It's a Long Road Home, But It's Worth The Trip

Whooohoooo!!!  Sooooo, Friday, the cleanout guys were all done and left the house with lots of stuff still on the walls (pictures no one wanted), in the attic, shed and basement (with our blessing) and clean swept the house.  The investor came over on Thursday, viewed the home and determined that he would be making an offer on Friday.  The neighbor's friend, Dave, the flooring guy, came over Thursday, as well and asked to think about it overnight.  They (his long-time girlfriend and he) spent over 2 hours in the house,asking questions, surveying the property and determining what they might like to do with each room. We felt sure they wanted to make an offer, but truthfully, we were a little hesitant to sell to them, as there was a LOT of work needing done, and we weren't sure they would be able to manage the job and work full time and still maintain a good relationship with each other.  Plus, he preferred to get a mortgage, whereas we preferred to have a cash sale, as that's a whole lot quicker and doesn't need an inspection.  Well, they couldn't make up their mind, so they called Thursday night and wanted to know how much time they could take to decide.  I wanted to get the ball rolling, so I told them only till 10 am Friday morning, because I needed to get back to the investor and get contracts signed prior to Charlie (brother) going away for the following week. They finally texted me Friday morning, thanking me for being patient, but declining to make an offer. Whew, that was actually a relief. My feelings on the matter were, if it was that difficult to make such a commitment, then, by gosh, don't make the commitment.  This is NOT the right house for you!  We have always known, immediately upon arrival, when it was "our" house.  Every.single.time.  So, I've been rambling...Friday night, we accepted the offer from the investor, and Charlie was able to get, sign and return the documents via email before he left on Saturday.  You know what that meant, right???? We had some free time Saturday, as yo know we spent that doing laundry and going geocaching.  We also pre-packed up the car, with whatever we could...you know, all the extra cleaning supplies, the extra shoes, doggie food, nice clothes.  Good thing, too, because when we woke Sunday morning, it was raining! Not quite cats and dogs, but still, who wants to pack wet stuff into the car?  As we approached Delaware, the rain got heavier, as did the traffic.  We decided we would go down around Baltimore,  instead of west, across the state and back through the Amish Country.  I figured the quilt shops weren't going to be open Sunday anyway, so really no need to go that way.  Plus, our car was stuffed to the gills!  We had picked up a photo album (our WEDDING album!), some photos for Charlie & Nina (ssssshhhhh, don't tell them, Charlie will be PO'd, so I'm going to send them straight to Nina only!), a little candy dish, a soapstone walrus (don't know why he spoke to me so, but he did), a huge box of heavy duty paper rags, a smaller box of what could only be called hiney-wipes, but they were unopened and dry as a bone (good for handling the gas pumps along the way), a big box of pennies, and some more food.  This all on top of what we had brought up there, so, yeah, we were full up, with no room for fabric.  

We saw this truck and immediately thought of Barbara & Charles.

And, back over the Susquehanna River, down at the other end.

And just so I would feel right at home and freaked out, there's a set of overpasses to traverse.  Thankfully, we are on the bottom road!  I believe we were actually in Maryland at this point, though I have no picture to prove it.

And before long, we could see to West Virgina.

And got picture proof!

And the, before we could blink, we were back in Virginia, taking pictures of the cute apple bushel watertower.

Not too long after that, we ran up on a convoy.. I know you remember CW McCall...

In case you can't play that embedded video, just give a little clicky right HERE.  LOL, now it's stuck in your ear, isn't it?!  I know it is mine...

This was a convoy of brand spankin' new Ford trucks pulling what we thought were horse trailers...but, they're not.  They are HazMat Decon trailers (whatever the heck that means!  I know what HazMat is, but I always thought Decon was bug spray.)  Maybe decontamination units??

We spent the night in Abingdon, VA, and set out early the Monday morning, headed west.  Before long, we're on state number four!  Welcome to Tennessee.

See that photo below?  See that green billboard, just right of center?  Well, between that billboard, and the church spire, just to the left of it, you'll see a golden dome.  THAT is how we know we are halfway through Knoxville.  That is the Sunsphere, a tower built specifically for the 1982 World's Fair.  When we first started coming down this way, we could plainly see the entire tower and dome.  Over the years, it has become less and less visible to passersby on the Interstate.

And again,we crossed over The Tennessee River.

