Back to yesterday...I think we owe a huge debt of gratitude to our Onan generator! It is the best! If you read yesterday's blog, you know we had it on for a long while so it could maintain the temperature inside our "small house" while we did other things. This helped protect anything we had inside Muf such as meds, etc., from overheating and possibly ruining them. It also made the inside of the rig not build up heat that had to be dissipated later in order for us to be comfortable. That is all leading up to the fact that we ran it for a total of 8.4 hours yesterday! That is a record for us, except for a time or two we ran it when we were somewhere that we had no electrical hookups for the night, and it was too hot to be comfortable without the AC. Got to love that cool air!

Now to the second point from yesterday evening, our outing to attend the musical, Nanyehi, at the Hard Rock Casino . We went anticipating that we would enjoy it and in fact, the whole thing ended up being even better than we expected. The story that followed Nancy Ward's (Nanyehi's) life from her birth, through her time as a Cherokee warrior, to her time as Beloved Woman, the peace maker, and then to her death before The Trail of Tears was told (and sung) very well. Becky Hobbs did an outstanding job co-writing the play and writing ALL of the songs. We very much enjoyed our evening. In fact, those of you who live in East Tennessee will have the opportunity to see it in Johnson City in October. Google to find dates and venue. We highly recommend it. 

After the play we went to the merchandise counter where we were able after several minutes to greet Becky and offer our congratulations. She seemed very pleased that we had come and was overcome by the reception Nanyehi had received from the audience...a long standing ovation! 

Leaving the casino (still 85 degrees at 10:30!) we walked back to The Big Muf whose trusty generator was still throwing out that wonderfully cool air! As quickly as we could, we headed back to camp and were hooked up with electric and in bed ASAP! 

This morning we left camp at 8:50, making for the Tennessee border! The sky was very hazy most of the day ...smog? Humidity? Who knows? We also had some strong winds most of the day making it more challenging to drive to say the least. At 10:25 we made the necessary due east turn onto I-40...the direct road to home! Shortly after that we stopped for fuel paying $3.15/gal. At 11:30 we crossed the state line into Arkansas. We weren't sorry to leave the roads of Oklahoma behind. Overall they are some of the worst roads we have driven on in an RV. California is the worst. 

Special report: 1) we have only watched TV once on this trip for an hour show on PBS, and haven't missed it at all, and 2), for the road kill report for today--many armadillos, two deer...and MANY less bugs on the windshield! 

We stopped for fuel again in Conway, Arkansas...$3.17/gal and drove past Little Rock at 3:20. We are moving right along but didn't make Tennessee tonight. Of course, we couldn't get to our destination for the night without a little drama ...first of all, the roads in the West Memphis, Arkansas area are atrocious. We had some smoother roads after we left Oklahoma and were just about home free 25 miles from our evening camp when all heck broke out. We think they must have worked at it to have so many chug holes, patches, and dips as they do. Wow. Especially when you have had a long day on the road and are road weary anyway, roads such as that don't make for a fun few minutes to say the least.

At any rate, we headed to Tom Sawyer's RV Park in West Memphis. Of course, the drama was not yet over...the last two miles leading to the park (we think Chickie was coping a little attitude and brought us into the park by the...shall we say interesting...route). It was almost funny. We passed two major railroad yards, several gas storage facilities (if there is an explosion on the news tomorrow around West Memphis, come look for us), we crossed the levee (this park was 20 feet under water twice in the floods of 2011), and then came to a broken up asphalt road covered with gravel. Were we having fun yet?? When we got to the entrance to the park, we were greeted with a well paved road, trees making a canopy over us, and then a cute little office where we stopped to check in. All was finally well.

Our "Big Yard" for today is the mighty Mississippi River. Our "Little House" is parked about 30 feet from its banks, the sun is shining nicely, and we can see barge traffic as it moves up and down the river. Tonight is our last night on the road if all goes as it should tomorrow. We are pleased with our stop for the night and hope that I-40 in Tennessee is better than what we were on for the last leg of our journey today. 

We drove 389 miles today. Tricruiser, you should be VERY proud.