Our Chalet Truck Camper

Our Chalet Truck Camper

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

June 23-24 Arkansas, Memphis and Nashville

June 23 - OKC through Arkansas

Today was a pure travel day with no sight seeing. Left OKC early and headed into some fairly heavy rain. Welcome temperature of 70F and no trouble driving. We were on I-40 which is a heavy truck traffic route so took a leisurely pace and just drifted along looking at the green fields. Quite a contrast from UT, AZ and NM.

What I don't like about a lot of the states we are going through? Billboards! Hundreds of ugly billboards clutter the side of the highway and obstruct views. Glad the top tier of New England states doesn't allow them anymore.

We frequently buy diesel at the Love's Stations chain and there has always been a pump for diesel on the gas station clearly marked RV fills. Today in Palestine, Arkansas, pulled into a Love's and no diesel with the regular gas pumps. So around the back we went with all the big trucks. Took a long time to get to the pump, even longer to do the paper work inside but..... while Joe filled and papered, I chatted
with some of the road crew for Brad Paisley. They were traveling in four gorgeous big buses with bright graphics and clean as could be. Nice group of guys. Said Brad flew in to concerts but sometimes traveled with them. They asked lots of questions about Bangor, Maine as they are going there relatively soon.

Tonight we are in Village Creek State Park in Arkansas. It is a large park with maybe 100 campsites. There are about 5 people in all in the park. Think gas prices are catching up with everyone? We chose to stay here because we are very tired and needed a quite night with no road noise or big diesels roaring early AM. We're pretty played out and ready to head for home except a few more stops. Tomorrow we go see Elvis and Beale Street,then Nashville, a friend in TN, and then VA to visit family. That last 850 miles back to Maine is going to be a killer!



June 24 - Memphis to Nashville

The drive into Memphis was not fun. The roads are broken up, dirty, lots of litter and very impatient drivers. Sorry those of you who live in that part of TN, but the parts we saw would not draw us back. Got to Graceland about 10:00AM and it was already 94F degrees. The fee to enter the parking lot was $8.00. At least they didn't charge us the $10.00 for an RV. Walked into the area to buy tickets and were told it would be an HOUR before we got to the head of the line. $27.00 for a
walk around the outside of Graceland, $32.00 for a quick tour of the inside, $68 for a full tour and that is per person. We'll spend money when it is something we really want but we looked at each other and said no way! There were people from all over the world waiting to get in. Bless them and I hope they enjoyed it. Bought an Elvis magnet for our travel board, post cards to send home and left. Cheap? Maybe but
that $136 dollars will buy diesel to see a lot more interesting things, a lot less crowded and maybe cooler.





Back on I-40 which had even heavier truck traffic today. As soon as we could we moved over to the Natchez Trace and followed it up to Nashville. Interesting history to the Trace but after the views out west, this became routine really quickly.

We took fellow RV.NET member JerBear's advice and are in Two Rivers RV Park in Nashville tonight. We had a great steak dinner at Sante Fe Steak house and tomorrow will take a quick van tour into Nashville to see some of the sights and country star's homes on a drive by.

Next is Knoxville and into VA to my family. We're then headed home to Maine as quickly as we can. Cool, foggy weather calls.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yikes, what a rip off! Even if they'd thrown in a couple of fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.