Catching Up

A lot to catch up on! To those of you readers that kept looking for a new post, sorry! We were afraid that Mom or Marjorie, my sister, would be looking at the blog so we decided it best not to write anymore. Since we wanted to surprise them upon arrival we felt it best not to write anything more. More on that later.

While in Nashville, as you know, on Christmas morning a distraught person blew himself and his RV to kingdom come, damaging 40 buildings, hurting 8 people, and causing internet and phone service throughout Northern Alabama, parts of Georgia and Mississippi. We were about3 miles as the crow flies from the explosion. A Christmas to remember for many Nashvillites.

On Christmas eve we called for a reservation at Little Rock KOA right on I-40 for two days hence, but they had availability for that Saturday night. We then left a message for Downtown Riverside RV Park, an RV park situated right on the banks of the Arkansas River. We had stayed there last year and found it to be a well-maintained campground.

On Christmas Day we received a phone call from the manager who, although they were off for the holiday, stopped into the office just to check for messages. Very fortunate for us, and also that they had one site available for us right on the edge of the river. Before she even finished speaking, I accepted the site (we had no other options). 

On the 26th, we woke to 18 degree weather, wind chills of 5 degrees. We planned to leave for Little Rock by 9:30 AM, but didn't get to leave until 10:45 AM. When we were ready to go, one of our levelers had frozen to the ground. I played with the controls, banged the leveler with a small sledge, then crawled under the RV and finally was able to raise the leveler with a drill. (It takes 1200 revolutions to raise the leveler one inch, and we had 12 inches to raise. The drill makes it sooo much easier!) Seven and a half hours and strong crosswinds later, we arrived in Little Rock.

We spent a relatively warm night in Little Rock. Not much to say about it when you spend the rest of the evening in the RV. But we had good WIFI to stream TV. 

Next morning we left for Elm Mott, Tx, just north of Waco. A nice campground right off I-35 South. Another 8 hour drive. Temperatures in the low 70's. They have their own WIFI here, having spent over $100,000 to have fiber optic brought in..  Every morning some women come to the campground and make breakfast for everyone. You tell them what you want from their list, and they prepare it for you. Very good food! The breakfasts are free; the ladies work solely for tips.

Mom called us while on the road here inquiring about our trip, what time we left, how far til we stopped, things like that. She also asked if we would be starting this blog again. See, she thought, as we originally told her, we would be leaving on Sunday, the 27th, not as we did on the 23rd. We wanted to surprise her by arriving four days early. So we told her the time we left, but not from where, and when she asked where we were stopping, we told her first stop on this year's trip was Fort Chiswell, Va. See, we didn't lie to her, we just didn't answer her question. So she thought that's where we were heading. I told her I wasn't writing the blog that night, that I was exhausted from driving. Again, not a lie, just a little subterfuge.

Monday morning we got on the road at 9:45 AM. Aside from intermittent rain and fog, we had no incidents on the road. We got to Schertz in 2-1/2 hours, fueled up and drove to Marjorie's house planning to surprise Mom and Marjorie. The surprise was on us. We pulled up to the driveway just as Mom had decided to let dogs out into the yard There went the surprise.

We have spent the last two days with Nancy redesigning some rooms Marjorie wanted changed, redecorating, moving furniture, packing books, just making their house more functional. We have a lot more to do so will be busy for a few weeks.

Now you, dear readers, are caught up. More to come in a day or two. Ciao!

Nashville

We left Fort Chiswell this morning at 8:57 EST after filling our onboard propane tank, which was less then half full. We had checked the weather for Nashville and knew the temperature would be going down to around 18 degrees. With everything closed down for Christmas eve and Christmas we wanted to be sure we had enough propane to keep us warm.

It rained almost the entire trip but traffic was relatively light. We had freezing rain for about 70 miles then about 75 miles from Nashville the rain stopped but traffic increased. During the trip we checked the weather in Clarksboro and saw it was 63 degrees. We wanted to go south to avoid the cold, and ironically where we left was warm and where we were heading was cold.

