Dang, I may have forgotten how to use the WordPress program it’s been so long LOL!!!
In our last update we were in Pagosa Springs Colorado where we stayed for two months, and we had a great time. We did a number of hikes, which we will provide a couple links to videos in our YouTube channel for you to check out if you care to. Once you get there you can find other video’s we have done as well.
After leaving Pagosa Springs we moved over to Cortez Colorado an hung out for 1 month staying at the West View RV Resort on the north edge of town. We will provide a link to a review video on our YouTube channel once it is complete in case you care to check it out also.
During our stay in Cortez we visited the Mesa Verde National Park a few times getting in a number of good walks,
We visited Hovenweep National Monument a few times getting in some nice hikes.
We took in the Canyon of the Ancients.
We made a couple day trips to Durango and visited friends and did a day trip to Telluride to do the touristy stuff and took a gondola ride.
We of course played a bunch of Pickleball while in Cortez as well LOL,,, big surprise I guess.
Video’s to come on our YouTube channel once edited.
After leaving Cortez we headed to Santa Fe New Mexico and spent 10 days. We of course did the touristy stuff once again, ate to much food, took a drive to Taos, Visited the El Rancho de las Golondrinas (a highlight for sure) AND visited the Bandelier National Monument and climbed more ladders than we have over the last 20 years LOL!!! These will make some great video’s that we will share at some point.
We don’t have all of the videos edited and uploaded to our YouTube channel yet but we will share them as we get them published.
After Santa Fe we headed to Albuquerque New Mexico where we will spend two weeks before heading back to Kansas to have our Toppers installed.
I do apologize for not staying on top of this blog, it has been such a big part of our journey since hitting the road but as I mentioned before I just get tired of paying to keep it online. We pay for the basic service and then we pay another $96 to keep the ad’s off of it in order to make it a more pleasant experience for the readers. And then as also mentioned before we just don’t get the comments that we see other blogs get and that has weighed on me.
Our dues are coming up again mid October and I’m battling myself to just let everything lapse and just go away or to pay for one more year and then certainly let it lapse. The only reason we would keep it going one more year is so we could share it with our YouTube followers (almost 1000 of them at this point) and maybe get a little more exposure and share the content with them before it goes away. We feel there is a lot of useful information that we hate to see go away. Just have not made up my mind yet.
As far as our YouTube channel we are right at the 1000 subscriber mark and have had well over 50,000 views so far and numerous comments come in on every single video which has been very enjoyable to me. And there is no cost involved and in fact once we hit the 1000 subscriber mark we have a chance to bring in a couple dollars each month. That never hurts and is a complete opposite of what the blog has provided LOL!!
Ok, that’s it for now. Thanks for sticking around and we really hope to see you over on our YouTube channel.
Ok, it’s been a while since doing a actual update on the blog but I at least wanted to share a couple links to new video’s we have uploaded to our YouTube channel. And I know I know, many of you do not like or even do YouTube and I’m sorry, it’s just where my head has been going lately.
I think because our subscriber count has been steadily growing and the interaction with viewers has been pretty steady and because it’s something new that has my mind working just trying to figure out something new and to be frank it has a possibility of bringing in a small revenue in the future (mad money if you will LOL) it’s just the direction we (well I) hope to go. Time will tell.
Anyway, over time we have had a number of people ask how our Ram 5500 handles our 5th wheel so we did a video of it on Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado and here is a link to that video. https://youtu.be/fLG0_a5YMnM
We have also been asked a number times about our Trailer Saver 5th wheel hitch so I did a video about it and here is the link. https://youtu.be/3xc842-ztn0
And we had a little BooBoo with out truck and 5th wheel do to Classy Chassis mounting our hitch to far up in the bed and here is a link to that. https://youtu.be/4UbS77-cZOg
And we toured the Bridges of Madison County while we were visiting the Knoxville Iowa area and here is a link to that. https://youtu.be/RkHvDFpRf2Q
There are a few more on our channel already that may be of interest and we have a few more uploaded and scheduled for release (one per week on average and we hope that some of you will head over to check them out and maybe even subscribe.
