Monday, January 1, 2018 to Friday, January 5, 2018 - A New Adventure in a New Year

Monday & Tuesday, January 1-2, 2018 - A New Adventure in a New Year

It's hard to believe another year has passed.  Dean and I have now been retired for 4 years and it seems like it happened just a few weeks ago.  We've had an amazing time traveling in Bentley during that time, enough so that we decided as much as we were away from "the sticks and bricks house" that it made sense to become full-time RVer's!  While we have been in Bentley full-time since July, now it's the real thing, because there is no longer a home to go back to.

In the past six months things have gone well.  We enjoy being with each another - probably the most important aspect of this journey; we enjoy many of the same things; and it's been our dream to travel in an RV.  We feel blessed to be able to take this journey together.

As we prepare to head south we are still trying to take care of some loose ends and I'm determined to get them all done today and tomorrow.   One important task was to check all of the cabinets and closets in Bentley to be sure everything stays in place as we move.  Having stayed in one place for nearly a month now, things tend to get moved so its easier to get to them, and when we move we need to be sure they are stowed so they will not be tossed around.  It's amazing what a rough road can do inside an RV.  I have a whole host of other things to do and we need to make another trip to Vinita so I can pick up some prescriptions, and also to Pittsburg to pick up our mail one last time.  After this we'll have the mail forwarded to us in Texas.

Monday was so cold I didn't even want to get out.  I made vegetable stew which I do every year on January 1st.  This is how I manage to eat my black eyed peas.  I made it in my Instapot and it turned out great.  It's amazing how it cooks the stew meat so tender in just 20 minutes...it just melts in your mouth.  Next year I'll add another can of diced tomatoes or tomato sauce though.

After we returned from our trip to Vinita and Pittsburg on Tuesday, I asked Misti if they wanted to come over for dinner.  I warmed up the vegetable stew for Misti, Dean and I, and made sandwiches for Haleigh and Isaiah.  After they left, we headed to Parsons.  I forgot to send presents home with Kamron and Jaxson on Saturday so we took them up, and I needed to pick up a couple of things at Walmart.  Marc and Jen had to take Kamron back to Kansas City today to see the surgeon who operated on her leg last summer.  She had a tumor on her leg - it is benign, but it is close to her growth plate so they wanted to remove it before it created a problem for her.  In the follow up tests, it shows the tumor is coming back.  They have scheduled her for surgery again on January 22.  I would ask that you please keep Kamron in your prayers and ask God's healing hand on her that the surgery will be a total success.  

When we returned, I put away as many things as I could in preparation of leaving tomorrow morning, Jan 3.  We'd really like to leave before 8:30 if possible but I have a few errands to run in the morning so it will just depend on how quickly I can get them all done.

Originally, we planned to take a full week to travel from Oswego to Mission, TX; however, changes were made to our family Christmas and then cold weather set in and we were not comfortable traveling in single digit temperatures, so we will be making the trip in 3 travel days - about 300 miles per day.  These are long days for us - we would rather travel 100-150 miles per day and stay at least 3 or 4 nights at each stop, more if we find we enjoy the area enough.  

As I've been reading several other blogs of RVer's it has made me revisit our last 4 years of travel, so here is a little synopsis:

2014 - we traveled 4,316 miles in the RV; we visited 25 different parks; in 4 states (KS, OK, AR & TX).  Our longest trip was to Texas - to welcome our newest grandchild.

2015 - we traveled 8,366 miles in the RV; we visited 39 different parks; in 20 states (KS, OK, AR, MO, NE, SD, IL, IN, OH, PA, NY, DE, VA, NC, SC, GA, AL, MS, LA, TX).  We took two major trips this year.  We took our two oldest grandsons Logan and Tucker to Custer, South Dakota for a week.  The second trip was to New York to visit our son and his family in Grand Island, NY where we visited a number of states on our way to New York, and then stops to visit family (DE), friends (PA & NC) and to attend RV rallies (TX & OK) before returning home.

