Freeway Fliers

June 5, Thursday

We overnighted 25 miles west of Memphis, in far eastern Arkansas. It was over 90 degrees again today, and we again ran both the house and engine air conditioners to stay comfortable. Today might be a couple of degrees cooler, if we’re lucky. We turned on the coach AC at 11AM as we left a gas stop, 42 miles E of Memphis. This was another in a long string of half-tank $150 fill-ups. Gas has been about the same price since NM. At only 7mpg, every few pennies count.

Viewed from the interstate, AR and TN look a lot like the woodlands of my childhood in New England. The stark beauty of the desert SW which I have come to so admire and enjoy is a dry, barren contrast to the lush, watery streams and rivers of this part of the south. With that comes a thick humidity that you can almost cut with a knife this time of year. We have yet to encounter rain, but it must surely come. The gently rolling hills of Tennessee are a joy to see and experience. We turn N at Nashville, heading for Mammoth Cave NP in Southern Kentucky.

Emergency Repairs

June 4, Wed.

We overnighted at Springhill Park in Barling, AR. The park is part of the Army Corp of Engineers Lock and Dam project on the Arkansas River at Ft. Smith. There are lots of Canada geese everywhere, with a number of good-sized goslings. The sign says don’t feed the geese – too bad they’re protected or they could feed us! Ft. Smith is full of historical importance and we wish we could stay to soak it all up. But we’ve got repairs to make. Our engine AC compressor has been making funny noises for thousands of miles, reaching crisis stage on Sunday in Flagstaff, where it started screaming at us. No one could properly diagnose it until Albuquerque. We could not get it replaced there, so we called ahead to Greg’s Too in Ft. Smith and pre-ordered the needed parts. Greg’s guys had us back on the road at 2pm. It was over 90 degrees today, and we had to run both the house and engine air conditioners to stay comfortable. Our longhaired dogs don’t want to be traveling through the south in summer without AC.

Flagstaff, AZ

June 1, Sunday

We finally got started at 1 PM on Saturday, considerably later than planned. (I guess this is normal for us and I shouldn’t get so bothered by our perennial lateness.) We needed to get into Arizona on Saturday and planned to stop near Williams, AZ. An RVer had recommended an area near Coleman Lake on Forest Service lands as a nice boondock campsite. While driving, we set an appointment with our friend Joyce for breakfast 7:30 Sunday morning at the Cracker Barrel restaurant in Flagstaff. So, despite the late start, we HAD to make it to Williams for the night. Well, we pulled off the paved road onto a dirt Forest Service road about 11 PM in total darkness, found a wide flat spot and just parked and collapsed into bed. When I took the dogs out, the sky was crystal clear and FULL of stars. We are so hindered by light pollution near the city that we don’t appreciate the beauty of the night sky. In the morning, we saw that we were parked on the edge of a pretty oval meadow with just two other campers barely in sight.

We got up and off to Flagstaff in time for breakfast. We had a great visit with Joyce and caught up on all the news, including the imminent arrival of her first grandchild. We caught her during an overnight stop at home, en route with daughter and her husband from Colorado to San Diego to await baby’s arrival. It was a lucky happenstance for us all to be in Flagstaff that particular morning.

D Day - maybe

Our goal is to be on the road early this afternoon (or after Friday evening rush hour if we miss our earlier target). We'll only drive ~2 hours, maybe to Victorville or Barstow, then overnight and start early in the morning.

Despite weeks of preparation, the to-do list is getting longer, not shorter! It always seems to work that way. Wish us luck in completing the last-minute tasks.

Two weeks and counting ...

Another hot weekend -- temperatures in the nineties. A long-time friend is visiting from Stockholm, so trip preparations must take a distant back seat to catching up and being host. Motorhome insurance renewal came through wrong, again. So much left to do in the next 12 days. I wonder if we'll get it all done before we have to leave. Last night I learned from Jonathan Edwards that he lived on Cape Breton Island years ago. We're hoping to get a chance to see that part of Nova Scotia as well. We'll not ever again be closer.

Scratch that!

Over the weekend, we received a call from Adventure Caravans wanting to talk to us about our trip. Of course, they called mid-day on Saturday while we were out. We finally talked to a live person at 6 am Monday morning. The 56-day trip we had booked was cancelled - not enough subscribers! So all our planning and advance reservations are trashed.

We couldn't reschedule for the later version of the original tour - it returns too late to get back for the start of school. So, we had to switch to a shorter tour (omitting the Gaspé Penninsula of Quebec). Our new tour starts 12 days later and returns 7 days later. One benefit is additional time to visit family in New England. However, we must cancel numerous reservations and rework the cross-country schedule for both directions. We'll now visit Niagara Falls on the way east and spend several additional days camping in New England before arriving at the rendez-vous site on June 28. The trip west will be much more rushed and still Elaine may have to miss the faculty meetings that take place the week before Labor Day. Oh well!!!

The new itinerary and map are now posted. The old version is now just a figment of the imagination.

Hot and harried

Los Angeles just had a weekend of record-breaking heat - 98F this afternoon! We spent the weekend cleaning out cabinets and compartments in the motorhome, inventorying supplies and starting to pack. I also spent the hottest parts of the afternoon indoors at the computer: mapping our routes, planning stops and talking to the friends and family members that we plan to visit along the way.

Suddenly, the upcoming trip seems like it's really going to happen. It also seems like there isn't going to be enough time to get ready! Just for fun, I bought a tote bag with a bright red appliqued lobster and a matching red ball cap. I'll have a special outfit just for the lobster dinners that occur during our trip. I'm planning a little surprise gift for our caravan leader (the wagonmaster) and assistant (the tailgunner). I found two boxes of red gummy lobster candies and some lobster snack plates. Do you begin to see a theme here?

Seriously, though, there's lots to do to get people and pets ready to travel. We all have medical and dental appointments in the next month. We need to preorder medications, arrange house and garden care, prepay bills and complete maintenance projects. We managed to get it all taken care of last summer and hopefully it all will go smoothly again this year.