QUOTABLE: “Life’s a roller coaster. You don’t always get to choose the seat you’re in, but you can choose to throw your hands up and enjoy the ride.”
As is typical, we made it back to the barn and there was a flurry of activity. Now it is time to focus on giving you the rest of the trip story…
Monday, July 21, found us ready to head southwest, but not in a great hurry. We left around 10:30 AM and took KS-61 out of Hutchinson, stopping for lunch at Carolyn’s Essenhaus in Arlington, Kansas. You’d think with a name like that, it would be German, but no…home cooking. It was good, though. Afterwards we continued southwest down to Pratt, then turned south on US-281. We crossed into Oklahoma and passed through Alva. Finally, on OK-25 we turned west and ended our drive in Waynoka at Little Sahara State Park. It was a beautiful day, but I did miss having Angel Booger along for the ride. Oh, and it was HOT…105 degrees!! It took Priscilla forever to cool down inside. We’ve tried shades up, shades down, vents open, and vents closed. At these temps, nothing seems to help inside during transit. Thankfully it was nice and cool by the time we went to bed.
Tuesday was the first lazy morning I’ve had in quite a while. We are one of only three rigs in the park, and the only one in our loop. After the heat last night, we figured out that one of the other sites had trees strategically placed to block the sun for most of the day. MW went to the park office when they opened at 8 AM to change our site. They were super helpful, and when he got back, we pulled in the slides and repositioned. Much better! It’s amazing the difference in the shade. Other than that, I spent the morning doing brain puzzles, catching up on Facebook, and relaxing. Around 11 AM, I finally got dressed to head out for supplies. Our first stop was at Rachel’s Bar & Grill in Waynoka. This tiny town was originally a cowboy trading station named “Keystone”, which became a stop on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (AT&SF) in 1906. As always happens at a railroad stop, the little community began to grow, and somewhere along the way, the name was changed to Waynoka, which means “Sweet Water”. Apparently a specific aquifer on the north side of the Cimarron River has drinkable water, while water from the areas south of the river is bad. Waynoka eventually had one of the largest railroad yards in Oklahoma. Then, when the Transcontinental Air Transport Company (later to become TWA) began flying cross country, it became a connection point for rail and air travelers as well as a stopover on flights that initially could not fly at night. They even had one of the Harvey House hotels I talked about in the last post. Both Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh visited during that time. The advent of night flight and sleeper cars dried up both rail and air layovers, and sadly, the Harvey House closed in 1937. Today the area is mostly farms, ranches, and oil/gas rigs, plus a lot of ORV traffic during good weather. After a good lunch, we headed back up to Alva, home of Northwestern Oklahoma State University. This place is larger than we expected and considered to be the mural capital of Oklahoma. After we drove around to find a few murals, we popped in for groceries before heading back. Later in the afternoon we watched an old John Wayne movie, and I did a bit of writing.
At various times this land was home to the Wichita, Comanche, Plains Apache, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, Southern Arapaho, Caddo-Delaware, Kaw, Otoe-Missouria, Pawnee, Ponca, and Tonkawa tribes and the summer buffalo hunting ground for the Osage from the Ozark Mountains to the east. The big draw at this park nowadays, though, is not hunting big hairy mammals, but sand…over 1,600 acres of it. First thing Wednesday morning we walked up to the observation platform in the park, because if we didn’t do it early, we would most likely combust!! I never expected to see sand dunes in Oklahoma, but apparently the northwest part of the state has plenty of them and sandy ridges, too. I wonder how the Indians navigated these hills? Today ORVers from all over come here to climb, jump over, and bog down in these big sand dunes. It is apparently both fun, exhilarating, and dangerous. According to the signage, at least once every week an ambulance is summoned to haul someone out after an accident! I found a good variety of flowers, some that I had never seen.
Back at Priscilla I closed my eyes for a little bit to run off a migraine, then got my act together. We were just about to head out for a drive when MW spotted a roadrunner, or more precisely, a greater roadrunner in our campsite. (Oddly, I was just thinking the day before that we hadn’t seen any this trip. That’s twice that happened in recent weeks!!) We watched him a bit and took some pics before loading up.
