42 and Me

Wall Doxey State Park, MS

We really took our time this morning getting on the road. It felt quite luxurious to hang out for several hours and just enjoy the quiet time in the campground. We were about an hour and a half from Little Rock our first destination of the day and not in any hurry to get there.

Our original plan was to view the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum at noon, but it turns out it didn't open til one. No problema. Six years ago when we first visited Little Rock we had taken a short bike ride on the River Trail. It was just taking shape and apparently had great plans. Well, six years later it looks great! Even though it was a bit cool, in the low 60's, and overcast we took our chances on no rain and decided to go for an hour ride on the trail.

I love Little Rock. It ranks up there with one of my top 10 cities. It's a beautiful river city, with a brew pub on each block, and the people are super friendly. It seems as if there's always something going on here too. Today was some kind of film festival and the city was getting ready for their big Memorial Weekend River Music Festival. Flags were flying, tents were being set up and policeman on horseback were roaming about. Unfortunately, the River Trail was closed in some spots due to all this activity, so we just rode through the heart of town over a bridge and enjoyed the River Trail on the other side of the Arkansas River. It was fantastic! We ended up crossing back on an awesome bridge right next to the Presidential Library. Perf.

Aesthetically, the architecture of the Clinton Library is stunning. It overlooks the river and the park grounds are beautiful with walkways that take you around ponds and lots of foliage. The building is also a Premium LEED status. Once inside we toured 3 floors. I love history and politics so this was especially fun for me. Clinton's Presidential Limo was on display, there was a re-creation of his Cabinet room and the Oval Office. We also really enjoyed the movie, the timeline of events during his presidency and memorabilia. One of my favorite things was also seeing all the cool gifts that were received during his presidency. Many of the anecdotes and stories were really fun too. One of my fave was about when President Jiang from China visited. Clinton was giving a tour of the White House to President Jiang and showed him the Gettysburg Address, whereupon President Jiang recited it from memory! Who knew?!

Today was also the first day of the Dale Chihuly Glass Exhibit. Wow - his glass sculptures are breathtaking. It was fun to see his preliminary sketches and how he transformed his ideas into glass.

After hanging out with President No. 42 for several hours, we had to mosey on into Mississippi. We took backroads to get there, enjoyed crossing over the Mississippi River and connecting with our trip last year. For those of you following our route, we took highway 4 across Mississippi to Wall Doxey State Park. This little background was gorgeous. You really feel like you are in the Deep South. Lots of green foliage, kuzdo vine climbing up trees and taking over abandoned barns and pastures of newly planted rice, wheat and corn. Dang I love this part of the country!

We finally arrived at this charming State Park close to 8. It's appears to have lots of CCC stone structures, thickly wooded campsites and best of all a washer and dryer!!
As I write this blog we are doing are first load of laundry of the trip (wine time for me, beer for Ned.) Kinda luxurious to have 3G connection and do laundry while camping. Things sure have changed since I started blogging our trips 6 years ago. It's such a joy not to have to drive around in search of pirating wifi. Fun day, but then again it's always fun hanging out with Ned and doing stuff.

Opting Not to Take the Cure

Lake Ouachita State Park, AR

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning, or should I say the lightbulb in the five gallon bucket so prominently displayed all night by our neighbors, finally lost its bright glow. I never can figure out why grown men need a campsite lit up all night, especially when everyone is all lined up in their 5th wheels. But, I digress...

Beaver's Bend State Park was jam packed last night and every other campsite seemed to be sporting some kind of hot rod. First thing this morning a parade of the street rods took a ceremonious lap and finally all parked on the community green. Apparently, it was the big weekend of the "Rod Run". We didn't stick around, but decided to move on for Arkansas was calling. We did enjoy watching the late street rod arrivals as they came past us into the meet.

