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Published: March 12th 2017
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Toad Suck Park, Arkansas
How could we not spend the night in 'Toad Suck Park'?
As best I can tell, this was originally a ferry spot across the Arkansas River, twenty or so miles north of Little Rock. According to Wikipedia, the name may refer to sucking on a bottle of local moonshine until you swell up like a toad. Wherever it came from, the name alone draws you to it.
At any rate, there is now a highway over the river and a flood control dam underneath, constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers. As a late add-on to the dam project, the Corps built a beautiful campground right on the West Bank of the river. It has full hookups, huge clean restrooms with showers, and beautiful views of the river and the dam. All of that for just $20/night ($10 for us old folks!). Its a terrific place to spend a night.
And we needed it. It was another long day of driving yesterday - a little over 300 miles - which was made worse by windy, completely overcast skies with occasional light rain. Towing under those conditions is never a lot of fun, but
is certainly part of being on the road.
The barren, flat terrain of Western Oklahoma has been replaced by rolling hills covered with thousands of deciduous trees - a novelty to us Rocky Mountain natives. Spring is beginning to show its colors with pink, lavender, and white blossoms on the trees, along with spring green leaf buds. Colors are muted from the clouded sun, but still add a splash of interest along the Interstate corridor. Still lots of dead brown leaves and twigs, but Spring is arriving here - its a good time to travel.
Although last night was more like winter. It was 39 degrees when we set up camp amid lightly drizzling rain. And shortly after going to bed, it rained, or more likely sleeted, for a couple of hours. Had the trailer furnace on full blast and even the girls jumped up on the bed with us to stay warm. Smooch stayed alert as the rain spattered on the roof.
Have to mention lunch. We stopped at the Bricktown Brewery in Fort Smith, Arkansas. It is off of I40 a few miles, but the city is small, so it is easy to navigate. We
had read that we should order the sweet potato fries, which we did. And they arrived freshly fried, covered with big chunks of crisp bacon and smothered in a caramel sauce (with extra on the side for dipping). Joan and I thought it should have been dessert rather than an appetizer. But it was certainly a treat. I ordered the chicken fried chicken which came surrounded by mashed potatoes and covered with a spicy, maple-flavored gravy. Joan had BLT sliders and ate all three. We were hungry, which helped, but they certainly like their food sweet here in Arkansas. Needless to say, we didn't need anything for dinner.
Weather is supposed to clear today as we make our last push to get to the real beginning of the trip. (17.1.4)
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