We took the scenic drive south on US-281 out of Waynoka. At US-412, we turned east and stopped at Gloss Mountain State Park for a couple of terrain pics. This area of Oklahoma is pretty spectacular with lots of flat ranch land interrupted by buttes and ridges. The soil is very red, and there are lines of limestone or something else white in some of the hills. While we were checking out the view, a couple set off on the path to the top of the butte. On the initial, relatively flat part, the guy seemed to struggle quite a bit, and it was soon to be stairs pretty straight up. We watched until they were out of sight and about 40% of the way up. That’s just crazy in 95-degree, mid-day sun!! We continued east over to Meno, then zig-zagged on county roads back west to OK-58.
Next we turned west on OK-45 to Helena, where we planned to stop for lunch but everything was closed. This tiny town had a pretty cool Veterans and Medal of Honor Memorial, though, with two tanks, a tracked artillery piece, and lots of mortar tubes. There was also a replica anchor for the USS Oklahoma and walls for both Veterans from the area and ALL of the Medal of Honor recipients. Oh, and a monument to the 93ers erected on the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Cherokee Strip to settlement and the 1893 pioneers. It was worth the stop, for sure. After checking it all out, we continued west on OK-45 back to Waynoka, stopping at Dollar General for a few things before getting back to Priscilla. Did I say it was HOT??
RV ISSUE: Living in an RV full-time is just like living in a house…sometimes stuff happens, things break, things leak, things wear out. There is a distinct difference, though. When towing an RV, the rig and everything in it goes through the equivalent of much more than the worst earthquake ever recorded EVERY TIME you move it. For us that is typically twice a week for 5-9 months or around 20,000 miles every year on often TERRIBLE roads. (No kidding. I recently hit a bump on the interstate south of Memphis that I’m pretty sure had the front truck tires airborne! Thankfully, I wasn’t towing at the time.) With that in mind, I’m surprised we haven’t had more issues in the 8 years we’ve been doing this. Sometimes they are easy fixes that we can take care of ourselves, which have been the majority for us. Occasionally, though, you need someone with a little bit more knowledge or better equipment, and that is the case with our current issue. There are two visible lag bolts on either side of our bedroom that keep coming loose. Honestly, the same two bolts in our last rig did, too, and MW has simply checked and tightened them regularly. Now, though, the two on the door side appear to be stripped out. They will tighten somewhat, but then pop past that to loose again. Folks on our forums say there are several more of the same bolts hidden by the steps and covers towards the front of the rig. So, are they loose, too? What, exactly, are they holding together? I contacted Grand Design to see what needed to happen (more on that later) and also spoke with my favorite service guy, Tyler Brothers at Campers Unlimited in Oxford, Alabama. We met him at the Gadsden store when we bought our rig and have found him to always be helpful and looking out for the customers’ best interests. After a couple of conversations, we decided that, instead of continuing west, we would point Priscilla towards Georgia. There we can drop the fridge, freezer, and personal stuff at Mom’s place. Then it’s only about 1-1/2 hours over to the dealership in Alabama. We’ve read horror stories about dealerships getting a rig in for repair, then not touching it for a month and ending up having it in for 4 months when they originally said 2 weeks. That is why we go out of our way to return to Alabama. They are conscientious about the fact that we live in it, so can’t just have it sitting. The last time they had to repair Priscilla, they promised 10 days, and called on the 7th for us to pick her up. Under promise and over deliver is always the way to go. In the mean time, MW will check the bolts regularly to make sure they are as tight as he can make them for travel.
As previously stated, Little Sahara State Park highlights the large area of sand dunes in northwest Oklahoma, some as tall as 75′. Just south of Waynoka, Oklahoma, it isn’t close to much else, although you can take a long drive to some of the other small towns. The nearest large-ish town is Enid, about 70 miles to the east. The only real activity at this park is dune buggy/ATV riding at what is considered one of the best riding spots in the Midwest. It costs $10 per day per person 10 and older, and if you don’t have your own off-roader, local vendors are happy to rent you one. Park amenities include an office, pavilions, dune observation deck, picnic areas, and bathhouses. Camping options are divided among several campgrounds offering tent sites and a total of 228 graveled RV sites, some back-in, but most pull-through, set as parallel sites. There are both full-hookup and electric/water only sites, and for a state park, they are pretty stacked in. Cell signals adequate, and we had some over-the-air tv channels out of Oklahoma City. We were told that there are times when this park is slap full, and we definitely would not want to be here for that. During this visit, though, it was pretty peaceful in the Cowboy Campground, which was awesome. For us this isn’t a bad stopover campground outside of ORV season. You ORVers will love it, though!! For this visit in July 2025 we paid just under $33 per night for 3 nights in a 50-amp electric with water.
