TWG :: vol 37 :: Fishberry Rv Park

Fishberry RV Park :: Valentine, NE :: KS -> WA Trip

We pulled out of Wichita by 8am with a plan to head north and camp in Nebraska, because I don't have a camping star on that state!  We said goodbye to Royal (for about a week) and loaded the truck with 3 adults, 2 kids, a dog, a cat, and a hamster!

Fido, the hamster, got tied up in a sling for the ride.

Angry kitty!  

She stopped meowing about 2 hours down the road and took a nap until we stopped for lunch.

Then we let her out of her prison and she did pretty good sitting on people's laps.

Into Nebraska, where we drove until almost the border!

We didn't have any troubles on this trip at all, other than at this gas station, where this nimrod was standing outside his car smoking a cigarette and his girl was talking on a cell phone, like they wanted to blow us up or something.  And they sat there, while not pumping fuel for almost 5 minutes, while we waiting in front of them to use the one and only diesel pump at the gas station.  I took their picture and then got out of the truck to ask them if they were done filling up and would they please move so we could get fuel.

The girl looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "Um, yes, we are done.  And of course we will move."  And then they sat in their car for another couple minutes before finally starting it up and driving away.  I was tempted to tell dad to just push them out of the way with the truck.

We got to our RV Park in Valentine, Nebraska!  It's a pretty nice one, right off the highway, but I totally forgot to take a picture of our site!  (oops)  The thing I think I loved the most was that the weather had cooled off enough, we didn't need A/C and we were able to sit outside for a little bit, and sleep with the windows open!  We even let Scooter out on a leash for a little bit.  :)

TWG :: vol 36 :: USI RV Park

USI RV Park :: Wichita, KS :: FL -> KS Trip

We left Missouri in some awesome thick fog!

And before we knew it, we had once again entered the land of sunshine and long, straight, flat stretches of road, otherwise known as Kansas!

It felt really weird to drive into Wichita and not go to our house.  We had to drive right on by the roads we've always taken for the past 7 years.  Sam, totally recognizing where we were, sat his rear end on Jayden's lap in the back and watched out the front window for the rest of the drive. 

Most people don't even know there is an RV park on the east side of town, but right off of K-96 and Hillside, there is a little campground that my parents stayed at the first few times they visited, when they would drive into town in their motorhome, and that's where we are parked now!

The kids rode their bikes and played on the little playground equipment they have set up here.  The only thing they are missing here is a pool!

Wichita was suppose to be a pretty easy and relaxing stop.  Sending Wayne home, picking up my parents at the airport, doing laundry, restocking food, sleeping in, visiting a couple friends, and maybe finding a pool to cool off in.  Well, thanks to our tire debacle in Georgia, that just didn't happen.  

Monday, was my birthday, and it was suppose to be the most laid back day of them all.  Well, we had to get the trailer to the RV dealership first thing in the morning because when we lost the tread on our tire, before the tread flew off down the road, it ripped a big ole hole in the bottom of the trailer.  So I went into the dealership begging them to please get it fixed that day, because if they didn't I would seriously be homeless for the night, and did they really to be responsible for all of us and a dog having to sleep in a truck for the night??? (just kidding, we would have gotten a hotel room, but still).  We left, dropped the dog off to be boarded for the day, got the truck an oil change, and then dropped Royal off at work.

The kids and I then went to hang out at some friends, stayed for a couple hours, and then we all went out to lunch together and the kids shoved balloons up their shirts.  :)

We stuffed ourselves with french fries and lemonades and then were sung an obnoxious Happy Birthday song - mostly because Willow thought it would be awesome, and Jayden wanted to eat my free birthday sundae.  We said a last goodbye to some really good friends, and the kids and I went off to see a movie to kill a couple more hours and sit in an air conditioned building!

By the time the movie was over, we had heard that the trailer was ready, but we only had about 30 minutes to get it before they locked the gate.  It's now about 4:30, and there's no time to get Royal from work, so the kids and I head over to the dealership, hook up to the trailer, and pull it back to our temporary home.  Thankfully, Royal got a ride home from work.  :) 

I then left to pick up Sam AND Scooter from boarding.  Scooter had been boarded the entire time we were traveling to and from Florida, but it was time to introduce her to her new temporary home in the trailer, and hope that she didn't hate me for leaving her for so long.  Also, since we will be traveling with her in the truck and I know how much she loves to be outside, we got her a hot pink harness and a leash to hopefully keep her from running away from us!  

Everybody was so glad to get her back and I don't think she'd every been petted so much.  And so far, she doesn't hate the harness too much (or me!).  We shall see how she behaves riding in the truck for hours tomorrow...somehow I don't think she is going to be too happy.....

