Summer 2021 Friends & Lakes RV Tour - Union Grove, Alabama

Georgia Mountain RV Resort   September 1 – 4

Union Grove, Alabama

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Continuing our trek to the east, we stopped in Union Grove, Alabama. This RV park was highly recommended and it was one of the nicest parks we have ever stayed. Beautiful maintained and lush landscaping provided a nice environment. Our stop here was to visit friends who moved to this area. We had met the Matt & Janet during a trip to Bryson City, NC a couple of years ago. During our stay there we also visited Guntersville State Park, which had great mountain bike trails, along with camping and various activities. We did ride some trails and enjoyed that they were well designed. The park lodge was situated on the mountain top and has a great view of Lake Guntersville. Because Kurt is fascinated with dams, we visited the TVA dam at Guntersville, watching the raging water release from the recent heavy rains of the remnants of Tropical Storm Elsa.

We did spend some time with our friends and toured their home that they are currently renovating. It’s a very nice home in the country with 20 acres. So beautiful! Also, visited their daughter and SIL, Tia & Brian at their home not very far from Matt & Janet. They are all so blessed to live near each other in a beautiful area. We truly enjoyed our visit there and hope to see them all again in the future.

Summer 2021 Friends & Lakes RV Tour - McFarland City Campground

McFarland Campground,    August 26 – 31

Florence, Alabama

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Another drive east to Alabama. We found a beautiful city campground here. The campground was situated right on the banks of the Tennessee River. A cool small town facing the bluffs overlooking the Tennessee River with beautiful and historic homes in the city's downtown area. A typical small southern town. The campground is very nice with full hook up and views of the river. While there we toured around town and also the Wilson Dam, another TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority). Hiked along the river trail and observed the dam and some historical information. We also watched the barges heading down the river.

We ended up staying an extra day to avoid driving through the remnants of Tropical Storm Elsa. Again running from storms that didn’t even affect our home in S. Florida!

Next on to eastern Alabama!

Summer 2021 Friends & Lakes RV Tour - Buffalo National River

Buffalo National River – Aug 17 – 23

Buffalo Point Campground

Yellville, Arkansas

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After driving 124 miles on back country, winding mountain roads, with awesome views of mountains and farms, we arrived at Buffalo National River, which is a National park. We had camped here in 2013 on our way west. We had forgotten how nice the park and river were, back then the river was really flowing and deep. Established in 1972, Buffalo National River flows freely for 135 miles and is one of the few remaining undammed rivers in the lower 48 states. The river is surrounded by massive bluffs through the Ozark Mountains. This area is so remote there is no cell service available without driving to the top of the mountain, to maybe get 1-2 bars of signal. We were fortunate enough to get a satellite signal down in the river valley campground. It was great to have some connection with the outside world. The campground was very nice and well maintained.

Despite the heat wave through the area, we were able to get out on the river and paddle our kayaks for a few miles. We took Luca with us, but he was so hot, I sprayed him with water to keep him cool. The river was very low due to recent drought, but had just enough depth for our kayaks. Kurt had also paddled an 8 mile distance on the river, I shuttled him to a distant put-in and he was able to paddle right back to the river banks of the campground.

There were several hiking trails in the park, but dogs were not allowed to hike there. Kurt hiked the longest one called Indian Rockhouse Trail. The trail goes back to an ancient rock cave where native Indians had resided since around 700 AD. These ancient peoples were nomads and moved around the area as needed for hunting and harvesting. This trail revealed a lot of history of this area. There were abandoned zinc mines, some sinkholes and creeks along the trail.

We did enjoy our time here and met some really nice people. Next we will head southeast to our next adventure.

Summer 2021 Friends & Lakes Tour - Rogers, Arkansas

Prairie Creek Campground – Aug 3 – 16

Beaver Lake - Rogers, Arkansas

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We moved a little further south to Rogers. This area is a busy extension of the Bentonville area. This campground is one of a few surrounding Beaver Lake, which is a very large reservoir lake. Upon arriving, we discovered the campground is in a forested, steep mountainous area which lies a few hundred feet above the lake. So disappointed that there were no lake views from the campground. However, we were able to ride around the campground and find a couple of empty campsites where there was a limited view. While here we did visit a few mountain bike trails and also hiked. There were a few breweries that we visited and enjoyed some good beer. Some of them served very good food, which we enjoyed. We made the best of what we had, but this area was not as fun as Bentonville.

