We are in a KOA campground in the Memphis area. It is a decent enough place; close to the Interstate, so some road noise. Not inexpensive. Plus, they "nickle & dime" you: $5 additional for a pet... really? Murphy won't be going outside the motorhome and is ZERO impact on their facilities. They added the $5 after we were already checked in. On the plus side: they have a BBQ restaurant on-site and you can order a meal and they will deliver it to your RV.
The sites are level (we always use our jacks, for leveling and stability while down for the night) and we are in a pull-through (easy in and out). The park wasn't even half occupied last night.
This rig pulled in one site over from us...
That is a utility body on the van, doesn't look set-up for RVing. It says "Morgan Cryogenics" on the side. When I hear "cryogenics," I think "freezing someone's head to bring them back to life later." Do you supposed there are a bunch of frozen heads in that van? Joan looked it up (I'd rather just make up my own scenario): apparently, this cryogenics company is "Manufacturers of High Purity Tubing and Piping Systems, Manifolds, and Control Panels." I like my "frozen heads" premise better.
Right now, it is raining. Looking at radar, we will be driving in some potentially heavy rain later this morning. So much for the clean motorhome. Before the rain started, a guy in an RV a couple sites to the other side of us was outside... having beer and smoking a cigarette... at 7:00 in the morning. Breakfast of champions.
We have all our utilities out (plan to dump holding tanks before we leave), including cable TV, so it will take a bit longer to get ready to roll while I put all that away. In the rain. Ah, yes, the "carefree RV lifestyle." ;-)
The route we were going to take to get to our next destination in the Ozarks would have taken us through a "potential flash flood warning" area... yep, we'll be routing ourselves south and west of that. It is good to have as much information as possible before you head out.
Time to clean up and get ourselves ready to roll... see you down the road.
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The rain was really coming down when I went outside to unhook the utilities. The parts of me under my rain jacket stayed mostly dry; shorts and shoes got soaked. We took our "alternative" route to avoid the potential flash flooding.
We drove on bridges over several rivers - one was out of its banks. The rain north of us (the direction those rivers were flowing from) looked worse on radar than what we were in; plenty of lightning, though.
The terrain was mostly flat; plenty of standing water. As Joan predicted, we eventually drove out of the rain.
Remember when truck drivers were "the gentlemen of the road"? Yeah, me, too. On these side roads, the speed limit was mostly 55 or 60 mph. There was one truck three vehicles ahead of us that was driving 40 mph... with traffic stacking up behind him. Fortunately, there were passing lanes every so often... and when that drive got to the passing lane, he sped up to 60 mph. One car managed to get around him, by driving well over the speed limit. Once by the passing lane, he slowed back down to 40 mph. This happened 3 times, so it obviously wasn't a fluke. On the 4th passing lane, with what looked like a mile of traffic behind us, I was ready for this guy: that V-10 Ford in the motorhome drank a bunch of fuel, but we got around the trucker on an uphill passing lane; so did the two cars in front of me, and a couple more behind me. And when we cleared that passing zone, the trucker slowed down again.
Later, another truck went around us when I slowed down for him in the passing zone. Shortly after, we rolled through a small town. The trucker was in the left lane, we were in the right, with one car in front of us. It was very apparent that this truck driver didn't want us to get in front of him, and he steered into our lane - I had to slow way down to keep from getting hit by him or getting run into the curb on my right side. It wasn't an accident. For the record, I was able to drive the speed limit, so it wasn't like I was holding anyone up.
We eventually drove out of the rain - I had to crank up the dash a/c in the motorhome. It quickly went to around 90º and about the same for humidity.
A couple hours out from our destination for the next week, the terrain changed from flat and near swampy (really - cypress trees in Arkansas... who knew?) to hilly and curvy roads. Joan commented that these roads would be fun to ride on the bikes... a bit more work for me in the motorhome.
And then - road construction...
The wait wasn't bad, and we were in air conditioned comfort. The road got hillier (is that a word?) and more curves...
And, some rocky cliffs on the passenger side (above). Joan thought cows in a pond was interesting, so I am including that photo...
Hey, it is hot and humid; they are wearing leather - I get it.
