Arkansas en Oklahoma

The Old Mill - North Little Rock - Arkansas

Arkansas and Oklahoma

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The nice thing about traveling with an RV is experiencing a sense of freedom. In North Carolina we were in doubt whether to fly back to the Netherlands via the east coast or via the west. Because of that flexibility and our choice to go west, we are now going to Arkansas and Oklahoma for the first time.

Arkansas

Driving through Arkansas is the same as any other state: endless roads with views as far as the eye can see! It is quite green and flat here. The first stop in Arkansas is near Little Rock. We spend the night at St. Joseph, a former orphanage, which has been transformed into a special place. There are all kinds of vegetable gardens, there are animals walking, there is a store with homegrown and local products and there are company parties. Nice to buy something here and stay a night.

We also want to see the town of Little Rock. We drive, without a reservation, to campground Downtown riverfront. This campground is located around highways, so we don't expect it to be quiet at night. One advantage, however, is that walking across the Clinton walkway you are in the small town within 15 minutes. And that's very relaxing.

There is a nice food court where you can eat delicious food, the main street is nice to walk, but for longer than a morning we do not find this city worth spending. We also took a look at the Old State House of the state of Arkansas. It is now a museum with some of the original rooms from when this was the government building. We are welcomed by a man with a mega -free Mason necklace around his neck. Among other things, you will find mega-sized pictures of the former governors and other members of the government and their wives. After a tour of all the pictures, we cannot help but conclude that the "women" are all men wearing dresses. Tip: Also take a good look at the current "female" spouses of famous people from this era.

The Old Mill

Highly recommended is the Old Mill in North Little Rock! An idyllic place with a mill, beautiful flowering plants, a waterfall and picnic areas. This is a place where people get married and go to take family photos. This place is in a residential area and that is also where you park your RV.

Benton

The next stop is in the town of Benton at boondocker hosts Mike & Gay. What nice people and also Betty, Gay's 88 year old mother is a treasure! She walks her dog while cruising through the neighborhood at high speed on a golf cart, laughs! The neighborhood where they live is spacious in the woods. They have made a lovely sitting area for guests under the trees.

As we, in the evening, are taking a lovely walk, we are approached by a father and son. The father's young dog has been lost since morning. We are given a business card and promise to call if we spot the dog and?.we do! The dog is a little anxious and does not listen to the son, but as soon as his elderly owner calls his name he comes running straight to him. So nice that they are reunited, as we so often see hit dead animals lying by the roadside.

We have other very special encounters here that moved us tremendously, but we will write more about those another time.

Driving Across America

Driving across America is fun to do. It's a lot of miles and there is always something to see. We frequently stop along the way in small towns and also at places we have heard about from local people. After Benton, we drive to Knoxville. The hosts Lisa and Ricky live on a beautiful lake. We get to choose how we will pitch.

A lot of people became Boondockers Welcome hosts:

for fun
because they themselves travel a lot and take advantage of these free overnight spots
because they have something to sell

Today's hosts are genuinely interested in people; they have both been very sick and enjoy sharing stories. After they accept our request, Lisa is a little concerned if we can speak English: so funny! We get a tour of their house, built all by themselves with a facade made entirely of glass on the lake-side: wow what a view! Lisa makes beautiful quilt , very nice to see.

Ozark National Forest

We get the tip to drive to Ozark National Forest. We see that there is also a campground there: Horsehead lake. Arriving at the campsite, we see that it is very dark, not a single ray of sunlight reaches the camper. We drive to the parking lot, right on the lake and stay there for two nights (illegally). There are toilets and even hot showers in this parking lot.

We are addressed by an Amish Mennonite man. You recognize Amish immediately: men have trimmed beards and mustaches, wear shirts and jeans with suspenders. The women wear a dress, sometimes with an apron and a cap on their heads. He runs a chicken farm and is proud of his 8 children. Fun fact: all the Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch-which is a kind of German!

We also chat a bit with a couple visiting the lake. Before they leave again they walk up to us again and we get a bill with their details and a beautiful keychain of a cross with shiny stones and the text Faith: really so sweet!

Fridge broken again

We start to notice here that the refrigerator stops working. That always sucks, but we had just bought $200 worth of groceries (yes they are very expensive here!). We fiddle with the thermostat, check the plugs and the circuit board, but to no avail. This is the second time the refrigerator has stopped working and both times here in America.

Our refrigerator runs on gas, 220V and 12V, but does not get cold! The circuit board looks good, the flame burns super, nothing is clogged or dirty, and everything heats up normally. When reading the fault we get no message. Meanwhile, we have also presented the complaints to our camper dealer Henk Pen. So irritating from Thetford Netherlands: you can only get in touch with them through a dealer.....

Last time the thermostat was broken. Thetford is also sold in America under another name Nordic. We drive to parts store Crabtree. Unfortunately, it is not in stock. Before we order the part online, we ask our new Boondocker host Darrel & Kitty in Tulsa Oklahoma if we can have it delivered. That's fine! We order 2 thermostats and they are soon delivered. Unfortunately without the desired effect!

We visit a Thetford dealer nearby. Before even 1 finger is lifted, we pay $108.50. We don't care, if they can fix the refrigerator: fine! The mechanics who work here have to bring their own tools?...he borrows tools from Robert, removes some plugs from the circuit board, puts them back and the refrigerator works again. We happy of course!

When we get back to Darrel & Kitty, the fun is already over with the refrigerator. Darrel has a similar refrigerator, so we can properly check that everything is hot where it should be hot and cold where it should be cold and that's it! The only option is to replace the circuit board.

We order a circuit board on Sunday evening from Camperhuis. They emailed back on Sunday asking us to send a picture of the type of refrigerator. They want to make sure we ordered the right one: what a service! The circuit board is delivered to our home in Holland on Tuesday at 2:30 pm. Robert filled out everything for FedEx the night before and makes the request at 2:30 p.m. to have it picked up. At 4 p.m. the package is already picked up and at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday it is delivered to Darrel & Kitty. Unbelievable and the expedited shipping cost "only" 90! The refrigerator is working again!

Central door lock

Our central door lock is also broken for the second time. A plastic part has broken off. Robert fixed it last time with a tie-wrap, but it has now failed as well. Robert has an idea to fix it, discusses it with Darrel, who also thinks it is a good idea, and that too is fixed!

So sweet

It is so nice to camp with Darrel & Kitty. We feel tremendously welcome, we have nice conversations and are invited to go with them to a 'church'. We do not follow religion, but are curious to see if this church is different from those of our youth: being quiet and wooden pews. Darrel insists that we borrow his car to do fun things and also go to church the next day. How nice is that!!!

As soon as we walk into the mega large building we are welcomed in a beautiful hall. Our visit was already announced and Darrel & Kitty are already walking towards us. As soon as we step into the huge room with 500 people, we get goosebumps from the choir and musicians standing on the stage/altar, wow what an energy! We feel tremendously under dressed, everyone "young and old" is wearing a suit or a dress and the most beautifully coiffed hair.

People get a healing and many people put themselves into a kind of trance. It was a special experience and it is nice to see, that the members of this community have somewhere to go where they feel safe.

When we spend the last day with these lovely people, a tornado alarm goes off in the morning. We heard nothing of it. After saying goodbye, we have a brisk wind to our next destination: the state of Kansas.

Next stop

We want to travel north through the state of Kansas first. We want to decide after that whether we will fly to Holland via Denver, Salt Lake City or some other place.