Tupelo, MS to Springfield, MO

Apparently we still haven't adjusted to being in the Central Time Zone, we woke up at 7 a.m. again this morning. None of us slept too well last night (including Tinker) even though we had a 12v fan blowing across the bed - it was just really warm and didn't cool down until early this morning. Tinker found a spot on the kitchen floor that was fairly cool and slept there part of the night.

We were on the road at 8:00 (which is REAL early for us) and we stopped at a Shell station near the Wal-Mart Supercenter to get gas in the RV ($3.599 a gal). The clerk told Mike that gas prices had come down almost 20 cents in the last few days.

We drove northwest on US-78 and west on CR-175 south of Memphis to I-55. We crossed the Mississippi River and saw that the flood waters reached about 4 miles inland near Mound City, AR.

From May Travels

We left I-55 near Gilmore, AR and continued north on US-63. We had originally planned to spend tonight at Perkins RV Park in Jonesboro, but realized that we would be in Jonesboro about noon and that was too early to stop for the day. We decided to continue on to Springfield, MO where we had planned to spend tomorrow night.

When we got to Jonesboro we started to look for somewhere to stop for lunch and found a Big Lots store with a large parking lot. We were back on the road by 12:45 and took US-63 north to Missouri. We enjoyed driving through the hills of northern Arkansas.

From May Travels

When we were near Seymour, MO we saw three Amish families traveling in their buggies along US-63.

From May Travels

We arrived here at Timbercrest RV Park a little after 5:00 and traveling 385 miles today. We started out in Mississippi and drove through parts of Tennessee and Arkansas and are now in Missouri. We're using our Passport America membership to stay here. We have full hookups (50 amp) and a pull through site for $15.

From May Travels

I tuned in the local TV stations and found out that there was severe weather heading this way. We were concerned because the TV stations were tracking tornado activity near Joplin, MO and the storm was heading east - Springfield is east of Joplin. We did have some heavy rain and some wind, but no hail and no tornado. The worst of the weather went south of Springfield. After the storm passed, Mike went outside and took some photos of a double rainbow in the sky over Springfield.

From May Travels

We were SO LUCKY! The reports we've seen so far of the damage done in the Joplin area is terrible and about 2 dozen lives lost so far. The hospital there looked like a bomb had gone off and vehicles on I-44 apparently were "tossed around". I'll say again, we were very lucky tonight.

Ozark, AL to Tupelo, MS

We had set our alarm last night for 8 a.m. this morning, but we woke up at 7:00 - our bodies must still be on Eastern Time. Everything went well this morning in getting ready to leave Ozark Travel Park until I tried to put the living room slide in - nothing happened. I pressed the switch again - still nothing! Fortunately the third time was the charm. We left the campground a little before 9:00 and headed north on US-231.

When we got to Montgomery we took Taylor Road up to I-85 and then west to I-65 and then north to Birmingham. About 40 miles south of Birmingham we saw a construction crew repairing a drain in the median of I-65 and the traffic on the south bound lanes was reduced to 1 lane. The traffic was backed up for 4 miles and we were so glad that we weren't on that section of I-65.

From May Travels

We drove through Birmingham on I-65 to I-20 west and then north on US-78. We drove through Forestdale which is northwest of Birmingham and saw some of the damage there from the April 27th tornado. I got a couple of photos, but they only show a small part of what we saw.

From May Travels

From May Travels

By now it was almost 12:30 and we were trying to find a place to pull off & have lunch. We saw a Piggly Wiggly too late to pull into the first driveway and the second driveway was on a side street. As soon as we turned onto the side street we realized that the angle of the drive was too steep for us to attempt with the motorhome. We wound our way through a residential area to get back onto US-78. We found a church with a large parking lot that we could get in and out of and stopped there for lunch. Thank goodness for Microsoft Streets & Trips on our laptop. We have a Garmin GPS, but with the laptop's larger screen it's easier to look at the map and figure out which is the best way to go.

Once we were back on US-78 it was smooth sailing. US-78 will eventually be I-22 when it is finished.


We crossed into Mississippi just before 3 p.m. At Tupelo we took US-45 north to Barnes Crossing Road and then south on SR-145 to the Wal-Mart Supercenter. We had stayed here in October 2007. We arrived here at 3:30 and the temp was near 90°. The weather forecast for Tupelo is predicting tonight's temperatures to be in the high 60's, so it should be comfortable - I hope.

From May Travels

I called the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Tupelo and spoke with an assistant manager and confirmed that we could park overnight in the parking lot after we did our shopping.

Lake City, FL to Ozark, AL

We were up at 8:00, drank our coffee and had breakfast and then got ready to leave Oaks 'N Pines and head to Ozark, AL. We were on the road by 9:40 and heading west on I-10. And, we could actually see out of the windshield - NO love bugs!