At this particular time we are hanging out in Colorado to avoid some of the heat that is hampering with so much of the country but actually it’s still pretty darn warm here, just not as bad as many are having it.
Our plan is to hang out here until the 1st of August and then we have choices to make, if our slide toppers arrive at New Horizons (the parts they did not have to complete our unit) then we will certainly head back to Kansas and have them installed (Kansas in August,,, good grief!!).
We also have a Bassett swivel rocker on order and need to swing through Wichita Kansas to pick it up BUT if our parts have not arrived at New Horizons we are considering checking into having the chair shipped someplace where we will be to avoid Kansas in August. We know shipping won’t be cheap but it will probably be less than the fuel it will take to get to Kansas and again, we can avoid Kansas in August. What would we do about the toppers, well we have options there as well I guess and they do not hamper our travels even though we really want them.
The only bad thing about not going to Kansas is New Horizons is holding a Ambassador gathering and we will miss seeing some friends that will be there but we can catch up to them elsewhere I guess.
On a side note we have really been enjoying our new home on wheels, it just fits us so well and is so homey.
Ok, I guess that’s it for this update and as we mentioned before we sure hope more of you will join us on our YouTube channel and subscribe once you get there. Our goal is to exceed 1000 subscribers and we have I think 544 at the time of me finishing this update, It took us a couple years to get this many subscribers on our Blog but only 6 months on our YouTube channel so far.
**Any colored text or product image in a post is an affiliate link as swell as the items listed in our sidebar under ”Products we use and support” and the “Amazon” link under the “Search Amazon” section will simply take you to Amazon for a full product description and where you can purchase if you feel the need. As an Amazon Associate we could get a kickback from qualifying purchases but the price is no different than what you would find if you didn’t go to Amazon through our link. We would really appreciate your support! **
After a darn good two weeks in the Kansas City area we decided to head towards Knoxville Iowa to hang out for a week.
We stayed at the Marion County County Park but we will do a separate update on that and other things like a night at the races, a tour of a Racecar museum and a few other things. In this update I think we will just keep the verbiage to a minimum and let the pictures do their own thing and this time if you would like to know more feel free to leave a question or comment in the comment section. I think the comment section still works but it has been so long since getting a comment I’m not sure LOL!!!
Oh, we are trying a little different format for pictures, let us know what you think.
We did a few other things than just look at flowers, we hit a couple old time bakeries, we toured a working windmill and a few other things but again we won’t take time to type it all out, we will just share pictures and if you want to more know more you will need to break down and ask in the comment section.
Well thats a bunch of tulips and it’s just the tip of the iceburg of what we saw but we are sure you get the idea. We will have a video up at some point in the future on our YouTube channel that could be fun to watch so keep an eye out for that. We will post a link when that happens in case you have not subscribed to our YouTube channel. Here is a link to our channel in case you want to check it out. https://www.youtube.com/c/DaveandDianeThrowingCautiontotheWind
Oh in our last update we talked about a place called Chicken N Pickle and we had a short video go live on our YouTube channel in case you care to check that out as well, here is a alink to that. https://youtu.be/N7n4uAjPIF0
Ok, thats it for now. We will be back with some more cool stuff from our Iowa visit so come on back.
As you could probably tell in our last update when we toured the Negro Baseball League Museum we were in Kansas City so I thought we better get caught up a little, not completely but a little.
First off we found a place to base from during or visit at the Worlds of Fun RV Park. Large pull through sites and not bad sized side to side either.
We did a video of the park and it can be found on our YouTube channel when it goes live on 5/14. It’s a driving tour video of the park so you might find it interesting. Here is a link to it. https://youtu.be/DE4fiOL1gkY
During our visit we took a tour of Arrowhead Stadium!! As some of you know I’m a huge Chiefs fan so this was a thill for me. Oh, we did a short video of that tour as well and it can be found on our YouTube channel and here is a link to that. https://youtu.be/Qk7g7y5FDZs
We also found a place to play Pickleball 3 mornings per week during our stay called Chicken and Pickle. They have 4 courts outside and 4 indoor courts as well.
