EFFINGHAM ILLINOIS TO FOREST CITY ARKANSAS: A MUCH BETTER DRIVING DAY AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE

It was the beating blades of an Air Ambulance helicopter that woke me up at 3 this morning.  After all we were in an Air Park for the night and this is where the area’s Air Ambulance helicopter is based.  Three and a half hours later while Kelly was brewing up our morning coffee we heard it coming back and a couple minutes later we watched as it landed in darkness not far away with all it’s landing lights on.  I bet Joe would have liked that one Betty.

THE HELICOPTER LANDED JUST OUT THERE BY THAT BUILDING YOU SEE PAST THE RIG……THE  AIR PARK’S GRASS LANDING STRIP IS OFF TO THE RIGHT

It was a 28F degree start to our day but didn’t feel too bad when I stepped out with Pheebs.  No wind, no rain and no snow.  Despite the ever present cloud cover it was an Okay start to the day.  We were roasty toasty in the rig and all systems were working.  Nice when that happens.  We had the big wheels rolling by 7:35 Illinois time or 8:35 Ontario time.

WHEN DRIVING AN RV ONE HAS TO ALWAYS REMEMBER TO LOOK UP…..WE MADE IT THROUGH JUST FINE

THIS PHOTO SUMS UP HOW LIGHT THE TRAFFIC WAS AGAIN TODAY

Couple more things about the Air Park, they have hot showers and laundry facilities there as well.  Forgot to mention how our 10 year old memories had forgotten just where exactly the Percival Air Park was so slowly rolling south of Effingham on highway 45 Saturday afternoon I saw a couple cars coming up behind us so pulled over onto the narrow shoulder so they could pass.  First car went by but the second didn’t and pulled right in behind us…….with red and blue lights flashing.  Oh-Oh it was a State Trooper!!  Took him a minute to exit his car and walk up along the passenger side of the coach.  Our in-house good will ambassador Kelly quickly engaged the fella with her cheery manner telling the officer we were looking for the Percival Air Park.  We were only a mile from it and he was only too happy to give us directions and wish us a Merry Christmas.  Whether he pulled in behind us for any other reason we don’t know.  Maybe he just saw a grumpy old guy going by that needed some Christmas cheering up.  So a very Merry Christmas to you too Mr. nice Illinois State Trooper fella:))  

 

IT WAS QUITE A TIME THESE TWO BAYFIELD BUMS WERE HAVING WHILE ROLLING DOWN THE ROAD

 

‘ARE WE THERE YET MOM’

‘What a difference a day makes’ I kept thinking to myself as we motored south along I-57   Bare and dry roads, no precipitation and visibility was excellent with cloudy skies overhead.  Interstate traffic was the lightest I’ve ever seen  East of the Mississippi so what a great driving day it was.  Pulled into a Rest Area somewhere north of Cairo Illinois where Kelly whupped us up a couple hot dogs and fresh coffee. And by golly if we didn’t see Elvis there.  Kelly even got a picture of  him while I cleaned the rig’s rear view mirrors and checked the oil and tires, etc. (and a correction about Saturday’s rest area lunch, it was turkey salad sandwiches Kelly made, not tuna)

I FIGURE WE MUST  BE GETTING CLOSER TO WARMER WEATHER EH

After writing the above paragraphs at the rest area stop we were back on I-57 heading south and within minutes we overtook a big yellow snow plow salting the road.  What the heck!!  We weren’t half a mile past the plow when I noticed sprinkles on the windshield.  Yep, we had driven ourselves into a light misty rain and I figured that plow driver knew a lot more about the road conditions than we did so with intermittent wipers on and a close watch of the road we throttled back our speed.  Luckily we didn’t have any problems.  That light rain stayed with us all the way to Missouri (which wasn’t too far) and only quit once we crossed the Mississippi River from Illinois to Missouri.  Nice to be back on dry roads again.  Hooked up with I-55 and hung a left for Memphis crossing into Arkansas along the way.  A big wave later to Elvis as we swung off I-55 on Memphis’s west side onto to I-40 heading West.  From here on in most of our travels will be Westward-Ho to the land of enchanted mountains and deserted desert sands.  ‘Yay team’.

KELLY CHECKS HER CRACKER BARREL MAP

A belated Happy Birthday to Kelly’s Mother who turned 93 December 23rd.  Her Dad was born on the same day as her Mother……Kelly wrote on her Facebook:: Today I celebrate my Mom who turns 93 . She continues to live in her own home. She drives, loves to read and best of all Shop !.... Go Mom

We don’t have any presents to open Christmas morning because we opened them before we left home.  Pheebs got a new Olly the Ollyphant which I must remember to take a picture of.  Santa brought Kelly and I a neat-o Himalayan Salt Lamp which I also forgot to take a photo of before we left.  It’s as heavy as a rock so we couldn’t bring it with us but Pheebs brought Olly and those two bums have been having a blast.

