Day 64 – Onward to Missouri as Week Ten begins. We had to get up at 5 a.m. because we had a long drive ahead of us. We left Merrisach Lake at 7:05 a.m., 65 degrees and very foggy. The girls weren’t happy with the long drive and we took several breaks; the window however, fit perfectly and did quite well. Good job, Rob!
For a long time we’d been traveling on roads thru very flat terrain, pretty much since Georgia, and these roads can seem endless, but this changed in northern Arkansas, continuing after we entered into Missouri. It became quite green with lots of trees and lovely rolling hills. It was the Land of the Ozarks, and as we progressed we thought it looked more and more like the lovely Hudson Valley of New York, where we’re from. We even came across a Poughkeepsie, AR and a Highland, AR! (Um, not that flat roads and farmlands don’t have there own type of charm!)
We finally got a picture of a sign, “Trail of Tears” which we’d been seeing in Louisiana & in Arkansas. We’d wondered what it meant and had looked it up in Wikipedia: “The Trail of Tears was a series of forced removals of Native American nations from their ancestral homelands in the Southeast United States to an area West of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Native territory under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. More than 4,000 died before reaching their various destinations.”
“Trail of Tears” traveled by 5 native indian tribes after being evicted from their homes, AR and LA
We’d been following the GPS, RV mode, throughout the trip because most of the roads were completely unfamiliar to us, and for the most part it took us on routes that made sense to us. There were a few times, however, where we had to question why we’d been routed a particular way, but the GPS always got us to our destinations in the end. Therefore, when we were getting close to our new campground in a remote area and the GPS said “turn right on the street”, we did so without question.
Narrow, rutted dirt road on the way to Montauk State Park, Salem, MO
This is the road we were routed to for more than 5 miles (but it seemed like an hour) and we were extremely lucky that we made it to another road so we could turn off and change our route. After turning onto it, the road promptly became a dirt road with no way to turn around a 31 foot RV with a high profile that was towing a car with kayaks & bikes (and you cannot back up). The road became narrower, more winding, and more hilly, and as we progressed, rougher with big potholes. There was room for one car only, and just barely. Both sides were lined with trees which had branches that hung down low and the sides of the road ended in cliffs on either side.
Narrow, rutted dirt road on the way to Montauk State Park, Salem, MO
At one point at the bottom of a hill, a stream was rushing over the road. We thought, okay this is it; we can’t turn around and we don’t know if this road goes on or ends abruptly; we are in the middle of nowhere and now we will be taken away by a swiftly-moving stream, never to be seen again. It was scary, but now it does seem amusing. As soon as we saw another road, we turned off the dirt road, rejoicing at pavement, and made our way to the campground using the DeLorme map book.
We arrived at Montauk State Park (in some literature it is called Montauk Resort) at 2:30 p.m. It was 80 degrees, very humid and partly cloudy. We were sent to Site #417 and were surprised to find that it was electric only, no water on site, but fortunately our fresh water tank was already full. The Park is older and the sites are fairly close together and small. We thought we were getting a site by the River but the campsite was by a tiny stream. It appeared that the stream was at times bigger with rushing water, but things were somewhat dry. Still our site was one of the better ones as far as size and privacy.
After unpacking and setting up, we sat out back of the RV on the creek and watched the birds until the bugs started to bother us, then we took a drive around the campground. There’s a lodge which has a camp store, gift store, and dining room, in addition to some motel rooms, and many cabins are located throughout the Park. There are several loops, one for dry camping with no hook-ups, and one that is really on the River with no hook-ups and some electric only hook-ups. This loop was almost full. It’s a big fishing area and it’s regularly stocked with trout. We saw people standing in the River pulling up large fish. We drove to The Springs which takes you to trails where you can walk to the Springs that feed the River, and we took one of those trails.
Back to the RV for dinner and kitty time. They were happy to be stopped and no longer driving on bumpy roads. Supposed to rain tomorrow which should be interesting because the literature says that the entire campground can flood during heavy rains.