We usually played on old fart days which is 55 & older can play for $2 each for 2 hours from 7am until 9am unless no-one has courts reserved after 9 and in that case we could play until the time someone does have the courts reserved. Otherwise they charge $20 per hour per court.
On Sunday after our play a group normally gather for a breakfast at Chicken & Pickle which we joined one morning. Breakfast consisted of Chicken n waffles and oh, a bloody Mary. I might mention that Diane is not normally a chicken fan but she said they the chicken here was the best she had ever had and ate every last bite of hers!!!
Oh, we also did a little video of the Chicken and Pickle in case you care to take a look but it will not go live until May 21st and here is the link to that video. https://youtu.be/N7n4uAjPIF0
As a side note I am trying to line video’s out 1 per week as you might notice, at some point when I get far enough ahead I will start posting 2 per week and might even line them up better with the blog but to be frank, the YouTube channel has taken the front seat because it is getting so much more action comment wise and subscriber wise for my efforts. But the blog will remain live at least until the end of the year.
We also did a tour of the Arabian Steamboat Museum which was very interesting, and yes we did a video of it but I used my GoPro which turns out sucks in low light so I need to work on that video some more and I didn’t take any actual pictures unfortunately. But when I get the video “IF” I get the video worthy we will share that link. OR better yet if you subscribe to the YouTube channel you could be notified when it does go live LOL!!
OH and BBQ!!! I informed Diane that during our stay to be ready for massive BBQ intake. For the record I didn’t hear any complaints when I said that nor did I as we ate our way though the city LOL!!!
We ate BBQ at Jack Stacks:
And they had a FANTASTIC Carrot Cake for desert.
And we ate BBQ at Q39:
And their Carrot Cake was non to shabby either LOL!!!
And we ate BBQ at Joes BBQ, Previously known as Oklahoma Joes. This used to be a gas station “still is actually” a BBQ joint and store so they used to say that Joes was a Hillbillies trifecta LOL!!! A place you could get gas, beer and BBQ all in one place.
Now we have gone and come back to KC at the time of this update so down the road we will be talking about some more BBQ joints here in KC but we will hold off on that until a future update.
For a little break away from BBQ we did drive across town to eat at Torchy’s. If any of you read our blog from our Texas visit you might remember how much we loved Torchy’s Taco’s so it was a no brainer for us to have them again with them so close to where we were staying, well across town close LOL!!
We will have a Iowa visit to update on first and man did we have full week there as well!!
We were also invited over to some friends house that we know from our winter playground that happens to live here in KC and we had a GREAT dinner followed by a couple rip roaring games of SWOOP. Unfortunately we were wrapped up in having a good time and the camera didn’t come out I’m afraid.
We did a few other things like a visit to Cabela’s and a couple other outdoorsy stores and we found and ordered a new swivel rocker from Bassett’s for our home on wheels and of course took a few driving tours which by the way wasn’t my favorite thing to do in a town the size of KC LOL!!!
I should also mention that we are LOVING our new home on wheels, it feels SO MUCH more like a home than our last floorplan that we are just over the top in love with it.
Ok, that’s it for this update. I will mention again that if are considering making a purchase on Amazon to maybe keep us in mind and maybe click on the Amazon link in our sidebar which will take you to Amazon where you can make you purchase like always WITH NO ADDED cost. But because we are Amazon affiliates we could get a slight kickback for the referral and those funds will be used to better our channels. Just give it a thought.
