Pine Bluff Still

Saturday, May 7 - Our plan this morning was to tour that, then head toward Toledo Bend, either in Texas or Louisiana.  We took another little drive first, just outside of town, and saw the Port of Pine Bluff, some of the old industrial section which now houses mostly closed businesses, and some kind of lumber or pulp plant.  We passed this lumber company on our way into town yesterday and saw what we thought was smoke coming from the stacks.  Today we got closer and saw that it was actually water being sprayed onto the stacks of lumber.

Pine Bluff is a huge rail center, and next door to the Arkansas Railroad Museum was a plant that had a huge inventory of train wheels, different sizes and different levels of rust.

This museum houses the last 4-8-4 Northern-type locomotive built in Pine Bluff, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

They also have a number of rare diesel locomotives, a complete steam wrecker train, cabooses, and a snow plow, along with a wide variety of artifacts including tools, paper goods, maps and pictures.

By the time we got back to camp, it was noon.  It was another beautiful day, and we loved this campsite, so we just decided to stay another day.

So we had a day of rest -- something we are not very good at when we are traveling.  We both got naps in, spent a little time in our lawn chairs, and took a walk around this beautiful campground.  But Joe's allergies do not like all this greenness, his nose plugged up and his eyes started itching, so he had to go inside.  Nevertheless, it was a very good day for us.   I walked back down and where the fishermen were fishing, but I did not buy a fishing license, so all I could do was watch.

I did make a new friend, though.

And we got to watch the NASCAR race tonight, a rare treat.  Tomorrow we will head to Louisiana and see if we can camp at Toledo Bend -- another spot I will probably wish I had fishing license.  John and Bridgette promise to take us fishing in Florida, though, so I will try to wait for that.  Bridgette thinks the closer we get to Texas, the sooner she graduates, so she keeps checking on our progress.  A week from now it will be over, and she will officially be Dr. Bridgette Froeschke.

Pine Bluff, Arkansas

Friday, May 6 - We listened to the morning news to check on flooding conditions.  I-40 is closed both eastbound and westbound in central Arkansas, so we are going to cross here on I-55 and then take 79 south.  We did not do any sightseeing here because of the flooding -- they are expecting to start evacuating people this morning.  Beale Street and Riverside Drive, both Memphis icons, are closed.  It was nice to see billboards of Elvis, though, as we drove past the Graceland exit.  They are calling this the Flood of the Century, and I'm not sure why we are here, but Joe, of course, wouldn't want to miss anything, so I guess that's reason enough. 

 

We left about 9:30, but took the wrong turn out of the campground (based on my advice, contrary to Joe's instincts) and ended up with a 6-mile scenic tour of Memphis' millionaire row (at least it seemed like it to us, beautiful estates, huge houses, acres of lawns to mow).  We finally made it back to the highway, fueled at the first Circle K we've seen in a long time ($3.739), and were on our way across the Mississippi River bridge, which we crossed without incident.  The traffic wasn't even heavy, but the river was full and overflowing.

The floodwater was really bad on the west side of the river, and there were even electric lines lying in the water, causing a splash.

An interesting item on the news - the casinos across the state line in Tunica, Mississippi are closed due to flooding (darn!), but they have a dilemma because they don't have locks on their doors; they are open 24/7.  I did not hear what their solution was, but I thought that was noteworthy.  I wondered if they emptied out all the slot machines -- I assume they did.  They hope to be open by Memorial Day, so this flood will affect them for a few weeks.

We got off I-55 at US 79, and traffic was relatively light most of the way, even though this was part of the detour route off I-40.  We stopped at the Arkansas Visitor Center and asked about Hwy. 79, and she had heard they were not allowing crossing the bridge at Clarendon on the White River, so I called the Arkansas Dept. of Transportation (again) and he told me they were letting cars cross, but not 18-wheelers, and he was not sure which category we would fall in.  He said there would be a cop at the last intersection and he would tell us if they would allow us to cross, but by the time we got there (about 1:00 p.m.), we were meeting 18-wheelers and there was no cop, so we went ahead.  And crossed without incident.  This White River has really flooded the fields west of it.

