10/1/2010 Mom Said There’d Be Days Like This!

Did you ever just have one of THOSE days? Where nothing went right, anything that could go wrong did and your best friend seemed to named Murphy? That was our day! Right from the git go.

Today we’re leaving McConnell AFB. We’re movin’ on. Bob got moving first and went in to take his shower. I puttered around, putting stuff away, checkin’ email, all normal stuff just waiting for him to get done so I can go in and get mine. Fifteen minutes later he’s done, all dressed and looks at me and says, “The holding tanks are full, you can’t take a shower”. Oh great! I ran to the mirror to see if I was dealing with a major case of bed head or not and surprisingly it was doable. I can deal. Well, I guess that’s one thing that went ok.

So we do all we can to get ready to hit the road but we can’t hook up yet. We’re waiting for an overnite package from UPS and our mail from Livingston, Texas and we have to go to the base hotel to get them. We arrive at the time that the hotel people said to and the UPS package is there but the snail mail hasn’t arrived yet, hence, living up to its name! We go back and hang out a bit longer.

I had made some brownies and wanted to leave some for the guy next door that we had met. He’s a young guy, recently separated from his wife and I just thought that maybe he wasn’t getting all that many homemade treats. So I double wrapped them in tin foil, added a note and put them in a plastic grocery bag and tied it up good. I looked out the window and shade was on his side of the trailer where his steps were so I knew he’d see them if I set them there when we left if, in fact, we didn’t see him beforehand.

At eleven we headed back to the hotel to see if the mail had arrived yet. Nope, not there. I explained that we were leaving and that I had checked the tracking number on it and I know that it was on the base. The lady behind the desk directed me to the mail distribution center. We went there and the mail truck was just arriving. Judy, the very nice lady who works there explained that it was probably scanned prior to the truck actually arriving and that’s why I read that it was on base. Ok, makes sense to me. When she found out that we were in the FamCamp she said it was a good thing that we were there for it because they aren’t allowed to accept personal mail for FamCamp or hotel guests. Air Force rules for this base ever since 9/11.

I waited patiently for the truck to get unloaded and three mail personnel went through every plastic mail carrying box and our package wasn’t there. She asked me for the tracking number and of course it was in an email on my laptop back at the house. She gave me her number so that I could call her with it. We returned to the 5th wheel once again, I called her, gave her the number and she said to call back in a half hour. Before we hung up I found out that the mail had actually arrived yesterday, here I was thinking TODAY was September 30th, the date indicated it arrived. She said to call her back in a half hour and she would let me know if they had found it or not.

In the meantime, we hooked up to the rig so that we could get the dump station duty out of the way and of course nothing about that went easy.

It’s getting later and later into the day and we have to drive 230 miles yet.

Oh yeah, the brownies. Our neighbors steps were shaded by our rig! Of course as soon as we pulled it out the blaring sun was beating down on those steps. There was shade made by the steps themselves so I put the bag there and pulled the top of the bag onto the bottom step in hopes he would see it. He’s been home everyday for lunch since we’ve been here, I hope he comes home today or there is going to be one mass of melted chocolate brownies doubled wrapped in tin foil.

Enough time had passed to call Judy and when I did she had found our mail! The only reason it was still there is because the truck that does the pick up had broken down. Finally, one thing that is going right today! Judy, thanks for all you did!

Mail in hand we were on our way. Destination Liberal, Kansas, right on the border between Kansas and Oklahoma.

We’ve never gotten on the road this late before, this is not going to be a pleasant trip,,,,,trust me. A certain someone’s stress level is already through the roof.

On the way, we took notice that we were back in long train territory. This one is so long that it takes three engines to pull it.

I’ve mentioned before when we’ve traveled out this way that we just can’t get over how long the trains are! Dozen and dozens and dozens of train cars.

Still the same train!

Easily 125+ cars! We just don’t see that in the east.

We saw some wild horses running along side the road. At least we think they were wild as there was no fencing around to keep them inside anyone’s property.

In the very late afternoon we finally stayed in the campground where we were spending the night. For the life of me I can’t remember the name of it and I have no desire to run out to the truck to get the campground book. It’s a fairly new campground and strictly a stopover place and that’s all its intended to be according to the lady who owns it. However she’s making it a very nice stopover place for those who do.

The first thing we saw was this.

A walking track for RV’ers to get some exercise on after driving/riding all day. Since the whole place is gravel this gives a very nice level, smooth area for walking. What a great idea. We didn’t see anyone using it.

The building you see houses a laundry, shower room, hot tub, pool table and lending library.

There’s a sign when you pull in that says, “Pick your site, we’ll be around between 5 – 9 to collect”. She was there when we arrived and she explained the leeway she gave herself in case she doesn’t get out of the fields in time. You see, she and her husband own a ranch and they farm the land and have 400 head of cattle. I asked her why in the world did she open an RV park on top of running a ranch too. Her answer was that she needed people to talk with, that she was going crazy riding a tractor all day and only having the cows to talk to. She was very personable and you could tell that she truly enjoyed talking with her customers. If anyone is driving down Rt 54 through Liberal, KS,,,,nice place to stop.

We were very tired when we finally got set up and got dinner out of the way. We sat down to watch TV and we realized where we were…close to those railroad tracks that we were so fascinated with earlier. We hoping they don’t run all night long,,,of course we do have that friend named Murphy!