ARKANSAS
Well, Mississippi didn’t last long.
The heat and the humidity were as unrelenting as if we were in the Amazon basin. It would rain causing me to shut windows. The air was smothering. I checked the heat index−the measure indicating the level of discomfort a person is thought to experience as a result of the combined effects of the temperature and humidity on my weather device. It read 102.6. This was no fun. We had been suffering for two weeks now ever since the Boles Field camp. Everything in the RV was constantly damp and sticky. It never dried out, including us. Beans was growing mildew. I had become a moldy old man. Here it was only the first week of June. It would only get worse. I finally decided we couldn’t continue on any further. We had to turn around and escape this environment. I was disappointed. I wanted to tour the South again. I love the southern states. I had no appetite. Beans had quit eating her wet food days ago. She would only nibble at her kibble. This happened two years ago when we were in the Mideast. I was laid up for two days in Ohio and West Virginia sick from the heat and humidity (see A Hot Mess eBook). I learned a big lesson from that. Once I got over the initial disappointment of having failed once again I felt better knowing I made the right decision.
When I began this year of travel I was concerned about tornados ripping through the southern states and most likely having a harrowing experience. I was realistic in the fact I probably would be scared off at some point. This provided me with a possible title for this eBook. I began documenting the deadly tornado instances of 2021 to justify my chickeness:
January 25 – Birmingham, Alabama – one dead
February 15 – Brunswick County, North Carolina – three dead
March 26 – Georgia/Alabama − five dead
April 4 – Palmetto, Louisiana – multiple injuries, two dead
April 23 – Northeastern Texas – multiple tornados outbreak, no reported injuries
May 3 – Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas – five tornados, eight hospitalized
May 5 – Mississippi/Georgia – numerous tornados, two dead in Georgia
And here I was worrying about tornados for this trip when it turned out the humidity would be my undoing.
The next morning Beans spied a little black cat down the line eating something. It turned out to be a squashed breakfast burrito. Poor kitty. It wasn’t too afraid of me, just cautious and walked off back into the woods. I left out a can of food for it plus an opened bag of treats that Beans didn’t care for. We left Brookhaven heading north using the interstate mostly just to put in some miles−not something I really wanted to do.
I had only eaten a half a bagel before starting out. By nine a.m. I was drowsy while driving having slept poor due to the heat and my damn neck still giving me headaches. I wanted to pull over and sleep. On expansion joint Highway 61 which jolted the RV every twenty feet I finally found a place to pull off, the parking lot for a Methodist Church in the flatland of the Mississippi river farmlands. I laid down for a half an hour and felt better afterwards. I made another stop before the state line for a bowl of cereal outside a dentist’s office. Here Beans wanted out for a walk then we continued on into Arkansas.
I saw a sign for the Arkansas Welcome Center and pulled in for no reason. I walked down by the water which I thought was the Mississippi River but instead was Lake Chicot. I thought this was nice; this was what I used to do, just stop, get out and enjoy. My spirits rose. I went back to the RV and found Beans too was with renewed spirit. With cars parking and people milling about she still wanted to get out. And so we did. She marched right on over to the tourist building, explored around the edges attracting attention. The volunteer came out to take pictures of her saying he wished he could get his cat to wear a harness. We walked out on a bridge walkway. Beans kept poking her head out between the slats to look down at the water far below. Well I didn’t need that; her slipping off and dangling by her leash ten feet above the water so we turned back me carrying her to the RV. “Well that was fun.” Meow. A few miles more and we were at the small Walmart Travelers Rest Stop in McGehee, a store too small for any produce. The Save Mart next door had produce which didn’t appeal to me. Shopping would be done later down the road.
I poured over maps and camping apps as to where to go from here. I came up empty. Somewhere I smelled chicken cooking and not from the Walmart. Behind us was a bright red trailer selling Japanese food. The pictures online looked good so I walked over and bought a plate−shrimp, steak cubes, vegetables and rice. The meal was okay in my opinion but the locals must really like it for they had a steady stream of customers pulling in for takeout. Later I had indigestion probably from eating too much. My headaches continued. Later a Walmart truck parked in front and he turned on the refrigerator motor. A reefer. Just my luck. I couldn’t get a break. I was too tired to move in the dark so I fished out my earplugs. Not a good night.
