Monday night, April 13th

It has been a week since I sent out the last Travelogue. As mentioned in the last issue, the weather skunked us out on Sunday and Monday. The coach can get REAL small with two rainy days and two of us searching for things to do to fight the boredom. Tuesday was a gorgeous day with warm temperatures and lots of sun. We finished got lots of things completed on the house.

Mom’s Place has been our lunch and dinner eatery for last week. We lost a couple of the folks who had to leave, but the hearty ones endured and have stayed for an extra week to get as much done as possible. The roof is almost completed with all the shingles installed. The hip roof over the front porch was a special challenge that wasn’t in the plans. Since the truss company sent a small hip roof, we decided to put it on and dress up the front entryway. Shingling that hip roof was a real challenge - for this beginner roofer. Thank Heavens for Fred’s patience and teaching - I am almost a roofer now! The hardyboard siding is on all sides of the house and we got a good start at installing the plastic soffets and trim. It really looks like a house now.

On Wednesday we decided that we wanted a change from Mom’s Place and drove to Forsythe’s, a restaurant in downtown Americus that served Michelob Amber Bock by the pitcher. That was a pleasant surprise as we have been in a dry county for the past three weeks and Fred and I shared that pitcher. Dottie and I had a pizza that really hit the spot. When we left the restaurant, we drove to the Super Wal-Mart and stocked up on some needed groceries and supplies. Then we stopped at the Wendy’s for a couple of freezes. We returned to the coach by 8:45, got the food stored, and crashed. Like most of the nights we’ve been here, Thursday morning came too early. There are only 6 of us left to do the final effort, and all of us are tired and feeling the minor pains.

Terry Adams, owner of the IGA and resident Harley owner, invited Dottie and me to join his Thursday night riding buddies and go to the Back Porch for the seafood buffet. He even offered me a motorcycle to ride. I was all ready to go after work, but once I got a hot shower, I realized that I was physically beaten and decided to pass on the ride for a quiet evening in the coach with leftovers. Seems like an intelligent decision in spite of my thrill at the thought of a motorcycle ride. Oh, well…

Friday morning we watched the remaining three coaches prepare for departure. They all left at different times, but we were the only coach staying for another night. It was very quiet on Friday afternoon when we received a phone call from Dave Ostrander. He was concerned for our safety as he had been watching the approaching weather that was moving east from the Mississippi area. We began to watch The Weather Channel and followed the severe weather as it moved toward us. There were two huge cells that had tornado potential and we followed them as they continued to Columbus, GA, about 40 miles from us. I finally went to bed with my weather radio in the windowsill. It continued to alert every half hour until almost 2AM. Little did we realize that the tornado-like winds were just north and just south of our location.

On Saturday morning we awoke to a quiet, sunny day. We packed and secured the coach and proceeded westbound out of Preston. By the time we got to the Ft. Benning area, we began to see the havoc of the previous night. Tree limbs and branches were all over the roadway. Highway crews were out cleaning the debris off the roads. The highway was clear, but you could see the effects of the wind and the trees that appeared to be snapped off halfway up their trunks. We saw lots of uprooted trees and trunks that were broken about twenty feet in the air. We realized how lucky we were to not have any damage to us or the coach.

We arrived in Selma around 2:30PM and drove through the old downtown area. The changes from 42 years ago were amazing. We found the Elks Lodge and got settled in for the night. Allan Gaston, the Lodge Secretary, met us and found an electrical outlet at the rear of the building for a 20-amp hook-up. We decided to have supper at The Tally Ho, an old restaurant that I remember from my days in the Air Force at Craig AFB. We drove to the restaurant, sat in the old bar, and had a drink. The current owner of The Tally Ho, Bob Kelly, is a Selma Rotarian and a Past District Governor. I had an enjoyable chat with him about Rotary issues and their District’s RYLA camp. We met Dottie’s long-time friend, Garnett Stancil, for a delicious, quiet steak dinner. When we were through, we took Garnett back to the coach to see it and let Nancy have a short walk. Then we went out to Garnett’s house and visited for about an hour. When we returned to the Lodge, we went in for a drink and endured the smoke-filled bar. We were finally in bed by 10.