As we got close, we stopped at Wally World before going to the campground. Joan went it, I stayed with Murphy in the coach, with the generator and a/c running. When we checked into the campground - the lady at the desk owns it along with her Mother; they are converting it to a KOA. It seems like a nice park, and the lady could not have been nicer. She gave me options for what site I want, and I took those options out to Joan. We wound up picking the site we were originally booked for. No shade tree (that was why the lady gave me other options, but I am OK not being under a tree, even though it is going to be hot and humid here. There will probably be some rain, as well, and I'd rather not go through that mess again. The only problem in this site: it is a "pull-in" site, where you pull forward into it and have to back out when you leave. Not a problem for us... the problem is: the sewer connection is at the far back (almost to the road) of the site; our sewer hose, and the 10' extension hose, was not enough. Joan went to the office and bought another 10' extension. We will probably only dump twice in the week we're here, but it would be a pain in the butt to have to back the coach up into the road to get close enough to the sewer connection. So, we'll have another 10' extension that we will likely never use again.
On the bright side, it's a decent site: good gravel where we park, and some grass for our patio area (and for Murphy to walk in). Speaking of Murphy, he didn't have a great day... he spent most of it in his carrier and didn't want to eat when we stopped to give him lunch. Right now, he is napping beside me as I write this...
He ate his supper, but he is tuckered out. He didn't make any fuss while we were driving, but I'm sure it was a long day for him. It felt like a long day for me, too. Joan brought me a Drumstick (the ice cream kind, not the wood kind you use to play the drums) when she went the store/office.
It was really hot and humid when we got the coach set up; we'll get the bikes out of the cargo trailer tomorrow morning, when it will hopefully be cooler.
4 comments:
We never tell the campground we have a cat. Did you tell them you had a cat or did they see Murphy? I half understand the rule for a pet when you have a dog because half the people never clean up after their dog. But that gripes me as well. Since we no longer have a dog, when they ask if you have any pets we just say no.
Hi Jeff - Nice to hear from you. Murphy walks outside on a leash, so we always let them know when checking in. Joan made the reservation (and paid for it) online, and checked the box to say we have a cat. So, they should have known we had a cat. Joan asked me, "What's the extra $5 for?" when checking her CC statement. She just assumed that's what it was for. Either way, I think it is crappy when they add something to your bill after the fact. And, in this particular case, it was hot and humid, so Murph didn't go outside. As I said: ZERO impact to them. I'll make it a point to mention that in my review.
Sorry that Murphy had a rough travel day. Hopefully he will adapt quickly again. He's a good boy! I hate those drivers that speed up in passing zones, then drop to a leisurely pace again when you cannot pass. Is it not paying attention, or malevolent? Either way it is maddening. And businesses that nickle and dime you with fees like that are not worth repeat business.
Yesterday was quite a day for us. I was mowing the large lawn and suddenly the tractor felt like it hit a hole. Turns our that the drive shaft / axle on the right rear sheared off. The mower is old enough that it is not worth repairing, even though the engine and mower deck runs perfectly. internal parts are no longer available, so the only option is whole new transmission/axle. $1600 for a new transmission for a 17 year old John Deere tractor? I don't think so. But the comparable new ones are $5K. I now have a line on some teens down the street that have a landscaping business going. They will mow the lawn for the rest of this summer at $65 per week. So I have time to sort everything out. Now I just have to figure out how to get a 600 pound tractor to a spot behind the shop with only three wheels....
And icing for the cake, Alice came to me after all that and said that the refrigerator isn't cold anymore. I had noticed that my evening yogurt snack the night before seemed lukewarm, along with a soda. So off we went to choose a new fridge, which gets delivered on Monday. Meanwhile we fired up the empty unused bar mini-fridge and also took a cart of frozen food next door. The neighbors are letting us use part of the chest freezer in the garage. It is good to be tight with the neighbors. We help them and they help us.
Since we are down for a week, Murphy will probably have to be "re-trained" for the travel stuff once again. He is content now, except for the 4:30 "wake up call." His internal clock says it's 5:30... by the time we get back to Arizona, he'll want to be getting us up at 2:30 am... and I will have beat him. Kidding, of course: our kitties only know love and kindness... even when what they need is a whack upside the head. But, we don't. Really.
Sorry to hear about your lawn tractor. Sounds like you are weighing the cost vs benefits vs return. Something very nice about *not* doing yard work; yes, I know some people enjoy that. Those would be people who don't know the joy of casting aside yard work. There is a reason it is called "work." Just saying.
When our fridge in the Tropical Tip started to die 5 or 6 years ago, there was no place in town to get a replacement. We ordered one from the local hardware store and it only took a couple months to get it. No, I am not kidding. Something to be said for living in civilization.
Nice to have good neighbors. The only next door neighbors we have are Steph and Dan. They seem nice enough. Pretty sure we would help each other out. I'm kidding - they are looking after our place right now. We see them doing their daily walk-through on our security cameras. Trust, but verify. LOL
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