Blacktop Blues

Unhooked IN THE RAIN yesterday to get on down the road. It had been a planned 2-night layover to "rest" from the rigors of the road, but frankly, the shopping at Mama J's was pretty limited. I checked my route on my computer and found that I had 8---count 'em 8---road changes! Yikes, it's usually 1 or 2 but my route was a diagonal one to chop off about 30 miles.

All smaller, dual lane back roads but all are painted so it is OK. (That was my cardinal rule with Frank--any road was OK but only if it had paint on it). So, off I went in the rain. I made one mistake in Parsons, MO but only went about 1/4 mile off route and just combined it with a rest stop for me and Cassie.

Made a Walmart stop and caught a signal near the periphery of the lot "greg" so I phoned my dealer on my MagicJack. The person taking my call was the lady who "closed" my deal and she remembered me phoned him and got the guy's email who installed my backup camera. He suggested I send him pics so he could see which camera, position etc and he could email me back instructions on how to reposition.



The sun finally peeked out as I arrived at my stop in Sikeston, MO. I rolled into my campground and was met by a dog. Indeed, the office looked like "Overstock.com/CanineAccessories". Not a hooman in sight but everything a dog could ever dream of owning.

Finally, this ole feller in a straw hat shuffles out smoking a cigarette which he waves around my face and hands me a Registation slip and says $23. I challenged him that the Passport rate said "$20". He said "Ole directory". That's it! Can't believe this place in the middle of nowhere has a street rate of $46 as there were only transient workers here. There is a steel mill and a railroad directly across the street and some kind of farm equipment storage lot behind the campground. Not pretty. Don't know why the Statue of Liberty is at the entrance; I checked and the torch does not light up at night (that's my RV directly to the right). Too bad. And, as I approached, there was the distinct odeur of skunk which fortunately, was not detectable in the campground.

When I got in, my wrist throbbed so badly that I immediately made myself a cocktail and took a pain pill. Fired up the computer and the MagicJack and called my health plan and local urgent care centers, trying to find a combo both ON my plan and that had an xray machine. No luck in this are nor anywhere in Missouri or Kansas along my route. Feeling OK right now but usually it is better in the AM and screaming at me by 2pm.