Busman's Holiday

Road Trip Day One

Pete at Camp

If I have my definitions right a busman's holiday refers to when a bus driver finally took a vacation he spent his time off riding a bus. For us a busman's holiday means going camping. Not only did we head out in an RV to travel to Texas, we also planned our trip so that each day was mini adventure at a different campground. Most of the time we plan our vacations around getting to a specific destination and then we take time off. This time we enjoyed the ride. Our travel companion Pete ( our big yellow lab), was part of the 1900 mile adventure. Dogs certainly do like being in a motor coach. He could walk around and really stretch out for afternoon naps.  We planned our trip to see country and city, friends and family,  as well as just time for us. We stayed in private campgrounds and public campgrounds. We have a new respect for the challenges of running both now that we are campground owners ourselves. Despite the heat, the time spent outside was still the best part of the vacation. We saw some nice art but in my mind, at least, nature still does it best.

Natchez Trace

As I reflect  back on the trip, I thought it might be fun to share a few of our adventures with people visiting our space. Day one took us to my favorite campground of the trip, a Good Sam park 12 miles south of Tupelo, Mississippi called Naches Trace.   It only has 32 sites and they were close together. What impressed me was how well kept the campground was and how relaxed I felt staying there. Located on 30 acres, the campground had a small swimming pool, a hiking area, and a pond. There was a lot of grassy open space as well. We picked up several good ideas concerning site design and how to make our pool more inviting. It was a park that was showing me when fewer sites are done well they may have the advantage over parks with many more sites in a tight space. In any case we swam, hiked and enjoyed talking to the neghbors.

The Metal Museum

Tom Sawyer

With the King

Back on the road our destination was Memphis. I had two goals - to visit Graceland and eat barbeque.   We stated at another Good Sam Park- Tom Sawyer in West Memphis, Arkansas. We were right on the Mississippi River. The park has large pull through sites with concrete slabs but not much else. Our neighbors were many big rigs. The campground had obviously flooded in years past and some of the key electrical connections were well above ground. Besides the river we loved how convenient the park was for site seeing in Memphis. Graceland did not disappoint and was a great look back at the 70's. We learned Memphis barbeque is more about pulled pork than ribs. Our trip to Germantown  to sample the meat was well worth the journey. We topped off the visit with breakfast at an Inn overlooking the river and  a visit to the Bass Pro Shop in the Pyramid.  Rick got a new rod and reel for bass fishing here. We also visited the ornamental metal museum. I took pictures of most everything on display.It was amazing.

 
Next stop Conway Arkansas. Would you believe we found a place to stay just 3 miles from family? Everything else was about 20 miles away. The  mobile home park had a few sites that could accommodate RV's. Although many of the units were older, the park was well kept up and we could not beat the access. We learned about Frog Suck which is suppose to be whirlpool in the river.

Petite Jean State Park 

Petite Jean State Park was a place to take a real hike, see the waterfall and enjoy time with grand kids.  Not having been there for over 30 years I was not sure what to expect. The nightly rate was inexpensive but two nights were required to reserve our overnight spot on a weekend. The bear cave adventure at dusk with a ranger was great as was our morning hike along the creek. It was hard to see the boarded up lodge and numerous picnic tables that had likely not been in use as group for quite some time. This park is on top of a mesa, a bit out of the way and Arkansas has many lovely camping destinations. As I looked at all the campers scattered throughout the woods, I missed our back country backpacking trips with a 360 view of nature alone. Still it was fun to toast marshmallows, eat so-mores and tell ghost stories.

We spent the next day in Hot Springs and visited the smallest National Park in the country. We took a duck boat  tour learning about Gangsters and Spanish explorers. We ate Cuban food and tried to guess who was there for the Miss Arkansas pageant. Our campground that night was disjointed. Some parts were nice but other spaces needed work. Still it was our first stop with cable TV and it was nice catch up a bit with what was happening in the world.

The recent heavy rains in Texas made finding a spot near Dallas somewhat more challenging. Lake Lavon in Wiley had some space open and given the Dallas traffic, being 15 miles out in the country was not all that bad. This Corp of Engineer's park had gate. We missed curfew by 10 minutes and had to hike to our site. The next morning we saw our jeep had been joined by 5 other cars. We loved the Texas beef barbeque but found much of the really big city had lost its appeal. The 3 story mall seemed way too much to take in and each freeway trip was a major challenge. The heat topped 100 and it was time to start heading back.

Texas Sunset

Texas Barbeque

We did more straight driving on the way back and found a fast moving storm just as we had stopped to look for concrete sculptures for our new miniature golf course. We can't wait to share with our guests these neat finds to decorate our course. The campground we located in Tucumsia was blocked by a downed power line and tree. We ended up just down the road at park that had seen better days but was on it's way back. The bath house and laundry were new. We loved all the trees. There was still however much work to be done. Our hostess was great and the email thank you as we settled in and the next day were also very welcome. Many campers might look at park like this and see all the problems.. We looked at the park and saw its potential. We wish the owners the very best.

On to Huntsville to see Lowe's Mill Art Studios.  It's open to the public Wednesday and Thursday so it fit best during this part of the trip. It is a dog friendly art gallery. The cement floors of the old mill and the studios with windows make it easy to take your dog everywhere. Parking was a bit of challenge in the RV but it was great for Pete. We are not sure if enjoyed the art much but he always likes a good explore with family.

We finished the trip at Lake Martin in Alabama. The state park has over 200 sites with many directly on the water. Each site was back in and the park was a very busy place even on a Wednesday. Like the other two public parks we had visited it had a different feel than private. There is more acreage for sure and more industrial strength amenities. Mostly it was great to see so many families camping  and creating great memories for the next generation.

What this trip reinforced for me is that no RV park can expect to meet everyone's expectations. Most of us when we travel do not stay exclusively 5 star hotels. As an RVer I am generally not looking for the most deluxe and most expensive accommodations I can find. Sometimes my route takes me to places where it's enough to have a reasonable expectation of safety, value, cleanliness and courtesy. On a road trip like this we often had unique experiences that we would not have encountered if we had we stayed on major interstates or only in public or private spaces. I loved eating the flakiest biscuit ever at a diner in Tucumsia  and learning the city is the home of Alabama's Music Hall of Fame.  The scenic view in Arkansas rivaled those I had seen in the Rocky Mountains.

In the upcoming year you will see more changes in Lake Eufaula Campground. Many will have been inspired by our trip or reinforced by the journey. We hope that everyone feels welcome here, that our rules make sense, that guests do spend time in Nine Ponds for that 360 view of nature and that we can make your list of one of your best campgrounds rather than one that still needs much work. Thanks to all of our hosts along the way and happy camping everyone.