Arkansas to Florida; October 19, 2015 to February 22, 2016

I was very bad in getting blogs written, worse at getting them posted, and from Arkansas on, didn't take many photos or do much out of the ordinary, so this is one all-inclusive post.

We were in Old Post Campground just outside of Russellville, Arkansas from October 19 to the 26^th. We had never stayed in the area before and this was a nice Corps of Engineers Park with lots of places for good walks, near groceries, the weather was beautiful, so what more did we need? There was a dam nearby and a small visitor's center but the one thing that I had never seen before was a sign that told about evacuation if the nearby nuclear plant had a problem. It didn't. We had a great lunch at CJ's Butcher Boy Burgers – a 50's style burger joint where we enjoyed great burgers (beef, not mystery meat), fries, and malteds while 50's rock 'n roll played on the juke box. It was a fun trip down memory lane.

We left Old Post and headed out to Pendleton Bend, waving at Little Rock as we passed, for the week of October 26 to November 2. This is another Corps Park but we had stayed here in 2013 so it was no surprise that grocery stores were few and far between so we went prepared. The good thing is it's a large, very quiet park this time of year, with lots of places to walk. This is the place where on our first trip we were treated to hundreds of semis loaded with grain lined up at the grain elevators to unload and watch more grain being loaded into barges. We were surprised, however, to find that we had timed our arrival with the migration of thousands of anhingas (also known as snakebird or water turkey).

A few of the thousands of anhingas on their stop-over at Pendleton Bend.

We are on the Arkansas River near the Mississippi River and this area is full of swamps, bayous, oxbows, with hardwood forests tossed in. On one of our walks along the water, we saw a large cloud of birds come flying down the river toward us. They skimmed and skittered across the water, some touching down just to begin flying again, others skimming the surface until they found the perfect spot to land. (Why do we still call it land even though it's on the water?) This group of hundreds of birds continued down the river in this manner until finally settling on top of the water a couple hundred yards down river. Meanwhile, another swarm of birds came into sight, and the whole ballet began again. This continued two or three more times, each new flock pushing the previous birds farther and farther down river until there must have been over a mile of river covered in anhingas. The next morning, the river was empty of the birds. Our idyllic week came to an end all too soon and we were back on the road headed south.

Our next stop was Lake Bruin State Park near the small town of St. Joseph, Louisiana. This is in a farming area – lots of cotton grown and not much else. There's a really good restaurant, Fish Tales, near the park and a grocery store, post office, a couple of gas stations and not a whole lot more. (We did have a fine fish dinner at Fish Tales.) Jackson, Mississippi is about an hour north and Natchez an hour and a half south with only a few small towns in between. The campground, perched on the edge of the lake, is a beauty in spite of the lackadaisical supervision of the park manager. Modern, spic-and-span restrooms and a laundry are a plus for us, as are the paved roads that make walking in the early mornings and evenings enjoyable. This was our second visit here and although our site was much better, we had electrical problems – the shore power voltage at our site and several others on either side was low enough (109 V instead of 115-120 V) that our surge protector was showing an alert and we were concerned that it might damage the electric motors in the RV. In spite of calling it in to the local office, nothing was resolved until we contacted the state office. We got an email a few weeks after our departure that let us know a problem was found with the power coming into the park and was being fixed.

From there, it was to Tickfaw State Park where we visited a nearby park and a small museum which unfortunately didn't allow any photos – even with no flash, and then Three Rivers, and Blackwater state parks where we've been previously but didn't do anything new.

My favorite building in Mobile, AL

We headed to Rodman a day early since I had jury duty Monday. Happily it didn't last long since it was Thanksgiving week. It all worked out, since we could stay at our home while on jury duty, and while there, could see my son and his family on Thanksgiving.

From Rodman we went south toward the Tampa area and spent some two weeks at Hillsborough River state park. We saw my daughter and her family and I did some Christmas shopping at IKEA (my first time) with Beth and her youngest, Pete. Rich was pretty impressed with my purchases so we went down the next week and found some more things, stopped at an RV dealership for a repair part . While Rich was working to find the part we needed, I wandered around and found some nice Euro-style leather recliners which we had been wanting for a while. We did some measuring, removed the fold-out sofa, and returned to pick them up the next day.

Before we left, we picked up Beth's older two and took them up to Stephen Foster state park. They have been camping with us since they were toddlers and since we've been traveling so much, we've missed having them with us, so this was a real treat. Before we knew it, it was Christmas and both of my kids were able to get up to the park to celebrate with us. It was a wonderful end to a spectacular year.

January found us at Paynes Prairie, we spent some time in our house, and catching up with our doctors, then down to Rainbow Springs State Park near Dunnellon, which is a first for us. We were only there for a few days, but we found The Front Porch Restaurant, which became a favorite, and on one near-freezing morning, I went out with a local bird watching group and had a great time. I returned with Rich and good some good shots of birds and the gardens.

From there, we were back to Stephen Foster State Park where we enjoyed a ranger program about using native plants, creating baskets and ropes with palmettos and mother-in-law tongue, and all sorts of other interesting things.

From there, we went on to Three Rivers where I took a nice hike – saw five deer and was able to watch them for nearly fifteen minutes.

Blackwater River wasn't as wet as it had been the last few times so we got a couple of hikes in, had some winged visitors in camp and completed some last minute preparations for a new year of traveling. Wahoo!