Tom Sawyer’s RV Park

 

We are now in West Memphis, Arkansas at Tom Sawyer’s RV park.  This park is one of our top 5 parks and this is our third visit.  As for amenities the park is nothing special and the town is not one you want to visit, but what the park has is amazing views of the Mississippi River and the barges going by.  You can read more about it and see some pictures from my posting last year  http://charlandrv.blogspot.com/2011/02/mississippi-river.html.

This year the river is really low but the barges are still able to get by.  Here is a picture of the view from our window.

The brown you see on the other side of the water is the river bed.  Normally that is covered by water.

In my last posting I mentioned how the park gets flooded every year and that when we were here then the river was on the rise.  Yesterday I was talking with the owner and he showed me the high water mark from the flood last year.  It was on a building up at the entrance to the park, which is some distance from the normal banks of the river.  He said it crested at 48 feet, which was a record since he has owned the park.  I then asked how they prepare for the flood and the damage after.  He said they have “seasons” at the park.  First there is winter, where they do get some overnight RV traffic.  Then there is flood, when the river rises and floods a good part of the park.  Next is recovery, this is where they put everything back and clean up.  Finally there is the money season, which is what we are currently in.  This is their peak time of year where all the spaces are generally full most nights.

To prepare for the flood they have to remove all the picnic tables, benches and take off the electrical boxes at each site.  Recovery means returning all those items plus clearing away any debris that may have stayed behind and replacing gravel on the roadways and sites.  It is amazing that they do this each year but from I understand this is an investment for the owner and not his source of income, so I guess it gives him some leeway in keeping the park open.

Tupelo, Mississippi

 

OK, I know you are saying it in your head so let’s do it, M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. Because of that catchy song I think I could spell Mississippi before I could spell the state I lived in, California!

Quick, what is Tupelo known for?

That’s right, the birthplace of Elvis Presley.  Shame on you if you had to look at my answer.

Tupelo was a good stopping point on our way to Memphis and it had something to see.  We found a beautiful small RV park on the edge of town that has a fantastic weekly rate.  The park has lots of trees but I was amazed that we are able to position our rig in the space so that we could use our roof mounted satellite for TV.

The weather has just been perfect so far, except for one partially rainy day.  The days are fall like with hardly any humidity and the nights are cool. 

Today we visited the Elvis birthplace and museum.  It is a very nice facility that includes the home he was born in, the church his family attended, a memorial chapel and a small museum.  As Elvis was only in Tupelo for the first 13 years of his life you can imagine the museum does not have much to display.  The house is still at the original place where it was built.  They bought the land around the house to build the museum and they moved the church to the site.  It was a nice visit and I would recommend it if you are passing through here.  I would not go of my way to come visit it, unlike Graceland, which is a really cool place to see.

So, I will give you pictures so you can say you have seen it.  No admission cost on my blog!

This is the original Assembly of God church his family worshipped in.  It was moved to this site from a few blocks away.

Inside the church.

Statue of Elvis at 13.

The house where Elvis was born.  A two room “shotgun” style home.

Front room of house.

Back room of house.

Here is some trivia for you.  The Presley family only lived in this house for a few years as Vernon Presley (Elvis’s father) went to prison for forging a check and the house was foreclosed on.  They moved to a couple of other places in Tupelo before moving to Memphis in 1948, when Elvis was 13.

For his 11th birthday his mother took him to Tupelo Hardware for his birthday present.  Elvis really wanted a .22 rifle but the owner of the store cautioned the mother about such a purchase for safety concerns and recommended a guitar.  Elvis was disappointed but realized the guitar was the only thing his mother would buy or he would get nothing.  As they say, the rest is history!  The Tupelo Hardware store is still in its original location and run by the same family.

Montgomery Sightseeing

On Monday we decided to venture out into Montgomery and take in some of the sights.  As it was Columbus Day many of the buildings were closed, which was OK with us as we have grown a little of tired of museums and historical places for the time being.  Instead we took a trolley tour of the town which drove by the sights and explained the history.  Later we walked around and took some pictures. 

The downtown portion of Montgomery is very nicely maintained and worth a visit.  They have a policy of not tearing down the old buildings but rather rehab them and put new businesses in.  Most of the things to see in town relate to the civil rights movement.  You have the Rosa Parks museum, The Civil Rights museum, the church where Martin Luther King Jr., was pastor and the house where he lived.  They also have Old Alabamatown, which is a restored portion of the city that dates back to its founding.  The state capitol is also here along with the White House of the Confederacy.