So, here's a cool place.  We were originally going to stop here overnight, with the camper, as this is a Harvest Host spot, but, well, you all know what happened to THAT plan.  It was abandoned when we abandoned the camper in Dallas.  We, just so happened, we came back by here, and there are plenty of hotels to choose from in Jackson, TN, so we decided we would come here first, taste a bit o'shine, then go find a spot to stay the night.  What a FUN visit it was!  Didn't say free, now, did I.

As we approached the tasting room, we were presented this lovely warning about potential injury or death of a participant.  Hmmmm,is this somewhere we should be going?  Heck yeah!  Onward we went!

The porch was so inviting and rustic.

But, step inside, oh my, oh MY.  This is Sandy, behind the bar.

A small, VERY small, sampling.

As you turned back around, to view the door, take note of Pappy's old, original still, up over the door.  Note the different woods used, too.  The dark is walnut, and the lighter posts supporting the header are ginko.  EVERY BOARD was planed and hewn from trees grown ON THE PROPERTY.  And EVERY BOARD was hand planed and hewn by Samuel T Bryant (the son) and Samuel P (Pete) Bryant (the father) themSELVES.  BY HAND, people, by HAND.  The son was educated as a chemical engineer, but when he got tired of that, he pivoted to being an arborist.  And eventually, he had too many medical issues to continue with that passion, so he started making moonshine, using his Pappy's still and recipes.  They've only been at it 6 years, and this beautiful event space has only been open for the last 3. And in their spare time, they own and operate a fine dining establishment downtown (nope, we went to back to the hotel and finished up our leftover fried chicken.)

This the Samuel P and his lovely bride of 51 years.  They had been out trimming trees when we drove up, but they came inside to meet us and visit with Bailey. They met when he went to purchase a German Shepherd puppy from a friend of hers who had a litter for sale.  They met and went on a date, and the rest, as they say, is history.  Sam, the son, had retired to the back office shortly after meeting and greeting us, but this couple was just as gracious as our days have been long.  They were welcoming and invited us over and over to come on back.  They told us not to worry about whether or not they were open, just come on in and park.  And bring our friends.  They were sooo sweet.  But, what about the shine??

Oh, it was good.  We got to taste Sea Salt Caramel, Coconut, Strawberry, Blueberry, Peach, and plain Tennessee.  We bought the blueberry and I will be making cheesecake with it when we get settled for more than a day at a time.  Get ready Charles, you're my quality control!  The quonset hut in the back there is where the bottles are boxed up and packaged for retail.  We couldn't take a tour, as it was too late (not sure we would have spent the $20 to do so), but we got the samples all for free.  They sure did warm me up!

Tuesday morning dawned bright and early, and once again, we were on the road by 8 am.  We didn't go far when we found another fun truck to follow.  Terry made sure to keep us on track though, even though Barb was encouraging us with a vigorous, Yes! Yes! Yes!  Terry shut her down quickly, with a bigger NOOOOOO!  I can't wait till we can start square dancing again and see all these good people!

And on the way through Little Rock, Arkansas, we saw the CarVana tower. I think I'll start looking for unicorns now. Seriously,is this the way of the future? Would YOU buy a used car, sight unseen, not test driven, or anything? We wouldn't. Gotta pass the smell test, for me, if nothing else.

Of course, there are some more high overpasses to deal with....

This is the Mississippi River, which splits Memphis, TN from West Memphis, AR.  We sure don't want to be stuck in West Memphis again, remember, that's where we lost our tow dolly tire and fender.  And, NO, they have certainly NOT made any restitution nor reparations for any of that debacle.

But before we could get to Arkansas, we had to cross the bridge....which brings me to today's interesting load.  It was an oversized one again.  Took up both lanes behind us.  No idea what was under that cover.  But it was monstrous!

And here's a different oversized load - this was a brand new Army Armored Personnel Carrier of sorts.

And here we are arriving in West Memphis.  Keep driving Honey, keep driving!

What have we here?  Oversized load number THREE!

An engine of sorts.  For something big, that's all I know!

And this is what a load of axels and drive shafts looks like.  How do I know that?  Because we saw OURS, just last week!

And, before we knew it, we were entering Texarkana, a city split by State Line Avenue.  Northbound lanes are in Arkansas, Southbound lanes are in Texas.

