On the Road Again.

One of the things I miss about our old home was the ability to keep the trailer parked in our yard.  Any work or cleaning that needed to be done was no problem.  Step out the front door and there it was.  Packing up was also pretty simple and we could do it in stages.  Now the trailer has been housed at our dealership which is about 60 km away, about a 45 minute drive.  The plan was to store the trailer in Dugald, a small community about 6 km down the road however our dealers inability to get our work done resulted in the trailer staying in Headingly.

On Nov 17th Lori got a good report from the doctor and her physiotherapist.  While the bone wasn't fully healed it was well on its way and the physio gave her exercises she could do on the road.  We checked the weather forecast and decided Nov 20 was the best day to start our trip south.  Now we just had to get the trailer packed.  Local bylaws only allow us to park the trailer on the street for 3 hours and we really wanted to leave it there for a night or 2 so we could get things properly packed and be ready for an early departure.   Our dealer actually suggested that they could park it in their shop on the  17th and it would be thawed out and we could pack it up on the Saturday.  Their service bays are closed on Saturday so we would have the place to ourselves.  Still a long drive but at least we could pack in comfort.  We loaded the truck and headed out Saturday morning.  We have replaced the furniture over the past year and the last piece was a love seat which was a tight squeeze to get in the narrow door.  I enlisted a friend to help me and we managed to squeeze it in.

Too much white stuff.  Time to catch up with the Canada Geese 

Loaded up ready to transfer to the trailer.
So much easier when we stored the trailer in the yard. 

Unfortunately we had no lights in the trailer and initially couldn't get the slides out.  The dealer was supposed to charge up the battery for us however they discovered that the battery was dead and wouldn't hold a charge.  You'd think, given that they knew that we were heading out on a long trip, that they would have phoned us and got our go ahead to put in a new battery.  But that would require thinking about the customer.  I did notice that 2 of the 15 Amp breakers on the 12 Vdc system had burned out.  I replaced them but didn't think too much more about it.  More about that later.

We got everything in the trailer and then Monday morning, Nov 20, we winterized the house, packed the remaining items and headed to pick up the trailer.  Took about an hour to pack the remaining items and get hooked up.  I was pleasantly surprised by how level our trailer was.  We had always been about 5 inches nose high and our new truck was 2 inches higher than the old one.  I had the hitch adjusted to the lowest setting and when the dealer put the new axles on (old ones were bent) they mounted the axles below the springs.  They were mounted above the springs previously.  The lower hitch brought down the nose and the new axle position raised the centre to rear which gets us pretty close to level.  Now I shouldn't have to worry about dragging the back bumper coming out of gas stations.  And yes, I have done that.  Not a pleasant sound.

We left Winnipeg about noon with the temps just above freezing and sporadic rain showers which lasted for about an hour.  The border crossing was a breeze.  Only one lane open and there was a lineup of vehicles behind us so I think the customs officer felt under a bit of pressure to get the line moving.  Due to our late start we thought we might only make it as far a Fargo, ND but with the new truck and new G rated tires I was travelling 65mph which is a little faster than before.   We made good time so pushed on to Watertown, SD.

The rain and clouds started to break just over the border

There is a casino just outside of Watertown which, according to their website, has an RV Park.  I had read about casino camping.  Typically low or free parking and often with playing cards offered to guest to get them gambling.  Were not big gamblers but $5 per night for electric only was pretty enticing.  Turns out their RV Park was closed so we headed in to Watertown and got a room at the Econo Lodge.  Ended up costing almost $100 after they added their $15. surcharge for our dog.  Ordered a pizza for supper and turned in early.  It was hard to get a good nights sleep in their rock hard bed and lumpy pillows but it was warm and quiet.

