Day 1 - Jan 5, 2022 - Centertown to West Memphis

 We left home at 9AM and headed south in our winterized camper. Temperature was 21 degrees, it hit freezing 125 miles from home. 

Traffic was light US63 is smooth driving. The worst 3 miles stretch of US63 was better than the best 3 mile stretch of I555 or I55.

Our first stop was in Cabool. We had lunch and filled up with fuel at a "noname" truck stop. The food was good and the fuel was $3.19/gal. We saw fuel as cheap as $2,.98/ gal, at two stations directly across the street from one another, maybe a mini price war. We also saw fuel for $3.58/gal.

When I winterized the camper last fall I left the waste valve in the open position, so that if there was still some liquid inside the tanks it could drain out. I tried to close the valves this morning and they were frozen in the open position. I tried again at the truck stop in Cabool and still couldn't move them. One surprise was that when I pulled off the cap in Cabool over a gallon of "cherry juice" drained out. Maybe a quart more drained out when I took the cap off again at the campground. I wonder if that much liquid lays in low points in the tanks even after draining them.

We pulled in to the Tom Sawyer campground, in West Memphis, Arkansas, 358 miles from home, at 4:20, by 5:00 we were set up and "de-winterized".

Tom Sawyer RV Park is right on the river. The blue dot in the screenshot below is us.

Parked at Tom Sawyer. Not sure why the front of the camper looks high. May have to do some checking on a level slab.

Looking across the campground at a tug cruising downstream.

Kids would love the tree houses next to the river. Step must be tied up to prevent damage from winter flooding.

Photos never capture that actual beauty of a scene, at least my photos don't, but the clouds reflected on one of the ponds was beautiful.

The campground laundry. Must be the campground flood waters get deep. You can see washers through the door. The 1st floor much be maintenance storage.

It was a good first day. 358 miles is the most we have driven in a day in a long time. Tomorrow should prove to be interesting. At 8:15PM it is still 42 degrees here. Temp is supposed to drop to 28 by 9AM and continue dropping until it hits a low of 18 at 7AM Fri. At 2AM there is a 70% chance of snow starting. Snow probability drops to 50% at 5AM and then down to 30% until 2PM.

We hope to manage another 300 miles tomorrow. Even 300 miles from here temps are forecast to be below freezing tomorrow night. Tomorrows high/low for Meridian, Mississippi is 50/25.

God is good, I pray he bless you and yours.