Saturday, April 23, 2011

No advance planning!

Its kind of interesting how things work out when you have no plan.  And as I become more accustomed to driving around in the motorhome, the less planning I seem to do.  Last night I had no plan other than to go to the Springfield area, and when I saw the sign for the KOA, I checked into the GPS and found the campground to the West of town a relatively short distance.

Our plan for today was to get most of the way to Memphis.  And tonight we are in the Arkansas town of Jonesboro.  Our drive today was about 220 miles.  Most of that was not on an Interstate, but much of Highway 60 outside of Springfield is four lane road.

The major difference is that the highway is not limited access, and therefore has stop lights for no apparent purpose.  Well perhaps the cross traffic wouldn't hold that opinion.  South of Cabol, Mo, the road becomes even less of a divided highway, with access everywhere. And once you leave the state of Missouri, the road is only two lanes, but does include numerous passing lanes on the steep grades of the Ozark hills.

With several stops during the day, it took us the better part of 6 hours to make this run.  We stopped for fuel in Springfield, and then at the McDonalds in Cabol, and at a highway rest area in Northern Arkansas, just as a break because by then I needed one.

So it was during that last rest area break I began looking for RV parks in the GPS around Jonesboro.  And just at random, I picked this place we are at tonight just because it was along the road.  I surmised that Jonesboro was a fairly large community, and that the park had to be fairly nice............ahh  well...

I got off of the divided highway as the GPS directed and drove along the frontage road.  I could not see an RV park.  But then I did see an old wooden plywood sign.......  and what appeared to be a house trailer park. The place had several old travel trailers that were obviously permanent.

I was tired and pulled in anyway, not wanting to go on.  We drove thru what looked like a dump station, but later learned that those were supposed to be sites along the road.  So we are along the frontage road but several parking spaces away from the actual road.  And we are plugged into the oldest electrical outlet I have ever seen, but it was hot!!  We do have full hookups, and the highway is very busy and only about 100 yards away.  But it is an organized, zoned campground.  The cops will not ask us to move along at 3 AM and we have a paid receipt for rent.  $25 cash!

Outside of the tree we are parked under, there are no amenities except some gravel under our wheels.  But full hookups is full hookups.  Oh, and the guy said the cable tv socket was live on the back side of the ancient  power pedestal, and so it was, had 70 or more channels.  What's not to like.

But this area of town is quite new and very active, as we had a Wal Mart about 4 miles back on the same frontage road, and we crossed over to the North side road and found a Cracker Barrel to fasten a feed bag on for supper.

The fellow running the campground said that this was a family farm many yeas before any of this new part of town was out here, and that his dad had converted it to the trailer park when he got older.  It is now surrounded with all of this new commercial property, and looks soo old and tired,  but I haven't heard any trains, but then how could I the highway would drown them out!

Retired Rod

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like you picked an Oldie But Goodie, sometimes you win, I hope you guys have a great and Happy Easter. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna..

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  2. You guys are in my country now, I (Janna) grew up about 2 hours from where you spent the night.

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  3. I have found myself in such a campground a couple of times last year, and they weren't all that bad. At least the folks who own/manage them were friendly and helpful. When I'm too tired to go on I'm happy to find a place.

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  4. Full-hookups, 70 Tv channels and a place to park for the night for $25 is o.k. once in a while. Glad to hear the highway noise is drowning out those train whistles.

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