Back at the ol' Martin Manor RV park

Got home today around 2:00 and now its time to put the trailer in winter mode and start planning for our 2013 outings.  At this time we only have a couple of trip ideas and those will get Jo her last State Logo t-shirts to complete her collection of 50.  After she completed her collection of 50 coffee mugs she started the t-shirt collection and only needs 5 or 6 more.  Then she is planning to make a quilt out of them.

The weather today has been chilly starting out in the mid 30s and with cloud cover most of the morning it was slow to rise to mid 40s by lunch time.  From Chanute it is only around 25 miles to Route 54 and then we stay on 54 until the Center Street exit in Holts Summit, hard to get lost.  We did stop in Camdenton for a bite of lunch.

serviced and ready to take it home

We were finished at the service department around 1:00 this afternoon.  The work was completed long before that but they did some sealing on the roof and the material needed to cure out before we could take it outside the shop especially since it was raining this morning.

Today has been one of those late fall type days that start our warm and the temperature drops all day.  It was a little above 70° this morning and mid 40s right now with a forecast of low 30s tonight.  The park folks just knocked on our door to say that they were turning off the water because of the freeze possibility.  That will not be a problem for us as we can use our on-board tank for tonight and then drain all pipes when we get home.  This city campground is a great asset to the HitchHiker factory and service department and most campers are here because of that connection.

back to the factory

We had a nice drive today back to Chanute.  I made Ms Navi work hard as I took some routes that she didn't pick and caused her to try and "save me" and then didn't listen to her.  We did enjoy the drive through the Konsa tall grass prairie and flint hills area of Kansas.  The wind was strong from the south and we didn't get very good fuel economy but it was more scenic than the shortest route.

Tomorrow we take the trailer to the shop for some maintenance items and then will return to this campground and then head for the old Martin Manor on Friday.

a nice birthday

Okay, I'll admit that its been 3/4 century and we're still having fun.

Jo took me into Manhattan for a nice lunch today and then we drove around the lake to see the area.

Our lunch was downtown right by the K-State campus and all the store windows were being painted for what must be homecoming next weekend with lots of purple and white and kids that looked to be to young to be collegians.  The restaurant was the So Long Saloon and we both opted for the bison burgers which were great.

This first picture is our trailer from across the lake and the second one is the boat launching area in our campground.  These tree trunks were here when the lake first filled and I'm sure that some fishing would be good around those trunks.  We have seen a sailboat on the lake a couple of days and it is anchored in this second picture but It isn't easy to find.

nice and relaxing

These past couple of days have been nice.  Even though we are not alone in this campground it has been quiet.  I was a bit concerned that we were this close to Fort Riley and might have some helicopter flyovers but not so far.  Yesterday afternoon we drove into Manhattan for a few things at the grocery store plus a nice dinner.  This afternoon I did get out and wash off the road dust on the back of our trailer.  The mandolin has had some exercise both days plus this afternoon I tuned up my Yamaha guitar and got back in the feeling for my first instrument.  The Martin stays at home but the Yamaha is a very nice instrument also and stays in the trailer.

It was a bit foggy this morning and has been mostly cloudy all day.  Current temperature is at 66° so very comfortable with a forecast that includes a 20% chance of showers.  We have used heat every evening for this whole trip.

purple cat territory

Here we are just outside of Manhattan, Kansas which is home to the K-State Wildcats.  I'll have to keep my Miz-Zou flag in hiding even though we are no longer in their conference.  The good news is that we are back in civilization with an excellent internet connection and nothing between our dish and the satellites but blue skies.  It was a short drive today of only 175 miles so we were setup and rested before lunch.

The drive today was very interesting.  Ms Navi plotted our course for the quickest route and it started out with a long stretch (13 miles) of gravel county roads which were interesting.  Our trailer is covered in dust and the inside had a good dusting also.  A real question point came when at one time our gravel road had a low water crossing which had us doing a 90 degree turn in the creek bed and then up the far bank back to the rest of the road.  The bottom of the creek was solid rock that wasn't smooth but it was solid.  I think I'll get out the hose and wash off the back of our trailer sometime these next few days.

Here are a few pictures taken at our current site this afternoon.  The first one is from our back living room window and number two is of the dam the other direction.

Camping?

For the past 13 years we have been RVing which is my definition of using our RV for a mobile motel room in our travels to enjoy this great country.  In the past when we camped with the kids we always had a campfire which was mostly used to dry wet shoes and to cook hotdogs and smores.  Today I went out and collected some twigs and firewood so we could have a campfire to enjoy.  It was nice to just sit and watch the flames dance in the fire ring and try to stay away from the downwind smoke.  Yesterday the wind  was too strong but today it subsided and it was cool enough to enjoy the heat from the fire.

Tomorrow we head north to the Tuttle Creek Lake for a few days of visiting that area of KS.  It;s just too bad that is K-State country and I'll just have to stay quiet and not wave a MU tiger flag, especially since we no longer are in the same conference.

AAAH from the land of OZ

A bright, cool, and windy day at Fall River Lake, Whitehall Bay COE campground.  We definitely were by ourselves last night and probably will be until possibly this weekend.  There are whitecaps on the lake with the WNW wind and the temps are supposed to only reach upper 60s this afternoon, NICE.

