Connie visits McKinney, TX

After a sultry Arkansas night, filled with the hum of ships stalled/anchored on the Mighty Mississippi River, we made our way out of the flooded campground and back over the levee to West Memphis.  We wound our way out of town, in a more logical fashion than the GPS showed, and followed the directions of our Angel, back up to the Interstate, and going the right direction.  We only had a few lights, but, more importantly, we had NO more construction.  

After just a couple of hours on the road, we left the land of flooding and poor roads behind, and journeyed into Texas. Texarkana was our first stop.  It was nice to see bridge heights that could easily accommodate our size, too. 

We overnighted at Shady Pines RV Park, which was located right next door to Shady Pines RV Sales.  We expected no more than a parking lot, but we were pleasantly surprised by long, spacious and concreted site pads.  Plus free WiFi!  Always a bonus!  It was a clean little park, with lots of green space to walk the pup, and, yes, a bit of shade.  Not from pines, but shade is shade, and we were grateful for it.

Thursday dawned bright and early and we made our way West and South, towards Dallas, and our dear friend Connie.  She's had a lot of heartache and tragedy in the last few years, and we were hoping we could make her laugh, at least just a little bit.  After a long day of travel, neither Driver nor I was all that interested in cooking dinner, but we did want to EAT it....I found a cute little restaurant with good reviews, up in the little town of Princeton, only about 5 miles from the campground where we were parked for the week.  It was called Jocy's, and it promised good food, fast.  Just what we were looking for.  Inside, the decorations were a bit sparse, but cute.  All the VW's on the walls made me think of you, Barbara & Charles!

The reviews also said the chocolate cake was to die for and certainly not to be missed.  OK, so we'll give it a go.  It certainly LOOKED good....

Well, not all reviews are to be believed, I suppose.  It was ok.  Just ok.  So, given the hype, it was a bit disappointing, in actuality.  Oh well, good thing we only bought one piece to split!

The next day, we finally hooked up with Connie. She had lots of daytime appointments and obligations, so we met for dinner at a Mexican place she knew, and then we topped it off with Andy's Frozen Custard.  Yup, this is the very same Andy's as was in Branson, MO!!!  So when we saw Ozark Turtles on the menu, we knew we were in for a treat!

The next day, Connie had some more appointments, so we were on our own to do some exploring.  The campground was beside Lake Lavon, and this was one of the many bridges crossing the man-made reservoir. The water stretched over acres and acres, but there didn't appear to be whole lot of activity on the lake - birds, fishermen, boaters or otherwise.  Makes you wonder, what's up with that?

We had met the camper next to us, a charming lady by the name of Alice.  She had suggested we might like a market downtown, called, amazingly enough, The Market at Watters Creek.  Its sort of like a cross between Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and the old Giant Foods/Farm Fresh of days gone by.  There was this bakery case, though....These were really cute little treats, but we were counting calories, so none of them came home with us.

Later that evening, Connie drove across a few of those bridges, and made the long trek from Frisco to Princeton, to visit us, meet the dog and check out our new camper.  She had only been on the road a short time, when she accidentally rear-ended the guy in front of her!!!  I didn't get a picture of it, but the whole front grill of her car popped out and was hanging by a wire (literally) by the time she arrived at our place.  She was fine, the dude was fine, but her car could use a good body shop!  Luckily for us all, our neighbor lady, Alice, just so happens to be a claims adjuster for a local body shop!  She's been in the auto/collision industry for about 30 years, so she knows all about cars, insurance, and claims!  Again, Angels among us!  Thank you, Lord, for putting just the right people into our lives at just the right time. 

The next morning, we met up with Connie, on the square in McKinney.  Typical of old town revivals, there was a commons area in the middle, surrounded by older buildings that have been turned into eclectic shops and eateries. This little lady graced one of the doorways and just about begged us to enter, but, ummm...no, thank you ever so much!

Of course, there was the obligatory ice cream shop stop.  Nothing of interest here, though, so we moved on without making any purchase.

Dick had fun horsing around with a sign though, telling us it pays to advertise. We ate an early lunch at Snug on the Square, where chicken salad is served when potato salad is ordered (yeah, really.) and they add honey to their mustard.  (Connie says that's yummy!)  Connie mentioned that today would have been Bob's 73rd birthday, so we all paused to remember him and toasted him with our cups of water.  I think we could all feel his presence and knew he was smiling on us from his place up in Heaven.  He's sorely missed, but Connie is a trooper and so much stronger than she even knows.