Travel from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee

We drove our coach 196 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:

Route

An interactive map:

Leaving the RV park:

Leaving RV park

Bubba’s, where we got tasty food during our stay:

Bubba's

An uncomfortably narrow lane due to roadworks:

Narrow lane

A break at some truck parking:

Truck parking

Truck parking

I had fun watching traffic cameras to spot us driving by; yes, that’s our coach and truck in the right lane at the bottom:

Traffic camera

Another traffic camera showing us:

Traffic camera

And another one, showing us from the other direction:

Traffic camera

Another snapshot:

Traffic camera

Another stop at truck parking:

Truck parking

Truck parking

A snapshot:

Traffic camera

A bridge over the Mississippi River into Tennessee; a big milestone for us, crossing this major river for the first time:

Bridge over Mississippi River

Bridge over Mississippi River

Dissapointingly, there was no sign marking the occasion. Probably due to roadworks (with uncomfortably narrow lanes again):

Roadworks

Roadworks

Our destination, Graceland RV Park:

Graceland RV Park

The office:

Office

Our site before parking:

Our site before parking

Travel from Russellville to Hot Springs, Arkansas

We drove our coach 128 miles, about 2 hours of driving, from Russellville, Arkansas to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading east then south then west:

Route

An interactive map of our route:

We had planned to take a more direct but curvier highway route, below, but it was raining heavily, so opted for the slightly longer but safer Interstate route, above:

Rain off the slide topper:

Rain off slide topper

A bit flooded next to the wet bay:

Flooded

After bringing in the slides, there were a bunch of leaves on the topper:

Leaves on slide topper

Our truck hooked up to our coach; the tow bar lit up:

Tow bar with lights

Lake:

Lake

We saw a new icon on the Mobileye guidance system, which I had to look up; a little yellow eyeball, indicating that the device had low visibility:

Mobileye icon

Unsurprising, since it was rather rainy and foggy:

Rainy and foggy

Low visibility

The name “Toad Suck” amuses us:

Toad Suck

A break at some truck parking:

Truck parking

Breathe in:

Truck parking

Fuel stop:

Fuel stop

A stop we regretted, as we didn’t get the advertised fuel discount, and the pump limited us to 35 gallons, so we did three transactions:

Fuel

I-30:

I-30

Overpass:

Overpass

Our destination:

Our destination

Our coach about to back in to our site:

Our coach

Our site

Travel from Choctaw, Oklahoma to Russellville, Arkansas

Back to our regularly scheduled blog posts, catching up with travel from October last year. Where we left off, we were in Oklahoma.

We drove our coach 248 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Choctaw, Oklahoma to Russellville, Arkansas.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:

Route

An interactive map:

I-40:

I-40

“Speed limit 75, no tolerance”:

No tolerance

I-40

A stop at a rest area:

Rest area

Paladin:

Paladin

Crossing the Arkansas River:

Arkansas River

A VW microbus:

A VW microbus

“Welcome to Arkansas”:

Welcome to Arkansas

Another rest area:

Rest area

Crane:

Crane

Fall foliage:

Fall foliage

A motorhome and vanlifer:

Motorhome and vanlifer

It’s that VW microbus again!

It's that VW microbus again

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Causeway:

Causeway

Lake Dardanelle State Park entrance:

Lake Dardanelle State Park

Checking in:

Checking in

Visitor center

Checking in

2024 travel plans

I hope you enjoyed the posts reviewing 2023. So what’s in store for ’24? Sights galore, and more!

We spent the holidays in the panhandle of Florida, in Carrabelle. We are now heading south in Florida, with several days at Universal and Disney theme parks, dry camping in the Everglades National Park, and a sea plane trip to the remote Dry Tortugas National Park for Jenn’s birthday. And that’s just the first couple of months!

After that, we’ll be heading inland, visiting Georgia for the first time, and revisiting Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas, ending up in Paris, Texas for an Escapees gathering for the big solar eclipse in April.

We’ll stop in Red Bay, Alabama on the way back east to get a new custom desk installed for Jenn (hopefully), and other maintenance. Then reach the east coast at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in May. We’ll then head up the coast through North Carolina and Virginia, with a stop at NIRVC in DC for annual maintenance, and to visit friends there. 

Then we’ll head west, picking up additional new states, Maryland and West Virginia, revisiting Tennessee, then a bunch more new states: Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minneapolis. Then sprinting through South Dakota and Montana to Washington for our annual health checkups and family time in August.

After that, we’ll go south through Oregon and California, with our annual visit to Disneyland in October. We might fly to Hawaii after Disneyland, or might defer that to 2025; to be determined. Another notable thing in October will be staying at a 55+ RV park in Arizona; I’ll be turning 55 years old in May, so we’ll finally be able to stay at age-qualified parks.

Continuing east, we’ll close the loop around the country through New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana, ending the year where we started in Florida.

A big circuit of much of the country, visiting 12 new states, plus 13 we’ve visited before, for a total of 25 states. Which will bring the total number of states we’ve visited to 35. Just 15 to go! (Or 14 if we do make it to Hawaii.)

This route will be our longest yet, at 11,858 miles, if we stick with the plan. For reference, we travelled 9,945 miles in 2023, 8,772 miles in 2022, and just 2,300 miles in 2021 (starting in September that year).

We’ve currently made campsite reservations up to the end of July, with a few gaps and a few beyond that, since some places allow booking up to a year out, some six months, and some only three months. And sometimes circumstances force us to re-route. So all this is very much subject to change, but that’s the plan for the year.

