Along the Mississippi

We have really enjoyed ourselves spending time in Memphis at our campsite overlooking the mighty Mississippi. The sunrises over the river were beautiful. The weather has been warm and mostly sunny. We have eaten some great barbeque. Of course we had to eat at The Pig on Beale -- the best ribs! We also tried Leonards which is diner that was showcased on the Food Network. We had ribs there too and they let you order them half wet (with barbeque sauce ) and half dry (with a dry rub and no sauce). The ribs were very good both ways. What they are more famous for is their barbeque pork sandwich and southern recipe onion rings with a slice of lemon icebox pie for dessert. Oh well, we will just have to go back sometime.

We toured the Mississippi River Musuem on Mud Island. We have been through it once before but its worth seeing more than once. After seeing this museum we would like to see the one in Dubuque, Iowa . This one showcases the lower Mississippi and the one in Iowa does the northern half of the river.

The pyramid is Memphis's conference center. It is very pretty when the sun shines on it but it doesn't have anything in it worth seeing as far as we could tell. Its built overlooking the river and they keep trying to develop the green space along the river -- to make it more welcoming. Beale street is still a pretty big draw for music and food. They've been adding "brass notes" to the sidewalk along Beale Street in honor of famous Blues muscians. Its a clever idea and I hope everything they are doing will boost the tourism in the area.

Next stop is Alma, Arkansas.

Camping with the Chickens

We only got a little south of Green Bay and lost a bearing cover off the boat trailer. We had to pull into a truck stop, unhitch the truck from the 5th wheel and go buy a new one. Of course we didn't have a big enough hammer to whack it in place. So we had to hitch up and go to a boat dealer down the road and have them do it. To top it off we hit a detour, major road construction and traffic at a dead crawl in Rockford, Il. We got to the campground just at dark and by the time we got to a restaurant to eat it was 7:30pm.

Our second day of traveling we stopped for the night in Whittington, IL. The campground we stayed at was called Whittington Woods. It did have beautiful woods but it also came with poultry running around loose. I took these pictures right outside our rig. There were also three turkeys but they stayed close to the coop.

Whittington is famous for Burton's Cafe. We had to go try it and see if we agreed that it was good home cooking. It was very good -- I had homemade ham and bean soup with cornbread and Jim had some fried catfish. What they are really famous for is their "white pie". I had a piece and it was very good, light and fluffy. They won't say what is in it but if I had to guess one of the ingredients is tapioca pudding.

We are now camped in West Memphis, AR probably for the next two weeks. Its very nice and warm!

Saying Goodbye

The owners of the campground are too the far left, John and Marty. The couple on the far right are Carol and Lewie. We have ended up meeting Carol and Lewie in our travels both going south and coming back up north. The couple next to them is Wade and Gail -- they were the mangers this year and in the very middle is Dorothy. She cleaned the cabins while we did the bathhouses.

One couple is missing - they already left to visit family in New York.

We will miss them all but more than likely meet up with many of them again during our travels. We will be heading to Memphis next -yeah its warm there!

We will be spending the winter close to Yuma, Az in a small town 20 miles east of Yuma called Wellton. We found a nice rv park -- at least it sounds nice and the picture we saw looked good called Pioneer Rv Park. We plan to be there sometime in December and stay until April.

Here Comes the Judge

We survived another pumpkin patch festival. The campground offered hay rides, a bonfire with singing, hot chocolate, cider and treats. Last year Jim got to tend the bonfire and I helped judge the pumpkin carving contest. This year Jim and I were the judges so Jim got to wear the judge costume. Some folks go all out carving pumpkins and decorating their campsites. Everyone had a lot of fun but it was a lot of work for us workampers. The campground was pretty much full except for some open basic tent sites. At least this year the weather was much better. It was in the 60's during the day and mid 40's at night. Last year there were snow flurries in the air.

We've said goodbye to one workamper couple who left to go visit some relations in New York and then they head back to southern Missouri until after Christmas. We may meet up with them when we head that way around the first part of November.

We are pretty much packed up and ready to leave ourselves. We head out Monday morning the 18th. Our first stop will be a little campground in Illinois close to the intersection of Interstate 39 and 80.

Big News!

Sorry, I have been trying to put a fall color picture on the blog. I have to give up and try next week. I did want to let everyone know that we have accepted a job for next summer in northern Minnesota. We will be working at Northern Lights Resort & Outfitters. The resort has 11 cabins of various sizes and a large dock area with assorted boats for rent. We will be cleaning cabins, working the dock, store, answering the phone and helping with some guest activities. It is a very nice resort. We will be working with 2 other workamping couples. The resort has 3 rv sites for us workers. Jim is very happy at the thought of having the boat on a dock again.

The resort is on Lake Kabetogama which is part of the chain of lakes that make up Voyagueurs National Park. We couldn't ask for a better setting. If you want to check out the resort their web site is www.northernlightsoutfitters.com. We know the fishing is excellent there since we used to fish the area at least once a year. Now we get to spend a whole summer fishing it!! There are a few drawbacks -- groceries are a 60 mile round trip expedition. The nearest Walmart is 70 miles away. We may have to eat out more at the other resorts around the lake.

We start May 1st so we will be back in Minnesota in April. We will be praying that there isn't snow and the ice is out on the lakes, especially that far north. We will be working there u until the end of September which is much better than mid October here.

We will definitely enjoy Arizona this winter for as long as possible!