09-12-08 Friday (What was that noise?)

This WAS to be an uneventful day. Alas, I wished it had been.

We departed Eureka, Missouri at about 11:30am for our 380 mile trip to Salina (pronounced sa-line-ah), Kansas. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get an earlier start as we were waiting for some mail to arrive. We got the mail, and then departed.

We chose an easy in and out Pilot gas station to fill up before hitting the road. After a fill up, Jim drove several feet away from the pump and then BANG. Ah, shit. Yes, that was the sound of the left rear coach smacking a concrete fuel pump barrier. We jumped out of the coach to find a broken sewer hose holder that was attached to the bumper accompanied by some yellow scrapes, topped with an obliterated left rear side marker, and finally joined by a smashed left tail light. My reaction was shocked, followed quickly with chuckles as we re-entered the coach. I shrugged it off looking to the brighter side of things by imagining the other things it could have been. When and if it’s my turn to smack the RV, hopefully there will be laughing rather than anger.

Before I move onto Kansas, I must point out 2 important facts. 1- We never went to a Wal-Mart in Missouri! 2- On one of the interstates I noticed a mile marker every 2 tenths of a mile. (Notice the .8 on the mile maker sign to your right?) I found this to be amusing, as well as a waste of money. Jim says someone at the DOT has family in the sign business. I think the Missouri state parks could have used the money; a few of them needed help. Perhaps fixing the damn roads might have been money well spent? If you Google for the top ten worst roads, St. Louis makes the list. Maybe these weren’t necessarily important facts, but it is my job to embellish this blog to keep you amused……………. And you are amused, aren’t you?

Our Wal-Mart shopping trip was due. We stopped at a Wal-Mart in Topeka, Kansas. It was not the usual conforming exterior Wal-Mart style. The inside was huge but under some sort of reorganization. We wanted to buy a small ceramic heater since tomorrow our next stop is Colorado with a low of 36 degrees! Sure we have heat via a furnace but it’s cheaper to use the parks electric rather than our propane. So, I walk over to the fans but don’t see heaters. Excuse me, Mr. Wal-Mart employee, where would I find the space heaters. Mr. Wal-Mart employee says they don’t have room for them right now so none are out. I would have thought that since Salina, Kansas has a low of 56 degrees, and getting colder, it might be time for heaters over fans? We’ll just wait and stop at another Wal-Mart.

It was our first time arriving to a campground at dark. We’ll avoid this situation in the future. It was 10pm and the office was closed. Typically, you just use a night drop box and pay in the morning. This, as I verified earlier in the day was the case here at Sundowner West. We filled out our form, slipped it through the slot and took a map. As a side note, the map indicated the shelter is below the restrooms. Scary. Out of all the RV’s there, 90% were dark inside. Maybe it’s so boring here that they went to bed at 9pm on a Friday night???? The campground, like most was pitch-black. We could only see the road directly in front of us but not where all the sites were, the site numbers, hookup boxes, etc. On a turn within the park, we got stuck on an incline that lifted a rear wheel off the ground. We were half on the road and half on the grass. We attempted backing up with the Cherokee in tow. Again, this never works unless the Cherokee and RV and perfectly straight with each other and only a foot of reverse is needed. But of course, if this was the case, we probably wouldn’t need to back up. I got into the Cherokee and tried to backup in tandem with the RV. Nope. We had to disconnect! Luckily we were at the campground but with a one night stay, we didn’t plan to disconnect. Now the RV was able to get unstuck, and into a spot. We made our park connections and ate dinner at 11 or something. Goodnight Salina.

Some miscellaneous photos I snapped:

This sign is for a Missouri town called Blackwater. If you remember that in RV lingo, blackwater is toilet waste. It was raining.

Missouri: A giant cow, pretty much in the middle of no where.

Missouri: I missed stopping at a Wal-Mart so much, I snapped a photo of the Wal-Mart truck.

Missouri: Wildflower Area sign. I thought this interesting because we had seen many of them throughout. One sign that intriqued me was a "Pairie Rehab" sign but I could never get a clear picture of it at 70mph. I wanted to comment something like, "A place for the alcholic Ingles family?"

I had so many great headlines to call this blog entry. Of course they all incorporated The Wizard of Oz somehow. We came up with, "Oh Toto, I don't want to be in Kansas anymore" "Maybe the Wizard can fix this?" "Kansas ain't freakin' flat Toto." What can you come up with?