California to Arkansas

We spent 10 days in California (San Jose area) visiting with Laura while she’s there training for her new job. Then, we began the trip south/east. Our destination for 2 weeks was Eureka Springs, AR. To get here, we intentionally drove further south to go to Phoenix for the annual maintenance on our coach (oil change, etc.). We chose Phoenix Freightliner because they have an oasis facility. This is a facility that allows you to park your RV with full hookups (water, sewer, and electric) for the night before your service. Then, you have the service and you’re on your way. Well, we arrived and all of the sites were taken :(. This meant, we “camped” in the parking lot. It’s not bad because we run the generator which allows us to run the AC and all of our appliances, etc. We won’t make the mistake of going out of the way again for our service. There are many choices that were closer!

On the way to Phoenix, we drove through the San Joaquin Valley of California and OMG! The crops there are amazing! Sometimes called “The food basket of the World”, the crops are diverse and include walnuts, oranges, peaches, garlic, tangerines, tomatoes, kiwis, hay, alfalfa, asparagus, raisins and others. We saw avocados for sale 10 for $1.00!!! Sometimes we pay $1.50 each! For ~40 miles we saw nothing but almond trees… it was beautiful!

Then, we decided to use Harvest Hosts for some overnight stays. Harvest Hosts is an organized group of wineries, museums and farms that allow you to stay for one night. There are no hook-ups, so you have to be self-contained and there is no fee. In return, you purchase wine, produce, etc. We stayed at two sites this time and both were fantastic! One was a small family farm outside of Prescott, AZ and a winery just south of Amarillo.

We also tried a couple of casinos and they were nice as well! When we’re traveling through and not planning to see an area, these one night places are great because they are “free” and we don’t have to set up with connections (water, sewer, electric). We generally pull in and leave the tow vehicle attached so it’s easy in and out. The casinos were nice, well lit and totally safe.

After our quick hops across the states, We arrived in Eureka Springs, Arkansas for our two week stay and it’s beautiful! We had no idea Northwest Arkansas was so beautiful. Rolling hills for miles, curvey roads that are very fun to drive in the car. Arriving on these curvey roads was fun in the coach :).

We’ve taken advantage of the area and been able to see downtown, the Great Passion Play, Thorncrown Chapel, and the surrounding area. Tonya has had Thorncrown Chapel on her list for 15+ years so it was quite emotional to finally see it! We will definitely be back to this area! Tonya made a quick weekend trip to PA for one of her best friend’s son’s wedding, so Roger was a bachelor for a couple of days :). And a side note… tomorrow morning before we leave, Tonya’s going to the Sunday service at Thorncrown Chapel :).

Tomorrow we pull out for Nashville baby! We’ll stay one night in Memphis (just passing through) and then we’ll