I have used Webshots.com for our photo album sharing for some time.  Because we have a ton of pictures from our travels I have been a premium member to get enough storage space.  They have decided to change their site and not for the better for our use.  I will have to download all 220+ albums and thousands of photos so I can save them and find a new posting site for the future ability to share with all.  That is why Tuesday's pictures are posted on Picasa and that may be where all new albums are posted.  Our current wifi connection isn't good enough for such large file transfers so I will wait until we get home to download all of these files.

From the land of OZ

solitude

We thought that we had this whole campground by ourselves last night but saw another motor home at a distant corner this morning.  They left mid morning so we are now all by ourselves in this COE campground with over 40 camp sites.  We are around 10 miles from the nearest major highway on gravel county roads and there isn't any RR tracks or truck traffic noises, only squirrels and hoot owls with fish jumping in the lake only a stones throw from our site.  This will be a nice restful few days.  I was able to find an opening through the trees for our satellite TV connection.

There were a few groceries items that we needed before too many days into this trip so we drove to Eureka, KS which is about 25 miles and the nearest grocery store.  It was a very nice market with good selections and we picked up more than was on our list.

I took these pictures on this morning's walk around.  My internet connection comes and goes and when it is on it is slow so I will wait for a better connection to upload any large bunch of pictures.

This first picture is right out our front door.

PS I have added a few pictures to yesterday's post.

Kansas fun

Today we headed to our brief Kansas vacation on two lake campgrounds before our appointment at the factory for some annual maintenance service and then its park the trailer in our backyard for the winter.  Today was quite windy from the south but no problems in our trip except for a low fuel mileage due to pushing the wind.  In our campsite we have a very nice view out our front window of this lake and at this time we are the only campers in this campground so it should be quiet for our stay.  There are many trees around but I was able to fine a window to the satellites and we do have TV plus a good cellphone signal and wifi connection so all is good.

My on-line photo service is changing and I need to learn what capabilities I still have before posting today's pictures from the co-pilot seat.  The color was nice until we got past the Lake of the Ozarks area so that is where most of Jo's pictures are from.  I will add them when I learn how to manage the new photo connection.

Here are a few from Jo's windshield shots.

 

Here is a link to the full set of windshield shots

2012-10-16

Back in an old familiar campground

Back at the 0ld Martin Manor, as our neighbor says "our second home."  We backed in around 2:00 this afternoon and here it is 3:00 and I can hear the washing machine running.  The bad news this morning was that there wasn't any fog to block the rising sun.  Thankfully I-70 from Salina heads northeasterly which put the sun not directly in front of our noses so I could block the sun with the visor and still see the road.

These next two weeks are going to be busy.  Beside all the laundry we also need to wash the trailer and truck plus get the truck serviced for it's 20,000 mile service and it's only 13 months old.  Wilma is having eye surgery next Thursday so we will go down on Wednesday to visit Lola and stay over to help Wilma.  We also have doctors appointments on this next Friday and then next Monday.

Our next trip was scheduled to start on Oct. 12 but that is going to change.  The first campground called to say that they will not have water in the CG so we will alter our plans somewhat and see what we can salvage of that set of plans.

Here is what Jo found exciting to photograph today calling this album "the mountains of Kansas."

flat lands

Today there is good news and bad news.  The biggest problem with traveling eastward when we like to leave early in the morning and get off the road early afternoon is having the rising sun directly in our eyes.

The bad news is that most of this morning across the remainder of Colorado we had a lot of fog banks to drive through.  One long stretch of probably 30 miles was so dense that we were driving very slow with the emergency blinkers on for visibility for other drivers.  Most of the fog areas were light enough to drive at our normal speed.  We just couldn't see much of the surrounding area.  Having been through this route before we know that we didn't miss any great scenic views.

The good news is that most of this morning across the remainder of Colorado we had a lot of fog banks to drive through.  This blocked the rising sun and when we got out of the fog areas it was high enough above the horizon that our sun visors worked for our comfort.

Jo was trying to get some more windshield pictures but as you all know this route isn't photogenic.  She did get some nice cloud shots and had to get one of the wind generators in KS.  Jo finally got her bobble head tiger mascot in a picture.

Colorful Colorado

Today was a very nice but long drive through most of Colorado.  After the Vail pass and the Eisenhower tunnel it's all downhill toward home.  We had hoped for some fall color through Colorado and we were not disappointed.  (see Jo's pictures below)  This section of Interstate 70 from the Utah line to Denver in my opinion, at this time of year, is the most scenic stretch of interstate highway in this country and we have traveled most of them.  The Glenwood canyon is especially magnificent and an engineering marvel of design and construction of the interstate roadways through this natural beauty.

At the summit of Vail pass and the Eisenhower tunnel the temperatures dropped down to 38° and we were driving through snow showers but the pavement was just wet so no repeat of Monday's surprise.  Our GWF has been right on the job for all fuel stops, campground hookups and departures but she was totally AWOL for about 15 minutes during last Monday's drive.  Her paycheck for this week will reflect that lapse of service.

windshield Colorado

relaxing day

It is a nice relaxing day of rest with light showers throughout the day.  Outside temperatures are only in the 50s so we have the heat on.  In fact we haven't used the AC for the past three days.  I got a bit of mandolin practice in this morning and with a good computer connection we have both caught up with all the family blogs and emails.

