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West April 2012

(Stops along the way)

Just a few notes, not a detailed review since my opinion would be just that.  These were all great parks (or parking spaces as was the case with loves and piot)

North Little rock KOA. Honestly, we stay here on our treks west for two reasons. The first is that it is about as far as we can comfortably go in one day, and second, there is a wal-mart down the street that sells our favorite west Arkansas  muscadine wine for far less than the winery.  We sometimes use KOA’s because we can book ahead.  This particular one is a clean quiet stop not far off  i-40 and right on the  Arkansas river trail which someday we will bike I’m sure.  

Red rock canyon State park, OK.  After driving through the "redesigned" Oklahoma city with all the road construction, this was a welcome stop.  The park is very small with not much going on, but we enjoyed it very much because of that.   The sites are gravel back-ins for the most part, however there were a few pull-thrus .  Rest rooms are not anything to write home about and the showers are coin-op.  A guy comes around after dusk to collect the fees.  Plenty of trails, a fishing lake, a seasonal pool.

Loves Truck stop, somewhere east of Albuquerque.     What can I say; it was storming in Amarillo so we pushed on till we got past it.  I had gotten a bit of gas by now, and the loves had become my favorite. They all have plenty of room to maneuver and the pricing was competitive every time.  This particular one already had a couple of trailers parked out of the way and we joined them.  We had dinner at the arby’, got coffee the next morning before tanking up and moving on..

Lake Powell Campground, Page Az.  Full hookup parking lot.  Don’t get me wrong, it was nice enough, just not really a campground in my mind. We based out of there for a couple of days while exploring the area.  There were some weird signs hung about requiring cloths in the hot tub, no men in the ladies room, and not to dye hair in the sinks among others. 

Dead horse state park, az.  I believe I have already posted on this one.  This is one of those "fits just right" parks that we always gravitate to.  Near Sedona, Cottonwood  and Gerome means there is lots to do and see in the area. The park itself has a fishing lake and plenty of  hiking/bicycle trails.  Arizona started using a reservation system (this year I believe) that we were unaware of until we pulled up on a Thursday before Easter weekend without one.  We had intended to stay several days but cool weather  and a full campground, we decided to move on after two nights. (we had to move after the first night to another site, and we would have to do that again and again to stay there since we had no reservation.)

Lost Dutchman state park, az    A little wiser now,  I popped up on the Arizona reservation site and booked the next night at the lost Dutchman.  We had never been here before although we had driven by it a couple of times (just off the apache trail).  There was only one night available so I took it.   When we got there, we found that this was a highly sought after park, that you usually have to reserve way in advance.  Evidently someone must have canceled just before I logged on.  their loss was definitely our gain because I believe we got the premier site in that park, and if sportsmen does not steal sues picture of the camper against the mountain, I will be surprised.   https://picasaweb.google.com/swoof4d    We hiked some that night, then took a bike ride the next morning before having to move on.

Catalina state park, AZ  another beautiful park!  we arrived at this one on Easter Sunday.  One of the neatest things about this one is that you are only a couple of miles from lots of shopping and dining, not to mention Tucson, but you would never know it.  Sue loves to be amongst the jack rabbits and saguaros.  If you roll that way too, then this is your place.

Roper Lake state park, AZ.  Another beauty!  When you only have two weeks for this sort of trip, you always have regrets. As you can probably tell we are moving now every day headed home.   We did not get to sit in the natural hot tub onsite or fish in the lake, but we will be back.

 Van horn Koa Texas.  We got in a little late, but were able to eat in their diner before turning in.  Not the nicest koa in the country (that just means gravel instead of concrete, and older buildings, not that it was bad by any means), but clean, and safe.  The owners and staff were Great.  I was sort of glad for this stop, I had not been on that part of i-10 before (80 mph.  are you kidding me!?)  and needed a little wine time by now.  I could probably do the speed limit going down hill, but with signs warning of cross winds, and the crosswinds that come up without warning keep me at or around 60 mostly.

South llano river state park  WOW! A river oasis, a high desert bike ride, all on a extremely well maintained campground.  Come see it yourself.              

Pilot around Texas Louisiana border.    we found ourselves enjoying south llano a little too much and got a late start to a long day.  We were going to try to get out of texas today but san Antonio and Houston slowed us down.  We knew that this would be a dry camp night and 10:30 found us still in Texas and too exhausted to go on. pilots don’t seem to be as accommodating as Loves, but we got a good nights rest then its coffee, food and fuel and we are off again.

Clarkco state park Mississippi.  Our last night out.  Somehow we have managed to stumble upon some pretty good sites on our journey, and this was no exception.  Although backing into the site was a little challenging because of the trees, once there we enjoyed a bike ride around the lake before settling in. the next morning we packed it all in for our final leg on into Alabama where we took the camper into Tuscaloosa to eat at dreamland barbeque (if you have never been there towing a camper through the neighborhoods and across all the speed humps to park in their parking lot then you are probably a bit more sane than me, but it was worth it.  Google it, or ask a bama fan).  It was then on to Tennessee, 

Post edited 4:23 pm – September 11, 2012 by ron_sue

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Humm, well the dead horse is outside of cottonwood which is about 50miles south of  flagstaff, then  flagstaff is almost 100 miles south of the grand canyon.  its doable, i guess but i doubt if i would, unless i intended to take the train from Williams (which that time of year may be the only option? i would rely more on the locals for that info.)  i know it snows in the flagstaff area in April, i could not imagine what its like in December.  its all about the altitude out there.  cottonwood is about 3300 ft. above sea level and flagstaff and the rim are about 7000 ft. so there can definitely be some weather up there.

anyway, you mentioned texas bbq, specificly llano.  we ate at Lums while we were there.  interesting place for sure.  the sign out front claimed that theirs bbq was the best in the world. 

Post edited 2:27 am – September 13, 2012 by ron_sue

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Mike M said:

Sounds like it was a great trip!  Glad you posted about it and glad you put in a link to pictures.

Mike M.

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Thanks, it was.  as you can see though, it happened in april. we have been out three times since then and plan at least one more before winterizing.  the pictures on Picasa will be evergreen (updated as available) so everyone can travel along.  Mike, i have read all your posts, along with everyone elses and as the season winds down and i have some time to ponder (yes my door squeaks, so does my axle springs, and i have wondered what an axle flip would do for me, i have even wondered about installing air shocks on the trailer) you can definitely expect some discussion.  btw, i spent some time a couple of years ago up in new bedford,  ate every chance i got at a seafood place called mikes,,,,,,, not yours by chance was it?