Advertisement
Published: February 23rd 2008
Tom Sawyer RV Park
Located on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Arkansas.Last night (16 Feb) we stayed at the Tom Sawyer Campground on the Mississippi River across from Memphis. The river is high and the current is ripping. Many trees were floating downstream at an amazing rate of speed. It seemed like a lovely campground with river frontage and many trails. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to explore and left this morning early. Our camping spot was only 100 meters from the river. Many barges passed going upstream. The current was so strong that you had to use the position of the vessel against the far shore to see that it was moving at all. Downstream barges were flying and there were three barges per tugboat as apposed to upstream vessels with one barge per tugboat.
Last night, severe thunderstorms with damaging hail and tornadoes were predicted just west of where we were. In the Memphis area, thunderstorms and high winds (50+mph) were predicted. About midnight, the wind began to howl. The trailer was rocking on its wheels. Thunderstorms passed through one after the other until about 4:00 am. It was not a good night for sleeping but, thankfully, we were east of the most affected area and no harm was
Crossing barges
Upstream and downstream traffic passes in narrow channel. done. There were quite substantial park benches along the river front that were tipped over and tossed about.
We are now (17 Feb. ) driving across Arkansas toward Little Rock. There have been endless miles of very flat rice fields and now cattle grazing in between wetlands. The lands between the Texas state line and Dallas were more agricultural. Just east of Dallas we stayed at the Plantation RV Park. After driving through a neighborhood of amazing McMansions on 5 acre plots, we came to a driveway that announced the Plantation RV Park and there was this beautiful plantation house in front. We drove in and this really sad RV park was behind it. It was blocked off from view of the house by a very ugly 15 foot wooden fence. High voltage power lines passed behind the park. In the park, there were two separate parcels that were fenced off for huge communication towers. One had the impression that the owners were trying to eek out a way of supporting the house. There were warnings to the people in the park to not walk down the driveway (for liability reasons) or go near the house. In fairness,
Barges on the Mississippi River
Tug pushing several barges on the Mississippi against an 8 knot current. the park was on a pond although there were warnings against boating and swimming. Fishing was catch and release.
There is very little green in Texas and nights have been frosty. Days have been in the 50's although it is supposed to be in the 70's today in El Paso. After we left Dallas (18 Feb), we drove to Midland-Odessa. Along the way, we passed miles of cotton fields. There was still some cotton in the fields and large plastic-wrapped bails of cotton, waiting to be picked up. We were also surprised to find an enormous wind turbine farm array in a ridge from Abilene to Sweetwater and beyond over 30 miles. Texas apparently has the most wind power of any state. Last year in southeastern Texas, we concluded that there was nothing to stop the wind from the north pole to there; it blew all the time.
We were detourer off of I20 on the way to Midland/Odessa due to a huge oil refinery explosion right next to the interstate at Big Spring. One driver on the interstate was killed but no one at the refinery died. Apparently the refinery handles the locally-produced oil in this part
Plantation Place RV Park
The rv park is enclosed behind a fence to the rear of the "plantation". of Texas.
Our campground last night was called the Oil Patch RV Park and was a few acres in a very industrial area. The park, however, was nice and in a good location for a one night stay. It seemed like at least half the people there were working in oil fields or something in the area. Pickup truck after pickup truck drove out at about 6:45 this morning without campers attached.
We are now (19 Feb) heading west toward El Paso passing through cattle country with fewer oil wells in evidence. Eventually, the landscape became spectacular with mountains sagebrush everywhere. We stopped for lunch at a picnic area on the interstate and not only was the scenery gorgeous, but there were birds everywhere. We saw Sayes phoebe, black-throated and white-crowned sparrows, and cactus wren. West of the lunch spot, we ran beside the Rio Grande. There is a very wide green valley to our south. There seems to be a lot of agriculture and activity down there. On the other side of the valley some spectacular mountains rise up in Mexico. The elevation here is about 4000 ft so the Rio Grande has that much elevation to
Open road
View through the wind shield somewhere in Texas. run to the Gulf.
And then we came to El Paso. After hundreds of miles of rolling hills, mountains, sagebrush, and yucca plants we were shocked by El Paso. Since there was no one in the surrounding lands we did not expect the trucking center of the universe. It was a very bustling city of 600,000, not counting the city across the river in Mexico, Ciudad Juarez. The smog was shocking, eyes were stinging, noses running.
Crossing into New Mexico, we came across many miles of amazing factory dairy farms with many thousands of Holstein cows, and huge quantities of hay bales. The odor of manure was rank in the air. The Rio Grande must provide water for huge hay fields. Being from the northeast where large dairy farms consist of maybe a few hundred cattle, this is shocking. They must supply milk to the whole southwest. On the east side of the road, sagebrush, yucca, sand, and distant mountains look like Texas east of El Paso. Now we are passing miles of pecan orchards.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 11; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0239s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
