Yep, we’re in Oklahoma today. We came through Wichita, Kansas south to Oklahoma City. There was a noticeable difference in the landscape…more trees and lots of gas derricks (that pumping thing that extracts something from the ground…they look like the bobbing birds that dip their heads in a glass of water). Around mid-day, we came through Ponca City, Oklahoma; this is where the Pioneer Woman museum was. We stopped there and there were lots of neat exhibits about Oklahoma women who were pioneers in a variety of professions….civil rights, aviation, legislation, etc. There was also an oil refinery in Ponca City by Conoco and it was huge. I had never seen one but it was a mass of pipes and large storage silos that covered a considerable amount of land.
We arrived to Oklahoma City around 5:00 p.m. and we went to the large Camping World store here. Bought a couple things and then migrated down the street about a block to a Wal-Mart Supercenter and that is where we will stay for the night. Was another very hot day here….odd because yesterday in Kansas it was very comfortable…around 78 degrees and today it must have been in the low 90’s.
Another noticeable difference that struck me was that something must happen once you cross that border into Oklahoma because folks here have an accent. Not sure what happens in just the span of a few hundred miles to the speech patterns but it is very interesting.
Tomorrow we will go to the Oklahoma Memorial and the National Softball Hall of Fame…
Friday, August 31, 2007
Leaving Smith Center…
Darren and Curtis finished up working on the rig about 11:30 and we hit the road. Our plan now is to meander to Livingston, Texas and we need to get there next Tuesday. Can’t get there earlier Monday as that is the holiday and no one will be there to orient us for our new positions and our site, during our stay is reserved from Tuesday on. Linda looked at points of interest, on Co-Plot (our GPS system) for areas around our route south and we planned some stops; otherwise we will just drive a little each day to break up the next five days till we get there. Tonight we are in McPherson, Kansas where we will go to the Motorcycle Museum in the morning. Then from here we’ll go to Oklahoma City to see the Memorial from the Oklahoma bombing at the Federal building. This is something that I really want to see. I think it will be even harder to comprehend, once I see it, then it was to hear about it on the news; at the time it took place. When you travel through this vastness out here, it is hard to imagine how such a heinous act could have happened in middle America. I will write more tomorrow about that. In Oklahoma City there is also a Camping World store that we will stop at. Kind of a Wal-Mart for campers.
Speaking of Wal-Mart, that is where we have stopped for the night. Bought some groceries, will play some cards and will go to sleep with a Kansas breeze blowing through the RV….it will be a wonderful night for sleeping.
Speaking of Wal-Mart, that is where we have stopped for the night. Bought some groceries, will play some cards and will go to sleep with a Kansas breeze blowing through the RV….it will be a wonderful night for sleeping.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Going Home…..
No, we’re not on our way home yet silly. Our RV was manufactured in Smith Center, Kansas and we went back to the manufacturer to get some warranty work done. While leaving Nebraska this morning we thought we’d try calling a GMC dealer in the Smith Center area to see if they would look at the running lights on the front of the cab, where the water seems to leak in during hard rain storms. I called Melton GMC in Belleville, Kansas..and spoke to Josh the service manager. He said “No problem…bring it in when we come through the area”. We arrived at 2:00 p.m. and we were out of there 30 minutes later…no appt…just a couple hours of forewarning. And what a nice guy Josh was ! That is customer service !
We’re back in corn country. Was a very hot day…in the 90’s and every cow pasture we passed that had a watering hole had bovine in it, basking in the coolness of the water. Up to their bellies, standing there, flinging water up over their backs with their tails.
