Two New State Stickers!

 

Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021

Our day started a bit inauspiciously. Joe opened the refrigerator, and a jar fell down, hit the bottom shelf (which sits over the produce drawer), and shattered it. Glass was all over the kitchen floor, inside the refrigerator door and shelves ON the door, and most of all, inside and all over the produce drawers. It took us about an hour to thoroughly sweep (5-6 times), get the chips out of the cracks in the refrigerator, and take the entire produce drawer outside, empty it, get rid of the glass, and wash it all out. What a nuisance!!

After that, though, we left to drive to Memphis. I had wanted to leave by 9:00-- due to the glass catastrophe, we left at 10:00. But soon after we got onto the interstate, I saw a sign: "Central Time Zone." AHAH! We got our hour back!

The drive itself was unremarkable, but since the most direct route was through northern Alabama and Mississippi, we got two of the four missing stickers for our map! We also maintained our record of always needing some kind of repair in every state. In Alabama, we stopped for lunch and discovered that one of the hubcaps was coming loose. So Joe fixed it. Then we had to pull over in Mississippi because we were hearing a loud thwacking noise coming from our roof, and Joe (who was the passenger--I drove the whole way) said he could see something hanging off. He climbed up and sure enough, the wide strip of rainproof tape was coming loose. I tossed him up a scissors, and he cut off the tape (which will need to be replaced asap) to stop the noise. 

 And that was the entire trip! Two new states (we also passed through Georgia briefly, but we've been there before years ago with Mo), two small repairs, and a shattered refrigerator door. We arrived at T.O. Fuller State Park in Memphis at about 5:00 local time. I had specifically reserved a site that was described as "fully shaded," but at that time of day, the sun was shining RIGHT on the parking pad, and I could see from the way the trees grew that the afternoon sun would be unimpeded by trees. So I went and spoke to the camp host, and he called the rangers, and supposedly they officially changed us to another spot I saw, which was tucked way back in the trees. It also happened to be a bit slanted (the other site was perfectly flat), which is kind of a nuisance. But I'm more worried about Cassie being cool during the day than about being perfectly level. It was brutally hot and humid all day, and leaving the air conditioned RV was like stepping into a wall of heat. Yuck!

I seem to have brought NO info with me about sightseeing in Memphis, so tomorrow we may have to be tourists and look for a tourist center. Meanwhile I will use the internet-- it's very important to find out WHICH BBQ place we'll be eating in tomorrow!