Reflections From the Fence: Rough Roads, Ridiculous, Rants

The three "R's" of RVing?? Rough roads, ridiculous (behavior by others) and rants (by moi).

Rough roads, well, we have sure seen some in the last 2 days of travel (from Effingham Illinois to West Memphis to Little Rock to Texarkana Arkansas. Good grief. Tana held up well, so far, we have not seen anything broken or lost. Truly a miracle that a rig can take this kind of mistreatment and still keep on rolling.

Before we started out on Wednesday morning, Cappy decided to go for a walk in the leaves. The leaves just about swallowed him up.

(From my FB page.)

Yes. We are rolling. Jolly's nose pointed due south.

looking for sunshine.

(Several hours later, from my FB Page. The first of several rants about the ridiculous.)

We are ok. Read that again before you read the rest.

That was just too close. Way too close.

You all know how I feel about animals.

But if I have to choose between a dog or deer or anything loose on the xpressway or more than 10 vehicles. Well I choose vehicles and human life.

Little car I hope you realize what a catastrophic event you almost caused. I hope you have wet ones. Cause you should have shit your pants when that 18 wheeler missed running over you cause you stomped on the breaks for that dog. Do you have any idea about the other trucks and Rvs that were dodging and pulling onto the shoulder?

I doubt you realize how close that really was. I doubt you have any idea.

Just way too close.

I hope my blood pressure stabilizes soon.

(No photo, I thought about it, but, was a bit shaky at the time and decided to pass.)

(From my FB page.)

Will chat more about the dog incident. Right now we have power issues at this campground. Man is a bit testy at the moment. Stay tuned.
It's one of those "not all days are created equal" kinda days.
Oh and I don't want to whine so this is a simple statement.
It is freaking cold out there. Dang!!!—

feeling cold

(Let me tell you it was brutal, miserable cold. The wind was blowing the door out of my grasp every time I opened it. Brutal I tell ya. It was not the best of times to be assigned a campsite with a messed up power pole. Wayne, the work camper, came down, replaced a lot of parts, Man and Wayne became quick buddies, but, it was touch and go for a few moments. Just not a good way to end the day after the little car/dog event earlier.)

(From my FB page)

POWER IS A WONDERFUL THING. YES I AM YELLING!!

(Once Wayne fixed the power pole, all was well, and soon, it got warm! Ya us!!)

(From my FB page.)

Now, that dog issue.

It was a gorgeous, black, huge, well taken care of German Shepherd.

We were driving a decent distance behind the 18-wheeler in front of us, in the far right lane. In the left lane a small car, either just in front of, or even with the 18-wheeler.

As far as we know, nothing beside us.

What was behind us, I have no idea.

I saw the truck brake lights, and then right away, the car brake lights, I started making "slow down" noises, right off. Then, I saw the dog. I started making "dog on the road" noises.

The car went from slow down to dead ass stop in the middle of the expressway in no time, the 18-wheeler beside is braking hard, Man is braking hard.

Next thing we see is another 18-wheeler flying by us, but, appearing to be braking hard, I swear his nose was down from the attempts to brake. But, it sure looked like he was going to run right over that car.

The 18-wheeler in front of us was still braking hard and maybe he saw what was going on, cause he dove to the shoulder and stopped.

The 18-wheeler about to run over the car dove in front of us, and missed taking out the car by feet, it looked like inches, of course, but, most likely was more like 3 Feet. Maybe. Of course, he may have rolled that rig and if he had we would have hit him I am pretty sure. Man was braking, everyone was braking.

God was driving with those two truck drivers, they may have made judgement errors in the beginning but, when the shit started hitting the fan, they did good. REAL GOOD!

I don't have the numbers, but, I know the physics. A 4,000 pound car, with decent brakes can stop in a very short distance. Jolly and Tana run about 23,000 pounds (if my memory serves). We cannot stop 23,000 in the same distance said 4,000 pound car can stop. 18-wheelers loaded cannot stop as fast as we can, they weigh more.

We know this, have been aware of this for years! We drive with that lurking in the back of our minds.

This is not the first time we have almost been involved in a car getting run over by a large rig because the car has done something, well, STUPID! We had a little gal pull in front of us and stop on a dime on a yellow light change because she was mad that we were going 5 MPH under the speed limit. We were thankful that Man could negotiate into the center turn lane. When we stopped, we were in front of her, in other words, if we had connected we would have pushed her into the 4 lanes of oncoming traffic. She was like a little jackrabbit, jumping around like that, pulling in front of us and almost taking off our bumper. She almost ended up as rabbit stew cause of her temper and not understanding physics. Normally, she would have run that yellow, you know she would have.