Once I had the animals back in the trailer and scarfed down some Happy Birthday dinner Royal picked me up from Bella Luna, I got back in the truck to collect our last animal, Fido, the hamster. Sadly, Marshmallow the fish didn't make it.  While totally sad, it makes my animal care taking just that much easier on the road.  Willow cried for about 30 seconds and then she said, "Hey!  Now that Marshmallow's dead, that means I can get a guinea pig!!!!!"  Oy......  But it wasn't only the rest of our pets I was collecting, it was the rest of our passengers!

Nana and Papa are in the house!

Today, was a much more relaxed day.  We got up and didn't have too much to do.  I went and got a massage and then visited with a friend and said goodbye one more time.  Then the kids and I loaded up to go hang out with two of their best friends (and mine!) and cool off in their uncle's pool.  

We are going to miss you Boggesses!!!!

It was then time to eat dinner, do one last grocery store run, get Sam a bath, and now we are loading up the trailer and locking everything down because we start our journey west tomorrow morning!  

Here's hoping for easy travels!  But this time, not only is there me - the black cloud of mechanical issues, we now have my mother - the notorious rain cloud, who brings rain and stormy skies with her where every she goes....so it could be an interesting trip!  2000 miles to go and we shall be at our destination!

TWG :: vol 35 :: Ozark Mountain Springs RV Park

Ozark Mountain Springs RV Park :: Mountain View, MO :: FL -> KS Trip

The drive from Florida to Missouri was a tough one.  No technical difficulties, but after our 11 hour day before, this day was hard.  Everybody was pretty much done with being in the car.  But we pushed on, knowing if we could just make it, we'd have a mini-break coming up and then a short drive into Wichita.

We traveled through Alabama.

And then Mississippi.

And then through the corner of Tennessee

And then Arkansas

And finally into Missouri!

I always forget that the parts of Arkansas we've driven through are so pretty!  And I love Missouri too!  It's so green and hilly!  Sam was getting sick of laying down on the floor and climbed up on Grandpa's lap to get a look out the window for awhile.

But finally, we arrived!  At Ozark Mountain Springs RV Park.  It was perfect.  Lots of trees and a produce stand right at the front of the RV Park!  It was cool and rainy and it felt so good to be out of the truck!

On our day off of destination driving, Royal planned out a short route to go check out scenery and flour mills and a drive through the Ozark National Scenic Riverway.  It was so pretty!  Especially with all the fog.

Willow brought her new puppy "Princess Chuy Bella Elizabeth Lovingfoss" with.

We stopped at Ally Spring & Mill and checked out the old school house.  Wayne loved seeing this, as it was very similar to what his mom taught in at Little Falls, MN.

And the flour mill, which was powered by Ally Spring.  Ally Spring pumps out 81 million gallons of water a day!

Then we traveled onto Rocky Falls, which was huge and loud thanks to all the rain the midwest has been getting!  The pool was a little flooded, but was still clear and nice and cool, and felt so good to stick my feet in.  :)

Finally, it will be onto Wichita, which is just a short drive away!

TWG :: vol 34 :: Jellystone RV Park

Jellystone RV Park :: Waco, GA :: FL -> KS Trip

Well, I knew this day was coming.  It just had to.  We can't have a trip without it.  Yes, we'd had some "hard" traveling days.  Days fraught with traffic jams and tired kids and headaches and stinky dog rear ends.  But in my book, those days have challenging moments, but they aren't bad days.  I am the black cloud of road trips.  You take me, and things are bound to explode, go flat, blow up, or stop working.  I'm talking major delays.  Major.  And now hopefully, we've gotten the bad day out of my system and we can proceed back to Wichita and then onto the PNW with ease.

The day started out alright, a little early in my opinion, but that's really how Royal likes to road trip.  We load up the truck with people and dogs and hit the road, without a real destination but with a plan to make it past Atlanta.  We joked about how we were probably going to hit Atlanta right at rush hour, and hardy-har-har how this whole trip was full of traffic jams.  Stupid, Rachel.  Stupid.  Never joke about difficulties to come.  You'd think I'd learn!

We travel on into Georgia, stop for lunch, and I take a turn at the wheel.  Well, when my tank of gas was almost up, I had pounded like 3 bottles of water and I had to go to the bathroom...bad!  So, I pull off on this exit where there is nothing but a gas station.  A gas station that is "open" but everything is locked up.  Right across the parking lot from a motel where I'm pretty sure murders have happened.   I really know how to pick 'em.  So we proceed to pay at the pump and promise the kids ice cream later.  Sam, who normally is nowhere near the gas pumps is standing next to Royal about to jump back in the truck, when Royal grabbed the fuel nozzle it just stars spewing diesel all over the place, and all over the place included Sam's head.  Poor puppy.  I find some shampoo and start filling up bowls of water and try to give his head a bath.  The poor dog was miserable, and for a dog that hates baths and anything to do with water, he stood there nice and still while I continued to scrub and rinse and scrub and rinse.  I do the best I can, but figure I'll get some Dawn and wash his head again with dish soap when we got to our camp for the night. 