Ok, that’s it for now, be safe and we will see you in the next update. <script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://cdnjs.buymeacoffee.com/1.0.0/button.prod.min.js” data-name=”bmc-button” data-slug=”DaveandDiane” data-color=”#FFDD00″ data-emoji=”” data-font=”Cookie” data-text=”Buy me a coffee” data-outline-color=”#000000″ data-font-color=”#000000″ data-coffee-color=”#ffffff” ></script>
Hello everyone!!! Diane and I went to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City the other day and thought you might like to check out a little video we did of our tour. It’s over on our YouTube channel. Here is a link to our channel in general https://www.youtube.com/c/DaveandDianeThrowingCautiontotheWind and a link to the video itself https://youtu.be/t6bWEzXdteE
Hey, we want to thank those of you that have subscribed to our YouTube channel, we are up to 400 subscribers in just 4 months and it took us almost 9 years to get 300 on our blog LOL!!! You can see why I’m leaning towards YouTube. Even though we have enjoyed doing the blog our YouTube channel is showing much more potential and getting much more activity so far compared to what we have had with the blog so we hope you all join us over there. We plan to do at least 1 new video per week there and maybe even two per week as we go along.
We had the MORryde steps on our last 5th wheel for 2 years and thought they were great EXCEPT for a few occasions so when we built our new coach we decided to try the Glowstep Revolution steps in a effort to avoid those certain situations.
We have only had the Glowstep’s for a short while but thought we would do a short video about our thoughts on the two. If you care to have a look here is a link that takes you to it on out YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/kMPb6tMhnzM
While you are there how about hitting the subscribe button, maybe give it a thumbs up “or down” and leave a comment. Those little things show YouTube that people are watching and it sure would help our channel grow.
Thanks in advance and we hope you enjoy the comparison video.
We shot a short video of the new rig and thought we would share it. This is before everything is actually put away and we are still missing a chair and a couple other things but what the heck LOL!!!
Just a quick reminder, we have started a YouTube channel. It’s certainly in its infancy stage for sure and will be going through some growing pains but with your help we can make it grow so go check it out and we would appreciate it if you would subscribe while there. Here is a link. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWqRmO1rO4cu3rFANF1iG6Q Hey, it’s free to go take a look and it’s free to simply hit that subscribe button so please show your support.
Ok, we had plans on how to build the suspense but to be frank, after the last couple weeks we are pretty drained so we will get right to it. Well in a round about way, come on you know us LOL!!!
In our last update we mentioned we had pulled in at the New Horizons factory and parked in front of the shop to have a couple warranty things taken care of and have a new topper put on our bedroom slide that a small branch managed to slice for us and the guys in the shop did a great job and had us done with those things lickety-split and moved on to the next project of taking out the 8 AGM batteries we had and installing 8 Battle Born Lithium batteries.
OH, so now you are thinking WOW, all of this build up JUST because they are installing lithium in the coach right??? Well let us finish our sentence, They installed the new lithium batteries for the NEW OWNERS. There, does that change things again?
Yup, we sold our home on wheels. We placed an ad in October while we were in Cortez Colorado and within two weeks we had a nice deposit from a nice couple out of Colorado. Part of the deal in the sale was that we had our winter stay planned from November to April and we didn’t want to interrupt that and by the people buying our coach being willing to wait until April to pick it up we offered to take it to the New Horizons factory and have any little things done to it that might need to be done at that time. OH, and we almost forgot, it also gave New Horizons time to build our NEW home on wheels!!! ((We will splatter just a few pictures in this update)).
That’s right, that’s the big reveal, even though the New Horizons we had been living in the last two years was a great coach the floorplan was such that we just never REALLY felt at home. I mean we felt at home but it just didn’t fit our, I don’t know how to word it, it just didn’t fit like a good broken in pair of jeans.
I think our biggest thing was that we just never seemed to be away from the kitchen with that floorplan and with our new floorplan we can sit in our living room and really never even notice the kitchen, there is just great separation and it feels more like a small apartment than it does a RV.
So, We arrived on Friday evening and hung out until Monday and the shop took care of our needs by mid day. At the end of Monday we then parked our old rig outside a bay where our new rig was having some finishing touches done to it, the factory closed down and left the bay door open so we could start moving things in knowing that we were on crunched time for the new owners of our old rig to drive away with it and told us to lock up when we were done. We worked until 9PM before hitting the close button on the shop door that night. That was SO great of them to allow us to get a head start on our move.
