Where is Jack, Day 8

It started to drizzle on our long early morning walk, but it's supposed to clear in a little while.  When we came back, I stretched out for another nap and slept soundly for a few hours.


Today we have to go to Walmart to pick up a "black hose" that's green.  Nancy knows what that means, I guess. ::shrug::


We got some good news this morning.  Bailey will be in NM.  What fun!  I've been on such good behavior, but it will be really hard to look good with Bailey around.  I've been walking so nicely that people think I'm heeling--a man asked last night if I was an assistance dog!!!  I thought Nancy was going to roll on the ground, laughing.  Wow!


On our morning and evening walks, we walk fast for a long time. I don't have a chance to stop and smell or pull.  On our fun walks I'm allowed to pretty much relax and smell the "roses" (so to speak).


Nancy has us so well protected that I should feel very safe, but after yesterday's incident, I never know what the day's surprises hold for me.


We still have no close neighbors, but we kinda like that

The river gets lower every day, and there don't seem to be as many barges, today.  During the night I heard some.  Nancy leaves the shades that face the river, up, and the lights are pretty when they go by.

Sis Susie mailed the package off to us this morning.  She's so good to us, and we miss her a lot.  It'll be here on Wednesday, so we'll be on our way on Thursday, the 22nd.


Hopefully, then my blog will be a little more interesting.  This is just not a place to explore once out of the RV unless we go some distance and I can only bore you with so many pictures of barges.


We have so many gadgets to keep us safe.  Nancy tried out the weather radio, today.  It works on solar power and also has a wind up crank that works really well.  It receives Weather Band, has a USB cell phone charger, a flashlight, and a headphone jack.  It's tiny enough for her to carry in her bag so can go everywhere with us.  Boy, are we prepared!!!  That is as long as Nancy doesn't try to shoot an assailant with the radio, taze me when she's listening to the weather, or drop the locator under the truck wheels!!!


What a difference a day makes:

All of a sudden, big MHs and 5th wheelers were coming in one after the other.  Our next door neighbor really likes me.  They asked Nancy and me to join them for a glass of wine.  She was waxing the trailer so I think she figured it was a good excuse to stop.  She got a diet coke and took me over to sit with them.  Then we went for a walk and we came back in the trailer.  I got in trouble because I didn't want to miss all the fun--I wanted to go out, again.  The screen on the door is covered because I wouldn't mean it, but I could go right through the screen if I wanted to.  Well, that's all for tonight.  I'm tired of watching Nancy work.

Where is Jack, Day 7?

Nothing really exciting happened, today.  Very few barges—guess the pilots deserve a day off.

Nancy dumped, without "incident"!  We have no neighbors around us.  It’s a beautiful, cool, breezy day, and I’m loving lying out in the sun.  It’s been so quiet, the camera hasn’t even made an appearance, today.

One small inconvenience did occur.  We needed to mail a card so Nancy thought we’d go to the post office.  To be efficient she thought she’d pack her shower bag and clean clothes and stop at the shower on the way back.  It’s so cool that I don’t mind waiting in the car. Well, everything was going fine until we pulled up to the shower.  No shower bag.  Nancy could see our site from the shower, and there it was sitting where the truck had been parked. No problem.  We drove over, picked it up and then noticed a sweet smell, but couldn’t figure out what it was.  Then, as Nancy got out of the truck, she said, “What the heck am I sitting in?”  I heard a few words I won’t repeat when she discovered that when we backed out, we had run over the bag.  Big shampoo, conditioner, soap, etc.  What a mess!  So, back to the camper to get new clean clothes.

The worst part of the whole ordeal was to see that Nancy was sad—the ugly striped bag she has used for years was ruined and had to be thrown out.  “Funny,” she said to me, “Why would I be so down about an ugly bag?"


I think because it’s traveled back and forth across country with Rich and when she camped with her friends, too.

