A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 243 miles from Paris, Texas to Scott, Arkansas.
Author: David
Travel from Paris, Texas to Scott, Arkansas
We drove our coach 243 miles, about four hours of driving, from Paris, Texas to Scott, Arkansas.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
Depressions in the grass from our neighbor’s jacks and tires, due to rain making the ground a little soft:
Our coach:
I put a couple of tiles below the AquaHot exhaust, but the surrounding grass still got a little singed:
Our jack pads got embedded in the soft ground; not too difficult to pull out. The larger pads help spread the load, though, and better than having the jacks get stuck in the ground:
Leaving the full hookup area:
Solar section:
Onto I-30 East:
A fuel stop:
As usual, we paid less than this, due to our fuel discount card:
Back on I-30 East:
The Texas overpasses had the Lone Star and state outline:
Texarkana water tower:
Welcome to Arkansas:
The Arkansas overpasses had a less distinctive state outline (reminded me of a Solo cup):
A lunch stop at Southfork Restaurant in Gurdon, Arkansas:
Truck parking:
Paladin on the passenger chair:
Our coach parked with trucks:
Into the restaurant:
Menu (they also have burgers and such, but we were in the mood for breakfast):
Super slow service, but over an hour later we got our breakfast for lunch:
We’d ordered biscuits with our breakfast, but they only had one, so provided extra potatoes and lots of toast instead:
Back to our coach:
Back on I-30 East:
Arkadelphia water tower:
Fun with zoom:
Oversize load:
Rough road:
Fun with zoom:
Narrow road due to roadworks:
Slow truck:
Overpass:
Arkansas River:
Exit to Scott:
An unmarked turn to the park:
Residential road:
Entering Willow Beach Park:
Park entrance station:
Campsites:
Our site (the back-in with the shelter):
Our coach after untoading:
Our site; a bit of a slope on the driveway, but a flat concrete pad:
Total solar eclipse
Last year we saw the annular solar eclipse while at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. This year, we changed our travel route to witness the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, the last in the US until 2044.
We originally booked a state park within the totality zone, but then the Escapees RV Club announced a gathering in Paris, Texas, also in the totality zone, and we decided to change our route to attend that.
Jenn with her camera, wearing eclipse glasses:
The day started very cloudy, so we were bracing for disappointment:
A glimpse of the sun as the eclipse nears totality:
Clouds clearing away just in time (with a drone watching things):
Jenn taking photos:
A selfie:
Almost there:
Total solar eclipse:
Looking around during the four minutes and three seconds of totality:
A panorama:
Via my iPhone:
This panorama was taken as totality was ending, so the left is darker than the right:
Diamond ring:
The eclipse ending:
Group photo:
A magical experience.
Paris Fairgrounds for Escapees/Xscapers gathering
We stayed at Paris Fairgrounds in Paris, Texas for an Escapees/Xscapers total solar eclipse gathering.
Not a normal campground, but the fairgrounds does have a few full-hookup sites, along with a bunch of dry camping. We managed to snag one of the full-hookup sites.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-04-05
- Check out: 2024-04-14
- 9 nights
Weather:
- Mix of sunny, cloudy, rainy
- High temps 68-82°F, lows 52-62°F
- Some wind, gusts up to 30 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- Distant train horn noise on weekdays
- Other camping sections had generator noise, but not audible from our full-hookup section
- Some people noise and music
Site:
- Rally parking, full-hookup, on grass
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked nearby
- Unlevel, high on passenger side and front; used hydraulic leveling
- Site about 45 feet long by about 15 feet wide
- Mostly clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 80 PSI water, somewhat conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 30 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 27 ms ping
- AT&T: 110 Mbps down, 40 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
- Verizon: 25 Mbps down, 9-24 Mbps up, 85 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage bins
- Food trucks
- Rally
Campground map; we were in the “FHU Section” (Full HookUp):
An interactive map:
Our spot in the full-hookup section:
Utilities:
Other full-hookup sites:
A couple of aerial views, from someone else’s drone:
And some aerial views from my drone, a few days later; several rigs had left by then:
Our coach is the second-from-right one:
In downtown Paris, they have a 65-foot Eiffel tower, with a cowboy hat on top, of course:
Paris downtown lights:
Opening announcements:
Burgerland food truck:
Unremarkable burger, and nice fries:
Mexican food truck:
Mexican food:
One of the activities at this gathering was an all-day “lot crawl”, where each section takes turns to host food and/or beverages, and people from other sections visit to sample them and chat. Some people dressed up in costumes:
Bus conversion and old Beetle:
Food:
Facehugger:
Beverages:
Alien lifeblood:
Eclipse plates:
Jenn with our contribution, rather strong “astronaut martinis”, made with vodka, triple sec, and Tang:
Homemade camper:
On eclipse day, most of the participants gathered to view it:
The day started rather cloudy:
But the clouds moved off in time to get a great view of the total eclipse:
Some more photos in tomorrow’s post.
A couple of group photos after the eclipse:
We don’t go to rallies like this very often, and don’t participate with all activities when we do, but this was a good one.
Video: Texarkana to Paris, Texas motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 93 miles from Texarkana, Texas to Paris, Texas.
