Bye-bye Lone Star State and chalk up a new state for the trailer

Eastern Texas on our way home

For the first time in two months we are staying in a state besides Texas. Sometime in mid-afternoon we crossed the border from Texas into Arkansas in the middle of the city of Texarkana, which is divided between the two states.

Except for a snafu by the OnStar folks, who directed us about 15 miles out of our way (someone needs to explain that the shortest length between two points is a straight line) leaving the Houston area we had a fairly uneventful trip.

There was a dearth of rest areas, but because we are pulling our own bathroom that is never a problem and we made a couple impromptu stops at wide spots on the highway to use our own facilities. Two rest areas in Arkansas were closed down.

My view of the trailer

The scenery in eastern Texas was remarkably different from the other areas of Texas we have stayed in. It is reminiscent of the kind of trees and greenery we would see in northern lower Michigan and we felt right at home with the pines that lined the highways leading out of Texas and into Arkansas.

In retrospect today was probably a little too ambitious a journey for our first day on the road and my unfortunate planning landed us right in the middle of downtown rush hour traffic in Little Rock right at its peak about 5 p.m.

Usually I avoid at all costs driving the trailer through stop and go freeway traffic, but it only lasted about 15 minutes so it wasn’t as bad as it might have been.

Hello Arkansas

One of the things that really sunk in to me was just how wide Texas is. Interstate 10 runs 880.5-miles east and west across the state. That is like laying Interstate 5 in California the long way across the state and still having 100 miles to drive to finish Texas.

During the drive we listened to our XM 60s station and then in the afternoon we listed to the Radio Classics stations which I sometimes enjoy on long trips to make the time pass quickly. Today was especially good with segments from the Dragnet radio series, a two-hour, four-episode special on the Martin and Lewis Radio show as well as a Jack Benny and Fred Allen program. It was all good fun to listen and even the old jokes brought a laugh or two from Joan and me.

Our Little Rock campsite with LR in the background

Another crime show – “Big Town” – had a great line in it that I asked Joan to write down so I wouldn’t forget. The bad guys had captured a crime reporter and were grilling him roughly to find out what he knew. “We need to know what this racket busting newsy knows.” I almost laughed at loud at that one.

We saw a couple interesting signs along the road. One in Texas advertised “Chocolate covered bacon.” Joan cringed, but I thought that combined two of my favorite things, but we were headed the wrong direction to stop and sample.

Our RV park

A large billboard had the following message: “Does this billboard make my AD look big?” Too funny.

We made three gas stops just to be sure we didn’t get in a bind along these less RV friendly highways. The interstates usually have plenty of RV friendly gas stations, but no so much on the state and smaller limited access highways.

Somewhere about Corrigan, Texas I spotted a beautiful, wide-open Shell station and opted to pull in about 40 miles earlier than I planned to stop just to take advantage of a very easy in and out gas station.

Arkansas added to the map

Our last stop was a little more hair-raising as we missed our turnoff for a Pilot station and had to settle for an Conoco station that advertised it was RV friendly, but it was only moderately so. We were just about 15 miles west of Little Rock and the heavy afternoon traffic had already started so I pretty much had to pull out and block traffic with the Tahoe and trailer to force myself across a four lane boulevard to get in position to get back on the freeway. A very nice construction pick-up helped stop traffic so I could get onto the road.

We arrived at the Riverfront RV Park fairly easily after crossing the Arkansas River and making three lefts and one right.

Here at the park we were pleasantly surprised by the openness and beautiful views from our RV spot. The full-service (water, sewer and wifi) spots are wide and level and cost just $21 a night.

The bridge to the Clinton Library for our park

After quickly setting up we sat down to a cold cut dinner, which I really like. Fresh turkey, ham and pepperoni made very good eating.

Because this is the first time we have camped with the trailer in Arkansas we added a state sticker to our map which is on the side of our trailer. Somehow in all our travels in the southeast and southwest we have managed to miss Mississippi and Louisiana so there is a little bit of a whole in our map. We'll get there in time.

As is our custom we took a walk around the park to locate the restrooms and showers and found them to be more than adequate for our two-day stay. Because of the short stay we are leaving the Tahoe and trailer hooked as the little bit of sightseeing we want to do can all be done on foot or by using a public trolley available for $2 for all day riding.

Arkansas River from our campground

Once again we are without cable TV so I have to spend ten minutes with the antenna every time we change channels, which is a drag, but a minor one.

Mileage out: 8476

Time out: 8:03 a.m.

Mileage in: 8961

Time in: 5:02 p.m.