We left off with me having returned to Indiana to fulfill a short-term employment agreement made with my former company. It was strange getting off that train in downtown Elkhart--though I'd only been gone for four and half months, it felt like years! And there I was...smack dab in snow everywhere and that gray gloom again! But I felt some relief to be back with what was familiar and near my family again. I also felt guilt at having left Patrick behind. But I had a job I'd agreed to do so I needed to get on with it. My daughter came by my sister's place later, where I was staying. It was such a strange experience to see her quite pregnant! She wasn't even due for at least three more months!
In April, after gushing about what a wonderful time I'd had on the train, I saw my sister off on the same train, except heading west. She was going out to meet my husband and drive back in the RV with him, so he wouldn't have to make the trip alone. He wanted to be there when my daughter had her baby. They made a good trip out of it, visiting Antelope Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, and Mesa Verde...with a stop in Taos for my sister, who'd always wanted to go there. By the time, they got to Checotah, OK my husband got word that his oldest brother was gravely ill and in a coma. He floored the gas pedal and took off but Mike died just a few hours later. Patrick made it from Checotah to Elkhart in about a day and a half! Scary! He got set up at an RV park east of town, I moved my belongings back into the RV and he took off by car to Michigan to be with his other brother and sister-in-law while they settled things for her in the wake of Mike's death.
We were getting anxious by the end of April waiting for my grandson to be born. Originally due the last week of that month, time came and went and no baby; we were now into May. The doctor decided to induce the birth, so I went to the hospital with my daughter, they hooked her up and we waited. And waited. And WAITED. On the third day, they gave her a choice to keep trying or to give it a week and start all over. She decided to go home, rest and try again. On May 10th, 2012, my phone rang about 4 a.m. and she said, "Mom, if you're going to be here for this, you better get down here now." I leapt out of bed, throwing on clothes, grabbing purse, etc. and jumped in the car. I flew to the hospital, hyperventilating, talking myself down and got there about 20 or 30 minutes later.
Leo Dorien was born shortly before 9 a.m. I'd never seen a live birth (and honestly not sure I ever care to again). But the doctor caught that 9 lb. 4 oz. blob of humanity and it suddenly threw out its arms and legs and began to cry. I felt something reach into my heart and twist steadily and firmly. I went over to the bassinet where he'd been laid and patted his sticky little back and said, "It's ok, Granny's here. It's ok." Pat, pat, pat. I felt the same exact way as when I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time.
Ah. The next four months were such a great gift. I will always treasure that little bit of time I got to spend with the two of them and to see my son so often, as well as my beloved sister. Then in September, we packed up the RV and got on the road once again.
This time we headed south to Kentucky. This is because my husband loves to eat. You'd never know it from how thin he is, but that man can pack away the chow! (And of course, I've never in my life turned down a meal; a fact I attribute to the maintenance of my girlish figure.) Being the foodie that he is, Patrick loves to watch food shows. It doesn't have to be fine cuisine; oh no, not at all! Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives is high on his list of great entertainment. It was on that show he heard about the Moonlite Bar-B-Que Inn in Owensboro, KY. And that was our first stop.
After some inadvertent meandering through the hills, thanks to Siri, we finally got to Owensboro just at dinnertime. Unfortunately, we hadn't researched enough to find out that the place closed at 3 p.m. on Sundays, and it was Sunday. So back online we went looking for a place to spend the night and found the Diamond Lake Resort not too far away. We arrived just as the office was about to close. So we asked the lady who checked us in where another good place to eat might be and told her the story of missing out on the Moonlite. There was a grill there and she kindly offered to open it back up and fix us a burger! And it was pretty darn good, too. But nothing could compare to the Kentucky sweet tea she had a ready supply of. It was so delish, I took a quart back to the RV with me when we were done eating. The lady also asked if I planned to feed the fish; when I gave her a quizzical look, she handed me a little brown paper bag full of what look like chunks of dry dog food. She told me how to find the pond and bid us goodnight.
The next day we did make it to the Moonlite. If you are ever anywhere near that town, you must go there! It's definitely a barbeque lover's dream. Served buffet style, one room holds a myriad of bbq entrees and sides while across the way is another room with all the salads and desserts. All you can eat--you'll wish you had two stomachs!
Diamond Lake park was nice too; a bit on the older side but nicely kept; big sites and plenty of room. It was here we met Anita and Larry, a super nice couple from Florida. We still keep in touch on Facebook. Before we left, we went looking for the fish. There was a sort of creek/pond with a good sized footbridge and it was full of huge carp. The very second we tossed in the first bit of food, the water below us began boiling and thrashing with hundreds of the great, fat fish! Better yet, a troop of ducks came rushing over to get their share, walking across the top of the fish! I never saw anything like that before! With so many greedy gluttons in that pond, the food lasted about two nano-seconds!
I want to digress for a couple of paragraphs because of all this talk of food. In Part 1, I wholly neglected to mention a couple of eateries we encountered on our first trip out west in 2011 and this story is incomplete without acknowledging them. The first hidden gem was in a little town called Murdo in South Dakota called the Star Family Restaurant. It was sort of scary visually--rather run down and the booths looked like original fifties vintage, complete with the requisite silver duct tape. The reviews online are quite mixed, but we found the place very quaint, very clean (even though old) and the food was surprisingly good and all homemade. I'd give the salad bar alone 5 stars for freshness and the most delicious bean soup I'd had in quite a while.
