Colorado

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
― Hunter S. Thompson

No photo’s again this week. Maybe next. If we have a cell signal.

Two weeks in the city. One in Grand Junction a second in Denver. Got to see a first cousin – I don’t have many. It was good to catch up.

I70 between Grand Junction and Denver is supposed to be scenic. It does go through some canyons on the west of the mountains, but it’s nothing really special. The roadside is cluttered with sub-standard homes most of the way, punctuated with first-class places in towns like Vail. Colorado has an abundance of rednecks and more panhandlers than NYC. I will have to come up with something nice to say.

The roads in Denver were built by a group of folks who never went to road design school. They roll their own way here. Confusing with many exits being 270 degrees.

Glenda’s fav phrase in Denver is “Take ramp on right”. Denver has lots of elevated roads and they merge with other elevated roads. Makes me think of LA with less traffic.

We are at Bear Creek CG on the west side of the city. The co-ords to all CG’s on our GPS are to center of the CG, not to the entrance. This normally causes problems. I know it when Glenda says Navigate Off Road. This time she found a road into the CG. The only problem it’s the afterhours entrance. Yep, they lock the main entrance and unlock the back entrance. So we arrive at the back gate. Fortunately an employee on an ATV is coming out and tells us how to get to the main entrance a few miles away. When we get to the entrance, 20 cars are backed up waiting to get in. Memorial Day. I take a co-ords reading at the real entrance and name it BC for Bear Creek. Glenda announces we are arriving at British Columbia.

Did a Costco trip and planed where we will go next week in the mountains. Many of the CG’s are still closed. Oh, and we will be at elevation. Most of the CG’s are above 8,000 feet. We will fill the propane tank before leaving Denver.

Into the mountains Sunday morning.

Moochdocking

If you are looking for pictures. You are not going to find any in this post. This post is about life on the road. And it’s a boring read.

Holidays are the bane of roving travelers. You need reservations, blind luck or a hidden place to hole up in for holidays. We found a place, a friends driveway. We wanted to stay in Utah, but it got warm and the wind was going to blow for another three days. No electricity, so the windows have to be open and a 25mph gust carries fine red sand into the rig. You can not sit out as the dust gets in your whisky.

The upshot is we are killing time. We got to Utah on the cusp of seasonal weather change and we are too early for Colorado – there is snow in even the lower mountains. It snowed in Denver two weeks back.

We saw on Wheeling It that they are parked in friends yard and they used the term Moochdocking. We like it. We are also parked in friends driveway with W&E and there is free dump two miles away. Good thing too as we did not plan for Memorial Day. I know Congress changed the day a long time ago, but in my mind it’s still a week later.

Here in Grand Junction, roads can be named as being so many miles distant from the Utah border. We are close to 24 Road and 24 1/2 Road. How about G 1/2? Well each letter represents one mile from the county line. So G 1/2 is 7.5 miles from the county line. On a drive in more a rural area, we saw signs for 13 3/8 Road. That creates some interesting pronunciations for the GPS.

We had the front end aligned the year we bought KoKo. The chassis comes from Ford with a ball park alignment as they have no idea how the chassis will be used or how much the weight will be. We followed directions and had it done. No problems for four years. Then it started eating tires. So we bought tires twice and had it aligned three times. Turns out that not a one of the alignment shops replaced what are called blanks that Ford puts on to hold the ball joints with adjustable thingies called eccentrics so that alignment on all axis can be done. Eccentrics tune both the camber and caster, but more of the former. The Bottom line even highly recommended alignment shops can screw you. All they know to do is what the machine tells them.

Next rant. The last set of tires we put on were 14 months old when “new”. I specified that I did not want tires older then six months, but I did not check them. So they replaced tires made in June of 2010 with tires made in November of 2010 in January of 2012. Tire checking was called to my attention when the front end alignment was made. So the tire dealer in Montgomery screwed us with dated tires and charged for an alignment that could not be made as the Ford blank thingies had never been replaced with adjustable ones.

No sense in stopping my rant now. When we retired we had everything we needed. Since then we have replaced everything with a electric cord to it. It continues. The GPS I bought just before this trip to replace the one dying, died today. A week outside of Amazon 30 day return policy, but they were kind enough to do a refund anyway. We decided to replace it with one from Wal*Mart to avoid trying to be someplace when Amazon could ship a replacement. Where are those drones? Finally got the device recognized so I could download some POI files. Of course, the replacement unit has an older version of software, so just as I was getting accustomed to the new, I now have to revert to the older version. It cost $20 more than the one from Amazon. Life is not easy for an old man.

