Rolling, Rolling, Rolling Down The River (highway)

After a relaxing breakfast at IHOP in Oklahoma City, we hit the road again. This time our destination is Russellville, Arkansas. Our normal departure time is around 9AM. This puts us on the road behind the rush hour traffic.

Interstate 40 between Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Russellville, Arkansas

Between Oklahoma City and Russellville, there are miles of what we call “straight and flat”. Now for some folks straight and flat may be desirable but to me it is extremely boring. Occasionally there may be something off to one side of the highway but in most cases, it is just plain boring.

OK, maybe not so boring. There are curves on this highway. After miles of straight and flat, curves are a welcomed sight.

We generally stop at a road side rest area for lunch. Even with our slides pulled in on the RV, we can still access the kitchen area and bathroom. It is very convenient to pull into a rest area and take a lunch break.

Ivy’s Cove RV Retreat
Russellville, Arkansas

We arrived at Ivy’s Cove RV Retreat to find the office locked. The owner left a note on the door to take any empty site. This is common when pulling into smaller RV parks. There is a level of trust that RVers will adhere to an honor system.  When the owner returned I went to the office to register. Our neighbors were a couple of men from The Netherlands traveling from Chicago to Las Vegas. We meet the most interesting people while we are on the road.

We were concerned about the weather again since. The owner said storms from Oklahoma tend to go north of town. He did not expect anything worse than some rain for the night. Carol and I decided to go into town for pizza. She found a place called Brick Oven Pizza. Our pizza was very good.

By the time we got back to the RV, the sky was looking stormy. We had a light rain and very little wind. The storm moved through north of town. Needless to say, we rested on Wednesday evening. Next stop is Memphis, Tennessee. To be continued…

Thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.

 

Wheels Are Rolling

Last Tuesday (3/31), Carol and I said “See ya later” to our friends and co-workers at Amarillo Ranch RV. We enjoyed our time there and made some new life long friends. If you are in the Amarillo area and need an overnight stop for your RV, be sure to stop by Amarillo Ranch RV. They have easy access to I-40 and friendly staff.

Our new destination is 1500+ miles to the east in Virginia.

Our first day took us to Oklahoma City about 259 miles away. We stayed at Roadrunner RV Park a little south of I-40. This is an older RV park which means the RV sites were close together and the roads in the park where tight and narrow. Our site was so low in the front that when we leveled the RV, our front tires where off the ground. For a one night stand, that is OK even though it is not desirable. The clerk on duty did not know anything about the coming storm. He did say if the wind got bad, we could go to the restrooms (no pets allowed). If the tornado siren sounded, we could go to the underground shelter (no pets allowed).

After we got set up, we ate left-over Italian from Sunday afternoon late lunch. We watched the local weather report and paid attention to the weather on my phone. We knew the weather was going  to get rough over night but did not know the timeline for that. We went bed figuring we would just ride out the storm as we had done many times before. About 11:45 we felt the wind rocking our RV and heard the pounding rain on the RV. Carol was already up. The rocking woke me up. Obviously we were a little concerned because we had not experienced weather this rough in a while. A few days prior to our arrival in Oklahoma City, a small tornado touched down about 9 miles south of where we were staying. Oklahoma City area is prone to tornadoes in the Spring so we were being cautious.

I captured an image from my weather AP on my phone at 12:15AM. We are the blue dot. To the right of the blue dot, you can see the dark red center of the storm cell. This was the source of the heavy wind and torrential rain we endured. We did not hear of any major damage in the park or our area. I think we dodged a bullet.

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Carol and I are strong believers in the power of prayer. In the Bible, there are a couple of passages where Jesus commanded a storm to stop. (Matthew 8:23:27 and Mark 4:35-41). Every time we encounter a major storm such as what this was, our prayers are for God to quieten the storm or move it away. Then we always ask for God to protect us. Then we follow our hearts. Col 3:15 says: Let the peace that Christ gives control your thinking, because you were all called together in one body to have peace. Always be thankful. Our hearts were saying to stay put, so we did.

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The RV shook like crazy and the rain and hail pelted us pretty hard. By 12:30, the storm had passed and we went to bed. In the morning, the sun was shinning and we found no damage to the RV or our car. God had once again heard our prayers. He protected us from the storm.

Wednesday morning we went to IHOP for breakfast and drove to our net stop. To be continued…

Thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.