Sunday, March 29
This morning found us ginning around and getting ready to attend church with Mother, Ernie, and Billee at the Harvest Acres Baptist Church in Mineola.
We got to town a few minutes early, so we made a stop at the donut shop to get an apple fritter and then drove to the post office to check the mail.
We got to church just a few minutes before the service started, so we had time to meet and greet with some of the regulars before we started the song service.
When church was over, Ernie invited us to come to the house to eat. Billee heated up some leftovers and fried up some hamburgers, so there was plenty for everyone to chow down on as we caught up on Ernie and Billee’s Saturday adventure of going to Fort Worth to see their daughters.
When lunch was over, I fired up the motorcycle and rode it out to the lake as Barbara drove the car. It was the first time since November that I had been out on the road on the cycle, and it was a perfect day for a ride.
We sat around and digested our lunch for an hour or so and then hopped on the cycle for a ride together…ended up driving twenty miles north across the lake and on up to Sulphur Springs, a city of around 15,000 people situated along I-30.
When we saw a Lowe’s, Barbara suggested that we go inside and look for a cordless drill/driver for me to use when we go to Tennessee to help build a church. As luck would have it, they had just what I needed, so we bought it and then had to find a way to get it back to Big V. By taking everything out of the trunk and putting it in one of the saddlebags, Barbara made room for the big box in the trunk, and soon we were off to do some more exploring.
It turned out that Sulphur Springs has a lot of really nice restaurants, shops, and name-brand stores…a place that we will look forward to visiting when we return to Holiday Village in May.
We managed to get back to the park shortly before the sun went down and it started cooling off, and spent the evening just vegging out in Big V.
Monday, March 30
Faithful readers noticed that we were a full week late getting a posting out, and ended up sending two weeks worth of journal/blog entries within an hour or so of each other. Sometimes we get so busy during the day that we don’t take time to make notes on our activities. Also, if we don’t write every night, we run the risk of forgetting what we did and who we saw.
“What brought that on?” you may ask (or you may not, but we’ll tell you anyway).
This morning we received an email from Barbara’s sister, Nancy, pointing out in her gentle and inimitable manner, that we had failed to mention that she and Tom had come to visit us on Saturday, March 21. We checked the entry, and sure enough, we had messed up big time…the greatest danger of waiting too long to start writing.
To set the record straight, while we were burning leaves that Saturday morning, Barbara received a phone call from Nancy and Tom, wanting to know where we were. They were out on a Saturday motorcycle ride and wanted to know if we were in visiting distance.
Since they were still a couple of hours away from us, we told them we’d meet them for lunch in Alba, but first we had to make sure the fire was completely out.
We finished our work, hopped in the Vibe, and drove across some back roads to Alba, a small community north of Mineola on Highway 69. When we got there, we looked for a restaurant and found one that looked interesting, T.J.’s, Café…”The Best Home Cookin’”.
We decided to take them at their word and when Tom and Nancy arrived on their cycles, we went in, sat down, and ordered from the menu. Tom and I ordered chicken gizzards and livers, while Barbara and Nancy ordered steak fingers. When we got our orders, we found that not only was the price right, but the orders were humongous…far more than we could all eat at one sitting.
When we had done all the damage we could do, we led Tom and Nancy back to the park and showed them our new lot and what we had accomplished. They looked around the place, but had to leave soon in order to get back to Cleburne.
All that is what SHOULD have been in the journal/blog, but since we didn’t even start writing entries until the following Thursday, our memory chips dropped some important information. Thanks to Nancy, the record is now straight, and does show that they took the time and made the effort to come visit us, and we were so glad they did.
Now…on to today. This was a housecleaning day. With our departure imminent, we decided that we’d done all that we could do on the lot. The rest will just have to wait until we get back from Tennessee and Georgia.
While Barbara checked mail and paid bills, I started a deep-cleaning of Big V, something that was long overdue. Later, I went up to the lot and loaded up all the tools we had borrowed so we could return them to their rightful owners. I took Josh’s chainsaw to him at the park office and loaded all of Ernie’s things into the Vibe for a trip to Mineola.
Glen came over at 2:00 and went over the paperwork for improvements that we want to make on the lot in the next year. We also finalized the plans for bringing in dirt to level part of the lot and pouring a concrete pad; that will be done while we are gone on our trip. When we return, we should be able to park Big V in her East Texas home.
Later, we drove to Mineola to drop off Ernie’s tools at the house and deliver a bunch of excess clothing at the Kindness Kottage. While deciding what we needed to take on the trip, we found
quite a few items that we didn’t really need at all, so we gave them to a charity organization that T.J. recommended.Tonight we all gathered at T.J.’s house to celebrate Cousin Angele’s birthday. It really isn’t until tomorrow, but her work schedule as a nurse in Tyler dictated that we celebrate this evening. It was a very fun time with lots of food and conversation as we got caught up on the latest exploits of Angela, Ladd, and their children.