From May Travels

We stopped for lunch at noon at a rest area just west of Tallahassee. While we were stopped for lunch, Mike called a post office in Aurora, CO to confirm they accepted General Delivery mail. Then he called American Home Base to have our mail sent to Aurora so it will be there next Friday when we're staying at Cherry Creek State Park. About 40 miles after we left the rest area, we crossed into the Central Time Zone and added an hour to our day.

From May Travels

We traveled north on US-231 and stopped at the Flying J in Dothan to get gas in the RV ($3.649 a gal) and the drove west on the Ross Clark Circle to US-231 north. This is the first time in our travels that we have driven back through Dothan without stopping - a big wave to all of our friends in the Dothan area.

We arrived here at Ozark Travel Park at 2:30. Ozark Travel Park is owned by a high school friend of Mike's, Bill Hemmis. We saw Bill last weekend at Mike's class reunion and were looking forward to seeing him again. Unfortunately Bill isn't here because a family member is ill.

From May Travels

We were escorted to site #17 by Debbie.

From May Travels

We have full hookups (50 amp), free wi-fi and cable.

From May Travels

Later this afternoon I got some quarters from Debbie in the office so I could wash a couple of loads of clothes. There are 3 washers ($1.50 a load) and 3 dryers ($.25 for 15 minutes) in the laundry room here.

This afternoon we could hear the helicopters from Ft. Rucker flying over head - it was nice to hear them again.

There is a deer that is made from pine logs near our RV and this afternoon Tinker saw it through the screen door. It really scared him and you could tell by his bark that he REALLY didn't like the deer!

From May Travels

Vero Beach to Lake City, FL

We got up at 8 a.m. this morning and after having our morning coffee and breakfast, we got ready to leave Tanglewood Village. Mike was able to drive the motorhome out of our campsite without getting stuck in the soft sand at the edge of the road. We decided to wait and hitch up the car after we left the park. We would have had to drive back around through the campground in order to be able to pull out on US-1 with the car attached.

Oh yes - change of travel plans. We decided this morning to spend the night at Oaks 'N Pines RV Park at Lake City instead of stopping in Ocala tonight. We drove west on CR-606 (Oslo Road) to CR-619 (82nd Avenue) and then north to SR-60 and west to I-95 north. Once we were on I-95 after leaving Vero Beach we ran into swarms of love bugs.

We stopped about 11:45 for lunch at a rest area just north of Mims. While we were stopped for lunch, Mike cleaned the windshield on the motorhome. He also called Oaks 'N Pines RV Park to reserve a site for tonight. Normally I like to take photos when we're driving, but as you can see by the photo below - the view through the windshield wasn't very good.

From May 2011

At 2 p.m. we stopped at the Camping World at St. Augustine to get some black streak cleaner which Mike uses to clean the love bugs off of the RV. He had used the last of the cleaner we had when we stopped for lunch today.

We had planned on stopping at a Pilot station just 14 miles north of the Camping World to get gas in the RV. But when we got there we found out that there wasn't enough space at the pumps for us to pull in to get gas and then drive out. We did find a Kangaroo Express station on the west side of I-95 that we could get gas at. We got a little over 52 gallons and our bill came to $198.65 ($3.799 a gal).

At Jacksonville we took I-295 north to connect with I-10 west. I did get a photo of the St. John's River when we crossed over it at Jacksonville.

From May 2011

We arrived here at Oaks 'N Pines at 4:50; we drove 277 miles today. We are in site #49 (full hookups). We had just leveled the RV, when a Class C and a travel trailer pulled into 2 sites next to us. They were on their way to Vero Beach and couldn't get over the love bugs on the front of our motorhome. They even took photos of the love bugs on our RV. They just couldn't believe how many and weren't looking forward to driving through them.

From May 2011

After dinner and when the sun wasn't shining so much on the RV, Mike took a water hose and cleaner and washed off the front of it.

From May 2011

Vero Beach

This afternoon Christine and Carol and another high school friend of Mike's, Mary B., came by the RV for a visit. They had not seen our motorhome, so we gave them the "grand tour".

We showed them the photos Mike took at the 50th Class reunion last weekend for the Class of 1961. Christine, Carol and Mary were in the Class of 1960 and knew a lot of people in the 1961 class. We had a nice visit (no wine today) even if it was a short one.

From Vero Beach, FL

Later this afternoon Mike & I went shopping at Wal-Mart Supercenter. There is a Sam's Club next to the Supercenter and we got gas in the Vue - $3.759 a gallon. The gas station at this Sam's Club is set up with enough room for us to pull through to get gas in the motorhome - except we don't need any.

On the way home from the Supercenter, we happened to see a Five Guys Burgers and since it was after 5 p.m. stopped there for supper. We had our usual - the little bacon cheeseburger and an order of fries.

