Days 6-13 Craighead Forest, Jonesboro Arkansas

 I am finally feeling up to snuff at least 90%. So we decided to leave Cave in Rock State Park in Illinois and head south and west towards Arkansas.  It looks like we were going to be in four different states in one day. 

While we are cruising along, I am writing in my quilted journal. This was a gift from my friend Judy back in Wisconsin. We used it on our last trip out east. So now I started a new section on this trip.

When logging things in, I'm using my pen from my beloved late mother-in-law, Mary Anne Pfundtner. I think these are some promotional pens saying "Happy Holidays" on them from a long time ago, before she passed away. I like writing with it, it makes me smile! The other thing that makes me smile is my sea turtle sticker on my computer laptop. That's from my granddaughter Chelsea! She loves sea turtles and plastered them all over this laptop that I inherited from her. Boy oh boy, that's technology when you inherit hand me down electronics from your grandchildren!

First we had to zig zag our way down along the banks of the Ohio River and cross over into Kentucky near Paducah. From there we had to loop back up into Illinois again! There's a lot of flooding in this area from the high amounts of rain that they've been experiencing the last week or so. 

The big bridge was open over at Cairo, Illinois but the smaller bridge that went over the Mississippi to get around down towards Arkansas was out of commission. So we had to loop over even further north towards Urbandale to be able to make our way south!

Here it is, the Mighty Mississippi! 

I know there are reflections of the window in this photo but it was amazing how much product is shipped up and down this river on barges. Year round everything is always functioning no matter what. Quite the busy piece of transportation that we sometimes forget about. 

So we left Illinois, went into Kentucky, went back in Illinois, and then made our way into Missouri. Once we were in Missouri, we were able to angle our way down towards Arkansas. 

We were headed towards the Jonesboro area. I had read some really interesting reviews online on the Campendium app about this beautiful city park at the southern end of town. I wasn't so sure we wanted to stay at a city park but the reviews really sounded interesting. It turns out it's this huge portion of land was set aside to develop the most wonderful recreation area!

https://www.jonesboro.org/197/Craighead-Forest-Park

It is called Craighead Forest. It has myriads of trails, pavilions, children's playgrounds and picnic areas, as well as even an ATV park and a dog jumping platform into the water. Everything is so well planned out, that the RV section is in a quiet peninsula all of it's own. The only people that come down here are the people who are actually staying in the RV park itself.

The facilities are so beautifully developed and meticulously maintained. Everything is pristine and new and well kept. It is actually all first come first serve for the 41 RV sites. Each one has electric and water. They furnish a large rack of firewood, free for the taking. The bathhouse facility has hot showers and a laundry room with $1.50 wash, $1.00 dry.

What is really amazing are the rates. To normally stay here it's $25 a night. But if you are a senior you get it for $15. That is amazing in itself. But the next best part is that if you stay for 7 days it's only $90 for the entire week! That comes out to about $12.85 a day. 

We drove in and there were about 9 or 10 empty sites to choose from. We chose site 39 down near the water. We walked back up to the host lady and paid for our site. They accept all credit cards except American Express. So we paid with cash. Normally we don't like to pay this many days in advance.  For the great price, as well as how quiet and clean and peaceful it was, it was worth it to save a site for a whole week. We could have paid day by day if we wanted to, because there are no reservations and you could just pay each day to maintain your site--- up to 14 days.

Along the shoreline around the entire lake is a gravel walking trail. Throughout other parts of the park are paved trails for bikes and joggers. The ATV section is down in the lower left part of the park and they are not allowed in the rest of the park. There are mountain bike trails and even a bike park with jumps for mountain bikes. Along the fitness trail are various pieces of equipment, and I will show you later on how we utilized them. LOL

The cloudy skies opened up and bits of blue were shining through. The temperatures were up in the mid-60s and it was absolutely gorgeous!! 

Down at our end of the loop the sites are spaced quite of ways apart compared to up closer where they are a little tighter. This is just exactly to our liking. Green grass, trees, and sunshine with a beautiful view. 

Although we were not on a waterfront site, our front windshield has a beautiful expansive view of the water across the road. There's nobody directly across from us. 

We set out the lawn chairs and relaxed for the afternoon until it was time to start dinner. This is exactly what we were looking for!

In the evening, we set up Steve's Visible phone as a hotspot and plugged in our Roku stick. We were able to catch up on a few of our favorite shows on HGTV and Amazon Prime. There are also about 30 TV broadcast stations in the area so we could catch local news and weather when we wanted to. 

