Great Salt Plains

Today's drive was longer than normal at 315 miles. You can see Tucker was happy to be out of the car. Actually he was rolling around for a few minutes it was pretty cute.

 We managed to get one of the last sites available at the campground. It is right on the river near the dam. Herons and Pelicans are all hanging about.,

We are only spending 2 nights here and we started by visiting the Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge.

Someday I'll know what all the different National "blah" designations mean.

 Along the lake we did a few nature walks seeing lots of birds and turtles.

There is also a scenic dirt road which we drove through.

 Oh and some snakes!  Luckily we don't have the dog with us on these walks.

One side of the lake is all dry in a big sail plain.  It is a little bit like a small very flat version of White Sands NM.

 Except here under the salt groovy crystals form and you can go digging for them.

They take a while to grow so they mark off areas where people can dig and move it around periodically.

 I like the way the salt sticks to the tired when you drive on the salt.

I am certain this is not good for the car. But seeing as how we are from Boston where they use tons of road salt it can't be any worse than winter.

 Here is Will and random people digging.

 The basic method as I read was to dig a hole about 1-2 feet deep and put water in the bottom.

You then use the water to wash down the sides of the hole feeling for the crystals.

We didn't really have a shovel but we found some abandoned equipment.

 You can also easily adopt other people's abandoned holes.

They aren't the most impressive crystals but they were fun to find.  Also they are unique, it is hard to see but they have a funky hour-glass of sediment in each one.

Not one is sure why they form this way but it only happens here.

We ended the evening watching all the birds.

I also found a scorpion under the trailer. The pictures didn't come out sadly.

It was a little unnerving because we both left our shoes outside to let the crystal digging dirt dry off.

Eureka Springs Arkansas

Eureka Springs is a cute mountain town.

It is a little like Bisby but a also has a lot more touristy junk.

We visited Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. They take in all kinds of wild creatures when they need a place to live.

 Many of the animals are former pets of people who got caught having illegal animals or just eventually came to the realization that these animal don't make good pets.

They are pretty cute and seem to be well cared for.

A lot is done to provide "enrichment" to their rather confined lives (at least compared to their natural habitats).

 Sadly none of these animals could ever survive in their original habitats because they never learned the skills they would need to survive.

 Eureka Springs is on a big hill, and has it's share of T-shirt and normal touristy shops.

Much of the really touristy junk isn't in the main downtown which is nice.

 This old hotel is pretty cool, you can see it kind of from another era.

But they still crank out a pretty good Margarita!

 The town is also littered with gnomes. I kept thinking I'd see some Phil from the Amazing Race around every corner.

There are also dozens of springs around town which is where the town got it's name.

However I don't think we saw a single one with water in it.

Outside of town you can also see "The Great Passion Play" an outdoor extravaganza about the life of Jesus.

More Alabama and Memphis

This was just a road stop while driving. Basically they buy up all the unclaimed luggage airlines lose and sell of the stuff.

They are always getting new stuff.

 Actually they have everything you can think of and a kind of museum of odd items too.

Lots of electronics at pretty decent prices from headphones, kindles, phones and laptops.

They are all charged and working. I kind of need a new phone but they had very few AT&T compatible phones.

If you ever pass it in Alabama it is worth a stop.

 Alabama continues to surprise and we find the Rosenbaum House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

We called ahead and asked about tours and they had them so we stopped for a visit.

 It is of his Usonian Design style which started out as a cheap house for the every-man but this one had been expanded some.

The tour was OK but our guide was a bit of a low talker and focused on some strange details about the house and family it was built for. And home odd things about people stealing during tours in the past.

 We headed to Memphis TN next with no real reason other than to eat some BBQ.

We are staying at the fairgrounds there which is nice and close to downtown and pretty nice. Nearby is a great dog park with this lake.

Tucker hasn't had much off-leash time so this was a great find.  It isn't your normal tiny fenced in area dog park, it is a big area kind of like where we run Tucker at home.

There were lots of dogs and the water is good as it is pretty hot here.

HAPPY DOG!

 Tucker totally approved!

We hit The Commissary in Germantown for our first BBQ lunch and it was great.

Arriving at 11:20 we were able to get parking and get in without too much of a wait.

One other trip to Memphis the wait was too long and we just left.

 More Commissary food, the cole slaw with deviled egg on top was great!

We also hit a happy hour for a beer and then got more BBQ at one of the Central BBQ locations.

It was a nice evening and we ate outside, the food wasn't as good as the Commissary.

I am still searching for the Dry Rub Memphis style ribs I had in the late 90's when I drove out to California.

I never found those ribs... I had them at a hotel but they were from a downtown famous BBQ place.... Maybe I'll never find them but I'll keep eating BBQ till I find them.

Central BBQ had some good live music which added to the experience.

Little River Canyon National Preserve

Little River Canyon National Preserve is a cool little park. Hardly anyone goes here it seems.

It is a big canyon in Alabama, I had no idea there were ANY canyons of this size anywhere in the east.

It has a nice scenic drive and some short hiking trails.

 Little River Falls are probably the only part of the park most people would see and it right off the local highway.

 Mushroom Rock is on the scenic drive and is actually smack in the middle of it.

 Mushroom rock in profile.

Some of the scenic drive isn't that scenic. You can see across the Canyon to where people have private land and big houses that have great views of the canyon.

There are a number of nice overlooks and picnic areas along the road which make up for the dull parts of the scenic drive.

 At the end of the scenic drive is a nice park where we had lunch. It is the only part of the park where they charge. Normally you could swim in the river here but there has been so much rain it is flooded and way too dangerous.

A nice ranger came and talked to us as we ate lunch in the truck and made sure we weren't thinking of taking a dip.

We didn't swim just took a nice hike along the river.

The next morning for the first time this trip I baked some blueberry scones. It was a little hodgepodge of what ingredients I had in the trailer but they came out good.

Here we go heading into Atlanta on 85 a rare time where we on the interstate instead of smaller roads.

Of course we usually aren't heading into a big city like Atlanta. But we are going to visit some friends here.

 We got a great camp site in the most quiet loop at Stone Mountain.  Nice to have camping so close to a major city. And actually nice camping too.

We spend a great evening hanging out with Ben and George and the dogs. Sadly we didn't take any pictures while seeing them.  It was good to see their new house and catch up.

We also hit a great dinner place and ice cream. And got recommendations for this Doughnut Place where we had breakfast the next day.

 There was some sort of mix up with the order as they were out of at least one of the types we orded and somehow that ended us up with an extra doughnut to split!

 After stuffing our faces with doughnuts we hit the Delta Air Museum.

It was a pretty cool especially all the old air memorabilia.

 They had several airplanes you could walk through both inside the terminal and outside in the parking lot.

It was a fun museum and a very hot day!  We high tailed it to the nearest Starbucks for ice coffees!

The next day we went for hike with my High School friend Tom and his family. We stopped thru to visit them once before on a trip to FL.

We took the dog on a nice hike with them to the river in the picture above.

After we had some beers and lunch at Lucky's a very dog friendly place.

Here is a picture of all of us on the hike. We also took a walk around some little town of shops and got some ice cream!

Visiting people is never good for the waistline but it is great for the soul!