ROAD REPORT #6
Ten days on the road since the last “Road Report” seems like a long time, partly because we’ve covered so many miles, seen so many different places and have changed our original plans. We have continued our preference for back roads over the Interstate Highway system. Less traffic, better scenery and low stress.
Changing timetables and itineraries is a luxury because we are not subject to or prisoners of airlines or commercial travel of any kind. We set our own schedules and have the freedom and independence that we value in order to go where we want, when we want, see what we want and thus have few unsatisfied wants. We even eat what we want, sleep as long as we want and travel as long as we want, sometimes following the 3:30 guide of stopping at 3:30 PM or 330 miles whichever comes first. Some days we drive 400 miles, some days only 250 and some days none at all. And then there’s a day of 500+ miles, not very often.
We left Maine earlier than anticipated and headed south to Massachusetts and having no reservations ahead of time for a camping spot, we spent the night at a rest area on the Mass Turnpike at Blandford. It’s easy to pull in just off the parking area behind the trucks, put the slide out, pull down the Murphy Bed, turn on the AC and get a good night’s sleep at a bargain rate. We don’t do it often but occasionally it works out given a sufficient amount of time on the road and what other RV accommodations might or might not be found nearby. The Berkshire Mountains in western Mass are the home to Stockbridge, home of Norman Rockwell and Tanglewood, summer home to the Boston Symphony.
The next several days took us to PA and familiar territories around Harrisburg, Hershey and Lancaster, all places where I had lived at one time in my previous history of life and work. The Amish presence was evident in the surrounding farms and on the roads with horses and wagons or buggies accompanied by warning signs with pictorial images cautioning drivers of their need to share the road. Then it was on to Virginia, the beautiful Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountains before turning west to travel on through Tennessee and Arkansas, stopping at the Tom Sawyer RV Park on the Mississippi River in West Memphis. It’s a spectacular location on a great bend just downriver from Memphis. Parked at the edge of the river, we watched large numbers of tugboats and barges moving slowly and steadily in both directions, day and night.
We arrived OK in OK, spent a night in Sallisaw in Sequoyah County. As many know, OK is home to Indian (Native American) Territory and the five “civilized” tribes: The term “Five Civilized Tribes” came into use during the mid-nineteenth century and refers to the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole nations. Sequoyah was a Native American polymath of the Cherokee Nation. In 1821 he completed his independent creation of the Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible. For some interesting history, herewith:
After a couple of days in OKC visiting family, including 2 adult children & 3 grandchildren and 107 yr old mother/mother-in-law, we will head on west toward home through TX and NM. I will total up the miles traveled, log in the places visited, summarize the pluses and minuses, many more of the former than the latter. Happy Trails to you!