October 10, 2023 – Day 12 We left Weatherford without any drama, stopped at the local Ace Hardware to buy hose washers. We wanted to bypass the water pump and use “city” water, as well as some misc hardware for other small repairs, and, of course, some spray paint! Are you wondering if your blogging friends have turned into graffiti-painting hooligans? Stay tuned! Hardware goods acquired, we stopped for gas. We try to find the Pilot / Flying J stops that have RV Fuel lanes. There are two big reasons for this. First, you don’t have to worry as much about tight spots, fitting spaces or making turns to get…

October 9, 2023 – Day 11 Today was one of the first days that was really unplanned. We deliberately had slop in the schedule to deal with unexpected weather events. And remember a few entries ago we spoke of how we locked the next weeks down? Today was the first of those days. We had a choice to drive 400 miles to Amarillo, or drive roughly halfway and spend a night in Weathersford, OK. Looking at Google maps we noticed that the Stafford Air & Space Museum was located in Weathersford, OK. What’s curious about the decision of Weatherford, OK vs Amarillo, TX is that both have air and space…

October 8, 2023 – Day 10 The day started slowly. The plan was to visit the Black Wall Street and learn about the 1921 Race Massacre. Neither of us was up to walking a 2 hour history tour, particularly on such a heavy subject. And especially after two museums and a fair. That was already a lot to absorb. We’re learning that on these adventures we should build in more time so that we can visit these things in a more leisurely fashion. We’re learning that 3 sleeps and two adventure days is better but still too short of a time to experience much of a location. Visiting things one…

October 7, 2023 – Day 9 We had a slow morning. Paul went out to do more Ham Radio stuff while Susan relaxed in the RV. Around mid-afternoon we headed into the Tulsa State Fair. Paul loves fair food and he thought it would be great dinner food (susan here: hmm. It’s his month to cook. Ulterior motives?) We both wanted to see the fireworks at dusk so there was no reason to rush to the venue. It was only a 25 minutes minute ride to reach the back of the line of cars that were cued up waiting to turn into the parking area. About 20 minutes later we’d…

October 6, 2023 – Day 8 Tulsa OK is home to the Woody Guthrie Center which opened in 2013 and the brand new Bob Dylan Center that opened in 2022. I’m out here a thousand miles from my homeWalking a road other men have gone downI’m seeing your world of people and thingsYour paupers and peasants and princes and kings Bob Dylan – Song to Woody The two are in the same block and essentially next to each other. Visit both and you get a discount by buying a pair of tickets, $22 vs $30. Interestingly when you choose a time online we found out at the venue it’s not…

October 5, 2023 – Day 7 We got up in the morning and had an egg, ham, spinach and cheddar scramble with toast and even did a load of laundry. If you recall from the previous trip with the trailer finding good laundry machines proved challenging. Oh, you could find machines, but you didn’t know they were bad until it was too late. When we bought Clifford we were happy to see that we had onboard laundry, slightly disappointed that we need to be stationary to use and plan for it but it’s still a heck of a lot better having laundry on board as opposed to seeking it out.…

October 4, 2023 – Day 6 We had planned an easy day. It would just be a short drive to Ava, MO for a visit with some of Susan’s relatives that she hadn’t seen in decades. But first we had repairs to make. A couple days ago, the wooden trim around the bedroom slider pulled away driving on that nightmare called I-70W. Paul was pretty sure it would be an easy fix. That long wood screw seemed to be installed incorrectly. All we had to do (famous last words) was pry off a decorative end cap to get at the screw head and reposition it above. Sadly, we hadn’t brought…

October 3, 2023 – Day 5 Today was the day we were going to do things! We planned on going into St. Louis, get tickets to ride to the top of the Arch, visit the museum and then off to the St. Louis Chess Club Museum. (paul here: Yeah, chess museum/hall of fame. Fight me.) It turns out you can get to the top of the Arch if you can advance purchase tickets. Except at 9AM on a Tuesday in October it was already sold out. We’re past summer vacations and it’s a Tuesday. In October. Huh? Remember the Johnson Space Center? We see a pattern here. Susan found Plan…

October 2, 2023 – Day 4 The morning was difficult. We were beat up from yesterday. Paul made some morning tea, forgetting to put water in the electric kettle, which triggered its self shutdown mode. Then he put the tea in the microwave, since the kettle needed to cool, and, seeing the numbers 0 on the display set the clock to 12:00 and put his tea in. He realized this about 6 minutes later when he realized he had no tea. Of course bag exploded and the tea was everywhere. At this point we realized that we were beat up from yesterday. No, we wouldn’t go into St. Louis to…

October 1, 2023 – Day 3 We’re sure there are better ways to wake up than sunrises with alpacas. We’re also sure that list isn’t very long. They look so hungry, let’s feed them! Then we headed to a well anticipated rest at the Dr. Edmund Babler State Park in Missouri. It would be our third day of about 400 miles. Easy, right? Nope. I-70 was punishing, brutal concrete or sometimes tar surface unevenly patched with whatever they could find, be it concrete or tar. We felt like we had been flogged nearly to death. It was relentless heaves and pot holes. Susan lasted about 60 miles and wanted out.…