What a luxury to be able to outrun a storm. It is balmy, warm, sticky
in our jeans and snow boots and sleeveless shirts here in Conway,
Arkansas. We left the Waffle House in Lebanon, MO at the ungodly hour
of EIGHT AM! We had trucks coming in and out all night and each and
every truck had a refrigator unit which was not only deafening, cycled
All Night Long. I was very happy to be driving out of the parking lot
at EIGHT AM IN THE MORNING with breakfast in all the kids’ lunchboxes,
coffee for Jamie and myself and a day of driving OFF interstate. We
took I44 down to Springfield MO (the Simpsons creators decided on a good
name for their town; there is a Springfield in each and every state
we’ve been to in the midwest, and probably many counties as well). I
had tried, unsuccessfully, to stop at the Lincoln Museum and Library in
Springfield IL but it was located in a mall of downtown buildings with
only parallel parking and nothing to accomodate a big ass trailer.
Last night Jamie and I downloaded days worth of weather maps and
decided we’d outrun the storm coming down from Canada and turning all
the states blue with cold, snow, sleet and ice. We drove lovely roads
through the Ozarks and were amazed by the beauty of the mountains. We
found all the leaves which were missing from the trees in the
northlands; they’ve all migrated down here to Arkansas. Lots of
beautiful turning color maple leaves still on the trees. We decided to
take highway 65 south through Branston, Harrison and eventually Little
Rock and from there we’ll head to Louisana and Mississippi. The coldest
of the storm is west, so the beaches and south Texas will be very cold
but southeastern Louisana and Mississippi should be ok. At least no
snow or ice. According to the weather maps and prognostications, Texas
should thaw by Saturday or Sunday and we’ll head down then. For now,
we’ll hug southeast Louisana and Mississippi and wait it out on the
edge.
For only the second night since we started travelling, we’re at a
WalMart. I refuse to shop them and will not even park in their
RV-friendly parking lots, but Jamie really only feels comfortable at
WalMart so here we sit. I was able to find a Goodwill in walking
distance that is not quite as expensive as its midwestern cousins and
bought swimsuits for the girls, 2 pairs of pants for Sissy (FINALLY she
has enough pants, now that we’re Mexico bound and will be wearing only
shorts or dresses until these new (well, new to her) pants are
outgrown), a dress for Ellen, books galore and a bear for Pikey. If we
are overweight, it must be from the 3,982,355 bears the kids bring
everywhere with them.
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