Our big outing for the day was visiting Hot Springs, particularly the National Park. The weather was a cool and breezy 60ish perfect weather for soaking in the baths. We packed a backpack with bathing suits and rain gear figuring we had the bases covered. We enjoyed walking down Bathhouse Row and reading about the history of these houses in their glory days. We knew a couple of them were still operating as bathhouses so were eagerly looking forward to "taking the cure". Our first stop was at the official National Park Headquarters where we were able to tour the Fordyce Bathhouse. This establishment was thought to be the best of the hot spring bathhouses and people came from all over to cure everything from liver ailments to syphilis.

We began the tour with a very dated movie about the history of Hot Springs and how the springs geologically occur. The building felt very Victorian and had lots of tile, marble and stained glass. The wood work was gorgeous, particularly in the women's dressing room. However, as we went from floor to floor to floor and began to really see the baths and the techniques used we started to get a little creeped out and even a bit queasy.

The longer we poked around the more it felt like we were in some kind of torture chamber. For example, the Hydro-Therapeutic Room touts. "It's equipment includes sun-ray cabinets, frigid cabinets, devices for sprays, douches, Sitz baths, electric baths(!) and the like." And how could one not want to partake in the Chiropody Room where foot problems are treated in a number of ways. "Painful cysts between the bones on the bottoms of feet would be crushed and slid off with sideward knuckle punches." And let us not forget the Hubbard Tub Room where underwater treatments were given for...we're not quite sure what. However a sign did say that this room was formerly used to administer mercury rubs once a standard treatment for syphilis. Great....can't wait to soak in that tub!! Ned got really freaked out about the firehouse on the wall near the tubs. Not really sure if these were used to fill the tubs or give enemas. Ahhhh....At this point Ned and I found our way out of the building and decided to forego taking "the cure" and decided to pig out on BBQ. Smoked ribs and coleslaw were such the better choice!

Tonight we are camped at Lake Ouachita State Park. Even tho it's cool and threatening to rain the campground hopping. We had the choice to take the last electrical spot, which is basically in a gravel parking lot, or opt for the tent campsites. Guess which we chose. Tent campers don't like rain so we got a great spot in an almost empty campground loop over looking the lake. It feels good to just hang out read and play some games. I'm teaching Ned backgammon so he'll have a chance to beat me at something else besides Skip-O.

Experiencing the Chisholm Trail

Broken Bow State Park, OK

After eating dinner and posting the blog last night, we decided to head to the wide open range where we had spotted the bison and prairie dogs earlier. Bingo! What a treat we had watching the bison migrate across the road, get frisky with each other and interact with their calves. The sunset over the wide open prairie was pretty spectacular too!

This morning we purposely got up earlier to do an "easy" bike ride in the park. Note to self, any bike route labeled easy with the name "Mt. Scott trail" one should take with a grain of salt. It was far from easy, but at least we got a good cardio work-out!
The wildflowers are abundant in this park and and it was beautiful to ride past fields of colors. We were also treated by seeing longhorn out grazing and more bison. Sweet!

After that little jaunt was out of the way, we headed for the Visitor Center and took in a movie and had fun with looking at all the exhibits. A park ranger did clear up for me what that sweet little red bird was last night. It was called a Summer Tanager. We've been to many National Parks and this Wildlife Refuge rates right up there with the best of them. In fact, I much preferred this to the Waterton Peace Park in Canada. The only thing that park had over this one was the lodge, but the camping and wildlife viewing were far superior here.

The big highlight of the day was stopping at the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center. If anyone is ever around Lawton, OK I definitely encourage you to check out this super fun museum. It was very interactive and we enjoyed roping cattle and learning all about the history of the Chisholm trail. There were also two theatres. One was an animatronic (think Abe Lincoln at Disneyland) little sketch with Jesse Chisholm and a cowboy, Tex, out on the range. The other was a real hoot!! We were seated with a gazillion school kids and watched a film about what it was like to drive cattle for 100 days on the trail. The kicker was that it was SUPER interactive. When it rained, water was sprinkled over us; when the wind blew on the prairie, we felt wind blowing on us; when the rain and thunder blew our seats shook; when bacon was frying, we were supposed to smell that (that part was a bit lame), but we definitely smelled all the wildflowers on the range. At the end of the movie we participated in a sing-a-long with the school kids. Tons of fun!!