We arrived at Smith Center about 4:00 p.m. and Darron got us all set up, outside a service bay. He hooked us up to electricity (first since last Tuesday) so we could run the AC and microwave….put the four slideouts out…and showed us the customer lounge where we could watch TV, do laundry, shower, make coffee, etc. What a wonderful lounge for folks who are temporarily displaced from their “homes” while getting service done. They also had a computer and a wireless network but with our recent luck of not being able to get onto a wireless network, of course it didn’t work for us. Tomorrow we can rely on the competent employees of the service center to get us into the computer (we’re hoping.) We are very backed up with about five days worth of stories to tell you and lots of pictures to share that we want to get them uploaded. With any luck this entry might actually get posted the morning after I write it…wow ! Kind of ironic since all day we’ve passed markers for the Pony Express as it used to go through this territory. With all the technology of today I could probably have gotten it to you quicker by Pony Express than I can trying to find a wireless connection. Sheesh…technology
We’re back in corn country. Was a very hot day…in the 90’s and every cow pasture we passed that had a watering hole had bovine in it, basking in the coolness of the water. Up to their bellies, standing there, flinging water up over their backs with their tails.
We arrived at Smith Center about 4:00 p.m. and Darron got us all set up, outside a service bay. He hooked us up to electricity (first since last Tuesday) so we could run the AC and microwave….put the four slideouts out…and showed us the customer lounge where we could watch TV, do laundry, shower, make coffee, etc. What a wonderful lounge for folks who are temporarily displaced from their “homes” while getting service done. They also had a computer and a wireless network but with our recent luck of not being able to get onto a wireless network, of course it didn’t work for us. Tomorrow we can rely on the competent employees of the service center to get us into the computer (we’re hoping.) We are very backed up with about five days worth of stories to tell you and lots of pictures to share that we want to get them uploaded. With any luck this entry might actually get posted the morning after I write it…wow ! Kind of ironic since all day we’ve passed markers for the Pony Express as it used to go through this territory. With all the technology of today I could probably have gotten it to you quicker by Pony Express than I can trying to find a wireless connection. Sheesh…technology
And on the 6th day we rested….
It’s Sunday and we only have a short distance to cover to get to Smith Center, Kansas; which we need to be at by Tuesday morning. We drove about 2 hours this morning (after a leisurely wake-up) and stopped at a Wal-mart Supercenter to pick up some items that we needed. We searched for a store that had Wi-Fi but to no avail. We drove a ways further and stopped for the night at a rest area.
It is blasted hot here today…around 90 degrees..and uncomfortable. There have been extreme changes in temps from each area we visit and we never know if it’s going to be a sweatshirt day (a Penn College one no less) or a tank top and short kind of day. We’re hoping for a quick cool down once the sun goes down today.
These ingenious Midwesterners…they have found a way to make use of those pesky used tires that no one seems to be able to get rid of. Driving down the highway you’ll see them adorning fenceposts with sayings like, “No Hunting” (no need to buy those cheap signs that deteriorate in the weather) or one area of the countryside had reminders that “Jesus is Coming”. Cute, huh ? and what lasting signs they make. Take a lesson from the mid-west….if you can’t dispose of it, hang it up and display it proudly!
While at the rest stop this morning, a woman stopped me and asked if we had been on the Alaska excursion with the other Excel RV owners. I said that we hadn’t been and we began talking about this and that…Penn State..Penn College (I had a PCT t-shirt on)…traveling…Alaska….Turns out she is from Dushore and left home in early May for a 48 day trip to Alaska and is making her way back to PA. Small world…
It is blasted hot here today…around 90 degrees..and uncomfortable. There have been extreme changes in temps from each area we visit and we never know if it’s going to be a sweatshirt day (a Penn College one no less) or a tank top and short kind of day. We’re hoping for a quick cool down once the sun goes down today.
These ingenious Midwesterners…they have found a way to make use of those pesky used tires that no one seems to be able to get rid of. Driving down the highway you’ll see them adorning fenceposts with sayings like, “No Hunting” (no need to buy those cheap signs that deteriorate in the weather) or one area of the countryside had reminders that “Jesus is Coming”. Cute, huh ? and what lasting signs they make. Take a lesson from the mid-west….if you can’t dispose of it, hang it up and display it proudly!
