To
my great surprise, she didn't even need to discuss it. She just said, “okay.”
We put our house up for lease. Luckily,
Rhower BF Goodrich was just about to open up in Arkadelphia. We leased it to
them for a year, to be used by their executives coming into town to train new
employees, as a sort of hotel. We bought an older model RV, 32 feet long. We
also got a dolly to pull our car on. Barbara began to pay our major bills off,
a year in advance. Everything else was on automatic withdrawal. Our house rent
would pay for our lodging. We sold the business to our daughter Kinley and Mickey.
We would be free as a couple of birds!
The first day out, I began to learn how to
drive that big rig. I saw right off that, in making a left hand turn, the
trailing car would be thrown out into the far right lane. I had to learn to
take over both lanes when about to make a turn on a four lane road. Many months
into the trip, I would pay the price for that little problem. The big rig
caught a lot of wind. On the interstate to Memphis, seemed like every big truck
that passed us was blowing us into the ditch. And, I could not back that long
rig very far, with the car on. I had to have half a football field to turn
around in. Our plan was to travel a couple of hundred miles to a destination,
hang around until we had seen it, then move on.
We only traveled to West Memphis that
first day. I had enough of that new stress by then. The second day out, Barbara
made one of our best moves of the trip. She bought roadside service Insurance. It
was on special for $69.95. It would quickly pay for itself, as it turned out.
We camped near St. Louis that second night, and I ran into a lady I knew from
Arkadelphia in the park. That never happened again.
We decided that tomorrow, Sunday, would be
a good day to see St. Louis. That proved to be true, and we toured many large
cities on a Sunday after that. The St. Louis Arch proved to be one visit
Barbara regretted. The trip up and down proved to be very crowded,
claustrophobic, and the arch swayed. Although we did have a magnificent view
from the top, she was so sick by then, she didn't care. I had trouble getting
her in that tiny car for the ride back down. We learned another lesson that
day. Mark where we park the car well. We almost never found it.
Our next stop was in the driveway of our
friends, Cheryl and Wes McGowan, in Hannibal. One of our less expensive stops.
Moving on to Chicago, we camped a few
miles outside. We toured the Field Museum. We saw the two lions who killed
scores of railway workers in Africa, and actually shut down the project until a
great white hunter brought them down. At the Museum of Science and Industry, we
saw many more amazing sights. Then we spent lots of time just driving around
seeing the sights of Chicago. Lost, most of the time. But who cares? What’s time
to a hog with a year to kill?
The next day, driving through Indiana
headed for Michigan, our RV just shut down on us. The RV, fortunately, was old
enough that a semi-shade tree mechanic could work on some things. I made a
lucky guess, pulled the car off and bought a new fuel filter, and it worked.
We arrived in Holland, Michigan just in
time for the Blueberry Festival, just the first of many special events we would
run onto, by accident, that year. Holland is all about wooden shoes, tulips,
and people who came from the real Holland. We also got to watch diving pigs at
the Michigan State Fair.
After detouring inland from Lake Michigan
to see the Gerald Ford Library, we drove on up through Michigan along the lake
on a cold day, for us. We realized northern people are just different. They
swam in Lake Michigan on that cold day, in droves, while we stood shivering in
our coats watching them. Those pore' people just have no summer, and they just
work with what they have. They even acted like they enjoyed it.
We took a ferry over to Mackinac Island
and spent a fun day in a society with no motor vehicles. Even the UPS man drove
a horse and buggy. Someone clued us in on a neat little trick. Go into the
Library, pick up a newspaper which keeps you from loitering, walk out back, and
you will see the very best view of the island.
Ontario’s One Damn
Road
The bridge into Canada
was very tall, and driving over it in that tall RV was scary. Trying to get
directions from a native, he told us, “That won't be hard to find. Hell,
Ontario don't have but one damn road.” That proved to be almost true. Roads are
very hard to maintain in the winter, and road crews work hard on their One damn
road all summer. People seen to get impatient with the many long traffic delays
on that road. Once, we were stopped in a long line of backed up cars. A
northern redneck (yes, the South does not have the market cornered on rednecks)
got out of his car and yelled, “Hey! What's the trouble up there?” Someone
yelled back, “They're moving the bodies out of the road.” The redneck shut up.
Sudbury is a city with no living trees within miles, except for tiny
replants. A giant Nickel mine is located there, and the fumes from the plant
just killed everything except the people. (Maybe I should say, everthing but
the remaining people?) But, they had the most fantastic hands-on science center
I have ever seen. I wondered if that giant company had built that as somewhat
of an apology? I could have stayed in there for days. I even got to give a
colonoscopy to a dummy. Not a live one. Before we went the way of the trees, we
headed out.
In Ottowa, we toured the Parliament
Building, and Barbara got recruited to participate in some sort of play about
their government. Outside, a Mountie sat at attention on his horse, full
uniform, and Barbara tried to get him to get down and get his picture made with
her. He didn't even blink at her, so she just hung onto his leg while I took
the picture.
Moving on into Algonquin National Park, we
had just sat up camp when a French speaking family walked by. The kids started
chasing a chipmunk which ran right up into our camp and into a hole by Barbara.
She started talking to them, the parents yelled, “Americans!” and the kids fled
in terror.
You would have thought they had yelled “Rattlesnake!” but then, they
don't have any rattlesnakes up there. I guess they just had to have something
to fear, and we Americans were handy.
I got up really early to drive around to
look for wildlife, while Barbara slept in. I got a good look at, and several
good pictures of, a moose in all it's glory. Barbara was jealous. It would be
many weeks before she saw one. But then, what's time to a coupla' hogs.
CONTINUED
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