Smoky Mountains, USA, 5th March 2020

Making our way Northwest to catch our flights out of Seattle Washington.
Camped in South Carolina, cold and snowing.

The girls decided to cut their own hair, looks good, but Mack was not letting them near his.

Smoky Mountains, Tennessee, Dolly Parton Country

 

 

Tennessee Memphis USA

Memphis Tennessee, Elvis country, it was a bleak day when we drove through Memphis, the streets were empty, that’s how the USA looks without the tourists.
On to Little Rock, Arkansas We had mail waiting for us here, and a place to send Mack's exams.

 

 

Arkansas Little Rock USA. 18th March 2020

A Lonely campsite, on the river right in the middle of the city, It would have been great if the city had been open. The RV parks reception was open by phone only, any receipts were left in pigeon-holes. The bathrooms and laundry were closed to prevent anyone touching any common areas. People were still walking their dogs around the park and although the dogs would say hello the walkers would only talk to each other from the end of their leads. Very strange days. The park did fill up in the evening, with a lot of travellers, a lot speaking French so probably snow birds returning home to Quebec.
In Little Rock the state parks were still open for walking, as long as there were not too many people gathering. We took some time out of the rv park for a walk in the country.

Tornado warning. Our helpful neighbour in the RV beside us was an ex policeman, he told us that there was a tornado warning for the area that night, but if it got close to Little Rock the siren would sound and if that happened we needed to head towards the bunker on the other side of the river levy. He said he would knock on our door to make sure we were not left behind. Great, as if Corona virus is not enough to deal with, we now had tornadoes as well. The storm passed us by luckily.

Mack finished his exams, we could not get a qualified facilitator because everyone was keeping their distance, but fortunately we were allowed to have the receptionist supervise the exam.

Exams done onto Oklahoma.

 

 

Oklahoma Red Rock Canyon USA

The plan was still to move north west to catch our flight out of Seattle, and also get away from tornado country.
Oklahoma. "Oh, what a beautiful mornin', oh, what a beautiful day…(We did this musical in high school – an African school doing Oklahoma seems strange but it is set in farm country). The state of Oklahoma did not have a shelter in place order at this stage only in the city and the Red Rock Canyon was still open as a camping and mental health facility. There were only a few other RVers there so we had plenty of space to socially distance. Just Us and the coyotes, you could hear them barking in the hills at night.

 

 

Texas Amarillo USA. 16th April 2020

Amarillo Texas.
We had more mail to pick up and a tyre that needed fixing so we kept heading west to Amarillo. Shopping, laundry and car service to do.
Derek said at the garage the mechanic asked him to drive the car into the bay, so they could check the engine, but not enter the cab. It worked well.
We delayed our departure by a day because there was another storm and artic blast on its way. It swept through Amarillo, freezing high winds and snow but not that bad, we had moved far enough away from the storms center.

Route 66. After being couped up in the caravan for a few days it was nice to get out in the sun and get our kicks on route 66. Cadillac ranch.