"It Was Down In Louisiana, Just About A Mile From Texarkana....."

Here we are in what is called the "ArkLaTex"..which is the corner of those 3 states. We left Georgetown Tuesday about 8AM and arrived here about 1:45PM...choosing to disregard our GPS Tom Tom and take 635 around Dallas instead of going directly through...Tom, the GPS, has a wicked sense of humor and tries to test us once in a while..
Our weather yesterday was perfect...sunny, not a cloud in the sky and 78 degrees. We took our walk in the morning and discovered our long time Texarkana friend Jimmy "Catfish" Jones was camped in his usual spot on the upper corner. Jimmy and his wife are from the Arkansas side of Texarkana and seem to be here almost every time we are. He does commercial fishing here on the lake. Everyone knows him here..and he owns a truck you just can't forget..a little old gold/yellow Toyota, with a "mosaic" of rust spots....not unlike Den's old rusty blue Silverado, which everyone in town recognizes,,,(even the cops).
I love this campsite. I even think it is one of my favorites ever! We are not right on the lakeside, but across the road. This makes it less windy when we get a storm. There are tall Lodgepole pines, other pines and oak trees all around, yet we get a nice dose of sunshine all day long. We have a little retaining wall made out of treated lumber which is built into the hillside, about 2 or 3 feet tall, at the rear of our camper. The site is filled with nice large rock gravel, and the picnic table is made out of concrete and sits on a concrete slab. This makes for a nice clean INSIDE of the camper...(no mud if it rains.) Most of the people here are local Texarkanans, and they bring tons of stuff with them to set up, allowing to have the whole "fam damily" in for Easter weekend. They set up tents with net sides over the picnic tables (in case of rain), deep fryers, roasters, tables, chairs, bikes, golf carts, coolers, smokers.....and washing machine drums..Yes, I did say washing machine drums...They use these for a campfire...and the holes in the side provide oxygen, if not cool affect..Maybe I should look into a junk yard, get some of these drums and sell them as fire burners up north.???
Today is Thursday , and we went grocery shopping at the Arkansas side Super Walmart, just across the state line. I am looking to get a new bicycle..Jimmy Jones said he may know someone who would like my old beat up Schwinn....and they can have it for free. We DID find out that we need to make that purchase on the Texas side..Arkansas has a 10% sales tax, believe it or not!!!
Here are a few photos of our great campsite....Here is where we have our coffee...
....and here I am having my cup of coffee!
Here is a view from the back side....
Here is a shot looking down the line of campers by us..
They have built a few cabins right out on the lake which I do not yet have a picture of. I will take my camera next time I walk, because there is a campsite up the hill that has a big-ass smoker parked on it and I want a picture..(I am anxious to see what they cook on it for Easter dinner!)
We have our string of rope lights all around our campsite for night lighting..We took a few pictures last night as it started getting dark...Here they are..
Well, it is time for a short "walkabout" the park. We usually ride our bikes in the afternoon, but mine is dead, so we will walk. Our weather radio just went off and we are under a tornado watch until 9PM...One other good thing about this campsite...we can walk across the road to the shower house!! I will try to get some different pictures here...and if we run across anything of interest, you will see it here first!!! More later....