6/25/08 Our First Escapade!

We were on the road by eight this morning even though we only have a few hours of travel in front of us. Entrance is only admitted between the hours of 8 and 2 so we didn't want to take chance of something happening and delaying us.

We took note of train after train after train, all carrying coal as we drove down the road. And they were long trains, well over a hundred cars in each. There were two locomotive engines on each end, two pulling and two pushing. We soon learned that we were in the Coal Capitol of the USA.

We thought this telephone pole was a little strange. Upon closer inspection we determined that it was half a tree, just cut down and split.

We finally arrived at Gillette and just had to follow the signs to the Cam-Plex where we'll be staying for the Escapade.

We got in line and waited for instructions on where to go.

The majority of the attendees won't arrive until Sunday but we came in early because we signed up for a sightseeing trip called a HOP. That's Escapee's lingo for Head Out Program. More about that tomorrow.

This is the street we live on now,,,at least for the next 10 days.

Just minutes after we pulled in this truck/rig pulled in. Bob would LOVE to have a truck like this.

I just had to watch them get this SmartCar off the truck.

It did drag a little bit but nothing was broken and it drove right off. What a great little car for sightseeing. I looked inside and was surprised at how much room there was in the driver/passenger area. Still....I don't know if I would want to be on the Interstate in this tiny little thing. Yet again...45 miles to the gallon sounds really really good! I was told there is a 7 - 9 month wait to get one of these!

We got started setting up and I'll tell you right now, Bob did NOT have a good day! When we arrived in our space we were told by our neighbors there was a water problem so not to expect water right away. OK, fine, we can deal with that. Everyone else had their hoses hooked up so Bob got ours hooked up too. Oooh, that was a mistake. When the water did come on it had 95% pressure which blew the ends of our hose off! Ok, we'll deal with that, we have another hose. By now the water is turned off again, Bob hooks up the next hose and darn if the same thing didn't happen again when the water was turned back on. You guessed it, a trip to Walmart.

We returned from Walmart and the water thing still wasn't going well for him. It was either too much pressure or not enough, we couldn't get that happy medium. It was early evening before Bob finished everything he had to do. To say he was exhausted is an understatement!

I had to go over to one of the buildings here in the Camplex to get the information for the HOP we'll take tomorrow. It looked like we were going to get rain and I saw neighbors getting in the their truck. I asked them if they were going to the place I needed to go and if so could I catch a ride with them. This is how I met Ray and Barb. They are still "newbies" to full timing since they have only been on the road since January. They are from California, I believe.

I had no sooner gotten back home and Delaware friends, Bobby and Shelly stopped by. It was so good to see them again!

When we were at Walmart, there had to be 20 or so rigs parked there waiting for their day to come into the Cam-plex. K-Mart's lot was full as was Home Depot with rigs just waiting for Sunday to get here.

This Cam-Plex we're in is some place! Built in 1985, it encompasses 1100 acres, has several large buildings that house a theatre, meeting rooms and and a conference center. In addition to that there is a stable/rodeo arena and a grandstand/field area. And let's not forget the campgrounds! Between the two full service areas there is a total of 1,761 campsites and 893 sites with water/electric or electric only. Granted you are parked in here side by side but if you are staying here it is because of an event so you aren't here to camp anyway. I'll get pictures as the days go by.

After a dinner of homemade steak sandwiches we settled in, we have to get up early tomorrow!