I am so ready to go home and see Dave and cook in a full kitchen again with an automatic dishwasher. But there’s still snow on the ground there and it’s not warming up enough for it to melt away. I don’t want to have to winterize my RV but I also don’t want to freeze my holding tanks so I am TRYING to be patient. The RV parks in the Minneapolis area don’t turn on their water until April 15th so I’m sort of using that as my guideline as to when it is safe for me to go home. Although we have had snow as late as the week after that it was just a few flurries one day several years ago.
My current time at Emerald Cove ends Thursday and I have to decide what to do about that. I want to stay at least through Thursday evening to play bingo. It is the last game of the season so they will be awarding the rolling jackpots even if no one actually wins them. There are two of them that are up over $100 each in addition to the regular winnings of each game. Of course, I haven’t won anything yet this year. 🙂
I’m supposed to check out by 11 am on Thursday or pay $95 to stay another week. What I’m thinking about doing is moving my van over to park by the fence across from the bingo hall Thursday morning then checking out. After the games I’ll drive into town and spend the night at Walmart. That will put me in a good place to buy groceries Friday morning before I begin my trek east then north.
I don’t have an actual route home yet. I don’t seem to want to plan one. I’ll head east first but whether that’s along I-10 or I-20 or I-40 depends on what the weather is doing then. I prefer to use my furnace at night more than my A/C during the day but, again, I don’t want to freeze my tanks going through the Arizona mountains. I also don’t know if I want to drive the freeways or the US highways. I drive faster on the freeways but I don’t want to get home too soon anyway. Also the freeways are boring so I have to stop and nap a lot. But there are good places to do that on the freeways and they can be a little harder to find along the US highways. And my favorite overnight stopping place is Cracker Barrel and they tend to be close to freeways. But my second favorite place is Walmart and they are everywhere nowadays. I’ll have to stop a couple times to dump my tanks so I’ll probably go into regular RV parks those nights which will let me charge all my electronics as well. Although driving charges my batteries enough to do that. It only gets to be a problem if I sit still without hookups too many overcast days.
So many choices; so few decisions.
TTYL,
Linda
I can just imagine how excited you must be to get home and see Dave. I also know you’ll be smart about the trip home and stay safe.
Yes, decisions, decisions, decisions. But at least you have choices. As a Canadian I have no choice but to head North and be back across the Border no later than April 9th. Although there will be no snow in B.C. it will still be quite cool and lots of overcast and rain.
Well? I-40 is certainly a shorter trip through Texas but it’s also the coldest route. If you take yer time and meander … you might miss the bad weather…. never know about Texas!
AND … if you do decide I-40 … keep on coming through Arkansas and I live a hop skip from I-40… in fact there is a terrific RV Park smack downtown off I-40. The weather should be gorgeous here in another week or so … and Little Rock is very pretty.
The Park is across the pedestrian bridge over the Arkansas River to the Clinton Library or downtown and the Rivermarket and so forth. Very convenient.
Here’s their website… ~ they honor a bunch of passes …. forget which ones but I know that one person said she paid something like $10/night after her pass discounts.
http://northlittlerockriversidervpark.com/
Love to show you about!
I would be rather homesick also. But the weather up North is bad. We are slowly making our way there now. Safe travels.
Man, you guys up north really got hammered this year! I know what you mean about being ready to get home. Good luck on your last Bingo night!
If I get the gig in Minnesota, my plan is to be there about the middle of May. Any earlier is too cold for me. 😉
Linda,
Glad to hear your making plans to head back to Minnesota.
We still have snow piles as tall as me on both sides of my driveway.
Good news is that we should start getting some warm weather (above freezing) and should start
melting.
This years winter was a long one with lots of snow and cold weather. Glad to see it go.
Hope to get my Motorcycle out in April sometime.
Take care,
talk to you soon
Jeff Hop
I like cracker barrel too. for other reasons than rv staying of course. lol
they feel cozy and homey to me. their rockers on the porch. i guess they all have that. don’t know.
just want you to be safe. as does dave. and as does all of us who’ve come to know you and follow your adventures!
i nicknamed you rv braveheart for a reason!!! you are one!
xo
and here’s to BEST OF LUCK in the bingo!
We may cross paths. I haven’t decided which way to go south to TX. Might be going through Little Rock but I have no idea when. Then down to TX from there. I was going to leave this week but the snow pushed back preparations. I don’t want to start out on a Fri or the weekend so I’m just going to wait till Monday. That should get me into TX by Friday. Maybe 🙂 We’ll keep in touch just in case our paths cross — we can meet up at a Cracker Barrel someplace.
Linda,
You could go north (US-95) then east. The Pacific Northwest warms up long before north-central US. Spring is already well in place here in Idaho. We will have temperatures close to 80 degrees by this coming weekend. Then you can follow spring to Minnesota on I-90 and I-94.