Got a late start today.  I slept in a bit, but, I knew we had 2 days, and 12 hours worth of driving, so not too big of a deal.

We were about 30 miles from Meridian, MS at 4pm, and I pulled off at a Rest Area to look for a place to pull in for the evening.  I had noticed clouds building ahead of us, but it seemed to be a long way off.  As I looked at my phone, I noticed a weather alert had come in, and this one was a tornado watch that was going till 11.  A closer look and the center of the alert was 7 miles away.  I spent some time reviewing other weather info, and found that we were heading into a huge area of tornado watches, and we’d been planning on spending the night right in the middle.

So, some calls, and a couple miles of backtracking, and we found a Jellystone Park that was outside the weather trouble area, and only $25 a night.  It would have been nice not to have used up the extra gas, but it’s worth it to have some feeling of safety for the evening.  I’ll be reviewing the weather for tomorrow, and hopefully we can make it the rest of the way to Cumming, GA.

The Jellystone Park has a big lake, and a nice big water park.  The girls tried to get over there and check it out, but we got in a tad too late.  Seems the staff is really anxious to get home now that everyone left earlier today from the long Labor Day weekend.

If you’re in the area, this is a pretty nice location.  It has the lake, water park, lot’s of nice clean sites with full hookups, lot’s of tree’s, a big store, and golf cart rentals.  Kinda wish we were staying here longer. 🙂

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Well, we’ve made it to the other side of Texas.  We got a really early start, made one quick stop at an In-N-Out, and then made it all the way to Tyler.  Fortunately, there was a nice and easy to get to Passport America park right off the 20, and it was just $16 for the night.  The Texas Rose RV Park made for a nice quite stop, even though it’s not to far off the highway.

Should make it through the rest of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and hopefully spend tomorrow night in Alabama.

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We made it quite a ways today, and should do about the same tomorrow if all goes well.  For our overnight, we’re staying at the Eagles Nest RV Park, in Van Horn, TX.  They have a 10% discount for most all the camping clubs, but no Passport America.  Still, full hookups for less than $30 is always nice, especially when it is right where you need it for a good nights sleep, is in great condition, and has such a friendly staff.

On our drive today, we ate lunch in the RV, and just made gas stops, except for when we saw the signs for “The Thing”.  We had watched a video over on the Gone with the Wynn’s site from their visit, so we had to check it out for ourselves.  Funny thing was that the girls ended up being more frightened by some large colorful grass hoppers we found than they were the thing.  I expected “The Thing” to be some kind of Big Foot or something, but it isn’t.  Not sure if it’s real or not, but wouldn’t be surprised either way.  It won’t be what your expecting though!  All the antiques and such that you see along the way is pretty cool.  It’s worth the $1 admission, and then you can head on in to the Dairy Queen for a treat.

Off to catch up on making adjustments to our plans.  I found out yesterday that part of my work trip has been cancelled, so we’ll adjust a couple things.  Likely we’ll get to Indiana a week earlier, which will be nice.

Couple of photo’s…

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Well, we got a fairly early start this morning, and headed on down the road by about 9 am.  My pre-planning for gas stops is working well, as are the distance targets.  Hopefully we get an earlier start tomorrow.

Today we made it to Tucson, AZ, and we’re staying back at the Valley of the Sun Mobile Home and RV Park.  Diane and I stayed here on our way to California last December, and I knew they had a Passport America Rate, as well as really new and clean hookups.  Given the temperatures out here in the desert, I really want a good electric setup.

The drive was HOT.  The front engine area AC works well, but it’s only going to keep the front two seats cooled off.  We ended up firing up the generator and the roof AC’s for most of the afternoon.  Should only be an extra gallon of gas per hour.  It’s quite a bit different than the trip last November.  The temps then were quite mild.

After we got the RV all setup and cooled off for Francie, we headed out to a Cracker Barrel just down the road and had a nice dinner.  It’s going to be a bit more remote for the next couple days, and we’ll be eating at the RV, so it was a nice treat before we push on.  Molly was happy, as she likes Cracker Barrel, and it was all the way back in November when she last ate at one.  I suspect she’ll get her fill over the next 5 months.

Off to bed so we can roll out early tomorrow.

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Well, it’s time to make a big change.  We’ve been here at our Southern California home base of Wilderness Lakes for almost 3 weeks now, but it’s time to move on.  We’ve got the rig nearly prepped, and we’ll be loading up on some supplies this afternoon.  Tomorrow morning, nice and early, we’ll be disconnecting the shore hookups, sucking in the slides, pulling up the leveling jacks, hooking up the car, and rolling on down the road.  Our plan is to take 4-5 days getting from SoCal to the Atlanta, Georgia area.  There’s some work to do, and some fun stuff planned for the girls.  Hopefully everyone has a good time.

After that, we’ll head up to Indiana for a bit, then Pennsylvania, then NY/NJ, then Virginia, then ??? and eventually in Florida for parts of December and into January.  After that, not sure.  Florida, and then head back to California at some point in time, and by some path.  Hoping to fill in the US Map on the side of the rig where the stickers are missing.

I’ll be putting a new map up here on the front page that will track our progress, as well as creating a Tag for posts that are about this big trip, including this one.  I’ve also added the ability to use the new WordPress JetPack subscribing so you can follow via email.  FYI to the Mom’s and Dad’s of myself and Diane, you’re covered, and you should be getting the email’s, like you hopefully will for this post.

Ok, enough sitting.  Time to finish up the preps, and get some sleep.

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