish. Many other birds can be found there and the park is a designated as an Audubon Bird Area.

Once again one we would be quick to come back to. We seem to do well with state parks.

  After a rejuvenation 4 days, we headed over to Shirley, AR. and a very different campground;  

 Golden Pond RV Park. Golden Pond is one of the campgrounds that is used primarily for long term

RVers, working in the area. A bit long in the tooth, needing a good amount of sprucing up. Not quite neglected  just run down, managed by an older couple who would rather sit on the front porch of the office, jawing with whomever stopped by. There was a small pond with a trail to walk, wouldn't exactly call it golden, maybe if you squinted in certain lighting, LOL For those of you who saw the movie Golden Pond with Henry and Jane Fonda, nope not that Golden Pond. Hahaha. It did have a cafe on site but we decided not to partake. One of the best parts were the goats! They had several goats, a small fish pond with waterfall, an above ground pool heated by a wood burning stove (now that's different), and a sweet friendly dog. It worked for the weekend.

Next stop Missouri!

Ta for now.

Red Headed Woodpeckers (Adult and Young)

Life can be good

Starting Eastbound

 Huh for some reason this didn't get posted. So though out of order wanted to post it for my remembrances in the future. 

8/23/2021 - 8/26/2021

Waving goodbye to California we made our way deeper into the desert of the southwest. The desert amazes me. When one thinks of the desert one gets a certain picture in their mind, but what I find fascinating is the many facets and changes one sees when driving through. In the past two weeks we have seen the deep desert with nothing but sand and a couple of creosote bushes and hardy desert sage and even they looked dried. There is the high desert with bare brown mountains and giant rocks, then maybe areas with a bit more green and a couple more plants and perhaps even scrub pines. 

We went through areas filled with a multitude of cacti, so many types I had never seen before except in books; through farm lands where the waters of the Colorado and other rivers are channeled for irrigation. What truly is amazing is going through areas where they had monsoon rains just days before and the plants were so green, and there were flowers! Red, yellow, orange, purple colored contrasting with the arid greens of the brushes and cacti. Such beauty and such diversity.

One of the sights going across Arizona was Imperial Sand Dunes National Recreation Area, outside of Yuma. Quite impressive.   

8/23/2021

Our first stop in Arizona was Tier Drop RV Park in Wellton. A small town about 35 miles east of the California border and less than that from the Mexican Border. Wellton gets its name from its origins of being a water stop for stage coaches and the railroad, Well Town. Tier Drop RV Park is actually a combination Mobile Home Community and RV Park. The mobile home section is well kept but as with most, the site are close together. They seem to be a very active community with lots of amenities including pool, outdoor sports, a activity center/club house with a Billiards Room, kitchen, individual club rooms, church services, and more. The organized activities include pot luck dinners, dances, golf, breakfasts, ice cream socials and so much more. I can see why people would want to live there if only in the winter season.

The RV section is, well, a very large field of gravel with full hookups. But you have full use of all  amenities available. Not somewhere we'd want to spend a lot of time but perfect for an overnight, with clean, well kept bathhouses.

8/24/2021

  From there we went onward to Tucson, AZ and stayed at an amazing campground, Tucson/Lazydays KOA. WOW, this place is huge, having well over 300 sites, and what a variety of sites there were. From your basic gravel or half gravel half grass site with full hookups, to covered sites, to these really cool Sky Deck sites. These had a wooden raised platform next to the site and to go up on the    platform gave you a wonderful view of the desert sunset. 

Some sites had fireplaces, grass areas with metal fences around for your pet, oh and they had a pet wash tub for washing dogs. There were also tents sites and these cool looking adobe style cabins. Among the many amenities: pool, hot tub, playgrounds, mini golf, RC Track, typical outdoor sports, and a large store.

 There was a great restaurant called BBQ Rush on premises, for eat in or take out, they even delivered 
to your site if you wanted. We did partake in the restaurant, oh yummy. It offered pulled pork dishes, brisket, ribs, TexMex, and even bbqued meatloaf, as well as sandwiches, pizza, tacos, and more. They had 2 or 3 item sampler platters so that's what we did. The food there is mouthwatering! We topped it off with a very good local beer. What made it even better is the tables were well placed and there was only 2 other tables in use. Social distancing as I like it! Great place to stay for a couple nights or longer.

