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!!!

Day 2 A Windy Day Today

WHERE ARE WE? Java, South Dakota

Well we did a two trip split today.  We left Minot around 10 and headed south to Bismark and then a little bit east on Highway 83.  The wind had picked up so we shut it down around 1 pm at a Cenex.  I had some computer things to do and a nap was in my future.

About 4 pm the wind seemed to let up so we headed out down 83 again.  All the cereal crops have been combined and now they are doing lentils or peas.  Like at home, there is lots of dust around the combine.

About 5 pm we crossed into South Dakota.

Archie noticed that there are sure a lot of fields of corn and sunflowers in this part of the country.

We shut it down about 5:30 in a little town called Java SD.  They have a little town park with about 4 sites.   We don't need any water or power so we just parked on the side of the road.  Not another soul in cite.  This was where we went today.  We are 682 kms from home tonight.

We got to see an awesome sunset and sky from our parking spot tonight.

We of course had to watch the 2nd episode of Survivor 51.  Good Nite!!!!

Houston, We Have Lift Off!! Day 1

WHERE ARE WE? Minot, North Dakota

Well we didn't get on the road as early as we had hoped for and that was my fault.  I had a few more things to do than I had allowed time for.  We got everything put away, locked up, power off, water off and drained, truck put away and ole yeller the storage van locked for the winter.  Oh yes we had to get the yellow jeep put in the shed too.  Whew!!!!  We finally pulled out about 3 pm with a stop in Brandon for fuel and to buy a new light cord plug at Princess Auto.  I hate that place cause I went in for 1 thing and came out with seven things.

Archie approved of our travels today.

So we only made it to Minot today but really that isn't much less than we anticipate travelling.  We are hoping to keep the days between 300 and 400 kms.  I know, I know, we get carried away sometimes, but sometimes the road is the happiest place to be and some days so we just keep rolling.  

A little story of our border crossing.  We always treat any border crossing with the greatest respect and try to make sure we don't have anything in RRV that is against the rules. We carefully went through all our food and threw out anything that didn't meet the restrictions.  Well we pulled up to the US customs and a Border Agent met us at the window.  I gave him our passports and this was the conversation.  

Agent: Where do you live?

Me: Rivers Manitoba

Agent; Any fruits or vegetables?

Me: No

Agent: Where are you heading to?

Me: Mexico

Agent: How long will you be there?

Me: Mid April

Agent: How long will you be in transit in the USA

Me: We plan to cross into Mexico, October 23

Agent: (hands back passports)  Have a great winter!!!

Me: Thanks

And we were off.  Less than a minute.  I'm not sure what people are scared of because if you answer the questions with truthful answers, there is nothing to worry about.  I know, I know, I still get to wondering if there is something I forgot and I will get in trouble, but most times the worry is in vain. First sign we saw going down the road was "We love Canadians!!!"

Coming into Boissevain/Dunseith Customs

Our route today.  We are stopped at Walmart for the night stocking up on fruits and vegetables!! LOL

Now a little photo dump of what we have been up to since last post.

We took a little trip to spend a weekend with our friends Ken and Rhonda in there new house in Saskatoon.  We had a nice relaxing weekend, watched some baseball, ate, played some games, ate, watched some football, ate, toured the city and ate again.  Thanks for your hospitality!!

Saw this business sign along the way.  This is what you call "Value Added!!"

We did a little sewer work at the shack to relocate the connection to the back of the shack.  Should stop all the plug ups.

Had some issues with the starter on Ole Yeller so rather than waste a bunch of time trying to fix it, Sheri and I hooked on to it and towed up to our friend Cindy's place for the winter. 

Sheri seemed to enjoy being the puller.

Dani has started her career as a cosmetologist in Brandon.  She is ready for anyone who needs some care.

She has her own apartment now, and invited Gramma and I for supper before we left. She knows I love roast beef and she does as well, so roast and Yorkshire pudding with mashed potatoes and broccoli was on the menu.  It was fantastic.

And there was pie, with whipped cream.

And we played a few games of cards none of which I won.

We moved the Ponderosa to Irwin and Wanda's for the winter and Grace and Max rode with me.  It wasn't long and he was out!!!  The big ole motorhome is soooo comfy going down the road.

Great big combine for a little guy.

They did feed us dinner in the field but I didn't take any pictures.  My bad.  It was delicious.

Sheri came and spent the last weekend with us and slept up on the magic bed.  This is her 42 year old blankee that she got as a baby and she still uses it to snuggle with every night!!!  I'm not sure how much more life is left in that thing!!!

Well its been a short summer but it is over and now all Sue and Archie have to do is wait for me to get my chores done and hit the road.  Then we get a whole winter of chillaxin.  Good Nite!!!