Day 9 Stratton, CO to Aurora, CO

Posted on by May 7, 2015
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After a quiet night – remarkable for being behind a truck stop and adjacent to I70, awakened to the sound of birds and watched a rabbit run around.  It was a cooler morning and we were glad to get on the road with the heater going about 8:45.  This was a day of steady 50mph driving over several different rough 2-lane highways.  West on US24 then North on US59 and back West on US36.

Wide open prairie
Lots of beautiful greening prairie from the recent rain and snow.  The Cottonwood Trees in the creek and river beds are beautiful and we even crossed a few flowing streams.  More cattle and bison ranching here where we saw more cowboys working herds on their ATVs.
Richard and daughter Trish
Arrived at Trish & Will’s place around 1:30 and were deluged with hugs all around.  The kids – Tristan at 6’2” (15 years) and Tia 11 years have really grown since we last saw them in 2011.  Turttlie had grown quite a bit too. With lots of out of town guests and Trish packing for a move in a couple of weeks, we were glad to stay in our rolling hacienda. 
Odometer: 78899  Miles Today: 154 Total: 1610

Day 8 Alma, NE to Stratton, CO

Posted on by May 6, 2015
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 It was a dark and stormy night………! 40+ MPH winds, torrential rain and a seriously shaking RV.  This account is from the co-pilot.  The pilot slumbered peacefully.
We got underway at about 9:30 and once again, followed US136 – Orleans, Arapaho (where we began to follow US34), through Massacre Canyon, Indianola and McCook.  Past the lonesome memorial for the three wives and six children drowned in a flash flood while traveling to their homestead.

We stopped in Benkelman Nebraska (Home of Ward Bond) for lunch in the park.  We drove past Parks and Haigler then passed into Colorado near Wray where we bought groceries.  Then we headed South on US385 through 50 miles of beautiful desolate prairie and rolling hills.

Ward Bond Park

We stopped little today, winds and intermittent heavy rains kept us rolling to our present campsite in Stratton, Colorado
Odometer: 78741  Miles Today: 254  Total: 1452

Day 7 Hebron, NE to Alma, NE

Posted on by May 5, 2015
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World’s Largest Porch Swing!

We started off the day with a short trip to downtown Hebron and Roosevelt Park. This is the home of the world’s largest porch swing. It holds a whopping 16 adults or 24 children.  We also chatted with Robert Trowbridge, an Indiana native of undetermined age who was happy to pass a half hour talking of Hebron, truck drivers, guitar playing and banjos.

McFarland Hotel in Red Cloud, Nebraska
Our westward journey continued with our leisurely drive along US136 through towns alive, struggling or dead.  Deshier, Ruskin, Red Cloud, Inavale, Riverton, Franklin and Alma.  Opra houses, city parks, historic markers and rivers dot a landscape dominated by farms and seemingly endless fields.
Lunch at a city park in Franklin, our camp for the night in Alma and dozens of interesting places in between.  We talked with store owners, retail clerks and people on the street; they all wished us well on our trip to Alaska and said we to be sure to visit on the return trip.
Franklin City Park after Lunch.
Odometer: 78487 Miles today: 133  Total: 1198

Day 6 Kansas City, MO to Hebron, NE

Posted on by May 4, 2015
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White Cloud Lewis & Clark Kiosk
After a leisurely breakfast with Tom & Max, we discovered that the fridge wasn’t cold.  Investigation revealed that the pilot (me) did a poor job of switching to AC when we arrived on Saturday.  I should have let the co-pilot (Mary) do her job.
Underway at about 9:30am, we headed North on I29 towards St. Joseph but headed overland to cross the Missouri River at Atchison, KS (Childhood home of Amelia Earhart).  We took Kansas Scenic Highway 7 North along the River through the Rolling Glacial Hills area and stopped at White Cloud, KS to look at the Lewis & Clark Trail markers and to allow Mary to dip her hand in the Missouri. She has dipped her hands in the Tennessee, Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri rivers.
Heading West in Nebraska
Continuing north, we passed the White Cloud Casino (exercising Native American rights to fleece the white man) and passed into Nebraska – Mary’s 44th state!  We drove at a leisurely 50-60mph pace along 2 lane highways through rolling hills and farmland arriving at Hebron, NE about 4:30pm.
We are camped in the Hebron Riverside Park – site of both former CCC Camp and WWII POW camp.  Hebron has setup power, water and shower facilities for campers at just $15.00 a night.  There is a little league game getting started on the adjoining baseball field so we are going to walk over and watch for a while.
The only RV in Riverside Park
Odometer: 78354  Miles today: 237 Total: 1065

Day 5: Kansas City, MO

Posted on by May 18, 2018
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Relaxing Sunday with Tom & Maxine, Royal’s Baseball, movie “Chef” and just talking w/family.   Ate Gates Kansas City BBQ, drank beer and chilled while Brent & his daughter Alexis were in and out all day and her half brother Dillon was there some too.  Good visiting day with no travel. Read more about nationalpardon here.

Day 4: Hermann, MO to Kansas City, MO

Posted on by May 2, 2015
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Stump Sculpture

Lazy Day Campground

Saturday May, 2nd we took a morning stroll around our campground and spotted this chainsaw carved stump sculpture near our camp before getting on the road at 8:30.

We took I70 West through Columbia and on to Kansas City arriving about 12:30pm 

Visiting Tom & Maxine, relaxing

178 Miles  928 Total

Day 3: Marion, IL to Hermann, MO

Posted on by May 1, 2015
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House following towboat?

