What a long strange trip

OK this is going to be a really long post. I have three weeks of "The Big Trip" that I have to tell about so here goes.

On July 10th I drove to Birmingham to pick up my BF, David, who flew in from BWI. It was so good seeing him again. He spent 1 day in Mississippi and then we left for Wisconsin for the family reunion. We got a late start because Daddy had to go to the hospital in the morning. Mom needed a way to get home so we went back to the house and fetched her car to take it down to Tom's Automotive to get the overheating problem fixed. It turned out to be a bad water pump so it was a good thing it got fixed when it did or else Mom could have cracked the head in her car. David paid for the work so I was grateful to him for that.

Once we got Mom squared away and made sure Daddy was going to be OK, we hit the road around 3 in the afternoon. I drove through the worst thunderstorm of my life just south of Memphis. There was CRAZY rain for about 15 miles. I bet they got at least 6 inches in about a half hour. And the ROAD! Fortunately it quit raining just as I was coming into Memphis because Lamar Ave. is a MESS! I am making a new list of the worst roads to drive on and it's going to be at the top of my list. They don't have pot holes, they have craters. Deep craters in the road that even though I was only going about 25 mpg, they would make the RV just shudder. It jarred the TV loose from it's mount and bounced it back into the cabinet so that was kind of upsetting.

We spent the night at a rest stop just outside of St. Louis and pressed on the next day arriving in Monroe just after lunch. We stayed at the fairgrounds between to big fifth wheel campers. The one man didn't care much for the dogs (since they technically weren't allowed) and he made sure that we knew that HE knew that they weren't supposed to be there. But they behaved themselves marvelously and I think even he couldn't complain.

The family reunion was kind of anti-climactic in that meeting the Danes was way more fun. I worked on the family file during the reunion lunch so the time I spent with the Danes during our dinners each evening was a thing I'll always cherish. Mona, Helle, Anni, Torben and Rasmus and their families are all so friendly and I loved talking to them about everything. It's so amazing to compare our different cultures. Gloria and I are determined to make the trip to Denmark in 2 years.

David really enjoyed himself. We went to see House on the Rock and we went down to Baumgartners for a few beers. The tavern has hundreds of dollar bills stuck to the ceiling with tacks. This doesn't sound too impressive until you know that the ceilings in the room are at least 20 feet high. So how do they get the money up there? It cost me a dollar to find out. They put a tack right through George's face and then place three quarters (that have been taped together) on top of the tack. Fold the dollar just right and with just the right amount of heave, the bartender tosses the dollar straight up. The quarters push the tack into the ceiling, the dollar stays, the quarters fall back to the earth and if the bartender is REALLY good, he catches the quarters. Cool! Every two years during Cheese Days, they take all the dollars down and give the money to charity.

After Wisconsin, it was on to Kansas to see Shane, Catherine, and Lucas. Shane debuted his new ride, a Cadillac Escalade. Very nice. Lucas is a very sweet baby and so funny. When you hold him, he jumps up and down like he's in his jumper. If he's not jumping, he's doing 360's in your arms. I think the only time I saw him be still was when he was eating. We stayed at a little campground right next to I-70 which was closer to Ft. Riley than staying out at Milford Lake. Shane let us wash the truck at his house. It was filthy from the rain we ran into right as we were leaving Monroe. The RV was also a mess so David washed it at a truck wash right next to the campground. So we left Kansas with sparkling vehicles.

But again it rained on us as we were making our way back to St. Louis and by the time we got to Tunica, Mississippi, both vehicles were a mess again. Every time we had to travel, it rained.

In Tunica, we stayed at The Grand campground. The first night we went up to Memphis to check out Beale St. That was a lot of fun and we heard some really good blues music. The next day we drove down to Clarksdale to see the Delta Blues Museum. They had a replica of Muddy Waters and his house there. David learned a lot about that genre of music. Afterwards, we had lunch at the Ground Zero Blues Bar which is partly owned by Morgan Freeman.

Sunday we drove back to Mom's house and stayed with them till Friday when it was time to go back to Florida. We decided to spend Friday and Saturday night in Bainbridge, GA so I could see my father's grave and try to find my sister Joyce. On the way to Bainbridge, the funniest thing happened at a gas station while we were getting fuel. These two guys accidently left a delivery truck out of park and it rolled into a huge board fence behind the station. I was getting something out of the Mariner when I heard a big boom and saw the fence boards shaking like crazy. When I climbed back into the RV, David described the scene to me as he was in the driver's seat and saw the whole thing. The truck had rolled right through the fence. We decided to get the hell out of there before we got blocked in my cops or whatever.

So we get to Bainbridge that afternoon and get all set up in a campground right by the bypass. I met the funeral home man, Mr. Wade, who showed me where my father was buried. His grave was very simple and the cemetary wasn't kept up very well. I found out my father had remarried in 1996 and Mr. Ware told me where Mary Burrington lived. So we drove out to Fowlstown to see here but she wasn't home. So I left a message for her to call me and she did a little later that afternoon. I had talked to Jerry Burrington (my father's second wife) earlier and she'd given me Joyce's number. We had a dinner scheduled with Joyce and her BF, Bucky, but I had a couple hours open before then so I drove out to visit with Mary. She is a very sweet woman who loved my father very much. He's been dead since 2004 and she still gets emotional talking about his death. He died of complications from diabetes from what I can tell. His lower legs had almost rotted away and I think his heart just gave out.

