The Good and The Not So Good

17 Feb

Leaving Little Rock, Arkansas, it was Sunny and 48 degrees at 10:00AM as we started our drive towards Austin, TX via I-30.

One of the towns, we passed through on I-30, was Hope, Arkansas.  The town began in 1873 when the railroad came through the area.  The town was named, Hope, after the daughter of the railroad executive.  Hope is the birthplace of Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States.  It is also the birthplace of Mike Huckabee, the long serving governor who  ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016.

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We stopped at the visitors center in Texarkana to pick up more reading material.  Will we ever have enough maps, books, or camping guides?  Texarkana is commercially and culturally one city, but two separate municipalities – one in Texas, one in Arkansas.  The Arkansas-Texas state line runs through the center of the dual municipality of Texarkana.

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At Texarkana, we took highway 59s to highway 155 towards Tyler, Texas.  It was a warm and sunny day as we cruised on the highways through the countryside, crossing rivers, creeks, and lakes.  We decided to drive past Tyler, TX and stop for the night in Canton, TX.

, TX is home to the “First Monday Trade Days”.  The tradition startCantoned in the 1850’s when farmers began bringing horses and hunting dogs to Canton to trade or sell.  This event has continued over the years, growing into a huge flea market that runs for four days beginning on the Thursday before the first Monday of each month.  The exhibition stalls attract up to 200,000 people each month.  Thankfully, we missed the February event!

Based on the recommendation of  fellow Tiffin Owners, we selected Mill Creek Ranch Resort as our Canton destination.  It had very high ratings and was listed as a Top RV Resort.  We were very anxious to check it out!

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Approaching the RV Park, we missed the entrance and had to turn around in a very small business lot.  Back on the road, we spotted the entrance and as we turned into the entrance, we noticed a very small, low, sign stating that RV’s needed to use the Exit.  What?  We had already committed to the turn, so there was nothing to do but proceed to the registration office.  After finalizing our check-in, we learned that “somehow” we needed to exit the RV Park and return through the exit.  Are you kidding?  In our 43 foot bus, there was only one way to accomplish the task.  We had to continue thru the entrance on a very narrow road, turn around, drive on the very narrow road again, go back to the roadway, and enter thru the exit.  Once we accomplished all of that, and got back into the park, we had to circle around to get the correct orientation to pull into our site.  How ridiculous!  We finally, made it to our assigned site,  and we found it was very nice, level, and long.  The resort was large with lots of amenities; ponds, swimming pools, hot tubs, lodge, golf course.  However, there was on amenity missing… the only amenity that we really care about…wifi!  We discovered that there was a $5 fee for wi-fi.  On that note, we won’t be giving this resort a top rating!

Tomorrow – more Texas driving!