A FEW PHOTOS ALONG THE WAY TODAY

AND A COUPLE PHOTOS FOR THE CAVE PEOPLE DENNIS AND DONNA WHO I KNOW LIKE TO STOP HERE ON THEIR TRAVELS

And by golly Paul over at R Sanity RV Adventures was able to save Christmas again this year and it had something to do with Santa Claus and nothing to do with being shot out of a cannon wearing a ballerina costume.  Well not yet anyway.

BRIDGE OVER THE MISSISSIPPI BETWEEN THE STATES OF ILLINOIS AND MISSOURI

KELLY GRABS A FEW PICS OF THE BRIDGE

 

AND WE BROUGHT THE AMARYLLIS  CARON AND CHRIS GAVE US AND ‘HEY’ WE HAD US AN ELVIS SIGHTING NORTH OF MEMPHIS

A NUMBER OF CONSTRUCTION ZONES WEST OF MEMPHIS ON I-40

It was about 2:30 when we decided to call it a day.  Kelly, on her map found us a Walmart location in the town of Forest City Arkansas and we happily pulled ourselves into a corner of the large lot and shut er down.  Lots of busy Christmas shoppers bustling about and I’ll be darned if the Sun didn’t pop out for awhile an hour later.  Now some folks might think spending Christmas Eve in a Walmart parking lot would be kinda gruesome but not us.  We’re quite happy to be here and even went in and mixed it up with all the local Christmas shoppers.  And my oh my what an animated bunch they were too.  Lots of Christmas decorations and twinkling lights.  Yesireee we were in the Spirit alright.  After all, we had been listening to Christmas music all day on our Sirius Satellite radio.  Christmas music that reminded us of our younger years.  Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Johnny Matthis, Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, and the list goes on…………..  

OUR OVERNIGHT SPOT FOR CHRISTMAS EVE 2017

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and thanks to one and all for your many warm Christmas wishes:))

GROANER’S CORNER:((  You Know Your Overweight When:: 

* You dance and it makes the band skip.
* You are diagnosed with the flesh eating virus, and the doctor gives you 22 more years to live.
* You put mayonnaise on an aspirin.
* You go to the zoo and the elephants throw you peanuts.
* Your driver's license says, "Picture continued on other side."
* You ran away and they had to use all four sides of the milk carton for your picture.
* You learn you were born with a silver shovel in your mouth.
* You could sell shade.
* Your blood type is Ragu.

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Christopher Columbus was the best deal maker in history. He left not knowing where he was going, and upon arriving, not knowing where he was. He returned not knowing where he had been, and did it all on borrowed money.

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A SNOWY MORNING START, SLIPPERY ROADS, AND A FEW BRIEF BURSTS OF ENCOURAGING SUNSHINE

WE STARTED OUR DAY OFF WITH A COLD WET SNOWY MORNING

When out with Pheebs at 4:45 a.m. the weather did not look very promising.  An hour later looking up through one of our skylights Kelly said', ‘I think it’s snowing.’  Lifting the window blind beside my chair I was able to confirm she was correct.  With temperatures hovering at 32 degrees it was 7:30 when we rolled out of the Home Depot parking lot and up onto I-69 heading south.  Twenty minutes later we blew through Fort Wayne Indiana in a cloud of wet snow.  Highways were wet and salted but there were slippery spots.

ONE HAD TO BE ON TOP OF THEIR DRIVING GAME THIS MORNING

Snow flurries picked up north of Indianapolis and about 9:45 we began merging with big city traffic but luckily it was Saturday morning and light.  Indianapolis generally chews us up and spits us out and this morning was no exception when we missed a westbound ramp and ended up touring past Indy’s downtown skyscrapers.  That’s the second time this has happend to us and despite some choice words coming from the driver’s seat we made it through Okay and headed west out of town on I-70.

MAKING OUR WAY WEST THROUGH THE CENTER OF INDIANAPOLIS THIS MORNING

First rest area we came to we barreled in and shut things down for awhile to give our nerves a break.  Kelly rustled up a couple of tuna salad sandwiches and brewed up some coffee.  Still snowing but not as heavy and checking the weather map we could where we would soon be driving out of the winter weather mess we had been in all morning.  No problem with visibility so after a bit we were on our way again.  Traffic was still on the light side and the absence of many trucks was a welcome break compared to the norm.  Our destination today was Effingham Illinois and south a few miles to a little place called Watson.

STOPPED AT A REST AREA WEST OF INDIANAPOLIS AND I SURE  AM HOPING WE HAVE SEEN THE LAST OF THE SNOW

KELLY THROWS A STICK FOR PHEEBS

KEEPING IT BETWEEN THE YELLOW LINES COMING OUT OF THE REST AREA

I wrote the above 3 paragraphs at the Rest Stop we were at.  Minutes after we left there the snow stopped and another 5 miles down the road I was surprised to see the pavement totally dry.  Skies brightened up and we actually had the first of a couple dozen sun splashes all the way to just south of Effingham where this post is coming to you from tonight.

