Two Days of Hard Driving - March 26-27, 2019

Today is a driving day. We slept in because we would both be driving to make it to Elk City, Oklahoma tonight. 

One tank of propane was out. We took it to be filled at the propane business in the parking lot of Enchanted Trails RV Park. The guy who works there explained that our propane tanks were from 2003 and needed to be recertified. He was licensed to do that. He checked our tanks and re-certified them for another five years. Then he re-filled one tank and topped off the other. Meanwhile, I went into the office of Enchanted Trails and checked us out.

Albuquerque is a beautiful city. We will be back, especially because we want to see the Balloon Festival! For now, though, we put Albuquerque in the rear-view mirror. Bob drove and drove. One of the Rest Areas was closed, so I requested a stop at a Valero which had plenty of room for the RV. While I was there, I got a Subway turkey and guacamole sandwich and a bag of chips that Bob and I could share. And we were off again.

It must have been around 6:00 p.m. that we pulled into Elk City Lake Park Campground. The reviews for this little gem were quite good. It was a Tuesday night so we thought we might get lucky and snag one of the five free spots along the lake. Scratch that idea. When we got there, all five sites were taken and someone else was looking for a spot too. 

Campgroundreviews.com had a great review on Elk City Chamber of Commerce RV Parking. We got lost finding it, but when we did it looked like an excellent place to stay. There was a major problem, however. The water/50amp electric hook-up boxes were locked. The Chamber of Commerce Convention Center was closed and there was no place to check in after hours. We debated staying there and boondocking. 

Finally, I called the phone number listed on Campgroundreviews.com and someone actually answered the phone after hours. I asked about registering and unlocking the hook-ups. She told me that the sites can only be used by someone attending an event in the Convention Center. We could not stay there, according to her.

It was getting dark and we had no other plan, so we headed east again on I-40. While Bob drove, I checked Campgroundreviews.com for a campground in an upcoming city. Finally, I found a free boondocking spot in Clinton, Oklahoma, at Lucky Star Casino's parking lot. The review said there were ten spots around the outside edge of a parking lot and that they were unlevel. Well, for one night it was worth a shot.

There were no directions on the website on how to get to the casino. Also, the Lucky Star website did not mention a campground at this casino. We got off the freeway in downtown Clinton, fueled up with diesel, and continued through town following the GPS. If you go to this casino, it's a few miles to the turn for the casino. At night, it is very dark (no street lights out there). There are NO signs. Bob just happened to see the casino off on the left through some trees. 

The GPS showed our turn. There was a place to cross the highway, but it was SO DARK we couldn't see a road on the other side, just a railroad crossing. We couldn't tell if there was a ditch or a road. There was no traffic, so we edged out and finally could see there was a road, and that the railroad crossing was not a steep one. We weren't sure where the RV parking was because there were parking lots on both sides of the road. Finally, we saw two other RVs in the huge parking lot on the right, across the street from the casino. 

As promised, there were electrical hook-up boxes around the perimeter of the parking lot. And, also as reported in campgroundreviews.com, the lot was very unlevel! First, we tried pulling up sideways to the electrical box, but we were so unlevel it felt like one of those fun houses where you practically roll down the slope. Nix that. Bob then backed us up to the post and it was better, but still quite a slope. He put a stack of plastic blocks under the front 5th wheel supports, but that didn't help with the side-to-side leveling. We figured we could live with it for one night. 

Once we were settled, Bob headed downtown to get dinner. He brought back a Braun's hamburger and a chocolate almond ice cream cone for me. He got his usual Taco Bell. 

We survived the night, although it was cold. Before dawn, we were up and at 'em for another long driving day. We wanted to get to Gulpha Gorge Campground in Hot Springs National Park for one of their first-come, first served campsites.

Clinton, Oklahoma sunrise.

Clinton, Oklahoma sunrise.

Bob drove for a few hours (until we got through Ft. Smith, Arkansas). It's a good thing because it's one a town you really should know about in advance. I was following my phone GPS and street signs. At one point, we came to a turn which the GPS did not want to send us on, but I noticed ALL the trucks were going that way and that's also the way trucks were coming into town. We should have followed them but I had no idea where that road went. 

The way we did go had NO trucks. That made me nervous. Then, we came to a directional sign pointing right, left, and right in rapid succession. That's also where the GPS told me to turn. OMG! It was a teeny, tiny street with cars parked on both sides and a car coming from the opposite direction. That car took one look at us coming around the corner in a 33' 5th wheel and stopped dead in its tracks to let us finish the turn. Somehow Bob squeezed our RV down that street for one block. The next turn was onto a bigger street. At the next light, we were back to the four-lane highway we had been on and we had to get back on it. The narrow street was completely unnecessary! We are still confused about that one.

We stayed on the route through Ft. Smith with its utterly bumpy right lane, many traffic lights, and stop-and-go traffic. No fun. 

After we got through town, Bob pulled over so I could drive. The road from Ft. Smith to that point was pretty good but had reduced to one lane in each direction. Soon, I was driving on hilly roads with lots of twists and turns. It was good for a long while with only a small amount of traffic.

As we got closer to Hot Springs, Arkansas, the roads got twistier and steeper with very little extra room at the edge of the lane of travel; two lanes only with very few passing lanes. It was harrowing. 

When we arrived at Hot Springs, Arkansas, we drove through Gulpha Gorge Campground. The "campground full" sign was not up, but we didn't see any campsites. Bob pulled over on the side of the road and we asked a park ranger (who was driving around on a golf cart) if there were any sites. He said there were two sites left. Site 1 had an orange cone in it, and Site 3 looked a little tight. He told us he had to call the Host to see if we could take this site, or if we could have Site 1. When the ranger finally got hold of the Host, Bob was already backing into Site 3.

We got the 5th wheel situated in the site so we could open all our slides. Then the ranger told us that when we went to register to sign up for Site 21 for two nights only. Apparently, the people in Site 3 had paid for three nights, but after one night moved to Site 21. So we had to pay for their two nights in Site 21. It was all very confusing, but at least we got a site.

Gulpha Gorge Campground, Site 3.

After we were set up, we understood why other people didn't want the site. It was very unlevel, there was no fire ring, and there was a lot of road noise, especially from semi-trucks using their brakes. We did our best to fix the leveling issue and decided we would try to move by the river when our two nights were up. 

Bob made grilled tuna and cheese sandwiches for dinner. We called it a night. Both of us were very worn out.