Our First Travel Trailer!

It was in the early 70's when we purchased a travel trailer, in which, to do our camping. A friend of mine had found a little plant in Mississippi that was just starting up and was offering great bargains on small units. He had purchased one and after looking at his, We decided to go over to the plant one Sunday afternoon and see what they had. The plant was located in Bruce, Mississippi about a two hour drive from where we lived.

When we arrived at the plant, they had a large sales lot with several units that had been sold and was waiting for the owners to pick them up. We went inside the plant where they had several units being assembled in various stages, which allowed you to see the type of workmanship you were buying. After a short tour of the plant, we met in the sales office. (The name of the trailers were called "Happy Times" and there are still a few around, but they are very rare.) The trailers were six sleepers and offered a bathroom. We decided to forego the bathroom and instead have a large closet and storage room.

After the plans were decided on, we agreed to pick up the new unit the following Saturday with a cashier's check. We were so excited and thought the next week would never end, but it finally arrived. After taking delivery, we tolled it home without any trouble....it was a dream to pull. In order to try it out, we took a short trip to the Narrows on Greers Ferry Lake. I didn't hook up the electric brakes, didn't think we would need them, but after a few steep hills, decided that I would hook them up before going to the Smokie Mountains.

The next week, I had a sign painter friend paint a large "Razorback Hog" across the back of the trailer with "Hog Heaven" below it. We were big fans and had just played Tennessee in the "Liberty Bowl" in Memphis and had lost by one point on a disputed play. We were going through Knoxville and wanted everyone to know where we were from. That Saturday, I got the brakes hooked up and working so we could leave on Monday Morning.

Camping on Lake Ouachita at Brady Mountain Resort!

Lake Ouachita, is located in the Ouachita National Forrest of more than 1.6 million acres near Hot Springs, Arkansas. It is one of several lakes in the area that included: Lake Hamilton, Lake Creeson, Lake Millwood and Lake Catherine. Lake Ouachita has 9 resorts and 1 state park, (Ouachita State Park) located on Pine Mountain. With more than a 1,000 miles of shore lines, of which, over 900 miles, that a private home can not be built on the lake front.

In the late 70's, we chose the "Brady Mountain" resort to camp for a week around the 4th of July. At that time, we had a travel trailer and a Jet boat for our camping trip. There was a marina to park our boat in a slip and easy access to the large open waters, in which to ski. You would think that there was plenty of room on the lake, but on the 4th, we loaded up and went to one of the many islands to picnic, swim and water ski. With all our gear and picnic supplies, we made it to the island in two trips. After several hours a thunder storm was coming up in the distance, so we decided to start back across to our campsite before the storm. Again it took two trips, but for some reason the boat felt more heavy and hard to steer. It was after the second trip that I decided to take the boat out of the water for security reasons. I started checking all the gear and found that someone had taken a liking to the "White Rocks" on the island and decided that it would look good around her flower beds........there were rocks hidden in every little nook. I figured that we had about 200 lbs of extra weight..............Bah.........Hum.........Bug!!!!!

Cranfield on Norfork Lake!

Norfork Lake, if you haven't been there to camp out, you have really missed something. It is located about 5 miles east of Mountain Home, Arkansas. Our first visit there was in the late 60's. To get there, at that time, you had to cross a ferry to get from one side to the other. That was before the twin bridges were built and to me took away a lot of the excitement of seeing the lake for the first time. The water was so clear that you felt like you were looking into a swimming pool.
We were there one week around the 4th of July at a campground and boat dock called Cranfield. It is located on the west side of the lake and is on a little peninsula that goes out into the lake. The campground is in the center and there is a boat ramp with swimming beach along a lower road on the east side. Our campsite was across the road from the swimming beach up a small hill. There was a place at the bottom to park the boat, so you could keep an eye on it.

We were there with another family that we always skied and camped with. They had four children and we had three, so there was a lot activity, such as water sking, swimming and sight seeing. We all went over to "Dog Patch, U.S.A." at Jasper, Ar. one day to keep the young ones busy. When we first got there, I had to take the boat over to get a tune-up at a marina, so we took the short trip then. We did a lot of sking on the days before the 4th, but it was so busy on the Holiday that we planned other things. That night we played card games until around mid-night before going to bed. It was very hot, so there was a lot of good cold beer dranked that day.
A short time after going to bed, we heard a noise near the camp and after we investigated, discovered that we had a ice cooler that had been stolen. When we had located the cooler, They had taken it down to the bottom of the hill before finding out that it had no beer. After returning to camp and settling down again, we heard a loud shot-gun blast coming from the next camp down from us and a vehicle sped away. It seemed that the someone had tried to hit their camp and ran to a pick-up to escape, when the camper ran out into the road trying to stop them with the shot gun and was almost run down. He ran to the side of the road and fired a blast into the side of the truck. The pick-up stopped and the driver got out and shouted "You **B, we are going to get our friends in Mountain Home and come back out here and clean this hill off, like Grant took Richmond!" and took off with wheels spinning and leaving tire marks.
The camper went to a pay phone (Before cell phones) and called the Sheriff's Office and gave the discription of the vehicle and what had happened. A officer came by later and said that the vehicle had been stopped with several guns and individuals that were headed back out to the campground. The next morning, we loaded up and headed for home.