2016 - we traveled 10,420 miles in the RV; we visited 47 different parks; in 17 states (KS,  AR, TN, AL, FL, MO, OK, CO, NE, IA, IL, WI, MI, OH, PA, NY, IN).  We attend an RV-Dreams Boondocking Rally in Tallahassee, FL.  We took our two oldest granddaughters Haleigh and Dacy to Colorado Springs, CO for a week.  We traveled north through NE, IA, IL (family visit), WI (met one of the bloggers I follow), and MI before moving on to NY to see our son and his family in Grand Island, NY.

2017 - we traveled 8,046 miles in the RV; we visited 37 different parks; in 9 states (KS, OK, TX, NM, AZ, IN, KY, OH, IL)  We attended the 57th Escapade in Tucson, AZ; We attended the National Heartland Rally in Goshen, IN; and we spent 2 weeks with our son, Matt and his family in KY/OH.  Most of the year was spent getting our house ready to sell in order for us to become full-time RVer's.

2018 - plans for this year include:  Jan/Mar: Mission, TX; April: Wichita to spend a week with family; to Oswego to visit family, attend local rallies, and for routine doctor visits; May - more doctor's visits, rallies & 58th Escapade in Sedalia, MO; June travel to New York via Canada to see our son and meet our 13th grandchild.  July-September explore the New England States; September/October - return to Southeast Kansas/Branson area, RV rallies; November/December in Oswego/Branson with family for the holidays, and routine doctor visits.

Wednesday, January 3, 2018 - Day 1....on a mission to Mission!

I was up at 4:00 this morning, just like a kid anxious for our trip to begin. 

It was nearly 8:45 before we pulled out of Hillside RV Park and headed south.  At Vinita we had to wait on a train and I took this picture of the Vinita City Hall.  It is such a beautiful building.

We will be staying in Thackerville, OK tonight at Red River Ranch RV Park.  You may have heard of Thackerville before - it is home of Winstar World Casino.  It's definitely the main attraction of this small community.  We've stayed at Winstar's RV Park before when attending a Heartland Rally.  We chose Red River Ranch for the price.  It has good reviews and is more in line with our average $20 per night stay. 

Max (the truck) and Bentley (the RV) --  and their shadows!

 Our drive was pretty uneventful and I slept quite a bit so I don't have much to share about our trip - just a few pictures.

Stroud, OK water tower

 We were happy the temperatures were much better today.

Temperature reached 42 degrees today!

We pulled in to the RV Park right at 3:00 p.m. and were happy to learn we would have a pull through site.  As soon as we were parked and set up, I grabbed two loads of clothes - jeans and colored clothes and headed straight to the laundry, just a few sites down from us.  In less than 2 hours I was done.  I thought about taking these to the laundry before we left, but just getting out in the cold weather kept me from it.  I'm glad I waited!!  I called Dean to let him know I was done.  Once we had everything inside I heated up some of the vegetable stew for our dinner.  After we ate, I tried to work on the blog, but I just kept drifting off.  I've had a headache most of the day, probably from getting up so early; so shortly after 9:30 I gave up and went to bed.


Thursday, January 4, 2018 - Day 2....it's finally getting warmer!

I slept like a rock last night.  It was after 5:00 before I woke up.  I feel so much better today, my headache is gone.   I made and enjoyed my two cups of coffee before Dean got up, while I was checking emails and Facebook.  Once Dean got up and was enjoying his first cup of coffee I started getting things packed up in Bentley.  I stopped long enough to make a breakfast sandwich for Dean (ham, cheese and egg) and toast, egg and ham for me.  When Betsy stopped to see us the other day she left some blackberry jam she made.  I tried it this morning on my toast and it was delicious!  Thanks, Betsy!!

We took I-35 South to Denton, TX, then US 380 to Jacksboro where it intersected with US 281.  We will take US 281 from here, all the way to Mission.  We've driven US 281 several times when we visited Matt and Megan while they were stationed at Fort Hood, and when we were trying to miss some cold weather at home following a Heartland Rally in southern Oklahoma.  We enjoy the US and State highways much more than Interstates, even though Interstates can often save us time in reaching our destination.

The temperature today reached 55.  It felt pretty good when we stepped out and felt the sunshine.  It was another long driving day, approximately 6 hours.