The second secret treasure we found when we were forced to stop in Parachute, CO late one afternoon to straighten the car on the toad (tow dolly). By the time Patrick nearly killed himself with that job, we were hot, sweaty, exhausted, parched and starving. Too tired to go looking around, we saw a little Chinese place within a short walking distance and headed for it. When we stepped inside, it was dark and cramped with maybe eight tables. But when you're desperate and as thirsty as we were, you don't care. I don't remember what we ordered but in about 15 minutes, the girl brought us two of the most beautifully plated dinners we'd seen. And delicious! We couldn't believe our luck! So if you're ever passing through Parachute, CO stop at Hong's Garden. We thought it was outstanding, even though it looks like a hole in the wall. I couldn't find websites for Hong's or the Star but there are plenty of reviews on Yelp and TripAdvisor.
Back to Kentucky 2012...we stayed 2 nights at Diamond Lake and before leaving, we were perusing the map of the state. Patrick said, "Ever been to Mammoth Caves?" "Nope." said I. So the next day, instead of turning west, we went east heading for Mammoth Cave Nat'l Park. We only planned to spend one night there as my husband was pretty sure it was not full-hookup camping. Much to our surprise, when we pulled in, the park ranger asked if we needed full hookups! "How much?" Patrick asked. "$20.00 a night," she said. "We'll take two!" was his gleeful response. With his Golden Age pass, it was half price and free to visit the park. Thus, between the Moonlite and the Mammoth, we enjoyed Kentucky thoroughly.
Then it was off to Tennessee. We hoped to not stop in Tennessee at all. We left Mammoth Cave, hit I-40 and headed to East Memphis, AR to an interesting-sounding park called Tom Sawyer's RV Park. Though it was mid-September, it was still pretty hot and it was kind of a boring drive. Till BANG! Just east of Jackson, noonish, we had our third flat tire. (Remember, we had the first two in 2011.) We hobbled along a couple of miles and just on the outskirts found a big tire place, so Patrick pulled in. They had every tire on the planet...except the one we needed. Out came the cell phone and soon my husband had Coach-Net, our road service, asking where we were, etc. About an hour later, a fellow showed up with our tire, put it on and we were back on the road heading to East Memphis.
We hit the eastern outskirts of Memphis around 4 p.m.; the start of rush hour. If we hadn't had that dang flat, we'd have been looking at the Home of the Blues in our rear view mirror at least an hour and a half earlier. Oh, well. The highway spread into four lanes, filled up with people trying to get home from work and traffic slowed to a crawl. We could see the city skyline up ahead. Out of nowhere...BANG! Oh, no! It just couldn't be! Not AGAIN! Two in one day?!?! Un-flipping-believable. Yes, ANOTHER flat. And in this horrible bumper-to-bumper traffic. Traffic was so tight, it took us a good fifteen minutes to be able to edge over to the right and get off the road. "Hello, Coach-Net?" They arranged for a tire replacement...and advised us that just maybe we needed to replace all our old tires. (Mind you, when we bought the RV in 2011, the tires had been replaced but we didn't realize they were supremely cheap Asian ones.)
We waited. And waited. And waited. Soon a cop creeping along in the traffic pulled in behind us, got out and came over to see what the problem was. He informed us that traffic was worse than usual because there'd been an accident in the eastbound lane that had that side of the highway at nearly a standstill. He shot the breeze for a few minutes then left us...waiting. Finally, around eight o'clock p.m. a man showed up to rescue us. We had to stand there with flashlights shining on the wheel so the poor devil could see what he was doing. It took him at least 45 minutes to get that tire changed. Back on the road again. In the dark. Had I mentioned that we don't drive this rig in the dark? Patrick's night vision is not that great and we don't like taking unnecessary risks.
Luckily, I'd called Tom Sawyer's right after the flat occurred and told them what happened and that we were running late. They told me they'd leave the paperwork on the office door, to just come in, park and pay in the morning. So we made our way through Memphis and finally we hit the bridge and crossed the Mississippi. Siri guided us to Tom Sawyer's, which ended up a little surprising as we'd gotten the idea it was just off the highway. Well, it was only a mile or so off the freeway. But we had to get there via a twisting little two lane unlighted road lined with live oaks and cypress, dripping with Spanish moss. Did I say it was pitch-dark? Spooky? Heck, yeah!
We got there. I ran up to the little office building, grabbed the paperwork they'd left us and was back up in the RV. Then we tried finding the site in that dark. Ended up with me wandering ahead of the RV with a flashlight looking for number whatever-it-was. We got parked, hooked up and collapsed for the night. Before we passed out, Patrick said he kept seeing odd lights moving back and forth next to the park property. When we got up in the morning, made our coffee and headed outside to take a look, we realized those lights were tugs and barges moving up and down the river. We were smack on the Mississippi! We stayed long enough to take care of laundry; we couldn't not use the park laundry as this is the only place we'd ever heard of that provided free use of the facilities. Interestingly, all the utility buildings at this park are up on wheeled stilts. When the river floods as it often does, if the stilts aren't tall enough they just pull the buildings up to high ground!
Stay tuned for Part 3!
Till next time,
"People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost." ~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
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