The Road Home

 The road home

We have been traveling in the truck and travel trailer since May 18 and while it has been a grand adventure we have started to feel the tug of home working on us. I don’t think our lack of planning for the return trip was the root cause of this, but it almost certainly exasperated it. 

In the days prior to our leaving Los Alamos we had discussed some stops on the 2000+/- mile journey back to South Carolina. I felt it prudent to have an itinerary to suppress the Beeline syndrome (my title for it) from turning the trip into a race to the finish. The Beeline syndrome is the compulsion to run the shortest and fastest roads when you are on a course for home.

Texas was in the midst of a heat wave, so that was out, I suggested Branson Missouri, but Millie said it was the height of the tourist season and it would be crowded. We talked about Florida, but not seriously as that would have put a big bow in our trajectory. We did have to get home in a reasonable time for obligations before our next trip in August. 

We decided to drive a couple long days on I-40 the east-west transcontinental freeway that runs across the top of Texas and bisects Oklahoma. We met I-40 east of Albuquerque and traveled it to Tucumcari where we planned on driving the historic route 66 to the Texas border. That didn’t work out as planned, after about 15 miles the road which was not in very good shape got worse when it became unpaved gravel. I checked my map and saw that up the road a piece there was a connector road that would take us to an I-40 interchange. That road was also unpaved but at least it was there. That’s a good thing because route 66 was closed beyond that intersection. 

Original Route 66 east of Tucumcari, New Mexico

People stop in small towns along the original route, mostly for photo ops at old gas stations and I feel most never think of the significance of the original road. It was one of the original roads in the US numbered highway system and dates back to 1926. The 2000 mile road went from Chicago to Santa Monica in southern California. John Steinbeck gave it the moniker “The mother road” in his Book the Grapes of Wrath. In his book the road symbolized hope for a new beginning for those that migrated west during the dust bowl years of the 1930’s.   On that section of road we traversed, the asphalt worn away, our tires may have touched the same dirt that blew across the plains during those trying times. We may have crunched the same gravel that those desperate folks rolled over in their quest for a better life. Well, that’s something to think about.

We spent one night in a KOA campground near the TX/OK border and then drove another long day across the OK state. The land got greener in Oklahoma, the ground rose up in rolling hills and we could see cattle grazing in the fields. We passed the time with an audio book, but during breaks we discussed the environs as we passed though them. One question I had was about the resettlement of eastern states Indians in Oklahoma. I admit I know almost nothing of this part of American history, but always assumed it was because the land was not very desirable and nobody else wanted it. That’s not what we were seeing; it seems like a very hospitable place. 

Texas

Close to the Arkansas border we overnighted in Lake Eufaula State Park on a waterfront campsite. As it turned out we would enjoy waterfront sites for the next several nights.

Lake Aufaula State Park, Oklahoma

In the morning we did not return to the interstate highway, choosing to travel a more leisurely pace on state and county roads. We drove southeast through Oklahoma and crossed the Arkansas border on a path that took us into several connected National forests. 

We passed thru Hot Springs, which still is a tourist area centered on the natural hot springs that surface here. Continuing on, the next sizable town was Pine Bluff’s which is in a predominantly agricultural area. On the southeast side of town a few miles we overnighted in a hidden gem of a COE campground. I don’t jest when I say hidden; we had to drive a narrow road on top of a flood control dike for several miles to get there. Then we had to descend to the river side of the dike before entering Rising Star Campground. It is like an oasis in the desert, the bird’s eye view of the Arkansas River is beautiful and the park is immaculately landscaped. Once again we had a waterfront campsite. Again we just stayed one night.

Rising Star Campground

From Rising Star we drove almost due south. The Arkansas River empties into the Mississippi just south of the campground and we had to drive to the next river crossing before continuing eastward. Once across the Mississippi river we were now in the state of Mississippi.

We were still on country roads, this one Highway 82 which would take us across the state and almost to the Alabama border. We overnighted in our 3rd waterfront campsite in as many days. This campground was also a Corp of Engineers campground called Dwayne Heyes, it is located on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The COE managed waterway is an alternate route for smaller vessels who wish or need to avoid the lower Mississippi River.

Dwayne Heyes Campground

The next morning we crossed the border into Alabama and continued on Hwy 82 all the way to Montgomery. From there we took Hwy 80 to Columbus Georgia. We had planned on stopping at Fort Benning long enough to tour the Infantry Museum there.