Made a batch of spaghetti today and noted the skillet was flaking Teflon. A new one was $30. And so it goes.

The ratchet gizmo that holds up the window shade in the rear window broke into pieces. I guess after over 1,200 times of it being put up and down it reached it’s MTBF. I rigged a cleat to hold the shade where we want it. $2 fix. And I will not have to listen to the DW fuss about the infernal ratchet again.

We have enjoyed our sojourn in Grand Junction. Big city shopping with a small town atmosphere.

Next week the really big city – Denver. If we get back over the pass. A little ice on I70 near Vail today.

Moab – II

We enjoyed the time we were able to spend with Dana & Cathie and Gary and Diane. We had a most enjoyable three days together Jeeping and eating. Be sure and read the adventures of Dana and Cathie.

Wednesday we drove to the Delores River overlook. Thursday we did the Shaffer Canyon Trail to Potash Road. I thought road into Shaffer Canton was the access to the White Rim Trail. Well it is, but you can also go south and get to Potash Road and back to Moab without spending two days on the White Rim Trail.

On the road out to the overlook and the Delores River.

The Colorado River out our back window in the morning. $7 a night

Along Potash Road. The rains made the flora very happy.

Not a lake, but ponds for potash. And yes, you need it, everything living needs potassium. They put blue dye in the water to speed evaporation. Only a 500 year supply left here which supplies 9% of US needs. We import 85%, which is a lot more than we do oil.

Friday, we were on our own and went north to Dewey and took a left on Dome Plateau Trail. It’s a fairly long technical trail. It’s rated the same as Elephant Hill, but it’s longer and has Again and Again Hill, which is rated a 7. Meaning you may take several tries getting up the steps. Fortunately we only had to go down it, so I sucked it in and eased the wheels over the edge. Easy peasy, never lost traction and I only felt like I would flip over once when I had to turn sideways to clear a boulder. Dorothy got some pictures. Wish I had a Go Cam on the dashboard.

Again and Again Hill looks easy from this angle. Dorothy should have laid down to take this shot.

A footnote: We have spent 1,200 nights in KoKo over the seven years we have owned her. That’s 40 months or about 6 months a year. No comparison to full-timing.

Amasa Back – This a is trail for the hard core or the young or the chemically enhanced. It’s not the most difficult trail, but it’s rated pretty high because of the steep vertical steps. You can park on the access road and get pictures of them going down and maybe back up. We did not try to drive it.

Note Dorothy’s mouth  - nooooo

  There must be a trail down there somewhere. Note the left front wheel position

The Poison Spider Trail

Sunday April 18 – Warm, hazy and the winds will pick up to over 20 this afternoon. Wait it out or bail? We drove over to meet Bill, a campground host we met two years back. We chatted and he said we could do the Poison Spider trail, which is right next door to his campground. He has a Rubicon also, we wanted to try it so we drove to the staging area and parked behind three vehicle's air down for the trail. Two were highly modified Toyota’s and one was a Rubicon with a 6 inch lift! They said they had done the trail many times and one had done it in a stock Rubicon. They volunteered to guide us and we went for it.

I would have bailed several times, but I could see them and knew I could follow. At a few of the more challenging places, for a newbie like me, they spotted for us. Easy Peasy. It gave us more confidence every time we crawled up a higher step. We did a light scrape once.

At the top, you can see where you started about two miles off and 600 feet below, but it takes 4.5 miles to get there.

There were going to do the whole LONG trail, so we bailed at the top of the mesa, after two hours, and made it down on our own with no problems. WooHoo! Where is our junior trail badge.

 

Don and Golda show how it’s done

Not us, but just like us

At the top

In the haze, photography of the superb “potato rocks”, well that’s what they look like to us, was less than dramatic. Next time we can do it in better weather and also get to Klondike Bluffs for some sunset shots.

The view and the motley crew

Dorothy writes:

This is our sixth time to visit Moab, UT.  We love it here, obviously.  But this time was the most fun ever.  Last year we met Dana & Cathie Gassaway from California and as luck would have it, they were in Moab again this year.  We went off-roading with them and their friends, Gary & Diana, had cocktails, and dinners.  It was wonderful to be with them again and also get to know their friends.

