Day 17 - Travel to Hot Springs

Thursday, June 22, 2023

Posted from: Treasure Isle RV Park, Hot Springs, AR
Miles driven: 462
Total trip miles: 3523

Today was another long travel day. It is also the day we enter our 48th state, Arkansas. 

The route from New Orleans to Hot Springs takes you off the main highways and down some backroads. 

Leaving town, we were on a bridge for several miles. I didn’t keep track of how many, but it went on for a long time. I can only imagine how much it costs to maintain miles of bridges. Someone at the local place Matt and the kids went a couple nights ago told them there was a bridge out of town the way 25 miles long and at one point you can see land in any direction. We already had a long travel day, so we didn’t go that way as it would have added quite a bit of travel time. 

Thankfully there was no oncoming traffic. I’m not sure we could have both fit down this narrow road. 

The roads were curvy and hilly. 

And then we started to see tree damage. Most trees were pulled off the streets, but it was clear the storm was recent and several places did not have power. And the. We started to see these trucks rolling in and staging. They were coming in from everywhere.



Unfortunately we came upon this scene. The trucks were parked on both sides of the road fixing down lines and a semi came around the corner too fast and side swiped several trucks before hitting the back of another and stopping. Soon after passing this scene we saw an ambulance going their direction. We prayed everyone is okay.

This is the bridge we crossed to drive into Arkansas. 

After driving through a parking lot with a high bump at the exit, the brackets that hood the spare tire on nearly came off. Matt found a place to stop so he and Cameron could pound it back in place. 

[Inside story: I actually led Matt to a small gas station where he had to pull into a neighboring parking lot so we could make sandwiches for lunch. It was in that parking lot where we just about lost our spare. The parking lot where we stopped to fix it was at a lovely large gas station with separate pumps for truck and trailers…so oops. Again, my navigation was lacking.]

Once we got to the campground and got set up, Matt and Grace went on a quick grocery run. On their way they saw this place with cool old signs and cars, so they pulled in. After they pulled in the automatic gate 



Cameron needed to chill after a long day of travel. 

We really liked this campground. It was beautiful and right on the water. We were glad to be back to the National park part of our trips. We maybe had a little too much cities on this trip. 

No idea what this guy is doing, but if he’s happy, I’m happy. 



After brats, salad, fresh fruit and Grace’s favorite pasta salad for dinner, we went on a walk while the kids did dishes. 

We ended the day with a swim. 

Yesterday was the first day of summer. The sun set at 8:00 yesterday in New Orleans. Tonight it set at 8:30 here in Arkansas, and almost 9:00 back home in Iowa.