The road across this bridge was not in very good shape, and they are building a new bridge beside this one, so they probably are not going to do much repair work on this old road.  But the new bridge does not seem to have much clearance -- I'm thinking they should have built it up higher!

Every river, stream and ditch is full to overflowing through this part of the country -- the 20 inches of rain they received in the last 2 weeks (while I was getting stormed on in Indiana) has just ruined these fields for the spring season.  We even saw a set of 6-8 grain elevators standing in 2-3 feet of water.  Several places we saw pumps in the fields, draining the water into ditches, but the ditches were already full too, so I don't know how well that will go.




Our last big river to cross today was the Arkansas River; it didn't seem as flooded as the rest, maybe it has receded a little.

After much debate about how far we wanted to go today, we finally decided to stop at Pine Bluff, and found Lake Saracen Regional Park right at the edge of town, just past the golf course.  This is a beautiful park, and we found a campsite near the lake, so we got set up, walked down and watched some fishermen/fisherwomen (the woman caught 1 catfish and 1 brim [bluegill] while we stood there), and got the lawn chairs out again -- a nice, relaxing spot.

Of course, we couldn't stand to rest too long, so we headed into town for dinner.  Joe has had a hankering for barbeque ever since we hit Texas last month, so we put that in the GPS and drove around until we found one; then we explored the town a little.  On our way back into our park, we came upon a family of geese out for their evening exercise.

The babies were so cute -- still fuzzy.  Then we saw a deer just at the campground gate.  We saw 4 live turtles on the highways today (and a few dead ones), along with roadkill of 3 armadillos and a deer.  I'm sure the flooded fields have driven some of the wildlife out of their normal haunts, but I have been surprised at the number of turtles who have decided they have to cross the road -- it really is not a good idea for them!

We found a railroad museum in town so we plan to visit that in the morning, and then head on southwest, although this would be a nice place to spend an extra day -- we would just have to buy an Arkansas fishing license.  Today was a beautiful day -- sunny, high 70s.  I would like to bottle up some days like today for the upcoming weeks in Texas and Florida, followed by Arizona.

Back to Memphis

Thursday, May 5 - Happy Cinco De Mayo Day.  We had tacos for dinner in honor of the occasion. 

We got up to another sunny day, yeah!   It was a beautiful morning, and we spent a couple hours with the map and computer this morning trying to figure out how to get across the flooded areas and the Mississippi River; I-40 in Arkansas was closed between Memphis and Little Rock, with a 100+ mile detour, and the Caruthersville, Missouri bridge crossing would put us right in the flooded area in north Arkansas.  I figure our Mobile Hot Spot for MiFi probably paid for itself this morning, since I was able to get on web sites about the Arkansas road closure, which a trucker had posted.  We finally decided on a route through central Tennessee and Mississippi, maybe crossing the river at Vicksburg, but Joe changed his mind mid-stream, and we ended up on the southeast edge of Memphis tonight (I practically wore out the Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi pages on the atlas).  So we'll check again in the morning and decide whether we move on, or sit in Memphis for another day or so.

We drove through beautiful country coming down through Kentucky and central Tennessee.  Our route took us past Murray State University, and the town and university both were very pretty.  A classmate of Joe's, Johnny Buchhorn, attended Murray State, so it was interesting to see the school, although we only saw what we could see from the highway.

We pulled off the road in McKenzie, Tennessee for lunch, and Joe walked across the road to a grocery store for a tomato.  A Dairy Queen happened to be next to the grocery store, so he bought a treat for me.  While he was doing his errands, I heard a clip-clopping outside, and an Amish horse and buggy was going by on the road, and then it pulled into the grocery store.  He tied up the horse to the hitching post, then went inside for his groceries.

Driving on southwest on US 79 through Tennessee, we saw a lot of  damage from the terrible storms that came through Alabama, Tennessee and the whole south a couple of weeks ago.  We saw lots of limbs piled up, big old trees uprooted, and some houses that roofs were being replaced on.  This went on for several miles, especially around Milan.

The price of gas is also of great interest to us.  We paid $3.869 yesterday in Kentucky; today we saw gas as low as $3.689 (of course we didn't need any gas today, so we'll wait for the $4.00 stuff tomorrow).  Although tonight's news reported that the price of gas should be coming down, maybe as low as $3.50 -  our new bargain price, I guess. 

