Murphy's law

We are at the Walmart in Murphy, North Carolina (map). While we still had to run the air conditioner for a short while after we arrived, a rain storm knocked some of the heat out of the air, and last night was the first night in a long while where it was cool enough to open up all the windows. A little damp, but it was great to get some fresh air through the bus, and we have not had to run the generator since we arrived. Murphy was hit by a tornado in March of this year, and many of the trees behind Walmart's parking lot are severely damaged.

We ended up spending Monday night in the shop, over the pit. Joel had removed the cartridge from the air dryer, and it needed to be sent in as a core exchange for the new one. That unit came from Knoxville, so we were able to get it next-day at the UPS ground price. He also replaced the seeping camshaft seal Monday afternoon.

The new dryer cartridge arrived on the Tuesday morning UPS delivery, and Joel had us all back together and ready to go before lunch time. We pulled around to the wash rack and gave Odyssey a much-needed bath, especially after all the dirt roads we took in Iowa. I paid up and we were ready to leave shortly after lunch.

Monday evening we had a nice dinner with friends Mike and Cindy, who live in an RTS bus currently parked there at the shop. Mike does some work for them in exchange for parking and power. He was kind enough to provide us a WiFi signal from his high-speed Internet connection while we were stuck in the shop with no satellite access.

Our drive yesterday on US-64/74 was spectacularly beautiful. The road runs through the Cherokee National Forest and along the Ocoee river, which is impounded by three TVA projects. A section of the Ocoee was the whitewater venue for the 1996 Olympics, and that section is now a whitewater destination. The water levels here are controlled by dam releases, though, and when we passed through most of the bottom was exposed and the river was not running high enough to float. Still incredibly beautiful, though.

Here in Murphy US-64 and US-74 split, and we'll continue along 74 past the east side of Smoky Mountain National Park and through the Cherokee Nation before connecting with Interstate 40 in Clyde. I expect we will be somewhere near Hickory, NC tonight, which will put us an easy day from our dinner plans tomorrow near Duke University.