Thursday, instead of heading on over to Texas, we reverted to plan B and nosed Big Jake east around 8:30 AM. Well, south at first on US-281, but generally east. A few miles past Oakwood, we turned on OK-33, then stopped for lunch in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, at Stack Bar and Grill (pretty good) for lunch. We’ve been through Kingfisher before, which has a nice downtown. It is the birthplace of Sam Walton and also home of the Chisholm Trail Museum and Governor Seay Mansion, which we talked about here. Back on the road, we continued east on OK-33 and made a quick bathroom stop in Cushing, where I found a couple more murals. Further east we turned south on OK-48, then Samantha, our crazy GPS, put us on about 2 or 3 miles of dirt road for the last leg. The surface was fine, but about half way to our turn, we ran across a crew doing work (with no warning signs posted) at a bridge who had most of the road blocked. MW got out to confer, and they ended up having to move some equipment to give us a skosh more room. I still felt a little puckered as we passed them. We finally arrived at Heyburn Park just outside of Kellyville, where I immediately got irritated. MW booked a pull-through site that looked really nice in the overheads. However, it turned out to be more of a buddy site with two sets of hookups in one moon-shaped pull-through. It might have been possible for us to pull past the huge fifth wheel behind us, but there was a car parked there. It would have been tight, anyway, with low tree limbs on the left and power posts in the middle. As a result, we had to back in at a fairly steep climb. We got Priscilla just where we wanted her, then started looking for the water faucet. It was practically in front of our neighbor’s door, and with tons of stuff sitting around and them not there, we didn’t feel comfortable entering their site. Plus, we weren’t certain our hose was long enough since our water hookup is on the driver’s side near the front. Sooooo…MW pulled back out and went to the potable water faucet to fill our tank. In case you were wondering, it’s still HOT!! We were both overheated by the time we got back, and then had to get everything set up. To level side-to-side, we had to put Priscilla up on about 3-1/2″ of board, then auto-level. The front legs were extended out really long to level front-to-back, too, despite having our stackers under them. Once leveled, our entry steps would not reach the ground. We had to use boards under the feet and put the step ladder beside them so that I could make it up. (My hip is occasionally pretty uncooperative these days!) All around NOT cool! I’ll admit, my good humor was long gone by the time we finished, and I was frustrated and grumpy.
Friday it was laundry time again, so I headed over to Sapulpa Laundry, where I made quick work of the job. While moving clothes, I was startled by a loud scream from one of the women working there. Before I could even turn around, she was out the door and running down the parking lot. Apparently a guy had taken one of the rolling carts out to load his car. While he was putting stuff in, the cart decided to take a trip of its own. Like a flash of lightning, the woman was out the door, past the man, and grabbing the cart just prior to it taking to the road. That was both amazing and a blessing, because the road continued downhill far enough to give the cart a good head of steam before shooting into a busy, 4-lane intersection. I feel certain that an accident was imminent. Those potential victims are just lucky they weren’t depending on me to catch that thing!! Afterwards I went to Chick-fil-A a few miles down the road in Glenpool for lunch and was able to get some writing done. While I was doing my thing, MW worked on cancelling previous reservations and setting up new ones to get us to Georgia. On the plus side, we get a surprise visit with Mom, and she’s pretty excited. Anytime we can make Mama happy, it’s all good!
The weekend was pretty relaxing. MW and I ran a few errands back in Sapulpa and Glenpool on Saturday, then stopped in at Wimpy’s Sandwich Shoppe for lunch. Services on Sunday were at Kellyville First Baptist Church where pastor Devon Minor gave a great sermon. He focused on the way to heaven…good works versus grace. Hint, you can’t work your way in!! We are all undeserving, but we worship a gracious God! This guy had a good message and delivery, and his personality was awesome. Plus, the congregants were very nice. MW said after we left that, if we lived in the area, this would definitely be our church. I have to agree. Later in the afternoon we watched our site buddy try to get his huge fifth wheel out. In addition to the situation I previously explained, the back in site behind him right at the entrance to the pull-thru had a pickup truck sticking out. The neighbor backed up, pulled forward, backed up, pulled forward, etc., until finally out of the spot. The problem…he was perpendicular to the road and had his rear wheels in the ditch with the rear of his behemoth digging into the hillside. He made several attempts to correct, then just got frustrated and pulled his trailer through the pull-thru beside us faster than he should while large tree limbs scraped the driver’s side. We wondered what it looked like after that. TIP: If you tow and get stuck or struggle in any situation, take a breath and take your time. I haven’t taken a formal survey, but feel certain that, when RVs are damaged by their owners, frustration is way up there on the list of causes. I will say, though, it is very hard to not react that way sometimes.
