Texas: 3 stops - Arkansas: 2 stops - Tennessee: 1 stop

Lubbock, TX

Here we are back in Texas. The drive to Lubbock from Roswell, NM, took us past field after field of cotton. It always reminds us of snow as we look out across the fields.
Loop 289 RV Park is where we stayed. As the name suggests it is on the Hwy 289 Loop around town. There are close to a 100 sites, and the park is well maintained. It is mostly gravel with a little bit of grass. We were in site 14, a pull through that was just long enough for the RV and tow-dolly. The laundry room and bathrooms were very clean, they have a small lounge area next to the laundry with a TV and comfy chairs. The WiFi was poor, Verizon signal good. We paid $30 a night with a cash discount.



Lubbuck is the birth place of Buddy Holly and where he was buried after dying in a plane crash in 1959. We visited the crash site in July 2015. Finding his grave-site wasn't all that easy as the sign was missing when we drove into the cemetery.

While we were making our final pass through, two guys were putting up the new sign, as someone stole the previous one! They pointed out the headstone and shared additional information with us. If you notice, his last name has an "e" in it. When he made his first record deal the contracts had his name misspelled and it stuck! The angel is just a few feet away from Buddy Holly's grave.



The Buddy Holly Center is in downtown. The house he grew up in has been moved to this location and across the street is a statue of Buddy on the Lubbock Walk of Fame. The house was located at 2215 6th Street and is where in 1956 the hit song "That'll Be The Day" was penned.

We found a few other Roadside Oddities.


The American Wind Power Center has a number of windmills on site - we enjoyed the view of old and new.

There is also a Prairie Dog Town here - a very large fenced in area for them. Not sure why they have a fence seeing they burrow under ground and the area outside the fence has a number of holes as well.

The Stubbs BBQ Memorial is at the site of the old Stubbs restaurant which was home to many musicians. Stubbs was known nationwide for his BBQ sauce and brisket marinade. Captain was hoping for some tasty BBQ but none was found.

A personal injury lawyer has a couple of gorilla's hanging around his office, and the tiny chapel is actually a storage shed in the parking lot of a Baptist church.

The Blarney Stone was another difficult one to find. It is on the campus of Texas Tech University. We stopped at two guard shacks and neither one knew what we were talking about. We did finally find it and Les, being the Irishman in the family got out to take the pictures and kiss the stone for some good luck. Maybe that's why he survived a heart attack! You might be wondering why there is a piece of the Blarney Stone here - well that is a good question. According to legend, the stone was discovered by a group of petroleum engineers while they were on a field trip. After testing, it was discovered that it was a piece of the original Blarney Stone. Can't argue with a legend. It is said that seniors that kiss the stone on graduation will receive the gift of eloquent speech.

Even though it seems Lubbuck might be calling us here with our own automotive company and bank - we will have to decline the offer.







Wichita Falls, TX

There were no rolling hills on the drive to Wichita Falls, just flat land for as far as the eye can see.
We arrived in Wichita Falls on October 31st.  Wichita Falls RV Park sits on the Wichita River. They have 135 full hook up sites, we were in site 42, a very long gravel pull-thru with grass and shade trees. Two RV's could have fit on our site!

The park is very well maintained, very quiet and also had a pond. There are two large dog walking areas. Laundry room was clean and Wifi worked fairly well. We paid $40.50 a night with our Good Sam discount.



Mielikki loved our walks along the river, except when she wasn't allowed to chase down that squirrel, it may have turned her to drink.




The World's Littlest Skyscraper was built in 1919 as part of a fraudulent investment scheme. When the proposal for money was made the investors didn't read the fine print as the measurements were listed as inches not feet.

The building is 40' tall, 18' deep and 10' wide. The steep narrow interior stairways take up about 25% of the inside. The Newby-McMahon Building was quite the embarrassment to the city until it made it into Ripley's Believe It or Not. We loved the Train Mural and the bases of the street lights are metal stars.


The Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture features a Comanche family crossing the Wichita River. The multi-part piece of art is a Comanche women, her child, two braves, their horses and a colt. The legend of this crossing is where Wichita got its name. The woman is testing the rivers depth and describes it as "waist-deep" which is how "Wee-chi-tah" is translated. 

