Tom Sawyer's Mississipi River RV Park

“…nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.” – Mark Twain

This quote was the first thing I saw when I checked out Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV park on the web. We had been cruising east from Hot Springs and were looking via iPhone for an interesting spot to make camp. This little hideaway fit the bill.

Driving toward our chosen destination we had a few doubts. West Memphis ghettos and industrial parks surrounded us. But we followed our directions onto a small gravel road and the landscape quickly changed to forest.

 Scouting the available sites to camp at around midnight, we were lucky enough to find one right on the mighty Mississippi River, literally a few feet from the shore. Sky and I sat by the river while the kids slept, chatting and watching the night shift river barges churn by in the swirling eddies and currents. 

The next day we explored the river and then just sat on her shores, watching the tugs and barges chug a lug on by. The power of these modest tugboats is impressive. We saw one tug pushing a row of barges as long as a football field. Entire trees had been washed well above the waterline during floods past and were littered up and down the shore.  The Memphis skyline provided the backdrop for the scene.

 We left around lunchtime, after Lotus had collected an armload of driftwood for whittling. Mark Twain would approve.