Tuesday 9/26 - Thursday 9/28
Nice relaxing visit with Joan. The girls did some shopping, I pretty much sat on my butt for two days!
Friday 9/29
Friday afternoon we headed back to the trailer, stopped in Geneva and had a real nice diner at Livinia with Patt and John. Two hours of good conversation and good food. Back home we watched some of this morning’s F1 Practice.
Saturday 9/30
Nice morning walk around town, a bit cool 46 degrees this AM! Put the quilt Joan lent to us on the bed last night! Had breakfast and after it had warmed up a bit we took a nice walk through town. Spent the day doing cleaning and maintenance, Nancy made a run to the store.
Sunday 10/1
Relaxing day, morning walk around the lakes at the RV park, F1 race, run to store, etc.
Monday 10/2
Morning walk and on the road about 9 AM. Checking tires in the morning I had one Pressure Pro beeping, checked the tire and it was OK. Then it kept beeping! Should not do that. Investigation showed that the sensor for the left front outer trailer tire was on the right side and vice versa! Bet all left and rights are switched! Will have to check it out later. Uneventful trip to Timberline Campground in Waukee, IA. Third night here in a month! Lunch at Cracker Barrel.
Tuesday 10/3
Up a little early and on the road by 8 AM. Wanted to get to Independence, MO with time to tour the Truman Home. Arrived at Campus RV Park about noon. Nancy headed over to the National Park Service Visitors Center to get tour tickets for this afternoon. Only about seven blocks away from the RV park. I met her there a little while later and we watched the movie on Truman.
Stopped at Dave’s Bakery and Deli for lunch and then walked over to the Truman house. Good exhibit.
Wednesday 10/4
Drizzling rain in the morning, headed out a little after nine. Traffic around the south side if Kansas City was fairly heavy and made tougher by the fairly steady rain. Got off the interstate at US 169 and headed straight south towards Ollogah, OK and the Will Rogers Ranch (Dog Iron Ranch. Dog Iron being the brand used on his father’s cattle.).
US 169 was a good four lane for the first hour or so, but then it became a narrow two lane with marginal shoulders. Not helped by the steady rain and fairly heavy north-bound truck traffic!
Stopped at a grocery store in Coffeeville, OK and Nancy made sandwiches for lunch. Arrived at the ranch in mid-afternoon. I knew the the RV spot there was on grass and they had warned about soft ground if it rained! Talked to the caretaker there and asked if there was a possibility of parking on the pavement ( I had looked carefully at the Google satellite view). He said maybe, so we went on in.
Turns out we are the only guests here. Jacob, the caretaker, is a very nice and accommodating young man and he said we were welcome to give it a try. Still raining steadily. I was pretty well soaked by the time I got us hooked up. I pulled into the paved circle, and then backed the trailer up to the edge of the pavement. Just able to reach the electrical hookup with the 50 amp cord and two 30 foot long 30 amp extensions that we carry. No water hookup though! We always carry a half tank of fresh water so we should be good for two nights.
Walked over and looked through the ranch house. This is the house that Will Rogers was born in, although it has been moved a quarter mile from it’s original position. The large Rogers ranch was mostly flooded by the creation of a large man made lake. The house now has a lovely view out over the lake. Good video about the house and family and information on the family in plaques on the walls.
Thursday 10/5
Short walk around the park, we are parked next to the grass airstrip dedicated in 1931 by Will Rogers and Wiley Post. Does not appear to be used very much, if at all.
Headed into Claremore around 10 AM. Tracked down a bakery Nancy had found on Yelp and bought some bread, checked out the Rib Crib (also from Yelp) to see if it looked like a viable place for lunch. Then we went to the Will Rogers Museum. A very impressive facility built by the state after his death. A good number of interesting artifacts and a lot of videos and film clips.
Late lunch at the Rib Crib and back out to the Dog Iron Ranch. Walked around the grounds and checked out the barn. This is still a kind of working ranch, horses, cattle, a couple of donkeys and goats in the barn. There was a good video about the home ranch and WRs rope tricks. Pretty impressive stuff.
Friday 10/6
Weather better this AM. Got a good start at 9 AM. No problem maneuvering the trailer out of the loop we were in without getting off the pavement.
Stopped at the Flying J in Tulsa for 250 gallons of diesel. Fought a headwind most of the way west, so fuel mileage lousy today. Just after noon traffic came to a screeching halt at El Reno, OK. We were right at the exit so I jumped off and we pulled into a Walmart to eat the lunch Nancy had packed. CB radio said tie-up was construction so after lunch we went up to Buss 40 and went west to the next interchange which was past the construction.
Got into Sayre, OK about 2:30 and found the RV area in the city park. Nothing fancy, but large and long pull through sites. A good deal for $12. Quick run to the grocery store and settled in for the evening.
Saturday 10/7
Pretty strong thunderstorms rolled through around midnight last night, a bit of rain and wind but that was about it. Cleared out in time to record the F1 race at 1 AM! Learned a new trick with the Dish local channels earlier in the week, don’t know why I had not thought about this before. Every time we move we have to call Dish Network and ask them to change our service address in order to get local stations on the satellite. A bit of a pain.