This one today was as close as we ever want to be. I could see lots of torn up rigs, a possible fatal for whomever was in that car. It WAS that close. Don't doubt it. We don't know what else was going on behind us, we do NOT want to know. We hope someone rescued that gorgeous dog, and hope no one got hurt trying.

Rant over. Where's the Jack?

(Of course there are some that don't appreciate our take on small cars slamming on the brakes. It is their right to think that way. There was a bit of a discussion on my wall. Nothing new there, we do have some heated and interesting and educational discussions. We also have just a bit of silliness, well, a LOT of silliness.

Later, after relaxing, from my FB wall.)

Well, it has been quite the day. We are just north of West Memphis Arkansas. We did not stop at Cauthersville as we had thought. Despite the "thrill" with the dog, we managed to do more miles than we had planned on. Man had me drive for a while. I think, snicker, he is over the "new" truck syndrome. LOL Ya, took that long. Dude really loves his truck.

SOOO, thought I would end the day with a bit of humor. Those that visit a campground or two know that we usually get a list of the campground "rules" when we register. They are interesting, some gruff, some to the point, some more, some less, but, almost every campground we have been in have a list of rules. Most are basic, quiet time, pool rules, dog rules, etc. etc. etc.

This campground has some of the most light hearted, well written, we have ever seen, repeated here for your late evening enjoyment:

1.) Frowns are not allowed. If you have one, leave it at the Dump Station and pick it up when you leave.

4.) No lifeguard on duty at pool. All kids under 14 must take an adult to the pool. Parents like to feel needed.

6.) All leashes must be accompanied by a dog.

12. Your neighbors should be quiet between the hours of 10 OM and 7 AM so that you can get a good night's sleep.

17. No clothes lines. This isn't the place to air your clean or dirty laundry.

We have been blessed today. We count those special blessings. Today gets bonus points!

To all our friends and family, thanks for the travel prayers, they worked wonders today.

Be happy, and may no German Shepherds cross your expressways of life.

(Over night Mother Nature blessed us with temps below freezing and a bit of frozen precip, yummy.)

(From my FB wall first thing Thursday morning.)

Back to my blankies. Frozen mix over night. Bridges now iced over. Extra zzzs for this gal.

(So, I did just that, I went back to sleep!)

(From my FB wall.)

Outside with Tana this morning. I-55 is rolling northbound. Not so southbound. Tis a parking lot. Yes I personally observed that parking lot.

Coffee is brewing. I found sun. We are waiting and warm and very happy we are NOT stuck in the parking lot. —

feeling blessed.

OK, traffic is rolling on I 55, we are going to packemup.

Have a wonderful day folks, pray for us as travelers. And, if you own big dogs, leashes and fences may keep them OFF the expressways.

Blessings, roll em out doggies. (Pun intended.)

(Next post at FB)

On the ground. What WAS on the slide topper. Rolled right off.

(After purchasing a bottle of propane, we headed out. Our nice work camper, Wayne, from the campground told us how to sneak around some back roads and miss a lot of this traffic. From my FB page.)

Traffic on I-55. Appears to be construction related. Not ice or weather.

(From my FB wall just about an hour later)

Case in point

We are minding our own business. A little white car zooms by us doing at least 15 to 20 miles per hour faster than we are going. She pulls in front of us, close. Slows down to where we are now climbing up her little backside. We pass. She is on the stinking phone.

How in the world can we maintain safe distances with erratic drivers every where?

Drive as defensively as possible. Pray. Pray some more.

Good grief.

(And, again from the FB wall, about 3 hours later)

Really I am beginning to think the world has turned upside down. In last five minutes we were approached by a scam artist/beggar. And a lady rammed backwards out of her parking space without looking and came about two or three foot from slamming into Tana's side.

Really. Good grief.

After a few more traffic jams, and almost getting creamed by one more driver in a huge hurry, we arrived at Texarkana Arkansas for the night, the weather is mild in comparison, no wind, some sun. We had no issues with the power. We even took a stroll around the campground before turning in for the evening. Peace at least.

I am reminded tonight, by friends and family fighting extremely serious health issues that as bad as all this was, as stressful as the last two days have been, we are alive and Tana and Jolly are still rolling down the road.

Man and I hold many in our prayers. We thank those that said special travel prayers for us. The last two days have been long and we are tired. Now, it is time to rest.