Colorado Springs, Colorado

We arrived in Colorado Springs yesterday afternoon, but not without some self-induced drama.  As we began to reach the city from the remote highway we took the gas gauge on the truck was reading just under a quarter of tank with about 35 miles to the RV park, which is a ways outside of the city.  I passed by one gas station as I thought we could get a better price as we got closer to the city.  Wrong decision!  There were no other RV friendly gas stations on the route to the RV park.  I kept hoping for a gas station on the route but no luck and the fuel indicator chime kept sounding.  The trucks computer was saying 11 miles to empty and the campground was 6 miles away.  Well, we have no choice.  I figured we would get to the park, set up the trailer and then call our roadside assistance and have them bring us a few gallons of gas.  Enter our savior.

As I was standing outside the RV park office waiting for the host to come and check us in a lady drove up in Dodge diesel pick-up.  First I asked her where the nearest gas station with diesel was and she told me where she had filled up, as she is from Florida and not too familiar with the area.  Then I asked her if she happened to have any cans of diesel and she said YES!!!!  She had two 5 gallons containers of diesel in her truck bed.  A reasonable deal was quickly made and I put the diesel in our truck.

Drama over. The RV park is just beautiful.  It is situated up in the mountains away from town.  The park is very nicely maintained and is very quiet.  Here are some pictures.

Our front yard

Our back yard

Our neighbor

Our rig

High Plains of Kansas

We have moved from Abilene, Kansas and are on our way to Colorado Springs, Colorado.  About half way between those two points is Oakley, Kansas.  So you say, what is in Oakley, Kansas and why did we decide to stop. 

Oakley was picked as it was a 220 mile drive (our normal driving day) from Abilene and is about the same distance to Colorado Springs.  It is right on the cut off highway we are taking to go to Colorado Springs to avoid going through Denver.  In looking on the map I discovered there is a National Landmark nearby called Monument Rocks and they looked interesting.  We arrived here on Monday afternoon and went exploring today, Tuesday.

First sight was a huge bronze statute next to the highway at the entrance of town.  It is of a cowboy shooting at a buffalo.  The history here is this is the place where Bill Cody got his name of Buffalo Bill.  He and Bill Comstock were using the name and they had a match (buffalo kill) near the town here and Bill Cody killed more buffalo than Bill Comstock and was then the only one known as Buffalo Bill.  Here is a picture of the statue with Fran in the picture so you can gauge the size.

About 20 miles further down the highway and a few dirt roads is Monument Rocks.  It is a ancient rock formation in the plains of Kansas.  It sits on private land and is accessible only by narrow dirt roads, but you can drive up to and around the rocks as well as walk and climb on them.

From a distance

Fran standing in the arch

My understanding is that these were formed over 80 million years ago as water receded. In addition to these rock formations they have found all kinds of fossils in the area.

Now, don’t you feel like you learned something!

Abilene, Kansas

We are moving west from Kansas City and decided to stop in Abilene, Kansas to see the Eisenhower Museum and Library.  As mentioned in a post long ago we have been to a few of the presidential libraries and intend on seeing them all, so this was on our way.  We found an okay RV park about 5 miles from town.  We lucked out and got an end space so our front yard is huge.

The park is nothing special as it has many long term residents that don’t keep up their rigs or their spaces.  We are only here for the weekend so not a big issue.

Today, Saturday, we went into the small town of Abilene and to the Eisenhower Museum and Library.  They have done a very nice job on this library.  The grounds are huge and include a chapel where he and his wife are buried, a visitor center, his boyhood home (in its original place), museum, library and a couple of monuments.  It was a very nice experience.

Here is the chapel

These are the graves for Dwight and Mamie

His boyhood home it its original location with original furnishings.

Statue of Eisenhower

View of part of the grounds.

I do have to mention that prior to leaving the Kansas City area I went golfing with Fran’s nephew and she went out with her sister.  One thing they did was go to a nursery and there Fran was able to drive a golf cart (on her bucket list).  Of course she had to get a picture of the event.

We are here for the weekend then off to Colorado. 

A Peculiar Place

We are in Peculiar, Missouri.  It is a small town just south of Kansas City and is near where Fran’s sister lives.  We left the Chicago area on Thursday and stopped in Des Moines for the night before arriving here on Friday.   

Our first outing was to see Fran’s nephew play in a school soccer game.  He is the goalie.

Next activity is to try some local barbeque then the truck needs some maintenance done at the dealer then we are on the road again.

