Flexibility is key to this lifestyle. We may have certain dates on the calendar where we want or need to be in certain places, but things aren’t always going to go as planned. Our original intention was to visit St. Louis when we leave Tom Sawyer’s RV Park here in West Memphis. From there we would go on to Des Moines, Iowa where Donna has some work scheduled with Meredith Publishing for Better Homes and Gardens.

We dropped that plan after finding the RV park rates in St. Louis are very high – too high to justify a week in a place that we are only marginally interested in visiting at this time. We thought we would move on to Des Moines where Donna could train on her bicycle for the Senior Olympics race in July. (A friend told us about an RV park there with a 20-mile paved cycling trail nearby.) We had to dash that plan as well when we found the National Junior Rodeo Championship was taking place in Des Moines the last week in June. All the RV sites at that park plus more than 2,000 sites at the fairgrounds are sold out for the week.

So we spent a lot of time looking at alternatives yesterday. We decided to head to Branson, Missouri. Actually we booked two weeks across the river from Branson at the Escapees (SKP) Turkey Creek RV Park in Hollister, Missouri. Donna can train for her race in the Ozarks. She found a cycling club that has regular rides in the area four times a week, including a speed workout. From there we’ll go to Des Moines for five days and then on to Minnesota.

That’s the beauty of being mobile. We can change our neighborhood at will and can adjust our travel plans as needed.

Yesterday I posted about the Gibson factory tour. Some readers may be wondering why I didn’t have photos of the tour. Photography is forbidden in the factory. I should have mentioned that in the post.

In my previous post about river barges, I omitted an interesting factoid. The owners of the barge transport companies keep the barges moving 24/7. To do this, they rotate crews. The tow boat is manned by a captain and first mate that take turns running the boat. There are two sets of deckhands. Each crew member works six hours on, six hours off. The cook and the engineer responsible for maintenance and repair are typically the only exceptions to this work schedule. The crew works for 28 days straight, then they are replaced by another crew while they have 28 days off.

I might start washing our coach today. Tomorrow I’ll have to pack up the trailer and make things ready for travel. I’d like to get an early start when we leave here on Thursday.