Day 53 - Home Again! Eventually....

When we started the trip, I tried to take a picture of the beautiful Pentacostal Church in Little Rock.  Only problem was, I didn't have the card in the camera.  Here we go!

Beautiful buildings!

Next we pass Camping World - our home for the first three days of the trip!

Goodbye, Camping World!

We pass miles of rice fields and crop dusters.  We pass miles of other crops.  We pass miles and miles of miles.  Soon we see signs for West Memphis, Arkansas.  The state line is just across the bridge!  On to Tennessee!

Fortunately, we bypass a lot of Memphis, but we do travel near the airport and all the freight terminals.  The road here (Highway 78) is really beat up by trucks and other vehicles.  Quite a ride! 

Soon we on to Mississippi!

It's about lunch time, so we get off near at WalMart and have lunch in the RV.  Chrissy takes a little break, too.

Home is calling!

Notice the road signs?  78 and 4?  They'll be real important in about three miles!

We're excited! It's about 4 more hours until home!!!!  What's that?  Flap, flap, flap, flap, KAPOW!  We pull off quickly at Exit 3 - Bexar, AL.  The right front tire on the trailer has blown out!

Yep, it's flat and not fixable.  Fortunately, an 18 wheeler pulled in behind us.  But he wasn't there to help us.  A State Trooper is behind him and his lights are on.

I call AAA and have the worst time of my life.  I tell her where we are located.  She tells me there is no Highway 78 in Alabama and I must be on 278.  I tell her no, I'm in Alabama, on the ramp for Exit 3 in Alabama.  She keeps telling me there is no Highway 78 in Alabama!  I ask her to look at the same AAA Atlas I have, find Birmingham, go NW to Memphis.  She finally decides I'm on 78.  She asks for the nearest town to me - Bexar.  She tells me it's not in Alabama.  Again, I tell her it is!  She says no...I say yes.  She says see finally sees it.  A wrecker will be there in 2 hours to help us change the tire. Right....

It's over 90 degrees and sunny and hot on the side of the road.  The trooper and the driver walk up to check on us.  The driver goes on at our urging and the trooper helps David change the tire.  It took our 3 ton hydraulic jack and his 2 ton floor jack, but they got it changed.

MANY THANKS TO TROOPER SHANE FLEMING FOR A JOB WELL DONE!  He was so helpful.  When we did get home, I called Montgomery to commend him for his service!  Thanks again!

I get a call from AAA telling me the driver is on the way.  She'd send a wrecker from Jasper (exit 57) to where we were at Exit 3.  The tire was changed by the time he arrived.  I signed his paperwork.  Wasn't his fault!

Now to get home....The brake lines on the trailer were damaged when the tire came apart.  Our next door neighbor, Paul Givens, has a bigger truck than ours.  He has a one ton diesel.  Ours is a 3/4 ton gas model.  Paul left work to come and pick up the trailer for us so it was a little safer to get it home.  He and David hooked it up and left.  Chrissy and I settled in for driving a HUGE truck home by ourselves.  Those of you who know me know I don't drive fast.  I set the cruise on 70 so I couldn't drive any faster and I was very careful about passing vehicles.  I don't drive the truck because it is twice as long as my 4 cylinder car and goes way faster.  I actually ended up passing three 18 wheelers.  At one point I looked down at the odometer and it read "9,666.6."

Paul and David called to check on me and told me not to get off 78 at the Birmingham exit.  Where had I just gotten off?  You got it!  I came through Birmingham traffic and didn't have any boo-boos!  The final mileage for the trip was 9,774.5 miles!

We all get to where we park our RV about the same time.  We were tired and hot and cranky, so we decided to take just what we needed for the night and we'd unload it all tomorrow.  Good plan to me!

HOME!  The yard looks great!  The house looks better!  And bedtime is fast approaching!  We'd all been talking about how much we missed our pillowtop mattress.  Even Chrissy!  I don't believe anyone of us moved during the night!  That bed felt soooo great!  Home again!

It may be the end of the trip, but there are a couple more posts to come, so stay tuned!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)