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1 to 15 April 2019 16 to 30 April 2019

Tuesday April 16, 2019

The wind is back, not the best and the sky is cloudy, great for traveling.
We leave the park by 8 am. This is early for us.

Shortly after we left the I-10 behind us. We got on the I-20 east to Ft Worth/Dallas.

The closer we get to Pecos, the more oil rigs we see. They sure don't freak about oil development here!

For about 50 km before and 75 km after Pecos, most of what you see in small town is oil related business.

With oil comes oil workers and they work hard. Look at that burger on the billboard!

You got to have cars on top of poles!

We left the desert like landscape to a more agricultural landscape.

We will be spending the night in Loraine, Texas. It is just of the I-20.
We are 13 feet tall and this underpass is 14 feet 6 inches. I hope they did not make a mistake!

We made it no problems. The is a suburb of Loraine! The campground is on the right.

There it is. It is a Passport America member, so cheap. We had to wait a few minutes for someone to show up.

Our site.

Not bad for only $17 US. Full services with very good WIFI.
The street behind the campground. We do not feel unsafe. It seems quite safe here actually.

Wednesday April 17, 2019

By 8:30 we are back on the road.
We still have a cloudy sky, but the wind is very strong and coming from the side. Not fun.

Another stop for gasoline for the MH. If you do the conversion to liters and the exchange rate for the Canadian dollar, it turns out to be around $0.93 per liter. This is after our discount with our Flying J card.

While I was fueling up, Michele saw this MH with some missing parts!

Abilene, the Storybook Capital of America! Maybe next time we drive by Abilene we should stop and check it out!

This curve is sharp and going downhill. They are working to make it straight right now.

The flowers are blooming. They are Bluebonnets, the flower of Texas.

This is just to give you an idea of how long it is to go around Ft Worth/Dallas.
It took us a little over one hour. Then, it takes you another hour to go out on the suburbs...

But! I would do this again before I go through Montreal!

Why not have rain to make it interesting?

We made it to the little town of Campbell for the Stinson RV Park. One more Passport America member and we only pay $20 for full services.

Our home for the night. This RV Park is next to the I-30 with nothing more then the 3 services. It is an OK price.

For a RV Park only two years old, they could have made the sites much longueur and level. This is only my opinion.

Thursday April 18, 2019

One more early morning for us. This is becoming a habit or what?
After two hours of driving, one more stop for gasoline for the MH. We can go about 900 km with a full tank.
I add some "Fuel Line" anti freeze to the gasoline. I only do this to prevent water in the tank.
Did you notice? It is raining again!

With all this rain, I treat myself with a coffee and Michele with a Sticky Buns.

After fueling and a few more hundreds of km, we came to the city of Texarkana. Still in the rain!

We spent some time here in Texarkana a few years back.

And we keep on driving in the rain!

Just as we get into the suburbs of Little Rock, we saw this big rig on its side, just like on TV.

We crossed the Arkansas River on I-30.
Just on the other side of the river is our RV Park. The Downtown Riverside RV Park.

We were very lucky to get a site in this park. This weekend being the Easter weekend after all. We could only get two services and it is OK for only 4 days. We are in what they call "the overflow".
I also took this time to change our water filters. The one on the left was white! I changed both.

The rain stops and Michele made the suggestion to go ride the Streetcar to get a look around the city.
WOW! It is free! They have two circuits and we use the blue line. The stop is only about 4 blocks from the RV Park.

There she is. Streetcar 409. She was made in 2002.

This is the inside and it is beautiful. The conductor is also a guide. He told us all about the city and many other things on our travel.

The Broadway Bridge, also named the "La petite Roche" Bridge or the Little Rock Bridge.

The Junction Bridge is a walking/biking bridge. It used to be a railroad bridge.

Near our RV Park is the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum with the submarine USS Razorback and the tug USS Hoga. We will tour them in a few days.

The I-30 bridge. I can tell you it is noisy in the Park, but you are downtown, what do you expect?

Another railroad bridge converted into a walking/biking bridge. The is the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge.
Mr. Clinton, as the once President of the USA. He was a Governor for the State of Arkansas before becoming President.

They engraved all the names of the contributor to the bridge.

My pretty Michele and me.

Looking at the RV Park and downtown Little Rock from the Clinton Bridge.

A view from the bridge. Can you see our MH?

There it is!

One of the torpedoes from WW2.

10 minutes after we got home, the rain came pouring down.

We had lots of rain and strong winds. until about midnight.

Friday April 19, 2019

We have a big day ahead of us. First we drive to the State Capitol.
This time we cross the river on the Broadway Bridge.

We took a few photos of the Capitol, but the one in the introduction movie was much better.

The Supreme Court of Arkansas. The room became too small over time. They moved the Supreme Court to another building.
Now this room is used for meeting and other needs as required.