Steve was craving something sweet so I whipped up a pan of brownies in our convection microwave combo. Because it's only a square shape, a rectangular cookie sheet does not work. But my round deep dish pizza pan fits!  He wanted to cut it into big pizza shaped wedges, but I decided it could be smaller squares, with a few odd corners. 

It was after dark, otherwise I would have taken out our propane Camp Chef oven and baked them out on the picnic table. 

With more people around, Nicholas has to learn more of his "camping manners". We really have to be consistent and train him absolutely every single time about barking at anything he sees. He is learning, but he is still a baby at 1-year-old and needs a lot of attention and guidance. He is learning by leaps and bounds. And by leaps and bounds I mean we have to get him out and walk him a LOT so he's not leaping and bounding all over inside of the motorhome!!

On the fitness trail, we found a couple things to keep him occupied and challenge his trust in us... 

We noticed that our neighbor across the road had his water heater compartment open and was draining water onto the ground. Of course, that is the universal sign for any guys to get together to see what they can do to help fix something! The same way a raised hood on the front of a vehicle attracts passerbys to help out.

Steve wandered on over and lent a hand. The problem was a cracked nylon drain plug that was leaking and needed to be removed and replaced with a new one. The only problem was is the old one was not coming out easily. 

They put their heads together and assorted tools were brought out. Soon they got the thing out in pieces without damaging the metal threads!

They had the new one in and put back together in no time with the use of Teflon tape as well as a layer of TFE plumbing paste. The leaks were gone and he was back in business.

We visited for a while, his name was Tom and his wife is Donna and they are from Little Rock Arkansas. He furnished us with some wonderful treats of products that he sells part-time on the side at Sam's Club's. He also furnished Steve with a can of a local honey type microbrew beer. How nice was that? We brought over a couple of fresh brownies on a paper plate in return.

Later on that evening he invited us to join him at his campfire, along with a few beverages of choice. It was a nice evening and we sat out until 9:00 p.m. The temperature is in the '60s and we have absolutely no complaints about sitting around a campfire in the evening with a light jacket or sweatshirt on.

I know the weather back in Wisconsin is unusually warm, and on our security cameras we are seeing the snow banks disappear daily. We also can keep track of our furnace at home via Wi-Fi and we know it's been so warm it hasn't even needed to kick in during the day. This is really unusual for the month of February in Wisconsin.

But we are still glad that we took off and got away for a couple months!

Staying here until the 14th, and then not sure where we are going next. Somewhere further south and west?

256 mi travel today

868 mi so far

Day 3 - 4 - 5 at Cave In Rock State Park in Illinois

Here we are again for three, four and five days of our vacation at Cave in Rock State Park located at the southern tip of Illinois.

For more information on the park, please go to my previous blog post

I'm not feeling the best, a flu bug seems to have caught me. So we hunkered down for a couple more days here at the park. It's a nice location and we are up on top of a hill overlooking the big loop of empty sites. There's only one other camper here so we have it basically to ourselves. They are gone all day and just come back in the evening.

Things are quiet and peaceful. We are parked in a lovely area of oak trees and pine trees. Every once in awhile a random acorn falls down off of the tree overhead and lands on the roof. Plop!

We haven't needed to use the solar on the cargo trailer because this campsite has electric hookups. If you look back a few blogs, you will see that Steve installed 320 Watts of solar on the roof of our cargo trailer. We can use this to supplement our power grid, along with the Bluetti power station.  We can run electrical things directly off the cargo trailer, like charging our e-bikes or running an extension cord out into the campsite for something. Or else we can plug the 30 amp cord of our motorhome directly into the Bluetti to have additional power in the motorhome when we are boondocking. 

We've seen a lot of birds flying around and some noisy crows or ravens have been circling over in the woods and making some noise. Little Nicholas seems to enjoy watching the birds. He perches up on our bed and looks out the window. 

My friend Paula asked how is Nicholas doing after his neutering surgery and not jumping around. Well, he can get up and down off of our bed pretty easily because there's a little step on a platform at the end of the bed and then around the corner up onto the doggy bed. From that platform, there is another platform that actually encompasses our water pump next to the bed and then from there he can hop up onto the bed itself. So it's really like four little steps to get up there so he's not just jumping up and hampering his incision. 

It is still getting cold here at night, down in the '30s. Last night it was down to 29. We are okay with our heated holding tanks. But we also do lose a lot of heat through the single pane windows. Our last motorhome had dual pane and it made a big difference.

We had cut some of this Reflectix insulating silver material to fit in many of our windows last fall. But we just didn't have a roll wide enough to complete the last three windows that were taller than the rest. I had ordered some right before we left and it came in time. We stuffed the roll into a compartment to work on while we were on the road.