Tomorrow we cross the Rockies on our way through Denver to the eastern CO lowland plains.

bad day - good day

Yesterday (the bad day) we crossed Nevada and today (the good day) we crossed Utah.  We are now 26 miles into Colorado and will sit tight tomorrow for a day of nerve-calming rest from driving/riding before we continue the homeward trek.  Last night's stop was right on the border between Nevada and Utah without any cell signal to get my computer connected so I was not able to update after yesterday's travel.

yesterday -
We crossed the State of Nevada on US-50 and the route was good but isolated.  The two lane good surfaced highway started out as a nice drive but soon we got into some rain showers and the temperatures were hanging in the lower 40s.  We did see some fresh snow in patches along the roadside.  On one pass through the mountains in some switch backs the temperature dropped to 36° and the rain changed to sleet and freezing rain with the roadway surface covered with ice.  Our trailer started to jackknife to the drivers side and then fishtailed to try and pull us into the road ditch.  Jo's truck did it's job and with a few instinctive reactions by the driver we were able to get things back on track.  There was a lot of shuffling of goods back inside the trailer, when we were able to check, but we are "extremely" grateful that we didn't end up as a collision with another vehicle or upside down in the ditch.  It was rain showers then the rest of the day.  Our GWF did take care of us while getting set up in our campsite but then the cloud came over when the rain caught up with us and poured down.

Today -
We crossed the  State of Utah partly on US-50 but mostly on I-70.  It was a much more enjoyable drive today except that it was a bit long.  Last night we were just on the time line between PDT and MDT so we had set our clocks to MDT before we went to bed.  When we got up this morning and got ready to travel it was still dark so we were a few miles down the road when we saw the sunrise, as seen in Jo's pictures.  We did see a lot of fall foliage beauty through the mountain passes with yellow, red, orange, and green very striking.  We hope to see more of this fall color as we travel through Colorado on Thursday.
 

windshield Utah

Eastward bound day one

Today begins our eastward trek back to the Martin Manor.  We cut across the NE corner of Kaliforny and got through Reno with both of our shirts still on.  Tomorrow we cross Nevada on Rte 50 and then across Utah before we stop for two nights and a day of rest from riding.

We were unhappy this morning as the swarms of BUGS were also south of Klamath Falls and now our trailer is well coated on the front, when we get home I'll hold the ladder for Jo to wash them off.  Then we were happy to see three Mule Deer in the area of Lava Beds National Monument.

Collier Memouial State Park

This morning we headed to this State Park for a visit and photo opportunity.  On the drive out just like yesterday morning as we were driving by Upper Klamath Lake for several miles we hit clouds of bugs that totally splattered our windshield.  They were not fat and juicy so no big smear by each one but simply by the mass they made quite a mess.  They apparently had shells as each one popped on the glass like small sleet and we could see clouds of them in a vertical columns above bushes on the side of the road.

On the brighter side, the State Park and Logging Museum was very interesting.  Vena sent us some pictures that she took in 2005 in this park while visiting with Bob and his brother.  I tried to take a picture to match one of hers and came close I think, even got the same picnic table in the corner.

Here is her picture in 2005

 And here is mine in 2012

Here are the rest of our pictures from today.

Collier Memorial State Park

Crater Lake

This morning we visited the Crater Lake National Park.  The day was beautiful with mostly clear skies.  This is a beautiful park with the lake being the main event and there is a rim drive totally around the lake with many pull-offs for viewing and picture taking.  We found out that Jo has a large phobia against heights and most of the rim drive had her side of the truck over a direct fall of hundreds of feet from the edge of the narrow two lane twisty road with no guard rails.  We finished the complete circle, had lunch at a park lodge, and then headed for the trailer.

I need to do some research and see if I can determine just how many National Parks we have visited, we have been to many.  After a quick glance I have counted 59 National Parks and Monuments that we have visited.  At the first National Park that we visited after retirement we purchased the "old folks" Golden Age Passport for $10 and that gets us into all these national treasures for the rest of our lives for free.

Crater Lake

beautiful drive

Today we headed to south central Oregon and after we passed through Springfield, OR we had a beautiful scenic drive cross-country away from the Interstate.  We are in Klamath Falls, OR for the next three nights and plan to enjoy the Crater Lake NP and perhaps a few of the local attractions.  The State of Oregon is beautiful and we have enjoyed several of the different areas of interest.  We will do some grocery shopping while here to make sure we are stocked for the remainder of our trip home.

When we leave here we are headed for the Martin Manor with a day of rest in Grand Junction, CO.

back in Oregon

We turned southward this morning and are back in Oregon for the rest of this week.  It was a bit foggy this morning for the first couple of hours but then it stayed overcast which is always good for driving.  A bit of hectic driving through the Vancouver-Portland area with heavy traffic but no major problems and we arrived near Albany, OR at the time we had planned.