For the majority of the day we drove across Oklahoma. It was interesting to see the topography change from dry and arid, to wide open prairie and then the lush rolling hills with swollen rivers and creeks of Eastern Oklahoma. We are camped tonight at the biggest state park I have ever camped in. It is enormous, with about 395 campsites spread out over 100's of acres. There is also cabins, restaurants, paddle boats, hay rides, train rides, tennis courts, golf course and goodness knows what else.

We are in a very wooded campground and poor Winnie is dwarfed by the 5th wheels and pick-ups. As I write this there is country music playing, smokers going and lots of "howdy-do's" and "thank-you ma'ams" We have definitely left the Southwest and have officially entered into the South. Perfect. Kinda getting us prepared for our venture into Arkansas tomorrow. I expect we've left the land of beef and will be entering into the land of pork bellies, hush puppies, grits and sweet tea.

Home on the Range

Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge, Lawton, OK

It was either a full moon or pretty near to a full moon last night. Either way it lit up the red cliffs of Palo Duro Canyon and just added to the magic of this incredibly beautiful Southwest camping site. We had visited this campground about 6 years ago and did a really fun bike ride. Since then, this State Park has really become all about the mountain bike riding experience. There were lots of trails to choose from! First thing this morning, after a false start due to a bridge being rebuilt, we finally found the perfect trail. Even tho I'm much more of a "Rails-to-Trails" bike rider, I really did enjoy riding through the rough terrain, thru the canyon and up to the cliffs. It seemed like we had the whole canyon to ourselves and really enjoyed the bunnies running across the trail and the birds singing away. We did a solid 10 mile ride before finally heading out. What a great way to start the day.

We continued our drive thru the panhandle of Texas and passed through some sad little towns. I suspect that by the next generation these towns will no longer exist.
As it was now, they seemed on the verge of being ghost towns barely hanging on and situated so forlornly in the dry dusty plains. They all had the ubiquitous court house in the middle of the square, but almost every store front was vacant, dilapidated or boarded up. At one point we stopped at a DQ (pee break for me, ice cream for Ned) and there was a sign taped to the front door saying "Sorry, out of ice cream. Expecting truck delivery sometime today." DQ's are as common as Baptist Churches in these Southern towns, so it really did feel a bit blasphemous to have this last bastion of Southern Americana fade away.

When we rolled into Oklahoma it was as if someone waved a magical wand over that imaginary geographical state line. Suddenly, the dry arid plains with sage brush rolling around turned into fields of newly planted cotton or wheat. The terrain sprouted occasional trees and gentle rolling hills.

Tonight we are staying at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Southwestern Oklahoma. Yes, the internet didn't fail me on this one! It is touted as being wild, rugged, and weathered. It's 59,000 acres and we are camped amongst 650 head of bison, 300 head of longhorns and too many prairie dogs to count. We took the scenic backroads into the refuge and as we drove over a hill, were in awe of the bison herds wondering about and delighted in watching the antics of the prairie dogs. The campground is under a grove of oak trees and has all the modern amenities a girl could want - flush toilets and hot showers.

Tonight as we were eating dinner (Grilled rib-eye steaks and sweet potatoes) a brilliant brick-red colored little bird sat about 2 feet from me. He hung out there for several minutes just chirping away. Pretty cool! We took a drive at dusk to see if we could spot anymore bison. We saw a few, but not as many as this afternoon. Loving the wide open range with all the wildflowers and wildlife.

