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Our Campsite in Arkansas Village Creek State Park, ???, Arkansas
Things are getting so blurry, I can't remember what town we passed through to get to this park. It is about 15 miles north of Interstate 40 and maybe 40 miles west of Memphis. The park is more than 7000 acres, even has a 27 hole golf course, and is really very beautiful. The showers have river-rock floors. Seems that these state parks, where we like to stay, are all located in wooded areas, gorgeous, and very well maintained. Alas, we've stayed in so many of them on this trip that they are starting to blur. Joan and I agreed that we would have to have a picture book of each campground with notes about what we did there if we were going to keep them straight.
We got a late start out, primarily because we needed to shower and because we are tired. Still, we managed to put 240 more miles on the odometer. Since the map didn't show any green dot routes, we stuck with I40 the entire drive. Had a great calzone and pizza lunch at Picasso's, a pizza and beer place in a shopping center just off the highway
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This is a Huge and Beautiful Park in Jackson, Tennessee. Since it was easy-on, easy-off, we didn't get to see much of the city. And we buzzed through Memphis. Joan had some interest in going back to Corky's BBQ in southern Memphis, but the time-of-day was off, it was on the other side of a major city, and I was too tired to drive the rig through big city traffic. So we waved from the interstate as we crossed the bridge over the great Mississippi and moved on into Arkansas.
Tennessee was the last of our six Southern Charm states, so we've officially ended the tour. From this point on its just driving to get there. We have Arkansas, Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, and half of New Mexico to drive through before we get home so there is still a few days left.
Given my interest in eco-regions, I have to mention the drive through Tennessee. Of all six states we toured on this trip, Tennessee has the most diversity. In the two days we drove through the state, from The Great Smoky Mountains through Memphis and into Arkansas, we passed through six regions, and that doesn't count the last few miles in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. Starting with the Blue Ridge Mountains, we moved into the Ridge and Valley system at Knoxville which has lower mountains alternating with deep valleys. Then we moved into the Southern Appalachian section which was characterized by lower rolling hills - we ate lunch there in Crossville. We spent the night outside of Burns which is in the Interior Plateau, out of the mountains and relatively flat. We descended lower into the Southeastern Plains, where we had lunch yesterday. And then across the rich and fertile Mississippi Valley Loess Plain. That's a lot of changes in topography, geology, and vegetation.
That might be one of the reasons why both Joan and I found Tennessee so beautiful and interesting. Even though the state only had one bucket list item (The Great Smoky Mountains), it is a place we will at least drive-through again. (17.1.79)
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