Looking the opposite way from the Supreme Court into the other Wing of the Capitol.

The main doors of the Capitol are made of polished brass. They are only used during official events.

On the other side of the Brass doors this rotary door.

Bill Clinton was Governor of the Arkansas twice, first time from 1979 to 1981 and a second time from 1983 to 1992.
And of course, he was the President of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

On our way to the Governor's Room.

The lady in front of the fireplace is our tour guide, Jennifer and she was good.

On any Capitol or Legislature, you have to have a cupola with a chandelier. The chandelier weights about 4,000 pounds and has a 12 feet diameter. The cupola is about 210 feet above us.

The House Chamber with its 100 representatives is on the third floor. We area on the fourth floor looking down at the House Chamber.
This is where ordinary people would sit and watch and so would the journalists.

All voting are done electronically.

A stained glass skylight was installed in 1914 to reduce glare in the House.

Next is the State Treasurer's Office with the Vault.
Surprise! You can go in the vault and hold about $500,000 US dollars in your hands.

We are rich! $500,000 in our pretty little hands.

Today the vault is only used for "show" and official ceremonies. It actually contains little monies.
This is also the only treasury's vault where you can actually go in.

Next surprise, the Treasurer, Dennis Milligan, invites us in his office!
Dennis even asked the two girls to sit at his desk and "feel the power" that comes of being an official of the government.
He also told them not to give away the money.

We have our official photo with the Treasurer of Arkansas. Dennis was very nice and easy to talk to. Well, like all politician, when you ask a question, you get a lot of words but no real answers.

We really enjoyed this visit.

After the visit, we went back home for a well deserved lunch.

Next, the Heifer Village on the other side of the river. To get there, we used the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge.
So, what is the Heifer Village? We did not know. This is the first time we hear this name.

Without getting in all the details, Heifer International was founded by a farmer from Ohio, Dan West, to help starving children. He soon realizes that giving them a glass of milk was nice, but giving them a cow was much better in the long term.
On this site is a small farm to show people what they are all about and what they grow for the needy.

Back to the administrative building in the Heifer Village. This building is certified LEED Platinum. LEED = Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Another great day.

Saturday April 20, 2019

And we keep on visiting.
Once again we take the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge to get to the... Clinton Presidential Library and Museum.
By the way, it is not a library!

This building is also LEED certified. The land to the east and west were industrial at one time. Which means polluted.
When Mr. Clinton's foundation decided to build the Library/Museum, the foundation bought the land for $1 and cleaned it up and turned it into a park. No government's money was used to build this Library/Museum. On the second photo, you can see a circle. This is where the Clinton will be buried.

Basically, this is a museum about the 8 years Clinton was the President of the United States.
It is all about him and what he did.
This is a reproduction of the Cabinet Room at the White House. Many of the furniture are the originals from the White House.

Each chair has the name of the department the representative sit in.

Bill Clinton was not born a Clinton. He was born William Jefferson Blythe III. His family name was changed when he was adopted by his step-father.
Bill is only the nickname for William.

From the third floor you can see the second floor where more of the eight years of Clinton's presidency is displayed.

It was a good visit, but we are not into Presidents of the USA, so it was OK for us, no more then that.

Back home for lunch, we took the car to the Information Center at Curran Hall. This house was built in 1842 as a private residence. The two ladies at the information center were very good.

After the Curran Hall, we looked at our watches and decided to tour the USS Razorback.
The USS Razorback propellers. The American spell it with an "o" and we, Canadian spell it with an "e".

The USS Razorback. This is the first time we tour a submarine.
This submarine is 90% functional.

This is the Razorback when it left in 1944 for the war.

In 1952, the submarine was upgraded to the new GUPPY standard. GUPPY stands for Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program. The "Y" was added to make it more pronounceable.

That is one big key!

The forward hatch, where we will come out. It is pretty narrow,

We went in the back hatch right into the aft torpedo room.
4 torpedoes would have been the tubes and 4 more ready to go in.
Can you see the bunks where the submariners would sleep?

The maneuvering room.

The engine room This submarine has 4 diesel engines. Two on this level and two more under us.

The accomplishments of the USS Razorback.
The Japaneses flags represent the merchant ships sunk by the submarine. The four Japaneses flags on the bottom are destroyers sunk and the rising sun flags are for the two Japaneses submarines sunk. The 5 stars above the bottoms flags are the pilots rescued from the sea.

This is one of the two distilling machine used to make fresh water. Most of the water was for cooling the engines, next it was for cooking. Next for the once a week shower for the officers and cook and finally, a shower once every two weeks for the submariners.

More bunks for the submariners. Two beds for 3 submariners.

This is the toilet for the men. You have to go through 13 steps to properly flush the toilet or it comes back to you!

The mess hall/rest area for the men.

The kitchen, three cooks were working in here.