Not sure if you can make this out but this is an old building inside of a new one. As the policy is to keep old buildings, and this was the original state supreme court, they kept the building and then built a modern structure around it.  Beyond the glass you can see the marble stairway and beyond that the front of the original building.

State Capitol

Church where King was pastor from 1954 to 1960.

Neat fountain in front of the National Civil Rights Museum.  This is stone with water running over the top and falling down the sides.  Carved into the top is a timeline of events in the civil rights movement.

The White House of the Confederacy.

This is a fountain in downtown that was placed over a natural spring.  This was where the slave auction was held on Wednesdays at noon.

We had heard about two restaurants that were a must to try out while in Montgomery.  The first is Dreamland BBQ which is famous for its ribs.  The original Dreamland is in Tuscaloosa but they now have others in the state.  I tried their ribs but was not impressed. 

The second restaurant is Chris’s Hot Dogs.  The is the oldest restaurant in Montgomery.  It was started in 1917 and is still family owned and run.  Their hot dogs have mustard, onions, sauerkraut and their own chili sauce.  Very messy, but very good.  The restaurant looks like it has been there since 1917!  Highly recommend this place.

Fire Ants!

 

This past Thursday we moved from Carabelle, Florida to Hope Hull, Alabama, which is just outside Montgomery.  The drive was uneventful but scenic as the route, via our GPS, was on state highways and county roads, so the trip took a little longer but took us through some small towns.

The park is nothing special but meets our needs.  It is basically a park for RV’ers to stop overnight as it is right off Interstate 65.  The spaces are a nice size and the weekly rate is the cheapest we have ever paid, so that is nice.  The one thing they do have here is fire ants, which, to the best of my knowledge, is my first experience with them.  In California  we had larger red ants and in Illinois we had regular black ants.  These fire ants are interesting in that they build big mounds of dirt and from the surface nothing seems unusual until you disturb the mound, then all HELL breaks loose.  The park owner warned us about them and said he tries to keep up with the mounds by pouring gasoline on them.  They are called fire ants as their bite/sting feels like a burn.  We have not had any issue with them getting into the trailer, but I had a run in with them on Saturday morning.  I was moving our outdoor mat and did not see that an ant mound had been created underneath it and when I moved the mat the ants starting coming out.  I did not notice them on the mat until I looked down and saw a bunch on my sandals and feet.  I quickly brushed them off but a few of them bit me.  It is a small sting but went away quickly and no other issues.  So now I watch where I am walking.

There is a large mound of them in the space across the road from us so I took a picture of the mound undisturbed then I moved the dirt (with a long stick) and took another picture of the ants that came out.  Hopefully you can see them'.

Before

After

If Wikipedia is to be believed these ants came to the US here in Alabama on a cargo ship that arrived in Mobile. 

Carrabelle, Florida

 

We continue our loop through the south and decided to explore the gulf coast of Florida.  We have been doing a lot of sightseeing lately and thought it might be nice to just relax near some water (like we are stressed!).  I picked out a little RV park right on the water in Carrabelle, Florida.  It is about 50 miles south of Tallahassee.  But first let me tell you about our drive here.

The drive was uneventful until we were about 30 miles from the park on a two lane state highway.  I had heard a sound but thought it was from trucks or another vehicle on the road as our vehicle was handling fine and I noticed no issues.  Further down the road I was looking out the side mirror to check traffic and noticed the car behind us weaving a little and I saw bits of rubber bouncing on the roadway.  As I saw that I noticed that one of the tires on the trailer, drivers side, was flat.  The trailer was tracking straight and the flat was not noticeable in the handling of the truck.  I then started looking for a place to pull over as the shoulder on the roadway was not sufficient to stop the truck and trailer without blocking the road.  After a couple of miles I finally found a place large enough to get fully off the road.  The trailer tire had completely shredded with only a little rubber left around the rim.  I called Good Sam roadside assistance and after some problems finding someone to come out a tow truck showed up to change our tire.  When he pulled off the tire he found the rest of the tire wrapped around the drum.  The electrical connections for the trailer brakes on that wheel had become disconnected, but other than that it did not appear there was any other damage.  After about 2 hours we were back on the road.

What is left of the tire.

At the RV park I did a closer inspection and was able to fix the electrical connections. A tire has been ordered from a local dealer. This was the first flat tire on a RV that we have owned.  Now we will be seeing how well the extended warranty plan we purchased works as it does include tire and wheel protection.

The park is nothing special except that it sits right the water.  We were not able to get one of the back in water sites but yesterday we were able to move to a site that faces the water so we do have a nice view.

Sunrise over the gulf.

The RV park from a pier they have.

Not sure if you can make it out but on each of the pilings there is a pelican perched on the top.