 

 We were there for two nights as we took a day trip to Saguaro National Park, home of the giant (and I do mean giant) Saguaro Cactus. Yet another incredible place that everyone should get to and yet few even know of its existence. We were both in awe as we drove through. There are hiking trails but with the heat as it was (100+) we drove the scenic road through the park with short stops from time to time. My next post will be just photos of our drive. If you can, put it on your bucket list and go!

From here we will be heading into New Mexico with a couple quick stop with one being an Alpaca Farm!! FUN

TA

Cabin at Lazydays KOA

From Olive Grove to Grapefruit trees!! 

Night All

Ooooooklahoma!!

 August 31 - September 7, 2021

   Yes, one must sing that, not just say it, LOL. We breeze right across Texas, into Oklahoma. We were determined not to stop except for lunch as last time we spent a week in Texas turned into 46 days, not doing that again.

Not a whole lot going on across that section of Texas and Oklahoma, quite flat and open. Writing this a week later, I can't really recall any thing much of notability. Went through Oklahoma City, which is,well, a big city and the western portion of Interstate 40 shares with Historic Route 66. Unfortunately, not much doing on that portion, which was okay as we were just going from point A to Point B. Lots of train traffic on the tracks that paralleled the route and watching trains go by is always fun to us. Let me tell you, some of those trains were long with many over 200 cars! Our first stop in OK. was a community park in Sayre, just across the Texas border.

 

Sayre RV and City Park was a pleasant surprise. The campground section had 80 sites, 25-30 were graveled RV sites with full hookups, and the rest were grass sites with water and electric. A lot of those were more suitable for tents or small campers. It was quite a surprise for only $12.00 a night. This adjoined the rest of the city park, what a park! It had it all; from an 18 hole golf course with clubhouse, fishing pond, horse arena, several playgrounds, mini golf, basketball, volleyball, tennis courts and walking/biking trails. Quite the find. We were only there for one night but one could easily spend several days. One we would go back to if passing through.

Left Sayre and heading on across Oklahoma to Checotah where we stayed at Terra Starr RV Park. 

This was one of those that I'm having difficulty writing up. It was an ok campground, older, could use a bit of sprucing up, friendly staff. The sites were a bit helter skelter without clear definition of individual space. Had decent amenities: pool, community room, mini golf (though course needed a lot of work), tennis and basketball courts and oh yeah, that one thing you hope you never need, a storm shelter.

Storm Shelter

 It is situated along Lake Eufaula, Oklahoma's largest lake which covers 105,000 acres and has over 800 miles of shoreline. Needless to say, boating is a big draw to this and other area parks. It would have been nicer if they developed the shoreline at the park a bit, you couldn't walk the water edge.

Lake Eufaula

 Again, decent enough place, especially for the money, as one of our Coast To Coast membership park was only $14.00 a night. It was something in the atmosphere that had us having a hard time settling in. Very much a hometown campground where most had seasonal sites, with groups clustered and while friendly enough to wave and say a brief hi, you didn't feel drawn in, like a club you weren't a part of. Also, it was Labor Day weekend so was crowded and very busy with people in and out all day. Too much chaotic energies I guess.

I do have to say in one way we were lucky to be there. Unfortunately, our first day there, our toilet's flushing mechanism decided not to work anymore, not a good thing! We tried this and tried that, check online for possibilities but nope it gave up the ghost. The front office gave us a couple of names of mobile mechanics in the area and so we started making calls the next morning. One call us back within 10- 15 minutes, said he was in the area and would stop by. One other did call back several hours later and two we never heard from, not helpful. Anyway, Jim from RV First Aid came by, looked it over, as he was just out getting gas he didn't have tools with him so said he would be back after lunch. He was true to his word. He took it out tried this and tried that but to no avail. After spending quite some time puzzling it out and even calling someone who knew more about RV toilets it was decided that our best option was a new one. A toilet is something we are not willing to go without so we agreed. Only place around that had one available was a good hour or so away, every place else would have had to order one and that would have taken a week to get. Since we were scheduled to leave Tuesday, that wasn't a good option. Jim, himself went to pick it up and installed it the next day. To us that was above and beyond. When it was complete and he quoted the price of the new toilet and his time, we just shook our heads. He was there three different times and for a total of several hours, and if you include his travel time to pick it up that was another couple hours. He said he felt bad for us and only was going to charge us his price for the toilet and a stipend for labor. Toto, we are not in New Jersey any more!!! We gave him a bonus as he came out on the holiday weekend and made a new friend. It goes to show there still are some good honest companies out there and I wish him well in all he does.

