Epilog

We made it home so now it's time to unpack and clean the RV after 11,500 miles on the truck and     8440 miles on the trailer.
We spent 117 nights on the road and had an amazing experience.  We travelled through 12 states, visited 21 National Parks and Monuments, saw the Grand Canyon coated in snow, toured several caverns and have seen things both historic and funky.  We've been at elevations of plus 9000 feet and minus 275 feet.  We tried to find local restaurants when we could and sampled the locally brewed beers.  Our visit to Mexico was a new experience for both of us and we look forward to going back in the future. 
We spent a lot of time in the desert this winter seeing all sorts of  flora and fauna.  As we started our trip home, we were able to see the desert start to come to life again.  The brown desert floor was turning green, the cacti were blooming with bright red and yellow flowers and another season was beginning. 
We were able to spend time with old friends and make new ones along the way.
We've seen this country's production of energy from many sources. hundreds upon hundreds of oil wells, coal fired power plants, nuclear energy plants, hydro-electric dams, tens of thousands of wind turbines and acres of solar panels. 
We've seen trains two miles long transporting all kinds of goods back and forth across the country.   It has been a remarkable trip.  If we followed the exact same path again, we could see entirely different things, there is so much out there to enjoy. 
We are already starting to think about our next trip and the planning for it will begin soon.  We hope you enjoyed reading our blog as much as we have enjoyed writing it. 

Our rolling home is clean and ready to be put away for a while.  Time to pack the bearings and do a brake job so she'll be ready to roll again.  So far, she has served us well for 30,000 miles.   

  

 

We'll continue the blog when we roll again this summer.  A few short trips are planned.  See you then.

 

Jim & Vickie

Hot Springs, Arkansas and Tupelo Mississippi

Two of our last stops on this trip was Hot Springs, Arkansas and Tupelo, Mississippi.
  First up was J & J RV Park in Hot Springs, a small but very nice park with an owner that will engage you in conversation any time and talk your ear off if you let him.   

Hot Springs is the first and the smallest National Park.  Half of the city is in the National Park encompassing the 47 springs in the area. 

One of the bath houses, The Fordyce,  is now the park headquarters.  Our tour guide, Toni,  is a descendant of one of the bath attendants and her stories were riveting.  Most of the bath attendants were "colored", as she said.   With the tips that they made, they were some of the highest paid people in town. 

 

The old bath houses along bath house row are still there and their architecture is beautifully nostalgic. They are now art galleries, gift shops a restaurant and the park office.

 

This bath house is now a restaurant.

They have a nice selection of local beers brewed with the spring water and one of the neatest beer taps I've ever seen.  We had a delicious reuben sandwich and, of course, some local brews.

Only one bath house, The Buckstaff,  is still in operation and has been since it's opening in 1912
.

 

Vickie talked me into taking a bath so after lunch, off we went. 

 

First, I had a whirlpool bath in a giant tub with spring water which comes out of the ground at 143 degrees (cooled to 101).  Then came a sitz bath, a new experience for me.  After some time in a steam cabinet, came a rest on a table wrapped up in a sheet with hot towels wrapped around my shoulders and neck.  Then came a needle shower and massage.  All the while, I was thinking of all of the people that have passed through here in the past like one of their more famous clients, Al Capone. 

 

 

Later, we drove up to the tower on top of the hill overlooking Hot Springs. 

the tower provides quite a view of the city and surrounding area.  We could even see our campground.

Our truck in the parking lot. 

Our next stop was The Campground At Barnes Crossing in Tupelo, a very nice park close to town.  

We visited Elvis' birthplace. 

Tupelo has an automobile museum that rates as one of the best we've ever seen. 

They have many autos I've never heard of, some, one of a kind. 

A friend of mine had one of these and would take it to local car shows. 

Tupelo also has a hardware store that is worth a visit.  It reminded us of the hardware store in our town.

In this store, Elvis bought his first guitar. 

We spent part of one afternoon driving a section of The Natchez Trace.   The visitor center is in Tupelo where the history of the Trace is displayed and an informative movie is shown. 

It's a beautiful 444  mile drive through three states from Natchez, Mississippi, through north west Alabama to Memphis, Tennessee.  There are no shoulders on the road and bicycles can use your entire lane so travelling on the road can be pretty slow at times. 

 

Moving east again tomorrow.
 

Claremore, Oklahoma

We travelled to Claremore, Oklahoma and stayed at Hawthorn Bluff,  a COE campground on Oologah Lake.  The main campground was closed until April so we dry camped for free in a space next to the lake.  

The Corps of Engineers built the flood control dam and created a lake that is over 90 miles long. 

 We came here to see the museum and birthplace of Will Rogers. 

His burial site.  His wife and three of his four children are also buried here. 

 

We visited his childhood home.  They have some campsites here and are planning to add more. 

 

 

The most important building on the property. 

The room he was born in.

This guy was pretty noisy while we were there.

 

And he wasn't too happy with us either.

These guys were really curious and very friendly.

We took a short drive to see another funky Route 66 landmark.  A really fun trip would be to drive the length of Route 66 just to find all these kind of things.  At first, it used to have alligators in the pond.  Then they were removed and it became a swimming hole.  Now it's a catch and release pond.

We had a beautiful sunrise over the lake as we were getting ready to leave. 

 

 

 

We are now in Hot Springs, Arkansas at J & J RV Park.  It's a nice, privately owned campground and the owner is a hoot and will talk your ear off.  He also accepts Good Sam.