Day 7 Rain Rain!!

WHERE ARE WE? Abilene, Texas

We had a tough night last night only because the thunder roared and the lightning struck all night long.  Archie was as good as could be expected but did have to bark when the sharp loud cracks woke us all up.  I don't know how much rain we got but water was running all over.  As we headed out, we could see lots of spots where the rain had run over the road.  As we got further down the road we ran into more heavy rain and watched as the water rose in the ditch as we drove beside it. 

We went across a bridge and the sign said Red River.   No doubt how it got its name!!  Normally this river is dry this time of year.

A lot of bigger towns have some massive stately government centers and this one was no different.  I believe it was in the town or city of Aaron.

The price of grass is slowly coming down as we head farther south.  Today we paid 3.78 a us gallon for it.  We did see it as low as 3.55.

And the temperature was a bit balmy.  At one time the temp on my dash said 35C.  

Our route today went from Shamrock TX to Abilene TX and was 336 kms.

We went out for supper today at the Cracker Barrel across the road from the Walmart we are at.  I had a smaller meal but it was still too big!!

 Well we are all parked up doing some Wally docking.  Sue did a big shop while I veggied.  

I didn't get a sunset picture because this is what happened.  Probably 1 inch in a 15 minutes.  Now the humidity is through the roof but no complaints here!!!  Good Nite!!!

Day 6 Three States Today

WHERE ARE WE? Shamrock, Texas

We woke up to a foggy morning today.  We are waiting on the other tire for RRV and the guy told us it would be at 10:54.  He tracks his shipping truck.  I went over shortly after 11 and it was sitting there waiting for me so I pulled up to the door and we were on the road with a full rack of good tires.

As we headed through the south end of Kansas we saw a lot of different crops and crop residue and I got to thinking that farming here is quite different from back home.  Back in April when I was heading north through this country, they were just getting ready to harvest winter wheat in June/July followed by spring wheat and Canola in July/August.  Once that is done Corn is in August/September with Soybeans, Sorghum and Sunflowers harvested in September and October and throw in a little Silage Corn.  By then Cotton and Milo are ready for October/November.  They also have a couple rounds of haying when they can get it. It must take some organizational skills to keep everything on schedule.  Our farmers back home are a little more intense in a short time frame of August to mid October to harvest the same amount of crop.  The climate definitely dictates what your farming style is.  Watching all this go by in my dirty windshield brought back memories of my custom harvesting days in these parts back in the late 1960's.

Milo

Sorghum 

Harvested Corn

New crop of Winter Wheat

What looked to be harvested Canola

The only other thing we saw that was out of the ordinary was this big dinosaur up on a hill.  It looked small but it was a long way off!!

We travelled in 3 states today although it only took about 40 minutes to pass through the panhandle of Oklahoma.  Now we will spend a few days just crossing Texas.

This was our travels today from Scott City Kansas to Shamrock Texas.

We are in a campground tonight and it is supposed to rain all night long.  I managed to catch a little ray of the sun around supper time.  We will sleep well tonight.  Good Nite!!!

A little foot note for my readers.

I’ve noticed many of my blog followers comment as ‘anonymous’ and while I thoroughly enjoy the idea of so many secret admirers, I thought I would share how to change your comments so it shows your name.  If you wish to remain anonymous that is fine as well.

Sheri-Lyn mentioned this to me and I asked her to create a step by step guide for us to learn together: 

1) Find ‘Comment As’ below the post.

2) Tap the little arrow beside ‘Anonymous’

3)Choose Google Account (if you have one) and login 

OR

If you don’t have a Google account, select Name/URL and you can just enter your name. (the website is optional for our followers with their own blogs).

4) Write your comment and hit Publish! 

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Day 5 Things That Go Thump!

WHERE ARE WE? Scott City, Kansas

Well we got started again around 10 and headed south on Highway 83.  About 15 minutes into our trip I noticed a lot of vibration on the steering wheel but chalked it up to the cement highway.  Another 5 minutes or so and I knew there was something going on so I pulled over to have a look.  Yup, the sidewall was missing out of the inside dual!!!  We were about 15 miles from Scott City so I just drove slow, while Sue looked up a tire shop in town.  

Rode the shoulder to town.

They got me parked and up on a jack in jig time.  Yup the inside dual was in bad shape.

                                                      

I had been looking at our tires the last couple days and wondering if they were good enough to make it to Mexico.  I guess today made up my mind that they may not make it.  Also Fany gave me heck and said to make sure we made everything safe!!!  OK OK!!!   So we are getting all new tires for the back.  The front tires are only 3 years old so no need to change them.

They only had 2 tires here and will have to order the other ones.  The guy was all apologetic about having to wait till tomorrow to get them but I said that I was in no hurry and if he let us camp out in their parking lot, we would be fine until then.  So here we are tonight.

Got a couple pictures of some of the flooding from the high waves in La Penita.  This street is Cabo San Lucas and is right outside our place there.  It is normally dry but a lot of water has been washed down it from the ocean and from the rains.  Hope is dries up before we get there!!!

Cabo San Lucas ends at the ocean

We had a pile of birds move in tonight and it looks like they will spend the night on the wires up and down the street.  They are Great -tailed Grackles.  I guess they are on their migration.

