West Memphis, Arkansas

Arrived on Tuesday, Oct. 21, in West Memphis, Arkansas with our campsite right on the Mississippi River.  Had a great time watching all the barges going up and down the river.

View from front of site

View from side of site

19 Barges being pushed up the Mississippi

When we looked at the satellite image, the entire park was covered with mud - must of been from the May 2011 flood.  

How can you go to Memphis and not go to Graceland.

Craig's first "selfie".  Only took 5 tries to get
 both of us and the sign.

The famous jungle room.  

 Another great thing about the area, cheapest gas we've found so far.

We visited Beale street in downtown Memphis, of course notice that there are not that many people in the pictures - we were there at 11 am (not pm).

Once we walked around the town to include the Saturday Farmer's Market, we ate at Charlie Vergo's Rendezvous restaurant - a little hard to find as it was in the middle of an alley.  This is a world famous barbecue restaurant known for their dry rub ribs.






On Monday, we started off at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, known for the ducks coming into the fountain in the lobby at 11 am and then they go back to their Duck Suite at 5:00.

From there we went to the Burkle Estate, also known as the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum.  The estate was built by a German immigrant in1849 and was known to operate the Underground Railroad way station since his home was only a couple blocks from the Mississippi river.  We were able to see the underground tunnels and cellar that stored the slaves until they were able to escape up the Mississippi river into Canada.  

We went to lunch at the world famous restaurant - Gus's Fried Chicken in Memphis.  This restaurant has been in existence since 1950s and is being ran by the third generation of the family.  Known for their spicy fried chicken which was everything they advertised.  And just as good was their old

fashioned coconut cream pie.  

We had rain and lightning forecasts on Tuesday, so we stayed one additional day before moving on to Little Rock.

Paducah, Kentucky

Next stop is Paducah as we head south.  So much history in this area.  We spent Saturday in historic downtown Paducah visiting the waterfront, the "Wall to Wall" Murals, the National Quilt Museum and the Lloyd Tilghman House and Civil War Museum.

Waterfront and Murals:

Quilt Museum:  Couldn't take pictures in the museum but I'm sure they wouldn't have showed the detail anyway.  This was more of an art museum than just a quilt museum - pretty amazing.

Tilghman House: Confederate Flags used in the Civil War.

Downtown buildings of a Catholic Church and the old Hotel Irvin Cobb:

We also tried another winery from the midwest, Purple Toad Winery.  Even the dry wines are way too sweet.  This winery has won numerous awards in the area for their fruit wines.  Missing the western wineries.

Monday, we spent the day driving through Land Between the Lakes.  Beautiful drive with the fall foliage.

Kentucky Lake/Tennessee River

On Tuesday we decided to skip Nashville area and headed for West Memphis, Arkansas.

Southern Illinois

Made reservations at Sam Dale recreation park - had a site reserved that was 59 feet long and we couldn't even get the motorhome in it.  We were in Southern Illinois to visit Craig's first boss from Caterpillar in 1973 who now lives in Geff, Illinois.  Clyde and Helen had a place next to their shed, that even had a sewer hookup.  So we decided to pull in there which worked out great to be so close.

First day we visited Cave in Rock and Garden of the Gods.  Absolutely beautiful day and scenery which we did not expect to see in Illinois.

Cave In Rock:

Garden of the Gods:

The next day we drove to Martinsville to have dinner (which means lunch in the midwest not supper), at the Moonshine Store, who are known for their hamburgers.  This was rated 5 stars by Yelp.  The name came from the reflection of the moon shining in a mud puddle.  The store was founded  in 1889 and then rebuilt in 1912 after a fire.  When we drove into the parking lot, I saw an outhouse and porta potty and figured we were in for quite a treat.  Craig's reaction when we entered was WOW!??

No tables inside, just benches which were full when we
arrived as this place is a popular site visited from people all over the US.  

We took numerous drives, went to an Oktoberfest celebration in Maeystown, enjoyed the local cuisine which was very reasonable and good, went to 3ABN broadcasting facility where Clyde does a lot of volunteer work near Thompsonville, Illinois and in the evenings we played Dominoes.






























On one of the drives we took some time and went through Casey which had the largest wind chimes, golf tee, crochet hook and knitting needles.  They are in the process of building the largest rocking chair.

On Monday, there was a weather system that was predicted to go through the area.  Clyde and Craig went to Mt. Vernon to get the Explorer serviced and Helen and I stayed at the house.  About the time the guys were to be at the Ford dealer, the weather radio started with the tornado alerts, and 55 mph winds hitting Mt. Vernon and predicted to come our way.  The storm system picked up speed to about 70 mph and the radio was quite active and then the alert came for Wayne county.  We got the "girls" out of the motorhome and brought them in the house along with a "bag of essentials" if the weather really hit.  I pulled all the slides in on the motorhome and put the satellite down.  Then called Craig and they were driving ahead of the storm and got home.  Luckily after all that, it skirted by Geff, Illinois and we were able to put everything back to normal.  A little scary, but another adventure.  Then came the rains, thunder and lightening.

We tried leaving on Thursday but as soon as I pulled the motorhome forward from the site the back wheels started to slip.  I immediately got out and let Craig do the driving. After digging, adding rocks and boards, trying a wynch, etc. we finally gave up after about 3 hours and called Coachnet a service that we have for roadside assistance for the motorhome.   They sent a tow truck out and they wynched us out in about 1 1/2 hours.  We stayed an additional night, but stayed on packed gravel.  We knew it rained, but didn't realize the ground was quite that soft.  Another learning adventure and another night of dominoes!!

On Friday we took off and drove to Paducah, Kentucky.