Back to Terra Starr, well would be ok in a pinch but not someplace I would seek out to go back to. We were able to get a lot of bicycling in as the roads around the campground were traveled much. 

Goodnight for now, ... Onward to Arkansas

2 Campgrounds and an Alpaca Farm!!

 Across New Mexico we go!

8/26/2021 – 8/30/2021

Leaving the Great Saguaro National Park and Arizona behind us, we made our way into New Mexico.

Once again we got to appreciate the ever-changing desert areas we drove through. How notably different yet all considered desert. And again, what a difference just a bit of rain can make to this area.

Before I talk about the campgrounds we stayed at, I want to bring up something I mentioned in my last post. We have been, so far, to eleven National Parks and several National Forests/Refuges, all have been wonderful experiences. Each has captioned my heart in different ways, none shall I ever forget. There are three that stand out to me more than the others, and when I think about each one of these I can't help but marvel at how vastly different the three are. Which have stolen my heart? In ways indescribable are; The Badlands National Park, Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, and the most recent: Saguaro National Park. Can these places get any different? And yet, the energies I experienced at each takes my breath away. It makes me excited to get to so many more, and see which I add to my list of favorites.

Back to this segment of travel.

The first two places in New Mexico we stopped at were more or less a way to get from here to there. Neither were overly impressive but as always, there was beauty even to them.

8/26/2021

After just having been to the overwhelmingly large KOA in Tucson, our first night in New Mexico was at another KOA but yet so very different. Las Cruces KOA is much smaller, having just over one hundred sites including the twelve tent sites. While some have such descriptive names such as Patio Sites, Super Sites, Premium Sites; none were overly impressive. It a nice campground with well maintained amenities, friendly staff, and beautiful views of the distance mountains. Great one night stopping place.

8/27/2021

  Next up was Hidden Valley RV Park in Tijeras, NM. The description reads: Quiet, Secluded Camping in the Sandia Mountains; and yes it was. While there was over a hundred sites, it didn't feel that big as it was divided into to three sections or tiers. It is an older campground that could use a bit of TLC. We got to meet the original owner, a 93 year old gentleman who was interesting and entertaining to talk to. He also developed the service station/store at the entrance to the road up. The campground served our purpose and gave us a couple days to just be. One of the notable experiences there was hearing the coyotes running along the ridge just above us. The one night, they let us know they were there by their yipping and yapping 3 or 4 times. We both do so love to listen to them.

Love the striping of these rocks

8/30/2021

 

 After a couple of days of relaxation, it was on the road again. On across the state to Clovis, NM, which is but 15 miles from the Texas border. This was a great stop: WindrushAlpaca Farm. Yep, we spent the night at the farm, our second Harvest Hosts stop. The farm is owned by Rosemary and Ric Mercalf, both well educated on the raising of Alpacas and love to share in their knowledge. With over 40 Alpacas, 2 llamas, 13 chickens, 8 guinea fowl, a horse, a cow, and several farm cats and dogs, not to mention a physical and online store and mutlitude other community activities; they keep busy. Yet, they make the time to chat and explain all the workings of the farm. We got a tour and opportunity to feed all the animals. It was so much fun watching the alpacas as each has its own personality just like people. Watching them run around wrestling with each other kept us quite entertained. Even grabbed a couple pair of alpaca wool socks! The night was quiet and serene, the windows open enjoying the breezes, ah a good night sleep. Another wonderful experience we will not forget.

Filling the rest of this post with Alpaca Photos!! 

TA