We are in Kansas But

The unit that is located at the Armory in Concordia KS


Tower at the airfield in Concordia Ks

The lots at the town RV park next to the airfield and Armory

across from Wal-Mart

Our rig

No sign of Dorothy or Toto :) We got an early start to the day and left camp at 7am this morning. We made good time and passed Wichita KS and headed north toward Concordia KS. This town has a town park with RV sites that have 30amp electric and some have water for a donation. It is up to you how much to donate. The sites are level to almost level cement and the park is very neat and tidy. One can stay seven days in a row or in an emergency and with permission up to thirty days. Gee that's nice!

There is a Walmart across the highway from the park, one cannot see the Walmart because of the trees. Very quiet location near a National Guard Armory and small airport. We may stay an extra day so I can get a refill on one of my prescriptions. We shall see. We are not to far from the Nebraska border.

Saturday update 052910 North of OK City

All alone with free electric tsk tsk


Kind of spooky not having fellow RV'rs around or for that matter anyone else
on a holiday no less.

We are camped at the Kaw South Wind Casino about 85 miles north of Oklahoma City; a Little casino out in farm country. The major feature for us is that it has free electricity, don't have to sign up or nut'n.

We left Galveston yesterday early turned in the rental car and were on the road by 8am. We took I-45 north through Houston and on into Dallas and picked up the I-35 and kept going north. We had planned on staying at an RV park listed in Passport America, but when we found the park it was closed and looked like it had been closed for quite some time. Just a few miles away Samantha spotted a sign for another RV park that said $19 for over night so we went to have a look at the place. There was no name just RV Park, it was one of those small no frills RV parks were there are a some older rigs that haven't moved in quite a while and a few newer rigs and some junk around the units. We found the manger who was pleased as punch to get $19 in cash he even gave us a key to the shower, yes there was only one shower. That was okay it was clean and there was plenty of hot water.

We were tired, very tired, and hot from driving all day and even with the roof AC going it took a long time to cool the rig down. Just after sunset the AC gained on the heat and cooled the rig. We each had a salad went to bed early to the sound of the train whistles every few minutes. The park its self was quiet even though many units had several dogs. In the morning we broke camp early and were on the road again by 8am. We made a fuel stop at flying J on I-35 and found their prices higher much higher than other stations we saw later in the day on the same highway.

Getting to the Casino was a bit confusing as there are few signs and the GPS wanted to take us down a road that was closed; also the map and directions seemed faulty and didn't match up with the roads. With a little help from a local lady we located the right road and began to see signs for the Casino. When we pulled in we drove over to the east lot like the directions said and there wasn't another RV around. A man in a golf cart came by and confirmed this was the spot and no, one didn't have to register or do anything just hook up and enjoy :) We went inside the casino to see if they had a restaurant there but all they had was fast food so bought some chicken for a snack and looked the place over we may play later. So far we have the place to ourselves nice electric 30amp pedestle on a level cement parking lot with lots of security lighting.

On the road again :)

The moon reflecting on the water as we looked ou the door of our rig camped at Seawall Blvd Galveston TX.


Sun rise on the Gulf of Mexico from our rig.



Our rig, as you can see we are camped on the street beside the seawall.

I am on the road again left Wills Point Texas the day before yesterday and drove to Livingston Texas to the Escapees Park there and stayed over night, picked up our mail said hello to some folks and left the next day for Galveston Texas. I met my sister Samantha in Galveston and we spent the night at a motel that accepted pets. She had already paid for the room so there was no sense in wasting the money. I parked the RV in back of the motel for the night.

The following morning we checked out of the motel and drove the RV up Seawall Blvd. and picked a spot to park next to the walkway beside the water. We have seen several other RVs parked there and Samantha said she had seen them stay there for several days. There are no signs saying you can't park overnight so that is what we are going to do unless someone tells us we have to leave. We are right on the main road next to the beach so when cars and trucks go by you can feel the coach move. I'm running the generator to run the A/C as it is very hot and humid here. I haven't run the generator much so it was a bit hard starting, seems to be running okay now ... l hope it keeps running smoothly.

We took a ride around the Island and over to another island to see the sights. Hurricane Ike tore this place apart and the devastation was huge, lots of homes were destroyed, or damaged, many businesses were destroyed also. Now there are many new homes and lots of work has been done to bring the area back to what it was before Ike. We have seen lots of fish jumping in the water and Dolphins breaching just of the beach. We had a cool beer at a Tiki bar and eat some good sea food. The sea food here in Texas is fine, the fishing is good as the oil spill hasn't effected the Texas coast ...yet!

Tomorrow the plan is is to head north, hopefully we will be north of Dallas by tomorrow night, if not "oh well" :-) We will night camp somewhere and continue our journey north the following day. Oh! We are headed to the South Dakota in case you wanted to know ....

Home again

We got home about 3pm local time and found that the grass was high and nothing was awry with the house which was a great relief. We started mowing right off and got a lot of the front yard mowed. I decided to unroll the awning on the RV to let it dry out and see how bad it needed cleaning-we hadn't used it since we got the RV. It was wet so I decided, seeing as the sky was clear and the stars were coming out, to leave it deployed for the night.