Michele is getting closer to the Control Room.

The actual Control Room.

The USS Razorback was in service for the US Navy from 1944 until 1952 when it was decommissioned. It was sold to the Turkish Navy. The Turkish Navy used it until 1971. This is probably the longest submarine in service with 56 years of service.

The forward Torpedo Room with many torpedoes.

The forward hatch we had to go up to get out of the submarine.

A nice model of the USS Razorback. The name Razorback comes from a species of whales found in the southern hemisphere.

Some interesting specs.

Our two guides were excellent. One of them was in training.

We also toured the small museum followed by the tug boat USS Hoga. The USS Hoga is currently being restored.
The USS Hoga was instrumental in saving ships in Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack.

Tonight we are trying something new. We are having chicken from Popeyes, Louisiana Kitchen.
It is good, better than KFC.

Another busy day.

Sunday April 21, 2019

We are not in a rush this morning.
I am having my coffee while looking at the Arkansas River.

The river is very high at this time. We are still about 12 feet above the water level, but a few years back this RV Park was flooded...

What a pleasant surprise, barges are going down river. The pilot has to work hard to keep the barges in between the pillars of the bridges. Too much current in the river.

This was our last day in Little Rock. Let just say we did a lot of touring in a few days.
So what are we going to do today? We decided to go for a walk on Markham Street on the other side of the river. Markham Street is the street where all the bars, restaurants and boutiques are located.
We crossed the river on the Junction Bridge, another railroad bridge converted to pedestrians and bikes.
Look at the Streetcar going over the bridge.

This part of the bridge is 1,800 feet long.

We could see the USS Razorback submarine from the bridge.

This is the left side of the shore viewed from the bridge. The river's edge was turned into a park with this Riverfest Amphitheater.

And the view to the right of the bridge.

Because ships and barges are still traveling the river, the railroad bridge has a section that is raised to let them pass. We could have used the stairs, but used the elevator...

My pretty Michele.

This is what I mean by the raised part of the bridge.

They have many historical markers in the park. This is the one about the name Little Rock.

Ahhh!

Michele came back from under the bridge all shaky. She saw this snake up on the wall.

We saw many of those Lime-S scooters in Little Rock.

After we had walked the park, we went up to Markham Street.
This Whiskey bar offers Whiskey on tap!

The Farmer's Market of Little Rock.

I found a new friend.

Markham Street.

This bar offers more than 120 different beers from micro-breweries.

We stopped for one. This is the inside of the bar.

I took an Ozark Cream Stout, it is a dark beer like a Guinness.

Michele wanted a good old Bloody Mary and it was spicy.

This is the list of beer you can have here.

Michele with her very spicy Bloody Mary and me with my good stout.

We walked Markham Street some more and decided to go back home. We hoped on the Streetcar and once we got to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, we got off the Streetcar and walked home from there.

Tomorrow we are leaving Little Rock. We really enjoyed our time here in Little Rock.

Monday April 22, 2019

Some days I can drive for hours and hours, but other days, I have to take a nap in the middle of the day to keep on going.
Today we stopped at a Walmart, so I could have a 15 minutes nap.

Michele went into the Walmart for the deals on after Easter sales.

The Interstates in Arkansas are beautiful. But it turns ugly once in Tennessee.
Right after crossing the Mississippi, we enter in Tennessee, in Memphis. The interstate is just ugly.
Even our paper plates are making noise in the cupboards.

after Memphis, we are going towards Nashville. The roads get a little better once out of Memphis.

Summer is here and look at all the green leaves.

Just before Nashville, we leave the I-40 to get to the Tanbark campground near Dickson, TN.

After thinking about it, we decided to stay two nights. It is cold up north!
Our site has only two services, water and power.

Some people have dogs and others have horses!

It is a very quiet campground. For only $17.50 USD per night, not too bad.

Tuesday April 23, 2019

A tour of our campground.

The majority of the campers are seasonal, like this one!
OK, this is the only one this bad in the campground. A lady lives in there with her very BIG dog.

A look a little more to the right.

Behind the MH, I saw this bird's nest and it has two eggs in it. I believe they are from a Robin.

Since the sky is cloudy, I clean the windshield.

After lunch, we head to the town of Dickson.
We take State road 48 north. It is a very twisty road and it is in very good shape. It was fun to drive it.

A T-Rex following us?

Dickson, here we come!

It is a small town like many other.
Who owns this old garage? A son, a grand-son, maybe a great-great-great grand-son?
He must be a good mechanic because a lot of cars are waiting to be fixed.

It is still a warm day at +28° C.

Wednesday April 24, 2019

Time to hit the road. Once the used water tanks are emptied, we hooked up the car to the MH.

Another MH is leaving in front of us.

In less that one hour of driving, we stopped again, but this time for gasoline for the MH. We like the Flying J because many of them have RV lanes for fueling. Like this one.

