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| View of Hot Springs, Arkansas from the Hot Springs Mountain Tower - Bathhouse Row is in the middle of the photo |
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Wow, it’s hard to believe that it has been almost a month
since we sent out our last blog. Coming
back through Arkansas from west to southeast this time was wonderful. It seems to us that when people speak of
Arkansas, “The Ozarks” is always the first thing that comes mind. This time we “discovered” the beauty of
Ouachita National Forest and we think it is every bit as beautiful as the
Ozarks. It amazes us that we had never
heard of this mountain range too. Hot
Springs National Park is in the southeastern edge of this forest.
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| Hot Springs Mountain Tower, on top of Hot Springs Mountain |
We stayed in the Gulpha Gorge Campground, very near the Hot
Springs Historical District.
Unlike any
other National Park, the Hot Springs Historical District is inside the National
Park boundary so there is no fee to visit here.
However, there is a fee to stay in the
campground.
We had a lot of fun here and the campground is
one of the prettiest of all the campgrounds that we have visited.
Our campsite was on a beautiful mountain
stream with a towering, tree-covered cliff (like a wall of green) behind
it.
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| Jerome and Carly out for a walk along the creek in Gulpha Gorge Campground, Hot Springs National Park |
We were surrounded by magnolia
trees, fragrant gardenia bushes, canopies of flaming mimosa trees abundant with
their pink puffs of flowers, and large crepe myrtle bushes thick with white,
magenta, and pink flower clusters.
Along
the creek-bed, a big muskrat would come out to stealthily munch on the leafy
greens on the banks.
For the bird-lovers
out there, you will understand how much we enjoyed seeing hummingbirds, hermit
thrashers, and even a scarlett tanager… what a treat!
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| Bathhouse Row |
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| inside the Fordyce Bathhouse - on Bathhouse Row |
There is so much history here in the historical
district. On Bathhouse Row, we toured
the Fordyce Bathhouse, which is also the Visitor Center for the Hot Springs
National Park. We also treated ourselves
to dinner in the Speakeasy room on the second floor of Rolando’s, a Latin
fusion restaurant.
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| Camerons Bohemian and fresh guacamole at Rolando's.... YUM! |
If you are ever in
Hot Springs, Arkansas, don’t miss eating at Rolando’s…. it’s absolutely
delicious. Unfortunately, our after
dinner plans to enjoy the “First Friday of the Month Art Walk” got rained out.
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| cute chipmunk on the Gulpha Gorge hiking trail at the Gulpha Gorge Campground |
Leaving Hot Springs, we headed southeast towards Mississippi
and traveled through all of the miles of lush green farmland with fields of
tall stalks of corn, knee-high bushes of soybeans, and spikes of rice. On an interesting note, did you know that
Arkansas if the leading producer of rice in the U.S.? As we got nearer to the Mississippi delta we
noticed that the soil was black, like the muck in Belle Glade, in the
Everglades, where Jean grew up. Our next campground was just across the
Mississippi River, near the town of Greenville, Mississippi.
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| Jerome and his butterfly "friend" relaxing in Warfield Park Campground, Greensville, Mississippi |
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| our campsite in Warfield Park Campground - the Mississippi River and a barge with tug boat in the background |
Warfield Park is a county park that has a
campground along the banks of the Mississippi River. It had just recently re-opened since being
flooded and the restrooms are in much need of renovation but it’s a neat
campground with lots of shade, an observation tower, and a great location on
the river. We thoroughly enjoyed sitting outside and
watching the barge and tugboat traffic on the river.
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| a LONG barge and tugboat on the Mississippi River |
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| beautiful sunset with tug and barge on the Mississippi River |
The southwestern corner of Mississippi was much like the
farmlands of Arkansas that we had just passed through but more flat and even
farther distances between seeing houses.
We estimated that at times we could drive 40 miles at a time without seeing
anything other than fields of green crops.
We returned next to a favorite campground, Twiltley Branch, in
Collinsville, Mississippi, where we just relaxed and painted. This time when we shopped at the Piggly
Wigley, in “town”, we found out that there is a great little buffet in this
grocery store that is quite a popular spot for the locals to come to eat and
socialize. The food is really good, the
local people are really friendly, and you can’t beat the price. We had a nice time meeting and visiting with
a retired hospital CEO while we ate our lunch here.
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| view from our campsite in Twiltley Branch Campground, Collinsville, Mississippi |
Our next stop was also a return-visit-campground. Miller’s Ferry Campground, near Camden,
Alabama is one of our favorite places to relax and this time we were determined
to finally go see the “Stokes Gator” that a local person had told us about the
very first time we came here. The
“Stokes Gator “ holds the world’s record for the largest gator, at 15ft. 9” and
weighing 1,011.5#. It was caught in
Mill Creek which is a distributary of Miller’s Ferry Reservoir (where the
campground is) on the Alabama River. It
is on permanent display at the Miller’s Ferry Dam Interpretive Center.
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| the "Stokes Gator" at the Miller's Ferry Dam Interpretive Center, near Camden, Alabama |
Now that we are back in the “south,” Jean is getting more
homesick even though she seems to always get a bad case of chiggers when we get
back into camping in the warmer, moist weather. At least she can still joke about being the
“Chigger Queen.”
We still have more camping and more to see yet before we get
home, so until next time….
We wish you bright days and cooler nights,
Jerome & Jean (and Carly, too)
