Travel Day Four Since the Ridge

Sam's Club, Texarkana, Texas

On Friday, Oct. 25^th we both woke from a good sleep.  Nothing unusual for me, usually, but when Bill says that, I’m always pleased. Especially on a travel day. 😊 He was up at 6 with Gibbs and I was up at 6:15, hopping into the shower. Bill had his late last night but I’m not into evening showers for some reason. Bill made our morning hot drinks, we gave Gibbs his Gravol (wrapped in cheddar) and had our cereal.

Good morning!
We're on the road again. 

There were quite a few colour changes
but nothing very bright for most of the trip.

Pack up began, at a normal pace but we still surprised ourselves by pulling out of the park at 7:30. Our goal was 8 am. Bonus! We have a long day ahead of us and although many of our friends will do only 300 to 400 miles in a day, sometimes we push the limit, if possible and if necessary. We don’t mind as long as we take breaks when we need to. Last night, I made our ham salad sandwiches and cut some cheese for you know who.

Gibbs wasn't fully settled yet but
he was laying down right away.

We hopped on TN-155N and then within 10 miles, we were on I-40W. In case it wasn’t obvious in my last two posts, we had a great time in Nashville. To the commenter who lives in Nashville, it would have been great to meet you to see what you would offer but I certainly appreciate you reading my blog. Means a lot!

We always see interesting things on the drive.
These tires are just a tad too big for us. Teehee

Back on the highway. When we left it was 54F/11C with clear skies. It just warmed up, and quickly, from that point. We crossed the picturesque Tennessee River and just enjoyed the drive. 

We crossed 3 large rivers today.
The Tennessee River

The Great Mississippi
(not looking so great today)

The Arkansas River
was the most impressive to us.

This one patch of colour was the
best I saw (& captured)

No room at the 'inn' in this rest area so
we broke the rule and parked in the 
No Parking area. We HAD to stop!

We had new pavement for a lot of the way and stopped at the Jackson, TN Rest Area. The spots for trucks and rv’s were full but we were desperate (to put it mildly) so Bill pulled the Suite over to the side at the curve and we all took care of business.  There was lots of room for passing us, although no one had to. It was now 76F/22C. You will notice an hourly increase in that number throughout the day! Well, almost.

Park of our route near Little Rock
and I'd say Bass Pro Shops are
in the money! Look at this awesome building!

Seemed as if everything changed when we neared and then crossed the bridge and Mississippi River into Arkansas. The roads were terrible, especially around Memphis, TN and then West Memphis, AR. Once more, we will be afraid to look inside when we stop. We stopped for fuel and lunch at Widener, AR at a 76 station. The price was a ridiculously good $2.99/gallon and Black Beauty gobbled up 28.809 gallons.

Woops! I must be tired, I duplicated pictures.
Sorry!

By now, we were driving in 87F/28C temperatures. Just wow! 😊 When we crossed the Arkansas River @ Little Rock, Arkansas, I had to admit that it was putting on a better show than the Mississippi did today. It was quite lovely. You can check out Bill’s blog for the route map and miles travelled. We arrived at Texarkana, AR and Texarkana, TX around 4. I think it is very cool that the one city is split between two states. Almost down the middle.

I only saw 2 water towers today worth
taking a picture of. Sorry, they aren't very good pictures though.
I didn't even know there was such a thing as West Memphis,
let alone that it was in Arkansas.

We had two choices here. One was to stay at the Rest Area, and the second was to stay at Sam’s Club. Because we wanted to pay our membership for S.C. we opted for the second choice. It was busy at 4:15 when we pulled in, of course, but traffic was feeling congenial and let us turn ahead of them. My gps said overnight stays were allowed but to notify the manager.

It's not snow, it's cotton
Check out the temperature at 2 pm.

It was 89F/34C, which is almost too hot but it will be dropping overnight about 20 degrees this evening and we’ll be moving on tomorrow. The store closes at 8 pm so this should be a quiet night for sleeping. It has been a long day, Bill did awesome and I didn’t have to splash water in his face to keep him awake. Bonus! I did, however, have a wet facecloth for him to wipe his face and neck at one point. ♥

Welcome to Texas!
Sam's Club missed out, we were going to
do some shopping here. Nope!

We popped into Sam’s after we each had a cold drink to pay our dues and inform them we were here for the night. What a kerfluffle! No one knew where the manager was, no one would commit to saying 'ok' and after 15 minutes, they shrugged and said 'no, you probably can't stay'. Duh! 

These tacos were sooo good.
I need to make them for myself!
Supper was cheap. Bill had a loaded bacon cheeseburger w/fries & drink.
My tacos came with a drink. Total bill $18.

We had already decided we'd eat out at the Dairy Queen, at the edge of the parking lot so we did that first. Now, choice one came into play. We put things away, pulled slides in and my superb driver got us out of here, back down to the Rest Area (about 8 minutes) and got us parked before 7:30. Mind you, doing this in the dark is no fun so it is good to have large spaces. 

It was a pretty sky, too bad for the signs 
in the way.

Aside from that mess up, it was a great day. We have moved on quite a distance and things are falling into place. If you are reading Bill's blog on your phone, don't forget to go down to the bottom, click on 'web version' to brighten the page up. Also, he posted before we were told we had to move. 😔

I'll get a picture of where we actually stayed in the morning.
Good night.

Thank you for stopping by!