Look Out Rainbow Plantation, her We Come

The repairs are done and I’m sure we have worn out our welcome in Chanute so let’s get outta here! So, bright and early – yea right, about 9:15 we hit the road again for our winter site in LA (Lower Alabama)! The day  was bright but cool and the foggy mist was starting to burn off. The drive south through Bella Vista to I40 is a pretty drive though the hills of western edges of Missouri and Arkansas. Once past Bentonville – head quarters for Walmart – the roads flatten out and are more boring. As we have travelled, Barb knit herself a new pair of socks – she doesn’t have as much to do now that we have a GPS but Barb is still my main navigator. We like the GPS for travel times  and mileage remaining. At lunch time we pulled into a rest area on I40 toward Memphis and sat  out on a picnic table and enjoyed the autumn colors once again. On our first night, we stayed at a Walmart near Lonoke, about 30 miles east of Little Rock. The assistant manager suggested we may get a visit and harassment  from the local RV park, suggesting we were not welcome to stay but she advised us to ignore him. We didn’t see or hear from him. It was a smaller Walmart but still room for us. There was a big truck on the other side with his noisy refer running so we tried to stay away from him.

Saturday morning, we took the Memphis bypass for fuel then south on I55. Again, the traffic and weather were in our favor, making it an easy drive. Before long, we were at our night stop at the Walmart in Hattiesburg Mississippi. We could have carried on a bit further but this was the last Walmart before we got to Mobile so we decided to hold up here and finish our journey into LA on Sunday AM. After checking in with Customer Service to ensure we are welcome to stay the night, we walk a couple of loops around the parking lot to get the wrinkles outta our butts and loosen up the joints. It’s a good thing we had lots of recorded shows since we could not acquire a satellite signal for TV. But there is nothing wrong with an early bedtime either!

We roll into the Plantation around noon time. It took us a few attempts to get the rig in the exact spot – we have awning brackets on the deck that need to be aligned with the awning of course. Once we had it off the truck, friends and neighbors started to come around to welcome us back. I think this was the longest time for us to ever set up on a site – it was pretty nice to be welcomed back.

At 6PM, we went to the social hour at the clubhouse and after many hugs and hand shakes, we knew we were home. A quick look at the activity calendar told us to hang on because we’ll need to hit the road running to keep up. Barb had a ladies luncheon on Monday while I went out with a few of the guys for our own luncheon. The usual stuff was going on, chair caning each morning – I’ll go once the dust has settled, sewing and quilting on Tuesday and Thursday, evening meals on those days as well at the clubhouse. We’re getting geared up here for the Christmas celebrations, meals, parades, crafts and gifts. Some of the classes are being done in the evenings due to a full day time calendar.

One of the things we did not expect was the rapid growing season they had here during the summer. Holy wow, look at the over growth we’ll have to deal with quickly. Last year we were panning a flower garden in a back corner but this type of extra work was not expected so maybe we’ll reconsider. Here is the top of one of our Saga Palms. Looks very weird but must just be the new growth coming out.

But for now, it is time to decorate for Christmas. We dig the bins out of the shed and reach for the rum and eggnog but whoa, you can’t decorate for Christmas without a little libation. We have to postpone the the decorating until we have had a chance to go shopping!

Oh the Suspense. You’ll have to wait until next time to see it . Hope all is good where you are…..