Our next excitement was driving through Humboldt, which acclaims itself as the strawberry capital of Tennessee.   And lo and behold, the festival is May 1-7.  We drove straight through town, looking for strawberries.  Joe said he would stay here overnight, he would even bring money for berries, but we never did see any for sale.  We suddenly found ourselves on main street, and the streets were lined with lawn chairs for a parade.  I noticed that we were the only ones on the street, so Joe started giving the parade wave just in case we were leading it.  But we never saw the parade either, so I guess we missed it.

We ended our day on the northeast edge of Memphis about 4:30, having driven 168 miles today (we made 174 miles yesterday).  We really lucked into a neat little campground, right behind a mobile home park, with a little fishing pond with a dock.  We sat down there in the sunshine for a little while and spotted 3 turtles, one not much bigger than 1 inch.  When I lived at Claypool, there were always lots of baby turtles around in the spring, so it's fun to see them again.

We also were visited by 2 geese, so we are back into wildlife!

Our campsite was shaded, and pretty roomy, and we sat out in lawn chairs for a little while, which we don't do often enough.  Today was a good day -- we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Exit Day

Wednesday, May 4 - Halleluiah, the sunshine has returned!  Pretty chilly morning (41 degrees overnight), but the sun is shining!  We finished gathering up our stuff (hopefully we got everything) and made a trip into town for groceries.  The Fire Dept. had 2 ladder trucks parked on the overpass with a huge American flag flying between them.  We were told it was in honor of the troops, and it was an awesome sight.

 We made a quick stop at Mike and Rachelle's to see her daycare operation, then drove past the Indian Hills Produce Inc. watermelon distribution center, which is between Mike and Lucille's houses.  They truck watermelons into this center, then repack them and truck them all over the country.  There are semi trucks passing by Lucille's house all day long, going to this distribution center.

 About 12:30, we were ready to hit the road.  Joe drove to the station just up the road to fill up our propane tank, so I took a couple of last pictures, then drove up to meet him and hook up the car.  Lucille walked outside to see us off.
 
We had a really good visit, but it was time to move on.  After much debate last night, Joe picked out a route that took us through Evansville (another White Castle hamburger lunch), then into Kentucky.  We saw terrible flooding throughout this drive, fields and even houses and barns with water in and all around them.

 

It's going to take a long time to recover from the damage this flooding is causing.  We crossed the Ohio River at Evansville, which had flooded all the surrounding area too.

We drove through Kentucky to the Kentucky Lake area, crossing the Tennessee River.

 We used to come to Kentucky Lake to fish for crappie in the spring, so this area was familiar to us, although it had changed dramatically in the 25+ years since we had been here.  We had intended to camp at the Kentucky Dam Village and Campground, but it was all under water.

They recommended a campground just a mile down the road, so we got set up then drove around the area.  The water was rushing through the spillways at the dam, going into the Tennessee River which certainly did not need any more water.

We drove through some of the camping resorts we had been to back in the 80's, then ended up at Jonathan Creek where we camped many times.  This inlet was huge, due to the high water of the lake, and our old campground, Lakeside, was mostly underwater.  We were glad we had not planned on staying here tonight.  We did see two red foxes on this drive, along with a turtle and numerous squirrels.

We headed back to the camper then, and I fixed dinner.  It was an interesting day, and we were glad to be on the road again, seeing the sights.  We are hoping for another sunny day tomorrow.

Getting Ready to Leave

Tuesday, May 3 - We are planning on leaving tomorrow, so today was the day to get chores done.  I started my morning by doing laundry, then vacuuming, while Joe checked tires and oil on the RV.  My dear friend Barbara stopped by on her way home from work (she had to change her route due to flooding and levees that broke) and we had a good visit.  Joe and Lucille both got short naps in so they would be ready for our final euchre game.  We celebrated our last night with Bobe's Pizza with Lucille, Fred and Judy, then cards until 11:00 -- an early night since Mike had to work.  It was partly sunny today, and chilly, but no rain.

