The Flu

I was sick overnight, consequently we’re still in Heth, AR but hoping to move on tomorrow. Nothing got done today other than me trying to recuperate so this is today’s post!

A Rainy Day in Heth, AR

It was pouring rain this morning so we’re here for another day!

In last night’s blog I mentioned the Peabody ducks but didn’t elaborate that much and since today there’s not much to say, I decided to elaborate as this draws a huge crowd making it very difficult to see the ducks leave their fountain. Since I couldn’t get close enough to get photos of the ducks last night, I located a video that someone took of them. To see it, click on this link.

The decades-old tradition of the ducks in the Peabody fountain started back in the 1930s. Frank Schutt, general manager of The Peabody® Memphis, and his friend, Chip Barwick, returned from a week-end hunting trip to Arkansas. The men had had a little too much Tennessee sippin' whiskey and thought it would be fun to place their live decoy ducks (it was within the law then for hunters to use live decoys) in the beautiful Travertine marble fountain in the lobby of The Peabody. Three small English Call ducks were placed in the fountain and the reaction was nothing short of enthusiasm. Thus began a Peabody tradition that has endured and is now firmly established as an American icon around the globe. After 80 years, the marble fountain in the hotel lobby is still graced by five North American Mallards and their ceremonial March of The Peabody Ducks still takes place daily at 11am and 5pm. At 11 a.m. the ducks waddle from their home atop the Peabody Hotel followed by the Duckmaster into the elevator and on the red carpet through the Grand Lobby and into the Italian Marble Fountain where they swim around for the day until 5:00 p.m. comes and the ceremony is reversed. Each time, there is a ceremony and the tradition is explained to the crowds that line the lobby and the mezzanine. This is tradition in all Peabody Hotels which are located in Memphis, Little Rock and Orlando.

I wasn’t able to get close enough to take photos so I’ve found some on the internet to feature here.

By the way, we’re now in the Central time zone so we’re an hour behind Eastern.

Other than having a long nap and getting the laundry done, that was my day!

We Celebrate our Anniversary in Memphis

Happy 16^th anniversary to us!

Blues City Cafe where we had dinner

A "drive by shooting" of Graceland

Trolley on Main Street

Gordon and I with the Hernando de Soto Bridge in the background. This is the I-40 bridge that takes you from Memphis into Arkansas.

This morning we hung around the RV not doing much. My sister, Betty called to wish us a Happy Anniversary and we chatted for a while. This afternoon Michelle also called with anniversary wishes. We signed up for another day at this campground and tried to set up the TV satellite dish. What an ordeal! We do have a signal but it isn’t very strong.

This afternoon we drove a bit around the area where the campground is located. Not much here except fast food and truck stops but I did find a post office. Then we headed into Memphis on SR70 which is the original road prior to I-40 being built. We drove around Mud Island, did a drive by of Graceland and then parked and walked around Beale Street. We had dinner at the Blues City Café which is supposed to be famous for its ribs. Gordon took a chance and had the ribs and I had catfish. In my opinion, I’ve had better in both cases. Then we went to the Peabody Hotel in time to see the Peabody ducks leave the fountain and march into the elevator and go away for the night. This is repeated in the morning when they bring the ducks back to the fountain. Too cute! After that it was nearing dusk so we took some photos around Beale Street (the local Bourbon Street of Memphis) of the neon lights, then headed back to the RV.

It was fun to do something different for our anniversary!

Leg #3 of our Southern Trek

Shell Lake Campground at Heth, AR. Shell Lake is behind the trees

Sunny and 32F this morning. Definitely an improvement. It didn’t get as cold as they forecast last night. I even heard birds singing this morning. Haven’t heard that in ages!

We left Cave City about 9:15 a.m. at 46F (8C) and arrived at Shell Lake Campground at around 2:30 p.m. This campground is west of Memphis on I-40 on the way to Little Rock. Again, it’s not much of a campground and it’s right at an interstate exit so there’s lots of truck traffic. It was formerly Lakeside KOA. Shell Lake looks very pretty in the sunshine and 65F (18C). Hopefully there won’t be any possibility of us freezing tonight.

We were trying to decide tonight if we wanted to stay over an extra day and see some Memphis sights including Graceland but we’re both too tired tonight to make a decision. Rain is coming in for Sunday afternoon and Monday so if we stay here one day, we’ll probably have to stay for two and leave Tuesday. We’ve decided to wait until tomorrow to make the decision.