What’s more, we already have a tentative plan for 2025, too, again circumnavigating the country, picking up most of the remaining 15 states. And an even more tentative plan to visit Alaska in 2026, which will probably be the last state (as mentioned, we’ll probably fly to Hawaii sometime in 2024 or 2025). But more on those next year!

Here’s a map that shows the state outlines, colored time zones, our travel route, and pins for stops. Our route begins in the panhandle of Florida, and goes generally anti-clockwise around the country, ending up where we started:

Map with time zones

Another variation of the map, that shows more detail, but the states are less visible:

Map

It’s going to be another busy year. I hope you’ll follow along via this blog and the YouTube channel.

2023 travel days

I thought it’d be interesting and useful to include a summary of travel days. Here are links to blog posts, and a sample picture of the view of each, so you can see how the landscape changed as we travelled in our coach.

Read to the end for some sneak peeks of places we went that I haven’t yet posted about!

You can see all of the travel-related blog posts via the travel category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.

Travel from Corpus Christi to Lockhart, Texas:

Pump jack

Travel from Lockhart to Columbus, Texas:

Overpass

Travel from Columbus to Lake Conroe, Texas:

Exit and evacuation

Travel from Lake Conroe to Lake Whitney, Texas:

Sam Houston statue

Travel from Lake Whitney to Dallas, Texas:

Dallas, Texas

Travel days to US Virgin Islands:

USVI

Travel from NIRVC in Dallas to Gordonville, Texas:

Denton Buc-ees

Travel from Gordonville to Abilene, Texas:

Wide load

Travel from Abilene, Texas to Las Cruces, New Mexico:

It would behoof you to slow down

Travel from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Tombstone, Arizona:

Welcome to Arizona

Travel from Tombstone to Surprise, Arizona:

Picacho Peak

Travel from Surprise to Kingman, Arizona:

Josua trees

Travel from Kingman, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada:

Hover Dam and Lake Mead

Travel from Las Vegas, Nevada to Death Valley, California:

Area 51 Alien Center

Travel from Death Valley to Yermo, California:

World's Tallest Thermometer

Travel from Yermo to Palm Desert, California:

Cafe 247

Travel from Palm Desert to Orange, California:

Green hills

Travel from Orange to San Diego, California:

Ocean and yellow flowers

Travel from San Diego to Bakersfield, California:

Flowers

Travel from Bakersfield to Paso Robles, California:

Vineyard

Travel from Paso Robles to Petaluma, California:

Roadside artwork

Travel from Petaluma to Meyers Flat, California:

Redwoods

Travel from Meyers Flat to Crescent City, California:

Ocean

Travel from Crescent City, California to Florence, Oregon:

Bridge

Travel from Florence to Eugene, Oregon:

Tunnel

Travel from Eugene to South Beach, Oregon:

Newport bridge

Travel from South Beach to Seaside, Oregon:

Rock

Travel from Seaside, Oregon to Ocean City, Washington:

Astoria-Megler Bridge

Travel from Ocean City to Shelton, Washington:

Narrow bridge

Travel from Shelton, Washington to Buxton, Oregon:

Fremont Bridge

Travel from Buxton to Welches, Oregon:

Glimpse of Mt Hood

Travel from Welches to La Grande, Oregon:

Columbia River

Travel from La Grande, Oregon to Glenns Ferry, Idaho:

River

Travel from Glenns Ferry, Idaho to Alpine, Wyoming:

Arco, Idaho

Travel from Alpine to Yellowstone, Wyoming:

Grand Teton National Park

Travel from Yellowstone to Cody, Wyoming:

Bison

Travel from Cody to Buffalo, Wyoming:

More curves and slopes

Travel from Buffalo to Devils Tower, Wyoming:

Approaching Devils Tower

Travel from Devils Tower, Wyoming to Medora, North Dakota:

MT-7

Travel from Medora, North Dakota to Spearfish, South Dakota:

Sunflower field

Travel from Spearfish to Badlands, South Dakota:

Badland National Park

Travel from Badlands to Hot Springs, South Dakota:

Bison

Travel from Hot Springs, South Dakota to Ogallala, Nebraska:

Another zoomed perspective

Travel from Ogallala, Nebraska to Scott City, Kansas:

Large farm equipment

Travel from Scott City, Kansas to Guymon, Oklahoma:

Wind turbine blade on a truck

Travel from Guymon, Oklahoma to Tucumcari, New Mexico:

More fun with zoom

Travel from Tucumcari to Albuquerque, New Mexico:

Ruined building

Travel from Albuquerque to Santa Rosa, New Mexico:

Overpass

Towed from Santa Rosa to Moriarty, New Mexico:

Towed from Santa Rosa to Moriarty, New Mexico

Travel from Moriarty to Tucumcari, New Mexico:

Travel from Moriarty to Tucumcari, New Mexico

Travel from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas:

I-40

Travel from Amarillo, Texas to Choctaw, Oklahoma:

Leaning water tower of Texas

Travel from Choctaw, Oklahoma to Russellville, Arkansas (post coming in January):

Fun with zoom

Travel from Russellville to Hot Springs, Arkansas (post coming in January):

Overpass

Travel from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee (post coming in January):

Traffic camera

Travel from Memphis, Tennessee to Red Bay, Alabama (post coming in January):

Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama

Travel from Red Bay, Alabama to Toomsuba, Mississippi (post coming in February):

Tombigbee River

Travel from Toomsuba, Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana (post coming in February):

Twin span bridge over Lake Pontchartrain

Travel from New Orleans, Louisiana to Spanish Fort, Alabama (post coming in February):

Our coach via traffic camera

Travel from Spanish Fort, Alabama to Carrabelle, Florida (post coming in February):

Road under water

That’s a lot of travel!