In January  we took delivery of our new Jeep  Rubicon, we named Rubi.  It was just fine in Montgomery, but Don really wanted to try it out in red-rock country.  Today we went to look at Poison Spider Trail, the key word here being "look". When we arrived three others were getting ready to go on the trail and after a conversation, they invited us to join them, assuring us that we could do it.  So we joined Brad & Arlene, Jim & Bonnie, and Don & Golda.  They were very encouraging and stayed with us showing us where to climb the rocks.  When we started out, I was filled with trepidation.  My arm was hurting and I took a pain pill before we left.  I don't know if it was the pain meds kicking in, the encouragement by experienced off-roaders, Don's driving skills or a combination of all three, but I must admit that I did enjoy it.  The Rubicon is a great rock-climber!  And the scenery was spectacular even though it was hazy.  We would never have been able to have the views without climbing some rock.

Tomorrow we go east to Grand Junction and next week to Denver.

Moab

Sunday, we came back to Moab from The Needles and found a place to park in our favored CG, Goose Island. Not on the river side, but maybe we will get waterfront before we leave.

We tried to get our front end aligned, but there is not a shop that can handle us here. That will have to wait until we get back to Grand Junction. We also will get the windshield replaced there. It already had two small cracks, but when changing wiper blades last week, I released the spring tensioned arm while the blade was off and it cracked it from bottom to top. And so it goes.

Did the marketing at City Market, bought a new belt and found out from the shop owner where the cactus are blooming and spent the afternoon and evening in the RV as it was cool and windy. In fact, it’s been cool and windy for a week. It starts to warm Wednesday.

You can take it all with you. Parked on the street in Moab where they spent the night.

We met Dana & Cathy last year in the CG and they are back, but this time they are in a condo along with their friends Gary & Diane.  We were invited to dinner and had a delicious meal with great company.

Tuesday, we did some moderate Jeep trails with Dana and Cathy and Gary and Diane. We went to some new places in the Bartlett Wash area north and west of the airport. A wonderful day with congenial companions. It was the first blue sky day since we arrived a week back.

Diane spotted this non-spotted feathered friend on the trail to Hidden Canyon.

A great place to slide down

The La Sal’s with more snow than usual for this time of year

Canyonlands

We drove two hours south on scenic US191 from Moab to The Needles District of Canyonlands NP. We parked in the same place as we did two years ago just outside the park on BLM land with nothing but horizon to see.

The last time we were here we were thwarted from going north on Lockhart Basin Road because of the steep and deep dunes. We had no problem with the fat tires on the Rubicon. We drove to a lookout point for The Needles, but they are so far away there was not much to see. We ate lunch next to the brown and white turtle rock below and returned to KoKo for our nap.

You do know that you can click on any picture and see it close to full size

Rubi parked at our camping spot ready to go

After a much needed 20 minute nap, we headed to Elephant Hill Road. It’s one of the reasons we bought the Rubicon. Geeze, this trail is worse than any we encountered around Silverton. [It’s rated with a difficulty of 5 with 1 being easy and anything over 7 requiring heavy mods with a high likelihood of damage]  Rubi handled it all without a problem. Dorothy got just a tad concerned whenever the slope was so steep all we could see was sky. However, when we got to a second hill, I walked it and decided it was too risky since we were by ourselves and it was getting late in the day and it was miles to walk back. We carry emergency camping equipment, but we don’t really want to use it.

This is why we like Utah

Anywho, we have still not gotten to Chesler Park or the Confluence which are the reasons for tackling Elephant Hill. Oh to be able to hike the distance and not depend on mechanical conveyance.

It was hazy Friday morning, clearing by noon due to a strong breeze. We took another Jeep trail towards a river overlook. We stopped behind a highly lifted Tacoma figuring we were at the overlook. Nope, he said he had scouted the trail and was not going to take his modified truck on it. I walked a 100 yards down the trail and decided the Jeep could could do it, but the slick rock was so uneven with so many steps we would be rocked and rolled for the hour I estimated it would take us to get there. Foiled again.

Saturday was supposed to be partly cloudy. It was almost full clouds at 7:30, but the weather man knows his stuff, so it will clear. We were on the trail at Elephant Hill at 8:30 with full cloud cover. We had hiked part of the trail in 2012 and I hoped to go father this time. Perhaps even glimpse the elusive Chelser Park. We both made it farther this time, but not far enough. I did about two miles and Dorothy made it one mile. Maybe I can juice up some of the pictures as though they had some light on them. Still good exercise and wonderful views.

There was a trace shower Wednesday night and it woke the flowers up. We saw white, blue, purple, yellow and red flowers plus red and yellow cactus.