Last week I happened to look at the spot beam map and realized that Des Moines was on the fringe of the Kansas City spot beam, as is Claremore, OK. So when we arrived in Waukee, IA on Monday we changed our locals to Kansas City and we had the networks for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday without making any change. On Friday in Sayre, Ok I changed locals to Amarillo and that worked for Friday and then Saturday in Santa Rosa, NM.
Uneventful trip today to Santa Rosa RV in Santa Rosa, NM. Turns out they have a Bar-b-Que restaurant on site that will deliver to your site! Had pretty good ribs and beef for dinner.
Sunday 10/8
Up fairly early, still running on Central time although we moved into Mountain time yesterday afternoon. Took our time getting going, watched the pre-race and start of the F1 race, on the road around 10 AM. Uneventful trip to Ojo Caliente, still a pretty good head wind though.
Stopped in Santa Fe for groceries and then on to Ojo Caliente Spa. Had to park and go into hotel/spa restoration to register for the campground. Pretty tight spaces and narrow roads with lots of trees. Getting into our site was pretty tricky. Needed to turn around in order to back in. Site is right at a junction with three roads and an island with trees in the middle! Had to came in on 6 o’clock leg, had to turn right and down far enough to get trailer straight, then back down the left hand leg, around a curve with trees tight on both sides, then pull back into the 6 o’clock leg with the site on the right. Then had to back in between water standpipe and large trees. Went smoother than I expected, I even impressed myself!
Monday 10/9
Walked a little way up a mountain trail by the campground, but it was steep and rocky so we did not go far. Off to the spa early in the morning, soaked in several of the pools, somehow we missed the arsenic pool that we liked in the past. Nancy went for a message late in the AM, I soaked a bit more and then sat in the sun and read, kind of a cool breezy morning.
After Nancy finished we went over to the restaurant and had a nice lunch. Thought about going back to soak, but we decided to go back home and relax.
Tuesday 10/10
Cold last night! 28 degrees here! Snow in the mountains to the north, and apparently in Denver! Glad to have that quilt!
Took our trekking poles with us this morning and went up the trail/road to where we had a good view over the spa and off to the mountains in the east. Beautiful morning, sunny with a nice breeze. After the hike we went to the spa restaurant for lunch again. Really good food here, but a bit pricey, so lunch is a better deal, then we can have a light dinner at home.
In the afternoon Nancy went back to the spa for another treatment and a soak, I just took it easy. Balancing $24 admission against soaking in the hot spring again, I opted for the 24 bucks!
Wednesday 10/11
No rush to get on the road this AM as we are only 100 miles from Albuquerque. Took a nice long walk to the end of the campground and down a road to a round barn, marked as the only one in the state. Sat on a bench by the Ojo River for a while where it was babbling through some small rapids.
Short trip to Albuquerque and Enchanted Trails RV Park where they were good enough to squeeze us in at the last minute during a really busy week! Got settled in and went over to Deb’s house (my 2nd cousin). My cousin Lee, Deb’s Mom also got in today. Had a nice visit with them as well as Dan, Deb’s main squeeze, and the about to be married couple Selden and Kelsie. Deb baked a nice lasagna.
Thursday 10/12
Went over to the Petroglyphs National Monument. Quite an interesting place. Relaxed at home for a while and then went to Kelsie’s parent’s house in the evening for the rehearsal dinner, catered by Deb, Dan, & Lee! Excellent roast beef sliders with fixings.
Friday 10/13
Headed out early to watch the Balloon Fiesta. Did not actually go to Balloon Park, but stopped up above off of I-25 where we had a good look at a large number of balloons in the sky. Stopped in a parking lot and spent quite awhile watching with binoculars.
Back home for lunch and then off to the wedding back at Kelsie’s parents. Nice ceremony with a good sized crowd of relatives and friends. Helped Deb and Dan decorate Selden’s car.
Wedding was catered by a pizza truck, which was very well received!
Back home around 9 PM. Wedding was at 4.
Saturday 10/14
On the road at 8:45. Lots of balloons in the air as we doubled back to I-25 and headed south. Planned on stopping at a little restaurant in Hatch, NM on the cut across road towards Deming. Turned out to be closed! Permanently it appeared.
Made it to Wilcox, AZ late in the afternoon, stopped at the quarter car wash in town and washed the truck and trailer. Not a great job, but at least presentable.
Stayed at Ft Wilcox, RV. New owners since our last visit and I have never seen so few RVs here. Not sure why, price might be up a bit, but it is Passport America so half price is reasonable.
Sunday 10/15
Only 90 miles to get home from Wilcox. Found everything in good shape at home. No issues other than quite a few little volunteer palo verde trees in the yard! Got the trailer unloaded and back to the RV lot late in the afternoon. Still hot here!
So ends our travels for the summer of 2017. We traveled 7,350 miles with the truck and trailer and stayed in 10 states since we left home in July!
