Seeing more of Kansas than I planned on today.

My trick of setting the clocks ahead an hour last night worked out pretty well.  Emma had her first outs in the pitch dark, but I was on the road by 9:00, Central time, and passed into that time zone within 10 miles of leaving the campground.  I usually try to leave about 9:00 to avoid any early morning rush hour traffic…of which there is none in Goodland, KS.  :)

Anyway, I planned to drive about 240 miles today and end up just South of Salina, KS, on I-135.  It was a good plan, but it just didn’t work out that way.  As I got off the interstate to head for my destination campground, I began to wonder.  The last mile and a half was down an incredibly dusty and washboard like road.  Once I got to this Passport America campground, I couldn’t find any sites.  It looked crammed full of seasonal rigs, and I didn’t see any of the advertised pull through sites for any sized rig.  There also wasn’t any office to check in with.  It was also pretty seedy looking, so I turned around and made my way out via the nasty dirt road. 

I hopped back on I-135 and began to formulate plan B.  I stopped at the next rest area, and scanned through my Trailer Life Campground book.  There’s not much to choose from in this part of Kansas.  :(   By the time I finally pulled off of the road, it was after 4:00, and I’m only ten miles from Wichita.  320 miles is more than I like to do in a day when I have several more days of traveling to do, but I didn’t have much choice.  I did call ahead to be sure there was a site available, and there was, but the owners were on the road traveling back from a funeral in Missouri.  At least my call went through to their cell phone.  By the time I got set up, made dinner, and took Emma out for some exercise, the light was about gone.  No bird or other pics tonight of my location. 
I did find a bunch of these things on the ground under the trees across from my site.  I can’t remember the name of them.  They are about 3-5” in diameter, and I seem to remember that they are good for keeping spiders out of your rig.  They don’t grow up North, but I remember seeing them in Arkansas.  Can any of my Southern friends enlighten me?  Spiders give me the willies', and if they work, I could pick up a year’s supply of them before I leave in the morning.  :)  Let me know quickly if you know if this is true.

Here’s another thing that has been nagging at my mind recently… should you capitalize the directions; North, South, East or West, or is lower case acceptable?  My mind goes unusual places when driving for many miles with no one to talk to.  :)

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A, by default

Well, the grass isn't as high as an elephants eye, yet, but tonight I find myself in the state of Oklahoma.  That wasn't what the plan was, but that's how it turned out.  :)  Just before I pulled out of Balcones this morning, Adrian asked me to come and see something in the trees about 100 yards behind out sites.  He showed me several dead trees with a whole bunch of birds in them.  It turned out that there were about 50  Mississippi Kites roosting together.  What a thrill it was to see them!  Within moments, they all took off together and headed on with their journey.  Just like me, they were migrating to old stomping grounds.  :)

This morning was the first test of my new trucker's GPS.  I plugged in the address for the campground that I planned to stop at outside of Denison, TX.  I had the GPS set up to recognize the height and width and weight of my rig, so as soon as I pulled out onto FM 1431 a warning panel came on that indicated that this was not a recommended truck route, and there was not enough information available to recommend it.  Of course, I already knew what the twisty, hilly road was like since that's how I got here in the first place.  It's slow going with the rig, and there are no areas for the many cars behind me to pass until I got to Lago Vista.  It is what it is.  There is no other way to get out of there.

As I approached Cedar Park, the GPS routed me off of 1431 and onto US 183.  When I left here last year, I just stayed on 1431 until I reached I-35N.  The GPS indicated that there were truck restrictions if I didn't turn.  I took the new route, and it had much less dense traffic, and I did indeed end up on I-35N.  So far, so good.  When I went through Dallas, I was very thankful to have it telling me about upcoming turns and lane changes.  Without a second person in the rig watching signs, I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to change lanes quickly enough to make some of the maneuvers that were required.  I'm sure glad I did this on a weekend rather than a week day. 

After about 270 miles, I arrived at the entrance to the Granddaddy RV park.  Since there were no signs along the road, I'm sure I would never have found this place without the GPS.  The directions in the Passport America book were not very good.  Anyway, after driving around the campground, I decided I would not stay there tonight.  The place just wasn't to my liking.  I've stayed in some campgrounds that were not the best, but this place had very small back in sites (with no place to put the toad), and was really run down.  The electrical posts were all rusty and none of them stood up straight.  They all looked like someone had backed into them.  There has been only one other time in the last four years when I have left without staying in a campground that I've chosen ahead of time.  That other time was in a state park outside of Yakima, WA.

So, I got back on US 75 and headed into Oklahoma.  I wasn't sure where I'd end up for the night.  That was a little outside of my comfort range.  ;(  I was tired of driving, so that's how I ended up at the RV Station campground.  I'm sure this place used to be a KOA.  You can tell by the shape of the office building.  It's just about as pricey as a KOA as well.  :(  At least the hookups are vertical!  Nice, big, old trees shade the sites, and it will do for a one night stop over.  290 miles is more than I like to do in a day, but I need to get used to it since I'll be traveling with my sister before too long.  :)

I really appreciate the comments that you readers leave on the blog, and I'd like to respond to a couple of them this evening:

Katie:  Emma is safely ensconced in her crate in front of the kitchen sink when we travel.  I now brace the crate between the sofa and the dinette bench.  The first time she traveled with me, I didn't brace it, and on a quick turn the crate turned upside down and went down the exit stairs with her in it!  There wasn't anywhere for me to pull off the road for about thirty miles to check on her.  :(  When I could safely stop, I did, and she was no worse for wear.  She doesn't sleep in the crate, but remains casually aware during the entire drive. (perhaps preparing for another flight through the air??)

Sam & Donna:  Read the above to Riggs from Emma, and he may not be so jealous.  :)

Kathy:  You may envy me having the painted buntings, but I envy you for seeing whoopers!  Thanks for following my blog.  :)

Tomorrow, I plan to move on to a Corps of Engineers Campground on a lake and stay for two nights.  That's the plan, but.....

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later,  Judy