For lunch we drove back to Sapulpa to the Crossroads Cookery. Okay, I’m gonna write about food a little bit. I don’t know if you like Brussels sprouts, but MW and I both do, especially when they are done differently. We shared their appetizer, which was sprouts with bacon bits, tiny apple cubes, and feta. OMGoodness! the bitterness of the sprouts with the salty bacon, sweet apples, and cheese was simply amazing. Had I known, I would have ordered a pair of appetizers and stuck with that. The rest of the meal was good, too, but those stood out. Then it was back to Priscilla. This heat has me thinking Canada for the next big summer loop, but I don’t think that will work with the stuff already on the schedule.
Heyburn Park on Heyburn Lake is located about 25 minutes west of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and just down the road from Kellyville, and this is our second visit. Amenities include a double boat ramp, dock, playground, beach, picnic areas, and two group shelters. Boating, water sports, and fishing are the predominant activities, but during hunting season there are opportunities for both waterfowl and deer, plus turkey, quail, and other prey on neighboring project lands. The campground has 46 sites with water and electric, some with 50-amp, that also include picnic tables lantern posts, and grills/fire rings. Cell signals for both Verizon and AT&T were adequate, and over-the-air tv had a handful of channels. This isn’t a terrible park, but unfortunately, we think maintenance has slipped since our first visit. The bathhouse in particular was run down and in need of numerous repairs…urinal appeared to have been broken for a while and tiles missing from showers. The park layout is not optimal, requiring day use folks to drive through the campground, thereby increasing traffic. As previously stated, our site was a pretty awful setup, too. I’m not sure we would return to this park, but if we did, site choice would be important. For this visit in July 2025, we paid $25 per night for 4 nights for a 50-amp electric site with water.
Monday July 28 we headed further east, retracing our steps up to Sapulpa. There we hit US-75 Alt down to Beggs, then turned east on OK-16. At Muskogee we took US-64, then hit I-40 east (ugh!!!). We stopped in Sallisaw for lunch at Sherry’s Farmhouse Kitchen. Then it was more interstate east crossing into Arkansas just north of Fort Smith. At Russellville we turned south on AR-7, then east on AR-154 at Centerville over to Petit Jean State Park.
Tuesday I took a nice walk around the campground, then we went to the Visitor Center to check out their exhibits, followed by a ride to a couple of the overlooks in the park. It is really beautiful here, but still HOT!!
INTERESTING: MW and I have noticed over the last several years that parks are fencing off areas around beautiful views and such because, to be frank, people are stupid. Okay, not you, but lots. We often stand well short of the edge of a cliff or fast-moving river and have to take pics over or through a chain link fence, because someone there has not used common sense. I realize that there are accidents, but most of these issues spring from people just pushing the edge of the envelope or parents not keeping a hand on their kids in a place where they should. We’ve witnessed these behaviors several times. One that comes to mind was in Zion National Park. A couple was standing on the path and allowing their two tween-ish and younger kids to climb on the boulders above that overhung the trail. The issue was that, should one of them have slipped, they weren’t going to hit the path directly below, but take a straight shot down to the river at the bottom of the ravine. I pointed this out to the Mom, who said “I know. I told them not to, but they just won’t listen.” Seriously!!?? The thing is, though, the fences don’t necessarily keep those people away from danger. They just go over or around, something else we’ve seen more times than I can count. Why am I telling you this? On the website for Petit Jean State Park, they have a notice that is also repeated on signage as you enter:
Next we took a ride over to Subiaco, Arkansas, to visit my sweet Uncle Russ’ grave. Although he has been with Jesus for a year, it hit me a little hard again actually seeing the marker. He was such a good influence for my entire life, and the world somehow seems “less” without him in it. He had Parkinson’s, though, and went through so much that I’m glad he is no longer in pain. Although I know he isn’t there, I liked that you can see Mount Nebo from his grave. I know he’d love that. Afterwards we went up to Clarksville to South Park Restaurant, a home cooking joint, to visit with his niece on his side, Gayle Banning. We haven’t seen each other since I was probably 19 or 20! It was nice to hear about Uncle Russ’ Arkansas roots and Gayle’s memories of him and Aunt Pat.
