Kansas, Pratt - Friday, September 5, 2014 - Heading West

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAUGHTER DESIRA!!!!

We left our shady spot in Pohick Bay Regional Park early Sunday morning, August 31.  It was easier getting out than it was getting in.  Going out we had the bike off the back Greg folded the bike lift up so it would be vertical rather than horizontal and we gained a couple feet of wiggle room.

Sidling Hill on I-68 in Maryland is one of my favorite sights.  There is a lookout point here where I think you can see seven or eight states.  We didn’t stop this time but we have several times in the past and the view is great.

 

As we were going through the mountains we noticed the leaves were just starting to change, we could see little bits of red and yellow every once in a while.

We stopped at the Wal-Mart in Strongsville, OH for the night.  Around 10:00 Greg was watching TV and I was reading when we started hearing some strange noises.  Turned out to be a great fireworks display and we had a pretty good seat.  I obviously don’t know how to take pictures of fireworks, I think there is something special you have to do to capture a good image.

This field of sunflowers caught my eye.  There was a field on the other side of the road also.  I think this was in Ohio.  Now that we are in Kansas we see sunflowers in the side ditches everywhere.

We got to Charger in Elkhart Monday evening so we could get in first thing in the morning.  After they looked at the roof, the conclusion was that we will probably not need a new roof.  The patch that is on it currently is working and since we are going to spend the winter in Arizona (where we hope it doesn’t rain) we are taking our chances that we will be okay to wait until next Spring when we are back in Indiana to get a permanent repair done.

As we were leaving Elkhart, it looked like a “monster” cloud was bringing rain (note the evil eye and smirk on the right).  We got just a few large drops and it was over.

 

 

Indiana roads are as bad as they were the last time we were through.  The roads in Illinois, Missouri and Kansas were very smooth in comparison.  As we came into Illinois the GPS took us on a route out through some county and township roads, but even they were nice.  We were a little hesitant to follow the route, but it worked out ok.  We came through Illinois on I-57 and I-72.  In Missouri we picked up U.S. 36.

Once we got to Kansas we saw a lot of this – wide open prairie land.  I tried to take the picture through the bug splatters - we killed a lot of them this trip.

 

 

I don’t think I’ve ever seen another state where they direct you to cattle pens right off the state highway.  Maybe we’ll see this again when we get to Wyoming and some of the more western states.

The walls along Highway 54 or Kellogg Street as you come into Wichita are really a work of art.  Unfortunately, the traffic was kind of heavy so I could only get a quick picture.

This picture isn’t out of focus, we ran into a dust storm just outside of Wichita.  Winds were over 30 mph and the temperature was in the high 90s.  Today the temps are in the low 70s but the wind is still pretty strong – welcome to Kansas.  I can’t resist having the nice breeze blowing through the open windows so I’ll just have to deal with the dust later. 

Any idea what is under the overpass?  See the brown line just under the ledge, we saw these on most of the overpasses on highway 54.  I’m thinking barn swallows.

 

 

 

Right now our home is really tiny.  When we got ready to set up and put the slides out last night, one went half way out and stopped.  Nothing more was going to happen, the motor to the hydraulic pump stopped and the manual override that Greg used before didn’t work.  This morning he took the motor off and ordered a new one.  It’s coming from Indiana L and should be here in the morning.  Thankfully, we can still move through the coach, just one at a time.

 

 

This is where we will be for the next month.  Son David put in 50 amp service and he has a water hydrant we can use at his house.

 

 

This is the view down the driveway.

 

 

 

The skies are beautiful this morning.  I didn’t get up in time to see the sunrise.  Since I’m not an early riser I’ll probably be posting some Kansas sunsets, sunrises will be few and far between.