Quadra service and off to Onsted

For the second day were were up at 6;15 to be ready to enter the shop at 7am.  

Here we are in the shop.

The leveling system hasn't been checked or serviced since we bought the HitchHiker and one rear Big Foot acted up last year so I wanted it checked out.

You might not be able to see it well but they lifted all four tires off the ground during the service.  I have had one or two off the ground at a time.  At Randy's there is always at least one off the ground.

They were finished by 9:30 and we were on our way.  After stopping to empty our gray and black tanks at the BP station on M50 we arrived in the pasture about 1pm and set up for the summer.  Just after we pulled in we were greeted by Moe and the two cows which have grown quite a bit. 

MOR/ryde & Quadra

On Tuesday we traveled up to Elkhart, IN at spent the night in the MOR/ryde lot with 50a and used the water we brought with us.

We stopped here to have the suspension system aligned and checked and serviced.  They also checked the bearings installed last year and our disc brakes.  We received a clean bill of health.  We were finished about 1pm and drove the 25 miles to White Pigeon, MI and Quadra to have the Big Foot leveling system serviced and checked.  They close at 2;30 so we spent the night behind their shop plugged into 30a.

Cloverdale, In

It was a short 207 mile expressway run into Cloverdale, Indiana for the night.  We are east of the Mississippi and in the Eastern time zone.  It's an expensive, $32, night but a very nice small campground in the trees which means no satellite TV.   The WiFi works well as we are near the office.  We were the only RV arriving in this campground today.  Setting up the bedroom slide it made some wood crunching noise and stopped.  After an investigation we found a wood slat holding up the false floor under the bed had fallen out and blocked the slide mechanism.  We hit 2 or 3 significant "bumps" on the expressway which probably knocked it down.  I'll make the minor repair in Onsted next week.  We went to a pizza place for a salad, pizza and lasagna supper, it was very good.

    

Rain & off to Johnson City, IL

We have been watching the weather as there have been lots of storms to the west & heading this way.  We thought they'd come through during the night and not interfere with our departure. Wrong. Judy woke me before 7am as they were here so we quickly packed up inside and out and pulled in 3 of the 4 slides.  And the rain started.  We waited 3 hours and there was a break so we pulled out. Watching the weather we were catching up to the storm so we stopped at a Denny's for an hours lunch.

         

We spent the night in a moderate sized city campground which was surprisingly almost full.  Our fear of noise, kids and campfire smoke did not materialize.

Mississippi River ride on the Memphis Queen III

This afternoon we took a riverboat ride up and down the big muddy past Memphis.  We parked about 50 miles away and it was a hot walk over very uneven cobblestone sloping down to the river. 
Well, it wasn't quite that bad but it was bad.  The narrator did an excellent job and we learned a few things.  The cobblestones were ballast from Britain and Ireland used in 18th and 19th century sailing ships that was dumped in US ports.  They were installed by Memphis prisoners.  The tugboat crews work 30 days on and either 15 or 30 off.  A captain makes about $1000 a day.  Each has a crew of 12 to operate 24x7.  Because it's so expensive to operate a tub and barges food and supplies are brought to them as they travel by other supply boats.  Memphis has the largest cargo airport in the US (maybe the world?) thanks to being the home of Fed Ex.

This was our chariot, the Memphis Queen III.  That's downtown Memphis in the background.  You can see the sloping cobblestone I mentioned above.  We ended up going up the steps to the street sidewalk.  The truck is parked way way down there.

Here's a little history on or chariot's mama, the Memphis Queen II.
When we were here in 2009 we went to Mud Island to see the WWII B29, Memphis Bell but it was removed as the city neglected it and it was taken to Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio, we got to go by Mud Island again on today's ride.

Here's all of downtown Memphis.  The are no tall skyscrapers because the city is built on mud.

 The last time here the third largest pyramid in the world was empty (largest is one of the 3 on Egypt, second is the Luxor in Las Veges).

On the Mississippi River

It was a short 135 mile day to West Memphis, AR and Tom Sawyer RV Park on the Mississippi.  We were here in 2009 and Judy enjoys watching the tug boats and barges going up and down the river.

This is Judy with Flat Stanley.  She has been taking pictures with him and sending them to Brianna so she can share the pics with her classmates.

Here's a small tug with barges going downriver and a much larger one with 19 or 2 barges going up river. 

Here's just the large one going upriver toward Memphis.

Scott, Arkansas

We made the 160 mile trip to Willow Beach COE park just south of Little Rock.  We are backed in near water (name??) and under some nice shade trees with the front of the HitchHiker open so we get a good satellite connection.

This is an excellent COE park for $9.50 a night!  We spent a couple hours mapping and planning stops from here to Onsted trying to take into consideration a wet forecast in several days for several days.  We ate supper in as there's not too much near here.