It was now Sunday morning. I was up early. I moved to the other side of the lot for a tiny breakfast, a bit of writing in the journal and a lot of head scratching as to what direction to go from here. To the west twenty miles was Monticello. It had a larger Walmart. There I picked up a few things and ate some cereal once back in the RV. Temperatures were warming up again. Going north would take us through Little Rock. Being Sunday maybe this would be the best time to push through the capital city which sat right at the sweet spot of stopping for the day. I thought I could press on for a two hour drive, only twenty miles further to Camden beyond Little Rock. Once underway again I realized I would not make it the entire way on fuel. I also slowly realized I myself would not make it either. What is the rush? Why push it? I have nothing but time. The large town of Pine Bluff stood before Little Rock. They had a Walmart. I would refuel there and check out the conditions to stay there for the night. I was facing another eighty miles to Camden. I would make Pine Bluff work and found a spot where I thought big semis would not pull in close to us. If I had to, this time I would move.
Storms rolled in. Rain pounded us off and on but our parking spot looked like it would be a good one after all. Early that evening disaster struck. My epoxy fix to the refrigerator door hinge gave way. Thank you expansion joint Highway 61. JB Weld on top of JB Weld wasn’t going to work. What to do? All I could think of was screwing a standard door hinge onto the door. It would look like crap but if it worked that was all that mattered. The refrigerator is a 2005 model; for sure parts could not be had. The hinge pivot was part of the bottom plastic framework of the door, not a simple replacement part. At least with a solution in mind I felt I could go to sleep. I would go to a Home Depot, get what I need and work on a repair all day if need be. It looked like we wouldn’t be leaving Pine Bluff the next day, that was for sure.
In the morning I got to looking at the broken hinge piece again. It kind of looked as if I hadn’t gotten epoxy on all the surfaces with the recent repair of a week earlier. Maybe I should try again and do a better job. I’d give it a go. This time I was sure I had all surfaces covered with epoxy and had the door positioned better with the two parts pressed together tightly. Now to leave it alone for at least four hours meaning no breakfast as usual and well, I’d walk over to a fast food joint for lunch. Meanwhile, just for fun I decided to look and see if parts were available. Nope. But as it goes when looking online, one thing led to another. I found some images and videos on the problem. It seemed that broken Norcold refrigerator door hinges were commonplace. A couple of the videos the owners approached the problem a different way than what I was thinking. One guy ran a long metal strip screwed to the underside bottom of the plastic door frame with a hole for the hinge pin. Another guy used a half of a standard door hinge in the same fashion. Now this made sense and looked cleaner than the Frankenstein solution I was going to do. After an Arby’s chicken and bacon sandwich for lunch (that Popeye’s sandwich got me into a chicken sandwich mode) we left for a Lowes store three miles away.
Inside Lowes I wandered all around with my paper template in hand trying to think as the half of a door hinge method would require some cutting and hole drilling. A long strip of aluminum the other guy used would work but Lowes didn’t have any material like that. Then I saw some brackets and among them L brackets. This I could see working. In fact the predrilled holes on the L brackets were in the perfect positions matching my template. All I would have to do was cut off half of one leg of the L. I can do this! All the packages of L brackets were mixed up in the bins. Trying to find the size I wanted would be frustrating plus I’d have to get a two-pack. There lying on the floor was a single bracket that had fallen out of a package. I lined it up on my template. Yes! Perfect. I walked up to the lady at the self-checkout. I explained the situation of everything being a mess and finding one loose one on the floor. I wanted to just pay for one thinking she could adjust the price or even pay the full price for two at $4.98, I didn’t care. She couldn’t be bothered asking me to go back and find a two-pack package. I walked off grumbling. That’s what I get for trying to be honest. Hell, they don’t care. I slipped the L bracket in my pocket and walked out the garden department.
Back at the RV Beans was happy I came back. I dug through my collection of screws finding a pair that would work. Okay Beans, let’s get with the program here. I lifted up the bed to get the jig saw and drill out. Beans dug out a new catnip banana I had hidden in there. Outside on the step I cut off half a leg on the L bracket filing off the rough edge. Looks good. Back inside I unloaded the refrigerator door of food, slipped the door up off the top hinge and flipped the door upside down standing on end on the floor. Slipping the hinge pin in the epoxied plastic repair to align the bracket to the door frame I drilled two holes then screwed in two sheet metal screws to hold the bracket. Now the moment of truth. I flipped the door back over, set it on the bottom hinge pin, replaced it onto the top hinge pin and the door swung perfectly, latching like Norcold intended it to do. Unbelievable! Well that went well, very well indeed. I put everything away and felt confident this repair would last. Now the repair was better and stronger than epoxy alone.