It is a few days early but this week marks Fran’s birthday as well as the completion of our seventh month on the road.  Happy Birthday Fran!

Here is an updated map to reflect 7 months of Life on the Road.

A Thank You

In my last blog I failed to thank our friends, The Sherwood’s, in Nashville for offering to let us store our personal belongings at their house.  This means a monthly savings of storage rental we were paying, with the added benefit of our stuff in a better storage environment. 

We left our visit with them in Nashville and drove back to the Chicago area so I could get my crown installed.  I did that then rented a U-Haul trailer on the weekend and, with the help of Fran and Kim, emptied the storage unit into the trailer and truck.  Fortunately it all fit, but it was a challenge.  For some reason I did not think we had that much stuff in storage and it would be no problem packing it all into the trailer.  Not so fast!  I completely filled the U-Haul trailer, the bed of the pickup, the backseat of the pickup and the passenger seat with one storage container left over, which was Kim’s stuff.  She agreed to take her stuff and find room in her apartment.  I was good to go.  I left early on Monday and was doing great until I crossed over into Kentucky.  I felt this bump and looked in my rear view mirror and saw some rubber flying.  I did not feel anything with the truck or the trailer so I continued to drive on but I did notice the trailer to sway a little as I was looking in the mirror.  Just as I noticed that a car pulled along side me and pointed back to the trailer.  I pulled off at the next exit and saw that one of the four tires on the trailer was completely gone with only the rim left.  I called U-Haul and a repair person came out about an hour later but could not fix it and needed to take the tire back to the shop, which took about another hour before I was back on the road.

I made it to our friends house and immediately began unloading our stuff. Because of absence and injury neither of our friends was able to assist me so I burned off a lot of calories unloading the stuff in the garage then carrying it all up a flight of stairs.  Done in a couple of hours but I dreaded how I was going to feel the next few days.  Needless to say, my legs were very sore!

Short trip but it gives us peace of mind to know our stuff is in good hands. 

Season coming to a close

We are back in Illinois as of last week to get my tooth finished up.  As mentioned we are back at the RV park near Starved Rock.  As this is the Midwest the camping season is quickly coming to a close.  Most campgrounds begin closing in October and do not reopen until late March.  So, for this week it is lonely at the RV park.  In the back section where we are there were only 4 RV’s parked and 2 of those are people that live here for the whole season.  In the front portion there were a couple of RV’s that are staying longer than for one night.

I decided to take a picture of our area to show you our openness.

There are 3 new RV’s that arrived this afternoon, but most likely they are just here overnight.

We leave tomorrow to work our way to the Kansas City area, most likely stopping Thursday night around Des Moines.  We should be in Kansas City for a week or so to visit with Fran’s sister then begin to work our way to New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Update

Just a quick post to let y’all know what we are up to.  We left Nashville on Tuesday and headed back towards the Chicago area as I have a dentist appointment on Thursday to get my crown installed.  On our drive from Nashville we stopped about halfway in Effingham, Illinois for the night.  In the camping book I did not recognize the name of the campground but as soon as we got off the highway we remembered the area and having stayed at this park in April of last year while returning from Memphis.  Nice, quiet park with lots of trees however we opted for a site where our satellite would work.

On Wednesday we drove to the RV park near Starved Rock State Park where we stayed last month when we were in the Chicago area.  We planned to stay for just a few days then head out to St. Louis but our friends in Nashville made a generous offer of allowing us to store our household items, that are currently stored at a Public Storage rental space, at their house as they have the room.  So I will be renting a U-hual trailer this weekend and moving the items to their house Monday and Tuesday.  We should be on the road again on Thursday, probably following the famed Route 66 to California!

Nashville Sights

We have been to Nashville a couple of times before this trip and had done many of the tourist things during those visits.  This trip was mainly to visit with our friends who just moved here from Maryland.  Our friends bought a nice, large, house in Hendersonville and one of the amenities that came with it was a large Koi pond in the backyard.  The ponds contains something like 40 Koi fish in different sizes and they need to be fed twice a day.  Fran found it very exciting to feed and watch the fish.

On Friday we did head out to Franklin, Tennessee to see the town and the Civil War battlefield and cemetery.  The town is nicely restored with a beautiful town square and buildings that date back to the 1800’s.

Nearby is a confederate cemetery and a battlefield where one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War took place.

The plantation mansion next to the cemetery and battlefield.  The house was used as a field hospital during the war.