Paris, TX

Our drive on November 2nd was pretty uneventful, can't really say that for this Fed-Ex driver - think those packages may be late. We have never been to Paris France but pretty sure it is nothing like Paris, TX, although they both have an Eiffel Tower. We are guessing the one in France does not have a giant cowboy hat on it.
Spencer's RV Park is a park, repair shop and RV dealer all rolled into one. Most of the sites are filled with permanent residents with a few sites left open for over-nighters. It is fairly well maintained. The sites are narrow with full hook ups. Ours was barely long enough for the RV, tow-dolly and parking the car. Wifi was poor, the laundry room was just okay. We paid $30 a night with no discount.

On our search for a grocery store and the Eiffel Tower we came across the Evergreen Cemetery.

We found a number of old tombstones with hands, pointing up towards heaven and clasped ones. There were a number of lambs, which are usually on a young child's grave.





One we had never seen before. A mother and child engraved on a pillar.

There were some beautiful pillars with trees on them and one that had a sword, helmet and a shield with cross and bones.
















The best one was Jesus wearing cowboy boots. The life sized buffalo was pretty interesting too.

Along with the Eiffel Tower we found a dragon, and a
beautiful Methodist church.







Hot Springs, AR
November 4th was the day we said good-bye to Paris and headed to Hot Springs, AR. On the drive we saw some fall colors and crossed more rivers than we can remember.
Our original plan was to stay here for a week, we came here from Little Rock in August 2016 and wanted a chance to explore it better. We wisely changed our plans to just two nights due to Les's health concerns.

The Treasure Isle RV Park would be a great place to stay for a week. The park is well maintained and very quiet. The sites are long and a little wider than normal. It sits on the Ouachita River which offers beautiful views and a great place for morning dog walks. Both mornings we watched large flocks of geese fly overhead. We paid $33 a night with a combination of Passport America and Good Sam Discounts. WiFi was decent, Verizon signal was good.


West Memphis, AR
Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River Park is where we headed on November 6. About halfway there we got a flat tire on the tow-dolly, so we had to pull off and change the tire. Nancy was very worried about Les doing this, but of course there was no stopping him and now that we know he actually had a heart attack in Cottonwood, we are very thankful he didn't have one on the side of the road!
The road into the park takes you through an industrial area with train tracks and lots of trucks. We figured we were in for two nights of lots of noise. Luckily we were very wrong.

The park is behind a raised embankment and a large wooded area so it was very quiet. It sits right on the Mississippi River so the views were great. We got to watch many barges float down the river. They have benches along the rivers edges, each one also has a fire pit in front of it.




There are miles of hiking trails through the park, along the river, around the lake and through the woods. Mielikki loved her morning walks and runs. She found sticks and a football this time.

Our site was a gravel pull through, long enough for the RV, tow-dolly and parking the car. The only downside to this park was the WiFi was spotty. We paid $35 a night with our Good Sam discount.
We always marvel at the different types of RV's and trailers we see. Like the people who live in them they come in all shapes and sizes.

Goodlettsville, TN
Our last stop before hitting Louisville. We arrived at the Grand Ole RV Resort on November 8th. Goodlettsville is just north of Nashville, TN. We had already been to Nashville so we didn't need to explore it again. In fact the car never came off the tow-dolly. This park is another example of using the word "resort" loosely. 
The park is well maintained but the sites are very narrow. Ours was long enough for us to fit but only a few feet from our neighbor. There is a fair amount of road noise and a train runs along the back of the park, luckily there is not always a train horn. The WiFi was poor, the laundry room was clean and they have a small store with basic needs. We paid $35.50 a night with a military discount. 


Louisville and Michigan are up next! 

Till we meet again.... 

Happy Trails to You!

Tips and things we have learned along the way. 
~ Invest in a spare tire. 
Our tow-dolly did not come with a spare. When we had to replace the tires we ordered a third one so we would have a spare. This not only saved us time on the trip to West Memphis it also saved us money. It would cost a whole lot more if road side assistance has to bring you a tire.