On the way back to the campground, we stopped at a couple more overlooks. MW walked out to Cedar Creek Falls, about 1/4 mile in. I was happy to sit in the a/c and wait for him this time. Did I say it was HOT? Our last stop before heading back to Priscilla was at the Museum of Automobiles just outside of the park entrance. This amazing collection of vehicles was purchased by former Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller in 1960 from opera singer James Melton. Needing a place to store them after restoration, he built the current building in 1963. It is a cantilever construction supported with external beams, which means the interior is completely open with no load-bearing supports of any kind, and the roof naturally sloughs off water at four points. There was a water feature out front under one of those spots. The museum opened in 1964 and operated until Rockefeller’s death in 1973. His collection was then sold to Harrah’s in Las Vegas, and the museum closed. Three years later a group of Arkansan auto enthusiasts decided to continue Rockefeller’s dream of a car museum in Arkansas, and re-opened the museum with vehicles on loan from regional collectors. Today there are more than 30 museum-owned vehicles and others on loan. According to the attendant, everything in the museum actually runs, and the cars are taken out occasionally to keep them that way. For a middle-of-nowhere museum, it had a really nice collection.
TOO FUNNY NOT TO SHARE: This pic was shared on Facebook by im not right in the head (don’t think I’d advertise that).
Petit Jean State Park is absolutely gorgeous. Arkansas’ first state park and a Trail of Tears National Historic Trail Site, it is located at Petit Jean Mountain about 20 miles from Morrilton, Arkansas, on the south side of the Arkansas River. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) played a big part in making the park, cutting trails and roads and building bridges, roads, and Mather Lodge. Other facilities include a restaurant, meeting rooms, and gift shop at the lodge; boat rentals, snack bar, and supplies at the marina; two swimming pools; picnic areas; playgrounds; pavilions; boat ramp; tennis and basketball courts; and an amphitheater. Oh, and just in case you don’t want to drive, there is a small airport. Activities include hiking and biking on more than 31 miles of trails, fishing, kayaking, and pedal boating, You can also take time checking out natural formations like the 95-foot Cedar Falls, Seven Hollows, Bear Cave, and Natural Bridge, or take in an interpreter-led program. Lodging opportunities include the 24-room lodge, lots of cabins, yurts, a group camp, and the regular campground. The latter offers 125 sites and can accommodate all RV sizes in both pull-thru and back-in configurations. Some have 50-amp full-hookup, and others, 30-amp electric and water. We stayed in campground A on Lake Bailey, and the road and all of the sites there were paved, 50-amp and almost all were pull-thru. Sites also had picnic tables and fire rings, too. This is definitely a destination park with plenty to do for everyone. It is gorgeous and very well-maintained, and although there is a state road near the campground, it was relatively quiet. When we checked in, they gave us an activity sheet for the week that was filled with hikes, informational programs, and lots of other stuff. There was also a coffee house, store, and automobile museum just outside the park, too. We would definitely stay here again. For this visit in July 2025, we paid a little over $51 per night for 2 nights.
HMMMMM: There are two signs as you come off of Petit Jean Mountain that might give some RV folks pause. The first says “VERY CROOKED AND STEEP NEXT 1 1/2 MILES TRUCKS 15 MPH”. The second is below. As the adage says, it isn’t what you can tow, but what you can stop! Truth be told, with the braking system on our Silverado 3500 and the trailer brakes, it was really a piece of cake.
