Hot Springs to Clear Springs

Our new Digs!

Gas prices are coming down! Whooo ahh! By the time we left Illinois it was $3.16 and now it’s going lower. It’s so exciting I check going in and out of town now. I guess that comes from going in debt up to you know where paying $200-$250 for a fill-up. Twice now very recently I noticed that the gas price had come down between the time we went into and came out of Wal-Mart. I think the lowest price we saw was $1.43. That may have been around Houston which we are not, technically speaking, at yet. I’m a little behind in writing. So ‘shoot me’!

We stayed for a few days near Hot Springs, Arkansas, and then headed for Texas. Our first stop was Clear Springs campground. It’s a Corps of Engineers Park, not too far from Texarkana on Wright Patman Lake, just up the road from Atlanta, Texas, and next to Piney Point campground where we spent a few months. Actually we had stayed in Clear Springs for a while too. Being at Wright Patman is kind of like being home. We’re never far from home with this lifestyle but still there are a few places because of comfort and familiarity that are closer than most. This being one of them.

After a few days we moved down the lake to Atlanta State Park and waited for our good friends Bob and Dee to arrive. They’re volunteering as park hosts for the winter. It was here that I took the ‘toad’ (our 13 year old Ford Escort tow car) into the Ford dealer to check on the ‘check engine’ light I was getting on the panel. As it turns out we needed a new catalytic converter and O-2 sensor. The dealer quote for that was $1100.00. But the service guy took me aside and told me to go to some muffler shop and I could get it done a lot cheaper. In the meantime I was OK to drive it, but at some point it would begin to lose power and quit. I took that advice and decided to get it done down the road in South Texas. A new(er) car would be nice but this one does the job and is paid for. We intend to keep it until it just won’t go anymore. So I guess I’ll have more to report on this later.

Bob and Dee made it and it was good to see them. We first met them at Piney Point back in ‘06’ when we both volunteered there. They go to Washington state in the summer and we get together there too. So we sat by the fire a couple of nights and caught up. Buff (Bob) cooked some catfish one night and one night we went to Chinese. One night we went to a distant and boggy part of the lake and got some cypress knees. Cypress knees are good for carving and Buff was looking through my carving catalogue and saw some for sale. He asked if I would like some and then said he knew where there were some. So we drove out to the end of the road and walked into the bog and cut some. It was quite a battle with the mosquitoes though. They were fierce! But now I have several cypress knees and I would say the bites were worth it. I think Kat would even agree and she hates bug bites. You should have seen her. She had a hooded jacket and it was pulled tight so that all you could see was her eyes. I think she even tucked her pants in her socks. And I know she used a can of insect repellant. She still got bit! Wicked bad mosquitoes! And then she even helped me peel off all the bark. Carving material is getting to be a problem. A couple of days later Bob and I cut off some good carving size pieces from a cedar tree. The lower branches needed some pruning and we (I) was happy to oblige. Kat saved me by putting the cedar pieces in her clothing drawers. Smells good and does a job I guess but I truly can’t store much more wood.

Corn Country and the Jackson Purchase

So it was off through Illinois. We didn’t get too far before stopping at Illini state park. We’d been there before and it’s a nice stop on the Illinois River. A place to watch the big barges go up and down the river carrying who knows what to who knows where? It was interesting to watch them go through the locks just south of the park.

After Illini we headed into corn country. Lots and lots of corn. I wondered how much was being paid in ethanol subsidies as we drove on. I figured at least enough to keep all the farmers in big new pick-ups and SUV’s. Or so it seemed. But who would blame them? After staying a few days each in two Corps of Engineer parks we crossed the Ohio into Cairo, Kentucky, at the Junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Driving through Cairo I couldn’t help but wonder what it must have been. The highway and Main Street was a wide boulevard between many large and old sandstone buildings whose ‘time in the sun’ was long ago. The barges no longer stop in Cairo. Given what we saw, we would not either. Sadly, I doubt the environs knew there was ever a ‘heyday’ in Cairo. They may not have known what a ‘heyday’ was. Very sad!

A few miles south we stayed at Columbus-Belmont, a Kentucky state park overlooking the Mighty Mississippi (pictured, along with the mutt Kat just had to feed). This western tip of Kentucky is part of the ‘Purchase’ and has an interesting history. And here is just a taste!

The Jackson Purchase is a region in the state of Kentucky bounded by the Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio River to the north, and Tennessee River to the east. Although technically part of Kentucky at its statehood in 1792, the land did not come under definitive U.S. control until President Andrew Jackson purchased it in 1818 from the Chickasaw Indians. Kentuckians generally call this region ‘the Purchase’.

The area of the State Park also had a role in the War Between the States. It is the site of fortifications built by the Confederates and later occupied by Union forces. The 1861 Battle of Belmont, a raid fought to test the strength of this Confederate stronghold, marked the opening of the Union's Western Campaign and was the opening engagement along the Mississippi River. It was also Union General Ulysses S. Grant's first active engagement in the Civil War. Some of the artillery, which shelled the Union troops, and the six-ton anchor that held the great chain stretching across the river, meant to impede Union river traffic, are on display in the park.

For those more recently educated in the public school system, Union forces continued military action down the Mississippi and eventually took Vicksburg and New Orleans, gained control of the of the Mississippi, and eventually won the war. 2nd Great Uncle Isaac Sines fighting with the 45th Illinois was killed in a charge of a redoubt in Vicksburg when it exploded. He is buried in the National Cemetery at Vicksburg.

We kind of followed the river south into Memphis and had another good visit with Cousin Eddie. Once again we stayed at the Ag Center and made good use of the Farmers Market. And no visit to Memphis is complete without going to Corky’s for some Southern style barbecued ribs. I prefer the dry rub while Kat usually gets the combo. Some dry and some wet. Hmmm! Hmmm! Just so you know Corky’s can be ordered online.