I’ve been here before, actually twice before. The first time was in 1969 when I went to airborne jump school here. The 2nd time was in 2010; I had gotten here late in the day, parked my motorhome in the back of the museum parking lot, left my dog Maggie in the bus and trotted thru the light rain to the museum. 

A long time ago

At the door they told me they were closing, but before they could kick me out a severe thunderstorm crashed into the area. I watched in horror as the strong winds buffeted the motorhome, I was sure it would tip over. I just knew my dog was petrified and I felt guilty for leaving her there alone. As soon as the winds subsided enough that I was not going to get blown away I ran back to the motorhome. Maggie was indeed very scared and relieved to see me. 

I don’t remember where I was going after Fort Benning or why I didn’t stay over and visit the museum another day, but I didn’t. This was a transitional period in my life and to be honest, I didn’t know where I was going or what I was doing from one day to the next.

Back to the present day, this seemed like a good opportunity to revisit and take a day off from our jaunt across the country. When we got to the campground in Columbus I found out the museum was closed the following day and it was too late in the day to visit now, déjà vu? Rain was forecast for the entire next day and I thought, I’m not going to sit in the RV for a day waiting for the museum to open. Thinking back I’m sure we could have found something to do that Monday, but the beeline syndrome had taken hold and we were just thinking about going home. 

In the morning we were up early and checked the weather radar. The heaviest rain was passing quickly and we decided to wait for it to go over us. By 8:30 am we had broke camp and started the drive across Georgia. We didn’t have campground reservations but planned on overnighting in Savannah Georgia. I knew if we went any further and crossed the border into South Carolina we would just continue on home. Well, the ride across Georgia was much faster than anticipated and we arrived at Savannah at 1:30 in the afternoon. We lingered long enough to eat lunch in a Public’s grocery store parking lot and climbed on that ribbon of asphalt everybody hates, I-95.

We stayed on the freeway till exit 57 at Walterboro South Carolina. We then followed Alternate 17 to Georgetown where it merged with Hwy 17 proper. From there it was a quick march up to our home in Myrtle Beach. We backed the RV in the driveway at 5:30 that afternoon. 

The Great Summer Road Trip was over. In case you’re wondering about the name, when I was doing the initial planning for this trip I created a folder on my computer where I stored all the relevant material. I named the file, The Great Summer Road Trip. 

May 18 to July 10th 2023

We were on the road for 54 days and traveled a little over 6000 miles. We probably drove 450 miles that last day, that’s a lot when pulling an RV. Our pickup truck, the Silver Bullet, did an admirable job; we had no problems with it the entire trip. We use full synthetic oil and even with 108,000 miles it didn’t consume a drop of oil. Gasoline ranged from $2.98 to $4.40 per gallon. We get an average 10 miles per gallon when towing the RV. Fuel was our largest expense on the trip.

We stayed mostly in State parks, national forest campgrounds, Corp of Engineer campgrounds and one county fairground campground near Boulder Colorado. All the commercial campgrounds we stayed at were all very nice, of course our best campsite was in Los Alamos at Kamp Kolman, Dave and Rae Anne’s driveway!

Marcus and Dave

Rae Anne and Millie

Along the way we; visited some of Millie’s family and a couple of my army brethren, we went hiking in Kentucky and Virginia then added Iowa and Nebraska to our visited states map. We watched Dave and Marcus run in a 4th of July 5K race. Took an early morning hike up a mountain to the Natural Bridge in Kentucky and later that day went up again with Millie on the ski lift. We saw The Tams in concert in Newberry South Carolina, toured the replica Noah’s Ark in Kentucky, did the tourist thing in Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn’s hometown of Hannibal Mississippi, went to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado on a cog railroad train, took a boat ride on the Mississippi River. We visited Buddy Holly’s crash site, the Winnebago factory, the Bridges of Madison County all in Iowa and the Valles Caldera and Jemez Springs in New Mexico, to name just a few of the interesting things we saw and did. 

At the Ark Encounter

At the Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa

I can’t end this segment without mentioning the Incline in Manitou Springs Colorado. I knew from the very first time I read about this mountain challenge that I would hike it someday. I’ve tried to wax poetic about challenging myself,  blah, blah,  adventure, etc, but it all sounded corny so I’ll just say, I’m glad I did it!

View from near the top

The Incline from Downtown

The next road trip is planned for the second half of August; the Dispatch will be back then! Have a great summer!