Val’s Haul

While driving through Mississippi towards the Arkansas border, we saw a sign pointing left (down a street the GPS had told us to turn onto) for a “Visitors Center” and Val instructed me to stop so she could pick up some Arkansas information. I thought that it was a bit different to have the visitors center before the border, but what the hey.

Val’s Haul

I went to the (outside) bathrooms while Val went inside. She came back with a plastic bag stuffed full of brochures, visitors guides and an state map. For Mississippi! Turns out, it was an Mississippi visitor center (designed for people arriving from Arkansas, but with signs on the freeway that we had come by on as well). She had gone inside and started asking the visitors bureau guide about camping sites and he had started giving her documentation before she realized it was for Mississippi. Then she felt bad and didn’t fess up to the fact that she was about to leave Mississippi, and took all of the paperwork so he wouldn’t feel bad.

On the other side of the Mississippi River we went to the real Arkansas visitors center, where Val, smoozing with the visitors bureau man, mentioned that we “might explore a lot of little campsites” (although we were planning on driving straight through) and he gave her another bundle of brochures and maps. In a ten minute span, Val had mislead visitors bureau guides from two states and obtained a multitude of propaganda.

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Day 4 – 12/20/07

St. Francis National Forest, AK to Lake Catherine SP (Hot Springs, AR)

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Well, last night we got to test the seaworthiness of our van. We pulled in after dark to Bear Lake in Saint Francis National Forest. It was a pretty neat van-stfrancis-2.jpgvan-stfrancis-1.jpgcampsite on a lake and surrounded by water. We had a pretty good supper and then turned in for the night. Continue reading

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Mr. Fix-It

Never let it be said that the man doesn’t work hard when trying to get to the bottom of these electrical problems. 😀

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Obviously, I am the helpful photographer.

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Day 3 – 12/19/07

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We headed out of Tombigbee State Park and headed for Helena, AR. There are only a few places you can cross the Mississippi, so we couldn’t drive willy nilly and hope to end up someplace useful. So we gassed up and headed off down the highway. Went west through Oxford, MS and then curved slightly north. That particular area is almost exclusively agricultural, from what we could see. However, there was a beautiful bridge crossing the Mississippi River.

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Then we found a Wal-Mart and parked for a while so Jay could take apart the dash and try to get our instrument panel lights back. After he fiddled for awhile, he decided that the burning smell from 2 nights ago was the headlight dimmer switch which had burned up. He also discovered that the amperage on that circuit was out of control. Turning the headlights on (with the instrument panel off) was ok. But as soon as he turned the dimmer switch to make the lights brighter, the amperage shot up beyond 5 amps (the size fuse in that circuit). Continue reading

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Extendeding Cellular Communications Range

AT&T Cellular coverage is great near major freeways, but to get coverage as you get farther away from urban areas can sometimes require a larger external antenna. My Motorola V3XX phone has an external antenna jacks.

I purchased the following external (magnetic mount) antenna and cell phone adapter for under $35 from a seller on ebay.

  • Wilson magnetic mount external cellular antenna 301103
  • Motorola v3 Wilson antenna adapter number 352015

When mounted on the roof of the van, the external antenna allows me to get usable reception in places where phone calls would not normally work. Using the external antenna usually gets me two extra “bars” of reception. (With one bar showing on the signal strength meter making a phone-call is doddgy at best, but with three bars the calls go right through.) The antenna was well worth the $35 cost. Of course, nothing will help you when you are traveling through a truly remote location.

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A Bear!

As we were driving up the (dark, twisty) road to Tombigbee state park, I saw something moving along the side of the road. It was big, and black. After Val let out an expletive, I reassured her that it hadn’t been in the road and we hadn’t hit it, so we were just fine. “I know. It just startled me. It was a really big bear!” she said. Apparently, I was the only one who had seen the white flash of hoofs on the black cow.

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Day 2 – 12/18/07

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We woke up very cold this morning. We think it got down to the mid-20s in the forest last night. And since we didn’t have shore power, we couldn’t run our heater. It affected Jay more then me, and he got up early and went “downstairs” under the bed and made himself several cups of chai tea to warm up. I was wearing my slippers, sweat pants, hoodie fleece, and sweatshirt to bed. Jay only had on sock, a lightweight t-shirt, and lightweight pajama pants. Needless to say, when we stopped at Wal-Mart later on, he bought some more clothes. Continue reading

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Inside/Outside temperature sensor

Temp Sensor Exterior Temp Sensor Interior

After spending a cold night in Alabama, we bought a wireless indoor/outdoor thermometer. I installed the “outdoor” unit inside of our “tackle box” mounted on the rear of the van. Although it’s inside of a wooden box, at least it’s outside of the van. We attached the interior monitor with Velcro so that we could move it between the “downstairs” and the “penthouse” top bed area. The cost was $10 for the thermometer unit and $2 for the Velcro at Wal-Mart.

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Natural Bridge

The biggest Natural Bridge East of the Mississippi exclaimed the sign! Of course, this is the same part of the country that calls the Appalachians a mountain chain. As a western boy, I know better. Val and I stopped to take a look, mainly because we wanted to stretch our legs, and this was as good a place as any. After looking at a picture of said natural bridge in the gift shop, Val and I decided to not pay the 2.50 (each!) to see the actual stone. (What a pair of cheapskates!) But we did get this picture of the cool gate leading down to the gift shop & trail entrance.

Natural Bridge Sign

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Day 1 – 12/17/07

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Here’s the route for the first day out of Atlanta. We finally managed to get on the road about 2pm. It was later then I would have liked, but we had family in town for an early Christmas celebration and for Jay’s PhD graduation. So a late start was justifiable.

We hightailed it out of Atlanta on I-20 and just wanted to get across the border into AL. Once there, we started looking for a camping spot. I hadn’t had much time to do research before leaving the house, so we had to go by what the maps had marked. We ended up in Heflin, AL, near the Talledega National Forest. Unexpectedly, we had crossed into the Central Time Zone and so bought ourselves another hour. Continue reading

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