Wednesday we hit the road at 8 AM, making tracks towards Tennessee on AR-154. At Morrilton, we jumped on I-40 for a few miles, exiting at Conway. There we stopped in at Kroger for a few things and to walk around a little bit. Then we took US-64 over to Beebe, then headed south to AR-31 and east on AR-38. At Des Arc, we stopped for lunch at Big Fella’s Pizza & Grill, which had an outstanding salad bar for a tiny town. Back on the road we continued east on AR-38, then turned north on US-49 and east on US-64, which took us across the Mississippi and rolled us on into Memphis. Officially back in the “east”, we parked ourselves at T. O. Fuller State Park, thankfully arriving before the rain. Yes…it’s HOT in Memphis, too!!
ANOTHER HMMMMM: While looking for a news story about Conway, Arkansas, I came across an accidental shooting story from Conway, South Carolina, that was a little perplexing. Per the article, “Authorities booked Alston into the J. Reuben Long Detention Center on Monday, and she was released the next day on a $1,087.50 bond, jail records show.” How does someone come up with that bond amount? How do you end up with 50 cents? “Well, you know, judge, I think an extra couple of quarters might ensure they don’t run.” Am I the only one that thought bail was always a nice, round amount…$500, $10,000, $50,000, $100,000, $1,000,000, etc.?
Thursday started out different for MW. He headed down to the bathhouse at 5:30 AM to find a man sleeping on a bench in one of the two shower stalls and clothes scattered on the floor. He showered in the other stall and noted that the man got up and left when he heard MW rustling around. The clothes apparently weren’t his, though. Who just leaves their stuff scattered around in a bathhouse? MW noted that, although the door has a coded lock, you have to give it a good push to make it engage. I don’t think I would have stayed to shower, but while my flight mechanism doesn’t always kick in as fast as some women’s, it definitely out-kicks MW’s. I let the office know about the sleeper and the lock issue on my way out to pre-flight a laundromat. After several pop-ins in southwest Memphis, I was disappointed. I’m used to going all over the place in strange towns and never feeling unsafe or having issues. However, when a laundromat looks very run down, has a group of rough looking people congregating outside around the door, AND has bars on the windows, I’m taking a pass. Finally deciding to just hold off until we get to Mom’s, I dropped off some mail at the post office, and then searched for the nearest Chick-fil-A. I was almost there when I realized that “the nearest” is actually inside the airport. When I pulled into a parking lot to turn around, there was a nice laundromat! What a blessing!! I finally sat down for lunch in the Southaven Chick-fil-A, which I later realized was actually in Mississippi, and got down to writing. Shortly thereafter a wonderful couple, Pearl and David, struck up a conversation, asking all kinds of questions about RV life and how we handle it without having a house to come back to. She said they would like to travel, but she didn’t think she could give up her house. (One day we’ll have another sticks and bricks, but for now, I like not worrying about one while I’m gone for months on end.) We ended up talking for a while, so not much writing was actually accomplished. That’s okay, though. Meeting new people is one of my favorite things about traveling.
Friday I retraced my steps to the laundromat and got that job finished, then parked in a corner at Freddy’s Frozen Custard for a little more writing. Back at Priscilla, we prepared for a very early departure, stowing interior items as much as possible, pulling in slides, and getting her on the hitch, to decrease the noise for our neighbors in the morning.
T. O. Fuller State Park boasts 1,138 acres within the southwestern city limits of Memphis, Tennessee, just 7 miles from Graceland and 15 miles from downtown. Built in 1938 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), it was the first state park open for African Americans east of the Mississippi River. Originally Shelby County Negro State Park, the name was changed in 1942 to honor Dr. Thomas O. Fuller, a prominent African-American educator, pastor, writer, and leader. In addition to its African-American history, the park also has an archaeological site for a forgotten civilization. At the Chucalissa Indian Village, you can enjoy the preserved excavations and a museum. Amenities include an office/store, Interpretive Nature and Education Center, hiking trails, playgrounds, pool, splash pad, ball fields, basketball and tennis courts, pavilions and picnic areas with grills, bathhouse, laundry, and dump station. The campground is wooded and fairly shady with 44 RV-accessible sites, many can accommodate the largest rigs. Sites have 50-amp electric, water, picnic tables, lantern hangers, and fire rings with grill tops. This park was really beautiful, but the surrounding area is pretty rough…boarded up windows and doors, bars on windows, generally unsavory appearance. That plus the previously noted bathhouse sleeper and a guy pulled off on the side of the park road sleeping in a lawn chair when we left definitely didn’t make things feel particularly safe. MW noted that, although they have several miles of trails, they skirt the outside of the park and would definitely make a lone hiker feel uneasy. To their credit, the park is very well kept and a Park Ranger drives through constantly. However, I don’t think we would stay here again. Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park is due north of Memphis and a little further out of town, but close enough for any sightseeing. On our visit in 2024, they were upgrading a lot of the campground, so we will check that out again next time. For this visit in August 2025, we paid a bit under $53 per night for full hookup.
