Friday, 5 October

Another straight travel day. We're feeling the attraction of home.

Woke to the sound of light rain. That soon turned into heavy rain and thunder. It was also cold again. The storm has caught up with us. When it was time to pick up our gear and head out, Gene found that the power pole and the shore cable were in a big puddle. He flipped off the breaker and was then able to recover the gear. All of it needed to be cleaned and dried before it could be stowed.

We got underway early for us (9:45). We stopped down the road a bit and had a hot breakfast, then found a Walmart to pick up the other two prescriptions that weren't ready yesterday.

Back on the road, we eventually got ahead of the rain, into cloudy but windy weather. Then we even saw some blue sky and warm weather. It was interesting to see the usual progress of a cold front run in reverse.

There were warnings of road work with delays ahead, so Jean found us a parallel road, which we took. It was the first time since Los Angeles that we got off the interstate and drove a country road. We learned that farms in this part of Arkansas grow mostly cotton and soy beans. Just before we got back on the interstate, we stopped at McDonald's for more Coke and a snack. Then Gene took a half-hour nap.

Back on the interstate, the beginnings of the cold front were catching up with us again, --- overcast and some light rain. We hit Memphis at about 6:00 o'clock. Light traffic downtown, a piece of cake; but the outskirts had lots of traffic. Everything settled down in time for us to find our campground. The office was closed until Monday, so we did an after-hours check-in and settled in for the night. We were getting low on water, so Gene set up the water. It began to sprinkle so he decided to fill the tank and then break down the water right away, in case tomorrow began like today. He ended up breaking down the water just as a thunderstorm arrived.

Lots of rain and thunder and much cooler after. Will we drive through it again tomorrow? Will we be playing tag with this cold front all the way home? Keep tuned.