Steve decided to get that task done by measuring, carefully cutting, and then marking each one for which window it goes in.

This one he cut very carefully to fit in between the screen door and in the main door. He cuts it a tiny bit more than the exact size of the frame. Then it kind of wedges in and holds there even when the door open and closes. 

He shoved me out of my sick bed so I could snap this picture while he was working on the one for the window over our headboard.

He completed the job on Sunday, so we had the chance to use all the Reflectix panels in every window on Sunday and Monday nights. It works really well! 

Especially noticeable is the one right over the headboard on the bed. I did notice that when I brought the dogs out late at night for a potty run, while looking back at the motorhome I couldn't see any light shining through at all. So it would be a good "stealth camping" tool as well as insulation. Nobody would know you are inside! 

We take them off each morning to let the sun shine in, and roll them up to stow away up on the top bunk. 

Yesterday, the temperatures rose all the way up into the '60s. It was absolutely wonderful. We sat out in the lawn chairs for a while, and the dogs each claimed their rightful seats on each side of me. I felt like a Queen with my Royal Subjects at my sides. 

It was so nice out, we had turned off the heater and opened up the main door with just the screen door in place. This is the new grid we mounted right before we left on vacation. We bought it at Camping World to prevent Nicholas from possibly pushing through the mesh screen if he saw something interesting outside. His puppy enthusiasm could easily take over his sense of being a good dog. We definitely don't want him on the run!

Steve also attached a little barrel clasp to the door to prevent him from just pushing hard to open it. We were going to do the butterfly catch that we did before on our last motorhome, but we couldn't find the right piece at the hardware store. So this barrel catch will work. We can lock or unlock it from the outside by sliding open the slider and reaching around with our hand.

My mid-afternoon, I felt good enough to go for a nice little walk. A few sites away from us there's a sprawling open meadow with a pond down below. 

We took the dogs on down there to take a little look around. Don't know if there's any fish in it or not. I bet it's a popular place in the middle of summer with the kids. The Ohio River nearby is way too rapid and dangerous for any swimming to go on. So I don't know what they use this pond for, but the little pier is cute. 

All in all, it felt really good to get out and stretch our legs for a little bit. The dogs enjoyed the walk and I enjoyed getting a little fresh air.

These kind of temperatures are just wonderful, compared to the cold and damp weather back home. 

We are staying here one more night, and then we will see how good I feel. See if we should travel on or stay here a little longer.

Oh, I should correct myself from yesterday's blog. The website said the sites were $20. But when Steve went to go pay the host, it was only $18 per night. Not sure why. 

Maybe because the shower house is closed? There is running water at faucets in the park.

Our freshwater was getting a little low.  So Steve hauled a couple of our 2 gallon folding water totes and added some to our tank.  It's nice to have options. 

It's time to wrap up this blog now. The chef is cooking me breakfast! 

We will see what tomorrow may bring. 

Day 2 - To The South End of Illinois - Cave In Rock State Park

Leaving Central Illinois, we soon routed our way to get off the interstate. He found some nice double digit state roads that were in good shape and still heading directly south. This is our kind of traveling. We would much rather prefer to see the back roads and the small towns of the USA. All you see from the interstate is the same chain stores, town after town after town, all of the same franchises and strip malls and shopping centers.

The sky was clear blue but there were some clouds coming in from the southwest. We were really enjoying that beautiful orb of light overhead. We literally had to turn off the heat in the motorhome and open up the vents to get some of that fresh air. That hot sunshine blasting on us through the front windshield felt strangely good for the middle of February. You sure can tell we are from Wisconsin!

We were driving along, I noticed it was getting near noon. I looked ahead at the next little town called Montrose Illinois. I zoomed in on the town with my Google maps and saw a little teeny intersection. There was a circular park looking thing, as well as a little parking lot next to it for about 3 or 4 cars. I told Steve this might make a good stop to make lunch! 

We pulled in and it was a really nice memorial done up for the veterans. It had all the names of their local veterans as well as a separate panel to one side of current hometown people that are serving in the military at this time. 

What a beautiful array of stones with names of all of the fallen soldiers. In the center if you stood in the middle of the circle you could also read a soldier's prayer through the opening onto the back wall. Very nicely done! 

We took the dogs out and made a nice little exercise walk around the parks boundaries. It felt good to stretch our legs and walk among the blades of green grass!

Lo and behold, I looked down and saw my first dandelion of the season! What a treat... 

We made up a little lunch, stretched our legs a bit one more time with the dogs, and then headed back on the highway in the southerly direction.

