Today we migrated to one of our favorite all time campgrounds, Lake Catherine State Park. This is our third stopover here and the first on the way out to Denver. We are in Site #64 which is right on the lake and this is the first time we have been here during the summer when we could actually get in the water (which was like bath water). It’s a hopping place this time of year. We will be here three nights.
Tomorrow we plan to hike the 4.5 mile Dam Mountain Trail and then put on our swimming trousers and jump in the lake. Tuesday we will hike the 2 mile Falls Branch Trail which we hiked on our previous visit. Beth also plans to get some kayaking in during our visit.
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.
Pecan Grove RV Park – Site #C5Pecan Grove RV Park – Site #C5Pecan Grove RV Park – Site #C5
I know that just a few posts back I stated that Twin Fountains RV Resort in Oklahoma City was the nicest campground we had ever stayed in, but I think Catherine’s Landing has surpassed it. The sites here are very large and and each one has a a huge cement pad, picnic table, charcoal grill, fire ring, full hookups, and cable TV (analog). The campground is a former 400 acre dairy farm which has one mile of waterfront along the Lake Catherine waterway. The office and pool area are at the top of the hill (at the entrance) and overlook the park. The pool is heated through November and includes a “splash pad” for the kids where there are all kinds of sprinklers and fountains and they can blast each other with all kinds of water canons. Due to all these features there are a lot of high end rigs here (Entegras, etc on Prevost bus chassis, Newells, Allegro buses, etc). Seeing all these high end rigs works out quite conveniently since we are going to win the $1.6 Billion Mega Millions lottery tonight.
Catherine’s Landing – Site #51 – Passenger Side
Catherine’s Landing – Site #51 – Driver’s Side
The weather was so nice that we decided to setup our outdoor TV so that we could watch football outside all weekend. In attempt to offset our slovenliness and debauchery we went for walks each day. On Friday we walked the outer perimeter roads of the camping area and one additional internal road to knock out 2.1 miles (it’s a big facility). On Saturday we walked their hiking trail (which goes around their 9 hole Frisbee golf course and most of the property at the entrance). This hike was easy, but nearly 2.5 miles. We stuck to the campground roads again Sunday.
On Monday we went into Hot Springs to tour bath house row. It was quite interesting. When we were done we drove up to the top of Hot Springs Mountain where they have built a 216 foot observation tower. The views from there are pretty incredible.
Buckstaff Bathhouse
Ozark Bathhouse
Quapaw Bathhouse
Fordyce Bathhouse
Hot Springs
View from Mountain Tower
We had planned to rent a pontoon boat on Tuesday and tour Lake Catherine, but unfortunately while we were touring on Monday the campground pulled all of their rental boats out of the water for the winter. Instead we decided to walk the campground hiking trail again, but were interrupted at 1.3 miles when Beth’s shoe blew out. The weather was perfect, so we spent time outdoors packing for our move the next day to Vicksburg and doing a little maintenance. When we were done we showered and had a late lunch at the Red Oak Fillin’ Station where I learned that I had completely wasted the first 55 years of my life having never thought to put 12 hour smoked brisket on my sourdough grilled cheese sandwich. Live and learn…
After two nights in Oklahoma City, we departed for Lake Catherine State Park at around 8:30 AM. I think I got spoiled on back roads in New Mexico and Texas (two lane highways so straight they have 75 MPH speed limits) and decided to take US-71 out of Fort Smith to US-270 on into Hot Springs which resulted in a lot of two lane driving through the hills with plenty of twists and turns. I pulled over a couple of times to let the poor folks stuck behind me pass. In the future, we’d rather stay on I-40 all the way to Little Rock and then take I-30 back to Hot Springs.
Lake Catherine State Park – Site #52 – Driver Side
Lake Catherine State Park – Site #52 – Passenger Side
We had reservations for two nights at Lake Catherine State Park and since our time was limited we decided not to leave the park (although Beth did sneak into town the first morning, while I slept in, for groceries). When Beth got back from the grocery store, we hiked one of the trails. We chose the Falls Branch Trail (marked “intermediate”) which was close to 2.5 miles (starting from our campsite). We must be getting old, because “intermediate” seemed a bit difficult (just shy of requiring rappelling gear), but it was worth it. There was a lot of great scenery that eventually lead to a creek and waterfall. Along the way, Beth found an excellent walking stick which she had named “Wally”.