Saturday we did our best to finish the departure routine without disturbing anyone and hit the road about 6:15 AM after dumping. We took the very familiar US-72 east all the way across Mississippi and into Alabama, stopping at Jack’s in Corinth for a biscuit. At Muscle Shoals, we hit AL-157 down to Cullman, then took US-278 east. Just short of Gadsden, we had a sandwich at KFC, then continued east to US-411 north, which took us to Leesburg. AL-68 took us up to the Georgia line, then GA-144 got us to Summerville, and the last leg zig-zagged us over to Rocky Mountain Public Fishing Area around 4 PM. It isn’t often that we spend 10 hours on the road, and we were both pretty exhausted after getting everything set up. It was also HOT, but there was a cooling trend on the horizon! Yay!!
TRUTH: From Daily Viral on Facebook: “Today, an older person I really respect said, ‘If you raise your kids, you get to spoil your grandkids. If you spoil your kids, you get to raise your grandkids.’ That hit profoundly.” While it absolutely doesn’t apply to all situations, spoiled parents certainly must add a decent percentage to the pool. I also saw another quote somewhere along the same vein: “When you come from nothing, you want to give your kids everything. Then you realize giving them everything teaches them nothing.”
Sunday we headed over to Armuchee Baptist Church, our regular spot for services when in Rome. Pastor Lloyd Gilreath spoke on the life instructions in Ephesians 4, which was very good. Then we went back to the campground and loaded up all of our frozen and refrigerated stuff plus some personal items to take over to Mom’s. After the relocation work, she fed us a delicious pot roast…truly one of the best I’ve ever had. (She got the recipe from my sister, and I’ve shared it below.) Back at Priscilla later we prepared everything else for the upcoming drop off.
Monday, August 4, we put the rest of the stuff we would need for the next week or so in the truck, then pulled up stakes again and headed for Campers Unlimited in Oxford, Alabama. The drive was nice, and the cooler temps, wonderful! Before heading back, we had lunch at Panda Express and popped in at Hobby Lobby. Then it was back to Rome, Georgia, to begin camping out in Mom and Dad2‘s guest room. While neither of us enjoy sleeping in a different bed and changing up our routine, it is always nice to spend time with my parents.
Tuesday Mom and I took some time to get pedis, have girl’s lunch at Panera Bread, and do a bit of birthday shopping while the boys went to Krystal (ugh!) and drove over to Buc-ee’s. That was pretty much it except for watching a movie before bed.
Wednesday MW got outside early and took care of some chores in the yard. Then we celebrated my Aunt Pat’s birthday a week early with lunch at Longhorn in Rockmart, Georgia. We had the guys drive in a separate vehicle, because they last for about an hour or so before getting antsy. Us girls ended up sitting there talking for over 4 hours!! We also took the opportunity to pop in at The Perch, a cute little shop downtown, to see what was new before heading back to Rome.
Thursday was pretty relaxing. Mom had a doctor’s appointment in the morning, so I didn’t have get my act together until almost noon. (You know I love that, but MW gets his act together at 5:30 AM every day. I don’t know what is wrong with that man!!) Later we checked out Pick O Deli Cafeteria, which we’ve driven by for years but never tried despite the parking lot always being full. They had pretty terrific home cooking with several meat options, lots of veggies, and a whole list of homemade desserts. (If you are in the area, definitely check it out.) None of us went for dessert, though, which made it possible to have ice cream later for supper. There was another evening movie, too.
Friday, despite protests from my Mom, I went out to do the clothes at Armuchee Laundry just down the road. I just can’t see spending all day on something that takes 2 hours in a laundromat! When I returned, Dad2 wanted to go over to Cartersville to eat at John Boy’s buffet and stop in at Ollie’s. That was it except for leftovers for supper an another movie before bed.
ODD: Is it just us, or is this a really ominous sign. I think Wendy’s has crossed over to the dark side!