2nd Leg of Our Southern Trek-Columbus, OH to Cave City, KY

When I got up this morning although the sun was shining it was only 20F (-7C)! It’s warmer in Ottawa! We had to wait to leave until the temperature got above freezing so the plumbing wouldn’t freeze so we pulled out of Alton RV Park at 10:17 a.m. The temperature was 36F and continued to be 36F until we were on the Cincinnati bypass then it rose to 41F (5c).

Our site at Singing Hills Campground

The high for today on our travels was 53F (12C) and it was 51F (11C) when we arrived at Singing Hills Campground at Cave City, KY. We arrived at 2:50 p.m. Central time. The campground isn’t much but it’s Passport America so it cost $14.00 for 30 amp service. We only got electric and water as we’re only going to be here one night and they have a dump station anyway. We were set up by about 4:00 p.m. Central (all times from now on will be in Central time). We averaged 13.5 mpg on this trip of 324.4 miles. We’re only a couple of miles from Mammoth Cave here but we’ve both been there before so it won’t be one of our stops. This is just an overnight. We’re hoping to stop somewhere southwest of Memphis on I-40 tomorrow night.

Got Our Truck Back!

Today was bright and sunny when I got up at 8:00 a.m. but very cold at 26F (-3C). I went for my walk anyway and with the sun out it wasn’t too bad.

About mid-morning Gordon called the dealership to see if the part had come in for the truck. It had but the truck wouldn’t be ready until afternoon. So much for my hopes of getting out of here today so around noon I went and paid for another day.

Mid-afternoon we hadn’t heard anything about the truck so we took a drive over there and they were just out test driving it, so we returned the rental car and Enterprise drove us back to the dealer where we paid our deductible and picked up the truck. We then took it for a little spin around the area to be sure it was working okay. Everything seems to be fine. The guys at Trader Bud’s Westside Dodge were really nice and very helpful and we’ll go back there for service if it’s needed when we’re in the area. It’s really close to the campground.

While we were out driving around there was a really pretty sky with sunrays, photo above. Also featured above is a photo that Gordon took of me holding Luke. He has it on his web page as well but for those of you that don’t check his web page, I thought I’d put it up on mine as well. If you want to check his web page and don’t know where it is, click here.

Best Laid Plans

Big Larry gets taken to the Dodge Dealer on a flat bed

This morning was 36F (2C) when I got up at 7:30 a.m. Gordon still hadn’t returned from staying with Michelle and the kids. I decided to start to prepare for leaving this morning instead of walking. Gordon coasted (literally) into the campground just before 9:00 a.m. The truck had stalled out just before turning into the campground. He said he had had some problems with it on the way here. So, it was on the phone to the ERS who got us towed to the local Dodge dealer who determined it was a fuel pump (covered by our warranty less our deductible) and they couldn’t get the part until tomorrow so we now have a rental car also courtesy of our warranty and will be staying here in Columbus for at least tonight and probably tomorrow night.

This afternoon after we had some lunch I took off in the rental car to go to WalMart to get some groceries as I had almost cleaned out the freezer before we crossed the border. Sure was nice driving a car for a change! When I came out of WalMart it was raining but it was more like sleet so rather than go anywhere else I decided to come back to the RV.

It’s going to be 27F (-3C) tonight and down to 21F (-7C) so it would sure be nice to be able to get out of here tomorrow although I don’t think we can drive far enough tomorrow to outrun the cold.

October Expenses

Campground Fees – 743.54

Groceries – 595.44

Laundry – 25.00

Wine/Spririts - 32.95

Entertainment – 11.20

Snacks – 9.87

Eating Out – 72.58

Fuel for Truck – 545.51

Propane – 99.19

Repairs/Service RV/Truck – 123.40

Misc – 366.49

Insurance – 157.03

Internet/TV – 258.75

Cell Phone – 227.39

Medical/Dental – 192.37

Gifts – 151.83

Total - 3612.54

We paid more for campground fees this month as we were staying for shorter time periods. Groceries cost more due to stocking up on items we can’t get in the U.S. Of course our fuel costs were higher as we starter traveling. With some reminding our internet satellite company finally billed us for last month and this month. I had to buy a new cell phone as I dropped mine and broke it. Misc is higher this month as I did a bit of splurging. I got my hair done and bought some new sneakers. I also bought some Christmas gifts before I left home.

I had guesstimated our budget for our months in Ontario as $3600/mo. We did much better than this for most of the months so I’m pretty happy with the overall total.