Travel from Texarkana to Paris, Texas
We drove our coach 93 miles, about two hours of driving, from Texarkana, Texas to Paris, Texas.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading west:
An interactive map:
Frontage road to I-30 West:
I-30 West:
Exit 199:
Water tower:
Building transport:
US Highway 82:
We stopped at a picnic area for lunch:
Stillhouse Road exit:
Arriving at the Paris fairgrounds for an Escapees/Xscapers gathering for the total solar eclipse:
Heading to our spot:
Using a sewer tote tank and macerator pump to dump waste tanks from the back of our truck
What goes in, must go out. As mentioned last week, sometimes we stay at rustic campgrounds or rallies where there are no sewer hookups. No big deal for up to about a week. But if we’re staying longer, we have a tote tank that can be used to empty our black and gray tanks, enabling us to camp as long as we want.
We bought a Camco Rhino 36-Gallon Portable Camper/RV Tote Tank from Amazon:
They (and RVers generally) recommend getting a tank big enough to fit the capacity of the RV’s waste tanks, but that advice is geared towards smaller RVs — our motorhome has a 70 gallon gray tank and 50 gallon black tank, so we need to take two trips to fully empty each.
The instructions that came with the tank:
I also got a Tote Tank Gauge for it, that indicates when the tank is getting full; important since the capacity is smaller than the tanks in our coach:
I didn’t bother installing the ladder hook, since we don’t have a ladder on our coach. In the future I might add a bar to our towbar to mount a rack onto. But for now I store the tank in the bed of our truck, wrapped in a cover:
Here’s the tote tank (when it was brand new):
It has wheels at the back and front; the front wheels can be steered; I normally don’t attach the handle, though:
There is a valve on the side to dump the contents:
And a second valve on top for filling, though this can also be used for dumping by tilting the tank vertically:
I also purchased a macerator pump:
Normally one would position the tote tank next to the wet bay, and use gravity to fill it from the RV’s tanks, then hook the tank to a tow bar or wheel it manually to the campground dump station.
But I wanted to keep it in the bed of our truck, so I could easily drive it to the dump station. So I use the macerator pump to chop up any solids and pump it all uphill into the truck:
Another time, I attached the macerator directly to the port (with a clear tube); the downside was getting a little water in the wet bay when disconnecting (if the tank isn’t completely drained):
The tank in the back of the truck:
The hose (only used for this purpose) goes from the macerator to the fill valve on top:
Both the water bladder and the sewer tote fit quite nicely together in the bed of the truck:
Water flowing into the tank:
Fill gauge:
The fill gauge rising up as it nears capacity:
Once the tote is full (or the RV’s tanks are empty), I drive the truck to the campground’s dump station, hook up a sewer hose to the side valve, and empty the tank:
Much more convenient than dragging the tote behind the truck. And like the water bladder, lets us stay indefinitely even in a campground without a sewer hookup.
Texarkana KOA Journey
We stayed at Texarkana KOA Journey in Texarkana, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)
An overnight stop just across the border into Texas, right off I-30.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-04-04
- Check out: 2024-04-05
- 1 night
Weather:
- Sunny
- High temp 74°F, low 45°F
- Negligible wind, gusts to 12 MPH
Noise:
- Freeway noise
- Nearby train noise (no horns)
Site:
- #C29, pull-through, gravel
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t
- Mostly level, a little high on driver side; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel driveway about 95 feet long by about 10 feet wide
- Grass between sites about 20 feet wide
- Picnic table
- Swing seat
- No fire pit
- Mostly clean site (some bottle cap-sized trash)
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, somewhat conveniently located
- 40 PSI water, conveniently located
- Too-short but good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 20 Mbps down, 2-12 Mbps up, 100 ms ping
- AT&T: 290 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
- Verizon: 2 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up, 140 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage bins
- Closed pool
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Easy access to the freeway
We stayed here one night on our way through the area and it was perfect for that. The pull-through site was long enough for our 40′ motorhome and tow vehicle without having to disconnect. Check-in was quick and easy. Some road noise, which is to be expected, but not too bad. We camped at Texarkana KOA Journey in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Utilities:
Dump station behind our site:
Closed pool:
Other sites:
A perfectly fine place for a one-night stop.
Video: Scott, Arkansas to Texarkana, Texas motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 151 miles from Scott, Arkansas to Texarkana, Texas.
Travel from Scott, Arkansas to Texarkana, Texas
We drove our coach 151 miles, about two hours of driving, from Scott, Arkansas to Texarkana, Texas.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading southwest:
An interactive map:
We didn’t have a sewer hookup at the campground, so our gray and black tanks were getting rather full:
Following the coach to the dump station:
We used the dump station on the way out to empty our waste tanks, and hooked up our toad there:
On I-440 West, crossing the Arkansas River:
I-440 joined I-30 West:
A vintage trailer:
Roadworks:
Rather narrow lanes, with close barriers, aren’t much fun with a wide coach:
Our coach on a traffic cam:
Rest area stop:
Cute little trailer:
Back on I-30:
Oversize load (not sure what they’re carrying):
Arkadelphia:
Passing Hope, Arkansas; President Clinton’s birthplace:
Yellow field:
Texarkana, which (you may be surprised to learn) spans Texas and Arkansas:
The “Welcome to Texas” sign is across the road from our destination:
KOA:
Our site for one night:
