I76>I81>I75>I24>US72>I565>AL24 getting late in the trip and so I'm back on the big roads going the easy way. Not as scenic, but then 900 miles in 2 days :)

We dry camped - yep a WalMart parking lot on the way down and got to Red Bay on the 2nd. We just needed a short visit to the Express Bay, so we were hoping to get in and out early but just in case planned on 10 days. We had booked Dallas for 8/13 - 8/23 for the truck show. We like to get down there early so we get our favorite spot :)

We paid Bay Diesel a visit on 8/3 and they were finally able (we hope) to track down the ABS problem we've had. Time will tell on that one. They needed a part to get it fixed so we went back on the 4th to get the part installed and the shop called for us while we were over there. So bright and early on the 5th we got into the shop and got some of our work done - they finished us up on the 6th and with 4 wheeling on our mind we headed out early on the 7th for Mena Arkansas where the nearby national forest would offer us a chance to see what our new ride could do.

08/07/09 - T Ricks RV Park, Hazen, Ar

AL25>MS24>US78>I40: boring but another easy drive.

This is just a getting there stop off. We've really tried this year to have the trip be the fun part instead of just the destination, but this run for Red Bay and then across to Ar it's been more about the destination. We are anxious to go Wheeling :))

So it's the easy route to get us there ASAP.

I30>US70>US270>AR88>US59: back on the little roads again and up into the mountains in Ar.

The park is on a hillside just outside of town and it a pretty nice park. But it wasn't the park we came - it was to get our new ride dirty -

Click the pic to go to the 4 Wheeling page

US59>US70>OK37>TX37>US82>TX121>US75>US380

This one's titled "humm?" - not sure what breed that one is, but it's either a wild dog or someone is trying to breed the worlds ugliest dog :0 I didn't really see him as we went by, Sheila saw something on the side of the road so I just pointed and clicked.

Lincoln Park MH Park is just a row of sites at the top of the park right next to the road. A little noisy, but the location was good as was the price. We also got a discount coupon for the resturant across the street so we went out for dinner - it's was really good :) A steak house, but they also had fish so Sheila also got something she enjoyed.

I35E>Dallas - a short drive, about 50 miles from Denton to the park in Dallas.

We needed to run down to Denton on the way to Dallas to get the SMI Auxillary Brake installed. I wasn't thrilled with the install, they didn't test if when they finished up and I think they adjusted it to tight resulting in the 5000# car trying to stop the 50,000# RV - this over heated the brakes and resulted in warping the rotors :(  We'll have to get them turned when we get back down to Fl - in the mean time just have to put up with the pulsing stops. It also took them all day, but I think my complaint resulted in only being billed the 4.5 hours it's supposed to take.

It was also an all day affair so we didn't get out of there until 6pm and then made a wrong turn getting into Dallas and wound up hooking the back a/c on a phone cord that ran across the parking lot I turned around in :( - not one of our better days, but we're both fine, so the rest us just stuff - we can get it fixed :))

8/19/09 - Dallas Truck Show

TRUCKERS HELPER MERGES WITH LAYOVER.COM

This one gets it's own slot as it was the big news this year. Our merger with Layover.com was announced at the Dallas Truck Show and we combined our booths, which were next door to each other any way. That 10 x 40 booth I think looks pretty impressive :)

We're going to be working together to bring out a number of new things over the next few months and believe that by combining our strengths we can offer truckers exciting new tools to make their jobs easier.

US75>US69>US54>lost on the back roads of MO>Grain Valley, Mo

What started out when we got off the US54 as a nice scenic route up to Grain Valley (and around the madness of Kansas City) turned into a real adventure when we ran across the 10 ton weight limit on the planned route :( - oops, time to detour. So off we went wandering and looking for an alternate route -

Unfortunately I didn't do this page as we went along, so I can't remember at this point exactly how we went. I've gotten lazy the end of this summer and haven't been taking my photo's or keeping the log up on a daily basis. Guess that's my lesson for next year - you have to do this every day or your forget things.

MO-F>US50>MO13>MO7>Warsaw, Mo: US65>I70>Washington, Pa

This park is on our do not return list - if you don't setup for it right it's a very sharp turn onto the very narrow road leading to the park. The park itself was also a little challenging with a 90 degree banked turn at the top of a hill to get to the sites. I mentioned to the owner that he should warn people about the turn off the main road when we checked in and he didn't seem too concerned about that 70 year old new big rig driver who's going to put the side of his rig into the telephone pole :( - at any rate we won't go back.

We dry camped the night before, and had the tanks not needed a dump, probably would have dry camped again. So we dumped the tanks and had a quiet night.

And that ends August - a great month with just a few bumps along the way. But then if there were never any bumps we'd forget how nice the smooth road is :))