Day 1 - Wednesday, June 9 - Home to Terre Haute, IN

First, for those who aren't in central Missouri, we have had a LOT of rain. Our rain gage overflowed once, 5" in less than 36 hours. Over the last 2 weeks I've dumped 10 - 60# bags of Sakrete in a washout across our driveway, trying to keep it from washing out worse. After the recent rains it is as bad as it has ever been. Hope we will be able to get to our house when we arrive back in Missouri.

Our plan for today was to drive to the Clear Creek Welcome Center and Rest Area in Terre Haute, IN, 299 miles from home. The plan was to spend the night at the rest area and not have to search for a campground. As hot as it is we will burn enough diesel fuel running the generator so that we won't save much money. 

It was hot. When we pulled in here Weatherbug reported that the temperature was 88 degrees and the feels like temp of 104. The rain really cooled things off. At 9PM Weatherbug reports 75 degrees with feels like temp of 75.

We didn't want to get to the rest area to early so we didn't pull out until 11:45AM, Central time. I think we arrived here around 7PM, Eastern time. Traffic was heavy in Missouri and part of Illinois. About midway across Illinois it lightened up. Pavement condition was poor in a lot of Missouri and western Illinois. We encountered maybe a total of 50 miles of construction but delays were minimal.

We stopped at Mr. Fuel in Foristell, MO to top off our tank before leaving MO, $4.69/gal. We parked with the trucks and Kathy fixed us lunch.

This Welcome Center/Rest Area is new. If you come this way with kids, or an interest in Indy racing, be sure to stop. Allow time for more than just a pit stop. The place is huge. Several miles before we got here we saw a sign advising truckers of how many empty spaces were available for them. I don't remember whether there were 102 or 120 empty spaces here.

I walked over to the Welcome Center to check it out. It was at least a quarter mile from where we parked, and there was quite a bit of truck parking further out  than we were. There are shelter areas for picnic lunches and a great playground.

The TV's are all showing Indy related stories. I didn't pay attention to get the particulars on the car that was being showed.

The little building is a truckers restroom facility. There are multiple doors (private stalls?) in each building. They are scattered around the truck parking area.

Heading back to the car. Looking to the southeast the sky was beautiful.

Kathy had supper ready when I got back and soon after we finished it rained hard for maybe a half hour.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Summer Travels 2026

We are loaded up and pretty much ready to head out. I will probably do my first blog post tomorrow evening.

Getting loaded back up and ready to travel is exhausting. It boggles my mind that some folks do this for only a week trip, or even a weekend. 

Friday I drove the coach to California, MO and filled up the onboard propane tank. It was exactly one year from the day I last filled it up. The tank was still one quarter full, it took 20.1 gallons to fill it.

Last year we left for Michigan on June 10th. I'm not sure what day we arrived back in Missouri, but we were back by June 30th. This year we hope to get back up to Michigan's Upper Peninsula for a month or two.

The plan is to be back in Missouri before Labor Day.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Fall 2025 - Spring 2026 Postscript

 We have almost moved our "stuff" from the coach to the house. By far Kathy did most of that work. I've been doing outdoor chores; getting out stuff (chairs, gas grill, fire pit, etc.), cutting up a few down branches for our first fire in the fire pit (and roasting some hot dogs for supper), spraying our cherry tree and peach tree (5 gallons) and spraying weed killer on our driveway (10 gallons), plus odds and ends.

We still hope to be able head to Michigan in a few months, first to spend some time with family (my Mom & brother and Kathy's 3 sisters in NW Ohio), and hopefully then on to Michigan's Upper Peninsula for a couple of months.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Day 164 - Thursday, April 23 - Home

 We had a good night at the rest area. We both slept well. While I was eating my breakfast a truck loaded with these huge tires pulled in beside us. There was a second truck on the other side of this one. 

Kathy stopped at the Costco in St. Louis and did some shopping. I drove straight home. Lots of construction during the first 100 miles, but traffic flowed reasonably well.

The cheapest diesel we saw during our entire trip home from Texas was at a couple of stations in Kingdom City, MO, 45 miles from our home.

Parked at home. Now lots of unloading.

We went over to Kelsey and Andy's for supper. Steaks from the side of beef they just got. A great first meal back at home.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Day 163 - Wednesday, April 22 - Iuka, MS to Bloomsdale, MO

 No water in the drip pan this morning. PTL! Looks like the guys got the leak fixed. I texted Brian at 7AM to tell him we were good to leave this morning, and that I would be over about 8AM to pay him.

We hooked up the trailer and headed north at 9:20. The plan was to drive 293 miles to the Bloomsdale Rest Area on I55 and spend the night at the rest area. 

Traffic an pavement surfaces were decent most of the way. Going through Jackson, TN is always kind of challenging, but not a real problem. US45 is a multilane city street through Jackson.

We arrived at the I55 Missouri Welcome Center, near Hayti, at 12:20PM. Kathy fixed us lunch and we just hung around for almost 2 hours. There was no need to rush since we were staying overnight in a rest area.

The highest price diesel we saw was $5.99/gal at a Love's Truck Stop in Tennessee. We saw it for $4.79 at a couple of stations in Missouri. We bought fuel at one of those stations. I worked at a pump jockey, pumped gas for people (really people used to drive into a station and someone put gas in their cars). I can still remember the first time I managed to squeeze $10 worth of gas in a car. In the late 60's the average retail price of gasoline was around $0.45/gallon (I was paid $1.25-2.00/hr while working at the gas stations). I bet I remember today's fill up for a long time.