Tomorrow we will be leaving Vero Beach and heading north to Ocala.

Lake Worth to Vero Beach, Tuesday, May 17

Last night we set our alarm clock for 6:45 so we could get an earlier than usual start today. The office at Tanglewood Village in Vero Beach is only open 9 a.m. to noon. So we left John Prince Park this morning at 8:45.

We drove north on I-95 and stopped at a rest area west of Palm City for a bathroom break and Mike did a walk around of the RV. We exited I-95 west of Ft. Pierce to SR-68 and then north on SR-713 to US-1 south of Vero Beach. We also drove through more swarms of love bugs, but they weren't as bad as our trip south to Lake Worth.

From Vero Beach, FL

We arrived here at Tanglewood Village at 11 a.m. Mike went into the office to register and pay for the 2 nights we will be here. We are staying here with our Escapees membership for $47.25. We're getting a 50% discount for the first night and a 15% discount for the second night. Mike came back with a map of the park that Susie in the office had marked with the available RV sites. We disconnected the car and drove around the park looking at the available sites and finally settled on site #9.

We went back to the RV and Mike followed me to our campsite. We are next to US-1 and there is a large concrete wall just across from our site. There was also a palmetto shrub on the patio side of our site. One of the workers was raking up the pine cones and needles on the site when we looked at it and said not to worry about the palmetto, since they were going to be taking it out.

Let's just say that we had a communication problem between Mike and I in backing into the site. Between the palmetto shrub and the fact that the solid ground covered by shell rock turned out to be sand covered by a thin layer of shell rock- we got STUCK!

From Vero Beach, FL

Mike tried "rocking" the RV back and forth, but the wheels kept sinking further.

From Vero Beach, FL

Mike called Winnebago roadside service and spoke with Diane and she said she would contact a towing company and that it might be about an hour before they came out. It was only a few minutes later when Diane called back to say that Charlie's Towing in Vero Beach would be out in about 30 minutes. The driver had to back the tow truck down the road so he could pull us out.

From Vero Beach, FL

From Vero Beach, FL

By 12:30 we were free from the loose sand and were ready to back into the site again. By backing up and pulling forward and repeating that a few times, Mike backed the RV into our site and we avoided the soft ground and were finally ready to set up camp and have lunch.

From Vero Beach, FL

Carol, a high school classmate of Mike's, is moving to Vero Beach and she flew into Orlando today. Christine, another high school classmate, drove over to Orlando from Vero Beach to pick up Carol and bring her back to Vero.

This evening we went to Christine's house for dinner. Christine's husband, Matt, prepared sandwiches that were huge and we just knew we couldn't eat all of one - but we did. It was terrific and so good! Matt said goodnight a little after we finished dinner, since he gets up early in the morning to go to work at JP Matty's restaurant in Sebastian.

We spent the rest of evening visiting with Christine and Carol and drinking wine.

From Vero Beach, FL

We talked about our days at Lake Worth High School and the friends we made there and what we had been doing since then - a lot of reminiscing and a LOT of wine! Mike & I finally left about midnight to come back to the RV. What a fun evening!

Sue's Visit and last day at John Prince Park

We got a call this morning from Sue F., a high school classmate's of Mike, that wanted to come by for a visit. We had a great visit with Sue and Tinker enjoyed the company. Mike and Sue talked about their memories of growing up in Lake Worth and going to school together.

From John Prince Park & Lake Worth

While Sue had been married she and her husband had traveled around the country in an RV and we traded RV travel stories.

Since this is our last day here at John Prince Park, I drove over to the laundromat here in the campground to do laundry. I had stopped by the office a few days ago and had bought tokens to use in the laundry equipment. I normally don't take photos of the campground laundromats (maybe I should start doing that), but I took the camera with me this morning.

From John Prince Park & Lake Worth

Then this afternoon Mike's cousin, Voncile drove up from Boynton Beach for a visit. Fletcher and a long-time friend from Dothan, Marcus, drove up from Fort Lauderdale. Shortly after they all arrived we went to Rosalita's Tex-Mex Grill for a late lunch. What do you call a meal halfway between lunch and dinner? Voncile had been to Rosalita's a few times when she had come up to Lake Worth for meetings.

After stuffing ourselves, we drove back to John Prince Park and sat outside in the shade. Again we had a breeze blowing across Lake Osborne and it was very enjoyable to be outside. Fletcher had brought Vala up with him and she entertained us chasing her tennis ball.

We had a wonderful time visiting with Fletcher & Marcus (we hadn't seen Marcus in several years) and were sorry when they had to leave.

Voncile left a little while later - we enjoy talking with her about genealogy, family stories and politics.

We had such a great time visiting this afternoon, that we forgot to take any photos.

Tomorrow we are leaving John Prince Park and going up to Vero Beach for a couple of days to visit with a couple of high school friends of Mike's.