We departed today at 9:15 AM CDT and continued West on US-82. We spent the entire day on US-82 other than a short bypass around Tuscaloosa, AL. Don’t get me started regarding the Tuscaloosa bypass and both my Rand McNally GPS and Google Maps on my cell phone routing me to it even though I had the “No Tolls” setting enabled on both. It cost us two whole dollars (and we’re on retirement income). I can only imagine how frustrating bad GPS routing must have been for the pioneers traveling the Santa Fey and Oregon Trails.
The first 43 miles of US-82 were two lane and a bit winding and hilly and I started to question my decision to take that route, but once we reached the four lane section it was smooth sailing and minimum access for many sections or road. It only narrowed back down to two lane for a couple of short sections. However, the last sixty miles in Mississippi tended to be rough (but nothing like traveling on interstates in the Northeastern states of the US).
There were very few towns along the way so we maintained a good average speed. This made it difficult to find a place to stop for lunch, but we were able to pull into a Pilot Travel Plaza near the intersection of US-82 and I-55 and make some sandwiches (no fuel required at their prices).
We stopped in Greenville, MS at a Murphy USA for $2.00/gal diesel fuel and then headed on across the mighty Mississippi to Pecan Grove RV Park in Lake Village, AR. We arrived at 3:30 PM CDT and were placed in Site #C5 which is about 100 yards away from US-65. Lake Chicot is just across US-65 and we can see it from our camper (as long as we don’t get any new neighbors). This is a fairly large campground and we have full hookups (so no Navy showers). We are staying here two nights because we couldn’t get into the Lake Catherine State Park campground (near Hot Springs, AR) until Sunday afternoon. Tonight we are watching this season’s first Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball game (the summer seems a bit more normal now). Due to COVID-19 the season started late.
