Whirlwind!

The whirlwind day only begins to describe how today went.  I was awakened at 5:30 by my neighbor banging his locker doors as he was packing up stuff around his coach.  That seemed odd, since most things begin around 7AM.  Also it was raining like cats and dogs.  We subsequently learned that they had an appointment for 6AM at the paint booth in one of the factory buildings.  Also they have a crack in their roof, and the rain was coming in, so they wanted to get under cover fairly quickly as well.

The rain had begun around 1:30, and the downpour seemed torrential.  Water was coming in thru our broken fantastic fan and dripping on the bathroom floor.  Loyce had tossed a towel on the floor to help soak it up.  Stepping on that towel with my bare feet jarred me awake, as it seemed very coooold.

We thought we were packing up to move to the runway and head out of town, so we got busy and had breakfast and began the car pack job by moving the car around near the door, where the neighbor had vacated.   We were about half done, when the mechanic from door 15 came by and wanted us in his bay as soon as we could get there.  What? They didn't tell us that!  He was understanding, and we just threw things together in the car.

Once at the door and into the service bay, I went thru the entire list of stuff again with this technician.  He was very helpful and professional.  I explained that we were leaving the coach since the paint process would take longer than we could stay.  He said he would supervise the storage of the rig on the run way, and he knew that Brad the painter would be taking the rig to bay 20 for his part of the job.  We are in good hands, as these guys really know what they are doing.

Brad the painter is the same fellow that repainted the entire front end of our rig last year.  And he remembered doing it too.

By 9:30 we were on the road headed for our Lake place in central Missouri.  It was 500 miles away according to our GPS, so we needed to keep at it all day.  We stopped three times, twice for fuel and potty breaks, and once at a Pilot/Wendy's for lunch.  It was amazing how awful the pilot folks run a Wendy's franchise.  They take the exact same prepared products as all the other stores receive, and proceeded to completely ruin the food in its preparation.  That was in Arkansas just outside of Memphis.

The rain storm that lasted all night, in Northern Alabama had gone thru Missouri and Arkansas prior to its arrival in Red Bay.  We encountered nasty flooding in Northern Arkansas, and at one place had to drive thru water that was over the road.  Luckily it wasn't fast moving or too deep, or we would have had to turn back.  The water in the ditches and the river was flowing in torrents.

When we stopped for gas at the Missouri border, a fellow patron explained that they had received over 12 inches of rain the previous night, and that all the creeks and streams were out of their banks.  We were lucky to have made it thru.

Tonight after 10 hours on the road, we have arrived here at the lake home, with a car full of wet and dirty clothing, and two tired people.  We have decided to stay here thru tomorrow night before moving on toward KC.

Retired Rod