Author: Easin' Along

Helen and I were all a-twitter about beginning our road trip to California and the Rockies. The plan was to leave very early last Friday, make the long drive to Memphis, and arrive at a decent hour. The plans of mice and men often go astray. The restrictions in our neighborhood only permit RV’s in for a maximum of twenty-four hours for loading and unloading—which is fine with me.

Helen had worked very hard before Thursday to have all the food organized for loading, and what little clothing isn’t already in Dora (trailer) was neatly folded and would go into the trailer in minutes. I drove to the facility where Dora remained between trips and touched the power button for the controls that raise the nose of the trailer to allow me to hitch it to the truck.

No power to the controller. I hooked the trailer to the battery connection on Ruby and let the truck run for about 30 minutes, thinking the batteries would charge sufficiently, and I would hook up and move on. That never happened.

I removed the batteries and took them back home, and put them on the battery charger in my garage. When I checked the batteries after two hours, they had only reached half charge. The batteries are almost brand new. I loaded the batteries back in the truck and drove to the retailer that sold them to me. They agreed that something was off-kilter, but they wanted to try charging them on their super-duper charger before they could honor the warranty.

At around 5:30 that evening, the technician agreed that the batteries were defective and needed replacing, but…he didn’t have any in stock. I pitched a fit and demanded that he find some somewhere—now. He called around to some other stores and found two at a store in a small town 30 miles away. I took off and made it to the store ten minutes before it closed. Now, I had to drive back to Dora’s storage facility, install the batteries, and pray that the controls worked. Prayers answered. I arrived home at around 7:30 and loaded my clothes, ate dinner, and hit the sack.

We finally made it out of Knoxville around 10:00 am on Friday and reached Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis, Arkansas, in less than seven hours. This park sits right on the Mississippi River. After the harried events of the day before, I welcomed the soothing effect of watching towboats and barges float by while savoring a glass of fine red wine. I captured an image of a barge floating toward a brilliant sunset, putting an exclamation point on the end of day one.

We enjoyed two nights at Tom Sawyer Park. Two dear friends that I shared a house with in my college days came by to spend the afternoon with us on Saturday. Both are Memphis natives and know Memphis barbeque. They treated us to a lunch of ribs and pulled pork. We had a grand time catching up, and the events of Thursday were erased entirely by now. I owe them for that.

From West Memphis, we drove to Roland, Oklahoma, a small town near Ft. Smith, Arkansas. We discovered our campground on one of our return trips from the west. Cherokee Casino in Roland has five campsites with full hookups on a first-come-first-served basis, free of charge. Free is good, but they manage to collect in other ways. After two days, I did well in the casino, but Helen paid for our campsite. Oh well, we had fun. Roland, Oklahoma, sits in the middle of farming country, with not much else there except the casino and adjoining hotel. As soon as we set up n the campsite, five deer came to greet us. The sunrise on the first morning was stunning.

The third stop I’ll share is the campground at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The campground is nice but relatively small and is another that takes no reservations. We called ahead and learned that three spaces were open, but the manager recommended that we hurry. We made it with time to spare. This campground is a bargain at twenty dollars a night. We took advantage of the laundry facility and walked around the lovely lake for exercise. The “Tinker Turtles” were out and soaking up the sun.

Today (Thursday), we drove to Amarillo, Texas. This is a one-night stop. We will drive to Albuquerque, New Mexico Friday morning. Fifteen weeks to go…thanks for Easin’ Along with us. Please come back!

If all goes well, Helen and I should be on the road to Memphis on the first day of our summer road trip when this post is published. After almost a year of planning, Campsites are reserved, an itinerary prepared, Dora (our fifth-wheel) is loaded, and Ruby (new truck) is eager to lead the way. We both received the second of two COVID vaccinations more than two weeks ago. The vaccines don’t make us bulletproof, but we do feel safer than we did when embarking on RV trips in 2020.

We will travel a lot of the ground we covered last summer, but much of that ground was closed due to the pandemic. On the positive side, the pandemic reduced the crowd in the National Parks. We had no trouble finding parking and never encountered long lines; nevertheless, there was limited access to some of the attractions and points of interest we hoped to visit.

