Getting “away from it all” has befuddled my brain a bit. I could have sworn that I did a post on our camping along the Mississippi River. Maybe I wrote the blog post in a dream. Maybe I wrote it and then accidentally deleted it. Who knows! But it’s not there now. If I did write it and post it, apologies for repeating myself. This campground was too good of a spot to not tell you about it (again maybe).
Using the online campground review sites, we found the Tom Sawyer RV Park right on the Mississippi River. It’s located in West Memphis, Arkansas, right across the river from Memphis, Tennessee. We had high hopes of seeing all the Memphis sights, including Elvis. In reality, we saw the hardware store and the Bass Pro Shops. We’ll chalk the lack of enthusiasm to play tourist up to being wrung out from the whole new-house-building experience and the stress of getting ready to leave.
I did see Elvis…sort of. He joined Jim and I for breakfast out one morning.
Seen outside the Lowe’s hardware store…a tornado shelter you can purchase.
The Bass Pro Shop in Memphis. Yes, it’s a 6 story pyramid!
What we got instead was 3 relaxing days watching the Mississippi River out the windows of our RV. Sound boring? No way! There is something mesmerizing about seeing tugs boats push barges up and down the river.
The RV and a tug/barges on the river. Yes, we were this close.
In addition to river watching, we got out some. We hiked the trails of the campground. We also met a couple from Montana and went out to a Mexican restaurant with them one night. They regaled us with stories of how they took a truck camper to Alaska IN JANUARY!!! It was an entertaining dinner conversation, to say the least.
The Tom Sawyer campground is between the river and the levy. That means for a good part of the year the campground is flooded and they have to close. All the out buildings are on stilts to stay dry when it floods or on wheels to be moved when the water rises.
The campground laundry room is on stilts. Notice the high water mark from the May 2011 flooding.
The public restrooms are on wheels.
Sunrise over Memphis on the eastern shore. We were camped on the western shore of the river.
All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed the few days we had watching Old Man River. We’ll see the sights of Memphis another time.