Our first stop on our way toward Moab was in Hope Hull, AL, where we spent three nights at Montgomery South RV Park. The RV Park was decent, and they had lots of wild rabbits running around the RV park every evening. No rabbit dinners for us, we just enjoyed watching them. We did venture into Montgomery to see what kind of sights we could find. The downtown and riverfront areas were pretty interesting with lots of history including Rosa Parks and Hank Williams museums . We also found an interesting tap room to have lunch. It was self-service for all their taps and then you just paid by the ounce when you were done. Not much else to talk about here except Kim spent lots of time doing paperwork and setting up utilities, etc. for the house.

Next, we were off to Vicksburg, MS where we spent four nights at Rivertown Rose Campground. Vicksburg is right on the Mississippi River, so we headed to the downtown area to do some exploring. There was a huge wall of murals along the waterfront that depicted the extensive history of the town. It was also interesting to see some of the high-water marks along the waterfront from the floods throughout the years. That evening we enjoyed a nice dinner at 10 South Rooftop Bar & Grill, where we enjoyed some amazing sunset views. We also stopped by the local Elks lodge and got some pointers on things to do from the locals; the Elks is always a great place to stop and get good information. We visited the Coca-Cola Museum where they had a lot of memorabilia. Vicksburg was the first place Coca-Cola was bottled. Our visit to the Old Court House Museum was very cool. That’s about it for Vicksburg except for more house stuff.

Then we headed up the Mississippi River by land of course, although getting on a barge would have been a better option. We stayed in West Memphis, AR at Tom Sawyer’s RV Park right on the Mississippi. It was really neat to watch all the barges going up and down the river. Our big highlight on this stop was going to Graceland… a must-see place when you are close to Memphis. It is a huge place, so plan for several hours. The Elvis history and memorabilia was absolutely amazing. We really enjoyed seeing his house and learning so much more about him. It was huge! We also got in a Costco run and other grocery shopping along with once again, more house stuff.

Our next stop was in Hot Springs, AR where we stayed at Cathrines Landing RV Park. Very nice park and it was close to downtown Hot Springs. Our excitement here was that Kim booked us a private bath in one of the bath houses in downtown hot springs. It was super relaxing to enjoy a nice hot bath, that is sure one of the things Kim misses about RV life. We also explored some of the shops and downtown area along with checking out some of the natural hot springs. We found a nice wine bar that evening and enjoyed some live music from the parking lot, so we didn’t have to pay the bands cover charge, haha. We ended up leaving a day early to miss some bad weather heading with high winds in Texas. We suspected that this trip was a bad plan, but after having to check the weather almost hourly, we now know that it was a bad plan to head right through tornado alley this time of year, in addition with trying to do all the house stuff on the road. We should have stayed in Florida until after the closing on the house.

Our next stop was just for one night in Whitesboro, TX at the Whitesboro RV Park. Pretty much nothing here, we just hunkered down for the night. Then we headed to Amarillo, TX where we spent four nights at the Big Texan RV Ranch. We went to see the Cadillac Ranch with all the Cadillacs buried in the ground that people stop and spray paint. They spray paint everything including the road and highway barriers. There is even a booth to buy spray paint there. We finally went to a Buc-ee’s, if you have not been it is a must stop. They have just about everything you can image for a convenience store/restaurant/home goods/clothing store. The RV Park had a shuttle that went to the Big Texan Steak House, so we headed there one evening for steaks. Neither one of us attempted the 72-ounce steak challenge, although we did watch three people attempt to eat it. None of them finished it, but they made a valiant effort. The couple, Doug and Florence, that got seated right next to us, ended up being our next-door neighbors at the RV park. They invited us over to their RV later that evening for some cocktails. The neighbor on the other side of us was our neighbor in West Memphis. It is such a small world sometimes because we seem to run into the same people on the road pretty frequently. That’s about it for Amarillo.

Next, we did a one night stop at a Harvest Host, Sierra Blanca Brewing in Moriarty, NM. We set up in their dirt parking lot and then headed in for a couple too many beers and conversation with some of the other RVers hanging out for the night. Then we just cooked a meal at home and hung out in the RV for the evening. Good news our batteries made it through the night with no problem running the furnaces.

Our final stop before heading to Moab was in Gallup, NM, where we stayed at USA RV Park. We ended up staying two nights waiting for the snow to pass, so we could get on the road again. We only ventured out once to get more propane, so we could keep the RV heated. We just hung around watching the snow fall and working on yet more house stuff. David has officially let Kim down on the “we are going to be in shorts year-round” promise. It is cold and neither one of us like it.

We are running behind on our posts, between the house and the time and effort required to put these posts together we have just not had time. Hopefully we can get our next post about Utah finished in the next couple of days to get us caught up.