Windshield view of the Great River Road in Missouri
Hot Springs to Indiana Dunes NP – 06-05-25 to 06-20-25
Two nights after leaving Hot Springs, AR, we camped in West Memphis, AR just across the Mississippi River from Memphis, TN. We were right on the Mississippi River and could see and hear barges traverse the river from inside WOW.
Beale Street is the tourist mecca in Memphis, and we walked it, hearing a few bands through the bar doors. Tom got a strawberry shake at Schwab Dry Goods Store, the oldest building on Beale Street. A 4th generation Schwab made it for him and enjoyed talking about the store.
Then we drove to Graceland and just wandered the glamorous grounds (though not inside the mansion’s gates). For us to tour the mansion would have cost us almost $200 (including the $10 parking)!!! No way. We did see Elvis’ personal jet the “Lisa Marie,” a Convair 880. When Paula talked with a friend from home later that day to wish her a happy birthday, she told her about visiting a friend in Memphis when she was 18. (She’s about Paula’s age). They were taking pictures of the mansion’s gates when…all of a sudden…the gate slowly opened and Elvis, in the back seat of his black limousine, came through the gate! Everyone at the gate screamed with excitement. She got a picture of his license plate. And it was free!
The next day, we got almost an inch of rain and there was a tornado watch for some of the counties near us. We stayed put until it was all passed us. And that evening, it rained and hailed on us. Fortunately, no damage.
How many of you have ever heard of the Sultana Disaster? (No one raised their hand.) That’s what we thought. The Sultana was the largest maritime disaster in American history, and we toured a small museum telling the story. The video in this link of the Sultana Disaster Museum tells the story. (You can stop at 3:50; after that, it is a plea for money to build a new museum scheduled to open later this year in this small town of Marion, AR.)
Here are some statistics comparing the Sultana to the Titanic.
Sultana Numbers Titanic Numbers
Date: April 27, 1865 April 15, 1912
Size: 260’ x 70’ 882’ x 92.5’
Passengers on board: 2,130 2,227
Passengers who died: 1,169 1,522
Casualty rate: 55% 68%
Construction: All wood Steel hull
Tom and I were the only visitors that day and had a personal tour from Tim, who was very knowledgeable and enjoyed telling us many stories. If you are a history buff and would like more info, click on Sultana disaster .
To top it off, Tom found a bakery next door with a cookies and crème cookie he said was “one of the best cookies I’ve ever had.” (Tried for more on our way out of town the next day, but they were closed.)
That day, our GPS lost its mind, and we drove around and around Tiptonville, TN looking for Reelfoot Lake SP for 1 night. We finally found it in the middle of the boonies. The next day, we traveled 16 different highways to get to our destination. (Tom does most anything to avoid interstates.) We had hoped to take the Dorena-Hickman Ferry, the only connection between KY and MO. But after waiting for it to arrive, the loader told Tom the ramp on the MO side would not accommodate our rig. Tom was so disappointed. We had to reroute the rest of the day to get to a Mississippi River bridge, hence the many different rural roads.
We were headed for the St. Louis area where we would visit a friend who took several Canyon Ministries river trips with us and served on the CM BOD for many years. We found an RV park about 15 miles from Bob and Dee. Unfortunately, Bob broke his back in the last year which had curtailed many of his outdoor activities on the farm, and we met them at their new home, a retirement center. We enjoyed catching up with them, seeing their new digs, and then ate a delicious lunch with them at a French restaurant.
Afterward, we went to a few places in St. Louis before returning to WOW. We had toured St. Louis years before when we came through here on our boat, so didn’t do the “normal” tourist stuff. But we really enjoyed driving Forest Park, a park larger than Central Park in NYC. Unfortunately, a few weeks prior, a tornado had come through and damaged many of the trees as well as blowing out some windows in The Jewel Box, a greenhouse we walked. Look at the diameter of some of these downed trees. Some of them are 6’ across! Then we drove to Lafayette Square to see the “Painted Ladies,” 150-year-old brick houses with their 3-story facades elaborately painted in bright colors.
Leaving St. Louis, as we made our way north, we crossed the Missouri River and immediately afterward, the Mississippi River, into IL. We had to hang out for a few days at a campsite in Pere Marquette SP near Grafton, IL (no-wheres-ville) waiting for a package delivery. It was a nice park right alongside the Illinois River (though we couldn’t see it). It included a beautiful lodge, a nice visitors center, and a network of trails and roads through the hills. We had more days of rain, but it did give us time to get a blog out, give Whisper a bath and a trim, and relax.
In the large room of the lodge was the Four Rivers Fabric Art, 4 large hangings that depicted the world of nature surrounding the park. IL state law requires that public art be put into every state building with 0.5% of each building’s construction cost set aside to acquire it. Go to this link to see everything the artist, M. Joan Lintault, designed into it and this link to see a close-up. Paula really enjoyed seeing it.
You may remember we are trying to visit every NP in America. Paula came across this interesting video the other day that explains every type of NP managed by the National Park Service. Did you know there are 19 types ??? We didn’t. We’re aiming for the 63 main NPs you would more commonly recognize.
Traveling is great…when all (or even most) goes well. But many of you know, Paula struggles with ulcerative colitis. She worked early this year with a guy who specializes in gut issues and progressed well over the first 6 months of the year. Since leaving home, she thought she was eating as she should, but she got hit again with another flare. That’s why we were waiting for a package (of supplements). We had ordered with 2-day shipping which took 5 days! She is once again working with the same guy and learning much more about what went wrong and how not to let it happen again. But coming out of a flare is very slow, even when everything is going right, at least for Paula. It has been a real struggle the last 2-3 weeks.
In addition to this, perhaps you heard about the National Weather Service’s extreme heat warnings for the Great Plains across the Midwest to the East Coast caused by a heat dome with oppressive humidity. We had never heard of a heat dome, but it is a sprawling, slow-moving zone of high pressure that traps hot air, similar to a lid on a pot. The steam builds, the temperature rises, and everything inside gets hotter and hotter. Dozens of record highs were hit. And in temps of 93-99 degrees, we indeed felt like we were almost boiling (and we don’t think temperatures like that in Phoenix are really too uncomfortable).
If you’re a weather geek (like Paula), this is a very interesting article with the record temperatures in all 50 states (hint, every state has hit at least 100), though not up to date because it doesn’t include the recent heat dome record-breaking temps of a few days ago.
When we were finally able to move on again, we drove through Hannibal, MO, Mark Twain’s hometown. It was raining but we did see some landmarks. The next day, about 80 miles past Quincy, IL, we passed the mid-point of our GRR trip from Venice, LA to Lake Itasca, MN. (And we couldn’t even celebrate with sparkling cider because sugar is one of Paula’s gut killers.)
Rain, rain, rain. We think we saw more the past week than Phoenix has in a year. But when we got near Davenport and Paula remembered there was a Costco there, we had clear skies. The only other thing Paula had noted in Davenport was the Vander Veer Botanical Park and God brought us right to it as we were trying to find Costco. We quickly found a place to park and enjoyed a walk with Whisper. It was very pretty with several different sections, and we saw the Grand Allee, Rose Garden, Hosta Glade, the All-America Selections Annual Display Gardens, and more. Also, lots of dogs.
Next up Indiana Dunes NP and a wonderful Harvest Host nearby.
P.S. You know our blogs are always a bit behind where we actually are. By the time you read this blog, we will have gotten to Lake Itasca where the Mississippi River begins! Objective accomplished. But you will read about that in the next blog.
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