All good things must come to an end, and soon it was time for us to say our goodbyes and make the 15-mile trip back to Holiday Village where we finalized our plans for tomorrow before heading to bed.
Tuesday, March 31
Happy Birthday to Cousin Angela Thompson in Mineola!!!
Today started early, at 1:45 a.m. to be exact, as a line of severe thunderstorms hit us with thunder, lightning, heavy rain, and some hail. Luckily, the storm system left us as rapidly as it came, but it also left us awake in the middle of the night. But, all was not lost, as we ended up exchanging emails with Barbara Clingan, former LHS English teacher who now lives about 30 miles away from us in Gilmer. It seems that she, too, was spending a sleepless night the same way we do, with the computer up and running and checking to see who else is out there.
When we finally started the “real” day, Barbara took me to Mineola so I could ride with T.J. and Mother to Mother’s appointment with a cardiologist in Tyler.
While we were doing that, Barbara did some shop-looking in Mineola and then drove back to the park and spent her time in the laundromat, getting our clothes ready for the upcoming trip.
We finally returned from Tyler around 1:00 and Barbara got back to Mineola at 1:30. She and I said our goodbyes to Mother and returned to the park to take care of the 1001 chores necessary to get Big V ready for time on the road. We wanted to have as much as possible finished tonight so we can get an early start tomorrow, and that included getting the Vibe loaded and tied down on the trailer and packing away things inside Big V so they won’t “travel” independently when we start down the highway tomorrow morning.
We even found an hour or so to just relax and enjoy our home, do some reading, and make a timely entry for the journal/blog.
Wednesday, April 1
Happy April Fool’s Day!
With a long travel day ahead of us, we were up and around by 6:00
this morning. Most of our stuff had been stowed away last night, so it didn’t take long to finish off the rest of the jobs and get Big V ready to move. Since it was such a pretty morning, I decided to take a picture of the rig at the RV park in Holiday Village, hoping that the next opportunity for a picture here in the park will be when we return and can park it on the new pad in our own lot.We pulled away from the park at 7:30, earlier than we had even hoped, and had a relatively calm trip going from the park to Sulphur Springs, where we pulled onto I-30 and headed east toward our goal for the day, Memphis, Tennessee.
We crossed into Arkansas at Texarkana around 10:30 amid all kinds of highway construction, but soon found that while there was a lot of road construction (mainly overpasses and bridges), there seemed to be precious little highway maintenance – Big V felt every bump and crack in the existing highway all the way across the state.We stopped for gas at a Flying J a few miles east of Texarkana; not so much to get gasoline, but to fill a very nearly empty propane tank. While topping off the fuel tank was no problem, we found that, for whatever reason, getting to the propane tank was impossible today. The tank was located near the diesel lanes, several of which were closed, causing a massive traffic jam of RV’s and large tractor-trailer rigs. Trucks were backed up nearly a quarter mile on the road!
Giving up on getting a load of propane at Flying J, we got back on the interstate and continued east, sure that we would find a truck stop along the way that would sell propane. After a couple of stops without any luck (although we did get a great “brunch” from Taco Bell at one of the places), we decided we’d motor along until we got past Little Rock…maybe I-40 would have a better selection of stations.
Stopping at a truck stop east of Little Rock, we found that they didn’t have propane, but they directed us to a large RV dealership just a quarter mile away that provided that service. We were very pleased when we got to New River City RV of North Little Rock to not only get a tank of propane at a reasonable price, but to receive ultra friendly service as we looked around inside for some miscellaneous repair and maintenance items that we needed for life in Big V.
Back on the road, we continued the journey without incident through Arkansas, stopping about 20 miles before we got to the Mississippi River to refuel and take a much needed break. From there, we continued across the Mighty Mississippi into Memphis, where
we joined the afternoon rush hour traffic (our sense of timing is such that we somehow manage to enter or leave major cities during either the morning or afternoon rush hour).Luckily, we managed to stay in the correct lanes and soon found our way across the city to the RV Park at Agricenter International, the largest urban park in the world. It is a park that we stayed in two and a half years ago when we made our first trip to Richmond and one that is very convenient for our needs.
Arriving at the park right at 5:30 after 10 hours of traveling, we soon had the Vibe off the trailer and Big V all set up for three nights of rest and relaxation (and a great internet signal…very important to our way of life).