We spent the night at Wyndham Garden, one of the nicest hotels yet (not the Brinson nice, but nice enough), and one of the least expensive, too.  Once we checked in, we had a bit of time before dinner, so we took Bailey down to the doggie park and walked around a little.  Well, WE walked.  She shuffled and snuffled, and when she saw we had wandered away, she came a-running!  After that, we found an easy geocache then went on to Whataburger.  We knew it would be our last Whataburger for some time, so we were really looking forward to savoring thick, juicy burgers.  And one of us even sprang for jalapenos!  Boy, talk about disappointed.  The burgers were dry and not that tasty, and not a single jalapeno slice anywhere!  

Once again, we rose early, and got on the road around 8 am.  Easy to do when you don't linger over coffee and breakfast!  Thanks, COVID, that's ONE good thing to come out of all this!  When we saw the high overpasses below, we knew we were approaching Dallas.  And, just like a horse headed for the barn, we picked up just a bit of speed.

As we went through Rockwall,  I took note of their watertower, and wondered why they had a sailboat.  We are inland, you know...

Aaaahhh....it's Lake Ray Hubbard, a reservoir for the vicinity.  It's one of the largest lakes in north Texas and spans 22,000 acres.

After a short stop at the local Kroger ('cuz there are no HEBs in Dallas!!) store to stock back up on all the fruits and veggies we'll need for the next few days, remember, we gave all that stuff away before we left, and we arrived back at Premier Truck South, where our camper was patiently waiting.  And, it was plugged in, which meant, in all likelihood, that our frozen foods were just fine, and it WAS COOL INSIDE.  Oh yeah, baby, it was dark and cool.  

Yes, it's a bit messy - that's our bicycle rack under the Mexican blanket on the sofa, and yes, that's our emergency box on top of it, but, hey, it's cool, and it's HOME!  The mechanics were supposed to sanitize it when they were through, and I think they did.  At the very least, they have sprayed new-car-smell inside, and it smells clean!  The driver's seat even still has its plastic slipcover!  Oh boy, does it look GOOD.  Never mind the mess!  It got worse before it got better.  All that stuff we had crammed in the car, plus all the new groceries, plus the stuff from Dad's house, PLUS the big wheeled cooler we purchased still has to fit in here somehow.  And somehow, we made it all work.  A few phone calls later, and a doggie walk, and now it's time to go see what's for dinner.  I can't wait to get back on the road, in the direction I want to head, and start cooking our own food, serving on our own dishes,  taking showers in our own bathroom, and sleeping in our own bed.  And having our own washer and dryer, at my convenience.  Perhaps I'm a bit spoiled, but that's the way I like it!

We have reservations for somewhere in Louisiana tomorrow...and it promises to be a long day, 400 miles or so.  Safe travels to you all!  Stay well and we'll see you again in a few days with another tale from the road!

 

And plans change, yet again

Welcome back, peeps!  Bet you can't guess what WE did on Sunday!  LOL, if you guessed not much, Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!  We pretty much batted around ideas and possible routing and best/worse case scenarios.  Other than that, Not.Much!  Oh, wait, we DID discover that if we ran 2 air conditioners, and the hot water heater, we would blow the 50 amp fuse as quick as you can say, blow a fuse.  If we only ran the 2 air conditioners and nothing else, it took a little bit longer. So, with temps hovering around 100*, with feel like temps around 103 to 105*, we ran with one A/C.  Around 3 pm, when we were both dripping sweat, we powered everything down and fired up the generator and then we cranked up all 3 A/Cs.  Wow, what a difference!!  That coach cooled right down and even got (to me) a wee bit chilly.

So, Monday morning, bright and early, at 7 am, Driver was in the office, getting us registered and in line for repair.  They immediately ordered a pump for us, knowing the one we had was most likely shot, and sent him back out to wait for Jose the techs to come in at 8:30 and get one assigned to us.  Along about 10 am, we got a knock on the door and there was our hero.  Or so we thought.  First thing he did was find a cracked reservoir and got us a new one for replacement.  Look how pretty that sucker is!

And here is our tech (I do not know his name) reinstalling our drive shaft.  Yes, it has to be removed for towing, else we will burn up our transmission.  Please don't ask any questions - that's all I know.

We had a really quiet weekend, but Monday is a workday, and boy, was there a lot of activity here!