While at the rest stop this morning, a woman stopped me and asked if we had been on the Alaska excursion with the other Excel RV owners. I said that we hadn’t been and we began talking about this and that…Penn State..Penn College (I had a PCT t-shirt on)…traveling…Alaska….Turns out she is from Dushore and left home in early May for a 48 day trip to Alaska and is making her way back to PA. Small world…
My gosh, we’re in OshKosh
Today started out a little earlier than normal (1:00 A.M.) with a knock on our door. Groggy and still half asleep I looked out our bedroom window to see the flashing lights on a mall security car. We had stopped in Rapid City, SD for the night and pulled to the backside of a mall parking lot. I went to the door and the security guard politely told me that they didn’t allow overnight parking in the mall parking lot but told me that if I moved to a vacant lot over there (just a few thousand feet down the road), that we’d be fine. So pack up the dogs, pull in the one slide (we’ve found that putting out the kitchen slide makes for more room for the dogs to stretch out each night) and down the road we went to set up again. Back to bed to resume sleep..
We had been pondering the cost of land, per acre, out here and I think that we just got our answer. We just drove through a small town on 26 south in the southern part of Nebraska and there was a sign in the front yard of a house…For Sale..Must Sell $14,000…Wow !
This afternoon we went to Hot Springs, SD to see the Mammoth site. In 1974, while a contractor was using earth moving equipment, he unearthed a mammoth tusk. As it turned out this archeological site has the largest number of Columbian mammoths in North America. Columbian mammoths are much larger than wooly mammoths and so far they have unearthed 55 Columbian mammoths and 3 wooly mammoths in the site. They figured that the sinkhole that had swallowed up the mammoths 26,000 years ago was 65 feet deep so they built a building around the excavation site and you are able to walk amongst the active dig site. They even have a program for youth and senior citizens (elder hostel) where you can come in for 6 weeks and after proper training, you would be part of the dig team. How neat would that be ! Overall is was a fascinating thing to see. This is not part of a state or federal program but is a non-profit organization. The gentle man who owned the land, originally intended to be a housing development, understood the value of such a unique find and sold the land for what he paid for it to the local community. If you ever get to the southern part of South Dakota, be sure to stop and see the mammoths.
We left South Dakota and began the long journey across the plains to Nebraska. We will stop for the night in Ogallala, NE.
We had been pondering the cost of land, per acre, out here and I think that we just got our answer. We just drove through a small town on 26 south in the southern part of Nebraska and there was a sign in the front yard of a house…For Sale..Must Sell $14,000…Wow !
This afternoon we went to Hot Springs, SD to see the Mammoth site. In 1974, while a contractor was using earth moving equipment, he unearthed a mammoth tusk. As it turned out this archeological site has the largest number of Columbian mammoths in North America. Columbian mammoths are much larger than wooly mammoths and so far they have unearthed 55 Columbian mammoths and 3 wooly mammoths in the site. They figured that the sinkhole that had swallowed up the mammoths 26,000 years ago was 65 feet deep so they built a building around the excavation site and you are able to walk amongst the active dig site. They even have a program for youth and senior citizens (elder hostel) where you can come in for 6 weeks and after proper training, you would be part of the dig team. How neat would that be ! Overall is was a fascinating thing to see. This is not part of a state or federal program but is a non-profit organization. The gentle man who owned the land, originally intended to be a housing development, understood the value of such a unique find and sold the land for what he paid for it to the local community. If you ever get to the southern part of South Dakota, be sure to stop and see the mammoths.
We left South Dakota and began the long journey across the plains to Nebraska. We will stop for the night in Ogallala, NE.
Badlands and Beyond…
Today was an amazing day, filled with panoramic scenery and wildlife. Who would have thought that the landscape could change so much from one end of the state to the other. The western part of South Dakota has expansive views as far as the eye can see. Replacing the lush farm land it then became grasslands (of the brown variety)and houses were few and far between. We started out our day in Mitchell, SD at the Corn Palace. The exterior and some part of the interior are covered in 12 different types of corn; attached to the building to create intricate murals tied to the common theme. Each year there is a different theme and they have begun to assemble the 2008 theme on the outside panels. All of this started in the late 1800’s and has been going on every year since. There are photos inside the building showing each year’s them since it all started. It was a gorgeous creation, all made out of corn. It costs $130,000 to create each year’s murals but there is no admission fee to get in….what a deal !
