The Next Adventure Begins!

Big time mixed emotions about this next adventure.  While we are excited about our new gig with Death Valley National Park, we're not too happy about separating from our daughter, son-in-law and grandkids.  We had gotten pretty comfortable with having them only steps away and popping in and out at will.  It was a great 10 months but hitch itch got hold of us and we have to go.

So we're off.  We're taking a meandering route so that we can see friends and family along the way.  Our driving style is to drive in the morning and be off the road before the heat of the day hits.  That puts us driving 3 or 4 hours at a time, covering up to 300 miles.  We get both vehicles unhitched from their trailers and then go to town and get fuel and supplies while the A/Cs cool the camper down to something bearable.  By the time we get all this done it's been a full day and we're ready to watch the Braves play some baseball.

First stop, Spacious Skies Campgrounds - Belle Ridge, Monterey, TN.  This is a private campground, one belonging to a group that has campgrounds sprinkled around the country.  Most of the drive to this campground was on busy Interstate.  Although the campground was not far from the highway it felt like we were far removed.  It made for a peaceful night.

The campground lives up to its name.

Next up was a 300 mile drive to the east side of Memphis for another one night stay, this time at a county fairground.  The campground was named Agricenter International RV Park.  When I made the reservation I checked the fairground events schedule to confirm that nothing was scheduled for our one night.  But when we got there we were surprised to find that a large, annual county fair was in full swing.  The campground was crammed full and our spaces were packed so tightly together that I had to ask my neighbor to pull in his awning so that I could turn into our spot.

The foreground where the grass is has been annexed by the 
fairgrounds.  We were crammed in the upper portion of the picture 
and the annexed area had a carnival sitting on it.

Looking over the hood of my truck the midway is just down the street.
The Ferris Wheel is towering above campers on the opposite side of the road from me.

Zooming in just a little really shows how much is going on just yards away.

We get to check off a "never done this before" experience with a carnival a stones throw from our door and a fairground amphitheater just a couple hundred feet away with a live band that played non-stop until 10:00 pm.  Which wasn't a bad thing, they sounded pretty good.

So far the weather has been superb.  Hurricanes in the Gulf and along the Atlantic Coast have pushed cool air deep into the Southeast.  Breaking camp in the morning has been pleasurable, except for dealing with the stinky hose.  But we're on the road again.  A relatively short drive to Pendleton Bend, Arkansas.  A Corps of Engineers campground on the Arkansas River.  This drive is backroads all the way and it has been a real pleasure to get off the Interstate.  Except for a nine mile stretch leading up to the bridge crossing the Mississippi, the roads were excellent.

The reason for our detour into the woods of Arkansas is to see a friend.  She was formerly our volunteer supervisor when we were working in Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area in Utah.  She has since  changed jobs and is now working in the off-the-beaten-path of Arkansas Post National Memorial.

What a difference a day makes!  We went from only us or 
our neighbor being able to put out an awning to not even 
being able to throw a rock to our next closest camper.

Looonng, 90' driveway.  Everything fit all at once.  We 
just unhitched Cyndee's cargo trailer and did our getting around 
in her little hot-rod.

Huge, widely spaced trees offered dappled shade on the cool grass.

Every site had a covered picnic table, a deep fire ring and 
a stand-up grill.  This is a place to come and stay awhile.

Pendleton Bend is "out there".  Cell phone signals are hard to come by.  And when you do manage to find one it is only good for the simplest of texts.  Our satellite TV worked perfectly but our Starlink was on the fritz.  Hopefully we are going to catch up to repair parts when we get to the Dallas, TX area.  But in the meantime communication was at a bare minimum and researching routes for the next leg of travel are out of the question.

There is virtually nothing left of the old fort.  Floods and the Arkansas River changing its course have erased most of any sign of one-time structures.  But the National Memorial Visitor Center has done a nice job of preserving artifacts from the era and the six flags that flew over the fort.

We really enjoyed our time with our friend.  She always does a deep dive on the history and what-fors of her location.  She always makes us feel like we're getting VIP treatment.

That's it for this post.  I've already got more stops to write about for the next post.  Stay tuned.