 

The last one is out our back door

On the road into The Needles section of Canyonlands is Newspaper Rock. Indians decorated the rock with symbology that meant something to them as it’s all over the southwest. My theory is that is was two Indian brothers from Encino that traveled making a living from their art work. Of course, it could have just been the latest rage for a period of time. Near Newspaper Rock, there are Cottonwoods for shade, a creek for drinking and bathing, canyons to herd the game, a rock to carve on and juniper berries for making gin. Life was not all that bad.

It Rained In Utah – There was only a 20% chance, but it started around 9pm after a lengthy lighting show. It lasted off and on until noon the next day. Normally if there is rain, it evaporates before it reaches the ground. Not this time. The flowers will be happy. Thankfully the dirt road we were on did not contain bentonite that is so common in southern Utah. [Bentonite is slicker than owl shit and will coat your tires making traction impossible. Other uses include drilling mud, “beauty packs”, cat litter, and cleaning] We exited our parking area, through four sippy holes with no problems, very little mud attached to us.

You may have read/seen about the armed ATV nut jobs that protested the BLM near Blanding, which is about 50 miles south of Moab. Last week when we drove through our favorite CG on the Colorado, the host had their Camp Host sign out. That’s normal. Today, when Dorothy drove through looking for a space, she saw the sign was down and a regular ticket was on the post. She thought that the host was leaving and she wanted the site. When we talked with him about it, he told us that the militants, his term, had made threats to BLM folks and they wanted everyone to not wear their uniform and take down host site signs. And so it goes.

I want to call attention to the photography of David and Mary Gardner. If you get to thinking that my shots are good, take a look at their work and you will be set straight in short order. Access to all of their public work is from http://www.lightight.com. They both have blogs that you can read there. David has been working on a project for a few years he calls Life on Wheels. It shows what life is like for those who choose to full time in a RV. The project shows the common daily events of life on the road. We happen to know some of the others pictured in his project. Small world out here. By chance, we meet the Gardner’s at Canyonlands two years ago. He took this shot of us, which has been in several exhibitions and the Russian edition of Esquire. [Who knew there was one] The more I look at the picture, the more we appreciate that we have both lost 20 pounds since then. Hey Dave, if another picture will take off another 20, tell us where to meet you. Anywho, that shot shows where we were parked last week. It was good to be home again. [in Utah]

Here’s shoutout to the MPD in Community Policing and the VIPs reading this blog. Now get back to work.

Moab

We got to our prime destination this morning. Dorothy says it is like coming home. We have been to Moab six times starting in 1992. This is our third year in a row. We love the red rocks. Our fav place along the Colorado River was full, but we got second place just up the road. Only staying one night, before we head south to The Needles District in Canyonlands. Moab is crowded this week and there are no events going on.

Our last blog entry had in us in western Kansas. Our next jump got us to Chatfield SP in Denver for the night. It’s one of Colorado’s over-priced parks at $30 for electricity. No dry camping option. We “discovered” a better option when we return in a few weeks closer to the city center for $10 less.

Backing up to Kansas, this motel sign was at the turn into our campground. The plastic banner says Dusty Farmer, so the ‘er’ dropped off the main sign. Either way we thought it was a hoot. The Caddy Hearst was camping in Chatfield SP. Probably a low-miler camper.

Tuesday, we took the, long for us, five hour jump to Grand Junction and parked at our friend’s home for the evening and had a fine meal of pork tamale's and chili relleno’s at Las Maria’s downtown. Big surprise, downtown is several blocks of upscale stores that cater to the young set.

We were awake at four Wednesday, impatient I suppose, and got away at 7:30 before our host was awake. We will see you and Boone in few weeks Dale.

I did another dumb thing this trip. We had never driven the Denver area. We did a fly and drive over a decade again, but driving a passenger car over Loveland Pass is just not the same as driving a MH towing a Jeep up the Rockies. I should have looked at our Mountain Highway Driving Guide, but it never occurred to me. So west we go with me wondering when the heck we would top out. 7,000, and it was easy to see were were not there yet. At 8,000 we were on a flat stretch doing 60 for several miles so I was thinking we will see signs warning of a steep decent soon. Oops, up we go again, 9,000 and no top in sight and darn if I didn’t miss a pull off where we could unhook the Jeep. Then we got trapped behind three trucks grinding along slowly. We lost our RPM and there was no way we recover it and we are not supposed to tow above 7,500 as it strains the drive train. At over 10,000 we find a pull off and unhook. Finally Koko can catch her breath. We topped shortly at 11,000 and started down seven miles to the valley floor. That is the longest high stretch we ever towed. It gave us a respect for highest pass in Rockies.

