We had a little over 190 miles to travel to reach Hot Springs, Arkansas - our home for the next couple of days. Hot Springs National Park has a campground that can accommodate our 43' coach. Most National Park campgrounds have a 35' limit for RVs - so when visiting National Parks we typically have to find a privately owned camping facility outside the park.
I wanted to fuel up somewhere along the way but the right combination of price per gallon and ease of access never seemed to present itself. As a rule I don't allow the fuel gauge to go beyond the half-way point. There are a couple of reasons for this. Our coach has a 150 gallon fuel tank and filling a half empty tank creates the illusion, in my mind at least, that this beast isn't as costly to operate as it actually is. The other reason is that when the fuel level drops below 1/4 the 10,000 watt on-board Onan generator becomes inoperable. The fuel delivery system is designed that way so that precious diesel fuel needed to move the coach further down the road isn't gobbled up by nonessential generator use.
We arrived at Hot Springs National Park Campground around 2:00 pm. I unhooked the car in the parking lot as none of the sites were pull-thru. Suzanne and I drove around the campground in the car and chose the site we thought was best - and she waited there, staking our claim while I jogged back and got the coach. After parking and setting up we walked down to the kiosk and paid the $30 for our two night stay. That's right! With our National Park lifetime pass the nightly fee here is only $15! It's a beautiful campground with paved roads and parking pads. A privately owned campground this nice would cost at least $50 a night.
The rest of the afternoon was uneventful. We had a late lunch/early dinner, I took Travis for a long walk and we settled in for the night and watched a movie. Today we explored the town of Hot Springs. I'll write more about that tomorrow.
Next Saturday we'll be in San Antonio, Texas looking forward to Aaron's (our son) arrival on Sunday. San Antonio is only 540 miles from where we are now so we have plenty of time.
A week ago Hot Springs, Arkansas wasn't even on our radar - but it's turned out to be such a pleasant surprise that we've decided to extend our stay here one more day.
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