May 27, 2025

We left Jacksonville on Monday morning heading toward our next destination of El Dorado, Arkansas. We knew it would be a heavy driving day. Our typical goal is to drive no more than 8 hours in a day with a significant stop in the middle of the day. El Dorado was over an 11 hour drive, so we knew it was possible that we would drive farther than the 8 hours.

This is how AnaClaire prefers to travel.

We decided that we wanted to stop somewhere along I-10 and see the Gulf of America (or Mexico – whichever way you lean). If we were going to see the Atlantic and Pacific, we may as well hit the Gulf too. But of course, it was Memorial Day, so we knew it would also be very busy. We also didn’t want to go too far out of our way, so we chose to stop at a state park in Spanish Fort, Alabama so that we could put our feet into Mobile Bay, which we’re going to call part of the Gulf of America. We decided it would count enough for us to check that off our list.

These grasshoppers were everywhere. We believe they are a Lubber Grasshopper.

Dominic isn’t one bit intimidated by picking up various things. This Lubber did regurgitate all over his fingers, so he set it down then 🤪

You know how, when you’re packing for a trip, you’ll often convince yourself that you “really don’t need that.” Well, I packed all kinds of first aid stuff as well as remedies for various ailments. For some reason, I talked myself out of packing my homemade fire cider – probably because it is something I keep in the refrigerator at home and fridge space is precious in an RV. Well, wouldn’t you know that I woke up on Monday morning feeling like I was coming down with a cold. I immediately started taking the Vitamin C, elderberry, and immune support things that I had packed, but I sure was wishing I had packed the fire cider. Usually I can take some fire cider and more often than not, my symptoms will be gone within 24 hours. Needless to say, I ended up spending the last several hours of our trip lying on my bed in the back because I just didn’t feel well.

Watching the teens following us from my bedroom window

We made it all the way to El Dorado on Monday night, parked at Wal-Mart, and went straight to bed. Tuesday morning, I woke up not feeling any better, but not feeling any worse either. My grandmother had lived most of her life in this town in south Arkansas. My dad was born and raised here, and I spent a week every summer of my life visiting my grandparents there.

One of the highlights of El Dorado is something called a “Spudnut”. These are a doughnut made with potato flour, from my understanding. They are an amazing treat that we have always looked forward to when on a trip to El Dorado, so that was our first goal of the morning. They were fresh, warm, and scrumptious. Even some of my gluten-free people decided to suffer the consequences for this treat. Just to note, none of my gluten-free people have Celiac’s Disease. They typically just feel better when not eating gluten.

Isaac enjoying his Spudnut. He most definitely sent this picture to his older brothers to rub it in!

Even Charlie, who is normally gluten-free, ate one. He did determine though that his body didn’t love that rush of gluten.

Next came a drive-by to see the old family home and the graves of my grandparents and other relatives, and then we were headed to a place my kids have been begging to go to for years: Crater of Diamonds State Park. This is literally a place where you can walk out into a field and do your own digging for diamonds. Their rule is, “Finders Keepers!” There are diamonds found there pretty much every day. It is the crater of an ancient volcano where diamonds were spewed out of the earth millions of years ago. Evidently, 10% of the diamonds found there are found lying on the surface of the earth. There had been a decent amount of rain there recently, which increased our chances of finding something. While we all had a great time, we didn’t find any diamonds, but 4 were evidently found just today (these were all very small, but plenty of significant size are found there).

Part of the 37.5 acre field where the public can dig for diamonds. They’ve had a good amount of rain here recently, so it was pretty muddy.

Annette and Dominic digging for diamonds.

Finally we headed to our destination for the next couple of days, Hot Springs National Park. This was one of the places to visit on Annette’s bucket list. Charlie found us a perfect campground within the national park that actually had full hookups. It was beautiful and peaceful – a perfect place to settle in for two nights!