Wow, it’s been nearly three months since I wrote our last blog post – too danged long. We’ve traveled quite a distance and seen quite a lot in that time, so I’m going to try to give a fairly concise summary in the interests of not having this post run to pages instead of paragraphs.

After leaving the Finger Lakes, we traveled into Ohio, staying one night at Evergreen Lake Campground in Conneaut, and then down to Cincinnati and a two week stay at Winton Woods campground for the purpose of visiting family and friends. We also went to the Cincinnati Zoo, an attraction that we haven’t been to in almost 20 years. It seemed a lot different than it did back then, and not always in a good way, but that’s the nature of life – things aren’t usually as good as you remember them being when you were younger.

From Cincinnati, we traveled down to Raccoon Valley, an Escapees park a dozen or so miles outside of Knoxville, TN. We got to see and babysit our grandson for the first time while we were there, and then we moved the RV over to Hiawassee, GA to be closer to our where our daughter and grandson were living, trying to make it easier on all of us to enjoy what little time we were going to have in that area before we headed out West. While in Hiawassee, we made a little day trip down to Helen, Georgia for their Oktoberfest celebration, but honestly weren’t that impressed. Brasstown Bald, the highest point In Georgia, was honestly more interesting to us and definitely less like a tourist trap.

After Hiawassee, we cut across the north edge of Alabama and Mississippi to stay at Pickwick Landing State Park, just north of the Mississippi state border in Counce, Tennessee. This nice little state park is a hidden gem and is located just down the street from Shiloh National Military Park, site of the battle of Shiloh during the Civil War. It’s also adjacent to one of the best catfishing lakes in the USA. Unfortunately, we heard that the catfish hadn’t been biting very well and so chose not to do any fishing while we were there. But we made up for the lack at our next destination…

Our next stop was in Cotter, Arkansas – a small town in the northwestern part of that state. Now, anyone who knows freshwater fishing knows that this area of the country is prime trout fishing territory. Our two-week stay at Denton Ferry RV Park on the banks of the White River proved this to be the undeniable truth. We paid for our nonresident licenses, bought two pairs of waders, and then headed out into the cold, clear water. The first day was a bit slow as we tested various baits to see what would work best, but we still caught a few rainbow trout that were worth keeping. Over the next few days, we typically spent about two hours or so of each morning down in the river, catching and either keeping or releasing numerous rainbow trout. We quickly reached our possession limits (and the limit of what our fifth wheel’s freezer could hold!) and didn’t even use the entire week that our fishing licenses were valid.

After that, we made our way down to the town of Jessieville, Arkansas, and a stay at Ron Coleman Quartz Mine and RV park. On the day that we went out to the mine to dig, we managed to unearth a nice bucketful of quartz pieces, chunks, and points. Yes, we got absolutely filthy with red clay soil and received quite a few nicks and cuts on our hands, but it was a fun experience overall. Plus we’ll have some unique Christmas presents for people. We’ve also jaunted down into the town of Hot Springs to do a bit of shopping and to see the historic bathhouses along Bathhouse Row. Later this week we plan to visit the Buckstaff Bathhouse to get a taste of the medicinal bathing experience of a bygone era. The Buckstaff has been in continuous operation since 1912 and has been visited by numerous movie stars, ballplayers, and even gangsters over the years. We’re looking forward to it!

After we leave the Hot Springs area, we’ll be headed to Vicksburg, Mississippi and Summerdale, Alabama so we can make a couple of short day trips over to Florida to get some things done in our state of residency. Then it’s off to Texas for the winter.

Until next blog post…