Maumelle Park – Little Rock

We left Arkadelphia at about 11:00AM, and drove to Maumelle State Park in Little Rock. We arrived and got set up in our reserved sites, and then took off in the car to check out the FMCA rally site. We wanted to verify the route for Monday’s drive to the rally.

After that, we drove over to Benton, Arkansas to see the house where we used to live, and to visit the plant site where I used to work in 1979. Here’s the house….. 28 years after we moved out of it!

Here’s the main building of the Tabular plant at Alcoa in Benton. This was the area that I managed there:

We then drove back to Maumelle State Park, stopping at a Kroger on the way to pick up some groceries. We had planned to grill something outside and have a potluck with our friends Wayne and Marynelle who were already at the park and set up when we got back. Here they are relaxing…..


At the park, we also cleaned the bugs off the front of the motorhome. After Patsy and I cleaned our Bus, the other two couples decided to clean their bugs off. Here’s a couple of pictures of Connie and Manuel working while our neighbor, David Cross of Centrailia, IL looks on!!

Monday, we head to the rally site for 7 days.

Heading for Arkansas

After spending the night at another Walmart, this time in Texarkana, we entered Arkansas. We stopped at the Welcome Center and had the receptionist mark up a map for a scenic route around Arkansas. She sent us up highway 7, which she said is one of the ten most scenic routes in the USA. We left the Welcome Center and headed to Arkadelphia, Arkansas to park the motorhomes in a campground, and take Manuel's car to do the tour.

The driving tour was nice, but the more scenic part of highway 7 must be further north, as the part the we went on was more developed, especially around Hot Springs. We drove about 200 miles, and saw a lot of forest area and lakes. We did make one stop at a vegetable stand where Patsy bought some sweet potatoes and I got some plums.

We got back to the campground and found that we had good cable TV, but could not get the Texas/Rice game!! There were too many trees, so I could not use the satellite to use the direct TV. It did have good WIFI.......... so it was a fair trade-off.


Connie made use of the WIFI to update their new blog....... http://esparzacm.blogspot.com/ . Check it out!!


Today, we are heading for Little Rock.

On the Road Again….. Our Fall Trip

We had been planning to do a Fall trip for several months. Our trip will take us to Little Rock, Washington DC, the Pennsylvania Amish Country, and New York City. We had planned to start the trip at a campout with the Gulf Coast RV Club at the Wolf Creek State Park on Lake Livingston this weekend. However, Hurricane Ike eliminated that when most of the members of the club, who live in the Houston area, had severe storm damage and could not spare the time. Some members even lost their RV's to the storm or had damage. In addition, Ike took out the electricity at the park, as well as most of East Texas. From there, we would have headed to North Little Rock to attend the FMCA “Rally at the Rock” convention. Connie and Manuel, our new Tiffin-Owner friends from the San Antonio-based ‘Allegro Amigos’ Tiffin club had decided to join us to both events. Earlier in the month, I was served a court summons to be on the County Grand Jury, which was to meet this past Friday!!! I managed to get excused from that! Regardless, the trip was still on!!

After talking with Connie and Manuel, we decided to leave on Thursday, as planned, but to instead travel up to Dallas and then head to Little Rock. We met up with them at the Flying “J” truck stop in Waco, and then drove to Dallas together. We intended to stop at Willie Nelson’s new truckstop and music emporium at Carl’s Corner, but it was not open yet!

We got to Dallas about 5:00pm and decided to stop at a Wal-Mart for the night. Once parked, we got into my car and drove to a Papasito’s Mexican Cantina for dinner. It was great! Here’s a picture:

Here’s a picture of our rigs in the night light at the Wal-Mart:

On Friday, we decided to go the Fort Worth Stockyard. We saw the area, watched to longhorn cattle drive down the main street, and had lunch. Here are a few photos:


Since my RVing buddy, Mark, is going to buy a new Phaeton motorhome in two weeks, he has been looking for a car to tow behind it. He asked me to be on the lookout for one, and when we spotted this one, Connie said “it would be perfect for Mark!”. She hasn’t’ met him yet, but she seems to know him well!!


Manuel really liked the set of longhorns on the front. While shopping, we found some for his Phaeton, but he did not think his Mercedes engine had enough power to push it with the horns attached………… so we left them for somebody else!


Of course, no visit to the stockyards would be complete without a visit to my sidewalk plaque. I’m pretty sure it is to honor me although nobody every told me about it. It must be mine............ It is my name!!!


We wrapped up our visit with a trip to Billy Bob’s Honky Tonk. It cost a $1 each to get in, but it was worth it. We got to see the dance floor, restaurant, event theater, and indoor rodeo arena. We even got to see a real (stuffed) bear:


We spend last night in a Walmart parking lot in Texarkana, TX, and today, we are going to stop at the Arkansas Welcome Center and let them route us a tourist route of Eastern Arkansas.

