We started with an excellent first day of travel April 18, 2019! At the Tucson Pilot truck stop we weighed Babe and Old Glory on the Cat Scale. The good news is our trailer weight is under – the bad news is our truck rear axle weight is a little bit over. We need to redistribute weight a bit and we are researching the best way to do that.
We passed into New Mexico and then into Texas where we spent the night at a nice Cabelas in El Paso. It was quiet with a large parking lot and was surrounded by many shopping/ eating options: Walmart, Chick fil a and TJ Maxx to name a few. This was the first Cabelas we’ve encountered with no dump station. We miss our good old full-service Cabelas (with dump stations and potable water) like they have in Hamburg, PA and Scarborough, ME.
Our second day was very long … almost 400 miles and mostly flat but at least the weather was good. We made it from El Paso, TX to Silver Sky Ranches RV campground in Crosbyton, TX. We decided at the last minute to go all the way thru Lubbock and stay at this Passport America Campground. Full hook ups and only $12 for the night: well worth it!
We slept well then made it to Tinker AFB FamCamp on Saturday where we paid $20 a night for full hook ups. We set up, plugged in then left Old Glory there while we drove 35 miles further to stay with my mom in Shawnee, Oklahoma for a few days.
While in Shawnee we were able to help mom with some yard work and little things around her house. Mark also replaced the broken belt in her dryer and we visited some family and friends.
We met Mom’s next door neighbor, Flossie the cat – or “Floss the Boss” as I like to call her. She came over to supervise our yard-work.
We lost some time as we drove. Remember Arizona does not participate in daylight saving time. We lost 1 hour when we crossed into New Mexico then another when we got to Oklahoma. Don’t you just hate it when you’re driving along and you lose an hour?
After we went back to pick up Old Glory at Tinker AFB, we headed to Little Rock AFB FamCamp. We got there early enough to make a quick day trip to Hot Springs, AR and Quapaw Bath House. Their hot spring pools are very relaxing. Each pool is a different temperature with the coolest being 98 degrees and the warmest is 104 degrees. We could switch between pools and for $20 we could stay all day.
The next morning we traveled towards Tennessee. We ate dinner at Cracker Barrel in Dickson, TN and they allowed us to spend the night in their parking lot. The special at Cracker Barrel that night was their fried chicken. It came with free peach ???? cobbler and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Oh how we ❤️ Cracker Barrel!
On Saturday we got an early start and headed to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We lost ANOTHER hour on that day but the weather was perfect and we made it to Creekside Campground in Pigeon Forge by 3 pm.
Creekside is a Passport America campground. It is beautiful and the Pigeon Forge trolley runs right through it making it very convenient! We planned to see our friends Pastor John and Kathy Joslin.
He was our Pastor when we lived in Okinawa, Japan and now he pastors Valley View Baptist Church in Wears Valley, Tennessee. They invited us to dinner and they even picked us up and drove us to their house. We enjoyed seeing them and their beautiful home. The food was delicious and It was so nice to share memories of a fun and meaningful time in our lives when we lived on a beautiful island. Our boys were 3 and 7 when we arrived in Okinawa and now, 20 years later, they both remember and talk about Okinawa fondly. The experiences, lessons and friendships we encountered during those 4 1/2 years profoundly affected our lives.
Our next blog post will be all about a new and exciting experience: Workamping in North Carolina. Check back for all the details next week!