Rubi, our new Jeep Rubicon, has less than 1,000 miles on her. Now she has double that in towed miles. It took us 11 days of rolling the wheels to get here. That’s our quickest crossing ever. It usually takes us 14+ days to get here.

The case of the toad battery discharging - After reading the owner’s manual again, I found that the towing instructions are continued on the next page where is says to disconnect the battery. Huh? That means it does not have a wheel lock. It means I can not see any reason to even have the key in the ignition. And we have towed that way the last two days. End of story?

We will be off the grid in Canyonlands. We are going there do two Jeep trails and take some pictures of places we have not seen. We will probably get back to civilization Sunday. Until then.

Out Bound

Note to new readers: The accounts of our travels include the daily hum-drum events, including laundry days. Expect no great prose. Expect to find missing words, very dry humor and comments on things of interest to us.

Sunday - April 27, 2014 - The weather forecast was dire, but we were not waiting two days for it to pass. We took our usual northern route US82 which has a good road surface over much of it’s length and very little traffic. We got into a little rain two hours on the road. It cleared and we had a nice afternoon and evening. Monday, we got some more rain in the morning, but we threaded our way through the high winds and got to the CG around 1pm under blue skies and a nice breeze. We washed the road grime off both vehicles and had cocktails.

The following long account will be no interest to most people. I am recording it so I can ask a technical type how it happened.

My apprehension was much less about the weather, than the house electrical system. I replaced the seven year batteries last week. They were still OK, but I figured they were not going to last another year. When I got back from the battery store, the battery monitor was doing something funky and I decided it was the battery disconnect switch. Anywho, after tinkering with it for awhile, I declared it was OK. Dorothy wanted to hook to shore power the next day to cool the refer, so she could start filling it up. So we were on shore power until we left. The first hint of a problem was when I turned on the inverter and it squealed like it does when there is less than 11 volts. How could that be? The battery monitor is showing 100% and 13.7 volts, but that’s with the alternator running. Oh the monitor is back to flashing 100%, then Low. What’s that about? The monitor must be failing.

So we get to our overnite, the Jeff Busby CG on the Natchez Trace. A pleasant place and it’s free. We had not been parked long when I heard the refer try to light and fail. Oh no! I flip on a light switch and there is no light. I check the fuse panel. After much tinkering, I really don’t know what the problem is other than the monitor shows a dashed line for volts. We need hookups right away so we don’t lose all the food in the refer.

We found a National Forest CG not too far away. We connect to shore power and I decide to remove the battery disconnect switch from the equation. After four hours, the voltage starts to creep up. It should, the monitor shows 14.7 going in, higher than we have ever seen it. By bedtime, it appears they are recovering. By morning they are fully charged. So it was the battery disconnect switch. It seems logical that the batteries would not charge if the switch is in the Off position, but I don’t understand how I could read 12 volts at the batteries no matter what position the switch was in.  

Our second night was at Rising Star CG, near Grady, AR. Just 4 miles off US82 down a many times patched farm road. Our site was right on the Arkansas River. We stayed at the nearby Arkansas Post the last time we came this way. Both are good stops.

Tuesday, we again encountered light rain on the drive to Little Rock on I40. Road construction is booming for miles north and south of the capital on I40. Or maybe I should say the safety barrel rental biz is booming. There are several miles of barrels closing the left lane where weeds were pushing through cracks in the asphalt. Perhaps the lane was prematurely closed. You think?

The capital building is one of the better ones we have seen. It took 15 years to construct since no funds were allocated for long periods. Infighting, corruption, the usual. We plan to visit two more capitals in the next two weeks.

Every state has state birds, flowers, etc. Arkansas has all the usual ones plus some that are really unique. How about the State Historic Cooking Vessel, a Dutch oven. I kid you not.

 

North of the city we hit another car park. We thought it was construction related, but it turned out to be caused by drivers gawking at the storm damage. What you are seeing in the pictures use to be homes – total devastation.  We parked at another COE CG on the Arkansas River for the night.

Wednesday we took the interstate to Bentonville. We have driven this road before and it’s one of the more scenic sections of the interstate system. Our first stop was the Crystal Bridges American Art Museum. Since we are almost devoid of culture there was little we found of interest to us. We did enjoy touring the forerunner of Wal*Mart. We exited that museum into a 1950’s soda shop and we had to have an ice cream cone.

