Arkansas River

Days 403 – 406.  Our plan when we left Salida was to spend several days in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado.  As we were driving, we started talking.  We were all sad about leaving the Ballards and Salida.  We all began to agree that it was time to go home.

We turned the car north again, and after admiring the Sangre de Cristos from the valley and talking about coming back someday, we headed back to the Arkansas River east of Salida.  We’ve talked a lot about rivers this year, and the continental divide, and how long rivers are, and where they start and where they end up.  We decided it would be fun to try to follow the Arkansas from start to finish.

We didn’t go to the actual beginning of the Arkansas River on Mt. Arkansas.  We didn’t step across the stream like Shawn says you can, but we figure we were within a couple of miles.  We were able to follow along the river through most of Colorado as it dropped out of the mountains and onto the Great Plains.  We camped at John Martin Reservoir, below a dam on the Arkansas River.  Though we were still in Colorado, it was hot and humid; we were missing the mountains.

After entering Kansas, the first time we were able to see the river again, there was no water in it.  It looked more like a dirt road.  We followed the river through Dodge City, but decided not to follow the river north as it took a long detour up to Great Bend; we couldn’t see any water in it anyway.  We met the river again in Oklahoma. We saw the river near Tulsa, Muskogee, Fort Smith, Little Rock, and then followed it down to where the Arkansas flows into the Mississippi River.

A long time ago, the town of Napoleon sat at the mouth of the Arkansas.  It is no longer there due to destruction during the Civil War and to flooding of the Mississippi.  Looking at the map, we thought we’d be able to get fairly close to the end of the Arkansas River.  We drove for a long time through cotton and rice and soybean fields, and atop levees near the Mississippi.  It was a beautiful and sticky late afternoon, loud with crickets and buzzing.  We saw deer, a live armadillo, birds and bugs, and a bald eagle.  We didn’t make it to the river.  The road we’d seen on the map was gated.  We tried to find other roads, but it was getting late, so we took a picture and figured we were within a couple of miles.

We crossed the Mississippi into Greenville, MS and began looking for a hotel room.  They were all full.  We drove to the next town, and still found nothing available.  By this time, it was well after 10 pm and still in the 90s.  Despite this, we found a campground on the Mississippi River near Rosedale, MS and pulled in for the night.  This began the most uncomfortable night of our whole trip.  The mosquitoes were relentless and the air was thick.  We tried to go to sleep.  After a few moments of torture, we all got up and sprayed ourselves down with deet.    Then we tried to go to sleep.  Sometime around 5 am, when the bug spray had all sweated off of us, we went to go take showers.  We’ve suffered through a few cold showers on this trip, but this campground had great hot showers.  Unfortunately, we wanted cool showers, and these wouldn’t even go lukewarm.

By about 6:30 am, we’d left the campground and were standing on top of a lookout tower.  We were on the eastern shore directly across from where the Arkansas meets the Mississippi.  We couldn’t actually see the Arkansas, but knew we were close.

That day, a Friday, Day 406 of our Year Trip, we drove through the campus of Ole Miss in Oxford, then pulled onto the Natchez Trace Parkway, and headed northeast towards Nashville.

Our first stop was downtown Nashville where we met Troy’s Aunt Judy and took some pictures.  Then we drove to Lebanon, TN to see Troy’s mom.  We are still staying with her (if we were still counting, we’d say it’s Day 418).  We’re moving to our house today.

Next week, we’re going backpacking in the Smoky Mountains with a really cool group of young people from our church.  Then, I think, this Year Trip will be officially over.  We’re not sure, yet, exactly how we’re feeling, but it is good to be home.  Pictures.  And a song for Troy:

The greenest state in the land of the free
And the home of the Grand Ole Opry
Is calling me back to my Smoky Mountain home

But I ain’t been home in I don’t know when
If I had it all to do over again
Tonight I’d sleep in my old feather bed

What I wouldn’t give for a little bitty taste
Of Mama’s homemade chocolate cake
Tennessee homesick blues running through my head

Eatin’ grits and gravy and country ham
Go to church on Sunday with dinner on the grounds
Tennessee homesick blues are runnin’ through my head. 

- Dolly Parton

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