Our Rig

Our Rig
Camping

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Fort Smith AR

Map picture

A Corp Of Engineer Springhill Park on Lake Ozark will be our base for the next 4 days.

It is relatively small  camp ground in a big park, the sites are very specious , levelled , have water and electric hook ups.

Although the C.G is next to a dam and locks ,they can not be seen from the sites because of the trees ,but when a burgh goes by we sure can hear it.

Among the C.G rules there was one that is the first time for me to see , and it says” Gray water maybe emptied at the campsite through a garden hose only” wow ,finally a logical rule…not only I do not have to worry about the level of my grey water tank, the grass get watered and every one is happy…

Our first visit was to Miss Laura Visitor Center and it is a very special one , there motto says “Our Brothel still takes care of Visitors”,yes it was a legal brothel at the turn of the century.

Fot Smith AR Fot Smith ARFot Smith AR Fot Smith AR

We spent an hour getting an historic interesting story from the “Sheriff” about the “house”, the Ladies and how it all worked.

From there we took of to Fort Smith Museum to see the “hanging Judge” office,hanging gallows, prison and the remains of the fort.

Fot Smith AR Fot Smith ARFot Smith AR Fot Smith AR

The “hanging Judge” actually was against hanging but the law was such that he could not change the punishment after the outlaw was convicted for certain crimes such as murder,kidnapping etc., but he built a fence around the gallows to prevent families with children to come to watch the hanging and were even ready to pay to see it.

During day time the Fort Smith Down Town is a low key place but the bar attender explained while serving us some draft beer that during the week end things pick up ,we took his word for that hopping he is right.

The Belle Grove Historic District has many beautiful Victorian houses and although some of them should be opened to visitors ,non were…so we took some pictures from the street and moved on.

Fot Smith AR  Fot Smith AR

Van Buren the city across the Arkansas River has one old interesting street,but it looked deserted all together,even the train depot with its tourist information center could not say what restaurant is open or if there are any attraction/events going on, so we walked the main drag (look at the pictures –we are the only ones there),asked 2 teenagers what is there to do here at night “ Go to Fort Smith “they said “but you can eat here now” they said pointing to a CLOSED place… so we “asked” the GPS to “take” us to a Mexican restaurant and took off.

Van Buren AR Van Buren AR

After our “City” experience we decided to spend time  visiting the nature around Fort Smith hoping to see some falls in the Devil’s Den S.P.

On another note-I did some stuff on the trailer,small checks/repairs here and there ,one was to check the level of water in the two batteries,I opened the compartment and found one battery on its way to fall of the trailer to the ground, I am sorry that I did not take pictures but the batteries are standing on a thin wooden board placed on a metal frame opened at the bottom,in my case the wooden board cracked at the edge and the battery was slipping towards the bottomless metal frame.

I of course replaced the wooden board with a much thicker one , cleaned and painted the metal frame and it all looks dandy NOW, but I do not want to think what would happen when the battery would actually slip down pulling the electrical wiring with it, imagine the driver behind shouting” hey man ,you lost your battery….”- So go and take a look ,guys.

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