July 9-14, 2018

This RV full-time living is not for the faint of heart!

As I stated in the earlier post, we were quite ready to move on July 9^th when we picked up our truck.  We had been told by the shop replacing the transmission that it would be done by the previous Thursday.  But we received a call in the late afternoon stating it would not be ready to be picked up until Friday afternoon.  Same thing happened Friday with a new pick up date of Monday by noon.

Long story short-We picked up the truck at 3PM.  By the time we returned our rental, returned to the campground, packed up and dumped, it was 5pm.

A wrong turn had us in downtown Kansas City during rush hour. 

We only planned on traveling 50 miles because it was late.  Luckily we found a site at Weston Bend State Park arriving at 7pm.

A few miles prior to arriving at the campground, Monte said he didn’t like the way the truck was performing.  WHAT?

After un-hitching he took the truck for a long ride.  When he returned he said he felt the torque converter was slipping.

The next morning we drove back to Lee’s Summit where Monte took the truck back to the shop.  After taking it for a test drive, the mechanic called the warranty company who instructed Monte to take the truck to the local Dodge Dealer.  They took it for a test drive as well as checking codes and found no problem.

The warranty company suggested we continue on our travels assuring us that we were covered anywhere in the country.

We were given an extension to stay at the campground (there is a 14 day limit-we had already used up a one week extension).  We were both so exhausted when Monte returned from the Dodge Dealer so we didn’t go back to the office to pay for additional nights.  We decided we would wait until the morning.

When we went to pay for another couple nights we were informed that someone had reserved our site for that afternoon and we would have to move to another site. 

We decided to just leave and were on our way by 1pm.

Our goal was to travel 200 miles to Omaha, Nebraska.  We made it to just outside Saint Joseph, Missouri when the tire monitor started beeping. 

The monitor indicated there was an issue with the left rear tire on the RV.  When Monte looked in the side mirror he thought it appeared that the tire was low.  We pulled off at the next exit and found a place to stop.

Half the tread was gone on the center of the tire and it had torn the membrane above the tire.

The first two local tire shops we called did not have the size tire we needed.  Luckily the third shop we called had the tires in stock and was located 5 miles away on the same road we were on which meant we would not have to get back on the highway. 

We drove to the shop with our flashers on doing 30 MPH. 

Two hours later we were on our way with four brand new tires.

While I was in the waiting room at the tire shop I researched campground close by because it was getting late.   30 miles later we arrived at Big Lake SP where we paid for 4 nights.

Monte was able to repair the torn membrane using flex tape.  (a "As seen on TV" product)

Even though it sometimes feels like we are waiting for “the next shoe to drop” we are still enjoying this lifestyle. 

 

 

The campground we ended up in is in a very rural area.  There was a Laundromat in the closest town, some ten miles away, where we did much overdue washing. 

 

 

One day we went to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge where we watched a short film highlighting the importance of the refuge as a stopping place for migrating birds. 

Some of the exhibits at the Visitor Center.

 

 

 

 

We drove the ten mile loop but, unfortunately, other than a few herons, white pelicans and egrets didn’t see much wildlife.  According to the film we watched if we were visiting during the fall migration we would have seen hundreds of bald eagles, thousands of butterflies and millions of snow geese.

 

The rest of our time at Big Lake State Park was spent just chilling.