We then began our journey westward,, with our destination being the Badlands.
Once we entered the Badlands, off the Rt 240 loop, it was like landing on the moon. The landscape was so very different…..carved out nooks and crannies, jagged spires and multi-colored layers of rock and sediment. It is park of the national park system and well worth the $15 admission fee per vehicle. We saw deer, bighorn sheep, bison and prairie dogs while driving the 40 mile loop through the park. The prairie dogs are so cute, running around between their burrows and digging in the dirt. They are much smaller than the woodchucks we have back east AND much cuter.
When you exit the Badlands you find yourself in Wall, SD; home of Wall Drug… This emporium houses knick knacks, gifts, and café in a building that is one block in size. The town of Wall, population 800, is a cute western town with a few businesses. Wall Drug employs 230 people (do the math..that’s ¼ of the town) and must provide the livelihood for that town.
Tomorrow we begin our route south, towards Kansas.
We then began our journey westward,, with our destination being the Badlands.
Once we entered the Badlands, off the Rt 240 loop, it was like landing on the moon. The landscape was so very different…..carved out nooks and crannies, jagged spires and multi-colored layers of rock and sediment. It is park of the national park system and well worth the $15 admission fee per vehicle. We saw deer, bighorn sheep, bison and prairie dogs while driving the 40 mile loop through the park. The prairie dogs are so cute, running around between their burrows and digging in the dirt. They are much smaller than the woodchucks we have back east AND much cuter.
When you exit the Badlands you find yourself in Wall, SD; home of Wall Drug… This emporium houses knick knacks, gifts, and café in a building that is one block in size. The town of Wall, population 800, is a cute western town with a few businesses. Wall Drug employs 230 people (do the math..that’s ¼ of the town) and must provide the livelihood for that town.
Tomorrow we begin our route south, towards Kansas.
Trek through the Mid West
I truly think that some explorer from the days of the old west was the one to add the word “vast” to Webster. Crossing Iowa today and then entering South Dakota this afternoon was an amazing ride. When Ed told me yesterday that it’s nothing for a farmer out here to own 10,000 acres, my brain couldn’t quite comprehend that….having grown up on a 125 acre farm. But after seeing how “vast” this territory is, it is easy to see how one could own a large chunk of land and it not be a big deal. Our family farm of 125 acres would fit in the backyard of some of these family farms out here. Corn fields and cattle ranchers were in plentiful supply. Boomer got really excited every time he saw a horse, cow or any animal on 4 feet for that matter. Perhaps it summoned up his ancestral herding instincts to go round them up and bring them in from the north forty.
It’s official…this afternoon we became South Dakotans ! Went to the small town of Vermillion and in the basement of the courthouse there, we turned in our PA drivers licenses and obtained our SD ones. Mighty pretty ones at that….a background of Mount Rushmore behind all the official information. We’ve stopped for the night in Vermillion and tomorrow we’re going to take in the Corn Palace, in Mitchell, SD and then go further west to the Badlands and the legendary Wall Drug. I couldn’t help but reflect on history (as we saw signs for the Lewis and Clark trail) that it must have been an exhausting trip, in those days, for travelers making their way west by horse or stagecoach. It seems to take forever to get to the next horizon by car, let alone try and do it on horseback or in a stagecoach. People with amazing fortitude and tenacity and a will to see what lay beyond that “vastness” forged this great nation.
p.s. Suzy had surgery at 3 p.m. today, to remove her gallbladder, and came through it fine.
