Greer's Ferry

Our first trip is over.  We decided to go to Old Highway 25, a Corps of Engineers campground on Greer's Ferry Lake.  Greer's Ferry is named after a man who opened a ferry across the Red River.  His name?  You guessed it, Greer.  He was a pioneer using the river to his benefit even though the river was known to swell and flood often.  After a case of severe flooding of a large portion of Arkansas in 1927, people came out in force for measures to control the flooding--a dam.   Well, the cry was answered by the Little Rock Corps of Engineers and in 1963, president JFK announced it's completion.  It was the last public project JFK ever spoke to.  The dam didn't take that long.  Rather, it was delayed by a couple wars.  In order to complete the project, 5 towns, 40 miles of road, and 100's of miles of utilities had to be abandoned or moved.  With the dam built, Greer's Ferry came into existence.  It, if I remember correctly, became a 40,000 acre man-made lake we know today.  Many corps of engineer campgrounds surround the lake--dam site, JFK, Old Hwy 25, Devils Fork, Sugar Loaf, The Narrows, and a few others I can't remember.

Ok, history lesson over.  The campground itself only provided 30A electric.  Voyager is equipped with 50A electric.  We did not have an issue with the electricity and even ran both A/C units.  No water was a little rougher than we'd like.  At one point, I had to refill the fresh and didn't want to move the trailer so I came up with getting more by using a boating bilge pump, some 12v wire, a switch, garden hose, and a large plastic trash container from Wal-Mart.  It worked perfectly and now I have this capability in the future.  No sewer wasn't an issue even with company.  We dumped at the end.  It was a really hot weekend so most were staying inside most of the time including us.

Herc's check engine light came on Sunday.  On Monday, I went to the Ford dealership in Heber Springs, a nearby town, and had it looked at.  Turns out that the "regen" on the diesel had an issue and they told me that often updating the truck to the latest program fixed that issue.  So, they hooked up the computer and downloaded the latest software to the Herc.  Seems that has fixed the problem.  By-the-way, "regen" is a term used when a diesel truck super-heats the diesel ash within a steel exhaust container to burn the ash to a fine powder.  All this powder eventually requires the replacement of this "filter."  It's an emission thing.  Without this filter, black smoke (unburned waste) would blow into the air from the exhaust.  Without "regen", the truck's filter would fill very quickly and you'd be at the dealership replacing it often and they are very expensive.

Pulling the rig around was eye-opening.  It wasn't as bad as I thought, but it wasn't great either.  Herc did fine except going up steep, twisting hills.  The turbos kicked in pretty good.  Hooking and unhooking went pretty good I thought for being my first time.  Took a few times to align it properly especially with the type of hitch I have.  Can only be 16 degrees off center at the most.  Shocks and airbags worked perfectly.  Everything was level and rode really well.  On the way home, we even experienced high winds, hail, and a blown down tree limb across the road.  That was fun. 

On to the good stuff.  We grilled every day.  Steaks, BBQ chicken, hamburgers, and asparagus on the grill.  Supplemented meals with gas oven cooked dishes.  Cooked breakfast inside too.  We discovered on hot days such as we experienced, more than one stove burner going at a time killed the effectiveness of the A/C.  Two friends of ours, Alise and James came up with their boat and we went out on the lake for a couple hours.  Later, Saturday, Jessie and Brad came up and stayed the night with us.  Found out through Jessie that the Queen hide-a-bed sofa was not comfortable.  I knew with that mattress, it wouldn't be.  We went hiking to a small waterfall near the dam site, visited the local trout hatchery, and drove around the small town of Heber Springs, population 6,400 and something or another.

On this trip, Gina and I learned how to use Herc and Voyager as they were meant for us.  We learned that "camping" was ok and would probably be better in 70 to 80 degree weather vs. 90 plus.  We learned as I suspected that the rig would be used for traveling and sight-seeing vs. visiting local camping spots.  We had fun and it was good to get away however.  Now that we're home, I'm already dreaming of our first real adventure.