After successfully navigating through the maze of potholes formally known as Jackson, Mississippi with minimum damage to the truck and trailer, we thought that we were out of the woods – that was until we encountered one of the worst thunderstorms that either of us had ever experienced while driving. There were a few times when the rain was so intense that we were almost forced to pull over and stop, however, after about 20 minutes we made it through the worst of it and were on our way to the Clear Springs Campground located on the shores of Wright Patman Lake just outside of Texarkana.
This Army Corps of Engineers campground was pretty standard when it came to COE camping – great locations, however, most often lacking full hookups (no sewer) which required us to take showers at the bath house to avoid filling up our gray tanks. Another slight inconvenience of our stay here was having to move sites halfway through our stay since we weren’t able to secure our original site for the extended period required by our situation – having to leave Jackson early due to the flooding.
Other than those nitpicks, we quite enjoyed our time at the Clear Springs Campground. Spring had sprung and we were making the most of it – from going on frequent walks to even laying out on the “beach” down on the lakeshore. Everyone was soaking up the sun, Charlotte included!
Our stay in Texarkana happened to overlap with my birthday so we thought that we would go bowling to celebrate. Unfortunately, both bowling alleys in town were swamped the night that we tried to go – one due to league night, the other due to dollar beer night 😂. Although our original plans were dashed, we managed to salvage the evening and had a wonderful time just hanging out together in the trailer!
Other than this little foray into town, we didn’t spend much time in Texarkana proper. However we did see enough of the town to get a sense that Texarkana had suffered a similar fate to many other smaller towns throughout Middle America – a hollowing out over the years as its industrial base was gradually shipped overseas as evidenced by the many older homes and buildings that you could tell were once impressive structures but time and lack of care had taken its toll.