We're finally out of Texas! On March 18, we began a month-long stay at J&J RV Park one mile from Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. This after a grueling drive from Jasper, TX, which we had intended to make as a two-day trip with an intermediate stop at a casino or a Wal-Mart. No such luck.The northeast road out of Texas took us through Shreveport, LA, which was a bust. The city is crowded and dirty and most of the casinos (all clinging to the skirts of the downtown waterfront) wouldn't take RVs; the one that did was nearly impossible to get to through rutted roads, tricky construction detours, and one-way streets--no place to be driving a fifth wheel!
We left in a hurry for Texarkana on the TX-AR border (another bust except for a welcome rest stop for lunch), then pushed on to Hope, AR, in--well--hopes of a Wal-Mart. No-go there, either. To our surprise, they offered a separate RV area marked by wonderfully long angled parking spots, but they were all taken up by truckers already tucked in for the night, refrigerators chugging. Access to the back of the store was limited by a height-clearance bar that was too low for Ken's rig. By this time, I was tired of travel and getting crabby; Ken wasn't doing much better, and Patchouli hadn't been out of the rig all day.
We weren't due to arrive for another day or so at our Hot Springs reservation, but a call to J&J said we could come in earlier than scheduled. So we left Hope to drive another 90 miles and finally landed at a place to stay. Total travel was from 8:30a to 5:30p, plus another hour and a half to get checked in, backed in, and settled in. Urg.
However, the park is a real find. Our sites (though tight) backed up to a burbling creek near the main highway (mostly quiet at night), and the grounds were well kept overall. We were surrounded by shady sweet gum trees (which dropped their ankle-breaking, mine-like seed pods everywhere), and sweetly fragrant pawlonia trees (imported from China years ago and now rampant in the area) were in bloom; they kept dropping huge, blousy, pale-pink blossoms that looked like something out of Fantasia's Nutcracker Suite. Good walking areas for Patchouli, including a grassy hill to climb and the creek to explore. Only $450 a month, which included electric and a very fast internet, but poor phone coverage because it's in a slight valley.
View from my picnic area. Little fish jumped at dusk, and some guy with an ATV roared down the center of the creek splooshing rooster tails from all wheels. Took a while for the mud to settle again. Patchouli met a frog here--I'm not sure which one of them was the more startled.
A morning visitor outside my window. Our touring of the area included a visit to Garven Gardens at tulip time (photos below), a couple of visits to Hot Springs (next blog), a really bad comedy/magic act one night (my fault), a brief hike up one of the local mountains (long valley views once out of the trees), and drives on warm days to Entergy Park (a gem of a city park tucked away near a lake) and Catherine Lake State Park. Weather was changeling--several afternoon thunderstorms with pea-sized hail and tornado warnings. One 1:00a storm was 22 minutes of nearly continuous lightning; it put Disney's Fantasmic show to shame. Diesel went from $3.79 to $4.11 a gallon during the month.
Garven Gardens is a private botanical garden that has acres of wandering paths, gentle hills, surprise water features, and a photo op at every turn. We caught it at the end of camellia season and the height of tulips. Daffodils were already gone; rhodies and azaleas were not yet started. 
Japanese pond. Cherry trees were in bloom weeks earlier than in the PacNW.
Impossible to keep the camera in its case. Equally challenging was keeping other visitors out of the picture.
This is part of a children's area that you get to via an ingeniously sprawling walkway that spirals you from woods to ground level. Kids can climb a complex of rocks and tunnels and equipment. I especially liked this bridge, with its woven branches and integrated trees.
A model railroad, run by the local (usually gray-haired) enthusiasts. We arrived as one of them was clearing leaves from the tracks and getting two trains ready to go.
An amazing scale model of the local brick works that used to be in town.
Patchouli might have liked trying to catch this train through the tunnels.
