Thursday,
May 22, 2014
It’s here,
it’s here! The day we are scheduled to
leave has finally arrived. Nearly eight
years since our last trip and over 20 since we went this time of year. We are all so excited.
We had hoped
that possibly the guys could have taken today off and we could have left early
this morning, but it wasn’t to be so. So
instead they hooked the camper up to the truck last night and as soon as they
get home we are suppose to head out the door by 6:00 pm. Our goal for tonight is Van Buren, AR where
we plan on boondocking in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
I spent the
day scooping litter boxes, doing last minute laundry, vacuuming and similar fun
activities. Basically anything I could
do to make the time pass. Anything to help me ignore what felt like a bad cold
coming on. I would NOT let a stupid
virus ruin this trip. So I popped
vitamins and drank gallons of juice and water all day.
Gary had
checked the air in the tires again (for the third time) last night before going
to bed. We’d had all 10 tires looked at
by professionals and had been assured they should make the trip just fine, but
that we would need to look at replacements when we got home. \
As some of
you who follow this blog already know we tend to have tire problems when
traveling great distances despite how great the tires looked. We had the money in a tire fund to replace
them, but we had been assured all 10 were fine.
So Gary checked the air one last time last night and we were all ready
to go.
We did have
the “security blanket” of knowing we had a brand new spare for the trailer, a
near new spare for the truck and the tire fund if we needed it. So we set out realizing we’d done our best to
assure a safe trip.
At 6:15pm we
headed down the driveway with “C is for Cookie” blaring on the stereo system
and very proud of ourselves for leaving so close to on time. For those new to my blog, We played “C is for
Cookie” as we got near the exit we now leave from on our very first trip and
have done so on nearly every trip since.
The one trip we didn’t we had a horrible trip with everything from flats
to the air conditioning dying in the car on an August trip as well as having a
van that would simply stop running when it rained and anyone who has been to
WDW knows that time of year it tends to rain a little every day.
Eleven miles
later one of the passenger side trailer tires blew sending that bumper of the
trailer off into the great beyond.
Thankfully we were on the outside lane and the bumper didn’t hit anyone.
Traffic was
heavy so we limped about 3 miles to the first big parking lot we could easily
access. Taco Bueno.
While we ate
a fast food supper we discussed whether or not to just camp there for the night
and try and get tires in the morning at the Wal-Mart next door or move on
toward Van Buren on a wing and a prayer. It was just past the closing time of
the tire center so there was no getting one right then.
The guys
changed the tire quickly and declared it too hot to stop there that early for
the night and we went on toward Van Buren, AR.
Never before has I-40 felt so rough as it did that night, and for most
of the trip to be truthful.
Every little
bump, wobble or noise made us all a little more tense. When we reached the Arkansas Welcome Center near
Van Buren we pulled in between the semis and called it quits for the
night.
By then the
temperatures had dropped from in the 90’s to an almost bearable 80. Because of where we were boondocking we did
not roll the slides out so ds, Sean had to simply spread his sheets over the
sofa and curl up to sleep on a sofa that was too short for him to stretch out
on. Unfortunately this looked to be the
set up for the next two nights as well due to circumstances beyond our control.
Despite the
flat and the annoying persistent tickle that was in the back of my throat we were all in decent moods because we refused to let something as minor
as a flat dampen our spirits. I had decided to not let the guys know about the tickle.
Jan who was
thankful to finally have the trip started in OK
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