Heber Springs with our neighbors!

Our family went to Heber Springs one more time with our Sears 9' x 18' tent. It was a July 4th weekend and we were with our next door neighbors. We had just set up our camp with two tents and was getting settled in for the day. I had put the boat in the water and we had taken a few turns on the ski's and was back at camp relaxing when a wind storm came up. All a once we were fighting to keep the tents from being blown away. After securing everything, we discover that the boat had been swamped down on the lake. I had parked it nosed in to the shore and the waves had come over the back. All our gear was in the lake and the boat was full of water next to the bank. How were we going to get it out??? We decided to back the trailer down and hook onto it and try to pull it out, bailing the water as we tried to wench it out. After about 30 minutes, we managed get it back on the trailer and back up to the campsite. After taking everything loose and drying out the motor, we were able to get it started the next day.
It took a couple of days for the wind to settle down, but we were able to get our sking in and had a good time. Our neighbors had gone home and we had to put all the gear in the boat when we left a couple of days later. On the way, we had a blow-out on a boat tire because of the extra weight. This was our last trip with a tent....it was time for a up-grade. We located and purchased a used tent trailer.

Learning to Water Ski!

After our trip to Heber Springs with my sister's family on a camping trip, we decided to concentrate on learning to water ski. The closest place to ski was across the Mississippi River at Moon Lake, which was only about 3 miles across the bridge from Helena, Arkansas, which was where we lived. It was not a large lake, but was fairly long and was shaped like a half moon and in the middle there is an Island. It has several retirement homes built around the lake and a public boat ramp with a nice swimming beach nearby. On the weekends, it was very growded with swimmers and boat traffic, but during the week it was very quiet and a nice place for beginner water skiers. We spent many afternoons after work trying to master the art of sking until we all managed to "get up" and became fairly good skiers. The motor was a little small (35 h.p.), so I started looking around and found a fairly new rig with a 60 h.p. motor on a 16 1/2 ft. Fiber Glass boat. The engine was a v-4 and had a lot more power than we were used to and we could now ski double and triple and carry people in the boat at the same time. We had a lot of fun learning new tricks and taking others and showing them how to ski. Now when we went camping, we had to take two vehicles, but we didn't mind because it made it more fun and gave us more things to do.

Vacationing with my sister's family!

