Traveling and a New State

No, we didn't really slow down for the weekend, although rainy weather tried it's best to do just that for us. Friday evening, Mark drove us around and we all ended up at Harrah's to kick off the fun. I believe we all left a deposit there. The rains started around 3:30 Saturday morning, but we just went ahead with our plans anyway.

Jim and I had never been to Memphis, although it was on our list of places to see, so for lunch, Mark drove and we went to Neeley's Barbeque in Memphis. That's one of the places we'd heard about from the Travel Channel (or the Food Network). It was good, but not quite as good as Aurthur Bryant's in Kansas City. Of course, we needed to at least see Graceland from the outside, so a drive-by after lunch took care of that.

Then we stopped at the outlet mall on the way back to the rv park. I found a couple of sweaters and a pair of shoes on sale.

We spent the evening at the Hollywood and Resort casinos, but once again, the casinos won. We had fun though, playing penny machines. There are some pretty imaginative games and we always have a good time playing, even if we don't win much.

Sunday morning we had a slight break in the rain, for which the dogs and I were very grateful. Mr. BoJangles and Jasmine are not fond of getting suited up in their rain gear to go out, any more than I am fond of dealing with dressing two dogs every time we go out. But, if it's raining, they absolutely will not do a thing if they don't have those raincoats on.

The big event for us on Sunday was visiting the Paula Deen Buffet at Harrah's. There are several sections to the buffet, including Granny's Salad Bar, Uncle Bubba's Seafood, Michael's Barbeque, Paula's meats and veggies, and Little Jack's Corner for desserts. I took little bits of all the foods I wanted to taste, including my first fried green tomato, which I loved. I also had dessert, small tastes of bread pudding, pecan pie, a custard, and a piece of chocolate gooey butter cake. Yes, I did track every bit of what I ate, and it was worth every point.

Here's Mark, resting outside on the "porch" of the buffet, I can see he's thinking he ate too much!

Jim's grown quite fond of Paula!

After our wonderful meal, we went back through the casino, and once again, left them some of our money. Oh well, we had fun again, so it was ok. We never play with more than we can afford to lose, and look at it as pure entertainment.

Sunday evening we decided to try one more casino that we hadn't visited yet - Fitzgeralds. This time Dortha and I both came out with more than we went in with. I cleared all my losses for the weekend, but I don't think Jim came out so good. I know Dortha had a pretty good evening, and Mark had pretty good luck, too.

Today was travel day, and the day we had to say "See Ya" to Dortha and Mark once again. They headed south to pick up I-20 for their journey back to Fort Worth. They were planning to make it a little over half way today.

We headed south and west towards Arkansas.

Which way do we go?

We made the correct choice and headed over the Mississippi River and into a new-to-us state - Arkansas.

We had some fog and mist during the early part of our journey, and then it was just cloudy the rest of the day. Our plan had been to stay at the one "rv park" in Sheridan, while we visited with Karon and Dan for a couple of days. However, the rv park did not have any spaces available that we could fit into, so we settled for the next-door Walmart and are settled in the back corner of their parking lot. We'll cut our visit a day short and just continue on tomorrow.

This afternoon, Karon arrived at our "site" soon after we arrived. We took her to a late lunch at a local Mexican restaurant and then went with her to their friends' house where they are parked. Bill and Janice live here and are good friends with Karon and Dan.

I missed getting pictures of Bill and Janice, but did get a quick photo of their schnauzer, Lucas. Yes, he looks a lot like Jasmine:

Karon lived here in Sheridan for many years - she grew up here and her parents lived here. She still owns the house her parents lived in. Her mom had a very extensive doll collection. That was one of the first things I knew about Karon, that she still owns many of her mom's collection, and donated the remainder to the local museum. I've wanted to see the collection since I knew about it, and so today, Karon stopped by the house and showed us the part of the collection she kept. The house is rented out to Bill and Janice's daughter, Brandy.

This is part of the collection:

Karon is showing us a crocheted doll dress:

In the morning before we head out, she's coming by to take me to the museum to see the ones on display there. What a special treat to see this amazing collection.