More and more we were seeing these little oil pumping units scattered among the farm fields. Here and there were accumulation tanks on various corners where I am sure the crude oil is pumped over to be gathered. 

Some were working, some were not. I would imagine the farmers get paid pretty well to have these spaced here and there among their farmland. All they have to do is plow and plant and harvest around it. 

As we drove along, we were seeing more and more green! What a delightful change after all of the heavy white snow, dark gray skies, and winter winds of Wisconsin. 

Our intended goal to reach for the night was a place we have been before. The reason why we are stopping there is because we know it's there and we know we can hook up and we know we can get comfortable. I was not feeling the best even before we left, and I have a feeling of flu bug is taking it's toll on me as the day wears on.

On the far southern end of Illinois is a state park called Cave In Rock, located on the shores of the Ohio River. Over the river is Kentucky on the other side. There is a little ferry to take across if you wish to get over there instead of going all the way around to the major highways to take a big bridge.

The State Park is just on the Eastern edge of the little town called Cave in Rock. Yes, there is a big cave down along the shore but we haven't been able to get down there yet. The last time we were here the floodwaters were so high we couldn't get to that area to see it. Maybe this time!

Here is their website:

https://dnr.illinois.gov/parks/camp/park.caveinrock.html

As we were driving into the park entrance we could see this big barge coming up the river. It's way out there along the edge of the trees if you look closely at the photo below. Then there's also a ferry boat used to transport heavy equipment in the foreground. 

We came to the entrance of the park, and we know from past experience that we need to pay the host directly. There is no pay post or envelopes. As we drove past his site we, saw he was not there. But that's okay, we knew we would catch up with him later.

There are two loops to this campground, one which is all electric sites, and the other one is tenting sites. Their website calls them actually class b / tenting sites. We also know from the website that the shower building is closed. But there is water within the park as well as the dump station is open. Each site has 50 and 30 amp electric, in the loop that we chose. We actually drove up to the top of the loop up on the hill and took the same site we had last time!

There was only one other camper in the entire park besides us. And they looked very quiet. Steve later found out that they are there to be close to a hospital for a medical situation for a mother-in-law. So they are gone all day over at the hospital and just come back here to sleep. 

All the sites are paved and level, and each one has an additional shorter parking spur next to it to put your vehicle. Perfect to back in our little cargo trailer. Yes, we do have a locking hitch device as well as a locking pin device on the trailer and an alarm we can set for motion or even movement behind the trailer. 

The center of this big loop of campsites is wide open and grassy. It's covered with many oak leaves and fallen acorns. The last time we were here, we woke up in the morning and looked out to about 20 or 30 deer browsing among the acorns! 

The weather was beautiful, the temps were up in the mid-fifties. The dogs couldn't wait to get outside and stretch out and relax on the grass. Well, the crunchy leaves anyhow. It was such a change from the snow and the ice and the cold up north. 

We got out the lawn chairs and Nicholas seems to enjoy perching on one of them. Binney always sits on a sitting one while we relax in our reclining chairs. Glad we got two sitting chairs when they were on sale instead of just one!

We got settled into the campsite. We put some chicken pot pies from our favorite deli in the convection microwave and ran the Roku stick through Steve's visible phone hotspot. He gets unlimited streaming. There are about 20 stations in the area of regular broadcast TV too.

We have been binge watching a series called In With the Old on Amazon Prime. All about people fixing up old houses. Right up our alley, hey?

By now I was feeling a little worse, I think a flu bug got me. I have the flu shot but who knows how many strains are floating around. We went to bed early, And we were soon fast asleep in the peaceful quiet woods. No complaints at all about this campsite whatsoever. For 20 bucks with electric power, it's a pretty good stop at the very southern end of Illinois.

We woke up in the morning to a sunny day. Steve perked up some coffee and we shared some donuts with the dogs.

But I was actually feeling worse. So we weren't going to go any further.

285 miles traveled today

612 total

Day 1 - Heading South

It's time to head on out and go south! The vet said that our little Nicholas could travel if he wasn't bothering his incision, and if it looked good without any swelling or draining. We didn't even need to put the cone of shame on him. He was being very good about not bothering the incision. We also got him some gabapentin and toradol to keep him from bouncing and jumping all over the place like a kangaroo, and to help with pain. 

We actually decided that it would be easier to contain him and keep him from jumping around within the confines of the motorhome, compared to at home. At home with wide open concept spaces and his flying leaps up and down the stairs to the she-shed, he would probably do more damage to himself. By being in the motorhome it was easier to contain him and to keep an eye on him. We plan to just lift him up and carry him to go outside. The side of the bed in the motorhome has two little steps going up to get onto the bed. So he wouldn't even need to jump up or down to join us for naps or morning snuggles. 

