A magical detour

We awoke at 7am, thinking that it was 8am, and wondering why we were up so early! We waited for the front office to open at 9am and purchased tickets for the pancake breakfast. "It's like Mother's Day" said one of our greeters, when we said how nice it was for them to have it. Harmond discovered the game room and Warner discovered the temporary tattoo machine, and they both begged for some quarters. When I asked for change for $1.00, the lady at the front pointed to the other room and said, "there is a change machine over there." Of course, it didn't work! But, somehow, when I popped in a $20 bill, it did. I figured the quarters would help with laundry. Several racing games later and attempts to grab a stuffed animal from a machine (Warner caught something big on the first try and became addicted), the boys ended up with three tattoos each (even one on their backs), and purchased some dragon tattoos for the rest of us.

Mousetail State Park, TN

After breakfast, we decided to head out relatively early to perhaps take in some of Memphis. We were all packed up and ready to go except for emptying the sewage tank for the first time, when the generator (which powers the A/C in the car) wouldn't start. Janelle knocked on the "neighbor's" door, another Winnebago driver, to get his advice. The extremely nice couple from San Diego (going to the Outer Banks) ended up spending quite a bit of time with us. First, after some looking around, the starter switch happened to be behind a panel that Frank, the gentleman who gave us our overview of the vehicle, said we'd never need to touch! After the generator was running, Janelle asked his opinion of the sewage hose. Although short, and with what looked to be a tear in the top, he thought we could give it a try after he patched the hole with some duck tape. After he patched it, he stuck around to walk us through the sewage dump ("black water first; grey water second"). With plastic gloves on, Rebecca gave it a go. The sewage hose had pin hole leaks throughout and sprayed on Rebecca's feet (nice....). We were going to have to find a replacement hose. So much for getting to Memphis early. Luckily, an RV store was nearby and we went in and found the easiest, most expensive hose to charge to the rental company (yes, we were mad and called them several times with no answer!). An hour later, we were back at the campground, and gave Harmond money to pay for a round of mini-golf while Mommy "dumped the poop". After a successful dump :) and a thorough washing of the feet, shoes, and hands, we stayed longer for some messy but yummy ice cream and got on the road.

Swimming Lake

In Hurricaine Mills, Tennessee, we stopped for gas and bbq from a trailer across the street (Mustang Barbecue) that we decided to take to a state park we had seen a sign for (that had no mileage on it). 35 miles later in a two-lane country road, we entered Mousetail State Park, where we had amazing bbq next to a glorious, new playground. An inquiry at the welcome center led us to discover a beautiful swimming beach on the Buffalo River, and a hairy out-of-the-way drive turned into a magical afternoon. We stayed at the beach until 6pm, showered off the sand in the RV, and headed to Memphis. The "Memphis" KOA is in Marion, Arkansas, just across the Mississippi, River. We arrived at 9:15pm in the dark, but crossed the Mississippi, River to fireworks welcoming us to Arkansas.

Around 10pm, the bathroom door locked shut from the inside, and it was a creepy walk across the campground to the bathroom. So, (yes this is true) we set up a temporary bathroom of red plastic cups in between two privacy screens in the trailer and (yes this is true) Janelle and I each had to use this "facility" and we laughed hysterically the whole way through, it was amazing it actually worked. After how the day started, the hilarious ending wasn't too surprising.