Petrified Forest, Arizona until Nashville, Tennessee

Before we left the Petrified Forest we were invited to a barbecue at Todd's place. He had invited lots of people and there was way too much food but Todd was a very gracious host. He got the barbecue so hot that he actually burned off some of his hair.  The law enforcement people quickly got him some appropriate clothing to protect him. He was alright though and we all had a great time.

July 4th was the day of our leaving the Petrified Forest. It was a busy day as I did all the laundry before we left so we could start out with plenty of clean clothing. We invited Tammo to come over one last time and had a nice visit with him. He joined us for our early lunch and had some ice cream with us. He said it was too early for him to eat lunch. Jerry who runs the lunchroom at the gift shop had ordered my favorite ice cream (mint chocolate chip) and he wanted to make sure we ate plenty of it before we left as he thought he would be stuck with it. No chance!!! Everybody liked it so much that the whole big container was gone in 4 days. We took a nice picture of him and his dogs Molly and Bud who are his kids.  They are beautiful dogs and very playful.  Earlier that week we met Norbert from Austria who came to the Petrified Forest to work with the horses. He is very skilled in that area as that is what he does in Austria. Unfortunately we didn't get to see him too much.

  

Since Norbert is from Austria and Tammo from the Netherlands, the three of us talked quite a bit about the soccer game and the world series. Tammo and I were rooting for the Netherlands to become the world champion. We ended up in second place. Not bad!

We didn't drive too far as we got kind of a late start. We stopped at the Dancing Eagle Casino on exit 108 on Interstate 40 in New Mexico. We could have stayed in their campground and paid $10.00 for hook-ups but since we had water and empty gray and black water tanks and the weather was cool we decided to just stay in the parking lot. We registered with the casino and we each got a coupon for $10.00 off for gas because we were from out of state. We used the coupons the next day and filled up our truck for $16.91-- so we came out ahead that night. We didn't gamble as we are not lucky and decided to keep the money we had. 

Next day we drove to Vega, TX and stayed in the Walnut RV park. We had to pay $20.00 but we figured we were still ahead of the game. Besides that it was hot and humid and we needed airconditioning. Vega is a nice little town just off Interstate 40. We were the only guests at the RV park and the owners were very happy to talk to some new folks. Below are some pictures of Vega, TX.

After a nice breakfast we drove on (still on Interstate 40) and got just in time to the Firelake Casino just east of Oklahoma City as the weather got really bad after we got there. It poured buckets and they even had to close I-40 as the road was flooding. We met our new friends Jenny and David who told us about being able to park for free with full hook-ups if we registered at the casino. This was really good as it was not only hot and muggy, but very buggy and the parking lot had lots of semis running their engines. 

We spent quite a bit of time with Jenny and David and exchanged addresses etc. We had a great visit. They invited us to stay with them in Alabama and will come and visit us in Nashville, if possible.

The next day we made it to Holiday Island, just outside Eureka Springs, Arkansas where we stayed with our friends Jim and Elaine. We had stayed with them last fall and enjoyed their friendship and their hospitality. We really like that part of America except this time it rained just about day and night (almost every day) and the humidity was really hard to take. Also, we made lots of chiggers happy as they found both of us a tender meal. You should have seen our legs even though we were wearing long pants. We did quite a bit of sight-seeing while we were there. 

 

The pictures above were taken at the Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri which is right on Table Rock Lake. The place was huge area wise with beautifully landscaped gardens and had over 2000 rooms and cabins. It is owned by the same people who own the Bass Pro Shop. The house on the right is where president Truman stayed and fished some times.  

The pictures above were taken at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs which is a favorite place for weddings to take place. We had a great brunch while there. We walked up and down those and other steps while seeing more of Eureka Springs.

Above some more pictures of Eureka Springs. The one in the middle is taken in front of Jim's (not the Jim we stayed with) coffee house where we enjoyed coffee and other good things several times while we were there. For those of us who are always worried about getting thin, take the advice of the guy on the right.  More next time.