Home again, home again......

Our trip home was an adventure. We left Manndeville, LA on Monday March 30. We headed up to Natchez,MS to drive the Natchez Trace. The Trace is a wonderful drive. The speed limit is 50 so it is a very leisure drive. We arrived at the Rockey Springs camping area about 4:30. It is one the free camping areas along the Trace. It was full! Well, the host site was open and another site that was in about 6 inches of water. Since we are not hosts we did not feel we could go into that site. We did notice people were doubling up in sites. A couple from Ontario pulled in and took the host site. We went to talk to them. They were not hosts but felt they could use the site since it was not being used by a host. Hmmm! He said we should go ask a couple from Quebec if we could share that site. He told us that people from Ontario and Quebec do not get along so he could not ask but we could. After driving through the campground we noticed all but 2 sites had Canadians in them. We went and asked the couple from Quebec if we could share the site . They agreed. Now I am not ranting, but think about this: Why do I have to ask someone from another country if I can camp by them, when I pay taxes for this federal parkway and campground!? Anyway, it is a nice little campground. It is just boon docking but quite nice.
In the morning we moved on. We drove to a visitor center on the Trace and stopped. The people were very nice and we had some good conversation with them. Shortly there after we left the Trace and got on the interstate. We stopped at a COE campground in Coldwater, MS for the night. Hernando Point campground. Another very nice COE campground. It was not very full so we had a nice choice of sites. We got settled in and we went out for dinner. We had a nice quiet evening. In the morning we got ready to head out. Upon doing our light check on the tow car Mel said we had no brakes! Yikes! We drove out to the boat launch area parking lot. No brakes! Now what? We got out and did a walk around to see if we could see fluid on the ground anywhere. That would tell us where a brake line may have broken. As I walked around the back I saw pink fluid on the fins by the radiator. We were also leaking radiator fluid! We could not find any fluid on the ground that was brake fluid. Mel went back in and did the brakes again while I stayed out and walked around. I saw it! When he pushed the brake I saw fluid by the drivers front wheel. We unhooked the car and drove into town. Coldwater is a very, very small town. Can you even call it a town? Mel saw a place that had school buses by it and men working on them. He pulled in. After a bit he came back and said the man was coming with us back to the coach. He said he could fix it but we had to get it to his shop. He would drive it if Mel was afraid to. Mel drove and I followed in the car. It took about 3 hours to get the brake line fixed. The man spend much of that time talking to other people that stopped by. We had a hard time understanding him. He not only talked southern but black southern. Well, over $200.00 later we were fix and on our way. We do believe we were ripped off on the price but what can we do when we had no other choices. We drove on to Sikeston,MO.. We stayed the night in the Walmart. Of course we had to go to Lamberts's Home of the Throwed Roll for dinner. A person just gets to much food at this place. We knew that from past experience but did that stop us....no! We ordered the smallest thing we could find on the menu. I had smoked sausage and Mel had a hamburger. Mel had french fries that came with his and I had my choice of 2 sides. If you have been to a Lambert's you know that they come around with different pass arounds. Such as: fried potatoes, fried okra, black eyed peas, tomato noodles and then all the throwed rolls you can eat. Mel's hamburger was huge! My dinner was way to much. We left so stuffed we did not eat again till late afternoon the next day. This is the first time were at Lambert's that they were really throwing the rolls instead of tossing them. This young man was whipping them across the dinning room and people were having a blast catching them. I missed my first one, it was to high. I don't know where it went or if it hit anyone behind me! We have decided that we will probably never go to one again... too much food! Also, we think it is pricey.
The next day we drove to another COE campground in southern IL. We pulled into a site and Mel got the satellite hooked up. We saw that bad storms were headed right for us. Mel decided we were outta there! We drove about 80 miles north to Lake Carlyle COE and spent the night. We had a little rain. All the bad weather was south of us. I was surprised at how full this campground was. It was a very nice COE. We left in the morning and headed for Wisconsin. Mel decided he would like a Famous Daves for dinner that night. We stopped in Janesville, WI and went to the Famous Daves. Mel was in heaven and stuffed when we left. He had the combo plate of ribs and brisket. I had half of a BBQ chicken. We waddled our way back to the coach. Although Mel wanted to quit driving for the day I wanted to get home. We were 2 hours away and I could almost feel it so I wanted it. About a mile from our exit I saw a skunk crossing the road and thought "OH NO!" It made to the side of the road just as we passed it but, it sprayed us anyway! Coach and car no less! We made it home! Another winter behind us. Although the neighbors wish we would not have brought that smell with us. It took about 3 days before the smell was gone. We stayed in the house so the neighbors couldn't say anything to us.
Ahhhh, it is good to be home. So good I couldn't wait to bake cookies!, and I did just that on Monday.
Stay well, be happy and smile!
Toodles!

HAPPINESS IS GOOD HEALTH AND A BAD MEMORY!