We arrived in Nashville at 3:50 EST (2:50 PM CST), having driven the 363 miles without a stop. We knew the campground office would be closed but they had left information about our site on their late arrivals board. We parked, unpacked and had an hour-and-a-quarter before a zoom Christmas eve gathering with my kids and our grandchildren, so we rushed out to Logan's steakhouse, had dinner, and was back inside the RV with 10 minutes to spare.

We spent an enjoyable hour or so with the kids/grandkids, playing fun games previously emailed to us by Stacey that we printed out and played the games with. After the games, it started snowing, although its not supposed to accumulate.

Temps tomorrow, along with projected 45 mph winds, are expected to create a chill factor of 0-5 degrees, so we're glad we had filled up with propane.  When we leave Saturday the temps are expected to go from near zero in the morning to 50 degrees. Our next stop will be Little Rock, Arkansas, where we will continue the blog. Taking the day off tomorrow. Until then...

Merry Christmas!

A Long Day

We got up at 6 AM and hit the road at 8:25. The traffic was okay until we got to Maryland. We were stuck in a 7 mile traffic jam due to road construction. We averaged about 9 miles an hour. Hit another traffic jam on 495W around Washington DC, then an even bigger one near Tyson's Corners, Va., this one about 15 miles long.

The weather was sunny and wind was calm until we got on 81 south, then the wind picked up and strengthened the further south we drove.

Our GPS was acting up on us. At one point it took us into a residential neighborhood and said "You have arrived at your destination!" Only 283 miles from the actual destination. Then, instead of keeping us on 66W to 81S it took us via 29S, a route full of traffic lights, small towns, and low speed limits. Maybe it thought it was the fastest or shortest route. Who knows?

We arrived at Fort Chiswell RV campground at 5:40pm in the dark. The office was closed so we picked our own site and settled in.

Weather for next leg calls for heavy rain with a winter storm warning with heavy snow and freezing rain. We get this weather every time we stop here. But this is why we are traveling, to try to avoid that kind of weather.

This post is a day late. It was written three times but wifi connection kept cutting out losing the post.

Our next stop in Nashville will be a little better. We are staying for two nights before continuing on. Christmas in Nashville! 

Merry Christmas to everyone, and to all a good night!

Getting Ready for Our Next Trip

 The past two weeks we have gotten all of our medical appointments taken care of and we are in good health. Yesterday we went and had a Covid-19 Rapid Test. It turned out to be not so rapid. Last week we called to set an appointment and they told us since the reason we wanted the test was because we would be travelling we could just show up and get the test. So yesterday we just showed up.

Not so fast, we were told. Without an appointment we would have to wait for an opening in the schedule. After all, the other people had appointments! So we waited almost two hours before we got in, then another 40 minutes until we were done. As we knew, we were negative, but we wanted the test before we left in case of any problems with authorities in different states.

Today we (95% Nancy) went through everything inside, and threw out a lot of stuff. We shredded old and private documents and rearranged the cabinets et al, to make everything fit.

I worked outside, checking fluid levels in the batteries, installed a transmitter at the back of the RV for use with our tire sensors, installed the sensors on the car (I had put them on the RV tires weeks ago), confirmed next year's reservations for here and for our 2nd and 3rd nights of travel this trip. 

Yesterday we noticed that the basement door to our propane tank was very loose. It turns out it was several things: a bolt hole was enlarged allowing the catch to move, and the latch had a broken support which allowed it to pull out of its fixed position. So I did the smart thing: I called Danny, my stepson, a wizard at fixing things and designing parts (he does this for a living at refineries and hospitals). Sure enough, the two of us got both problems repaired after two hours. Thank goodness for Dan's ingenuity.

Soon enough we will be on the road. Our first day will be long, eight hours of driving to Southern Virginia. The next day 6 hours to Nashville, TN, where we will stay for two days. Then on to Little Rock, AR, and then onto Texas.

That's it for now.