Going back East- a flooded Tennesee

After Trickie's , I was back on Interstate 40. After a delay in West Memphis due to an rush hours accident, we drove over the Mississippi River bridge and into the Land of Elvis. I drove through but I had visited Beale Street and Graceland years before.

So I drove on I-40 east. There were signs of the flooding; mud fields, streams to the banks, and broken trees.

I thought I better find a campground before Nashville, since everything there would be flooded. I saw signs for Loretta Lynn's Ranch and then a campground called Birdsong Resort.

I thought it that sounded nice, so I turned off the highway. Then onto a country road and then onto a twisting rural road. I was thinking "What the hell did I get myself into" The signs said 9 miles, the longest 9 miles I drove.

Finally there and it was expensive, but I wasn't turning around. The resort was mostly seasonal and yearly people living on KENTUCKY LAKE. They told me to find a site anywhere, since the RV park was flooded. I found a site and backed in..yea. I just hooked up the electric.

The park was flooded. I wasn't thinking that this area got so much rain, but they did. Many of the buildings are under water. One photo had an RV underwater. It was amazing how much water was there. It was a great sunset. And lots of birds.

The morning was full of bird song...hey now I get the resort name...I drove back down the rural road and onto Nashville.

The flooding near Nashville was extensive. Even part of I-40 was covered. I drove on passed Nashville and continued onto to near Knoxville. It was very hot. I had to stop every 2 hours to cool off. Then the sky looked nasty and the weather board said there would be storms and possible tornado....so I found a cheap motel and parked my RV in the parking lot..

Motels have air conditioning and great beds etc. There was no restaurant near so I ate PB & J sandwich. There was a big storm. Dakota and I snuggled in bed.

It was a beautiful morning . Have you noticed that after a storm is a really nice day. So onward we go.

THE TRIP BACK EAST- Texas and Arkansas

The trip started with spending most of the day at the repair shop. Agatha needed new spark plug wires, oil change and a few other adjustments. We arrived at 8AM and left about 4PM. It always seems to be a whole day and a whole lot of money to get anything done on Agatha. Mostly

I was waiting for those odd little parts. The good news was Dakota and I stayed in the air conditioned office. I spent the day watching SPEED TV. I saw motorcycle races, monster trucks and drag races. Not my usual watching, but it was tolerable and I learned there are a lot of crazy people out there doing crazy things.

Once the RV was road worthy, I drove north to see out friends Dave and Viola in Big Sandy. I was not sure I was going to get Agatha down this very rural small road, but we did make it. It was nice spending the night there. And this is where Hobo Mike got off the RV road. He plans to do some hobo-ing and east Texas is a good place to hop a train.

Tuesday morning I was on my own. I was starting out to drive across country solo. I have met some other women out there as solo RVers, but I have to admit I was a bit unsure of myself. I took the road north from Big Sandy headed to Gilmer and Texarkana. My idea of Texas was always desert looking, but in the north east part there was pine trees and lakes and small rolling hills. It was clear with bright blue sky. Perfect for driving.

It was around noon when I went through Texarkana and drove into Arkansas. It was 3 days after strong storms had gone through, but I didn’t see any damage. It was getting hot. For lunch Dakota and I stopped at a truck stop and had a PBJ and got some gas.

The road from Texarkana to Little Rock didn’t have much traffic. There were trees and lots of daisies. Yellow daisies. There were some buildings near the exits of the interstate, but most of the drive was tress, birds and flowers. I paid attention to Crow Brother . He warned me several times when there was problems up the road, like a cop who stopped a car. There is a sign for Hope, birthplace of President Bubba Clinton. The sun was heating up to 90 degrees. It was hot in the RV with only Red Neck Air conditioning.

There was more traffic as I got closer to Little Rock. The by-pass missed most of it. Once I got on interstateI-40, I was getting tired and hungry. I stopped at a MC Donald’s for a chicken sandwich. Dakota got a kiddie burger. I drove for a bout 25 more miles and saw a sign for TRICKIE’S RV CAMPGROUND.

Sounded good to me. I took the exit and saw Trickie’s convenience store and right next to it was the RV park.. Well really it was like a parking lot with electric. Half of the sites did not have working electricity due to the storms, or lack of attention.. who knows. I found a site, turned on the air conditioner in the back and soundly went to sleep. I was so tired I didn’t even take off my clothes. Dakota was crashed out right next to me.