Everywhere we looked, there were cabs, cabs, and more cabs.

There were also school buses and big trailers lining the perimeter of the concrete lot, some of whom were refrigerated units.  Do you have any idea how LOUD those suckers are?  Oh.My.Gawd.  And continuous!  What a roar!  Not to be outdone by the line of reefer trucks lined up on the road right beside us though...you see, kitty corner across the street is a place called United Freezer.  Yeah.  It has its own set of engines that run 24/7, and now there are about 20 reefers all lined up and running, waiting for Tuesday morning pickups.

So we spent all of Monday with our hoods gaping open, like baby birdies, just waiting for mama and papa to come home with a worm.  

It's not a good look, is it.  So sad.

Sooooooo, eventually, Laurie, our service writer, who also happens to be a former mechanic of 22 years' experience, and the current assistant service manager, tells us she has ordered us a new harness (?) and is having trouble finding the appropriate high pressure hose.  The didn't have one in the warehouse, despite having FOUR of these failures just last week, nor did they have one available from the factory, in Gaffney, SC.  Laurie got creative and asked if they could take one off a unit already on the assembly line.  Hmm....I'm pretty sure that isn't gonna happen.  I mean, why would it? While we were waiting for a callback from the factory, she showed us around the shop.

I didn't feel right taking pictures in the actual training room (besides which, I had left my phone in the camper, so I *couldn't*), but it was all outfitted with life-size sections of chassis.  There was a full-size transmission, a whole dash/ceiling/front of truck/back of truck assembly for wiring, brakes, and probably 12-15 computers for training.

Sooo, towards the end of the day, we checked in with Laurie once more, to see what kind of progress had been made.  We could have saved ourselves the trouble.  There was no progress, really.  There are no hoses available, and the backlog is 40 days wait.  40 days, you say?  Yup, FORTY DAYS BACKLOG.  So she put in a request to have a hose pulled off the assembly line, and it might or might not be approved.  If it IS approved, and they can get it packed up in time, the hose will be overnighted and we should see it around noon Tuesday.  If it's NOT approved, it just won't show up.  They don't seem to have a process by which anyone gets notified, so we don't really know what's going to happen or if anything is gong to appear on Tuesday or not.  IF it shows up, along with the pump and harness, they can begin working on it, and maybe we'll be done by Wednesday quitting time, and leave on Thursday morning.  So I got on the phone and reset all our reservations, yet again.  Remember, these campgrounds have been on notice to save me a spot first, in April, then September, then August, now the dates are changing yet again.  It has to be as frustrating for them as it is for me, for sure.

If no parts show up, well, genius that he is, Driver came up with another plan.  We could leave on Wednesday morning, and simply travel by car, spending nights in hotels, and taking our chances in restaurants along the way.  Definitely NOT ideal.  Not really even desirable in any way, shape or form.  But, it had potential to get the job done.  But what about all our stuff?  We travel with the car loaded with our patio chairs, a propane tank, the porches and our bicycles on a rack in the hitch receiver, precluding us from opening the hatchback.  Well, no surprise to any of us, the harness showed up, but the hose did NOT.  Yeah, Dick Luck, once again.  So we hit up Laurie with our new plan, and she understood the urgency of our journey and was kind enough to offer a corner of the shop to store our carload of possessions.  So, here's Callander's Corner at Premier Truck, in Dallas, TX.  What's that I hear you ask?  Why, YES, this DOES mean we'll have to travel BACK to Dallas to pick up the coach when all is said and done.

Once we got the car unloaded, we grabbed all our dirty clothes, and the towels we had been using and hightailed it to the closest decently reviewed laundromat we could find.  Talk about a Cultural Experience.  Oh my, oh my.  We are sooooo spoiled having our own clean, working, convenient and paid-for washer and dryer, right there at my fingertips.  Oh my, oh my.  We are accustomed to using the washers and dryers in campgrounds, sure, but it's been quite a while since we had been to one open to the public.  Talk about a Cultural Experience, it is definitely NOT one I wish to repeat.  I don't know who wrote that glowing review, but we had to work hard to find a washer that was in working order and not super expensive.  We only found ONE, yes, just ONE, but it was small, so we'd need TWO, and I didn't really have time to wash back to back in one, instead of simultaneously, in two.  So, we bit the bullet and used one of the large capacity, high dollar (as in FIVE dollar) washers.  We found an empty one that appeared to be in working order and loaded it up.  

