Sunshine has always been quite a determining factor for my health and wellbeing.
I grew up in Michigan, which receives very little sunshine throughout half of the year. We could easily go two weeks without seeing the sun, and I remember intense depression and lethargy due to it.
My Vitamin D levels were unbelievably low when I lived in Michigan, and though I would eventually find several reasons for this (and change most of them) once I left Michigan, it was clear how desperately important sunshine was to my overall health.
I could never live in that kind of hell again. I was certain of it. And Dustin, having seen my transformation when I was encompassed with the loving rays of the sun more frequently, knew he didn’t want to live with the old version of me again either.
So when I asked God to make it obvious which state we should choose – Arkansas or Tennessee – the sign I was given was clear as… well, a sunny day.
We left Raleigh and visited a town in the mountains of North Carolina first. We stayed for two days and basically rearranged our mess of a RV the entire time. Since we already knew we didn’t want to stay in NC, this pit stop gave us more conformation than anything else.
Next, we were heading through the mountains of North Carolina into the mountains of Tennessee. We’d stop almost halfway through Tennessee, on the Cumberland Plateau, and stay a few days. The weather was decent the whole time. Definitely not too hot, since it was mid-October, but also not too chilly either. It was pretty overcast though and not exactly beautiful.
After a few days exploring the Cumberland Plateau – and the darling towns we found there – we would make the trek to the West side of Tennessee, and then into Arkansas for a week or so to really get a feel for the state.
Our trip to Western TN was uneventful, but we entered Arkansas followed by cool autumn weather and gorgeous sunny skies.
I was so excited! I had been waiting for months to explore this state, and really had a good feeling about it. I had so many things planned – trips to waterfalls and all the little towns that looked so cute online! Arkansas checked all our boxes on our list pretty well, on paper at least, and we were ready to check it all out!
It wasn’t long after we drove into Arkansas that we noticed an issue. We smelled something burning from the wheels of our RV. Luckily, we found a RV mechanic outside of Little Rock – an hour or so from where we were – and made the drive there carefully.
They were able to get us in and check out our rig. We needed new wheel bearings, but they couldn’t get them in for at least a week. No biggie, we had plans to stay at a campground a few hours north for a little over a week anyways.
They reassured us we’d be able to make it to our next stop just fine, and could come back through to get the new wheel bearings installed on our way out of the state.
So, we moseyed on, driving up towards the Ozark Mountains.
As we got close to our destination, we saw an absolutely gorgeous sunset over the Ozarks. The sky was painted like the eyelids of my youth – royal blue with orangy gold accents. It was magnificent! The kind of natural beauty I was hoping to find here! I was absolutely elated!
Could this be our future? Sunsets like this over the mountains? Natures beauty at our doorstep?
That was the last time we saw the sun in the Ozarks.
It was rainy, cold and cloudy the entire time we were in Arkansas. Everyone said it was unseasonably cold, but all I knew was it felt JUST. LIKE. MICHIGAN.
Still, I tried to find the silver lining.
We drove around looking for the little towns I had researched. However, they were kinda hard to find since we’d drive right through most of them without even realizing there was supposed to be a “town” there.
Blink and you’ll miss em kinda places.
There was some beauty to be found, but we were all too cold, tired and wet to get out and explore much.
We had to extend our stay at the campground because the wheel bearings still hadn’t come in and we knew we’d be in trouble if we went on without them.
More cold, rainy, cloudy days.
We had a 5 year old and two energetic dogs cooped up in a tiny 16 foot RV for over a week. Good times.
We didn’t even make it to the waterfalls or the couple towns I was dead set on going to because of the intensity of the weather. We did find a wonderful Indian restaurant in Fayetteville though, the one diamond of this trip.
Finally, the wheel bearings were in and the weather had subsided enough to make the three hour drive to the mechanic safely.
We gladly left the Ozarks and headed south.
Our Rv was fixed within a few hours of arriving at the mechanic, and I had found a great little place to stay for the night nearby so we didn’t have to drive much in the dark.
While our Boondockers Welcome spot for the night was beautiful, with room for the dogs to run, the intense rains hit us and we ended up cooped up in our tiny RV the entire time… yet again.
Ah well, I was starting to give up – maybe this trip was destined to be a rainy and cold one.
The next morning, we packed up for the last time in Arkansas and headed towards Tennessee. It was another cold, cloudy and rainy morning, something we expected at this point.
But as we entered Tennessee something miraculous occurred: the clouds parted, the rain stopped, and my friend sun came out of hiding at last.