Tuesday was our scheduled start day for our orientation on our new coach. When you have New Horizons build you a coach when it comes to delivery time they have a process over a 3 day period you go through which starts with a meeting between you, your sales person, the go between person you communicate with during the build that keeps you up to date on the process and status of your build and any changes you may want to make along the way “of course it’s best if you can avoid that” , Harold who does the 3 day orientation with you to go over every last system in your unit and the gal who you will do your final paperwork with once everything is settled. This starts at around 10am.
While we were in the meeting they pulled our new coach outside and staged it next to our old coach pretty much door to door to make the move easier.
After the meeting we spent the rest of the day with Harald going through everything inside the coach while making a list of ANYTHING you come across right down to a fly laying dead on the floor if that’s something that bothers you and Harold will make a note of it and have a crew come out to take care of anything on the list the following day if not right that second.
Our time with Harold on Tuesday was pretty easy because we owned a New Horizons already so we were familiar with the systems in the coach and because we had accsess to it the night before while moving things in we had already gone through and started a punch list so we were well ahead of the game.
We were happy we did the inside on Tuesday because the weather was wet and chilly outside and once we finished with Harold we started moving things into the new coach again, everything except he basement stuff because I knew I would be doing the outside walk around the following day with Harold and didn’t want to block any of the components in that area and our mattress and bedding.
Once we finished moving everything we could we headed to our old coach to spend our last night in it and called it a day with the plan to meet up with Harold Wednesday morning at 8am to talk about anything new we might have found inside and to start our outside walk.
Wednesday morning Harold showed up at our new coach at 8am sharp as planned, we went over a couple more things we came across while moving our stuff in and by 9am we had a crew of about 4 people in our unit taking care of our punch list items and 2 extra guys that moved our Tempurpedic mattress from our old coach to our new one.
Then it was time for Harold and I to start our outside walk and that’s when Diane excused herself and went into the customer lounge to, well lounge LOL!!! She had no interest in walking around outside in the cool light drizzle we had going on.
And about then the fellow we had scheduled to transfer all of our Dish Network stuff over from the old coach to the new one showed up and he also went right to work. We had dealt with him before and were very comfortable with what he would do so we just let him do his thing.
OH, and the new owners of our old coach showed up a day early and we tried to spend some time with them as well so we were like the juggler at a circus spinning plates on long poles. It really was a crazy crazy day and we were pretty happy when it came to an end LOL!!! But we knew we still had a long road ahead until we would be all done and on the road.
Thursday we pretty much just let the guys in the shop do their thing and work on the punch list with me popping in now and again to see if anyone had any questions but for the most part we spent time with Ed & Karen “the new owners of our old coach” and just tried to stay out of everyone’s way.
At the end of the day we took Ed & Karen to La Fiesta for dinner and drinks and then called it a night. after giving them one more walk through and answered any last questions they had and giving them the title to the coach.
Friday morning as we were having our coffee we say Ed & Karen pull out with their new home on wheels. We sure hope they create some great memories in it.
Then because we were pushed back a bit by punch list items we finally got around to hookup and test drive day. Once again because we had a New Horizons before we were familiar with most everything so Harold mainly just stood back and listened for any unusual sounds or motions of the rig while I hooked up and then we were off towards the grain elevator to get weighed as our first stop. We will do a separate update on weights and a few other things, we just want to go over he basics at this point.
As soon as we left the lot we heard a unfamiliar squeak that we determined was coming from the head of the 5th wheel hitch and king pin which was a bother but after we both walked beside the truck as the other moved forward we decided it was nothing that would stop the test drive so we continued on and that squeak is still a mystery at the time of me writing this update and I have a couple things in mind for when we hook up next to test.
The test drive went well other than the unusual squeak or scraping sound now and again and we headed back to the shop. Once we got back to the shop we developed a issue with the two front jacks on the Bigfoot leveling system and a couple guys worked on that until the end of the day with no positive results so the decision was made to just get us level and they would call Bigfoot Monday morning and attack it again.
As far as the weekend goes Diane and I just puttered around mainly, organizing stuff in drawers, organizing the basement and the likes and I spent a little more time crawling around under the coach checking hoses, brake lines and whatever else I could lay my eyes on. Oh we also made a trip to the town of Manhattan to check out a couple furniture store’s looking for a swivel rocker. We ordered our IMG couch and loveseat from Arizona Leather and had them made in Norway and then shipped to New Horizons but have a area just perfect for a small swivel rocker but we had no luck so we have a lawn chair sitting there now LOL!!!
Oh, and Sunday a fellow came buy to buff a few areas on the coach that needed touching up and man did it turn out nice!!!
Ok, Monday rolled around and about 9AM we had a couple guys out working on the jacks again as well as a small hydraulic leak we found and changed out a shock that had a bent end. The jacks turned out to be a formidable opponent but they finally licked the problem around 2pm. WOW, those guys were itching there heads and Bigfoot gave them some ideas but nothing that really helped so my hats off to them for sticking with it without getting frustrated.
This took us to the completion as far as the pickup process goes so we went in and talked with the lady in charge of doing the paperwork and told her we were ready to finalize things which we scheduled for Tuesday because we had another little project to take care of and would be around anyway.
What Project you ask? Well when we first ordered the coach we ordered it without a generator because with the solar we had on the last coach we hardly ever used the generator and we had plans of adding solar to this unit as well AND we don’t dry camp as much as we did when we first started this fulltime life style so we figured solar and a small 2200 watt Honda portable would be just fine. But then opportunity knocked.
A buddy and fellow New Horizons owner was having weight issues on his coach and was having his 2 year old lightly used generator removed because like us he gets by with the solar he has on his coach. So when we heard this we struck a deal to buy it from him and have the shop here at New Horizons install it in our new coach. He made a easy sale and we saved a bunch of money so it was a win win. The install was scheduled for Tuesday at 7AM.
Tuesday rolled around and we were up and had the slides in by 7am so they could come by with the forklift and drag us to the shop and start work on the generator.
Once they had us in the shop they went right to work and had the job completed by 2PM. The project was much easier because we had the generator prep done during the build just in case something like this was to happen, we just didn’t figure on it happening this fast LOL!!!
Once the generator was done we just had to pay the bill and we were free to roll but because it was late in the day we opted to spend another night in front of the shop.
Ok, that’s a lot for one update and we know it was a bit abbreviated AND we know we didn’t share any completed pictures or details on purpose LOL!!! We want you to come back for more details and the finished pictures once we get settled and write the next update. AND we want the blog update to be live at the same time our walk through video goes live on our YouTube channel. In fact it might go live first, I’m trying my hardest to get everyone to subscribe over there LOL!!!
We also want to mention that we are New Horizons Ambassadors and what that means is that we have volunteered to show our rig to anyone interested in a New Horizons RV but not in the Kansas area and we are willing to talk with people about our experiences either by email or phone. So if you have any questions feel free to ask, we are a open book.
**Any colored text or product image in a post is an affiliate link as swell as the items listed in our sidebar under ”Products we use and support” and the “Amazon” link under the “Search Amazon” section will simply take you to Amazon for a full product description and where you can purchase if you feel the need. As an Amazon Associate we could get a kickback from qualifying purchases but the price is no different than what you would find if you didn’t go to Amazon through our link. We would really appreciate your support! **
Wednesday (3/31) rolled around and with it a travel day. The first travel day in 5 months, gee wiz!! I was up at 4am but Diane sleep until about 5:30 so I guess we both were ready to roll.
We took it pretty casual and had the truck hooked up and started rolling at 8am which was 1 hour earlier than our normal departure time on travel days, I think because we were thinking we would travel just over 400 miles and make it to Alamogordo New Mexico before stopping but as it turned out we held up short at 336 miles and found a wide spot in the road outside of Las Cruces New Mexico and spent the night there.
