Day 3 and 4 and... now 7?

Boy, have I been remiss... so much for a daily blog... let's try to catch up...

on Wednesday, day 3, we left Bristol Tennessee heading west in a slow steady rain naking our way from the I-81 to the I-40 sharing the road with oh so many 18 wheelers... oops did I say sharing? They don't share... they're bigger, stronger and everyone else is in their way... whether they're below the speed limit or above it... get out of their way... trying to figure out which one will keep a steady pace us nerve wracking....

I had reserved a night at this swanky winery east of Nashville... and it really looked nice... until Louise reminded me to do the math for Thursday's travels... ooh... uh-oh... can we switch this? Thankfully we had internet in Bristol and now had reservations west of Nashville in a small winery called Century Farm Winery because, well, it used to be a farm...

We found a Buc-cees! East of Nashville we found a Buc-cees... a Texas-based chain of gas stations that has oh naybe 40-50 pumps... a convenience store that probably has some 50 staff working per shift - not counting gas jockeys - fresh sandwiches - pulled pork or brisket or turkey - prepared by the dozen continuously... no plain beef jerky for them... jerky in many, many flavours by the pound... you want a frozen drink? 12 no 16 or was it 20 nozzles... the size of the place is amazing...

We bypass Nashville hoping to get some relief from the trucks... which we do and the rain finally eases up so we can make it to the winery by 5:00... and look... it's just up the street from the distillery we stayed at in 2019... a century ago... or it just feels like it... we were well received, the parking was great and so was the wine...

We woke up early to make our usual morning Walmart run... restroom availability is always an issue when boondocking... well with the time zone change to Central, we were able to catch the sunrise...

Hot Springs Arkansas is our next target in the luxury of our KOA reservations... damn 18 wheelers didn't get the message, they're on the road too... mind you I'm a little giddy at the price of gas... I actually paid under U$3 per gallon... let's that's $2.959 divided by 3.785 times 1.368 (my preferred rate) gives about C$1.06 a litre... I'll take it!

So through Memphis we take the bridge across the Mississippi to West Memphis, which we learned last time was NOT in Tennessee, and what appears to be fewer trucks... thankfully... but there's still plenty around... but it's sunny and I can keep a better and slower speed since our travel distance is shorter...

I'm taking a pause here since I'm already pretty late - it's day 9 - and I'm hitting writer's block....