Our Road Trips

9/21-25/2014

I have been lax on posting for a few days...not much to say, I guess. We have done a lot too, late back to the camper a lot. Makes it hard to find time to do this. But we both decided that we would take a day off and just rest. We have been on the road since April 4, 176 days as of today. We have driven the motor home 12,798 miles since we left home and the car an additional 13,270 miles. That is a lot of moving around, 26,068 miles of scenery, some awesome, some not so awesome. We needed a break today...but we need to go to the grocery store too. We are at a beautiful camp ground on the Arkansas River just outside of Russellville, AK. It is another of the amazing ACE (Army Corps of Engineers) spots, just downstream from the Dardanelle Lock & Dam on the Arkansas River http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Dardanelle tells the story, wish we had a boat. But we plan to do some sight seeing in the next few days and also visit the Bill Clinton Library in Little Rock too.

On 9/21, we drove from our camp site in Longmont, CO to Nederland via the Boulder Canyon road at the urging of my brother, and others. Our decision to do this on a Sunday proved to not be the best decision we have made on this trip...lots of folks out & about, and using the beautiful day to visit the canyon, When we arrived in Nederland, there was a Miners Day Festival going on, too many folks in too small of a place. So we maneuvered our way through the round-abouts and headed north on SR 72 to SR 7 and found ourselves in another canyon that was only slightly less scenic than the Boulder Canyon and far less crowded. So we enjoyed the ride back to Longmont, stopped and got groceries and headed back to our camper for a few brews, a BBQ d steak and watched the end of the football games & the NASCAR race on TV. It was a fun day, with lots of pretty scenery and also a little relaxation too.

On Monday morning, we were up early and off before 8 am. We have an appointment to get our cooling system on the RV looked at and see if we can figure out the overheating issues. After almost an hour in 'rush hour' traffic, we arrive at our destination and get checked in and settle down in the waiting room with 3 other couples there to get there campers looked at for various reasons. They were all 'full-timers' for various lengths of time...glad to be sun-birds with a place in the sunny south to call home. But our time sitting there was a bit of a learning experience, conversing with folks who have spent their time in their campers doing something other than following current events.:) After about 4 hours, the shop gave us a report. The main culprit is dirt, dust, & grime in the fins of the radiator. We have been driving on some not so nice roads and the dust has accumulated in the radiator. They suggest a good cleaning, something better than with water. They also say that since it is mostly downhill from Denver to Florida, we go on our way, keep an eye on the gauge, and stop as necessary to let it cool. That way, we can sleep in our own beds, instead of a motel, for the 3-4 days it will take to fix it. That makes perfect sense to us, so we pay our bill and head east towards Kansas.

So we drove east on I-70 from Denver. It doesn't take long for the scenery to go pretty much, blah! The eastern 1/3 of Colorado and Kansas & Oklahoma are pretty much flat, no trees, lots of fences and crops, with oil wells & now wind mills dotting the scenery. It is pretty boring and reading signs & counting the miles pretty much the only way to keep awake. Barb takes a few pictures, but sunset is really the only time that is fun too. We stopped at a rest area just west of Colby for the night...the rest area has a special place that is dark & quiet, just for RVs...must be a lot of that out here, every rest area we see had the same provisions, so we take advantage of it and get some sleep. Come morning, we drive the rest of the way to Abilene and stop at the Eisenhower Museum & Library. We spend the last 3 hours of their day looking around until they kicked us out. They also tell us we can not stay on site, so we go down the road and find a campground...at least we have electric & water for the night. The first thing in the morning, we went back and finished our tour, along with a bus load of kids who thought they were at recess...very disruptive. Their chaperons didn't seem to care either, so we were glad to move on, get in our camper and head south. It was an interesting stop though...lots to see.

We headed south on SR 15 and eventually US 77 down into Oklahoma. This route is a trip through lots of small towns in the heartland of America. And driving on something other than an Interstate has been habit forming for us. But eventually, we move over to I-35 and travel through the area Timothy McVeigh was captured in 1995...I still have a lot of admiration for the job Trooper Charles Hanger did that morning. Timothy McVeigh was captured less than an hour & a 1/2 after detonating the bomb in OKC...incredible. We arrive in OKC during rush hour...3rd time this has happened in the last 6 days...got to stop doing that. We go to the campground we had chosen and get parked. We are just a few miles from downtown & I-40 is within view from our camper. We change clothes and drive across town to my Cousin Gary's house. Gary & Joan are gracious hosts as we arrive. We decide to go get some dinner and we drive back across town to Stockyards City and a wonderful dinner. They gave us a tour of the city 'after dark' on the way home and we enjoyed their company a lot. They are leaving on Friday for New York City, so we had some info for them...good times.

Thursday morning, we drove down town and went to the Murrah Federal Building Memorial & Museum. We were there in June of 1995 when the clean-up was still going on, so seeing it again was very different. The Museum is in part of a building that was severely damaged by the explosion that we walked by in 1995, so to go inside that building was pretty amazing. They actually repaired that building while preserving evidence of the damage. The museum is really done well and worth the time. We went back to the camper and got ready to leave and headed east on I-40 for Arkansas. We arrived in Russellville, AK about 6 pm & drove to Old Post Park Campground as mentioned above.

We have had quite a week, as you can see. Barb is taking a much deserved nap, I'm next. And the good news is that our overheating issue has been a non-issue, all is well. We hope that holds.

Stay tuned, we still have a good bit of traveling to get home, and we have no plans from here, so anything can happen. And thanks for following our adventures on this amazing summer.

Steve & Barb Larson