The Final Leg – 2010

Thursday’s trip from Denton to Carthage was under sunny skies with a rare, very brisk tailwind. The only unexpected event was the Oklahoma tolls have increased so we spent $32.50 to get from Oklahoma City to Missouri.

Upon arriving at our dealer, we checked in with service and plan to have the coach there at 8 a.m. Friday morning.

Once settled in the park, we walked The Girls and marinated a big rib eye steak we had bought at Fischer’s Meat Market in Muenster earlier this week. It was awesome.

Friday we drop the coach off at eight and head to breakfast. Before our food arrived, the service manager calls to say it will take about 15 minutes to fix the slide and we won’t need the $300 part he had ordered (just in case). Love that service! We relaxed the remainder of the day and enjoyed the cool fall weather.
One last Mexican dinner at Cabo del Sol in Joplin since we enjoyed it so much just a couple of weeks ago. This will probably be our last Mexican food until we go west again.

On the road early Saturday heading east into the rising sun and Jim says “Guess it’s time to go home; we only have two more coffee filters.” We are starting to see faint fall colors as we cross Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky. Tonight we will stay in Clarksville, Tennessee at a park we have been to many times. It is easy in and easy out.

Cutting our trip short by a couple of weeks seemed the prudent thing to do. The Girls have done really well, but we can tell each day is getting a little harder for them. Thelma is having trouble negating the stairs because of her arthritis. And Louise’s congestive heart failure, now two years since diagnosed, has progressed. We are just happy we were able to do as much as we have and taken them back out on the road.

There is a definite chill in the air Sunday morning as we leave northern Tennessee. It wasn’t long, somewhere between Nashville and Chattanooga, before it starts to rain and continues through Atlanta and well after we pass Macon. The entire world seems to be on I-75 and the weather is awful. But, it’s the visibility is much better sitting up high in the RV to see traffic.

We’ve decided to stop for the day just south of Perry at a nice little park we have stayed at before and the rain continues. Another easy in – easy out place to spend the night.

Monday is our final day for our 2010 trip. It rains all the way to Florida I-10. Moments later Jim utters “Oh no” as the love bugs start hitting the windshield. After two days of pounding rain, the windshield was squeaky clean. Where’s the rain when you need it?

The trip took us over 3,000 miles in six weeks and we have observed that the economy, as seen from the RVer’s point of view, is not all that bad. Our dealer’s sales are up, the RV parks where we stayed were full, and the restaurants were crowded and fuel stops busy.

It was good to get back on the road after spending last summer in Naples. But it has been a bittersweet trip because we feel it is the last trip for the four of us.