Dinner with Joyce and Bucky was great fun. I got all caught up on the family. Sadly, our sister, Mary, was killed in a tornado a couple years ago and Joyce told how it happened. It was great seeing her again and we intend to stay in touch from now on.

So now I'm back in Florida in Jacksonville at a tent sale. David helped me set up and he did great work hiding all the extension cords under the sales desk. But the heat got to him later in the day and he had to take a break. It was getting to me too but I had to get the work done. My knees are in bad shape. I'm not sure what's going on but the joints are really hurting and I can barely get up from a sitting position. I don't think I could run if my life depended on it. David cracked me up when he compared the set-up to forced labor in Auschwitz.

Tomorrow night, David flies back to Delaware. I have grown accustomed to having him here and will really miss him.

Gas stations irk me

I've been in Mississippi for a week now visiting my folks. I am frustrated because I wish I was in a position to do more for them. They need things. Dad needs a tire on his truck. Mom needs work on her car because it's leaking water from somewhere. They need a new lawn mower. Mom could use help with house keeping. It would be great if a house keeper could come in once a month to help her. Don't get me wrong. My mom is a great home maker and her house is clean and orderly. But it takes a toll on her with everything that needs to be done and nursing daddy too. She could use a break every now and then as she has her own health issues. So that's what frustrates me.

I checked the ads in the Tupelo Daily Journal. There's nothing in there for anything of my skills that pays as well as Driven2WIN. But I figured I'd at least have a look to see.

The trip up here from Florida wasn't too bad. I got rained on most of the way. Scattered showers, some heavy, some light. So I was constantly messing with the windshield wipers.

I've decided that a lot of the newer gas stations bug me. Have you noticed that the new designs are different? The older stations have the gas islands parallel to the building. But a lot of the newer designs have the gas islands perpendicular to the building. This is fine for cars....but it's very RV unfriendly. Usually there's not enough room to pull in facing the building and then make the sharp turn required to effect the U-turn to get out.

Here's what happened to me in Alabama....

Between Atlanta and Birmingham I needed gas. I usually try to stop at a Flying J or a Pilot or a TA Travel Center because since they cater to trucks, they usually have more maneuvering room for us RVers. So I'm getting down to 3/8ths of a tank and I'm looking for one of the three. I see a TA Travel Center and it's a Shell station. I have a Shell card so that's my goal. When I get there, they have a sign, <-- Trucks this way Cars this way -->

Am I a truck or a car? Well, the truck islands usually have only diesel so I decide I'm a car.

Big mistake.

The car islands are one of those idiotic deisgns where you have to pull straight in and there definitely is NOT enough room to make the U-turn to get out. So I creep down through the parking lot of cars looking for a way out. Nope. It's a dead end. The only way out is to make a SHARP left turn back toward the gas islands. Not getting out that way. There is a road with arrows pointing toward me. I ask a passing worker if I can go the wrong way up that small road to get to the truck parking lot on the back side of the building. Sure as long as there are no cars coming out he says. MO-RON! Dummy me figured he knew what he was talking about but nooooo. The reason why it was a one way road is because it's the EXIT FOR THE ARBY'S DRIVE THROUGH! DOH! So now I'm stuck. I hop out and disconnected the truck in record time (about 45 seconds). Then I have to back up the truck to the back of the parking lot. Then I stow the towbar so I don't drag the cables and back the RV up to the truck. It took me about two minutes to get them hooked up again and get out of that dinky parking lot. That deal alone made it *almost* worth the thousands of dollars I spent on the towbar setup.

I have never seen a TA Travel Center where you couldn't go all the way around the building. The parking lot made a "C". While I was hooking my truck back up, another guy walked past and I asked him if there was any gas at the truck islands and he said no. There was only the pumps in front of the building. He told me for the record that a lot of RVers have done just what I did and had to disconnect to back up. Seems like they would put up a sign saying something to the effect of <--Trucks and RVs this way (diesel only) Cars this way--> NO gas RVs allowed

I finally get back on the interstate and try the next exit as there is another Shell station there. Same thing. Straight-in pump islands. Criminitly. I go a mile and a half down the road and there are no other gas stations that I have cards for (Shell, Citgo, BP).

So it's on to the next exit. There is a BP station but again, the islands are perpendicular to the building. BUT this station has diesel islands in the back so you can go all the way around the building and I see that if I get close to the building on the way out, I can pull up to the far outside island.

Finally, I can get some fuel. This kind of crap is very annoying when you are toward the end of your trip and you're tired and you just want to get to your destination.

I wanted to make it all the way home but it was getting just too late. So I stopped at a Wal-Mart on the other side of Birmingham in Jasper and spent the night there with about six semi's. Must be a popular rest stop for them.

And one more thing. What is the point of stations limiting the amount of fuel you can get? What's up with that? These $75 and $100 limits make no sense. So that irks me too.

Now that's I've vented, I feel better.