INTO TENNESSEE

It seemed like I was going thru major metropolis during rush hour. We went thru Little Rock at lunch time, and Memphis at dinner. Little Rock was not bad at all, but Memphis was like riding a roller coaster. It was fast; it was curvy; and it was long. It was also dark. But the bridge over the Mississippi was beautiful.

We had stopped at a rest stop between LR and Memphis, but I didn't rest. We were trying to make Nashville by the end of the night, but I was just too wore out by 9pm, so we spent the night at a Sam's Club in Jackson. We were able to pull in among the rvs there. We put up window screens and settled for the night. We drove over 305 miles that day.

We were up and going at 730 the next morning. We drove thru a state park and stopped in Sugar Tree. It was alot of trees and hills, but I hadn't seen the big mountains that TJ had talked about. I drove thru Nashville, and it wasn't bad either. We stopped in Mt. Joliet at Dollar Tree, but pulled out soon after. But before we did, the lock broke on our side door. We have to work at it to unlock the door. I was concerned about anything happening. The van did great, but after it was over with, the armrest on the passenger side broke off. We are getting a lot of wear out of this van too.

We went thru Crossville and Knoxville, and wondered why most of the towns end in "ville." It just seemed unusual. We finally reached Sevierville about 11 that night. It was so good to see my family again after 2 months. My grandbaby had doubled his size. Our final day total was over 400 miles. We had to go get their belongings and pick up some other things. TJ wanted me to see Gatlinburg where he use to work, so I told him we would run thru it before leaving. It was very beautiful in the middle of the night. Thomas and I would like to go back next summer. It looked like an amusement park. TJ told us that bears run thru the town. I didn't see any bears, but the mountain leading up to Knoxville was a little scary at night. I would get dizzy if I tried to turn my head while I was driving. Anyway, I told them we could not spend the night because I didn't want the van to be too cold for the baby. So I decided to basically drive thru to Kansas. But first, we had three and a half states to go in between.

We drove thru Knoxville, Cookville, Clarksville, and Nashville. We did stop in Mt. Juliet, but I liked to point out all the "villes." Kentucky was a hundred mile trip thru a very dark road with few exits. We did stop one place to freshen up, but mainly everyone slept while I drove.

Finally, we made it to Illinois. We stopped at one really interesting truckstop. Illinois was scary. The roads were dark with no exits, except state park roads. I pulled off at one exit that had two gas stations that said, "Hunters welcome" and "Trucks NOT". Well, you get the idea. It was a little scary in the middle of the night. I said, "I don't think so." TJ told me later that he heard me. I mean, if they don't accept trucks, I'm not comfortable there. When I did find a truckstop, it was like a redneck truckstop. The bathroom stall was all ridged steel. It was like being in a room full of mirrows. Our last stop in Illinois was in Nashville at a McDonald's. It was 430 in the morning, and there were trucks (finally found my trucks) in the back parking lot. I took a little nap, then my daughter in law and I bought breakfast. And we hit the road again. We left by 630am, just in time to hit St. Louis at the 730 rush hour.

Ah, St. Louis... I don't know which was worse to go thru during rush hour: St. Louis or Memphis. I think St. Louis was scarier. We drove over 25 miles before we started to leave the city. We kept driving thru suburbs. Then I was driving back and forth looking for gas. On this trip, I had the hardest time finding gas stations at Walmart's. I found one Sam's Club that would sell me gas, and after Oklahoma, all the gas was ethanol. Very disappointed, but the van did alright with it. I tried to keep the tank over half full. By Missouri, I was going farther before stopping. I was trying to get there in a hurry. It took me from Monday afternoon to late Wednesday night to get to eastern Tennessee, but it didn't take two whole days to get to Kansas City. We were going thru Kansas City during (you guessed it) rush hour. Finally mileage for Friday was: 434 miles. The trip total was: 1,853 miles. Seven states in 5 days. I was exhausted.