So this was our journey today.  We ended up in Scott City. Oh well we are in no hurry.  We will hang out and watch TV and just veg!!  Good Nite!!

Day 4 A Cattle Drive!

WHERE ARE WE? Oakley, Kansas

We had some fellow Manitobans move in to the park last night and I didn't get a chance to meet them, so this morning I wandered over to be nosey!!  A little bit of hello, where you comin from, where you goin, where do you  live and nice rig you got stuff you know.  One of the only vans like this with a slide that I have ever seen.  So I find out a few things about them, He restores old cars, they have been to Texas for a couple weeks holiday and are heading home to work.  They are considering impending retirement and are considering the nomadic life, so I gave them our shpeel!!!  Super nice couple and I am so glad I took a couple minutes to meet them and their German Shepard.  Hope they drop by the blog once in a while!!  I left out their names on purpose but I do remember them!!!

After the visit we all headed down the road.  We had slept in because we inadvertently parked by a mainline rail track with a road crossing right there so yes the darn trains blew their whistles all night and sleep was spotty.  Between 2 and 3, Five trains passed by us and every one blew the horn!!  So down the road we went and true to Nebraska outback we came across a rancher driving his cattle down #83 highway!  Yup right down the middle, and they were not interested in splitting them to let us through, so for about 20 minutes we just followed along and watched.  

All Black Angus except for one big ole Hereford bull and he took a run at the lady on the quad and she ended up down in the ditch on the right!!!  She immediatly went across the highway to the old farmer on the red quad on the left and tattled.  I can hear it, "Hank (the bull) took after me and I want you to do something about it RIGHT NOW!!!"   Well old Abe (the farmer) immediately went over and gave Hank a couple whacks with the switch he had in his hand and I could almost hear him telling Hank "Now Hank you be nice to Ethel (the lady) or she will have you made into ground beef!!!"  Well I think it went something like that and soon they came to an open gate in the fence and they all turned into the pasture and off we went. Nothing but cows in the rear view.

It was another warm one today so we drove in the heat of the day so we had air conditioning.  

We crossed the Kansas State line this afternoon.

Today we travelled 358 kms from Thedford City Park in Nebraska to the Buffalo Bill Center in Oakley Kansas.  We have currently travelled about 1500 kms from Rivers.

We are spending the night at the Bufflo Bill Interpretive Center.  Remember Annie Oakley?  Well we are in Oakley Kansas.

As you know Hurricane Simon has been threatening La Penita today and tomorrow.  The latest storm watchers are now hopeful it will track to the west and stay in the ocean.  We are keeping our fingers crossed!!!

La Penita is at the arrow point of the hurricane warning.

Jen sent us some pictures from their yard camera's in La Penita.  She got Sergio to tape up some windows but other than that, no one is there yet.  We are hoping for minimal impact.

Well I missed sunset but here is where we are parked tonight. Can you see us way back there???  Hope you had a great day!! Good Nite!!!

Day 3 Into the Warm Weather!

WHERE ARE WE? Thedford, Nebraska

The last couple days I have been watching how many people comment on my Facebook page about the blog.  I am really thankful for all those comments because I feel like someone relies on seeing them. I originally began the blog for my family to keep up with us, but that now includes a number of friends and some wanna be friends.  Writing a blog on a daily base is a chore but if I know your out there it makes it worth while. I take pride in taking those of you that are not currently travelling along for the ride.  As you already know, I like to view our travels with a light heart and even embellish a little wherever the opportunity presents itself.  For those that do comment, it is almost better to comment on my facebook post rather than on the blog site because more people see it there, and also I get a notification of every comment.  I may not reply to every comment but I do try to read them all and will try to pick the ones that are looking for added information to reply to. Thanks for following along, so jump on board, buckle up and hold on cause we are off to Mexico!!

Today we got off to a later start again!!!  What's the hurry?? We did drive from about 10 to about 4 today and made 469 kms.  We passed a lot of pasture land and lots of crop land as well.  We have passed by a few big piles of grain along the road.  Farmers here seem to like to haul their grain to a central collection area rather than put it in bins on their property.

Outside of Pierre South Dakota we passed over the Missouri River.  It is a grand river!!

Pierre is the capitol of North Dakota and this is the Capitol building.

This underpass in downtown Pierre is quite famous for taking roofs off of campers and delivery trucks.  It is actually the original 83 highway and if you don't catch the turn off for the truck route on 14 you will come up to this bridge right after a sharp left turn.  No way out unless you back up.  I actually missed the turn off today but realized it soon enough to turn around!!!

Today we got into some more winter like temperatures, well our type of winter at least.  It's nice to get back into the heat.  I'm sure I will be complaining about it in a few days, but for now it is just great.

The blue jeans went into the dirty cloths hamper and will be washed and folded and put away until we arrive back in Canada.

The short feet pretty good after being without them for about a month.  The belly proves that I didn't starve this summer and may have had the odd ice cream!!!

This was our route today.

We have travelled a little over 1000 kms since we left home. 

The day ended with another beautiful sunset.  We are in Thedford city park and other than a train every half hour, it is a nice place to park. Good Nite!!!