Then we went outside to wait.  While there, we got to watch the locals doing their thing.  We were pretty sure we were going to witness a 2 or 3 car accident, but they managed to avoid the crash, but then we were almost involved our own selves.  And we were sitting still, minding our own business, in a legitimate parking spot!  We couldn't wait to get outta there!

What a relief it was when all our clothes were mostly dry (after 3 goes of free drying, I was done, whether the clothes were or not!), and we could move on with our chores.  We had decided that we would empty the refrigerator of all the fresh produce and milk we had purchased (cuz, ya know, there's a pandemic going on, and you don't want to be going to grocery stores all over the country...stick with one that you know and isn't overly populated, and stock up) and leave only the meat in the freezer, giving away all the rest.  We would also make a big garden salad and a bowl of seafood/pasta salad to take and eat along the way.  All that would require some refrigeration....so, off to Walmart to purchase (yet another) cooler.  Don't mind that we have two, back in storage, in Florida...we needed one HERE and NOW.  Thank goodness we'd had the foresight to pick up a suitcase at the park-wide garage sale while we were in Alamo Rose, that week in January.  When we got back to the camper, we packed up our clothes and started in on making dinner and dinners to come.  After all, the earlier we got on the road in the morning, the farther we could make it by afternoon.

Except for one thing.  We hadn't counted on a rain/thunderstorm.  Last time we saw rain like this was when we were back in Florida, 2 winters ago!  In the photo below, it's important to know that we KNEW there was a car ahead of us, in our lane.  No, we couldn't see him either.  That's how hard it was raining!

As we traveled, I called around to all the campgrounds holding reservations for us, and begged forgiveness as we cancelled them for good this time.  Eventually, we made it safely to Arkansas and kept going. We had to pass the sign for Hot Springs, and, boy, was it tempting!  Several years ago, we had taken baths at the National Park, in ages-old bathtubs, bathing in hot, hot mineral water, piped in directly from the springs.  Ooooohhhh, they were wonderful, and they'd feel soooo good....but, no time for that on this trip!  Drive on Jose, drive on.

We did find a couple of gents having a day like we've had a week...and this geyser was spotted at a very neat and clean rest stop.  What really caught our eye, though, was how lush and green everything was.  We haven't seen green grass like this since I cannot remember when.

Did you know there was a river running through the middle of Little Rock?  Yup, there is.  I believe this was the Arkansas River.

Shortly after crossing the river, these two vehicles passed us.  An informal poll was taken on Facebook, and the winning answer was that this was likely the septic tank for all the BS being flung about these days.  Except it probably isn't big enough to hold it all.  We really don't know what this object is, and if you have any ideas, we are all waiting to hear 'em.

And, finally, we got through Arkansas, and came to Memphis, TN.  What a lovely skyline.

Oooooh, crap....but there's another bridge!  This would be the Mighty Mississippi.  And, noooope, didn't get a picture of this one, sorry.

As we passed into Memphis, this lovely building came into view.  This would be the Headquarters for Ducks Unlimited.  Apparently, there is a decent restaurant with a magnificent view up there at the peak.  And, in case you were wondering, no, we did NOT stop.  No time, for one thing.  And, HECK NO, I'm not going up there, for another.  

Tonight, we are at a cigarette smokey Baymont by Wyndham, and we've eaten our seafood pasta salad.  Why it smells like cigarettes, I just don't know.  We were told that all the rooms are non-smoking.  I guess the rooms don't smoke, but I'm pretty sure that ate least SOME of the customers do. So that pretty much concludes our adventures since last Friday.  It's been a bumpy ride so far, and we know of several others that have experienced the same parts failure/no availability that we have.  True, that doesn't make it any better or easier to swallow, and we still have the scary prospect of hitting up a hotel every night for at least 3 or 4 weeks, then we will still have a few days of lodging to account for.  Right now, our plan is to go check out Barbara & Charles' "guest shed" down in Silver Springs, FL.  (Quotes, because it's outfitted nicer than most homes we've seen!)  We are hoping that we won't have to impose on them too awfully long, but we are really looking forward to seeing them.

Till next time, y'all be well and stay safe, and we'll try to do the same.