Royal's behind the wheel now, my driving privileges revoked by my bad gas station decision, and a ways down the road it feels like Royal ran something over, but we knew he hadn't.  So he pulls over on the next exit and I jump out and inspect our tires - flat tires have happened to us many times before - and I discover this.

An inflated tire with no tread.  Our trailer has a bad habit of ripping tread off our tires.  This makes tire #3.  A metal bracket that supports the wheel well, comes loose and instead of just dropping the screw onto the road, the metal bracket hangs onto the stupid screw and uses it to scalp the tread right off the tire.  It's really not very awesome.

We pull over to an RV park right down the road and Wayne and Royal change the tire in record time.  I'm not kidding, like maybe 15 minutes.  Royal's got the whole system on how to jerry-rig our truck's jack and use it on the trailer down!  I was just thankful he wasn't out doing this on the side of the interstate.  It makes it much safer for me to take pictures.  :)

Sam, was still not acting very happy.  He wouldn't drink any water.  It was literally 100 degrees outside, because we can't get flat tires if it's not in the triple digits, obviously!  And he picked out a new seat in the truck, and smiled for a picture.  If we are parked somewhere, he is always out sniffing around and peeing on things.  We were at an RV park for goodness sake, lots of room to roam, but he sat in the front seat of the truck the whole time.

On a side note, Sam was already in the dog house because he had gotten into the garbage yesterday and eaten a whole grip load of grapes, so we were keeping on eye on him already before the whole taking a bath in diesel ordeal.  And as it turns out when he finally went to the bathroom later this evening, he also had eaten a ziplock bag!  Bad dog!  Bad!  He is feeling much better now, though, so there is that!

With our tire changed and our trusty ole spare tire on, we hit the road thinking we hadn't lost too much time.  Not half a mile down the road.  Half a mile!  The spare tire explodes.  Explodes so bad we have people driving up alongside of us to let us know our tire just exploded all over I-75.

It looks like Willow's hair in the morning.  :)  This is a problem.  We are officially out of tires.

Obviously, God was protecting us from something up ahead, because we were not meant to leave Macon, GA for another good hour!   We called AAA, because well we have it, and we no longer have any extra tires.  They send a tow truck out to get us, since they no longer do tire service.  However, the tow truck driver calls me and tells me he only has a 21' bed on the back of his truck.  I'm like, "My trailer is 28 feet.  That's not going to work"  Thanks AAA, thanks.  So, I cancel my AAA ticket, because I wasn't going to wait another 30 minutes for them to track down a bigger tow truck, and I find a tire shop a few miles away that will bring us 2 new tires and fix it right there on the side of the road.

Not kidding, this guy's name was Bubba.  Bubba is my new best friend.  He didn't really like me very much, and he didn't laugh at any of my jokes, but that's ok, because I love Bubba.  He fixed both our tires, like way fast, and we were back on the road in about 45 minutes.

As soon as the tires were fixed and reattached and all other tire pressures checked, we stopped and got everybody some ice cream.  The kids and the dog did great.  They stayed in the air conditioned truck and watched a movie and I made them sandwiches and they didn't complain or whine or ask when we were leaving once.  I really have the best traveling kids around!  Now, Royal on the other hand did not stay in the air conditioned truck.  He had been out in the 100 degree heat changing the first tire, and then the 103 degree heat watching Bubba work his magic on our other tires.  The truck with Sam's diesel perfumed head was already pretty smelly, but then Royal got back in the truck and holy smokes, driving down the road, the truck smelled like the inside of a sweaty basketball shoe.   It.  Was.  Unbearable.  But what do I do in situations like these?  I laugh.  Royal scowls.  I laugh.  What are the chances we blow out 2 tires????  I kept joking with Royal I was trading this trailer in for a new one.  He just glared and said he wasn't in the mood for joking and my trailer kept spending his fishing boat money.  I laughed.  Royal scowled.  Eventually he lightened up because the cab of the truck smelled so terrible, there wasn't much else you could do.

I found the closest RV park to Georgia border that I could, that had a pool.  The kids love it.  It's Jellystone, complete with Yogi Bear.  :)  They have 2 great pools, and talking McCaws (who scared the crap out of me when I walked into the office because they said "Hello!"), and alligators, and monitor lizards.  

We were literally on the road for 11 hours today.  11.  That is like twice my limit.  We are all pretty fried and I plan on sleeping-in in the morning.  I'm not sure what Royal is planning on, but that's my plan!  Willow was so tired, she put herself to bed when everybody else was getting ready to go take showers.

Oh!  And just for a bonus.  One of the cupboard doors decided to come completely off its hinges while we were driving too.  That was awesome.  The boys fixed it, but still....