Visit With Rachel and Her Parents in Little Rock

When I started blogging again, I missed one story….. my beard.  I let it grow for a month, and although I kinda liked it, I did not have the patience to wear it very long.

 

We left Red Bay about 9:30am and headed to Memphis (actually Southaven, MS) to get a new pair of tires at Discount Tire, Co.  The shop that we chose was just across a street from a Sam’s Club, so we stopped on their parking lot, left the Bus, and drove over to the tire shop to get our tires. 

With their Road Hazard warranty, I got a replacement tire for less than half of the cost of the new tire, and then purchased a second tire so that the tires on each axle had the same wear.

We were finished up by 2:00pm, and with a bad weather front coming through from the West, and since the Sam’s lot was large and nice, we decided to stay over here and drive the 140 miles to Little Rock in the morning.

In the meantime, we went to Sam’s and shopped, as well as a few other stores.  Just as the thunderstorm was arriving, we headed out to a local Carrabba's Restaurant for dinner.  It is one of our favorite Italian restaurants.

Patsy likes the fall leaf color changing, and she found a few trees on the Sam’s lot……..

On Saturday, we slept late, and did not arrive at the North Little Rock Riverside RV Park until about 1:00pm.  Our daughter, Deanne, brought Rachel over about an hour later, and she had packed for the six days of our visit. 

As a matter of information, Rachel was 5 years old on here last birthday in March, but she is every bit as intelligent as I thought she would be!  She is currently in kindergarten, and has a really large list of words that she can recognize.  We bought her a coloring book with an Activity book included. On the second day, I caught her doing a small crossword puzzle where the words were listed in a box on the page……. a good accomplishment for a 5 year old.  An unbiased point of view from an unbiased grandfather….. but proud!!

In short time, we gave Rachel the bracelet and other gifts that we got for her during our San Antonio Rally.  Here she is with the bracelet……

When Deanne left after about an hour, we opened up the Driver’s side couch into a (Queen size, they call it!!), and Rachel settled into her space.  Except for running out to Walmart for some stuff, including a DVD for Rachel, and stopping at Wendy’s for burgers, we spent the evening in the Bus.

Rachel watching her new DVD on the floor……

On Sunday, Patsy and Rachel did some crafts and artwork in the Bus, while I watched some football.  I have not liked the Dallas Cowboys for over 15 years, but Dak has made me a fan again!!  After the games, we went out to a local Cracker Barrel restaurant for dinner, and enjoyed it.

We thought we had the Honda ‘flat tire’ incident behind us, but we still had a “TMPS” orange light on the instrument panel.  I called the local Honda dealer, and made an appointment for Monday to bring the car in for a ‘reset’.   Rachel was patient with the wait………

The appointment was over by about 1:00pm, and we went shopping again, and then back to the Bus for a late lunch.  On Monday evening, we met Deanne and Mile at a local restaurant for dinner to celebrate Deanne’s birthday which was back on November 10……. we were in San Antonio on that date!!

On Tuesday, we took Rachel to the movie, Troll, and her mother met us at the theater.  She really enjoyed to movie, and afterwards, we went to her favorite restaurant, The Purple Cow……. a local hamburger and malt shop.  They even have Purple ice cream.

Wednesday was our last full day in Little Rock with Rachel.  We did a little pre-Black Friday shopping, and ended up at a Walmart where she talked me into buying her a Poppy the Troll doll……… it was easy!!

And back at the Bus…………

Also, for our last day, Patsy and Rachel wore their matching T-Shirts.

Lastly, Rachel was showing off her abundance of artwork that she has done over the few days that we were here.

As demonstrated by the last photo, it is clear that the three of us have some “housework” to do before we hit the road for home tomorrow afternoon!!  But, she had FUN, and so did we!

On Thursday morning, we will leave the campground and take the Bus to a nearby large parking lot, and leave it there while we drive to Deanne’s house for a Thanksgiving meal.  After that, Patsy and I will say goodbye to everybody, and start back to Victoria! 

More on Thanksgiving Day and our trip home later!!