New Jen's Horde


Saturday, October 06, 2007

Now I Get It!

 
Now I know why The Wizard of Oz was set in Kansas. Oh my goodness gracious but it's windy here! We're kind of afraid to leave the camper...we might be the only thing holding it down! We're about 300 miles from Denver, so we should be able to get home with no trouble tomorrow.

Hopefully the camper will still be in one piece. Today we suffered a near catastrophic failure. One of the latches that holds the pop up down while you're driving just completely tore off and blew away (sorry if we hit you, we didn't notice when it happened or we would have stopped to render aid.) The other latch gave up, and the camper started opening in the dastardly cross wind. Did I mention the wind?

Do you live in Kansas? If so, is it always like this?

Hmmm, to catch you up, since I posted last, we went on a tour of Steamtown National Historic Site in PA. This dovetailed nicely with our trip to the coal mine, since the anthracite coal mined there was a big part of the growth of the railway system. BTW-we now know the difference between anthracite and bituminous coal, do you?

We left PA, and in one day made it all the way to Richmond, IN (through most of PA and all of Ohio). We stayed at a cute little RV park there (Grandpa's Farm).

The next day, we drove through Indiana, Illinois and a lot of Missouri, stopping in Columbia. We visited their Bass Pro Shops, which was neat but much smaller than the one in Denver (yay Denver!) I believe that Missouri must be some Native American word meaning "Dang it's hot and humid here!" We were grossly unprepared for the 80+ degree heat (at 120% humidity, at least). People must have A/C there, or else they come from stronger stock than I do. I briefly considered dying, it must be cooler 6 feet underground, right?

Today we were only planning on making it as far as Salina, but we decided to press on to get to Hays. There was a campground listed there in our directory that sounded reasonable. Well, it wasn't. It was a parking lot in the bad part of town. I'm glad we still had plenty of time, we just turned around and headed back to the highway. Well, we stopped at a smellydirtybad gas station on the way. I'm sure there are better parts of Hays, KS, but they're not where we were.

Oh, and we almost went to Historic Fort Leavenworth. I got it into my head that we really needed to stop and see if they had a tour or something, and we jumped off the highway. Then we drove and drove and drove and drove, and finally stopped at (another) nasty gas station to ask directions. It turned out that we were still pretty far from the base, and that we'd have to present ID and fill out paperwork explaining what we were doing there before they'd let us in to see the museum. At that point it just didn't seem like a good idea anymore, and we turned back. Well, I don't think it EVER seemed like a good idea to Davin, but he was very kind about it.

There it is. If we don't get home tomorrow, it's because we blew away. The wind appears to be headed north, so you should start looking for us in Nebraska somewhere...

Miss you all, hopefully I will be able to post soon when we're home!

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Comments:
LOL! I hope you survive and find a new latch for your popup.

Looking forward to your return and all the stories from the kids.
 
My brother and his wife did two tours in Wichita, KS when they were in the military. They loved the people there but the wind NEVER quit. I remember that about visiting them there.

We lived in Columbia for 6 years (pre-Bass Pro days).

Be careful!
 
What a fun trip, with the chaos and everything! I envy you, with your blowing around the highway is fun while you're sweaty attitude. We've gotta get us one of those campers! :D
 
You might be home sooner than you think if the wind takes you there...or to Oz.
 
Owwww! Was that you? Why I oughtta pound you!

;-)
 
Thanks again for keeping us posted. It really looks like a nice and exciting and interesting adventure. I would love to go there one day although i can tell the climate can be a challenge for a Norwegian Viking :-)

You know my wife is an American and one day I hope she and I can take a round trip together like this. Good to have a local holding your hand when in this big country you know LoL
 
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