Brrrr.....what a difference a day makes. Ater 3 beautiful days of weather for traveling, today was just the opposite with chilly temps, strong winds and rain!
We were up early with the time change and ready to leave the Loves truck stop in Quinton by 7 AM. The first hour was great with hardly any traffic on I-22 and such a nice road. But then that changed with more and more foks out and trucks on this Saturday morning. We stopped n Tupelo, MS (Elvis' birthplace) to check radar and in Olive Branch, MS for some hot drinks.
We did our usual praying the rosary together and me listening to my oldies (sometimes Seriously Sinatra) as we just kept truckin on down the road. We went thru 5 states - Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri. The rain started in Mississippi - not too heavy but the worst was Missouri just as we crossed the state line - yikes....a good 1/2 hour and most of that was heavy!!! Not fun!
Saw more beautiful wildflowers - pink in Mississippi and yellow in Arkansas. And the huge FedEx facility at the Memphis airport.
We arrived in Sikeston, MO at 1:00 (49 degrees) and planned to eat here at Lambert's Cafe - "home of the throwed rolls" They have a 30-site RV park behind the restaurant that is on a first come first serve basis. Sooo much water standing everywhere. The parking lot was packed including a Peoria Charter bus. Mark got Flo settled in an RV spot hooking up the electric and water in the rain and dodging the puddles.
We drove Ruby to the restaurant and hard to find a parking spot - oh my.....people, people everywhere. We originally thought we would have dinner here but then decided on lunch; but sooo crowded, so came back to Flo for a bit and changed into warmer clothes.
Went back to Lambert's at 2:30 and had a 45 minute wait - crazy busy on a Saturday afternoon. Folks were bundled up in jeans, sweatshirts, jackets, even stocking caps - brrr....we Floridians are not ready for this big change in the weather, but in a few days, it will be warm again.
So, Lambert's was good as ever with generous portions of great Southern cooking + their delicious warm big rolls they throw at the customers. Their servers (guys and gals all wear jeans, denim shirts with red suspenders) come around with metal bowls of fried potatoes with onions, fried okra, tomato/macaroni salad, etc. I forgot how big this place is - we were in a very large dining room and as we were leaving, we walked past another one just like it. We have plenty of leftovers. Still lots of people waiting for a table and this was just the lunch crowd!
So, back on November 7, 2003, Ryan and his cousin David (Ron and Vicki's son) were in aviation at SIU-Carbondale. They were working on their multi-engine ratings and building hours, so invited their parents for a little surprise trip "somewhere" for Mark's birthday. Unfortunately, Ron and Vicki couldn't go as Ron had had recent eye surgery and was told not to fly. So, Anne and Patrick joined us and we left Bloomington flying south for dinner. And tah dah....they landed in Sikeston, a shuttle service provided by Lambert's picked us up and took us to the restaurant and we had a very memorable dinner in such a unique place. Mark and I were also here November 13, 2014 with Daisy enroute to Florida. It's as good as ever - just a really fun place. There are 2 other locations besides Sikeston - Foley, Alabama and Ozark, Missouri.
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