We have arrived in Tupelo, Mississippi, the Birth Place of Elvis Presley. I expect that we'll be here until sometime close to Thanksgiving. We headed out of Greeley, Colorado last Saturday morning. I hated leaving that area. It's just so beautiful there near Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. We're hoping that Jim will be assigned back there again in the Spring.
It was a fairly uneventful nearly 1300 mile trip. Saturday was a beautiful day for travel and we made it all the way to just North of Wichita, Kansas. There's a rest area on I-135 close to mile marker 22 that is really nice. With an area for RV's and a dump station, we were amazed at how quiet it was even though we were right there on the freeway.
Sunday started out drizzly and rainy and only got worse. We drove right into the bad weather. There's a travel stop along the turnpike in Oklahoma where we were just going to stretch and grab some coffee. When we got there, it appeared as though their fuel prices were fairly low at $2.29 for diesel, so we went ahead and filled the tank. Ha! Who would have ever thought that one would consider that "fairly low?" Diesel was only 99 cents a gallon 4 years ago. We both just knew that we'd regret it further down the road. Fuel prices always seem to be way out of line along turnpikes. Somewhere in the middle of Tulsa, where we had to cut to another highway, there sat a Police cruiser, lights spinning, crossways in the highway. The ramp from US412 to I-244 West was closed! We had to go on and get off at the next exit and get ourselves turned around. We wound up taking I-244 east and going around town the long way back down to the Muskogee Turnpike. You would have thought that the State Patrol (or somebody) would have put signs further back, or stationed people further back letting you know that you needed to find an alternate route. Once we finally got squared away and back on track, there was construction as we came through Broken Arrow onto the turnpike. We were reading the traffic sign close to the entry, looked up and the lanes had been split with orange traffic cones. There was about a tenth of a second to make a decision which way to go and Jim chose the wrong way. We were exiting the highway instead of getting on the turnpike. Between that and the ramp a few miles back being closed, he was all shook up, but the feeling subsided when he realized that we weren't the only ones. Even the semi drivers were doing what we did. Thankfully there was a fuel station right there that we were able to turn around in, and finally get back on course.
We went on to the Flying J in Russellville, Arkansas, we were pleasantly surprised to see that diesel there was $2.34, and felt like we'd surely made the right choice filling up back on the Turnpike. Hoping that it would be somewhat less in Mississippi, we opted to wait and fill up on fuel for the coach and ourselves sometime on Monday. We made it to Brinkley, Arkansas Sunday night. There's a motel/RV Park there called the Ivory Bill Inn. It used to be a Super 8, and remembering it as clean, cheap, cozy and comfy, we decided to stop there for the night. We had stayed there in 2002 when my brother was taken quite ill and we rushed to get back to him on the East Coast. It's been let go somewhat and not as nice as we remembered. The grass was to our knees (but at least we had grass) and the hookups, while fine, needed some attention. Inside, in the lobby, it was apparent that there is a lot of remodeling going on right now. I sure hope if we get back thru that way in the Spring, that they'll be all done redoing things, and it will be back to what we remembered. Either way, it's a Happy Camper Park, (½ price all the time) and you can't go wrong for $9.00 a day.
Monday started and ended in a pouring rain. We got through Memphis sweating it all the way. That's some highway around that area. It needs lots and lots of work and the signage doesn't give you a whole lot of advance notice that you're going to be going off to the left or right. We made it, though, without a single wrong turn. It's no fun to make a wrong turn in a 40Ft RV with that big ol' Hummer on the back making you close to 65Ft long! We stopped in Olive Brach at the Flying J truck stop, filled up with Propane, diesel, food, and got back on the road. Tupelo was only another hour or so and we were getting pretty travel weary. We arrived here at the Campgrounds of Barnes Crossing shortly after lunch and got out site. The people here are super nice. The sites are kind of tight, but plenty long if you happen to be pulling a long trailer behind you. (which we aren't) They do have the best cable we've ever had, but I'd rather have WiFi than cable TV any day! Anyway, we managed to arrive and get setup in between raindrops. Then came the deluge! It rained and rained and rained some more. It rained all day Tuesday too. Jim wasn't able to get much work done. Our site is a new site with lots of Orange Mississippi mud on it and the rain didn't help. We don't have any grass for the dog, but so far she doesn't seem to mind too much. She does have orange feet now, so she's going to the groomer on Saturday. The owner here brought in 4 or 5 huge scoops of fresh gravel yesterday and did his best to fill the site where the rain had washed away most of the gravel, so hopefully now the dog will stay clean after grooming on Saturday.
That's about it for now. Like I said, it was a fairly uneventful trip. I have lousy access (extended network) and no WiFi where we are right now, so please be cautious about what you e-mail to me. No pictures right now, please!
| Happy Camper pays for itself on your first vacation! | | Happy Camper is a 50% discount club for RVers. As a member, you can stay at over 1,200 quality RV parks on a full hook-up site for half price; and unlike other memberships, it requires no contracts, no home parks, and no point systems. At just $49.95 per year. |
|
