Fort Smith Arkansas & Elk CIty Oklahoma

After spending a few days in Fort Smith we took the back roads to Elk City OK where there is a free campsite with power hook ups at a 3 day maximum at the Elk City Park. The bathrooms were only pit toilets and there wasn't any running water but it was a nice campground for free. There are 5 RV spots and the whole time we only had one neighbor until today when we left another huge RV showed up. Now we are waiting for the Route 66 Museum to open up at two and then we will be off to Amarillo Texas.

Clay @ Our camp site made good chalk!~ a drawing of my Kitty Lobster~ I miss him

More Sidewalk drawings around our Bus

Pretty Sunsets

Lake Side

Strange Amphitheater isn't used for anything it appears except bird nests

OK uses its windy days to harvest power

Fort Smith Pictures:

Claw Machine VW Bus!

House made from old Trolly Car during the depression era~ Recycling!

"Miss Laura's Social Club" AKA Bordello/Brothel

Fort Smith Gallows~ many were hung here

Up & Running & Heading West

We had the Bus towed over to Bob Meyers in North Little Rock at the advice of two Moonies. Turns out that the generator belt was too loose to charge the alternator but tight enough to keep the alternator light from coming on. Some of the connectors were also corroded and covered in goo so he cleaned them and tightened the connectors and belt, tightened our clutch and gave our Bus a clean bill of health! He said that the engine sounds great and we should be able to get to Cali with no more problems. Coming from a man who specializes in old VWs, drives a Bug and has a yard full of VWs we are feeling a lot more confident. He said that the generator is kind of gerry-rigged in and later on we will need to replace the mounts because they aren't original and will make changing our belt difficult because the alternator doesn't want to budge... Which is good for now: at least we know it won't fall out on the highway! Our belt is also pretty new so he said we won't need to be changing that for a while.

After Telling the Bus "This Could be YOU!" He started right up!

The Landscape is Changing...
Western Arkansas is much prettier and more mountainous

We will be spending the next few days in Fort Smith, Arkansas which is about 5 minutes from Oklahoma. From Little Rock we took AR-10 all the way to Fort Smith which was a very pretty drive and took about 3 1/2 hours going 50-55. We definitely CAN drive a lot faster but we prefer not to, letting the world hurry by...

Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas

We spent a night in Atlanta GA, and William National Forest AL and blew through MS traveling mostly on 278W...

Lunch Time in Piedmont Alabama

We stayed the night in William National Park nestled in between a graveyard and a church...
We had some quiet neighbors that first night...

Mississippi was flaaaaat.. traveling on Route 6

Crossing over the Mississippi River on 49N

only to find ourselves broken down in Little Rock AR~ generator issues this time... But have no fear folks! We found a trusted VW mechanic in town who should have us on the road again in no time! In the meanwhile we have been enjoying LaQuinta Inn & Suites courtesy of our insurance plan with Nationwide! Gotta have that Road Trip Interruption Coverage!

Apparently Moonshining is a big thing here, I never heard that stigma before. I always thought it was the Appalachian Mountain folk who were known for it.

View from out Hotel room @ LaQuinta

Anyone ever heard of the Peabody Ducks? We didn't either until we looked up free things to do in Little Rock! Every day at 11am and 5pm the "Duck Master" leads the ducks to and from their "rooftop palace" and the fountain made specifically for them! These are probably the world's happiest ducks...
The Art Museum is pretty good too~ it has an original Picasso! I didn't get any photos though.

Polished up & broken down

We got the bus all "spiffied up." We used meguiars (I believe) dash polish on our dash, but not the glove box door and you can really see the difference!

We also used Blue Magic liquid metal polish and polished the rear view mirrors, hub caps and the bay windows. The Bus looks almost new!

half polished:

Before:

After:

Just in time to break down... as we were attempting to leave Aiken SC the bus just quit starting on us. Turns out we just needed new distributor points, so we got a spare set just in case it tries to happen again...

So tomorrow we will (hopefully!) be on the road again- off to Atlanta, Georgia to visit my old roommate. The mechanic told us that we will likely break down again at some point (we don't have AAA for nothing!) and that we outta keep it at 50/55 mph and take the back roads... just as we had planned. Hopefully we will make it a little farther this time. :D *fingers crossed!*

Good Bye Greenville SC!

Finally got the new shocks put on, bumper put on and had the mechanic do a basic check up on the Bus. Looks like we need new heater hoses and wire to make the heater work. But the mech showed us what was up so I feel confident that we will be able to rig it up later on down the road...
Got a new atlas from Books-A-Million which we marked up with our destinations and stuck some sticky notes in it. (check out the rainbow RIGHT that we saw when we got to the book store)
We also got our bikes in working order and purchased a two bike rack from a woman on craigslist who just moved to SC from California! She told us to check out Venice Beach while we were out there. So that is another addition to our destination plans.


In Greenville we spent a lot of time sitting around and planning, but we also visited the Greenville Zoo on Monday.
Its a pretty small zoo but only costs around $7. And there's a petting zoo! Now for some photos...

Even big cats stick out their tongues when they sleep!

Two Newer additions to the Greenville Zoo~ Giraffes!

One of the two resident elephants. I wonder if they get cold in the Winter?

Now we are in Aiken SC for a few days before we mosey on to Atlanta, looks like the fall is following us there too! Looks like we need to go further south...

Where are the BLM spots?

Right now we are playing the waiting game in Greenville SC while we visit my parents... waiting for a new emergency brake the come in. we are having new front shocks put on and luckily we found a great mechanic who loves working on VWs and use to a lot more "back in the day."
While waiting, we have been updating a new 2011 Atlas with our destinations. I looked over the Cheap RV Living website again and read the section regarding BLM (Bureau of Land Management) camping spots where you can camp for free up to 14 days, and after 14 days you simply must move to another spot at least 25 miles away from your previous location. These spots are also located in many National Forests, and as I look over my Atlas I see little markings denoting camping. However one of my worries is that these little spots are only stamped near the camping areas you must pay for. Does anyone have any advice on BLM spots? I just want to avoid any sort of trouble I may run in to...
EDIT: I actually found a map of the BLM spots on the departments website! Click here if you would like to view the large map of BLM areas I found. :)

In the meantime, we have had a good time staying with our family members before our trip. It has been a lot of R&R but I do miss sleeping in the Bus! We removed, what we call, the "head smasher"~ the storage cabinet that hangs over the lower~ Rock And Roll bed. I don't have trouble anymore with it but visitors in the Bus have troubles smashing their heads on the dang thing. So we decided we don't really need it anyways.

One evening in Marion NC there was a halo around the moon! I took a picture with the Bus in the lower corner... you can barely see the halo, but I think its blog worthy. :)


We have also been featured in the Reader's Ride online article with VW Camper Van Blog! Steve did a wonderful job with the article taking most of the information from my blog. Check it out: Reader's Ride #22.

It looks like in a week from now we should be heading to Atlanta from Aiken SC where we are going to visit family and friends once the Bus is all fixed up. :) Just have to wait a little longer...

Our trip begins: time for a new blog??

We have begun our slow start to traveling: visiting our families and friends before we head south. And I am starting to wonder if I should begin another blog to update our photos to... since this blog was created for our restoration process. What do YOU think? if I do begin a new one it would still be with blogger with a link on this blog to the new one. hmmm... decisions decisions... how about some photos??

GoodBye Boone

Visiting with friends in Old Fort, NC

Parked next to lovely fall colors @ Trey's mom's house in Morganton NC