I relaxed there in the Lowes parking lot catching up on emails when a black guy walked by. He looked in the front window, saw me, waved and I waved back. He turned around. Shit! Here it comes. Sure enough, he asked for a few bucks so he could get something to eat.
“I tell you what”, I said. “You caught me on a good day…a real good day. Normally I don’t give money out but you know what? I am here because I had to repair the door hinge on my refrigerator. I didn’t know if it could be done or not. I found something here at the store and it is fixed! It’s a good day. And you know what else? I didn’t even have to buy the part to fix it either. That’s a whole other story but because of that I am going to give you the money I would have had to spend on the part I needed which I didn’t have to buy.” He stood there glassy eyed wondering why I was carrying on about a story that he couldn’t care any less about. I went to get my money clip as he stood outside telling me his name was Robert Johnson and going on about the stores around here all shutting down. I peeled off a few ones while he was eyeing the twenty on the bottom. I handed him the bills. He said nothing except some reference to God and Jesus. I said “Well God was helping me today with the door repair for sure. And because He helped me now I am helping you.”
“Well this will help me some but a meal at McDonalds costs $7.98 and then there’s tax. There’s always tax.” I’m thinking is this guy serious?
“Hey, that’ll get you a burger and don’t go to McDonalds. That’s crap food. Go to Burger King. You’ll get a Whopper with that.”
“There’s no Burger King around here and I have to walk.” Well he had me there.
“Okay Robert Johnson, now you give me your word you’re going to get something to eat with that. You’re not going to go buy smokes are you?” He just looked at me saying nothing. “You’re not going to buy booze now are you?”
“Oh I ain’t never drank.” To look at his yellow rummy eyes I wasn’t so sure about that. And then he started to walk away.
“What do you say now?” He stopped and looked at me. The guy never said thank you. I prompted him again.
“Don’t you have something to say? Like thank you?”
“Oh I thank God and Jesus everyday.”
“Well how about thanking John? I just gave you money to buy something to eat. Doesn’t John get a thank you for that?”
What Robert Johnson did next surprised me. “Here, I’ll give you the money back.”
“No you keep it Robert. I don’t want the money back. I was thinking a simple thank you would be nice.” I wouldn’t open the screen door to take the money he was trying to hand me. He wedged it in the door saying “Here, I’ll just stick it here. I hope the wind don’t blow it away” then Robert Johnson turned and walked away.
What did I learned from this? When in a parking lot always remember to pull down the curtain blocking off the view from the front looking into the RV and keep the door shut unless there is a refreshingly good breeze.
We left Pine Bluff the next morning heading north into Little Rock, Arkansas and deviated north on to the town of Clinton, which has nothing to do with those Clintons, but named after Dewitt Clinton who built the Erie Canal. He was governor of New York in 1817. Now why someone in Arkansas would name their town after him was beyond me. In Clinton we had another eventful night with rain and hundreds of lightning strikes only a few miles south of us. That night I also came to the conclusion I made a bad decision coming this way. This route would take us through the Ozark Mountains in the northwest corner of the state. I wanted to have some easy driving just to lay down some miles putting this wetness and humidity behind us. We should have stayed on the interstate going through Little Rock heading west. It would now be a forty-mile backtrack to remedy the mistake. Nope. I would just deal with my bad decision.
As we got rolling that morning the highway proved to be not all bad. In fact the journey was fairly smooth sailing. I was able to sit back and enjoy the drive, and it didn’t rain. There were a lot of sunny miles. The Ozarks is beautiful country but like years before when Sinbad and I were coming through this area, there just wasn’t anywhere to turn off to take in the beauty and maybe snap a photo or two. For the two hour drive that morning we came across only one “scenic viewpoint” turnout that was blocked off with parked construction machinery as we passed by. Very aggravating.
We arrived at the small town of Berryville where I thought we might stay. The drive was going so well I decided to press on. I had a small lunch then input the coordinates into the GPS for a Walmart in Joplin, Missouri. We took off following Claire’s instructions. In a few miles I realized I didn’t want to go this way! She was taking us through Arkansas on small narrow country roads. There was no place to turn around. I decided to deal with this also. Well the route wasn’t that bad filled with all kinds of hills, twists and turns. Instead it was quite nice, traffic free and I eventually relaxed thinking this is what I used to do years back with Sinbad. Just enjoy the journey John and I did. We had a pleasant drive all the way to Joplin with not a drop of rain all day.
That evening I looked for cooler places to head to. The whole country was hot. Even up in the mountains of Colorado it was only less than ten degrees cooler than the flatlands. What to do? Maybe in the morning something would come to mind.