We didn't want to eat in so we went to the local Chinese Buffet for dinner. When we got home it was still clear and calm and I didn't feel that it was necessary to roll up the awning so I took a shower and went to bed. Later that night I was awakened by rain on the roof of the RV so I thought I better slant the awing down so the rain would run off the awning and not make a bag of water that would stretch the material. I went back to bed and to sleep. Later I was awakened with the crash and boom of lightening and thunder and the awning was flapping and shaking the RV. I went out to roll it up the awning, but the roller and the arms were stuck in the extended position and the awning wouldn't roll back up. The wind picked up and the became quite fierce Samantha tried to help me but there was little we could do other than to hold the awning down and not let it bend the arms. We held on to add our weight to the arms to keep it from ripping its self apart the wind and rain pounded us and just when we thought it couldn't get any worse we got hit with hail the size of dimes and we both were soaked through shivering and hanging on not daring to let the awning arms go and tear the RV apart. The lightening was fierce and close, the lights went out and we were wondering if we were going to get blown away with the damn awning. Several times we thought we were at the last of the storm, but we got blasted with more rain and wind accented with lightening. It seemed like an hour our more passed until the storm quieted down enough for us to get some tools and get the damn awning rolled up. One strut didn't get folded up right but the thing us back against the RV and we called it quits.

When we got inside we both were tired, wet, cold and shivering; we were outside in out pajamas through all this and we were close to having a case of hypothermia. We got out of our wet clothes and dried off as quickly as possible and had some hot tea to drink. Then climbed into bed and tried to warm up. I didn't warm up right away even though I was using a sleeping bag and had a sweat shirt on.

In the morning we took measure of the awning and the RV. The awning was torn and needs to be replaced one arm that extends has a device to hold it at a particular height needs to be repaired or replace. The good news is that there was no damage to the RV and no leaks.

I think that if we hadn't held on to the awning we would have lost the frame and the frame would have torn off the RV causing damage to the siding and maybe the awing being ripped off causing the roof to be torn and serious damage to the RV costing a lot of money to repair.

All this could have been avoided by not leaving the awning deployed in the first place....my error that could have caused a lot of grief, but luckily we escaped without injury.

I am now of the opinion that awnings are a pain in the Pah-toot and not worth the money and expense.

So after 2000 miles on this trip our biggest adventure was in our own front yard.... go figure!

East on I-40 through Texas to OK.

We headed east on I-40 from Tucomcari, after we got into OK we started seeing signs for a Route 66 museum so when we got to the exit we decided to visit the museum. It had a small Route 66 section and it was done well; however the museum was actually about the local area history and all the rest of the buildings were about local folks who were well known or had settled the area. So the National Route 66 Museum isn't so much RT 66 as local history.



We left there and proceeded to find the Starlight Casino that took some doing as it is not on or near I-40 but in a small community several miles away. This casino was nice as we got free hookups and we got a $10 voucher for joining the players club and we had a good meal in the dinning room. It helped that I won tickets to a concert and Samantha won some money at the slot machines.



That night we had a storm come in and it rocked the old RV back and forth a few times making the big dog nervous and waking us up to the wind and rain. The following morning was clear and we headed to Dallas and home via I-35. Driving through Dallas as always is a nerve wracking event, but we made it home without further incident.

Tucumcari NM

We departed Dodge city and headed southeast and into New Mexico's northeast corner. To tell the truth it isn't that much different than Kansas or the Oklahoma pan handle; flat with some rolling hills very small towns even more spread out than KS and OK. Very boring drive we came to a spot called wagon mound supposedly the folks using the Santa Fe trail came to this rock and made a decision to take the mountain route or the a cut off route. My question is where the heck were they going? Did they know what laid ahead in Arizona and California desserts?

So now we are in Tucumcari NM; this place celebrates the Route 66 theme which was "the" highway of fame forty or fifty years ago before the interstate system built I-40 which bypassed all the businesses on Rt 66. Many of the businesses closed up a few remain open hanging on to past glory and hoping enough tourists stop by and spend a little money.

Dodge City KS

We did the Dodge City Kansas thing this morning and took the tour of the museum and Boot Hill and saw lots of old artifacts from the hay day of Dodge City. Doing the tour was interesting most of the displays were done well except for the section on women's clothing which was not well lit. There were photos of actors and other folks associated with TV and films about Dodge City and seeing these photos stirred memories of the enjoyable times watching them. Almost all of these character actors are dead and gone and only a few photos and movies remain of their work. The actors in the series of Gunsmoke James Arness still living his brother actor Peter Graves just died, Dennis Weaver died at 81, Amanda Blake at 60, Milburn Stone died at 75 others are still alive.

The photos from that era(1860's) were quite interesting and showed how those folks looked, at least for having their photo taken which I am sure was a big occasion. I wanted to have my photo taken in period costume but the photo studio wasn't open.

We had lunch at a local restaurant and enjoyed it very much afterwards we drove over to the local Walmart for some shopping the RV needed a few things. Now we are located for the night at Hugoton KS at an RV park. Not a notable place it does have water, electricity and sewer hook ups and the site is level for only $15.00.