Happy Feet – Brian is always telling me I have “happy feet”. When I ask him what he means by that he just says “your always ready to go”. Hummm, I guess I will take that as a compliment and appreciate the fact that we all need go while we can. Today is a gift and tomorrow things can change in the blink of an eye.
Covid 19 has put a crunch in all our life’s today. We all continue to search for our new normal. I sometimes dream of going here or there and remember “oh, its Covid” and we quickly turn down another path for fun and adventures.
September is always a big month for us because we celebrate a birthday and anniversary. Staying in a hotel or dining out in a nice restaurant wasn’t on my want list this year with all this virus stuff that is taking place. So, when asked the question what I would like to do, I quickly shouted out “LETS GO CAMPING”! I knew we could stay out of the path of other people and stick to our own grounds.
We quickly learned with this Covid thing, everyone was out camping! Camp spots were at a premium and we needed to be creative with eyes wide open. Yes we could always park overnight in a Walmart parking lot as we giggled, but that was not my idea of enjoying a birthday and certainly not celebrating an anniversary.
The internet is such a great tool for just about anything and everything and this is certainly the case with camping as well. We found Reserve America was most helpful. (https://www.reserveamerica.com/). You could go into the parks websites and actually see the campsites. As a reminder it always good to double check it fits all your needs before you hit the reserve button. Do you want electric, sewer or are you just requesting a tent site? It’s all a learning experience but a fun one at that.
After a couple of days in Weston, MO it was time to keep heading south and it was Hot Springs, Arkansas or bust! Temps were to be warm and it was an easy drive plus we scored a couple nights at St. Catherine State Park. We made our reservation during the week to ensure we could get a camp site. Booking midweek if you can, makes a difference with weekends being booked! BUT here is a hint, once we landed we called the front desk at St. Catherine to see if there was possibly any cancelations for a couple more days. Sure enough ~ WE GOT LUCKY! Someone canceled at the last minute with a two week reservation and we just happened to be there at the right time and place before it was put out for rent on Reserve America.
This was our private little spot with a dock and view of the river right out our back door. It’s been our best spot yet ~ we loved St. Catherines State Park!
Harvest Hosts are all around the United States and are located on Wineries and Breweries. They have a limited amount of camping spots and most of time they do not have electric or sewer hookups so you have to be self maintained in your camper. Reservations are required. Also if you stay at a Harvest Host, most of time its free but they do “suggest” to purchase some of their products. Maybe order a pizza or whatever their speciality is , try one of their bottles of wine (or beers) and it also makes for no cooking as well as its fun! We made certain to put a couple of these on our route just to check it out. Not bad, people were friendly, fun and the settings were great!
Many times we felt like we were on the TV show “Naked and Afraid” but we had clothes on. 😉 We both had roles as we sat up camp. Brian took care of leveling the trailer, secure hookups, and repair anything that might have came loose with bumps from the road. My job was to get the fire going, set out lanterns and line up dinner. WE made for a mean team and many times had our tasks done in less than 30 minutes. Yes!
Lots of fun trails to explore as well of finding surprises at the top ~
Hot Springs was beautiful as we climbed the top of the Ouachita Mountain. Downtown Hot Springs and viewing all the bath houses just glowed with exciting history.
The Springs were HOT! These springs were located downtown Hot Springs. The thermal spring waters flow out of the ground at an average of 143 F and produce almost one million gallons of water each day. Many people back in the day considered them healing waters in peace.
Hot Springs, Arkansas is Bill Clinton’s hometown house. Funny how we forget the details of our past presidents, so it was time for a quick google to get the scoop of his boyhood. Fun travel stories of Bill in his day was enjoyed along our road trip.
So its a wrap on our first Avion Adventures! What a fun run learning the in’s and out’s of finding awesome camp sites, exploring back roads and enjoying a simple life We hope we are inspiring you to hit the road as well.
We would love to hear your camping experiences as well, please do share. Any special websites you might use of course would be appreciated.
PS Watch the video until the end, its bound to make you smile.
Wonderful memories were made thanks for sharing love your blog enjoy!
Thank you ~