Early Lesson From The Road

The smell of trees inundated my nostrils as I woke up in the airstream and I was instantly repulsed by the feeling of a wet blanket which would turn out to be my shirt soaking in sweat.  The night had never really cooled off and it was apparent that Natchez State Park, despite it's bountiful trees, was a very hot humid place in the summer, even in the early morning. I jumped out of bed trying to make sense of the reality that we were now 300 miles from home and the trip west was definitely underway.  I needed coffee, but none was to be found, and this would be the first lesson of the trip.  Always have coffee, especially when you're married to a former barista.

Getting the airstream back in order to get on the road is really a breeze.  At first, I thought maybe there'd be a lot more to the setting up and taking down of the thing but it's really easy.  Of course, it's a lot easier when you find a campground with no utility access because you failed to make reservations that allow the ranger to turn the utilities on.  That night was so hot and sticky without A/C but I simply wrote it off as a throwback to the tent camping days and was happy to have a shower facility nearby.  Lesson learned, or so I thought.

Once back on the road, we set out in search of coffee, good coffee, the kind that makes the spine tingle.  An hour later we followed google maps into a college campus parking lot on accident not realizing the coffee place we were heading to was actually inside the library of the college.  Yet again, we were to learn to be more aware of Google and it's map ability to take you places you thought you wanted to be but don't.  Lesson learned.

After finding a cup of coffee, we set out for the Ozarks in Arkansas.  Upon calling a few campgrounds in state parks, we realized the error in our ways after being told that we would have to use walk in sites because they don't do same day reservations.  Our day was pretty much mundane as the drive through Memphis and most of Arkansas was uneventful(thankfully).  We thought to stop at the pyramid Bass Pro Shop but I quickly squashed that because I knew timing on getting a walk in spot at the state park would be first come first serve.

We arrived at Devils Den Campground(named after a cave) in the Ozarks shortly at 7pm and quickly realized that during the weekdays, no one was at the check in after 5pm(duh).  We decided to simply park and pay the next day but were greeted yet again with a lack of utilities.  It was going to be a really hot sweaty night, yet again.  After trying my hand at fishing, I eventually crawled into bed and was thankful for the fan we had bought at Walmart after learning from our hot mistake night one.  The fan ran most of the night but then the inverter burnt out and I woke up yet a second morning wrapped in sweat soaked clothes.  Thankfully, the showers next to us worked and the refreshing water cooled off my frustrations with our first hand lesson learning.  The lack of electricity meant we might have had to go without coffee a second time in a row but we simply hooked up the new percolator in the bathroom and made sure we had coffee this time.  After enjoying a bit of coffee, we packed up, and set off towards 40West.

On the way out of Devils Den Campground, I spotted a cliff and some water below it as I drove over the bridge nearby.  We pulled off, jumped out, and made our way with Reef to this part of the creek fishing rod in hand in hopes of catching the first fish of the trip.  Sure enough I caught the first fish, the smallest Sunfish I've ever seen.  Karilyn and I had a laugh about it, admired the luminescent blue waters below us, and watched all the fish I wish I could catch swim by.  It was tempting to just jump off the cliff seeing as the temperatures were already soaring into the 90s mid morning and I wanted to enjoy the water the way Reef loved to.  But instead, my mind quickly shunned the thought after deciding it wasn't worth the risk of a hospital visit many miles away.

On the way through the last bit of Arkansas, we both felt as if we really needed to slow down, and knew that we missed a lot of what we should have explored in the Ozarks.  It's now a must return to trip and we're looking forward to possibly a weekend trip in the fall.  Oklahoma on the other hand is not on that list, at least not for any reason yet.  The only thing I can see about Oklahoma is that it's a gambleholics worst nightmare as every sign from one end to the other is an ad for a casino at the next exit.  Coming into Texas was a relief because we knew we were that much closer to the West and the adventures that awaited.