Sunday morning, Easter morning, we got up, drove to a Mr. Waffle for breakfast, and headed north out of town. The smaller back roads of any state are the most enjoyable and Alabama’s roads are no different. We savored the views of the greenery, the light traffic, and the peacefulness of the slower highways. We finally got to I-65 and drove north through Birmingham. I recall the stories of the teeth-shattering ride on I-10 through Louisiana, Birmingham is the WORST interstate highway I have driven. There is a lot of construction and roads vibrate the coach and passengers to near insanity! Even at the slower speeds I drive it was extremely uncomfortable. We stopped north of town (after missing the turn-off due to lousy roadway marking in the construction zone) at the Flying J to dump our holding tanks and top off the fuel tank. This Flying J is an exceptional one in that the RV lanes are very well organized and easy to reach. Each lane has a dump station, a fuel pump, and room to turn to exit the lane.

We continued north and watched the clouds slowly move in from the east. By the time we turned off the interstate at Cullman, the sky was almost overcast. We drove the next 50 miles hoping to beat the rain. We pulled up in front of Kathy Johnson’s place in Leighton, AL and unhooked the car. I had to “thread the needle” to get the coach backed onto her driveway, but it all worked. We’re here for three nights and a chance to visit with her. Dottie and Kathy grew up together and we have kept in touch with her all these years. Tow years ago (to the day) we visited Kathy and Wayne and had a wonderful time with them at two of the nearby Thousand Trails parks.

While Kathy and Dottie do some running around and playing together, I have a short list of things to do here that will hopefully help Kathy out. We will leave here on Wednesday and drive 150 miles to Memphis and the Elvis Presley Blvd. RV Park, then to Greer’s Ferry Lake, AR for three long-awaited nights with Don & Vicki Leith at their new home. Our slight change in plans is to enable us to go to Huntsville on Tuesday to see the Space Museum. While we’re this close, we’d better take advantage of the opportunity to visit it.

Wednesday, April 15th

Our original plans were to stay only two nights with Kathy Johnson and move up to the Thousand Trails park in southwest Tennessee. However, as we sat around sipping some good stiff drinks, we decided to accept Kathy’s invitation to stay a third night. That way we could all go to Huntsville on Tuesday and visit the Redstone Arsenal and the Huntsville space and Rocket Museum. Kathy had never been there and it seemed like a great opportunity to see a very impressive museum with some interesting history. As many of you know, I’m not very big on museums - especially those that charge a high admission price. This one is high, but worth every penny! Kathy drove us over in her car and we spent the most of the morning walking around the place. It’s an impressive array of rockets and technology that makes a person realize the hazards of space. To see all the rockets up close and personal is awesome, yet scary. All of the machined parts and the rivets that make up the majority of the manned missions cause one to stop and think about the risks that the astronauts have endured during those space flights. There are several “hands-on” simulators that give you the sensation of no-gravity flights. It was a wonderful day walking among the history of NASA and our astronauts.

When we had finally seen all that we could, we found a Landry’s Restaurant and had a bite to eat. The lunch was large and the food was scrumptious! We drove back to Leighton and settled in for a quiet night of Dancing with the Stars.

On Wednesday morning Dottie and I were up early and getting ready to head west. I managed to get the coach out of the driveway with no damage, hooked up the car behind us, and we left about 9:30. We had an overcast day of driving to Memphis and pulled in to the Elvis Presley Blvd. RV Park. It’s located about two blocks south of Graceland. Graceland has no attraction for us, but the traffic was horrible around the tourist trap. Once we checked in we got parked and headed out to see Memphis.

As many of you know, I enjoy eating (or drinking) my way across the country. My microbrewery guide book listed Boscos as a local brewpub. We plugged it in to our GPS and went in search of it. It’s a typical small brewpub that serves food and has a selection of eight microbrews. I sampled a couple of them and bought a half-gallon growler of their Scottish ale to share with friends. When we finished at Boscos, we drove to the old downtown area of Memphis and looked for Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken. I have seen this eatery on The Travel Channel. It was described as the best fried chicken in the country. Well, we have confirmed the evaluation. We had to wait for almost 20 minutes for the dinner to be prepared. We bought an 8-piece dinner to go and brought it back to the coach. It was fabulous! It is spicy enough to make your lips tingle and cooked to a golden, crispy brown. Combined with cole slaw, baked beans, and bread it made a wonderful dinner for the two of us.

We finished dinner, made a quick run to Wal-Mart and ATM, and finished the evening with the TV. We anticipate an enjoyable trip to Greer’s Ferry Lake to see Don & Vicki Leith.