1 bus heading to Spartanburg SC

... spending the night at Tupelo MS

Bagged breakfast bag, BB went down to get the food and was not impressed with the staff.

... later when I was checking out, I noticed that they had charged me $1.50 for the safe in our room. Normally I would have asked to have it taken off ... but I didn't want my head taken off is I didn't comment. Person was not having a good day. Not down right rude, but not happy to have to work.

Today we are heading out at 7 AM to get to the park by 10 AM.

1st stop - Sallisaw at the rest area. It was 150 miles from the hotel to the park and that was too far. And we were not expecting rest rooms to be open at the park.

2nd stop was the park in Van Buren to have my windshield fixed. I had looked at a map and street view pictures to decide which way to go in. The main turn looked really bad on the street view, lots of huge ponds of water to drive through. But today I only saw one pond of water so decided at the last minute to turn in there. Good thing I did. The driveway I had planned on coming in was gated. Locked shut.

I hoped up on the front bumper to take the protective plastic off the windshield and the fix it guy was there. We both were about 10 minutes early. At first I just pealed the plastic down so he could work on it. Then when he was done I tried to put it back on. It stuck OK but there were so many air bubbles between the plastic and the glass that I couldn't see well. Maybe if I had used the edge of a credit card and slowly worked my way up. But I just tried using the side of my hand. That worked so well ... all those smushed bugs coming off the plastic onto my hand.

It took the guy about 45 minutes. It was a very small chip. When he was done I could still see a spot in the glass when looking against the light. Actually could see a lot of those type of small spots in the windshield if the sun hits it right. Direct bill to the company. Now ... maybe ? a couple of un-eventful days.

I carefully turned around in the parking lot. I didn't want to drive under any trees, no issue I was able to get out. The park was only about a block off the interstate so a good spot.

3rd stop - Morrilton at a Loves for fuel and food. Small place. Five pumps and about 10 parking spots. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get in back wards to fuel here. There was no place to turn around before getting to the pump but luckily I was able to make a u-turn in front of the next island and get in. Then when I was done fueling I had to turn around again to get to a parking spot.

I found a spot, kind of. A semi would not have fit but the next spot had an RV in it so I was able to fit between. Surprising that in such a small and busy place that the trucks kept moving. No one was blocking the pumps.

We both decided to have shelf Godfathers instead of Subway. I had Hawaiian and and BB had The Works. We sat in our usual spot. The front step of the bus.

On the way to our next stop I tried passing two local school buses. The 1st one was easy but the 2nd one I was only gaining on by the inch. Finally when I was about half way past them, they must have backed off to let me go. I was getting quite a following, but I had been following them for a while and wanted to drive max speed.

4th stop - Forrest City at a rest area

And for the highlight of our day, we crossed the I-55 bridge into Memphis. The I-40 bridge is closed so both freeways are using 'the old' bridge. I-40 gets one lane, I-55 gets the other lane. It is coned off that way for quite a distance. We saw a bunch of trucks exiting the freeway and took note of who they were. Later we saw them on the frontage road trying to beat the system. They did not.

Other than right where the two freeways join, traffic was always moving. Not sure why, but the I-40 lane was at a standstill for a few minutes. Wait. Right at the end of the coned area there was a semi stalled. He may have been why we were stopped and the other lane was not.

It took an hour to go those 10 miles, at the peak of rush hour. Wouldn't want to have to do it every day but for us, we knew it was coming so we just planned for it.

There were two routes to get to I-22. The way I wanted to go and the way the computer wanted me to go. Today we went with the computer. And when I got there the sign said I-269 North. NORTH? Yes we back tracked a few miles but it was faster, if we had been going the speed limit, than the route past the airport.

150 miles we made without an extra stop.

5th stop was the Loves in Tupelo for my final fuel. 450 miles to go and I expect I am going to be leaving a lot of extra fuel on this one. The other option would be to fill close to the drop and stick the tank as I am fueling. I would guess that some do. But I still will make really good money on this trip.

10 more miles to the hotel. Again I follow the computer. Not the way I would go but it says it is faster. We could see the hotel from the freeway and 10 minutes later we were there. Big loop. The hotel is at intersection of two freeways and the first exits are about two miles down the road.

6th and final stop is the Best Western in Tupelo. BB had checked this afternoon and they were sold out. Good we made our reservation last night. The parking lot looked full at first. Then we realized the cars on the back side of the building were from people eating at the place next door. I had no problem fitting in the front of the building. But I didn't dare waste any time. All it takes is one car in the wrong place and 8 car spots are now NA for a bus.

No towels? So we asked and got pool towels.

We don't like to wait for food so we went to the least busy place. It would have been my first pick anyway. Ribs. We didn't order ribs, we both ended up with Philly's. They were supposed to be ready in 10 minutes so we walked back and carried the last of our luggage up. The rib place also had deserts that looked really good but we past.

Load board

US - 324

IA - 96 / 94

MN - 2

WI - 7

NC - 14

Nothing new good out of NC. The Effingham one is still there. A few others are gone.

And another Garfield MN RV is ready in IN. But not likely that will fit into our plans.

I'm still holding out for something going to IA, MN or WI. If there is nothing by when I drop Monday we will pick from what there is. We are hoping something it will be something from Shelby. We did the math and Creedmore, the other place we get trucks, would add about six hours to the trip.

Depending on where the final truck is going will decide if BB will follow me back to MN in a rental car. If we take the Effingham IL one or something shorter, she will follow. If we get something closer to home, we will return the rental in NC and BB will ride with me.

Right now there are NO one way rental cars so we are hoping they will still give us ours.

WOW the load board is down below 100. 1st time this month. Only one time last month and before that it was down below 100 for a couple of days the end of Jan and the first days of Feb. Still lots of work.