‘HOLY SMOKES’ SNOW FLURRIES HAVE ENDED AND WE ARE ACTUALLY ON DRY PAVEMENT AGAIN

SKIES ARE BRIGHTENING AHEAD

‘OMG’ LOOK CLOSELY ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THE CAR AHEAD….THERE IS A SLIGHT SHADOW THERE AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT CASTS SHADOWS IN THE DAYTIME DON’T WE:))))))

OH NOW NICE TO BRIEFLY FEEL THE WARMTH OF SUNSHINE COMING THROUGH MY DRIVERS SIDE WINDOW

About 9 miles south of Effingham on highway 45 there is place we first overnighted at on our way back to Canada in late winter of 2007.  It’s called the Percival Airpark and it’s just south of Watson Illinois.  There is a small RV Park here as well as a Cafe only open certain hours and days.  Twenty-five dollars a night with full service.  Gravel parking with surrounding grass.  Reason we stopped here was to load up our fresh water tank and fire up the rig’s water heater.  In other words, to de-winterize the Motorhome.  We sure missed our ‘hot water’ needs for a couple days.  Can’t say our de-winterization went smoothly but never mind, we’re good to go now.  This was the first time we had to deal with this winterization stuff since February of 2007.

HERE’S OUR CHIEF PROBLEM SOLVER CHECKING OUT THE PESKY HOT WATER HEATER

Aside from some very messy winter driving today, our Indianapolis ker-fuffle, and our de-wintering fiasco I’d say we did Okay with everything considered but there was a time when we couldn’t get our water heater going I was about ready to charter one of the airplanes here to fly me home whereupon I would have had my friend Richard strap me into my recliner and not let me out of the house ever again. 

I DON’T THINK WE’RE IN CANADA ANYMORE TOTO

At the time of posting this tonight temperatures are dropping but no snow is predicted and roadways should be bare and dry tomorrow.  And visibility is good with a high light cloud cover.  Weather map shows no storms ahead of us for Sunday so basically we’ll simply be trying to stay ahead of the massive cold front coming down this way from the frozen North.  With a bit of, or a whole lot of luck we just might bounce off the west side of Memphis Tennessee and ricochet off in the direction of Little Rock Arkansas.  Well that may or may not happen so we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.  And thanks to all the folks for their well wishes on our travels.  We have crossed the first of several time zones so my posts will be appearing at different times now and I noticed Google Analytics has determined ‘Travel With The Bayfield Bunch has turned over the 6 million page views mark.  Now how the heck did that happen anyway…………………………….

OUR SPOT TONIGHT AT THE ‘PERCIVAL SPRINGS AIR PARK’ AND YES THAT IS ACTUALLY THE SUN YOU SEE TOP LEFT

GROANER’S CORNER:((  An old blind cowboy wanders into an all-girl biker bar by mistake…He finds his way to a bar stool and orders a shot of Jack Daniels.  After sitting there for a while, he yells to the bartender, ‘Hey, you wanna hear a blonde joke?’  The bar immediately falls absolutely silent.  In a very deep, husky voice, the woman next to him says, ‘Before you tell that joke, Cowboy, I think it is only fair, given that you are blind, that you should know five things:         1. The bartender is a blonde girl with a baseball bat.                                                                             2. The bouncer is a blonde girl with a ‘Billy-Club’. 3. I’m a 6-foot tall, 175-pound blonde woman with a black belt in karate.                                               4. The woman sitting next to me is blonde and a professional weight lifter.                                        5. The lady to your right is blonde and a professional wrestler.  ‘Now, think about it seriously, Cowboy…. Do you still wanna tell that blonde joke?’                                                           The blind cowboy thinks for a second, shakes his head and mutters, ‘No…not if I’m gonna have to explain it five times.’

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BAYFIELD ONTARIO TO AUBURN INDIANA…..THE WEATHER ADVISORY WAS ‘MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING’ AND WE HAD US A GOOD DRIVING DAY

It was 5 a.m. when I apprehensively parted the living room curtains to have myself a look outside.  Everything again was covered in a layer of new fallen snow.  Earlier I had heard the big snow blower go by so knew there had to be a substantial amount of snow to bring the snow blower driver out.  By 6 I was outside with my snow shovel clearing a path to the Motorhome.  We only had about 2 inches on the ground and with no wind whipping it around I figured Thursday’s weather advisory was ‘Much Ado About Nothing’.  By 8 o’clock we had everything loaded up and off we went.