Day trip

Monday, May 2 - Just in case you're wondering, it's still raining.  Lucille has been wanting to take a drive back to her roots, around Monroe City, so today is the day for that.  Mike decided to take the day off to go with us (he was our tour guide, so we were lucky he came along), and Fred also joined us, so the old Explorer was full.  Mike knows all the backroads in this area so he took us past coal mines, old churches (Lucille had attended every one of them as a kid), old cemeteries and places where she thought they might have lived.  The coal mines have distorted the landscape so it is sometimes hard to figure out if we are on the right road, but we thought we found most of the places (the houses have long since been torn down).  We stopped at a gas station/deli hang-out in Monroe City, and Mike asked a few questions, and we spent several hours exploring these roads.  Monroe is close to the White River (flooded), so sometimes our roads ended abruptly.

We don't see think kind of country in Arizona, and this would have really been a pretty drive had the weather been better. 

 After hours of wondering these roads, we stopped at Wendy's in Vincennes for lunch, then headed back down to Decker Chapel to show Lucille the damage from the downed power lines, and the flooded fields.  There is an old toll bridge that crosses into St. Francisville, Illinois, and Joe, of course, took us across it.

From this point on, Lucille was not happy with Joe.  She did not want to see the flooding this close!  This is the Wabash River, and it is way above flood stage.  All the bottom farmland around here is flooded, and the road to this bridge is only inches from flooding.

We next drove past the area where we had been last week, where they were repairing the downed power lines.  A lot of progress had been made, even with the adverse weather and all the mud.  They were using bulldozers to drag the service trucks around in the fields.  There were several new (wooden) poles up, but most of them did not have electric lines attached yet.

It has rained almost every day since this damage was done, and these fields are a mess.  I can't begin to imagine when the farmers will be able to get in them this spring.  Joe talked to someone at the barber shop and he said they had 16 inches of rain in April.  It looked to me like it was 11 inches, and they had about 3 inches before we got here, so we must have experienced around 8 inches during our visit.  One 24-hour period shows 2.42 inches, and there were two other times that it showed over an inch, but it seemed to me that it was an inch a day, with sporadic downpours of multiple inches on the weekends!

We continued our drive back to Decker Chapel.  One road we had been on two weeks ago, where we drove over the levee, now is completely under water all the way to the levee, and someone has parked a boat at the bottom of the levee, probably the people who live just down this road.

We drove back to the one place I used to live.  When we stopped here 2 weeks ago, there was a old shed housing an old tractor (I didn't take a picture, which I regret).  Here is what is left of the shed.

The tornado that took down the power lines also destroyed this shed.  I had tried to talk Collins into taking one of the old pieces of lumber, and obviously, he should have, since there is nothing left.

We then stopped by Claypool again, to show Lucille (she would gladly have missed this stop).  Here is my picture from 2 weeks ago, followed by what it looks like now -- flooded.

Although Claypool pond is high here, it is still within its banks.  This ditch in the forefront also is within its banks, and the road to the pond is out of the water.

..

In this picture, taken from the levee the same as the ones above, it is now all underwater.

When this flooded when I lived here in 5th and 6th grades, my dad would tow us out to the levee in a rowboat so we could catch the bus.

We continued on down the road to the "neck," and quickly came to the end of our road.  We had driven this road all the way around just 2 weeks ago, with Collins and Marilyn, but when we topped the last hill, we hit the flood water and had to turn around.

On our way back, we got behind my school bus buddy, Mike Carter, right along the Claypool levee and talked to him for a few minutes.  The Decker Chapel road is closed due to flooding, so we had to back the way we had come (6th Street Road).  Mike said he was able to take all his kids home this afternoon, but he wasn't sure he would be able to get to them tomorrow morning.  And it is still raining.

We finally headed back to town to drop Fred off, then dropped nephew Mike off at his house.  I had soaked a pot of beans for dinner, so Mike's family joined us, along with Fred and Judy, for ham and beans, and sauerkraut (this is the third time we've had sauerkraut since we've been here -- a family favorite, much to my son-in-law's horror).  Mike and Rachelle took the kids home about 8:30, but Mike showed back up at 11:00 p.m. to join the card game, which we were about to end.  Mike said he hadn't planned on stopping but saw the lights on, so he didn't want to miss the opportunity for the nightly card game.  So it was another late night (1:00 a.m.) before we got to bed.  And it's still raining.