It was as simple as any travel day could be because all we did was get on I-10 and follow our nose. Not our preferred type of road but we just wanted to make time so it worked.
If you remember in our last update Diane made a stew for us to have for our trip to Kansas and boy was it good!
A fun note, we were just cruising along on the freeway and all of a sudden I saw what looked like the rear cap of a New Horizon 5th wheel. Now New Horizons only makes about 35 rigs per year so you don’t just bump into them everywhere so it had me curious.
I had the cruise set at 68mph and we were slowing creeping up on the rig ahead and then we finally got close enough and I could tell that it was in fact a New Horizon!!! Eventually we ended up passing it and we ended up knowing the driver.
As luck would have it there was a rest area just ahead so we pulled in and so did the other New Horizon and it was our buddy Hans!!! Hans picked up his New Horizon 5th wheel at the same time we did 2 years ago.
We have bumped into Hans a couple times over the last 2 years and keep up with each other on Facebook but this oh so unplanned meeting was pretty cool. We visited for just a few minutes before parting ways but we will be seeing each other at the New Horizon factory because he is also headed that direction. It really IS a small world.
(Thursday 4/1) After a not so great night of sleep (neither Diane or I could really sleep for some reason) I was up at 5am and Diane was up soon after, we had a casual morning and then hit the road at 8am again. This day our goal was to make it to Tucumcari New Mexico, another just over 300 mile day so we headed out on I-10 then switched to I-25 in Deming and drove that for about 10 miles until we reached HWY 70 which we then jumped on and drove it to Alamogordo New Mexico and then switched to HWY 54. We drove HWY 54 until we reached I-40 and then took I-40 to the Flying J Truck stop just outside of Tucumcari where we spent the night. Not as good a spot as the night before, truck stops are not normally our thing, but it served the purpose.
Al least well over half of our day was pretty much backroads but we sure hit a lot of construction so it seemed like a longer day than it actually was. Poor us LOL!!!
We were off the road by 2:30 but that afforded us the chance to grab a spot on the end of a run where we could run a slide out and have our MorRyde steps out without any fear of a truck getting to close. We also were able to park Diane’s car next to us so it all worked out.
Speaking of those MorRyde steps, we have mixed feelings about them. They sure are sturdy and they look good but they sure can dish up challenges in certain parking conditions. I think we have a solution to that and we will be sharing that with you soon. I think I might do a video on that as well LOL!!!
We pretty much just kicked back, had another bowl of Diane’s great stew, watched a little TV and got ready for another travel day. From Tucumcari we only had 500 miles remaining until we reached our destination at the New Horizon Factory which we figured to break up into two travel days.
Friday morning (4/2/21) after a pretty solid nights sleep filled with truck engines and refer van coolers running we rolled out of bed “me about 5am and Diane at 6” and went through our morning routine and had the wheels rolling at just about 8am with our minds tuned on a 288 mile travel day to Dodge City Kansas.
We jumped on HWY 54 and followed our noses to Minneola where after missing our turn and doing a quick manuver to get back on track we switch to HWY 283 and continued a few miles to the Loves Truck stop.
Once we reached Loves to our surprise it was pretty full and there were no spaces left that would allow us to have our MorRyde steps out without being in the parking slot next to us not alone have a slide out so that was a issue. That darn MorRyde step, I mentioned earlier that we really like it for what it is BUT it sure has it’s draw backs as well, we will fix than and soon!!
Not only was the parking situation not perfect but dang the place stunk. Now I’m a old farm boy and I don’t mind the smell of money, I mean cow shit but MAN this place was a bit much so we decided that after having a bathroom break to roll about 16 miles up the road to Spearville and check out a small truck stop there.
Once we reached the Spearville Truck Stop the wind was howling and the dust was so bad that neither of us even wanted to step foot out of our rigs so after just communicating through the walkie talkies we decided to just keep going and look for a spot along the way to hunker down for the night. After all it was only around 2 in the afternoon and neither of us were tired.