I am even having a Flying J coffee.

Lunch was taken at a Walmart along the route.

Shortly after we entered Kentucky only to leave the I-65 shortly after to the Bluegrass Campground.

With such nice weather, come the bugs on the windshield. One more cleaning jog.

After the windshield, I work outside on the next update to our blog.

My pretty Michele posing with the MH.

Later on the day, I filled up the fresh-water tank because we will be doing some Walmart "camping" over the next few days.

Thursday April 25, 2019

Last thing we did before we left was to empty our used water tanks.

One more stop for gas for the MH.

The Kentucky roads are pretty nice.

A "truck of trucks"?

Still green leaves.

To Cincinnati.

Just before Cincinnati, we move in Ohio and construction on this big bridge.

We use the App and web site OvernightRVParking.com to find places to "park" overnight, like Walmart parking lot.
With that information, we stop at a Walmart near Cincinnati that allows overnight parking. We went in to ask and were told "not anymore."
I will have to sent an email to the webmaster and let him know this Walmart no longer allows overnight parking. So, we drove a little further and found a very nice Walmart with a BIG parking lot and they allow us to stay overnight. We have some bad weather coming our way.

Michele is spoiled, a Goodwill is just across the road.

We had rain most of the night.

Friday April 26, 2019

We woke up to rain and it rained all day.
To get back to I-71, we have to drive on local roads for a short while. They are nice, but narrow.

The closer tot he Great Lakes we get to, the more we see the results of all the rain they had over the last few weeks.

We have lunch at a rest area. The truck on the right is parked.

With all the rain we got today, a small problem showed up.
When using the windshield wipers, they make quite a bit of noise.
I check it all out and decide to keep on going and fix it later.

And as we continue traveling towards Cleveland, the rain gets harder and harder. Not fun to drive in with the MH. Luckily, Cleveland is easy to go around.

One last fill up for the MH. Why pay $1.25 per liter in Canada when you can only pay $0.90 per liter here?

After Ohio, Pennsylvania.

Our next and last night in the US is at the Walmart in Erie, Pennsylvania.

We always keep an eye open for good deals at Walmart, like this Loin Roast for only $3.97.

It kept raining all night with strong winds.

Saturday April 27, 2019

The rain had stopped this morning before we left the Walmart. We left early because we want to get to the Walmart in Mississauga before lunch.
Where are the leaves gone?

The I-90 in New York State is a toll road. Not bad only $11.80.

Just as we got into Buffalo, road construction on I-90. Shortly after we got on I-190 to go to the Peace Bridge and onto Canada.

Downtown Buffalo.

I have to be careful because I missed the exit once, a long time ago.

Will they ever be done fixing the Peace Bridge?

The Niagara River still has some ice moving on it.

Welcome to Canada.

Going through custom is a piece of cake as usual.
Home sweet home. The highways are very nice here in Ontario and this even after a long and hard winter.

Once at the Walmart in Mississauga, we leave the MH in the parking lot. We take the car and visit Odette. Alix came home later in the afternoon. Onix was working. Odette finally has the results from all the tests she had done. Not good. She is only 60 years old and she has Alzheimer. The good part is that it is in the early stage.

We had a great visit with Odette. We sure talked a lot!
After supper we went back to the MH in the Walmart parking lot.

Speaking of the Walmart, when we went in to ask for permission to park overnight (never say camping.) we were told that it would not be possible in a near future. Only because more strip malls are being built on the edge of the parking lot. That is too bad because it was only 3 km from where Odette lives.

Sunday April 28, 2019

We left the Walmart at around 10 am. The traffic is not bad at all since it is Sunday morning.
The highway is the major road to go across Toronto.

Highway 401 is a 400-series highway that passes west to east through the Greater Toronto Area. The volume of vehicles that use Toronto's portion of Highway 401 makes it the busiest highway in North America, as well as one of the widest with 15 lanes for over 50 km.
We just like those two skyscrapers with the curved wall.

We are spending the night at Walmart in Trenton. I will explain tomorrow.

Monday April 29, 2019

Brrrr! Frost on the car!

We were awakened early this morning because the sweeper truck was sweeping the Walmart parking lot!
Let me tell you, he swept around the MH many times!

Back to why we spent the night at Walmart instead of going to the RV Park right away?
Simple, this morning we have an appointment at Krown Rust Control Centre for the MH.

Here they are at work.

Michele is waiting for them to be done and then follow me to the North Shore RV Park.

We made it to the Park and got all installed in the afternoon.

We should be here for a month or more.

Tuesday April 30, 2019

Yesterday we stopped at the UPS Store to pickup our mail from October until now. A few items were not in the mail box, so we picked them up today.

We also stopped at the drug store to pick up my prescriptions.

And we take the rest of the day cleaning ans settling into the park.

Until next time.

Life is good...