Who knew there were diamonds in Arkansas!
While we were in Mississippi, Dave started a conversation with our next door camping neighbour about the shoe thief (it didn’t strike them...again, don’t know why we were targeted?) and it turns out he was from Louisiana. Super nice guy but boy did he have some southern accent and a classic mullet, hair down to the middle of his back to go with it....wish I could have figured out a way to discreetly take a picture!
We still hadn’t made up our minds exactly where to go next, we were thinking about Arkansas which would get us north and west and he gave us some good park recommendations. He told us not to bother even camping in Louisiana, too many ‘gators and bugs, especially now when it’s hot!
Also advised us that the route we’d take thru Louisiana to get to Arkansas would be flat and boring...he wasn’t kidding! Once we crossed the Mississippi River (it’s huge!) pretty much all we saw were fields and fields of corn and soybeans. And hundreds of rail cars lined up by the highway to get filled with the crops and transport them to the ships on the river. Good place for me to finally get some experience driving the truck with the trailer.
Amongst all that land we also saw some extremely poor areas and living conditions so bad that we had to remind our selves that we were in the USA, not some 3rd world country. We took state road 65 north along the Mississippi River in the north east corner of Louisiana up to Arkansas. That part of southern Arkansas was just as poor in places as Louisiana! Sad.......
After a long 6+ hour drive, made it to Shouse Ford Park on Degray Lake, near Hot Springs Arkansas. Not sure what was going on this past weekend but the park was packed except for a few none reservable sites and a couple were empty so we lucked out. Stayed 3 nights after that long drive and it was a pretty decent place, big man made lake and nice swimming beach in the park. Perfect place to try out our new inflatable canoe that we bought while in Alabama.
Found out that there was also a state park about 90 minutes away that’s the best diamond mine in America. It’s open to the public and for $7 bucks, you can try your luck and keep what you find. Check out www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com
You’ll see by my pics that the mine is actually a big plowed field that you can literally walk along and find white, yellow or brown diamonds. After heavy rains sometimes they just wash up on the surface, there’s also been some big ones found much deeper down. Some people make searching for diamonds there a full time job and even permanently store their equipment at it.
Dave and I didn’t bother renting all the equipment to dig & screen for diamonds with, we just bought a couple of garden tools to scratch around in the surface. He still can’t crouch down very comfortably yet so we only spent a few hours there. Highlight of the visit was the 30 min. conversation we had with a 73 year old local man from Arkansas who’s been walking the field since Dec 15th last year, he’s yet to find a diamond but has found just about everything else you can get there, including a pile of stories, both good and bad about the place. Fun!
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