Stranded no more!

West Quest '23 - Days 1 - 3

Thursday, 29 June 2023

Greetings Oliver’s Travels Readers,

As many of you know, when we completed Tex Trek ‘23 back in March, Ollie had been to 31 of the lower 48 states.

I’ve been a bit frustrated that we “stranded” Oklahoma, North Dakota and Wisconsin last summer because they had been in our original 2022 travel plans. But yesterday, on Day 3 of this trip - West Quest ‘23 - we finally added Oklahoma. So now, things look like this:

Day 1 of this trip began Monday the 26th after two days of horrible storms back at home in Harriman, Tennessee, making for some challenging days trying to get ready and a very bad night of sleep Sunday. But one thing nice about thunderstorms is that once they blow through, it can be absolutely gorgeous. Here’s how things looked Monday morning:

Our trusty “Big Red” in the center behind the oak tree not yet realizing that she’s been replaced by Killer who’s ready to go!

As I recently posted in The 3/3/3 Rule, it’s wise to try and get to your destination by 3 pm. And with a maximum of 300 miles being ideal, this means leaving by 9 am or so. While our destination was Elm Hill RV Resort in Nashville — only about 150 miles away we did not leave until after 1 pm and we had to do a Kleen Tank job at another Nashville campground on the way to ours. The bad news is that by the time we settled in at our camp site, we were exhausted and it was only the end of Day 1. The good news is that this was our view:

That’s J Percy Priest Reservoir in the background and my legs and a much-deserved adult beverage in the foreground.

I was a bit envious of the folks on Luau Island and the ones enjoying the sail boat!

Luau Island on the left and Stone Island on the right.

We planned to stay two nights because we had another Kleen Tank job to do right there at Elm Hlll and figured we might land at least one more, which we did. So overall, a nice and productive Day 1 and Day 2 from a work perspective.

Here’s Ollie and Killer in the morning before we went to work:

And here’s Skipper after his walk:

“Thanks for the walk, Dad. Now I’m going to just lay my head back down and do what I do best…. sleep. You enjoy those record hot temps while you do that Kleen Tank stuff, OK? Love you….”

And away we go:

We did our first job of the day together, then I gave the lovely Frieda a break and did the second job myself. Here she is wishing me luck and sharing the same exhausted look I had. Between almost no sleep Sunday night, the late departure, and several jobs in the high heat, we really did start this trip with a bit of a sleep deficit.

Wednesday morning here’s how things looked:

And away we go… destination Sallisaw, Oklahoma!

Thanks for reading Oliver’s Travels!