Well let me make what turned into a long day into a shorter story, as it turned out we just kept driving and driving and ended up making it all the way to the New Horizon factory in Junction City Kansas before we called it a day LOL!!
Yup, it turned out to be a 500 mile day but we are all tucked in in front of the service bay and ready for our Monday Morning appointment.
The plan for the weekend is to wash the coach after our travels, do a good inside cleaning, I have a couple video’s I want to shoot and otherwise just chill until the fun begins Monday morning and BOY do we have a full week ahead that we don’t think you will want to miss. It’s going to be CRAZY!!!!!
After 5 month’s at the Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort it’s time to lift our jacks and roll away.
It was tough coming to a resort like this and paying full pop with so so so many events and activities cancelled but we understand why and we probably would not have attended many of the events if they were to happen due to the COVID situation. AND we certainly don’t have anything to complain about compared to so many.
At least we had Pickleball to occupy our time almost every day and we did get to see many of our friends that we only see during this time of year. But it’s unfortunate that so many could not travel for one reason or another that would normally be here as well, maybe next year.
Once we and a few of our friends received our COVID vaccines we at least felt a little better about getting together in very small groups to play a few games and have a couple meals. In the picture above we were playing Quixx, a new game for Diane and me, which was proceeded by a game of Sequence with our friends Drew & Becky.
We reserved a room big enough for 200 people but we felt relatively safe by doing so LOL!!!
In the picture above everyone brought their own meal and we all sat at different tables and ate and then had a Mexican Food desert fest before sliding a couple tables together for a game of Swoop, the first gathering this large we have had this season. It felt good and strange at the same time.
And for our last hoorah a few of us got together and headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings where we grabbed a table outside on the patio and had one last meal together before heading back to the resort where we reserved a big room so we could have a surprise Birthday Cake for our great friend Becky and followed that up with a game of Swoop.
It’s funny because a number of times this season we just felt cheated by not being able to really spend quality time time with fiends but having these last few small gatherings was sort of like playing a horrible round of golf and then getting to the last hole and having a couple great shots and birdieing the hole and thinking, I love this game LOL!!
The last few days of our stay we slowly tossed in a few chores like putting away patio items, checking air pressures in all the rigs and the likes so we didn’t interfere with any social activities we had lined up LOL!! We had to squeeze in everything we could ya know.
On our very last day I went out early to take care of the RV tires while it was cool and so I could go play Pickleball at 9AM one last time before we leave. Diane also went over at 9AM to play with the girls one last time before we roll.
After Pickleball Diane made a stew for us to eat on during our trip to Kansas while I washed Diane’ car and filled it with gas and filled one propane tank and wiped down the truck. I was going to wash the RV but figured we would be a mess by the time we hit Kansas and I’ll just wash it once we get there.
The sad time of saying our see ya down the roads this season has come and we must go but at the same time we are excited about what we have in store for this summer. We have a few great hikes planned, there are a couple towns we plan to stop in that has Pickleball and it’s always fun to play at different places and of course we have some big changes coming during our visit at the New Horizons factory which will be the first business at hand when we roll.
OK, it’s time to roll. We imagine the next update will be coming from the New Horizons parking lot LOL!!!
We will mention again that if you have not checked out our YouTube channel give it a look see. It’s actually growing slowly and the comment section has been pretty active which has been enjoyable. At the time of this update we have reached 300 subscriber’s and the graph showing view’s is steadily going up and we are getting on average 150 to 300+ view’s per day and that number is steadily going up as well as the watched hours and unique viewers. Of course as we add more and more videos all of those things should keep going up which is exciting to me but Diane really want’s nothing to do with it,,,,, so far LOL!!!
Of course our goal is 1000 subscribers so feel free to share the channel with anyone you feel may be interested.
Here is a link to the channel and of course it’s free to subscribe but just by doing so helps support the channel and us. Even if you never go back to watch a video just subsribing helps our channel grow. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWqRmO1rO4cu3rFANF1iG6Q
Ok, that’s it for this video. We will see ya in Kansas!!!
Dave & Diane throwing caution to the wind 