9 July we woke up at Gulf State Park before sun up and got on the road by 7. Tom Sawyer's Mississippi RV Park in West Memphis was the target. We took a very direct route that was almost zero interstate. As the driver I enjoyed the changing landscape from the lowlands in Alabama into the woods of Mississippi, but the passengers weren't really stoked with cell coverage and the lower frequency of potty stops.
Getting through Memphis was absolutely a nightmare. With the I-40 bridge closed and the way I-55 winds through town, it was just rough. When I lived in Memphis, this comic was absolutely true. It is even more so now.
Once we finally rolled into the campground, I went to plug in the camper to the pole and my surge protector threw a fault. It showed that the voltage on one of the lines was 50 volts. I pulled out the multimeter and the pole was clean. If I plugged my surge protector straight into the pole it worked. So I dove into the camper and I can only figure that some connections between the shore power plug outside the camper and between the surge protector is jacked up. I thankfully carry a 30A extension cord to use with the generator and I ran that cord through the RV basement and straight to the surge protector to get us up and moving on 30A along with our hybrid inverter we could still run both ACs. Something to work on in the coming days.
The campground isn't a resort by any means. West Memphis is a bit rough and has a nice industrial smell. Also the campground floods fairly regularly and really got smacked in the 2011 flood. So all of the facilities are in trailers. The few hardstand buildings need some TLC.
That all said, it's right on the river. There is barge traffic almost constantly. The towboats sound a bit like a train coming by, but it's not annoying. The kids enjoyed watching all of the cool stuff going up and down the river.
Looking back from our site 94 with a barge passing behind
Bedtime came early so we could roll out early in the morning.
10 July, again we woke before the sun came up. We got all packed ready for the drive back to the KC area (at least 10 hours). We also penciled in a visit to both of my parents (in different nursing facilities).
Everything was rolling smoothly as we made our way north on I-55 (except the road in Arkansas. From West Memphis to about Blytheville the road is an absolute minefield of potholes, frost heaves, bumps, etc). We were about 20 minutes from my dad's place and BANG! The driver front tire on the trailer exploded with zero warning. The TPMS didn't let us know until I was already seeing the shower of fender and tire out of the mirror. I rolled the dice on the china bombs and lost.
I've changed a tire or 40 on the side of the road so I was prepared. It took about 20 minutes to get everything cinched up and back on the road. We were about 5 minutes late getting to our appointment at dad's place. After a nice visit with dad, we headed to a local tire shop, Plaza Tire. They are in MO and IL mainly. I recommend them. The original owner is a family friend and the work ethic of the place hasn't changed much, regardless of the location.
I just decided to go with 4 fresh tires (upgraded to G range from E range as well) to prevent the next pop. It took the shop about 1.5 hours to get us in and the tires mounted. While they were working on the tires I remounted the spare in its holder and we taped up the damage to the fender well and slide.
Since our schedule was thrown off, I decided we needed a treat. So we stopped at one of my childhood favorites, Wib's Drive-In in Jackson, MO (off exit 105 on I-55). The menu is very small, mostly their take on the SE MO BBQ sandwich. A regular is shaved pork shoulder with BBQ sauce on toasted Bunny Bread. What you should get is the combo which is a regular with pimento cheese on it. I also order mine "extra hot" and then still add some hot sauce to them. While I love both...WAYYY better than scrapple or White Castle.
The building and parking lot are tiny so we called ahead and DW ran into the take out window and ran back out and we parked in the Jackson City Park band shell parking lot to enjoy our bounty.
With stomachs filled with nostalgia and flavor, we headed towards STL. My mom's place doesn't have room for a big rig. I planned to park in the Catholic church across the street, but we were about 2 hours later than expected. Saturday means mass and mass meant no parking the trailer for 30 min. So we toured the neighborhood for a few minutes and found a school about a half mile from her facility. So we parked and walked down. Again, another nice visit.
We got back in the truck around 5 and still planned to get back to KC that night. The drive back on I-70W was typical. Of course it had to rain off and on most of the way back. By the time we got to KC the rain lifted so getting through downtown wasn't terrible. I put the shifter in park around 1015pm. Everyone was pooped, but it was nice to be home.
Today, we've worked on unpacking the camper and getting the house and yard under control from 2 weeks of slumber. I took a break from mowing to watch the race and I'll get back out there and finish up tonight.
Thanks for reading along. Looking forward to Marceline in a short while.