‘COME ON PHEEBS WE’RE HEADED FOR CALIFORNIA’

‘BUT WILL THEY HAVE DOGGY TREATS IN CALIFORNIA MOM’??

‘WELL OKAY AS LONG AS THEY HAVE LOTS OF EXTRA DOGGY TREATS FOR ME’

IT WAS 8 A.M. WHEN WE HAD THE BIG WHEELS ROLLING

Turns out the worst of today’s snow was right at home in our driveway with roads only being partially snow covered as far as Grand Bend.  By the time we stopped in Forest Ontario for coffee’s to go roads were bare and drive with only skiffs of snow in the fields.

STOPPED AT TIM HORTONS FOR A COUPLE COFFES TO GO PLUS A SMALL BOX OF TIMBITS 

PHEEBS ESCORTS MISS KELLY BACK TO THE RIG

With Christmas being so close I figured we’d be in for a long line-up at the border so imagine our surprise when there were only two cars ahead of us.  We skipped across that international line in about 2 minutes and the day just simply got better from there.  Could hardly believe the absence of traffic on I-69.  There were times when I looked in my rear view mirror and there wasn’t a single vehicle to be seen.  Stopped at  a Rest Area and there were only 2 semis there.  Truckers must be home for Christmas.  The interstate remained bare and dry.  No wind, no rain, no snow, and cloudy skies even brightened a few times.

HEADING OVER THE BLUEWATER BRIDGE FROM CANADA TO THE UNITED STATES ABOUT 9:45 THIS MORNING

AND THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WHEN YOU ARE NEXT IN LINE AT THE BORDER…..THE PERSON SITTING IN THAT BOOTH UP THERE HAS TOTAL CONTROL OVER WHERE YOU ARE GOING TO SPEND YOUR WINTER……BEFORE ONE GETS TO THAT BOOTH ONE RUNS A GAMUT OF ELECTRONIC SURVEILLENCE EQUIPMENT…..NO WONDER WE ALWAYS GET BUTTERFLYS IN OUR STOMACHS AND YES THAT CORRIDOR AHEAD IS EVEN NARROWER THAN IT LOOKS

DON’T THINK I’VE EVER SEEN A REST AREA WITH SO FEW TRUCKS IN IT

STOPPED SOMEWHERE IN MICHIGAN FOR A LEG STRETCH

We haven’t traveled this route for quite awhile so it was nice seeing old familiar names of towns going by.  We both tired early so decided to call it a day around 2 p.m. which is almost unheard of for us.   We knew there to be a couple Cracker Barrel locations ahead with one being in Auburn Indiana and the other in Fort Wayne.  We figured the Auburn location would be less busy so that is as far as we went today.  Cracker Barrels are always located very close to the Interstates and this one was so easy to reach we were almost in the door before we knew we were in Auburn.  We like doing over-nighters at those crackling of barrel places because they are usually quiet, have grassy areas for Pheebs, and we like their food.  Now having said all that, we are not exactly at Cracker Barrel for the night…..we are at Home Depot just a couple stones throw away from Cracker Barrel.  We could not find an acceptable flat spot in the CB parking lot so slipped over to Home Depot and set up camp in their flatter lot.  From there about 3:30 this afternoon we walked back over to Cracker Barrel for supper.  Kelly had their Fish-in-Chips special while I had an open face roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes swimming in gravy.  We sure do love our Cracker Barrels and the only times we ever go there is when we are on the road traveling.  No CB’s in Canada.

THIS IS HOME FOR THE NIGHT

BET Y’ALL KNOW WHERE KELLY’S HEADING FOR

YEP IT’S CRACKER BARREL ALRIGHT

MADE SURE TO GET THERE BEFORE THE AFTERNOON RUSH AND THIS IS HOW WE LOVE TO SEE OUR CRACKER BARRELS….., EMPTY AND FREE OF NOISE

The Motorhome ran flawlessly today and it was nice being back on the road again.  As usually happens we left all of our angst of these past couple months behind and with each mile traveled our life and times and concerns in Bayfield slipped further and further away.  It has always been that way for us and I knew once we transitioned into the Motorhome we would pick up right where we had left off 10 months ago and feel much better for doing so.  Sometimes the hardest part of getting out for a walk is getting off the couch.  Oh, and tomorrow we may have us a time zone change so my published post will possibly occur in a different time frame depending on where you are.

KELLY FOUND IT A LITTLE CHILLY SO HERE SHE DOES UP HER COAT BEFORE WE WALK BACK TO THE RIG OVER AT HOME DEPOT

GROANER’S CORNER:((  As we were putting out cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve, I accidentally dropped one.  'No problem,' I said, picking it up and dusting it off before placing it back on the plate. 'You can’t do that,' argued my four-year-old.
'Don’t worry. Santa will never know.' He shot me a look. 'So he knows if I’ve been bad or good, but he doesn’t know the cookie fell on the floor?'

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