Friday, July 30, 2010

Headed West

We are such creatures of habit.  Tonight we are parked in Ellis, Kansas next to the little lake in the city park.  We parked here last year on our first night out.  I went back and looked at the picture, and we are on the same spot.  Now how did I do that?  Must be my spot LOL.   Last Years Blog and pictures of the spot!

I had to wipe out a spammer comment as I signed on, as I have turned on comment moderation for posts older than two weeks, and yep they get you, back in the older posts.  So watch that if you follow suit with word verification off!

We loaded a bunch more stuff that we will never use, and have to trip over for the next week or two, and so I declared we were done.  Lets go!  Well Loyce wasn’t all that done, but she declared it was over and away we went.

Of course it has to get hot as we zoomed into the 90’s almost at once.  We left around 10:30 AM and by 11:30 we were in Lawrence, KS and I saw a 92 on a sign board.   Yikes, its going to be another scorcher.  I had just the dash air running, but by 2 PM it wasn’t keeping up.

We pulled in at Junction City, next to Fort Riley at an Arby Roast Beef.  There wasn’t enough room to park anywhere, so I pulled crossways in front of the store.  With togo bag in hand, I couldn’t get out. The lot went around a corner that was too tight to make with the MH.  I backed up and swung wide, running over the nice curb and landscaping.  

Then it was a tight left turn to get out to a side street.  Couldn’t come anywhere close to that turn.  Had to back up again watching that I didn’t hit the Arby building behind me.  With three jockey moves, I made it out of the parking lot.  Just for a sandwich.

We went across the street to Wal-Mart’s outer parking lot to eat.  At least they have corners that can be negotiated.  I dialed Ellis into the GPS, and found that we had 150 miles left to go!  Well lets get a move on!  We ratcheted it up to 65 mph and headed West.

Progressively, I had to add AC units as I drove.  First the generator and the front roof AC, but it worked hard and didn’t make much of a difference.  Then the bedroom AC at a rest stop.  Together, and with the dash AC on recirculate, it began to not get hotter. 

The city park here has 30 amp and water, with a dump over by the bath house.  So tonight we are living with one AC and a fan, but it has greatly cooled off as dark approaches, and we won’t need anything more.  We’ll switch to the bedroom AC when we retire, and it will freeze us by morning!!

The city cop just came by and collected the $15 for the night, asking if we were sure we didn’t want two nights.  Uh, well, not really.  So we are settled in for the night here in the smallest of Kansas towns, about 2 miles off the interstate.  But we do have the train that goes thru the center of town.  Whooo, whooo !!!

Retired Rod

5 comments:

  1. I think you are in the very same park we were in Halloween night of 2007 on our way west. I seem to recall a train car exhibit there or something & we were very close to the water. I have a nice pic somewhere of mist rising in the early morning sunrise.

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  2. Looks like the start of a great trip, we always enjoy Colorado trips, Do they still make you go through the Scales in Colorado with your rig,they did last time we were there, in a trailer a cop will come out and ask you to hold the brake and give it some gas, once you pass the brake test you can leave, I don't even think they look at the weight. Hope you enjoy you stay. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.

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  3. You must have made quite a sight for the customer's at Arby's as you tried to get out of that parking lot. I thought you were going to say you tried the the drive-thru! Hope it gets a bit cooler in Colorado!

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  4. That is one of my biggest complaints - the way parking lots are constructed to make parking as difficult as they can. All those dumb little concrete barriers sticking out all over the place just impedes all but the smallest vehicles.

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  5. Hi Rod! Hope you get close to us here in Colorado Springs. Just send us an e-mail to let us know where you are.
    Looking forward to meeting you if it works out.
    Travel safe!
    Hugs to both of you,
    Ed & Marilyn

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