We left on Monday as planned. Since it wasn’t a weekend and there are several campgrounds in the area between Texarkana and Little Rock, we didn’t make a reservation. Out first choice was full, second was closed permanently, third closed due to flooding, fourth gave the last spot to the guy in front of us, fifth was also flooded and finally we found a place 6 miles off the interstate just outside of Little Rock.
When we went in, our place was a mess from all the potholes and bad roads. Arkansas did warn us "Potholes Ahead."
The crockpot was on the floor but ok. The cabinet doors had opened and Corelleware was broken into a zillion white shards all over the place, the microwave had opened and the glass plate was across the RV in pieces, the pendant light was hanging 6 inches down on wires with the shade broken and the clock was off the wall!
We cleaned up the mess and assessed the damage. I have lots of Corelleware so no big deal, the pendant lights are due to be changed out anyway so that will be taken care of, the clock did not break and could be rehung but I need to order a new glass plate for inside the microwave.
We had to take the narrow country road six miles back to I-40 and relaxed a bit. But that didn’t last but two hours and kapow!, the pothole that disrupted the inside had ruined a tire. We were on the side of the road for almost three hours. I spent a half hour trying to explain to Coachnet road service they cannot tow a 5th wheel, if she sends a flatbed it had to accommodate 50 feet because the truck would need to pull the trailer on to it and I just needed a tire changed. In all the discussion she never asked if we had a spare!
We waited an hour for a young man to arrive, with a small jack. This didn’t bode well. Eventually agreeing he was ill equipped to do the job at hand, he used a stack of our leveling blocks to lift the jack up to the frame and Ted’s long handled screwdriver as a replacement for the 6 inch handle his jack had. We did have a spare and finally we were ready to roll.
Through all of this I had been on the phone with my nephew who dispatches at my brother’s trucking company trying to find a replacement for the spare. He couldn’t find a Goodyear but did find a Firestone not far up the road in Brownsville. We stopped and had it put on the rim, they tucked it back up underneath and we continued on to Yuma, TN where we spent the night.
We were only about 100 miles from Nashville and contacted the same tire company there and made an appointment to buy 3 new Firestone tires and have them put on, placing the Goodyear back as the spare. $1400 later we were on the last leg of our trip which was just minutes from Nashville Shores.
Things got better after that. We got checked in, parked and set up, and spent the evening watching TV,
Thursday was a leisurely day and a few people arrived. My sister rented a pontoon and we went for a 2 hour boat ride on the lake. We had the entire Marina Restaurant filled at dinner. The younger group went into Nashville bar hopping, Friday the entire group made it in. We had all 24 lakeside cabins, two hillside cabins and two RV spots rented for 98 people.
That evening we had the pulled pork Ted had smoked for a group dinner in the common grassy area between the lake and the cabins. Having no one outside our group in any cabin gave us full rein of the area. There was even a small play area for the little ones. A poker game ensued, a lot of visiting went on, and a bunch of little kids were running around.
Saturday was a group effort breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes and sausage. I scrambled the eggs while niece Cindy and husband Tim cooked the rest. We had two tables on their porch set up buffet style. You went up one set of steps, got your food, crossed the duplex porch and down the opposite steps! We had gathered all the picnic tables into one area for eating,
At 10 o’clock the water park opened and everyone headed that way. We had a huge tented area reserved for our group. Dinner was served there at 5 pm but people drifted in and out throughout the day. The food was delicious at dinner and by 7 we had all returned to our accommodations for a final evening together.
The rest are photos taken throughout the weekend.
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