We spent three months on the road last summer but added a fourth month to this journey. Canada opens its borders after shutting us out in 2020, and we secured reservations in the campground on Lake Louise in Banff National Park in late June. I held my breath while making this reservation.  When reservations opened this past Monday, we were number 32,239 in the online queue.  I spent five hours waiting for my turn to reserve a spot. Persistence paid off. We’re in and looking forward to the experience that everyone who has visited Lake Louise says is incredible.

We begin this trip by heading to California (by way of Las Vegas), with stops in Utah and Colorado on the way. Once in California, we will spend some time hugging our grandchildren while camping with them at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Next, we move north along the coast to the northwestern tip of Washington before turning east toward Canada, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. I have posted a map of the route below. It’s not very clear in pinpointing each stop but does show the direction and the states we visit along the way.

I look forward to the photo opportunities as much as I do exploring the new places on the itinerary. We fell in love with the unique landscape of Yellowstone and Glacier National Park last summer, as well as the wildflowers on Mt. Rainier. Photographs from that trip serve as wallpaper on my desktop, and I never tire of seeing the scenery.  Some of those pictures are shared above and here.

Hopefully, we will share our journey with weekly updates. Please join us and know that we would love to have reader suggestions of places to visit along the way. Use the comments section of Easin’ Along.  We will read them all and reply. Wi-Fi is a bit iffy in some parts of the road less traveled, but we’ll get back to you as soon as we recover a signal.

Although we’re in a hurry to begin the journey, we’re still…Easin’ Along.

This year’s abundant rainfall has produced a beautiful early spring in East Tennessee. Our grass is lush green, and the early blooming trees, flowers, and shrubs are stunningly brilliant. The daffodils and crocus have, for the most part, come and gone, but the tulips, dogwoods, and azaleas are putting on quite the show. I had to share and maybe brag on our region a bit as we raise the curtain on another splendid spring showing.

The Dogwood Arts Festival, which began in 1955, draws attention to the spring blooming season’s arrival by featuring public and private gardens that are open to visitors. Also featured are driving routes through several neighborhoods, designated as Dogwood Trails, where flowering trees are plentiful and yards landscaped to perfection. The trails are a sight to behold, but our blooming period is always too short in East Tennessee.  We seem to go from cool weather to hot almost overnight.

In addition to highlighting things floral, the Festival also focuses on the arts, both performing and visual. Festival organizers schedule concerts, theatrical performances, art galleries, and craft shows to entertain visitors from all over the region and the entire country with local artists’ skills and talents in hundreds of venues. It’s busy, but it’s fun.

One of the more popular events on the schedule is named “Chalk the Walk,” where the first 500 artists to register compete for prizes in several age groups. Each artist receives a box with 48 chalks and pastels to draw their masterpiece. In the past, the competition took place in our downtown square and was always well-attended by on-lookers wishing to view genius at work.

I had not planned to blog this week.  Helen and I are in a frenzy preparing to leave on an RV trip, and I still had taxes to finish, a doctor, dental, and eye appointment, a wedding to attend, and a myriad of last-minute details to complete.  Nevertheless, when I heard that the Chalk Walk competition was on for this week, I thought I would share some of the drawings with Easin’ Along readers.  I grabbed both cameras and drove downtown.  When I reached the square, there were maybe ten people there and no artists.  I called the Festival office thinking that the competition had moved to another location.

A very polite gentleman answered the phone and informed me that Festival organizers decided not to risk the event becoming a “super spreader” during the pandemic.  Artists would still compete, but individually, at a site of their choosing, and submit a photograph of the finished product to the judges online. I understood but was very disappointed.

I wanted to share these gifted artists’ works, but finding a work in progress would be impossible with the limited time available to me.  Instead, I looked up some images from previous competitions on the Festival website and “borrowed” a few to share.  Google Images also had several good examples.  I hope you enjoy them. When artists are chalking the walk, we know that “spring has sprung” in the hills of East Tennessee.

Have a great week everyone. We’re Easin’ Along.