When Barbara got on the internet, she found that we had a complimentary night at a hotel in Tunica, a few miles south of Memphis. We discussed it and decided that since we’d been in such close quarters in Big V for quite a while and tomorrow would be our anniversary, we’d just give ourselves a gift by taking the hotel up on its generous offer; and, by 6:30 or so, we had Big V buttoned down for the night and we were headed south to Tunica, pretending that we were on a luxurious vacation, even if it was for just one night.
Thursday, April 2
Happy 15th Anniversary to Us!!!
We woke up to wind and cloudy skies that soon turned into a massive storm system across several southern states that spawned heavy rains, massive lightning displays, and tornados in several places, although we were spare the latter. If any of you watched the news reports about today’s weather across Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, please be assured that there was no exaggeration about the strength and destructive force of the storm system!
Our plan for the day was to celebrate our anniversary by going downtown to experience the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the legendary Beale Street, the historical jazz and blues center of the city, but decided that a cold, rainy day, was no time for that experience. We did that once upon a time on Bourbon Street in New Orleans and found that the ambience was lost when the weather was bad.
So, with all the storms going on around us, there was nothing to do but stay inside until the storm broke enough that we could make our way back to the east side of Memphis. The highlight of the day was lunch at a Paula Deen buffet, perhaps the best buffet spread we’ve ever found.
While Barbara sampled several Southern specialties, I discovered the mountain of oysters on the half-shell and piles of peel ‘n eat shrimp. I tried my best to whittle down the stacks, but they kept challenging me by adding more. I finally had to holler “uncle,” and waddle away from the place, certain that this was surely the best buffet bargain we have found in all of our travels.
When the storm finally broke, we hopped into Big V and made our way back to Memphis, arriving at Big V just as another wave of bad weather hit, hammering us with more rain, thunder, and a tremendous lightning display. There was nothing to do but check email, make a grocery list for tomorrow morning, and go to bed and read before dropping off for the night.
Friday, April 3
While perusing our email this morning, Barbara found a note from Betty Boone, our new friend who lives in Longview, Texas. In her message, Betty mentioned that she had spent yesterday celebrating her birthday, so this morning we wish a happy belated birthday to her and assure her that she is now in our permanent birthday file.
The main reason for staying in Memphis was to visit our friends George and Janie Estes. George was pastor of Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Barbara’s church when she lived in Lubbock, and officiated, along with Barbara’s dad, at our wedding.
We decided that George and Janie would come visit us at the RV park and we would fix them a meal in Big V (Janie visited us here a couple of years ago, But George had never seen Big V), so we took our grocery list and headed to the Wal-Mart just down the street from the park.
In addition to the items necessary for tonight’s meal, I had to get a new house battery for Big V. Several days ago at Holiday Village, we began smelling a very sour gas odor. After checking all around the place, we determined that it must have been an open sewer line somewhere near us (a not uncommon occurrence at RV parks). The smell was so bad that we had to turn on the vent fans to draw it out, but we assumed that the natural venting system in Big V was also drawing it in from whatever its source was.
Well, when we got to Memphis and I did a routine check of the electrical system (something I learned to do after replacing batteries that had gone dry because I hadn’t checked them regularly), I found a huge split in one of the marine batteries, with steam coming out of it. I still don’t know how it happened, but somehow one cell of the battery had split open and, as the battery continued to charge, the acid and water heated to the point of causing a toxic steam to come out, creating the foul smell that had surrounded us for the past few days. So, our “grocery” list was expanded to purchasing a new battery which was, thankfully, still under a partial warranty.
Back at the park, we unloaded the groceries and Barbara began building a crock pot meal of chicken breasts, potatoes, carrots, and onions, while I undertook the chore of cleaning out the battery compartment and installing the new battery.
During the afternoon we cleaned the place up and made it as orderly as possible, loading the Vibe on the trailer, and generally getting ready for travel tomorrow.
George and Janie came out a little after 5:00 and we spent a wonderful 2 ½ hours eating, visiting, and getting caught up on each other’s lives. George works out of the headquarters building now instead of pastoring a church, but occasionally temporarily fills a pulpit and does revival services, which was what he was doing the last time we came through Tennessee. I used to tell him after hearing one of his sermons that he could easily be a Baptist preacher, and he would fire back without blinking an eye that if I felt that way, maybe I was a Presbyterian at heart.Our visit was way too short to say everything that we all wanted to share, but with a travel day ahead of us tomorrow, we finally had to end it, promising to stay in touch and come see their house the next time we pass through Memphis.
Spending time with friends in Memphis, Tennessee,
Jim and Barbara“Mix a little foolishness with your prudence: It's good to be silly at the right moment." – Horace, Roman Poet