Tonight we stayed at Roadrunner RV Park in Johnson City, Texas, home of Lyndon B. Johnson.  The park is nice and again we had a pull through site.  Dean needed to get fuel, so we headed next door where they happened to have the best price on diesel in town.  I wanted to stop at the grocery store for a few things, and it so happened the grocery store was right behind us - sharing space with the local Ace Hardware Store.  Interesting and pricey, but they had what I needed.

Back at Bentley, I worked on the blog and then took a break to fix chili for dinner.  Our drive has been very uneventful so not much else to share. 

Thanks for following along.  


Friday, January 5, 2018 - Day 3.....We Made It!!

Similar to the past two days we pulled out of the Roadrunner RV Park about 8:45 am.  We are so thankful today is the last leg of this trip.  Today seemed the longest drive - because once we passed through San Antonio, there wasn't much else to see for a very long time! There was much road construction in the San Antonio area, and then the interstate went right through the downtown area, and we saw several of the major hotels located along the Riverwalk as we drove by.  The Interstates in these larger cities always amaze me how they circle around and get everyone where they need to go.  As we drew closer to the Rio Grande Valley we saw less of the scrub brush type landscape, 

Lots of scrub brush and in this picture it appeared there is a lot of sand.

and more pastures and fields, then we began to see more and more palm trees and eventually into one city after another until we reached Mission.  

Palm trees planted in median area.

It was an easy drive to our RV Park - Val's Kountry Corral.  We pulled in and Dean waited in Bentley while I checked us in.  The lady working the front desk was busy with a project and asked me if I'd mind coming back in the morning to complete the check-in.  I did not mind at all.  We just wanted to get parked and chill out for a bit.  We are in site 23.  She called the gentleman who leads guests to their site but he had to run an errand and was not on site.  She told us to go ahead and go to the site but not to back Bentley in to the site any further than what would get our vehicle off of the road until "Tim" could return and direct us.  They did not want us to get back too far where the sewer line is buried.  I asked her which way we should go in order to best get into the site.  There was a man waiting to visit with her and he suggested we go to the left.....that did not turn out to be the best decision!  We should have gone to the right, but fortunately a nice man came along and with his assistance Dean was able to get us in the site, even though he had to maneuver quite a bit to make it work.  It would have been much easier to have approached it from the other direction - but all is well.  

While I was trying to direct Dean into the site, I noticed a man waving at me from the park behind us, and down a few sites.  He was standing next to a Big Horn RV and I knew it was one of our Heartland friends but I couldn't tell who it was for sure.  Once Dean had Bentley parked we started meeting people in the park.  They were very friendly, introducing themselves and telling us what site they were in, etc.  It was nice to feel so welcomed.  

Our site at Val's Kountry Corral

I heard Dean talking and turned around to find Dave and Nancy, our Heartland friends standing at the back of our rig.  There is a chain link fence between us and they are just a few sites down from where Bentley sits.  Several other Heartland friends will be coming in over the next few days.  How neat that we are that close to them, even though it's not in the same park.  I asked Dave if that was him waving at me earlier and yes, it sure was!

Dean worked outside getting things hooked up and I went in to put out our slides and get everything set up inside.  Once that was done, I decided to give Bentley a good vacuuming, and then cleaned the bathroom.  I need to do more laundry but that will probably have to wait for a day or two.

On our way to Mission I was messaging our friend Pam so once I had finished all of my work, I let her know we were here and were set up.  They asked if we would be up to a visit from her and husband Dennis.  I told her sure and a short while later they showed up...and with a plate of fresh chocolate chip cookies!  That was so nice.  We had a really nice visit and they told us about many of the things that there are to do, places to eat, shows to see, etc.  They are having a jam session at their subdivision tomorrow and invited us to come over if we would like.  

After Dennis and Pam left, we had a quick bite to eat, I called Dish Network to get us set up with local channels while we are here and then we settled in to watch a little TV.  It feels good to be here and the weather is wonderful.  It was 68 when we arrived.  

We're anxious to learn more about this area we'll spend time in for the next two and a half months.  It sounds like there are a lot of things to see and do.  Stay tuned to see what!