We are finally on the road...WE HAVE LIFT-OFF! To borrow a great line from a great John Hartford song, “ We left ol’ St Louis, on the crest of the brown rolling tide”...well, maybe we’re not on the Delta Queen out on the ol’ Mississippi, but we certainly are rolling down river on Highway 55. The feeling of euphoria that we feel is impossible to convey. We’re actually doing it. We’re on the road, FREE.
Our first stop was going to be somewhere in Arkansas, just shy of Searcy, where we have an appointment to get our windows on the passenger side fixed. They are dual paned and have fogged over. I researched and found this great outfit in Searcy called, Fog Dr RV. I can highly recommend them for any window work you need done on your RV. They are fairly priced and do a great job, along with giving a two year guarantee on their work. Check them out for sure.
What happened that first night on our way to their shop, however, was definitely a lesson to be learned. We found a state park about 40 miles away from Searcy called, “Jacksonport State Park”. They featured 50 amp service and the price was right at $28.00 per night. We stopped to get LP gas because it was pretty cold, being February, and we didn’t have but 1/3 of a tank of LP. It was starting to get dark, but what the heck...we have GPS and Google Maps, surely we’d find it without much trouble.
The area around Jacksonport is truly delta country. Not only are you in cotton and rice country and bordered by the Mississippi on the east, but all of the southern Missouri rivers end up in this part of Arkansas. The Current, the Eleven Point, the White, the St Fancois, the Black, all end up broadening out here in this bottom land. If you stand still for a while you’ll actually turn into mud yourself. This is sharecropper country. This is, and has always been a land of poverty. This is where Sheryl Crow is from. ( Kennet, Mo). I don’t think she maintains a home here. It is, though, a land of a different kind of beauty.
As we drove across the mud-bone bottoms on two-laned blacktops, we would cross those elegant Missouri streams now residing in Arkansas. The trees lining them were draped in frozen vestments. Here you had the bright delta sun reflecting off the silver and glass trees, contrasting with the dark, brown, still muddy waters. Truly, in all my years I’ve never seen anything quite like it, or as beautiful in its strange way.
But back to our first lesson in RV’ing…
On the way to Jacksonport State Park, our Google Maps directed us down a narrow two-lane and over the Black river, now a still, deep, muddy den of turtles and catfish. Sawyers stick out everywhere in the river. Once over the river, we were told by that nameless Google voice to turn left down a one-lane road. So, that’s what we did. We couldn’t imagine that the park and campsites being down this road, but, of course, that’s just what we did. Now, while towing our Jeep, we cannot back up, so every move you make with your RV should be calculated so you don’t find yourself in a situation you can’t get out of.
After about a half mile, we came to a fork in the road and Google told us to go right. The road looked to me to be going up over an earthen levee, and I thought that the campsite was probably over there down by the river itself. So, up and over we went and as we were coming down the far side of the levee there was yet another fork in the road. But this time both forks were mud! I brought Nell to a halt on this hill just before it became a muddy soup. No backing up!
Out of the RV I shot with Diane finding a flashlight because by now it was pitch black outside and there weren’t any city light out where we were. I would estimate that the pitch of the road was somewhere around 15 to 20 degrees, which meant that I had to unhitch the jeep on a pretty steep hill. Oh, and did I mention that I hadn’t actually unhitched the Jeep before?
Well, we did manage to get the Jeep free and while Diane drove the Jeep back to the other side of the levee, I backed the RV up the hill and back down the other side of the levee. Meanwhile Diane and Jeep had become surrounded by a pack of pit bull types barking and yapping and attempting to bite the tires off the Jeep. In short order it was the heck with Jacksonport and where is the nearest Wal Mart?
Those first two nights we spent on Wal Mart lots and I must tell you, we were very pleasantly surprised by how well we slept...and, it’s free. Two words of advice regarding Wal Marts:
1. It’s always a good idea to contact the Manager personally and ask permission. I tell them I intend to trade with them and so far, no problem with the permission.
2. Park way the heck off the main lot so that you are not taking up valuable customer spaces. Try to park by lights, you’ll feel safer that way.
And that first lesson and rule that we created for ourselves after our first night on the road?
Never, never try to find a place to camp in the dark. Get to your destination well before dark and if you cannot get there, find a Wal Mart lot.
NOTE* We found a great ap that costs only $10.00 that details every imaginable camp site, every Wal Mart, every place to buy LP gas...along with reviews from users! It’s awesome for planning your driving. It even details bridge clearances.
It’s called “All Stays Camp and RV”. It’s wise investment if you’re on the road.