There's No Hope

We left EZ Daze RV park somewhat reluctantly this morning. The park is among the top five of any that we have stayed in this summer, with excellent amenities, wide roads, and generally an easy place to stay.  To say nothing of Jazzy's Coffee down the street! Wish we could be there Saturday night when the music starts.

Within a half hour we had left Mississippi, passed through Tennessee, and jumped into Arkansas on our way to Hope, AR, for the night. Two hundred and forty miles and three hundred and sixty dollars later, we were driving through the parking lot of the local Walmart.  The three hundred was for fuel since we hadn't filled up for a week and needed about ninety gallons. We had passed Little Rock, and changed Interstates there, and settled in on I30 for the afternoon.

The Hope Walmart is the smallest Super Wally I've ever seen. The parking lot is jammed with cars, and trucks (and rv's) are limited in where they can go.  In fact, the north entrance to the parking lot is guarded with iron bars across the road limiting vehicles to a 10' height. Oops! We gingerly drove around the back of the store, through the freight docks, and out the east side where we had noticed several trucks parked. Several indeed. Walmart had installed ten or a dozen angled parking spots for trucks, similar to those you see in a rest area, but they were only about twelve feet wide, and they were all filled with big rigs. So we got ourselves out of the parking lot and back on the interstate, heading west into the unknown…..

Thirty miles down the road we crossed the Texas State Line in the town of TexArkana! Well lo and behold, the wonderful people of Texas have chosen to build a magnificent Welcome Center just off the freeway, with great wide parking spaces and an air-conditioned building with all manner of information about the state. We went into the building and I knew we were ok when the first thing I heard was
"How Ya'll?". The nicest people greeted us and told us that we were allowed to stay in any Texas rest stop for 24 hours, and insisted that we park on a service road away from the truck lanes and partially protected from the freeway noise. An offer of a water hookup soon followed, along with the info that the restrooms were open 24 hours!

So here we are in Texarkana, two hundred and sixty four miles from yesterday, in a beautiful semi-private campground all to ourselves!!

Local law enforcement has cruised our area twice this evening, so we either have a sense of comfort that they're keeping an eye out for our safety, or that this is a heavy crime area, and they're waitin' for the perps to pop out.  Not sure which way to go on that one…..

The CBS affiliant here is out of Shreveport, LA, and claims to service the entire Arklatex region.  I don't know just how far south of here Shreveport is, but they have been updating us on weather all evening. Some clouds rolled in just before sunset.

And the news is talking about a series of T-storms rolling through after midnight, with a possibility of two inches of rain by morning.  Here we go again…..

A big Thank You to the great state of Texas for the great rest stop, and the friendly service.  We'll be out of here well before our twenty four hours is up, and we'll always remember the day we ran out of Hope, but were rescued by Texas!