Category: Traveling

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The Mighty Mississippi

Day 2 on the road to the Balloon Fiesta found me driving down I-57 to I-55 to Memphis. Well, not technically Memphis. Instead, I hopped off exit 4 and drove south through West Memphis, Arkansas a few miles to an RV park I’ve always wanted to visit, Tom Sawyer.

I’ve heard a lot about this park. It sits over a levee and right on the banks of the great river. In the spring, floods are common. They have their bathrooms and laundry facilities built on wheels so they can move them. But, this was September. The flood gauge reading at the Memphis gate was -1. No flood concerns for my one night stay.

One totally awesome thing about this park is that it’s situated on I-40 as well. Which is the common interstate for many people heading out to the Southwest. As it happened, I was able to meet up with several from our group here: Randy and Mary F. from Kentucky and Joe and Jan S. from Alabama. Mary’s brother Orin and his wife Linda were also coming on the trip, so I met them as well. I was in doggo heaven, as Joe and Jan have Penny, the amazing Golden Retriever who went to Alaska with me. Randy and Mary have Remi, who I’ve met before, and a new German Shepherd they rescued from a shelter named Ty. And Orin and Linda have a Rhodesian Ridgeback named Willa May who loves being scratched. I had treats for them all, of course.

I was in a site next to the river and wished I could have spent more time watching barges moving up and down. I didn’t sleep well, however. At 2 in the morning I bolted up wide awake: I smelled smoke. I was absolutely convinced I was on fire, a life threatening emergency in the wooden box of an RV. I went running down to the main living area, but no flames or heat. Then, as I went upstairs again to the bedroom I smelled smoke quite strongly. It had to be the storage area beneath, which are called basements in fifth wheels. I turned on the lights outside and went boiling down the stairs, ready to grab a fire extinguisher and put out a blaze, hopefully. Throwing open the door—nothing. No flames, no smoke. I ran to the other side and same thing: nothing. It was then, standing outside in the middle of the night looking like a crazy woman, that I realized the ENTIRE air of the park smelled like smoke. Joe later told me he thought there was a nearby factory or pulp mill that made the air smell bad. Le sigh…..

Anyway, here are some awesome pics from my phone. I hadn’t dragged out my Canon at this point yet.

A view of the river sites. All of them are pull thru. Not much shade, but the weather was great.
Here’s my fifth wheel, with Rory already hitched and ready to move out.
  • View from under the awning
  • Going up the levee from the park side. It’s a good grade!
Got to add the state of Arkansas to the Places Camped map.

It was a short one night stay, and then on to Sallisaw, Oklahoma. I would love to come back someday and spend a few nights. Highly recommended if you’re looking for an RV site in the Memphis area.

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2021: It’s Time to Travel Again!

How is everyone? I know it’s been a long, long time. Things have been crazy in my life, as I’m sure each of you can appreciate. COVID has certainly made things in the world much harder, and for those of us in healthcare it’s relentlessly sapping away the spirit.

As you are likely aware, the RV industry has exploded as people feel it’s a safe form of getting away from the day to day life. And while the borders were closed to international travel, the popularity of RV travel within the U.S. has gone into the stratosphere. I’m so glad I got to go to Alaska when I did; the trip would have been canceled in 2020 and perhaps much more challenging this summer.

Having said all that, my Alaska travel family was eager to do something else together, and we landed on another bucket list item for me: the International Balloon Fiesta held annually in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s the most photographed event in the world, and as a photography enthusiast I’ve always dreamt of seeing it someday.

Well, thanks to a very understanding boss (hi Jim) and colleagues (wassup guys) I was able to take some time off work and head to the Fiesta. It was cancelled last year, so this meant this years festival is the 49th annual. In planning out the travel, we ended up with 14 rigs going! Not everyone was on the Alaska trip, but most were.

The Fiesta is always held the first week of October from what I’ve been told. There are RV lots surrounding the Fiesta grounds and Fantasy RV tours offers a package for the Fiesta, so we signed up. The arrival day was set to be September 30th; as a group we would be parked first come, first served, so we decided to all meet at an RV park just outside of Albuquerque on September 29th.

That left me with some travel to get from Indiana to New Mexico. I worked in our Evansville clinic for 3 days, then left from that location on the afternoon of September 22nd. It was pouring in Indiana for several days, but as I finally got on the road and neared the border of Illinois, here is what I saw:

Raining in Indiana, but sunnier skies up ahead!

I only traveled a bit over 100 miles to Whittington, Illinois, as it was a late start after clinic. I fueled up at a local gas station which also features gambling. A combo I don’t think I’ve seen before:

Benton, Illinois knows how to party.

The campground, Whittington Woods, was fine. Mostly seasonals. And cash only. But I had a pull thru and spent a fine night. I was just happy to be on the road again!

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Day Fifty One: Revisiting the Turnagain Arm

Monday, July 15 was a free day in Anchorage. The Bulls were off doing something–don’t remember what at this point. Some of the group went to a local museum, but I was told that it wasn’t all that interesting. Instead, I decided to head down to the Turnagain Arm once more to see if I could catch a bore tide. If you remember a few posts ago, this area has the largest tides in North America after the Bay of Fundy. I was also hoping that the haze from the wildfire would have improved, as the wind had picked up and was blowing to the south, away from us.

Continue reading “Day Fifty One: Revisiting the Turnagain Arm”
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Day Forty Five: Alaska Sealife Center

July 9th stands out in my mind for several reasons.  First, Jerry and Wendy had made it safely to the RV park!  They got there around 1am; Jerry told me later that if it hadn’t been light out past midnight, they would have stopped.  One of the advantages of the long days!  And our visit to the Alaska Sealife Center is one of my favorite memories.  I got what I think are some outstanding pictures.  Continue reading “Day Forty Five: Alaska Sealife Center”

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Day Forty Four: Palmer to Seward

Before we get into this travel day, I want to apologize for any misunderstanding about my last post.  Today is August 12th; the Fantasy tour ended in Ferndale, WA on August 9th.  I’m currently in Spangle, but will soon have to leave to make my way back to Indiana.  I got way behind on the blog due to many factors that I’ve mentioned earlier, but in blog time we’re only at July 8th.  Each post is one day, even if I did next to nothing on that day.  There are LOTS of pictures and adventures still to be posted.  So stay tuned!

Continue reading “Day Forty Four: Palmer to Seward”

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Day Forty One: Cruising Prince William Sound

Before I get into the actual post, I want to apologize for the lack of updates.  The places where I’ve had a good cell signal have also been locations where we’ve been really busy.  And we’re back in Canada, which means Verizon restricts me to a half of a GB, which is nothing.  I can’t move the pictures to the website with that amount of bandwidth.  WiFi, if offered, is nearly universally useless at most campgrounds.  And then we started down the Cassiar Highway, and I lost even cell service for several days.  We are getting much closer to the border, and there should be no issues once I cross back into the U.S. on August 7th.  Continue reading “Day Forty One: Cruising Prince William Sound”