Off to Wal-Mart we went.  Couldn’t find anything half as tacky as her striped bag, but she got something that will fill in.  Then we had to go to Walgreen’s to get shampoo, conditioner, and soap.  Then, finally, we went to Wendy’s.  I’m not allowed to have any, but I get some little treats while she’s eating.  That’s a fair deal.  Well, as my friend, Forrest, would say, “That’s all I have to say about that.”


Oh, I almost forgot.  On the way back we got to the train crossing and there was a train stopped, blocking the road.  We couldn't see the beginning of it at either end.  We sat for 27 minutes once it started going.  We've never, ever seen a train that long.  I wonder where all the graffiti comes from.  Some is quite artistic, actually.

Where is Jack, Day 6

It’s a cool and breezy day out, today.  Nancy took me for a really long walk this morning.  Sis called while we were walking and they talked for a few minutes, and then she talked to Lisa.

When we came back, Don and Pat were getting ready to leave.  He was playing with me and said he wished he could take me with him.  Uh, I really like you, Don, but I’m staying with Nancy.  He was just being nice, I think.  Had me scared for a minute, though.

I was thinking when I was walking about how when you’re traveling you meet people all by chance—only because you happen to land in the same spot at the same time.  Humans laugh together, sit and talk, take walks and spend a few short hours together doing what no one else in the world is doing, together.  Then, as quickly as they met, they part, almost always saying the same thing, “Maybe we’ll see you down the road.”  The answer is always, “Yes, I hope so.”  I’ve heard it enough times to know that they know they’ll never meet, again, but they are aware that they’ve added something to each other’s lives. Humans are funny animals (no pun intended).

Today, Nancy has to go to the store to get a few things.  She puts a blanket out for me to lie on, and I’m so comfortable that I hope we’re not going too soon.

Charlie stopped by to see me a few minutes, ago.  He said he came by to see his buddy.  Charlie works at the park.  He told us that he’s got a busy day, ahead, he’s going to build a ramp for the husband of one of the ladies who works here—he lost his leg and is coming home, today.  I like Charlie, but if he built the stairs up to the laundry, I hope he makes the ramp a little steadier or the guy will lose his other leg.  The laundry is brand new, but I think some screws need to be tightened. 

There are birds about the size of pigeons all around here, and they make the funniest noise.  They’re not a bit afraid of me—they walk right up almost to my nose.  Guess they know I won’t hurt them.  Nancy’s got a book that John gave her—she can look up what kind of birds they are.  There are also a pair of geese who seem to stay in one of the ponds (not the one I was swimming in). I have to ask Nancy to take a picture of the birds and Charlie.

Several barges have already passed this morning.  Nancy got out the binoculars—and she thinks many of them are pushing oil up the river.  The containers look to be about the size of the oil trucks that we see—whatever it is, it’s covered.  She doesn’t have a strong enough lens on her camera to get in really close to show you what I mean.  She had her binoculars out, too, and the pilot blasted his horn and came out on deck and was waving and acting silly.  Funny.

This morning a big branch was floating down the river.  It looked like something grey was attached to it, keeping it afloat.  I looked at Nancy and I knew what she was thinking--she was white as a ghost.  She’s been reading a murder mystery and I KNOW she thought it was a body.  Upon closer inspection we realized it was actually a whole tree submerged and floating just below the surface.  Nancy’s heart slowed down a bit.  The power of water is amazing, and so is the power of the imagination.

Then, Judy called and after that John, Michael, and Susan.  So, everyone is keeping in touch.  Nancy called her friend Gail to see how Paul is doing with his broken wrist.  He got a PURPLE cast and wants everyone to sign it in gold!!!  There’s a long story attached to the color purple that I won’t get into, now.

Nancy renewed her Netflix account and downloaded a movie called “Boy in the Striped Pajamas”.  It was a good movie.  It’s a trial for three weeks so she’ll keep it while she’s got the wifi, here.