We are on the road and away from family most of the time, so Saturday we decided to pop over to Huntsville to see the Alabama Jones crew. We bunked with Peg (MW’s step-mom) & Colin Bagwell and had a good visit. Peg’s sister Bonnie was also in town, and it was nice to catch up with her, too.
Sunday we went to services at Church of the Highlands with Scott (MW’s brother) and Michelle. This place runs THREE services every Sunday and has a traffic team guiding folks into and out of the giant parking area. They stream the service from the main church in Birmingham, Alabama, and have an onsite pastor and worship team. While large and loud is not typically our style, the music was very good and the message by Pastor Mark Pettus was, too. They announced that, although they have been streaming into prisons in Alabama for a while, they just started adding Georgia facilities. That is truly a blessing!! Afterwards we went to lunch at Drake’s. It was really nice to have two-on-two time with Scott and Michelle, as we are normally in a large group when we get together.
Monday, August 11, it was time to pick up Priscilla, and we were happy to be getting her back. There’ll be a whole, separate post about the issues, but here I will say that Campers Unlimited, as always, was awesome! This time we were at the Oxford location, but we purchased Priscilla at the Gadsden store. Once hooked up, we pointed her east to go back to Rome and get all of our fridge and freezer stuff at Mom’s. We parked her at Rocky Mountain PFA again, then met Mom and Dad2 for supper and a quick visit. Then it was loading into the truck, driving to the park, and unloading and re-storing everything in the rig. It was a VERY long day!
OOPS: Soooo…MW HATES (no, it isn’t too strong a word) key fobs. You know, the things that all vehicles use to open doors and start nowadays. Our last truck had fobs to lock and unlock the doors, but still used a key to start. He just put the fob in the drawer and used the key. Of course, the negative to that is me having to wait for him to get all the way to the truck, unlock the door, then hit the unlock button to let me in…quite annoying in the rain. His new truck is a push-button start, and he grudgingly must use the fob. It has the toolbox key and his USMC keyring attached, and just about every time he puts it in his pocket, it sets off the alarm and/or unlocks the doors. As a result, he has gotten into the habit of not putting it in his pocket. In the truck, it sits in a cup in the console. When he is putting the pin into or pulling it out of the hitch in the bed of the truck, it sits up on the toolbox. Usually, when we finish the process, he grabs the fob as he gets into the truck or goes into the trailer. Once at the barn, I took the truck to go to the post office before MW was quite finished with trailer stuff. I made it about 1/4 mile down our road, then heard something metallic hit the truck. Thankfully, it was odd enough to make me stop, and I found the keys in the road and the pin in the truck bed. Well, fast forward to our pickup at Campers Unlimited. It had been a rough couple of days, and we were tired and ready to get back to Georgia. My fob is in my purse, so there was no indication that he forgot to grab his, and neither of us noticed it missing from its assigned spot. Flash forward about an hour or so. I was writing and heard something hit the truck, but this time, it didn’t register. That is until we got to the park another 25-30 miles away, and MW said “where are my keys?”. I knew almost immediately that they were about a half hour back on the road. Needless to say, he was NOT a happy camper!! Thankfully, we keep duplicates of the keys, and I had my fob, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We will be ordering a new fob in the near future. You know, stuff just happens, but it is sometimes hard not to be grumpy about it.
We have stayed at Rocky Mountain PFA about twice a year for the last 6 years or so. You can look at the review here. Our favorite site is 23, but for this quick stop we stayed in 31, one of the central pull-thru sites. This visit in August 2025 we paid $29 for 1 night in a 50-amp pull-thru with water. The cost includes a $5 park entry fee (paid once per visit).
Tuesday morning early we were on the road pointed towards the barn. As I’ve said before, once Big Jake is pointed in that direction, there is little deviation from the path. We opted to stop for some breakfast before getting into the Knoxville mess. Except for fuel, the only other stop was at Edde Chevrolet in Rutledge, Tennessee, to get our buddy David to order a new key fob. (Now that is an expensive little piece of equipment, so I recommend holding onto them!) As always when we start to roll into the mountains, my soul sighed. Although overgrown, this little piece of dirt is pure heaven!
Well, that ends another great trip, albeit earlier than planned. Now to get some doctor’s appointments out of the way and take care of the fall cleanup. Next up…Our Grand Irritation. See you on the path!!
Talisa
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