Greer Ferry Lake, Heber Springs, Arkansas

We camped at Dam Site (not a darn sight) army corps. of engineer campground near Heber Springs, Arkansas. The place was full when we arrived Tues. Oct.23rd but nearly empty when we left this AM on Oct. 27th. Greer Ferry Lake is a very large lake. We didn't see many fishing though.
    The Ozarks are showing the great fall colors now. We enjoyed temperatures in the 80's until Friday (yesterday) when it was damp and 55 degrees. We chose Friday to visit the Bill Clinton Library in Little Rock. It is a beautiful place set in a really beautiful park along the Arkansas River. We were going to visit Central High School in Little Rock where the first integration took place. Even though it is a national park, my neighbor at the campground who is a retired Little Rock police officer suggested we not go there. He claimed the police don't even like to go there. So we didn't.
     Saturday we drove to a campground in Harrison, Arkansas so we could catch up laundry, email and the blog, Sunday we go to White River State Park for a week. It is located below the Bull Shoals dam. I hope to get a lot of trout fishing in and we plan on travelling around the area as we have the car. The we will go to Branson, Silver Dollar City, etc.  I believe we will have wi-fi at the park so hope to send pictures of the trout that are caught.

Corinth, MS or Bill's Civil War visit

Monday we drove the car to Corinth, MS, where there were 2 decisive battles fought in the civil war or as the southerners still call it The War of Aggression. We discovered the Bill Morris Parkway in southeast Memphis. It is highway 385. Again we discovered that the state of Mississippi has great roads. They spend their money on roads, not education.. I am seen in the picture wondering where the shell is. I think the guy that did this in the war had a short lived career in the military. Tuesday we go to Arkansas and will camp in an army corps of engineer campground north of Little Rock. We won't have internet for 4 days or so. We plan some side trips to Little Rock to see Central High School and the Clinton library. It was 86 degrees here yesterday. Sure feels like summer.

Memphis Zoo

We went to the Memphis zoo this AM. It was quiet on a Sunday morning, so the visit was very pleasant. The Memphis Zoo is one of the few places that has Panda Bears. So, I thought I would send a greeting to you from YaYa the panda. Tonight we are going to a local restaurant that will pick us up at the campsite via a pink limo. The temperature is in the low 80's. Really nice.

Sun Records and National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis

Hi, Today  we visited Sun Records where Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash first recorded hit records. Note the picture of a rocker I found there using Elvis's microphone. We also visited the National Civil Rights museum where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated . It was kind of a depressing place. It was an awakening experience.
. On a lighter note , we then ate lunch at the King restaurant on Beale St., in downtown Memphis. The whole street is blocked off and there is lots of live music. Pretty neat.

OUR QUEST TO FIND ELVIS, Oct, 17-Nov. 7th, 2012

We left Wausau Wednesday AM fighting a strong wind from the south and southwest. This year we are towing the car on a dolly so that cuts mileage down somewhat. We camped the first night at Starved Rock State Park near Utica, IL. We experienced a wild thunder storm that night. The wind picked up the next morning (Thursday). We then drove to Caruthersville, MO and camped at a casino. We had never camped at a casino before. It was a positive experience. The sites were on concrete pads with water and electricity. Laughingly, they had a shuttle to the casino which was maybe less than a block away. We ate dinner there but were concerned about the smoking. However, in the non-smoking part, we didn't smell any smoke which was nice. The food was good too. We didn't gamble. By then the gas mileage was down to 6.7 miles per gallon. The wind hadn't let up all day across the flat lands of Illinois and southern Missouri. Friday AM we headed to Memphis. It was only 100 miles but with the wind, crummy road and Memphis traffic while towing a car, the trip was memorable. We checked in at Graceland RV Park which is across the street from Graceland. We took the tour of the house. We learned that Graceland is the 2nd most visited house in the U.S. They had over 700,000 visitors last year. We wonder what will happen to all of this development when our generation of Elvis fans,are gone. By the way the most visited house in the U.S. is the White House.
     Now we will start exploring Memphis.

First Camping trip 2012

We camped several nights at the newest state park in Wisconsin. It is the Gov. Thompson State Park which is located near Crivitz, WI. We camped at site #20 on May 22nd. We were the only campers in the whole park until Thursday night May 24th. We witnessed the blacktopping of the campground roads while there. We moved to site #24 on Wed. May 23rd. While moving we decided to take the motor home to the boat landing on the Caldron Falls flowage of the Peshtigo River. We spent most of the day there and only saw one family use the boat landing. The showers were the cleanest we had ever seen in a state park campground. At night while sitting around the campfire we were serenaded by a whip-poor-will. That same bird also woke up Beth at 4:30AM. This is a really neat park.

Who knew they have mountains in northwest Nebraska. After visiting Agate Fossil Nat. Monument we drove to South Dakota and watched the Packers beat the Bears on TV at a KOA in Kennebec, S.D. on Sept.25th. We then headed east on I-80 on Monday Sept.26th. We arrived home on Tuesday Sep.27th after traveling 6000 miles in 12 states over a 5 week period. It was a great trip with great weather. The only precipitation we had was a hail storm at Crater Lake Nat. Park in Oregon. Our motorhome averaged 8.6 miles per gallon which is the best ever.