Waiting out IKE in San Antonio

Although we thoroughly enjoyed Connie's meals, we weren't going to let her cook all of them. On Friday night, we decided that the four of us would go out to a restaurant for dinner. Since Connie and Manuel's daughter-in-law owns the San Antonio 'Old San Francisco Steakhouse', that is where we decided to go and eat. It was a great meal. Here are some pictures of our night out.

The front of the restaurant........


The four of us inside the restaurant......


and the famous lady on a swing, including the dismount!.......



Back at our "campsite", we spent most of our time watching for news of the hurricane, and watching Connie cook! Between the reception from the HD roof antenna, and the Direct TV connection using the rooftop satellite, we had access to all the news coverage that was available.

Patsy's dad watching the news...................



My mom laying back and checking out the hurricane reports on TV...............



Connie caught 'doing her thing".............



Me checking for information on Connie's laptop............

On Saturday morning, the San Antonio news stations were saying that the local area would essentially get no activity from hurricane IKE. I called my brother, son, and a neighbor, and all reported nothing happening in Victoria.......... except for a little wind early in the morning. Patsy and I were anxious to get back home, remove all the boards, and get the house in order, so that we can leave on our two-month trip next week. We left shortly after noon, and got back to Victoria at about 3:00pm. At home, we found no damage.

Here's a picture of my mom riding in the passenger seat..............




............. and one of Patsy's dad riding in a dinette seat................



Here's the guy who got us there and back safely...... ME!



If plans go well, we will head out next Thursday for Little Rock, Washington DC, the Pennsylvania Amish Country, and New York City.

Bad IKE, Good Friends in San Antonio

As we were boarding up on Wednesday, I got a phone call from Manuel and Connie, a couple who are Tiffin motorhome owners that we met in the new club that we joined, and they offered that we could evacuate to their 2 acre site on the west side of San Antonio. At the time, the hurricane was going to hit Victoria, and then, head north to San Antonio and Austin, so I was not sure that San Antonio was where I wanted to go.

Manuel, who had thought we were leaving on Wednesday night, called about 9:00pm to see where we were at! I told him that I was tired and in bed watching the hurricane news. Once again, he sincerely offered a place to stay, and since IKE was beginning to head east of us, I told him that we probably would stay with them. We also had calls from other Tiffin owners around the country that were concerned about us, including, the Stampers from Austin, the Didelot’s from Des Moines, Iowa, and the North’s from Washington. We also got an email from Steve and Sandy Allgire from Washington.

We packed the motorhome on Wednesday night and made plans to leave early on Thursday morning. We also were taking my mother and Patsy’s dad with us.

When we got to Connie and Manuel’s, the gate was open, and we were directed to our “campsite” near the building where they store their motorhome. He even gave me his 50amp hookup and a water connection. His lot is very deep, and they have done a lot to ‘landscape’, complete with a small party area. It would make a good place for a small RV rally!!

Connie and Manuel are really nice folks. Before the hurricane, we already had made plans to travel with them to a Gulf Coast RV Club rally at Wolf Creek Park, near Livingston next weekend, and then on to an FMCA motorhome rally in North Little Rock on the following Monday, and finally meeting up with Mark and Sue Didelot at the Tom Sawyer RV Park in Memphis.

After we arrived, we found that Connie had already make a lunch for us, and then later in the evening, she made a very good dinner for us. After dinner, they got a phone call from a nephew from Corpus Christi, who had already evacuated from there, and he said he was bringing breakfast tacos on Friday morning………… so naturally, Connie said bring enough for their guests!!! Full hookups complete with meals………. Best campground that I’ve ever stayed in!!!!

Here are some pictures, the first is of our rig at "the campsite":

The following is the "partying area" in the back of the house.........

A view of Manuel and Connie's home from our rig.....

Our "campsite" viewed from the patio of Manuel and Connie's home..........

Connie's kitchen, where we had many good meals...................

Manuel showing off some of his "beer can" airplanes. He gave me the one that he is holding, and it will hand from my outside mirror at future campgrounds..........

More to come..........

Early Birthday Party for the Grandkids

We had been watching the development of Hurricane IKE for the past several days. Aunt Deanne had come home from Little Rock for a birthday party on Saturday of this week. Matthew is going to be four on September 16, and Aubrey will be three on September 12.

On Wednesday morning, the hurricane was forecast to make a direct hit on Victoria, so we made the decision to board up the house and get out of town in the Bus. We also decided that on Wednesday night, we would do an abbreviated birthday party so Aunt Deanne could give them her presents, and then head back to home in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Here are some pictures of the event:

The kid excited to see their balloons......................

........ their beagle puppy, Jack, watched through the patio door...........

The next morning, we left town to "run" from hurricane IKE!!