May 8, 2013 - Alma & around

. Monday off to Van Buren about 9 miles away lovely old town with some great old buildings but most of the town shops were closed as it was Monday. There was a railway station here as well and watched the old trains coming through. Then onto Natural Dam and a walk along the river, the next stop was Devils Den State Park but we came across dirt roads so decided to turn back & give it a miss as it looked pretty rough, there was another way in but meant another 30 miles and it was getting later in the day. We drove out to the Oklahoma visitor...

May 5, 2013 - What else could possibly go WRONG!!!!!

Friday spent the day in the city, not a big city seeing as it is the capitol of Alabama. It was over cast but still lovely & warm, first we went on the trolley tour of the city took about 45 minutes. We then decided to walk to the places we wanted to visit, first was Hank Williams museum ( sorry no photography allowed inside), his baby blue cabriolet was something to see. He died in it of a heart attack at the age of 29. We walked quite a few miles today stopped off at the State Capitol building not as ornate inside as others we have...

May 7, 2011 - Day 33 interrupted not abandoned

Woke up this morning to rain, thunder, and lightening, so we decided to interrupt the trip and head for home. (The rain was moving east.) So after breakfast, we packed up and headed west. This gave us the opportunity to see a couple of the things we missed. The first place was the Whitehall Mercantile in Halltown. Mostly it was a junk store, it is housed in a 111 year old building. (It also needs a lot of work.) Then we made our way along Old 66-over the river and through the woods (see pictures #2&3)-to Red Oak II. Red Oak II is an old...

Apr 29, 2011 - Last day in Alma, AR

We haven't had any more storms since the night we were in the shelter. Whew! What a night that was! The same storm we had caused a record number of tornadoes in Alabama and other states the following day. I heard that it was the worst tornado outbreak in 40 years. Yesterday, we dropped off the rig at the service shop at 8am for the fridge sensor problem and the bedroom air conditioner/fan rain leak. We did an all day sightseeing tour of the area by car. First stop was to some falls about 50 miles from Alma. We got all the way up there only...

Apr 27, 2011 - Alma, Arkansas

We finally had a dry, sunny day today for tourist-y things. The campground staff warned us not to go to Walmart, as it was flooded and full of cottonmouth snakes! And just how will they know for sure that they've gotten all the snakes out before they re-open? Can you imagine all the hiding places there are in a Walmart? Then they also mentioned that there are cottonmouths living near our campground lake! We decided to pack a picnic lunch and head east about 10 miles to Ft. Smith. The Arkansas River (what comes out of the Pueblo Reservoir in...

Apr 25, 2011 - Alma, Arkansas

Just a short note to let everyone know that we're still here, on the ark. We've had nearly five inches of rain in the last two days. Two of the campgrounds in other cities we'd thought of going to (Hot Springs and Little Rock) had tornadoes today, so we've just stayed put. Our weather radio has gone off non-stop, mostly for flash flooding, but we've been under tornado watches every day, too. We've both become numb to all the warnings. The leaks we thought were fixed last year are still leaking. The rain finally stopped about an hour ago,...

Apr 23, 2011 - Alma, Arkansas

We drove about 250 miles east yesterday into Alma, in NW Arkansas. This large campground is set in the woods, but we haven't had any skeeter problems. Where Oklahoma City was in a severe drought, this area has had plenty of rain. Everything is lush green and mossy. The campground has a small lake, and several families of mallard ducks are living here (we found a nest this morning by the office). There are also cardinals, and several other species of birds that I'm not familiar with. We only planned on staying here two nights (Friday &...

Mar 31, 2011 - Spinach Capital of the World

We could not leave Arkansas without a visit to Alma--spinach capital of the world. And what do you think of when you think of spinach--Popeye, of course. Alma is the home of the spinach division of Allen Canning Co. A small city park on Main Street has the statue of Popeye and the town water tank claims to be the world’s largest can of spinach. To me, it looks more like a water tank painted green, but whatever. It was pouring down rain when we tried to see these attractions, so the photos aren’t very good, but you get the idea. We started...

Sep 23, 2009 - Alma Arkansas

9-23-2009 We left Harrison Arkansas today and went to a KOA in Alma Arkansas. We plan to drive in the car south to Ouachita National Forest. 9-24-2009 We drove to Ouachita National Forest and at Mena Arkansas we took the Talimena scenic drive. This road offers breathtaking panoramas of the east-west ranges of the Ouachita Mountains. This curving drive winds 54 miles west along the east spine of Rich Mountain and Winding Stair Mountain. The drive of 54 miles took about 3 hours as we stopped at many vista views. At the top of Rich Mountain...

Jun 18, 2009 - Alma, Arkansas

We left West Memphis about 7:30 this morning. It took us about 6 hours of travel. We are staying in the Alma/Ft. Smith KOA. As soon as we hooked up at our site about a dozen ducks met us at our door begging for food. You know me, I opened my bread bag and fed them several slices of bread. Maggie loved watching the ducks (she would have liked to catch one of them). There is a big pond right outside our site....however, the ducks want leave our site for now because I fed them. There is a pool at this KOA and it is salt water. We plan on...

Aug 28, 2007 - Arkansas

After a slow morning, we spent some time enjoying the indoor pool and hot tub at the Rockwell RV Park. Although we slept fine, I would recommend driving on to a state park for future RV stays. This was basically a parking lot off the freeway. Although they offer lots of amenities they are all (IMO) below standard. We loaded up and were ready to leave the park at the 11 o'clock check out time when we got the call notifying us that the Chevy dealership had already received our part! We spent less than ½ hour in their waiting room while they...