Leaving Springfield--Friday, January 30

We eat breakfast and help Marilyn and Dennis put the TV credenza back together (Norb and Dennis were up until 1 AM taking it apart last night to take off the doors and stain it and ready it for a new TV today). It is 10 before we are on the road and we instantly notice that Ms Garmin is not talking to us today. Once on I-55 I look at the settings and, voila, it tells me that no voice can be found. In technie tradition, I reboot, hoping that will solve the problem. No go. Using Norb’s iPhone I get the number of Garmin telephone support from their website and call. Seems the only solution is a download. Of course, I haven’t brought the right cables along and we don’t have internet access while driving, so it will have to wait until we are ensconced for the night. We bypass St Louis, crossing the Mississippi at Jefferson Barracks. Diesel is only 14 cents more than regular gas. We are happy.

We keep looking for more information on road conditions south of here and when we stop for lunch they have wifi so I get the computer out. We find out that I-55 is open through the bootheel but all of the sideroads from exit 99 south in Missouri are closed because of downed power lines due to the ice storm. We call the casino campground we were planning on staying at in Caruthersville and learn that there is no power in the RV park. We decide to go on to Memphis.

As we drive north signs by the road warn us that there is no gas or food or services from exit 99 south. Almost like entering a theater, after we pass exit 99 the trees and shrubs are coated with ice inches thick. Thousands and thousands of trees are broken off, some laying near the highway. We stop counting electrical power line repair trucks after we pass 100. Lines lay down all along the road, no lights, desolation. We had planned to stop in Sikeston at Lambert’s, home of the throwed roll, but, sorry, Marilyn, there’s no way they were going to be open. Besides the road is closed.

We pass into Arkansas and the ice gradually diminishes, the temperature goes up, and we only see repair trucks on the road heading north. We decide on the West Memphis KOA, which is really near Marion and about 10 miles from Memphis. It is really in the middle of nowhere. We shop at Kroger, get a roasted chicken and some cole slaw, take it back to the campground and make supper. We are warm and safe and home for the night.

I settle in to write this blog and, when I get the computer out, discover that I have left part of the plug for the Mac in the outlet in Springfield. Curses! We call and ask them to mail it to Aunt Flo. That means that I am going to have to figure out something to do until them to power the Mac.