Details: 8.25 hours travel time; 429 miles Total miles: 1275
Obviously we survived last night but I'll remember it as one of the scariest that I've ever spent. A tornado touched down in Fort Smith, Arkansas--which we'd driven through a few hours earlier. Thank heavens we decided on the campground 40 miles farther west!
We weren't totally unscathed, though. Early this morning the sky darkened and thunder rolled over, heralding a hail storm. For about ten minutes we were pelted with mothball-sized hail. After it passed, we quickly unhooked the utilities, stowed our gear and got on the road about 8:00.
We'd spent Monday and Tuesday pressing west on I-40. Today we turned north and traveled
from eastern OK into central Kansas. As far north as Tulsa, every body of water was above normal level if not flooded. From Tulsa northward the terrain shows a slight but constant elevation gain and occasional rolling hills. There were no signs of massive rainfall or storm damage so perhaps this area missed what had swept through to the south.
It would be inaccurate to describe the scenery in OK and KS as 'dramatic' or even 'interesting.' By default, the best parts of our day's journey were: #1 listening to Morning Edition on NPR and #2 finding a wonderful travel center with easy-in/easy-out gas pumps and an upscale McDonald's. Really!
We're spending tonight in Russell, Kansas, whose claim to fame is being birthplace of Bob Dole. No wonder he spent so many years in Washington! There's a pizza-and-beer joint, an Italian buffet, a Pizza Hut, a McDonald's (definitely not upscale) and two sad RV parks. We are staying in the one next to the historic oil rig museum.
Forecasts show that the violent storms are moving east and this region will be clear and calm for the remainder of the week. Good weather will certainly reduce a significant amount of this trip's stress.
The Jeep's left tail-light doesn't operate when it's attached to the RV's electrical system. We played around with the cable and it worked briefly but shortly went 'on the blink' again. While bouncing along an extremely rough section of concrete highway, the radio jarred loose from its slot in the dash and stopped working completely. I forgot to bring the can-opener.
Russell, Kansas
April 27, 2011
Scenic Surroundings
Details: 8.25 hours travel time; 457 miles Total miles: 846
Last night was a noisy one. Shortly after we went to bed, the weather radio squawked a blaring severe thunderstorm alert. It took a while before we were able to get back to sleep. Sometime after midnight we were awakened by heavy rain beating on the roof of the RV. Exhaustion finally triumphed over the racket and we slept uninterrupted until about 6:30.
Gaining an hour by crossing into the Central Time Zone yesterday helped us start out early this morning. As soon as we pulled onto I-40W we began to see the results of last night's storms: trees sheared-off about 20 feet from the ground, large signs blown down, a tractor-trailer tossed on its side. Every body of water we saw--creek, river, lake--was high and brown. The "Big Muddy" was just Big Mud today.
In my opinion, Arkansas is a state one goes through rather than to and the quicker one goes through it the better. (To be fair, the section from Little Rock to the Oklahoma border is more scenic with a better road surface and less traffic than the West Memphis to Little Rock stretch.) A woman at the Welcome Center told us a tornado hit near Little Rock last night; we learned later that 10 people had been killed.
We reached tonight's destination, Sallisaw, OK, about 3:30 and had the RV hooked up by 4. Since then, we've been watching local TV forecasters warn about and track approaching storms. A line of severe thunderstorms and a tornado have already skirted this area but more clusters are moving toward us; there's a tornado warning for this county until 10 PM.
Sallisaw, OK
April 26, 2011
Sallisaw KOA
Details: 7.5 hours travel time; 389 miles Total miles: 389
Here's hoping the rest of the trip goes as smoothly as this first day! We'd planned to leave home by 8 AM but the last-minute chores required to get the house ready took longer than anticipated. We got underway at 9:15.
I made three wishes for light traffic, good weather and low gas prices--and got all of them today. We didn't encounter congestion or delays, even around Knoxville or Nashville, found gas for 15 cents less/gallon than in Brevard and had no rain or tornadoes.
The day's 'cherry on top' was getting an RV site able to accommodate the length of the motor home with the Jeep attached. Eliminating that hitching-up step will save us time and frustration tomorrow morning.
After extending the slide-outs and hooking up the utilities, we strolled around the campground, ate a simple dinner, took our showers in the bath-house and settled in for the night.
No excitement today (except for finally beginning the adventure we've looked forward to for so long) but that's a good thing.
Fred and our rig at the
Hurricane Mills KOA
April 25, 2011
Sunday, April 24th
It feels as though we've been in preparation-mode for months. Looking back, I guess we have. We made innumerable to-do lists, checklists, shopping lists and have completed all but the 'last minute' list which can't be tackled until tomorrow morning. Everything (that is, everything we've thought of) has been packed, stowed, cleaned, gotten rid of, mowed, painted, gassed up or otherwise attended to.
The house is ready! The RV is ready! The Jeep is ready! Not sure I'm ready, though I'm excited about being in Utah but apprehensive about getting to Utah--tornadoes and flooding in the midwest, snow and freezing night-time temperatures in Bryce and the price of fuel all present elements of uncertainty and concern.
The plan is to leave tomorrow at 8 AM and spend the night west of Nashville, TN, about 390 miles for the day. We have our fingers crossed for calm weather and light traffic.