Back in the Saddle

Palo Duro Canyon State Park, TX

Our original plan, albeit made while indulging in adult libations, was to be soaking in the hot springs by 8 am. We woke closer to 8:30. Plan B entailed being in the pool by 9:30. That worked too. The skies were bright blue and much warmer. So warm in fact that we took in the mud baths today. It felt so good to smear wet mud all over our bodies, head to toe, and then bask in the sun until we cake dried. After soaking in the mud pool we further rinsed off under the hot water shower made of buckets with holes drilled in the bottom. I definitely want one of these for our house! Swimming laps in the kiva pool and then hopping from one hot spring to another felt too damn good. I was really reluctant to leave, but I knew we had a 5 hour drive ahead of us and I wanted to take in this RV Museum in Amarillo, TX that I read about.

One of our "rules of the road" is not to take the interstate. We live for the backroads and two lane highways. However, there really aren't many choices between Sante Fe and Amarillo so Interstate 40 it was! At one point we got off to ride the historic Route 66, but in reality it was just a frontage road paralleling the interstate. Considering there was nothing but wide open plains and sage brush all around, it felt kinda stupid to just be paralleling the interstate with about 20 feet between the two roads. We bailed and got back on the interstate.

So, you know how you're not supposed to believe everything you read on the internet? Yeah, that happened. I was so excited to see a 1936 Alma, 1937 Elkhart Traveler, a 1948 Flixible Clipper, etc. and the museum was free! When we finally found this "museum" it turns out it was an RV Trailer Sales Center. Sigh. We also didn't take into consideration the hour time change so to add insult to injury, it was closed. Just as well, Ned wasn't particularly looking forward to a Texas RV Salesman giving him the hard sell just to his wife could look at some old campers!

We finally pulled into Palo Duro Canyon State Park around 6ish. We camped here several years ago and really loved it. This is the second largest canyon in the United States. It's 120 miles long and 600 to 800 feet deep. It's awesome cause you can camp at the bottom of the canyon near all these great red cliffs. It sure felt good to be back in the saddle again, both at this state park and in a "real" campground.

Debi's Favorite Place

Ojo Caliente, NM

Ned here. We started out today with nice sunny weather in Green River, Utah. Debi. however, checked the weather online in Gunnison, Colorado (along with several other possible destinations in the Rockies), and we were looking at 3-5 inches of snow and night time temps in the teens. Therefore, we decided to head as far south as possible today, in search of better weather. To get ahead of the storm, we finally decided to head south at Durango, Colorado, passing by Mesa Verde, which looked beautiful. Soon after that, the weather went to hell. Nothing ever actually stuck, but there were several hours today wherheaded into driving snow. Our initial plan was to stop at Pagosa Hot Springs, but when we got there it was still snowing, so we looked at each other and decided to drive another 2 hours to Debi's favorite place on earth, Ojo Caliente! On the way there, Debi devised a typical back road strategy, which took us past a little town called El Rito. The road was very narrow and the stucco houses were very close to the road, giving the place the feel of a very old Mexican village. It looked like either an artists colony, or a location for people who want to definitely stay under the radar. We finally arrived at Ojo Caliente, which we were thrilled to return to, after we had originally fallen in love with the place on our Hot Springs Tour in October 2012. The clouds had parted, the afternoon light was perfect, and the place looked even more beautiful than we remembered it. We immediately got on our swim suits and began a luxurious tour of all the six hot springs pools which were open. My favorite is still the one which has a ceramic pot with hot water pouring out of it which you can soak your head and neck under. Debi loved alternating between soaking in the "arsenic pool" which is at about 104 degrees, and then swimming and stretching out in the large round kiva pool, which is at 89 degrees. After more than 2 hours of this luxurious behavior, we headed to the restaurant where we gorged ourselves on delicious chicken fajitas, washed down with an excellent Zin. For this reason, we both now feel like wet noodles, and I offered to write Debi's blog tonight, as she was in no shape to get it done. The final photo below is of Debi, sitting contentedly next to the fireplace in the restaurant after a couple of hours of hot springs and an excellent dinner. I think the photo speaks for itself.