And I still had 45 gallons of fuel in the tank. We rain the generator 3 hours since our last fill up. Our fuel mileage, ignoring the fuel we burned running the generator, was 7.7 mpg.

Then it was on to the rest area. It is a beautiful evening. We both are enjoying the green and actual trees. 

Parked at the rest area.

Kathy took a cup of coffee and I took and ice tea out to one of the picnic tables. It was a nice afternoon to sit outside.

We are 180 miles from home.

God is good. I pray that He bless you and yours. He has blessed me.

Days 161 & 162 - Monday & Tuesday, April 20 & 21 - Still at Lakeshore Custom RV

Winter Storm Fern hit this area January 23-27. The icestorm did a tremendous amount of damage. Sunday afternoon when we were maybe 10 miles from Lakeshore, we were stopped by a flagman because traffic was down to one lane, on a 2 lane state highway. As we drove through the area we saw guys in 4 bucket trucks cutting back damaged trees. There was a lot of associated equipment cleaning up downed branches. 180,000 people in Mississippi were without power, 100,000 in Tennessee. After the worst of the storm had passed Mississippi "mobilized" 135 snowplows to remove abandoned cars off Interstates 55 & 22. Brian said they were without power, from the utility company, for over a week. They are on a public water system and didn't always have water. On January 31 the high/low was 27/14 and on February 1 it was 36/16. Lots of folks had frozen pipes.

Monday - We dropped the coach off at Lakeshore at 7:10 AM, with a list of things that needed fixed. We then headed to Savannah, TN, about 35 miles north of Lakeshore.

We had a good breakfast at the Dae Break Cafe.

After breakfast we drove around town a little, what a nice town, population 7-8K. Kathy then dropped me off at the Tennessee River Museum and she looked around Savannah some more. The museum was interesting. but not great. After she picked me up we found a nice shady spot on a side street and she read while I took a nap. 

We went to a Long John Silvers for lunch, it was very good. After lunch we drove to Pickwick Lock and Dam, it was on the way back to Lakeshore. I got the lawn chairs out and we had a great afternoon watching the fishermen and the birds.

This was the first time a vessel went through the locks while I was there. This is the tug Jerry Tinkey pushing barges in to the lock. (the lock is 110'x1,000', the lock drops/raises vessels 55')

This is the water being discharged from the lock. It is at least 4' high. A siren goes off to warn boaters to get out  of the area.

The barges that were lowered. The tug went back in the lock, was raised back up, pushed more barges into the lock and was then lowered again. This process to at least 2 hours.

We packed up and were on the bridge above the dam when the tug and barges finally headed downstream.

If interested you can read more about our previous Pickwick visits at:

https://bertdsblog.blogspot.com/2025/11/days-5-6-november-15-16-pickwick-dam.html

https://bertdsblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/days-117-118-friday-saturday-march-29.html

Lakeshore had closed by the time we got back. Brian had moved our coach back out on the "pad", hooked up the electric and had the AC running. As we looked around it looked like they had fixed all the items on our list in one day.

Tuesday - At 7 AM I checked the water leak area and found that my drain pan had collected maybe an ounce of water overnight. I went over and told Brian that it was still leaking a little. He said that they would replace some fittings. We drove down to J P Coleman State Park, just a few miles away and spent the morning looking at the Tennessee River, watching fisherman head out, reading and maybe a little napping. The main part of the park, including the campground and Lodge, are closed because of the ice storm damage. As I walked around a little I stopped by the office and talked to several ladies. They said that they have no idea when the Lodge, which has lots of motel rooms, will reopen. The pipes in many of the room froze and burst.

Around 11:30 we drove down to Iuka and had a good lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Kathy said hers was better than any Mexican meal she had while we were in Texas. Mine was good. We drove around Iuka a little, no notable changes. We drove by a "yard sale/flea market" and stopped so that Kathy could check to see if they had some coffee cups she might want. We broke several this winter. No luck. Then it was back to Coleman for more river watching. About 3:30 Brian texted us and said the coach was ready. We picked it up, went to his little campground next door to dump our gray water tank and then came back and parked on the "pad". If the leak repairs look good in the morning we will leave for Missouri.

Weather has been AWESOME!!!

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Day 160 - Sunday, April 19 - Byram, MS to Iuka, MS

 We left Swinging Bridge at 10 AM, drove 267 miles, and parked at Lakeshore Custom RV at 4 PM. Traffic was reasonably heavy going through Jackson, near Byram, but then light the rest of the way. The pavement surfaces on I55, through Jackson, were rough, other than than the roads were decent.

The 5th wheel RV is the photo below was on a site across from us at Swinging Bridge. The exterior looks like it would be a park model but I'm not sure why a park model would be a 5th wheel unit.

Part of those miles were on the Natchez Trace Parkway. It is a beautiful piece of Americana. We have driven this section 3 or 4 times as we travelled south from the Iuka area. I don't know if you can make it  out in the photo below but we started at the "You Are Here" and drove about 65 miles on the Parkway to Tupelo.

It was a little past noon when we took the ramp to the Parkway. We had been looking for a place to stop for lunch. God provided us one just as we were on the entrance ramp. A turnout kiosk with information about the Parkway.

Parked at Lakeshore Custom RV.

We are tired! It's tough to be old 😀. Being here won't be restful since we won't have access to the coach while they are working on it. Typically we have it over at the shop by 7:30 and pick it up at 5:00.  There isn't much to do that is restful while we wait.

God is good. I pray that He bless you and yours. He has blessed me.