Trying To Outrun Mother Nature

Sometimes I do smart things.  Yesterday I did a lot of smart things, just not enough of them.

I did all my pre departure checks yesterday and left just a couple of things to take care of this morning before we left Branson.  Those couple of things left me with shoes that squished when I walked.

No, not another dumping disaster, (Phew) more like Singing in the Rain.  I wasn't exactly singing.

As I walked to the office at Turkey Creek Campground to pay my bill, I heard rumbles of thunder off in the distance.  After paying the bill and walking back to the Journey, I could see the dark clouds moving in from the distance.

No big deal, I have a good rain coat and rain hat, so I quickly donned them and then worked on disconnecting the water hose, the sewer hose and then the electric cord.  All done in the rain. 

Slogging inside I started up the Journey and pulled in the slides and lifted the jacks.  Not being lucky, I had to go back outside and pick up my jack pads and stow them.  By that time, the heavens opened and dumped on me.

 

Here is where my plans went awry.  I needed to top off the Journey's diesel tank.  Being we were starting out early I hatched the brainstorm to have Marti follow me down to the gas station, while I fueled, she could pick up some breakfast from the McDonald's right next door and then meet me at the gas station where we'd hook up the car while under the cover of the roof over the gas pumps.

 

Of course, I didn't need too much #2 diesel and I was finished before Marti came over.  Marti was delayed by very slow service at Micky Ds.  I stalled as much as I could and finally had to throw up the white flag and move, I was blocking two pumps.  I had to drive back out into the pouring rain and stop alongside the gas station out of the way of other customers while waiting for Marti.  Fortunately there was plenty of room to hook up the Element.  Of course, by the time Marti got there, it was raining even harder.

 

I got the Element hooked up and doing a check of the lights discovered that the right turn signal lamp on the rear of the Journey had burned out.  I briefly thought that I would just leave it because the Element's turn signal would blink in place of the Journey's lamp.

 

Then I remembered we were going to be driving into Arkansas where there is at least one state trooper who wasn't too fond of us.  I knew there was an auto parts store right down the road, so away we went to buy a new bulb.

 

 

 $5.18 later I had a new bulb in hand.  I grabbed a screwdriver and changed the bulb to get the lamp working again.  All while rain ran down inside my raincoat's collar, down my back all the way into my shoes, which went squish when I walked.  Lucky for me, this time it was a clean squish.

 

The nice thing about living in your RV is you have your clothes with you.  I was able to change into dry duds and we headed out into the storm.

 

Driving South on Route 65 is a hilly, winding road.  It not only was raining cats and dogs (Tiger and St. Bernard sized), we had lightening, lots of it crashing all around us.

 

  

It did slow us down quite a bit, but today's drive was only 215 miles, so no matter what, I wouldn't fall into PDD.

 

By the time we arrived at our campground,  Catherine's Landing in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the sun was shining and it was sunny and warm.  At least this time I was dry after I finished with the utilities.

 

We met our friends and had a nice time of getting caught up on things.  They are here with their beautiful Tiffin Phaeton where they are attending a Tiffin rally.  We're surrounded by Tiffin motorhomes everywhere we look.

 

Starting to feel like a red headed stepchild.

 

 

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