Liberal, Kansas

On Monday we moved from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Liberal, Kansas on our slow journey to the Kansas City area.  Before I tell you about Liberal let me finish up our stay in Tucumcari.

We stayed in Tucumcari for 4 nights.  On our second night as we went to bed we noticed a moth in the trailer.  Ok no problem, I captured and killed it.  Then another, no problem, captured and killed.  We figured they had probably gotten in when opened and closed the trailer door.  On the third night they began showing up in the early evening in the trailer and more frequently.  When it got dark we went to take a drive to see the old motel signs lit up and as we were outside the trailer we saw moths swarming the tree next to our rig.  OK, there is the source, still figuring they must quickly enter the trailer when we open the door.  When we returned to the trailer I must have killed another 20 before we went to bed.  Ok, now this is getting ridiculous.  On our last day I talked to the owner of the park and he said that in spring the moths are a problem for a few weeks then the flies come in.  On our last night the moths just kept coming.  One after the other.  Before we went to bed the number killed was upwards of 40.  There would never be more than a couple in the trailer at any one time, but just as I killed one, another would show up. 

We leave on Monday and figure that should be the end of it as we are not around that tree anymore.  WRONG!  We arrive in Liberal and as dusk approaches they start showing up again.  I go outside the trailer and you can see about a half dozen of them flying around the trailer and going underneath it.  Before we went to bed I killed at least 30 of them.  So, I guess these means we are infested and they have set up home someplace in our rig.  Not sure how to proceed.  Do we wait and let attrition take over by just killing them as they appear or see if there is an insect bomb or something we can place in the trailer?  Interesting development.  We have never had an insect issue (or whatever moths are part of) with any of our RV’s.  We did have an issue with mice in our first RV but solved that by getting rid of the trailer.

On our last night in Tucumcari we met a nice couple from Maine who have been full timers for the past 8 months.  It was interesting talking to them and hearing their experiences and their plans. 

Now, Liberal, Kansas.  As we decided to take a smaller highway, instead of the interstate to get to our destination in Missouri, there are not many RV parks along the way.  Liberal has a nice park and it was midway between Tucumcari and Wichita (our next stop).  Not much here, but they do have a fairly large air museum that we will probably take a look at and they proclaim to be the home of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and have the original model house used in the movie.