After breakfast with Aunt Ivolene, we headed West from Marion through Carbondale, IL (my birthplace) and on to Illinois Hwy 3 along the Mississippi River. 

Near Chester (home of a famous personage ???) we encountered a towboat with an interesting little house on its fantail.  Never have seen anything like this on a river.

 We continued up Highway 3 to the visitor’s center at the Chester, IL bridge.

The visitor center at the bridge advised us that none other than Popeye the Sailor hails from Chester, Illinois.  More correctly, Elzie Segar, Popeye’s creator lived here before moving to California and modeled his character after a famous (notorious) river rat from Chester.

Crossing the Mississippi at Chester, we wandered through river bottoms and hills of Eastern Missouri and into the Mark Twain National Forest and then up route 19 to Hermann, MO,  our destination for the day.  Hermann is on the Missouri River about 50 miles West of St. Louis.  It is a touristy town full of wineries, breweries, restaurants and shops.  We wandered around all afternoon and finally decided on local brats and beer at the “Wurst House Restaurant”.

Mary especially liked the Curry Brat and the Double IPA while I went for the more sedate Pear and Gorgonzola brat with a Weissen Bier.

Of course, we needed a bit of ice cream from the deli to settle the meal.

Off to Lazy Day Campground nearby for the night.

284 miles 782 total

Day 2: Rock Island, TN to Marion, IL

Posted on by May 15, 2018
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Great Falls

Broke camp around 8:30am and drove to the “Great Fall Rivers of the Caney River” in the park.  Water here seeps through the limestone layers and re-appears as a waterfall.  While not particularly tall, the waterfall can be 200+ feet wide during high water in the reservoir upstream.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a cotton mill stood here and utilized water power from the falls to run the mill.  According to a marker on the site, the mill employed mostly orphans and widows, instead of using synthetic urine to hire – draw your own conclusions there.

Spring house

The mill’s turbine was washed away in a flood and the mill did not re-open.  Across the highway from the ruins of the mill, a turret style spring house and dam still stand.  It was used to supply drinking water to the mill workers and pressurized water for fire fighting.

We ambled about 50 miles through farmland and hills to I40 at Lebanon, Tennessee. We gassed up here and then took I40 to the Briley Parkway around Nashville to I24.  We stopped at the Kentucky welcome center for a stroll around the grounds and then continued North entering Illinois about 2:30pm.

I wanted to visit the Wise-Robinson Cemetery at South of New Burnside on US45.  Lots of family here dating back to the 1830s.  Then we took Illinois 166 at New burnside through Creal Springs to my Great Aunt Ivolene’s house.

Wise Robertson Cemetery.

We arrived at Ivolene’s 4pm and visited with her and cousins Doug and Cindy before bedding down in the PW next to her garage.

Miles: 284 Total: 498

Day 1: We have begun the journey

Posted on by April 29, 2015
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We are underway at last, Mary and I have driving each other crazy the last few weeks trying to get everything ready for our departure.  This morning we got up around 7 and after breakfast loaded the last of our stuff, closed up the house and hit the road a little after 10.
Keeping to our lazy day game plan, we followed US 70 up the escarpment to Crossville where we stopped for a 30 minute stroll around Lil Angels Junkatorium. Lots of good stuff but no place to put it so we only left with some books on cassette (Yes, our RV has cassette and CD – one advantage to having an older system).
Arrived about 12:30 and setup camp in 10 minutes, had a light lunch then walked the bluff trail to a river overlook. The campground is nearly empty now so we had the trail to ourselves.
Now we are relaxing and de-stressing. 114 miles
Tomorrow, we’ll brave the interstate to Illinois.
Chillin’

Our Campsite

On the trail

Mary’s Bench

Preparations and Plans

Posted on by May 2, 2019
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Our “Land Yacht”

This blog is about our 2015 RV road-trip in our 2002 Pleasure-Way Lexor TD.

From our home in East Tennessee, we will travel a wandering course generally Westward for about 4 months and roughly 10,000 to 15,000 miles.

We have friends and family to visit along the way in Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, Utah, Washington and California; our oldest Grandson’s wedding to attend in Colorado; and lots of adventures to experience along the way.

The plan is to leave home the last week in April 2015 heading for our Colorado wedding in mid May.  Then North zig-zagging through Yellowstone and Glacier to Washington if the Winter has moved out of our way and along US1 from Seattle to San Diego and then zig-zagging again in a generally Eastern direction toward home.  If Winter is still heavy on the Rockies, we will head South from Colorado and reverse the loop returning to the Northern Rockies in mid summer.

Mary & Richard

Festivals, National Forests and parks, local flavor and small town attractions will be our goals.  While I have crossed the country by car a dozen or more times, usually getting from point A to B as fast as possible, Mary has yet to cross the country by motor vehicle.  Together we intend to slow down and enjoy the journey as neither of us has done before.

We have been planning this trip for several years and purchased our Pleasure-Way specifically for the wandering lifestyle we intend to embrace on the journey.  Casual and easy going!

This 2002 RV has only 75,000 miles and was in pretty good shape when we discovered it at a local dealer just a few hours after it was traded in on a larger unit.  It had a few issues but was in overall excellent condition inside and after a major service, new tires and brakes, it seems to be fine mechanically as well.

Please follow along on our journey this Spring and Summer; we’ll talk about the technical stuff and the scenic stuff, the people and places along the way. We setup this site and blog for precisely that purpose actually. We even hired the pros! They’re called https://the-indexer.com/. They helped us set this up and it actually ended up much more professional than we even needed really. We’re very happy with the results.