Our Road Trips

10/3/2014

We spent the last 3 days traveling from Little Rock to just south of Memphis, TN (Coldwater, MS) and then from Coldwater to Hattiesburg, MS. The drives were pretty straight forward, mostly interstates, and without incident. While in Coldwater, we spent 2 nights at a ACE park called Hernando Point on Lake Arkabutla, a reservoir on the Coldwater River behind the Arkabutla Dam. It was a beautiful spot on the water, quiet as it could be, because it was mostly empty. And with our Senior Pass, it was only $9/night, hard to beat. Last night, we experienced a pretty severe storm that came across the lake about 11 pm. It shook the camper enough that it concerned us both. We even got an alert from the National Weather Service on Barb's phone to take cover. With nowhere to go and no way to see if anything was out there, we sat tight and waited for it to blow by. It lasted about 40 mins, a little scary. But all is well today, no damage, no one hurt. We did see a lot of power company trucks heading north today, so somewhere, there are folks who didn't fare as well as we did.

Yesterday, we spent the day driving up to Memphis and making a visit to Graceland, home of Elvis Presley, the king of Rock. We were at Tupelo, his birth place, last summer when we learned that Barb's mom had passed. So now we have been to his birthplace, the place he lived, & died, and been on an Elvis cruise on Carnival, so we have Elvis pretty much covered. I think we can move on to our next rock star...maybe travel to England and see where John Lennon was born, as we saw the place he was murdered last summer in New York City. This could get expensive :). But we both enjoyed our tour of Graceland and I suppose we are both glad we went...probably no reason to go back tho.

Tonight, we are in the Paul B Johnson State Park ( http://www.mdwfp.com/parks-destinations/ms-state-parks/paul-b-johnson.aspx) just south of Hattiesburg, MS. We are going to stay here 2 nights and then move on to Panama City, where we have 4 nights reserved at a State Park on the beach ...enjoy the beach and being back in Florida. It has been an amazing summer and tomorrow will mark 6 months on the road, so 4 nights on the beach will be a nice welcome back to Florida time.

Yesterday, my sister Ann passed along info that we have a famous Great Uncle who founded the U of Arkansas in Little Rock and has become a bit of a hero there. We now have a reason to return, which will also probably require a return trip to the Bill Clinton Library...we both enjoyed that visit. So, if you are ever in Little Rock, look up my Great Uncle John Larson, founder of UALR...there is even a bust of him somewhere on campus they placed last fall. He was my Grandfather's oldest brother. And the ACE Park in Maumelle is a beautiful place to stay. We highly recommend camping there. Staying at this place for $10/night is hard to beat. It is worth the trip.

Steve & Barb Larson