Sunday

May 1 - Well, the rain returned during the night.  I'm to the point that I'm just mad about it -- I'm tired of being scared of the storms, tired of cold, damp days, and tired of all the flooding in the area.  I've been ready to leave for a couple of days now, but we really don't know which direction to head out of here.  I think the rain has finally hit Texas, so we might be in it no matter which way we go.  The town of Cairo, Illinois, is in danger of being flooded and there is talk of blowing the levee down there.  That is where we crossed into Illinois, so we know where that is.  Also, there was a tornado at Carmi, Illinois, the last place we stayed before we arrived here, so danger lurks at every corner.  It rained about all night, sometimes heavy, and continued to rain off and on all day.  We went to church (the sixth time since we've been here!), and I stayed for the mother-daughter banquet with Lucille, along with Judy, Rachelle and Mallory, and Jaclyn and Adalyn.  The Froeschkes were well represented!  Lucille won a potted flower for being the oldest there, then they drew her name (but she only got one flower).   When we got home from that, I took a nap!  The best solution for these rainy days, since it finally was not storming.  (Lucille takes a nap almost every day, but it was a treat for me.) Joe went to town with Mike and his boys for lunch, since we had cleaned out the leftovers last night (poor planning on our part, I guess). 

We intended to quit playing cards by 11:00 tonight, but Mike stopped by about 10:00 and joined the card game, so we had another late night.  Mike is going on second shift tomorrow, so he does not have to get up early, and he enjoys spending time with his uncles.  You've never played cards until you've played with this crew!  

We beginning to discuss leaving Indiana (yeah).  Joe said probably Tuesday or Wednesday, so we need to start getting ready to hit the road again.  I've carried a lot of things into the house, so it will be a scavenger hunt to find everything and get restocked for the road.  The tornado warning radio has finally been mostly silent, with just an occasional outburst about flooding.  I will not miss that radio!

Saturday

April 30 - Saturday.  Well I won't be sorry to see the end of April in Indiana.  This is really the first nice day we have had in two weeks, and the rain is supposed to be back tomorrow.  This morning we drove to Washington to meet my niece Stacey, and great niece Holly and her little one for lunch.  We had only met Jayden once before, when we was about 3 weeks old, so it was fun to get to watch him keep himself (and Stacey) busy.  We went to Stacey's house after lunch and had a really good visit and got to catch up on Airman John's news in Alaska.  Then Stacey decided it was time to clean out John's room, so she is sending me home with a Hollister wardrobe for Cody, and a small television for my kitchen. 

We got back out to the house and had our nightly card game, until 2:00 a.m. Lucille brought out all the leftovers from the last two weeks, so we had a feast for dinner.  We have got to spend a lot of time with Fred and Judy this year but it sure makes for some short days when you stay up so late (especially with church in the morning).  But Lucille can outlast all the rest of us at the card table. 

Guitar Fest at Vincennes University

 Friday, April 29 - Thursday night Judy and I attended a Guitar Fest at the Red Skeleton Performing Arts Center on the campus of Vincennes University.  Red Skeleton, acclaimed as one of America's greatest clowns, is undoubtedly Vincennes' most famous home town star, and this center was built to honor him.  His widower has donated a lot of his memoirs, clothing, photos, etc., to this center, and it is a beautiful building, built within a block of his birthplace.  My sister-in-law's sister performs with the St. John's Folk Group, and they were special guests at this Guitar Fest, which featured music students and faculty as well.

Friday I had lunch with two of my high school classmates, Brenda (Lane) Nowaski and Faye (Hacker) Hess.  We had a great visit (and a pretty good lunch) and it as fun to catch up with both of them and relive some of our high school memories.  Of course, much of our talk centered around our kids and grandkids, and retirement (which I highly recommended).

Friday night we met up with some of the other classmates for dinner.  Five couples met at a local restaurant and we had a great time laughing about old times and catching up on our lives.  We closed the restaurant so we finally headed our separate ways.  We finally had a break in the weather, and Friday had a hint of spring in the air.