Tuesday, Nov 21, we got up early and were on the road by 7:30.  We headed south on I29 to Sioux Falls where we topped up the fuel tank and filled up the coffee mugs at the Flying J.  We phoned ahead to York, NE to book a campsite at the York Kampground.  Reservations this time of year and this far north aren't really required as most campgrounds are pretty much empty except for some hardy sorts that live year round in their trailers or roving trades/construction workers.  I have memberships in both Good Sam and Passport America, both provide discounts on camping fees.  PA is better as the discount can be up to 50%.  I paid $20 for full service with 50Amp electric.  These campgrounds are often second or third tier however for an overnight really all we want is good services and some quiet.  Quiet often doesn't happen as many of these campgrounds are right next to the interstate offramp.  We pulled in and the office was closed so we pulled in and set up.  We had been fighting westerly crosswinds with gusts up to 50mph all day and to get the trailer warmed up we had the fireplace and an electric space heater on high plus the RV furnace.  The furnace uses propane but the fan runs of the 12 Vdc system.  After a few hours the lights, also on the 12 Vdc system, started to dim.  I checked the control panel and we were down to 1/3 battery capacity.  That shouldn't happen when hooked up to shore power.  We were on a 50 Amp hookup which should provide all the electricity we need plus charge the battery.  We shut the furnace off, left the electric space heater on, turned off the lights and climbed under the covers to keep warm.  Charli's body heat helped.  We survived the night but I didn't get much rest as my mind was racing, wondering what was broken.  By morning I figured the power converter, the device that takes the ac current provided by the shore power and converts it to dc to charge the battery, was toast.  The next morning I headed out to the Walmart, no RV repair facilities in the area, to buy a battery charger.  I hooked it up and let it charge for an hour and then tried to bring the slides in.  One slide came in then the battery died.  Waited for a few minutes and brought in the 2nd slide, then another few minutes and raised the trailer to hook up the truck.   Finally, about 10:00, we were off to our next overnight.

A train loaded with about 50 windmill arms.
One arm took 2 flat cars plus a 10 ft overlap on the 3rd car.
An adjacent field had hundreds of arms.
A major wind farm being constructed?

Wednesday, Nov 22, we headed south for Kinsley, KS.  We had spent much of the previous day on Hwy 81, a 2 lane highway, some rough patches but most of which was in pretty good shape with light traffic.  Wednesday would see us continue on 81 then 40, and 56.  All secondary highways but I found the drive much more relaxing and interesting than the Interstates.  One gets a totally different experience driving the local highways vs the Interstates.  On the Interstates everything moves fast.  Most traffic is going 75 mph or more.  We creep along at 65.  The hills are shaved off and the dips are filled in so the drive is mostly level with long sweeping curves.  You don't drive through any towns, only larger cities and then all you see is truck stops, shopping centres and industrial developments.  On the local highways you see America, or at least what we think of America, or Canada for that matter, back in the 50's and 60's.  Many of these small towns still have a main street lined with brick faced buildings, streetlights and diagonal parking.  Yes many have a Walmart on the outskirts but it still has the flavour of small towns of my youth.  What you also notice is that some of the smaller communities are really run down.  The poverty of these towns is painfully obvious and perhaps partially explains the attraction of a politician who says he's going to make everything great again.  I do wonder sometimes if our memories of how things were are anywhere close to accurate.  Anyway, I digress.  Enough social commentary.

We arrived in Kinsley, KS at the 4 Acres Campground about 3:30 and with the PA discount we paid $17 for full service with a nice level camp sites with concrete parking pads.  Kinsley is miles from any interstate so we had a nice quiet night.  It had been a windy day again but it finally started to drop off as we were setting up.  The temps had warmed up and it was right around 70F so the heavy jacket was off.  I hooked up the battery charger as I still hadn't had time to fully diagnose my electrical problem.  With the warmer temps the electric heaters kept pace and we had a very comfortable night.  

Periodically we would see huge piles of corn close to inland grain terminals.
This wasn't corn.  Looked like multi coloured sand.  

Day 4, Thursday, Nov 23 and also Turkey day in America.  Traffic was surprisingly light.  Guess everyone was gathered with family filling up on mega calories and watching football.  For some reason our GPS took us on a rather indirect route and we ended up on some rather rough highways.  There seems to be a direct correlation between rough roads and high highway numbers.  We went through Dodge City but didn't take the time to look up Matt Dillon or Miss Kitty.  Also drove through Liberal Kansas the mythical home of Dorothy and Toto.   Finally a day without gale force winds.  We checked into the Clayton RV Park in Clayton, NM.  This was formerly a KOA campground and given its state of repair I can see why it is no longer a KOA affiliate.  Did get to use my GS discount but still cost $31.  Way too much for the quality of campground.  Still, we got a good nights sleep to get us ready for the drive to Santa Fe the next day for a 3 day stay.  Will be nice to stay in one place for a few nights and perhaps get our electrical system fixed. 

Our neighbours in Clayton.

Next up, Santa Fe.