Well, we finally found a nice part of Memphis—it’s called Germantown.  We decided to take a ride after going to the drugstore and post office, but where?  A little voice went off in Nancy’s head (it was me)—put Barnes & Noble in the GPS—there sure aren’t any bookstores around here.  Well, the first one took us to an abandoned mall and we found a misplaced Statue of Liberty, but the second led us to Germantown.

Germantown was a very nice area.  We went to B&N and Nancy picked up a couple of books she wanted.  Then, we wanted to find a hardware store.  So, she put “hardware” in the GPS.  I’m so happy she has this gadget—lord only knows where we’d be if she didn’t.

Nancy thought she left her brand new flashlight at home.  As she was paying, she vaguely remembered putting it in a compartment in the truck.  Oh, no, could this be true?  She got in the truck saying, “It better not be here.”  It was.  I said, “So, okay, keep one in the truck and one in the trailer and give one to Susie when we get home.”  She took my advice.

We headed home and we went straight through the city of Memphis.  Of course we were on the highway, but she managed to get one picture in while we were stopped, we think.  One is a building that looks like a pyramid.  I think Rich told her it is a sports arena.

When we got back to the park, we went for a long walk.  We came back and new neighbors pulled in.  I got into trouble because they had a dog and the man came over and I barked.  Nancy was MAD.  I have been so good, I don’t know why I did it.  She told the man to watch out for the water pressure—it’s very, very strong, here.  Without a water pressure valve, I’m sure we would have blown some pipes.  The guy said, “Thank you”, but was still shocked when he turned it on and thanked us, again.  He saw Nancy with the computer and asked if she’d be willing to give him some fundamental lessons on his Apple.  They’ll sit down, later.  Right now, they have company who pulled in right after they did.

So, maybe another temporary friend.  Maybe not if I don't keep my mouth shut.

Where is Jack, Day 3?

Well, surprise, surprise, I'm 50 feet from the Mississippi watching the barges go by.  Everything changed--never know what Nancy's going to do.


Last night was a restless night for me.  I usually sleep with Nancy, but I guess I started to think of Lizzie and I wanted to sleep where we used to sleep, together.  I whined just a little in the middle of the night and showed Nancy what I wanted to do.  She said, "Okay, c'mon old boy, I'll move the stuff out of your way.  I understand."  I don't know how much longer it was before I decided I'd go back to sleep with Nancy so I got down and whined a little more.  She moved her feet and said, "Okay, old boy, make up your mind.  I understand"

We were both wide awake early this morning and on the trail about 6:15 CST.  It was beautiful--the birds were singing their hearts out, and I know we heard some deer, but just didn't see them.  We walked all around and finally got to those steps, again, and went up.  Nancy was just about finished hooking up, so we took off for "David" Crocket State Park.  We took the ride that the nice lady in the office told us to take, and it was beautiful.  I don't think I've ever seen so many barns. We couldn't pull over to take pictures because it wouldn't have been safe.  Before we knew it, we were in David's territory.  It was at that point that Nancy said, "Jack, you wanna go to the Mississippi, instead?"  Well, we were on a beautiful road, then it turned into some other kind of road--easy driving, but not quite as pretty.  We were in and out of Tennesse, Alabama, and Mississippi so many times that we had a hard time believing that we would wind up in Arkansas!  We even saw where Helen Keller was born.  It's just drop dead gorgeous, here.  Nancy took a few pictures of barges, but there are some of me lounging around that aren't out of the camera, yet.  So, I'll just post the ones that are ready.  Since we're so tired, I may add to this, tomorrow.  Good night, everyone.

Before I forget, we are at Tom Sawyer Campground, a place where Rich always wanted to go.  We decided we'd go for him.  He really would have liked it here.  We miss him so much.  My brothers and sister call every day.  They would like it here, too.  We need to get one more walk in, and it's getting dark and chilly out.  More, tomorrow.  We'll be here for a few days.