It’s official…this afternoon we became South Dakotans ! Went to the small town of Vermillion and in the basement of the courthouse there, we turned in our PA drivers licenses and obtained our SD ones. Mighty pretty ones at that….a background of Mount Rushmore behind all the official information. We’ve stopped for the night in Vermillion and tomorrow we’re going to take in the Corn Palace, in Mitchell, SD and then go further west to the Badlands and the legendary Wall Drug. I couldn’t help but reflect on history (as we saw signs for the Lewis and Clark trail) that it must have been an exhausting trip, in those days, for travelers making their way west by horse or stagecoach. It seems to take forever to get to the next horizon by car, let alone try and do it on horseback or in a stagecoach. People with amazing fortitude and tenacity and a will to see what lay beyond that “vastness” forged this great nation.
p.s. Suzy had surgery at 3 p.m. today, to remove her gallbladder, and came through it fine.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Day 2
The day is ending with strong storms near Davenport, Iowa. Without covers for the Fantastic fan vents, we can’t run the fans while it’s raining and it’s very hot in the RV tonight. We hit a very powerful thunderstorm about 6 miles from where we are staying and had to slow to a crawl, put our 4 ways on and inch along…avoiding the cars and trucks that had pulled off on the berm. We are in for the night and safe.
Today as we came through Champaign, Ill. Linda decided that it would be nice to drop in on her aunt at her lake house. We inputted her address into the GPS system and off we went…north to Loda. Ill. We arrived and had a wonderful time there for a short visit. I enjoyed chatting with Ed, Norma’s friend who is a farmer and still actively enjoys running the combine and the tractors. We hit it off and decided that Norma and Linda just didn’t know how easy they had their young years without the hard toil that goes into growing up on a farm. Ed told us to watch for the windmills as we crossed Illinois and sure enough I saw them, in all their giant splendor, just a short distance from their place. They were wonderful behemoths lazily turning…cranking out power for the area. I loved watching them turn, turn, turn for oh so many miles as we were traveling on the highway.
The windmills came into the picture about the time that Linda got a call from her son that his wife had been admitted to the hospital and would need to have her gallbladder out the following day. Now keep in mind that her son is now working 5 hours away (at Penn College) and is not readily available to come to his wife’s aid. Linda got all the info on what would take place and took care of some family networking while she had her turn as co-pilot. Her daughter-in-law will undergo surgery tomorrow (Thursday) and her son has started the journey home so he will be there before she goes into surgery.
Tomorrow we hope to finish the last leg of the journey to reach Yankton, SD.
Today as we came through Champaign, Ill. Linda decided that it would be nice to drop in on her aunt at her lake house. We inputted her address into the GPS system and off we went…north to Loda. Ill. We arrived and had a wonderful time there for a short visit. I enjoyed chatting with Ed, Norma’s friend who is a farmer and still actively enjoys running the combine and the tractors. We hit it off and decided that Norma and Linda just didn’t know how easy they had their young years without the hard toil that goes into growing up on a farm. Ed told us to watch for the windmills as we crossed Illinois and sure enough I saw them, in all their giant splendor, just a short distance from their place. They were wonderful behemoths lazily turning…cranking out power for the area. I loved watching them turn, turn, turn for oh so many miles as we were traveling on the highway.
The windmills came into the picture about the time that Linda got a call from her son that his wife had been admitted to the hospital and would need to have her gallbladder out the following day. Now keep in mind that her son is now working 5 hours away (at Penn College) and is not readily available to come to his wife’s aid. Linda got all the info on what would take place and took care of some family networking while she had her turn as co-pilot. Her daughter-in-law will undergo surgery tomorrow (Thursday) and her son has started the journey home so he will be there before she goes into surgery.
Tomorrow we hope to finish the last leg of the journey to reach Yankton, SD.
August 21 - The journey begins...
We covered 500 miles today over the course of 11 hours but the early hours of our day were not easy ones. Hookup Monday night was a cinch…..Linda backed the truck in and on the first try she lined it up and we were hitched. What a woman ! This was our window of opportunity from the time I got off work till the monsoon hit. I did as much as I could outside in between rain showers but some things needed to be left till morning. All night long it poured down….Why is it in a summer with a record number of days WITHOUT rain, it decides to pour down the day we need to pack up and pull out. We awoke to a pond outside our door…We had to wear our aqua sock shoes because there was about 3” of standing water to wade through to get to the truck (that is hooked to the RV). I think there is a livelihood awaiting us as rain shamans for any county in need of rainfall. It has never failed us yet that we get a downpour when we need to take the rig out for a trip.