The cube is the only modern painting I liked. There were several paintings of hummingbirds that would look good in our LR. The car on legs is more art displayed at a hotel. The “tree” behind the car contains several basketball hoops.

We parked for the night at Prairie Creek CG another COE facility.

Before leaving Bentonville we had to shop the store across from headquarters. While we are Wal*Mart fans, we do wish all stores were like this one. Fluffed and buffed in every way, shelves fully stocked, huge selection and associates on almost every aisle.

Thursday was supposed to be an easy driving day. Bentonville to Claremont, OK, less than two hours. I violated my standing rule to always verify Glenda’s (Glenda is our GPS) route on a paper map. Toll roads were set as an avoidance, so Glenda sent us an hour south and then back north to bypass the toll road. By the time I pulled out the paper maps the damage was done. All this to avoid a $1.50 toll. Grumble.

We did enjoy our visit to the Will Rogers Museum. Since he was killed in a plane crash in 1935, not that many people know about him. He is ancient history. I did not know he was in 50 movies, only half of them “talkies”. He was such a big BO draw that his name went above the title. 

Leaving the museum, we saw the COE lake de jour and parked for the night. It’s was a busy CG, almost full. We got to observe a popup erection next door that went on for over two hours. Their first time we guess. He brought a floor jack to level it. Two hours after erection and in the dark they are still banging things around setting up their camp.

We note that Barry is fine with making Interstates toll roads, since revenues from the federal gas tax are down because, get this, federally mandated fuel economy standards have reduced consumption. Well, we have been doing our part with the RV and gas guzzling Jeep. Newton’s third law applies to anything Big Sugar tampers with. Oh well, we use the old highways more than the Interstates anyway.

Friday is a driving day, fours hours north to Topeka. On the way, we stopped at Will Rogers boyhood home, now a well tended farm, still in the family, overlooking Oologah Lake. I don’t care so much for old homes and furniture as I do for the opportunity to pet goats and burros. The resident black lab checked us out before allowing us to pet his goats.

We parked for the night at yet another COE on a lake, just south of Topeka. However, before we could park we had to charge the Jeep battery which was down to 5.7 volts. From this we learned the many positions the key can be in while in ACC mode. There are no clicks to guide you. We found the instrument panel has three display modes that may provide a clue to what position the key should be left. We will know is a week if we have got it right. Sure was nice to be able to pull out the battery charger, fire up the generator and boost the battery. It took all night to get to 13.2.

Saturday we drove to Topeka to see the capital building. We saw it from outside. Gaining entrance was not possible. A sign on one door advised us to go around to the other side, the visitor’s entrance. The sign had a  a red line drawn showing how to get from where we were to the visitor’s entrance. When we got to the proscribed entrance the same sign was on the door, sans a red line. There was no one around to ask so we blew it off.

On the drive to the Eisenhower Library, we saw signage for a Calvary museum and the Custer House located on Ft. Riley. We spent a hour touring the First Division museum and the Calvary museum. Ft. Riley begin in the early 1860’s and all of the buildings in the older section of the fort are massive and built of stone. We approved of the style. The base was all but deserted, but for a few at the athletic center. (Former indoor riding arena)  Perhaps the division is deployed?

When we got to the Eisenhower Library after lunch our energy level was dropping and Dorothy’s foot was hurting her pretty damn bad and she had already downed one pain pill. I pushed her around the extensive exhibits for 2.5 hours. A quick tour. I expect that if you read most of the text in the exhibits you would be there all day, if not longer. We thought there was too much concerning events before his election. Still worthwhile.

We had planned to stay at a city park in Salina, but any evidence that RV parking has ever happened there has been erased.  Nothing else in the area but a run down and over priced KOA, so we wound up at a busy Wal*Mart. Which got too busy at 11:30 with local teens. We pulled out and drove an hour north and parked on the roadside.

Sunday, we drove through the wheat fields on some great US highways with little traffic to St. Francis, which is almost in Colorado. Kansas has named their near flat landscape with valley names. I think we are in Solomon Valley. Reminds of the “valley” in south Texas near Brownsville. There ain’t no valley there or here.

Kansas may be the state with the most museums. There are several in every county, plus a few oddball attractions like this one.

Here I am posing with an 18,000 pound ball of sisal rope that a guy started in 1953. Across the street is the Ball of Twine Inn.

Eight days of driving so far and tomorrow we will be in the shadow of the Rockies with Red Rock country only a day afterwards.