Next we are heading east to the Buffalo National River. We stayed there in 2013 and the kayaking was awesome, but we were informed the river is very low, so we may not be able kayak. Hoping for the best.

Summer 2021 Friends & Lakes Tour - Independence, Kansas

Elk City Lake State Park – July 29 – Aug 2

Independence, Kansas

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We next headed to Independence, Kansas. We visited longtime friends here in the area where Kurt lived on a farm as a teenager. We first visited his best buddy and wife, Rusty Wood and his wife Debbie. We did see them in Tampa FL in 2017. It was so wonderful to see them, been since 2013 we were in Kansas. We also visited the farm of his buddy Rob and Gigi. Luca had a blast watching the cows and playing with their dogs. The extreme heat wave continued here for a couple of days until one night when a storm front moved through and it really cooled down. Next we headed back to NW Arkansas.

Summer 2021 Friends & Lakes RV Tour

Bentonville, AR 

Blowing Springs RV Park, Bella Vista, Arkansas - July 14 – 28

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We finally made it to the Bentonville, Arkansas area. Stayed in a very nice RV park north of Bentonville in Bella Vista, which is completely surrounded by hundreds of miles of mountain bike trails and a greenway trail that extends from Bentonville south to Fayetteville, 36 miles. 

Bentonville is known as the original home of Walmart. The Walton family foundation has invested funds to entice people to move into the area; including cultural venues of museums, art and theatre.  Also includes mountain biking which has attracted younger people to the area. Thus there are also many beer breweries. Jobs are plenty here and it’s also a great retirement area. Downtown Bentonville is wonderful, so much to do, restaurants, breweries, cultural museums, and of course mountain biking trails riding right out of the downtown area. We toured the Walmart museum, which is on the city square and was originally the Walton 5&10 store. 

We also spent one day at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. It was fabulous and we were able to see such diverse types of art. Including paintings, textile art, sculpture, glass art and so many outdoor displays. There were even art displays along so much of the mountain bike trails! The building itself is a work of art, designed to cross  buildings as bridges. It was worth the time spent there, even Kurt enjoyed it, he had never been to an art museum.  The weather was disappointing for a few days, either raining or extreme heat advisories. During the last few days we were able to get out to hike and mountain bike. We truly enjoyed so much about this region, it’s very beautiful with lush mountains and valleys. If we ever come this way again, we will definitely spend some more time here.

Summer 2021 Friends & Lakes Tour - Florida & Alabama

 New Smyrna Beach RV Resort FL   July 2 – 4

Our summer trip started off with a visit to my sister’s home in New Smyrna Beach. We spent the July 4th weekend with Suzi and Stephen, and enjoyed eating out at a local brew house with awesome food. On the 4th, we went to their house with all the fixings for a cookout and great meal. It was so wonderful seeing them for the first time in over 2 years.

On our way we stopped at two one night flops in RV parks to get out of Florida away from Hurricane Elsa and to get us to Arkansas faster.

Oak Mountain State Park   July 7 – 13

Birmingham, Alabama

Summer 2021 - Oak Mountain State Park, Alabama - Google Photos

This is the 4^th time we have stayed at this State Park, which we really love. So many mountain biking and hiking trails for us to enjoy. The campground is very spacious and many sites have full hook up. There are also three lakes in the park for kayaking and paddle boards.

While there we experienced another unexpected event. Professional wake board competition was held at this state park, the venue was perfect and the competition was great. The Supra Boats Pro Wake Tour is the most dominant, highest credible professional wakeboard circuit in the world. Top athletes from countries all around the world including Australia, Canada, Europe, and the US compete for cash prizes! Food trucks were available. We really enjoyed sitting by the lake and watching these young men and their amazing wake board stunts.