After a fun, busy stay in Nashville, it was time for us to mosey along, this time to Memphis (technically West Memphis, Arkansas) where our stay turned out to be the exact opposite of fun and busy.
Getting to the Memphis area was a rather forgettable 225-mile trip west along I-40 which terminated at Tom Sawyer’s RV Park. Located just across the border into Arkansas, this secluded riverside RV park was a perfectly adequate home for the week – nothing too special, but it got the job done.
Not long after getting settled in, Sam began to mention that she was experiencing some pain in her lower back and down into her leg. We didn’t think much of it at first, but she quickly began to spiral downhill and before we knew it, she could hardly stand or sit upright without suffering shooting pain down her back into her leg! It was at this point that we really began to worry that there was something really bad going on with her back. However, after some in-depth googling and youtubing, we were able to self-diagnose Sam with a bad case of sciatica, which, although painful, turned out to be quite fixable given the right stretches, a few doses of muscle relaxers, and adequate time to rest.
If you know Sam, you’ll know that she isn’t exactly the most restful person, which caused this last step of the prescribed remedies to be the most difficult. Thankfully, I was eventually able to pry Sam away from her work laptop and replace it with a phone streaming Gilmore Girls for the next few days.
In addition to lots and lots of Gilmore Girls, we took regular “walks” outside each day as part of Sam’s recovery process. I put these in quotes because our first few efforts only got us about 10 yards away from the camper before Sam was exhausted and we had to turn back. Fortunately, 10 yards turned into 20, the next day, and 40 the day after that. This was a huge relief and provided Sam a light at the end of the tunnel knowing that she was seeing progress each day!
This was pretty much our whole week the Memphis area, with the only trip outside of the RV park coming in the form of a trip to the pharmacy to pick up some muscle relaxers. But, after worrying that there might be something seriously wrong with Sam’s back, we were happy to just be able to walk down to the river by the end of the week and watch the barges chug by!
