Saturday, April 23, 2022

Overview of Our Trip to Arkansas

  We drove south in late March toward northwest Arkansas and ended up traveling roughly 2,000 miles and camped 10 nights before returning home. We'll be uploading several more posts in the days ahead that focus on the specific parks and activities.

Our plan included stops at the Army Corps of Engineers Lakeview Campground on Bull Shoals followed by three Arkansas state parks, Mount Magazine, Queen Wilhelmina, and Petit Jean.

The Hartville City Park right on MO-5 was our first lunch stop. The park offers several picnic shelters, campsites, and a small lake. After eating our sandwiches we took a short walk to stretch our legs before returning to the highway.
   

Well, it wouldn’t be an adventure if things went as planned, would it?  We were having a great drive and the van was running well when it suddenly just died as we drove west out of Gainesville, MO. 

Fortunately, there was a really nice shoulder and we safely maneuvered off the road. We were about a mile from Gainesville. A few minutes later a highway patrolman stopped to help. He called Ron’s Towing Service for us and the truck arrived in about five minutes. The van was towed into town to Exhausted Auto and Tire repair. 
 

It was officially closed, but the owner was there and told us we could stay on his lot overnight. He took a look at the engine and was able to order a fuel pump that was delivered the next morning. 

We took several walks into downtown Gainesville and around the courthouse square. We also walked up to the Antler Package & Pizza for breakfast while Annie was repaired. 
 

We were back on the road mid-morning and had no further problems on our trip. All-in-all, it was incredible! Everyone we encountered was friendly and kind and went out of their way to be helpful. A huge thanks to the awesome citizens of Gainesville!

You can vie a very short YouTube video overview of our trip, "Day 1 of our Arkansas Trip."

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