If you are fed up with the UK weather and think that you would like a really, really hot summer you may change your mind after a few days on the road travelling through Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee this July. We don’t like air conditioning but we have a new found respect for what life would like without it in this part of the US.The decision to ignore Oklahoma and travel through Kansas was tricky as neither is renowned for being that interesting for travellers. Kansas went from sandy coloured high desert to rich lush field before our eyes as we went. The bright skies and endless yellow cornfields reminded us of home or more likely the idyllic childhood memory of harvest time in Suffolk.
The sun always seems to shine more when you are young. Kansas is very easy on the eye… cornfield, cornfield, field of sweet corn, grain store, farmhouse, water tower, few more houses, cornfield, cornfield…. cornfield, cornfield, field of sweet corn, grain store… you get the picture. After 3 days and 800 hundreds miles of farmland and not a lot else we decided that Kansas does not take itself too seriously. Not even serious enough to have any postcards. What was taken seriously were the lethal tornados that ripped across this state earlier in the year. For us it was all sunshine and pretty lake side campsites that all looked a bit like an Ipswich park – in a 38 C heat wave : ).
Kansas gave way to Arkansas with even more lush forest. So lush in fact that the Ozarks areas looked more like rain forest than we have seen anywhere else in the US. Here there are no major National Parks but there are lots of National Forest and Scenic Riverways run by the National Park service. The combination of sun and constant heat was crippling and we even had to have the air con on for the 1st time on our travels. After a few days everything becomes too much effort as your body grinds to a halt. A shower leaves you soaking wet from sweat and even the mention of “Yellowstone” failed to bring any relief. It is no wonder that most people get from one air conditioned bubble into another and we even understood why walking to work would be pointless and render you in need of a shower when you got there. However we still could not believe that some people would drive from their RV’s to the showers only 100ft away.
Without the heat… you could be in England…. and without the black widow spiders that hide in the electrical hook up boxes… and the 5 different types of venomous snakes (we didn’t see any)… and the little ticks that burrow into your skin carrying sometimes lethal stroke like illnesses…. So as we said Arkansas?... just like wandering around Christchurch Park - without Katherine Jenkins!Have you ever met anyone that has gone on holiday to say Kansas or Missouri for example… neither have we, so it will come as no surprise that most people in the campsite are locals enjoying a week’s camping holiday with the family. We have never seen anyone from the USA in Tangham either but it still has all the elements for a great holiday. (We did see a family from Wales there last year : ) The only problem with having been to some truly amazing places with jaw dropping scenery is that the unusual tends to become the normality and everything else suffers by comparison. So taking a second look at the Mid West via a blog entry like this is a good way of forcing some reality back into our over stimulated sense of wonder.
Kansas
Lake Mead, Lake Cheney and Elk City State Parks
800 miles going from dry, yellow desert and cacti to corn, farmland, trees and beautiful lakes.
Arkansas
Devils Den – great park with full ranger programme and lots of caves. The caves like many others we came across in the US were shut due to a disease that is threatening to wipe out the bat population. A single bat can eat about 4000 mosquitoes each night! However we could still access the most novel (and very welcome) feature of the cave systems here, a blast of really cold air coming from various natural holes and vents.Buffalo Point, Buffalo Scenic River – rafting and a ‘swim beach’ on the bend of a sometimes wild (spring) river system.
Missouri
Ozark National Scenic River Way. A Big blue spring and big blue butterflies. The campsite wins the award for the most clicky, antisocial group of campers and our biggest fan. A group of Texans wheeled (yes wheeled from a huge horsebox) a fan like the ones used in a wind tunnel in an attempt to prove that everything is bigger in Texas. All this did was create the world’s biggest hair drier and prove that air conditioning of an outside space is best left to God even if you did pay $20 for the campsite which includes all the electricity that you can use!Illinois
With our planned stop (Horseshoe Lake) closed due to the bad flooding all along the Mississippi river we travelled on to Ferne Clyffe State Park. We had a hot sticky weekend, with some difficult walks (lake, dry water fall) in a very damp, green environment - but no bugs. Considering Chicago was less than 300miles away it could not be more of a contrast.
Kentucky
Hillman Ferry on Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. As hot as hell but unlike hell we could at least buy an ice cream on our (cut short) walks.Barren River Lake State Park, (near Bowling Green) more like a golf course with a fancy lodge and huge lake. Too hot to explore much.
Cumberland Falls State Resort. The 2nd largest waterfall in North America but having seen both, sorry Kentucky, it’s got to be Niagara if you have to choose only one to visit.
Tennessee....eeeee!
Harrison Bay State Park, just outside Chattanooga. Finally a day in the low 30’s and cloudy in the morning so we could walk the 6mile trail around the wooded inlets.Two things that surprised us about this part of the journey were the fire flies or glow worms and the noise… We have fire flies in England but we have never seen any like these before. They begin to appear at dusk with the odd flash of yellow pin pricks of light now and again. As you walk through the darker bit of the forest it quickly becomes lots of random flashing – just like lots of tiny Christmas tree bulbs. By the time it’s virtually dark there can be hundreds of them dancing and floating around making it look more like the backdrop to a fairy grotto than a forest clearing. Nature sure knows how to put on a show when it wants to. This display is highly entertaining and even if you know what’s going on you can’t but help appreciate the magic.
Again we have heard (and seen occasionally) all kinds of noisy insects around the world… cicadas, crickets etc. We thought it very strange that there were so few flying insects at Ferne Clyffe State Park – no mossies and very few flies. During the day there was nothing unusual just the normal cicadas noise but at night the noise was deafening. It started slow and random but by nightfall it had built to a synchronised crescendo… more like the sound of an army marching inside your head at about 4 beats a second. There must have been hundreds of thousands of hungry somethings out there… you don’t want to think about or ‘google’ this one for too long - believe me. At our next campsite everything was back to normal and we could get some sleep again.
As you will have no doubt detected our thoughts are increasingly turning toward home. Has a year really gone that quickly? We have the RV up for sale, have planned our route to say farewell to all our relatives in Georgia, sorted out a few days in Washington and we are even beginning to venture (roped together, Kate) into the freezer to eat some of our food stash. The RV has been just perfect and we are going to miss her combination of home, freedom and adventure. By the time we go home will have done over 20,000 miles on the road with no problems. We have learnt some new tricks as well as something about what you actually need to be happy in life… enough money so you can stay in a flash hotel with cable TV for a start?As the journey comes to an end we are sad but there are still many things for us to enjoy.
Take care out there,
Jane X and Den
