Our First Long Trip Day Two

After visiting with family we left Tupelo heading to Wyoming and I told Jerry I was determined to get through St. Louis before dark that day no matter what. We drove to Memphis and picked up I-55 in Arkansas.

This was the beginning of rough roads and major construction through out all of our trip. To say that Arkansas has rough roads is an understatement. Thank goodness the Monaco came equipped with 8 air bags and 8 shocks or we'd have never made it. There were farm roads alongside the Interstate that looked a lot smoother.

I think the next time I take a trip that involves going through Arkansas, I'll either fly or go by the way of California. We got to St. Louis in spite of the bad roads. There were several places in our travels where there were concrete barricades on each side of the lanes that were so close if we had another coat of paint we wouldn't have made it through.

We stopped at the rest stop in Missouri to call and get a spot in an RV park. I found two close to us and called them. The first one said they had a rally and didn't have any spaces open. The second one advertised as "big rig friendly". I called and a little old lady answered and told her I'd like a site for a 40 footer and "toad". She said the biggest they could take was a 36 footer and that would include the "toad". I said "mam, do you know that motor homes now are 45 feet long? So help me this is what she said "Paw this here man says they're making motor homes 45 feet long now, I ain't never heard of such". Needless to say we didn't go there.

Thank goodness the state of Missouri allows RVs to spend the night in their rest stops.

As we were crossing the Missouri River at the Iowa border we stopped in a rest stop to allow Poncho to do his thing. As Jerry was taking him to the pet area she saw a sign "Danger Poisonous Snakes in Area". Needless to say they got out of there real quick.