Chapter 10

Misty said, “I didn’t expect snow. We’ve gone south steadily and it is still only the middle of July. I wonder if this is as rare as we think it is.”

We pulled the drape back and Sharon came to us. “It snowed last night!”

I said, “We noticed. Misty wondered how rare this might be for this area. Let’s get the TV cranked up.” I looked at my wife and my daughter. “I’ll do that while you two get some breakfast organized.”

The Weather Channel came on and we were told that snow in this area was unprecedented in mid July. We found that we “only” had a light fall of a couple of inches. The weather person was talking about massive snowfalls further north.

I had started coffee. I said, “It’s started. People may get crazy with this weather. We have to be careful even more than we have been.”

Sharon said, “Dad, we’re out in the middle of nowhere. What could happen here?”

“Sharon, how about a motorcycle gang that starts raiding and wanders this way. We don’t want to be on their route. There is an army base close to here. What if a bunch of those kids with rifles go nuts and start raiding? What if a group of farmers get concerned about strangers in their area?” Sharon turned pale. So, did Misty.

“Ladies, I’m a prudent man. I try to worry about things enough to prevent at least the obvious from happening if it’s bad.”

Misty said, “Taylor, that’s why we’ve had pistols in easy reach?”

“That’s right, dear. They are to stop evil as best as possible. We’re in times of troubles and aren’t around our home. We have to be careful. There are bad people who will consider this an opportunity. Good people will either be innocent victims or have to protect themselves if there are no police around. I plan for us to be guilty victims at worse.”

As we ate breakfast, I suggested that we start looking to go east but do so while avoiding the Interstates at least through cities. I said, “I’m concerned about crossing the Mississippi River. There won’t be many spots and there won’t be any away from people. We need to get there soon because that’s going to a bottleneck.” I took a sip of coffee. “Let’s pick out a route and get moving. I will breathe a little easier once we’re over that river. Then, we can map a route that avoids Birmingham and gets us to the house. Misty, we don’t have to go through Atlanta to get to my place. We can then figure things out.” Misty nodded.

We mapped a route that took us closer to Memphis than I would have liked but still crossed well south of that city. The route would take two or three days of driving according to Google. I had a feeling that conditions would not improve.

It was still early but we packed up and pulled out heading east. We were just west of Pine Bluff when we stopped for the night. Sharon had found us another RV park. We pulled into it and checked in. We had gassed up and shopped a bit at dusk. We pulled into our site which was away from the entrance though reasonably close to others. The manager at the office said that we were the first travelers in over a week. I feigned surprise and said that I had heard about the weather to the north and how it was unseasonably cold even here. He said, “The weather people are even predicting a chance of snow for tomorrow.”

I responded. “Well, we’ve been headed home from California to west Georgia and our farm. It’s a long haul but staying a long time in California just wasn’t our idea of fun.”

“I understand,” he said. “Those people do have some strange ideas. You know, I bet this weather is their fault. Isn’t Yellowstone close to there?”

“Gee, mister, I don’t know,” I said. “My family just wants to go home. This rig isn’t fun on the Interstate so I stick to the other roads.” He nodded and we left for our site.

As we pulled in, Misty said, “That was a masterful job of playing dumb. I almost believed it.” I just smiled.

We didn’t disconnect but did hook up for the night. Early in the morning, we got moving and crossed the Mississippi River into Mississippi to head further east.

We weren’t home but were getting steadily closer. I planned for us to continue to avoid population centers. Watching TV at night hadn’t lessened my concerns. A very cold, very early winter was tightening its grip on the plains and I was glad to be away from there. As we started out in the morning, I warned Misty and Sharon that we weren’t out of the woods and we shouldn’t relax our vigilance one bit. We would still be strangers to people.