The day was spent driving through PA and Ohio. We spent Tuesday evening 6 miles from the Indiana border at a rest stop. I thought PA’s roads were bad…Ohio has some mighty wicked ones too. I 76 was horrible! I 70 has been pretty good. We’ll see what awaits us in Indiana.
The pooches can’t quite figure out what is going on. Their house is squished up and there’s no place to romp and stretch out like there usually is. Needless to say they are very confused. No Law and Order playing on the TV. What is the world coming to ?
So far on the first two tank fulls of diesel fuel we’ve gotten 9.9 miles to the gallon and 8.3 miles to the gallon. Not too shabby for a big house, big horse to pull it and a 600# motorcycle on the back.
The day was spent driving through PA and Ohio. We spent Tuesday evening 6 miles from the Indiana border at a rest stop. I thought PA’s roads were bad…Ohio has some mighty wicked ones too. I 76 was horrible! I 70 has been pretty good. We’ll see what awaits us in Indiana.
The pooches can’t quite figure out what is going on. Their house is squished up and there’s no place to romp and stretch out like there usually is. Needless to say they are very confused. No Law and Order playing on the TV. What is the world coming to ?
So far on the first two tank fulls of diesel fuel we’ve gotten 9.9 miles to the gallon and 8.3 miles to the gallon. Not too shabby for a big house, big horse to pull it and a 600# motorcycle on the back.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Sha Na Na Na…. Hey Hey….goodbye !
It’s been 39 days since my last entry and we’ve been busy getting preparations ready for our trip to Texas. With my last day of work only a couple days away, we are finalizing the packing and stowing of items in order to be ready to leave on August 21. Our itinerary at this point is to pull out of Montgomery, early next Tuesday. We need to be in Yankton, SD by Thursday or Friday so that we can get our new drivers licenses. The motor vehicle bureau is only open on Thursdays and Fridays, hence our need to be there on those days. Once we turn in our PA drivers licenses, and obtain our new ones, we will become SD residents. From there we will take in some touristy things in SD (are hoping to go to Mt Rushmore in Rapid City, SD) and then we’ll head south to Smith Center, Kansas. Our 5th wheel was manufactured in Smith Center so she’ll be going “home” to get some repairs done while she is still within her two year warranty period. Our appt in Smith Center is for Aug 28 and we expect that we’ll be there for two days. Once repairs are complete, we’ll make our way to Livingston, Texas…taking in the sites along the way. We don’t need to be to the CARE Center until Sept 4 so we’ll have a couple of days that we can check out the Texas scenery.
It hasn’t set in yet for either of us that we’re leaving. I doubt that it will really take hold until September sometime, probably out of the blue at the most unexpected time. Our jobs, connection to friends and family and our daily routines have been so commonplace for soooo long that it will seem odd to be doing something completely different. We will no doubt miss our friends and family as we have each developed some great relationships over the years, with many individuals and that will be the hardest part of this new transition in our lives. Many people have left an indelible mark on our lives that can never be erased. We have a history here but are about to forge ahead, to new and different places to create our future. Look out…here we come !
It hasn’t set in yet for either of us that we’re leaving. I doubt that it will really take hold until September sometime, probably out of the blue at the most unexpected time. Our jobs, connection to friends and family and our daily routines have been so commonplace for soooo long that it will seem odd to be doing something completely different. We will no doubt miss our friends and family as we have each developed some great relationships over the years, with many individuals and that will be the hardest part of this new transition in our lives. Many people have left an indelible mark on our lives that can never be erased. We have a history here but are about to forge ahead, to new and different places to create our future. Look out…here we come !
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