Family Time #1

The week is almost gone once again, so it is time to bring this blog up to date.  Monday was another travel day, and a fairly long one at that: north through most of Oklahoma (including Oklahoma City) and about half way up through Kansas, stopping in Salina.  The weather had been rainy earlier in the week and the forecast was for more bad weather, so we took advantage of Monday’s tailwind and put in a long day.  

Tuesday was that much shorter since we planned to stop and see Bob’s sister, Mary, and her husband, Bill, in southern Nebraska. 

They have told horror stories about the dirt roads in their neighborhood that become extremely slippery when wet.  We had called them to ask about road conditions and they advised us to camp at a former Pony Express Station east of them.  It wasn’t particularly convenient for them, but it was paved all the way there and the parking area was paved as well, so we wouldn’t sink into the ground.  Our rig is about 35,000 lbs and getting a tow is not a small undertaking, so we appreciated their help in finding this parking area.  They came to visit us on Tuesday evening and again when we had them over for dinner on Wednesday.  The bad weather came, as predicted, on Tuesday night and this was one of the few areas that was not drenched with rain, pelted with hail, or blown over by the wind.  It was one of very few areas that was spared. On Wednesday, we took a trip to Lincoln to do laundry, errands, and lunch with Mary.  It was great to spend time with them! 

After a little down-time there, it was back on the road again.  Thursday was cloudy and cool, but without wind and rain so it was good to put in another longer day.  We stopped at a Corps of Engineers-managed area just north of Des Moines.  This made for another shorted day on Friday, just getting to Forest City, where Winnebago RVs are built.  We have a service appointment there next week which is great since we developed problems with two of our slides last night.  Our large passenger side slide seems to have developed the same problem that was “fixed” at LaMesa in February.  Grrrrrrr!  We’re lucky to be able to get this fixed here as the factory seems to be more reliable than their dealers. 

April has been a month with lots of driving: from California on the first to northern Iowa by the end of the month.  Our little sightseeing in West Texas has meant about 3,000 miles just this month, which will likely be more than half of our expected miles for all of this year.