little rock arkansas

whew

we left austin much later than expected yesterday, and pulled in here in Little Rock after midnight. We are still exhausted. I woke up to have breakfast with avanta7 - they picked me up at the kampground while S slept in, having done the last shift of driving late at night. Of course, I was awake then too. But the difference is, I can sleep in a moving bouncing RV, so I can go back to sleep now, while we set off.

Cindy is not feeling well - she may jump off at Memphis or Nashville and fly home. Which is too bad - but there's no arguing with migraines, and I have to admit that a moving RV is not a cool dark quiet place - we can make it reasonably cool, but dark and quiet is difficult. Especially with 10 animals along. The A/C itself is nnoisy.

The RV is neat - there's this separate teeny "bedroom" as well as the cab-over bed, and a shower stall and then a separate stall with toilet and sink. The dining nook has been converted to animal area, and there's a sofa.

I got about 1/4 of an afghan worked up last night when I wasn't driving.

I am too tired now to be real coherent. Back to nap for the moment, and since we're gonna make it a short day today, probably stop at Nashville, perhaps I'll be more coherent then!

Oh, and I did leave 8 or 9 books for bookcrossing in the KOA kampground rec center - I will keep dropping books en route!

Nashville, TN

because last night was so late and so miserable, we made today a short day, less than 400 miles, and only got to Nashville. Monday was so rough, with S getting the RV back to Austin after 8. Dana drove S up to Dallas, while Anita stayed at our house and helped me pack. Then they came back later for goodbye hugs, as did _curmudgn and L with little M along. M is becoming quite the young lady, albeit still with the blankie still being used. Well, she's 4, we can't expect perfection yet. We'll see them again in 2 years, when L comes to Baltimore for her high school reunion! Possibly sooner, if we make it back to Austin.

Then Tuesday was - leave a couple hours later than we expected, remember in Round Rock that we had left some stuff in the kitchen, run back for it, finally leave Austin around 1:00. Sheeeeesh. That's why we ran so late yesterday.

Today's drive was fairly uneventful, although there was the car that pulled smack in front of us and then hit its brakes; stomping hard on the brakes in an RV is more of a thrill than we needed. We ate lunch in Memphis, in the Blue Plate Cafe, which was, thank goodness, non-smoking. The Monument Cafe in Texarkana the evening before had been horribly smoky. Okay, so breakfast with Angela - really neat Brazilian cafe in Little Rock, where I got mango bread and a huuuuge fruit salad which included mango and papaya. S and C enjoyed the extra mango bread I brought back to the RV. Lunch today was overly salty but nonetheless slightly dull veggies at the Blue Plate, made quite tolerable by the non smoking and the decent iced tea. We had supper after we got here to the KOA near Opryland. You can make all the jokes you like about Kamp On Asphalt; this is nonetheless quite easy and convenient and I like it. It's affordable, it's easy to get into, it has internet access. There are clean showers - although the RV has a bathroom, it's nice to use full-size facilities once in a while.

Cindy is cleaning some critter cages before we hit the sack. Tomorrow we may actually make it out of here before 10 AM, the kind of schedule I had intended all along; if we do, we'll make it to a little north of Roanoke. Then Friday morning we can do Roanoke to Baltimore, Elkridge anyway, easily and be there by lunch. Check into apartment, go to lunch, go to furniture store to order mattress and have it delivered. That's the plan, anyway.

Still no idea where our car may be - whether it's en route yet or not.

Fred has had his turn out of the cage to hop up and down the aisle for a bit. Now Cindy's trying to lure Fern out. The chinnies are doing fine - we were worried that the rather bouncy ride might disturb them while they were trying to sleep during the day, but they seem to be in good spirits, happy to grab dried fruit. Pickle has adapted completely already, discovering how to sit on the back of the front seats as though they were armchairs, how to get onto all the beds, how to sneak into the bathroom, all the good stuff.

I'm about halfway through the afghan.

The weather is cooler; we've turned the AC to just ventilation! Last night it was down to 60 or so in Little Rock and it feels as though it will be the same here. S suddenly understands why I want this move so much. At three this afternoon when we were leaving Memphis, it was cooler than it had been at 10 the previous morning when we were packing the RV in Austin.

We keep losing reading material in all the crevasses and nooks and crannies of the RV, so we're each in the middle of 3 or 4 different books now, that we've found while looking for other books. Way too many books, Cindy says, and she's a librarian!

Fern just managed to jump onto the couch from the floor, a decent leap for a tiny bunny in a narrow aisle!

OK, this isn't the most thrilling post, but at least you all know we're still alive on the road here. We're closer to having enough sleep, and Cindy is feeling better, decided to stick with us for a while longer. More later!!