With the ski boat finished and vacation scheduled for the week of the 4th of July, plans were made to go with my sister and her family on a camping trip into the Ozarks. My sister and husband had 6 boys....3 in the teen-and pre-teen range and 3 in the toddler and baby range. Mike, Gerry, and Vince in the older group and the younger 3 were: David, Norman, and Richard. (who was about 6 months old). With our three: Darleen, Hugh, and Karen, and 4 adults, there were 13 in the camping party. We planned to pull the boat with our car and the trailer (the one I built for the La trip) loaded with all the camping equipment with their car. They came down the night before from Memphis and stayed all night in order for us to get a early start.
We left out the next morning with myself leading the caravan headed toward Little Rock. After we passed Little Rock and Conway we came into Morrilton and turned toward the Petit Jean Mountain. Going up the mountain, we had to circle on the way up......we had never seen anything so high, until we arrived at the State Park. We checked in and sat up camp in a nice area near the lake. It was a small fishing lake, nothing larger than a 10 h.p. fishing boat allowed. The kids got out their fishing poles and caught a few small fish....not big enough to keep, but fun to catch. That night, we had a nice campfire and roasted weiners and marshmellows, told stories and had a good time. The next morning after breakfast, we went to the Win-Rock Farm and took the tour and saw all the prize bulls and inside of some of the cleanest and nicest barns that you could ever see. (Win Rockefellow was Governor of Arkansas at this time and maintained a home at this location. His son, Win Rockefellow, Jr. later became Lt. Governor and was planning on running for Governor, until he was diagnosed and later died from a long battle with Cancer.) We went and toured the Antique Auto Museum, which was stocked with a lot of Rockefellow's vehicles. Most of his cars were maroon or a wine color, which was his favorites. There was also a rubber plant in the basement, that manufactured special tires for the antique vehicles.
We went back to camp and loaded up and got ready to head out for Greers Ferry Lake at Heber Springs. After we had loaded up, My brother-in-law told me that he had heard a noise on the way up the mountain that sounded like the bearings were going out on one of wheels of the trailer. I told him not to worry, if it went out, we would just dump it somewhere since I didn't have a lot of money in it. On the way down the mountain we were again leading the way, when my brother-in-law passed me blowing his car horn and speeding down the mountain around the curves at break neck speed. We followed and tried to keep up with no avail and smoke was pouring from the rear of his car. When he reached the bottom and pulled to the side of the road, the tire blew out, sending the hub cap flying, the doors opening and people rushing to get out of the car. Smoke was everywhere, but everyone was safe. The noise that he had heard was the bearings in his car that was going out, not the trailer. I drove down the road and found a place to unhook the boat, went back and got the trailer with the camping gear. We managed to get their car up to where the boat was to get it out of the way. I loaded all the women and small kids in the car and headed out to Heber Springs. Brother-in-law and the 3 older boys stayed behind with the car and boat. The plan was that I would go to Heber Springs, find a camp site, set up camp and come back for bro-in-law and the boys, Pick up the boat and return to Heber Springs. We would come back the next morning to fix and pick up the car. This was late on a Sunday afternoon and nothing was open until Monday morning.
Everything went as planned, after going back picking them up and the boat, we made it back to camp around mid-night. The next morning, we stopped at a Ford Dearship in Morrilton and picked up parts and fixed the car and returned to Heber Springs to start our camping. That afternoon, we finally got the boat in the water and starting doing a little water sking or at least trying to. Bro-in-law was the only one to get up, but we all gave it a good try. The motor was a little small to get anyone up with riders in the boat, so we quit for the day. We were able to take all the kids for a good ride on the lake and had a good time.
The next morning after letting the kids swim and boat ride, we had lunch and my sister and family had to return to Memphis to go back to work the next day. They would take the trailer back with them and we were staying a few more days. We would load the camping equipment in the boat when we returned home......at least that was our plans. That afternoon a storm started coming in and the rain started....water was pouring off the tent all night long. The next morning everthing was wet or damp. With the wind blowing it was getting cold. About 10 a.m. a friend that we knew that lived in Heber Springs came out and took us to her house and fed us a good hot meal. The longer we sat there, the more we decided it was time to load up and go home. We went back to camp and loaded up everything wet and went home. After getting home we had to set it back up to dry out for few days.......

Our first ski boat!

After our trip to Holly Beach in Louisana, we continued camping at Sardis Lake and decided that we wanted to give water sking a try. I had been noticing an old boat parked in a yard in the area that we lived. The owner worked at the same place I did, so I started talking to him about it. It was a 14' Aluminum Ski boat with a 35 h.p. motor. He hadn't used it in a long time....the last time used, he had a flat tire on it and not having a spare, he had drug it home and bent the axle and ruined the tire and wheel. I went by to look at and check it out. The motor was in great shape and started very quickly with a fresh battery. It had two windshields that went with it.....the canvas top was a bunch of rags and the seats were all rotted and cracked.....it other words, it really looked bad! We settled on a price of $100.oo and after borrowing a tire and wheel, I pulled it home.
When I got home and backed it into the driveway, I was so proud of my treasure and no one would come out to look at it. I backed inside the back yard out of sight and started taking it apart. I took the motor off and all the controls and pushed it off the trailer. I flipped the trailer over and took the axle off and took it to a welding shop where they heated and straighten the axle. I next went and purchased a new tire and wheel and reinstalled the axle and wheel to the trailer. After repacking the wheel bearings, I removed the wood runners on the trailer and replaced with new wood and carpet. I spray painted the trailer and had it looking like new. By this time, the family was getting excited , started helping finish stripping the boat down to get ready to paint. After a couple of days, we couldn't wait any longer to try the boat out. We put the unpainted boat back on the trailer, installed the motor and controls and took it to the St Francis River to try it out. It ran like a dream, which added to the excitement of getting the boat ready. We went back home and really got serious about getting the boat finished. We finished the stripping of the old paint, repainted it white with red strips down each side, redid the seats with new vinyl, installed the windshield with a new canopy. We were now ready to start learning to water ski!