Lake Catherine Hike
Falls Branch Trail – Suspension Bridge
Falls Branch Trail – Creek to Lake
Falls Branch Trail – Waterfall
That night we thawed some vacuum sealed Sams Club filets and cooked them over the fire. They were served with Bob Evans Mashed Potatoes and a hint of Cabernet wine. All was delicious.
Phoebe Helping with Dinner and Enjoying Her Freedom
We moved from the Crater of Diamonds to Lake Catherine State park today. This was a 70 mile drive which took nearly two hours (serious two lane hilly roads).
This is a beautiful state park and we have a great site (#44) right on the lake with full hookups. We are able to pickup all the local channels on our antenna and all of the western arc satellites on our satellite dish (we are using the portable dish so that we can get all available channels for the debut of NFL football). We are getting 4 bars on Verizon Wireless and LTE = 4.69/11.49.
Site 44
Site 44
We went into Hot Springs this evening. The downtown area is nice and Bathhouse Row is quite impressive. It must have been “bike night” because there were hundreds of motorcycles all over the downtown area.
We ended up driving out near the interstate and eating at the Bleu Monkey Grill. The food was great. I had a Cuban sandwich and Beth had pasta.
Bleu Monkey Grill
After dinner we returned to the camp site and enjoyed our great view of the lake.
We went searching for diamonds today. Unfortunately, we will have to return to work because we did not find any diamonds. Our biggest finds were three less than pee size pieces of jasper. However, we did have a good time. The day’s high temperature was 79 degrees (mostly sunny) and we had a good breeze throughout the day. We will probably not quit our jobs to become full time diamond miners as it turned out to be a bit of work. The good news is that we didn’t do any worse than anyone else today. When we checked out around 4PM, no one had found any diamonds.
Our neighbor on the campsite next to us had told us the day before that a geologist they had talked to had found two diamonds (one over 2 carats and one over 1 carat). When we were checking out for the day today (hoping that our jasper were diamonds) we asked if anyone had found any diamonds and they mentioned that the most recent find was one diamond yesterday (the day the geologist had allegedly found two). We didn’t think much about it, but today when we were packing up to leave, we had a chat with our neighbor at the campground and he mentioned that he was told the same thing. So, having had a conversation with the alleged geologist he mentioned what he was told regarding their two finds to the folks at the State Park. Apparently, they were reluctant to discuss the situation, but he pressed the issue and the people at the State Park stated that after detailed analysis, the diamonds presented to them were from “Africa” (aka, “blood diamonds”). My guess is these dudes had acquired some blood diamonds and were hoping to pass them off as discovered at the Crater of Diamonds in some sort of laundering scheme. The folks at the State Park indicated that this was not the first time this sort of attempt had occurred. Keep in mind that this is all hearsay coming from a neighbor at the campground, but quite interesting.
We left Guthrie, OK at 9:20 AM EDT and arrived at Crater of Diamonds State Park Site #29 at 3:50 PM EDT. Our drive was fairly uneventful. We spent several hours on I-35 and I-40 before taking the Indian Nations Turnpike for a couple of hours south. That road started out nice, but once we paid our first toll, the road quality degraded to the point that when no one was behind me I would switch to the left lane for a better ride. There were no major potholes or anything of that sort, but the cracks in the road seemed to be at the resonant frequency for our rig. I’m shocked our TV works tonight. It was shaking like it was in a paint shaker.
The Crater of Diamonds State Park Campground is top notch. Each site is paved, level, 55′ long (back-in) and has 50 Amps and full hook ups. The free Wi-Fi hotspots are reachable and on my first test I was getting 10M download speeds, but the upload test failed and there has been no internet connectivity since. Verizon Wireless is 2 bars and the LTE speeds are 2.87/0.97.
It was 93 degrees upon arrival and we didn’t feel like cooking so we zipped up to the state park’s restaurant for their last weekday meal (only open on weekends after Labor Day). This was a brilliant decision on our part as they were having to do inventory (we were the last customers) and rather than throw out a quarter bag of fries or iced tea, they just gave it all to us. We’re sit’n tall in french fries and iced tea (2 refills plus 4 more cups to take home).
Beth will be working tomorrow and I will attend Diamond Mining Training 101. I also plan to pickup some firewood. It’s supposed to rain in the afternoon and then cool down nicely, so hopefully we’ll have a campfire in the evening.