By Friday morning, we were good to go! 

We just had a few more things to load in that were waiting by the door. Then we set the alarms and security cameras, turned off the water, ice maker, and drain the lines. Set the furnace down low and notified all of our neighbors. Everyone's taking care of things like our snow removal and our plants. So we can leave with peace of mind. 

Steve rolled out our little cargo trailer from the garage and we hooked it right on the back of the motorhome. Time to head on out and get on the street. We tested the lights and made sure everything was good to go. Our tire pressure monitors were all in place. Everything was aired up and running correctly.

On our year of 2016 Winnebago View, we are able to still leave the rear view camera on while driving down the road. That way we can keep an eye on the trailer. On the newer versions, it will only operate when you are in reverse. The rest of the time the camera screen is on other things like the GPS or the radio. We sure appreciate being able to keep an eye on it while we are driving down the road. Otherwise we would have to get an auxiliary camera and hook it up separately. 

All of the roads were dry and in great shape. We hadn't had snow since the big storm the week before. The temperatures were up in the '40s as we cruised along through Southern Wisconsin. 

We were getting close to the Madison area when our phone rang. It was some friends we know from back in Oconto. They were calling because they were on the highway just ahead of us. They had passed us and recognized our motorhome and thought it was us in the drivers cockpit area. Sure enough! Isn't that hilarious? We had to drive 100+ miles away to see our own neighbors from Oconto!! 

In no time we were crossing over the border into Illinois. Flat flat flat land. But we really enjoyed seeing the beautiful blue sky. We hadn't had sunshine in Wisconsin for over a week. 

Some other years when we have left in the middle of winter, we have driven on ice covered roads or snowy windy sub zero conditions. This was a really nice time to get out of Dodge and hit the road.

I do enjoy using my Microsoft Streets and Trips on the laptop. I know it is no longer supported but it does still operate with a separate GPS dongle that plugs in a USB port. I have an articulating arm laptop holder that lets it set nicely in front of my passenger seat. This way we don't need to use the in-dash GPS and that screen can be reserved for the backup camera. With this big screen of the laptop we can maneuver and change add and adapt things. We can also keep track of our entire trip and make push pin notes of anything of importance. 

Our goal of the first day was to reach this little Shell gas station with a Burger King attached. Why would we want to go there? Because they have six RV slots with full hookups that you can stay at. They are open year-round. For $20 you can slide right in, hook up, dump your tanks if you wish, and even go buy a burger. Lol! 

It is located just south of the town Wenona, Illinois on Interstate 39. We have stopped here as our first stop every time we head south because it's just about long enough driving distance for us of 327 miles from home. 

We chose the furthest slot away from the building, because we knew we can hear the drive-thru at Burger King if we park any closer. Once the drive-thru closes at 10:00 p.m., then it's nice and quiet. You do hear a train every now and then, but it's far enough away from the interstate, that you don't hear a lot of highway noise. Not too bad for 20 bucks! 

We took the dogs out for a little potty break and then they were ready to play. We brought along a tote full of their favorite dog toys to make them feel like they were at home.

We popped a pizza in the convection microwave, turned on our hotspot from Steve's Visible phone, and watched some HGTV programs on Roku until bedtime. It was very relaxing after our first day on the road.

It did get down to 30° overnight. It's kind of nice to be plugged in to show power and not waste all of our battery power to run the main propane furnace. We do have a smaller catalytic Coleman heater but that's not big enough to keep up with 30° weather. When we have available electrical hookups, we can run a supplementary electric space heater as well. Our freshwater tank is above board and remains heated when the propane furnace runs. Both of our holding tanks also have electric heating pads on them. Normally we would turn them on when we have hookups, but we hadn't yet used them so they were still empty from being winterized. 

The next morning we awoke to beautiful bright sunshine again. Both of the dogs had to hop up on the bed and hang out and see what was going on. They join us for donuts and coffee. Each of them get the tiny last bite of our donut, and wait patiently until it's their turn. 

Here is a daytime shot of the six RV slots alongside the Burger King. We were in the one closest to where I am standing because there was grass right outside the door. It was very easy to let the dogs out to do their thing, and clean up afterwards of course. There's enough room to extend slides so that's never an issue. Compared to being in a parking lot somewhere. I think more stations should have these RV slots for overnighters who just need a safe spot to park and then move on the next day. 

That's it for our first day. 

I will catch up the second day blog next, I wasn't feeling that good so I am one day behind.

327 miles traveled

Averaging 13.4 miles per gallon 

but most of it was headwind.