Their first suggestion was to take I-10 east to the Hwy 130 toll road that goes north around San Antonio and Austin. The toll road has very little traffic and the highest speed limit we have seen yet:
Of course, we just cruise along our standard 62 mph but it was real nice not having to contend with the San Antonio and Austin traffic. After getting off the toll road, we traveled a short distance on I-35 and then got off just north of Waco. We took Hwy 31 through Corsicana to Athens and then took Hwy 19 up to Sulphur Springs and I-30. The roads were good, very little traffic, and the red lights through the towns were minimal. Thanks for the directions, Warren and Joslyn!
We drove all the way to Texarkana, Texas, and stopped at Shady Pines RV Park for the night. It was a little further off the road than we typically will drive for an overnight stop, but it was a very nice park.
Our reservations in Nashville did not begin until Sunday, so we decided to stop about halfway between Texarkana and Nashville. We drove to Tunica, Mississippi, and stayed at Harrah's Mid-South RV Park. We had stayed there 7 years ago when I had a couple of days of CPE classes to attend. All we remembered about the park was that it was nice and the weather was freezing.
Guess what? It was freezing again this time too! We had to bring out the electric blanket. Brrrr.
The campground looked about the same as it did 7 years ago just a little older. The best part was the rate: $16 per night! Can't beat that!
We decided to check out the buffet at the casino: Crossroads Southern Kitchen. It was Friday night which meant seafood night and all-you-can-eat crab legs. The food was SOOO GOOOODD. The yams were some of the best I have ever had (except Grandma Velma's and Mammaw's fried sweet potatoes). And the chocolate crème pie. Oh my goodness. It was almost as good as the chocolate crème pie Chuck's mom used to make. I savored every bite.
We watched football games on Saturday and were disappointed over Tennessee's loss to Vanderbilt. No bowl game this year. :( Maybe next year!
Since the buffet was so delicious and since we knew we probably would not be back here for a long time, we had "lupper" at the Crossroads Southern Kitchen again Saturday afternoon. The yams, chocolate pie, and everything else was just as good as it had been Friday night. Maybe we had just forgotten how delicious good ol' southern cookin' can be!
On Sunday morning, we had a couple of unexpected and unwanted surprises. First, Chuck discovered some anti-freeze leaking out from the motorhome. Fortunately, it was just a clamp. We thought we would have to drive to the nearest auto parts store to get another camp but our camping neighbor had a couple of extra clamps and gave us one to use. I'm telling you: RVers are the best!
The other unexpected and unwanted surprise came when I was trying to pull in the rear passenger slide-out. It kind of hung and made a funny noise when I brought it in. When we looked at it from the outside, we could tell it had not come all the way in. I let it back out and Chuck got up on the roof to see what the problem was: ICE! It had about a 1/2" thick layer of ice on the slide-out topper that he had to bust up and remove from the slide-out awning topper. The temperature was about 24 degrees and the wind was blowing about 15 mph. Needless to say, we were FREEZING. Did I mention how much we miss the warm weather?
We finally got away right at the 11:00 am check-out time and headed home to Nashville. We had decided to stay at the KOA in Nashville rather than Jellystone because (1) we could not get a full hookup site at Jellystone and (2) the Christmas light show at Jellystone will cause traffic to back up and sometimes you have to wait in line just to get to back to your campsite.
We checked in at KOA and were assigned site H-6 which was very unlevel. We were able to move to H-8 which was a little better. The KOA is like most KOAs in that the sites are close together and the streets are narrow and it is way too expensive particularly considering all we would be doing there is sleeping. But Chuck reminded me that it is no different than when you go on vacation somewhere and spend a lot of money on a hotel room that you stay in very little. Good point!
Because the temps were getting into the teens and 20's at night, we left the water hose disconnected. We had to run the furnace and Chuck had to put a light in the bay to keep the pipes from freezing. It even snowed on Monday, our first full day back in Nashville.
Warm weather where are you?
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