Crossing the Breadbasket

Starting this while we still are in Ohio but we are leaving in the morning. Geoff had a great time both days he spent at the National Air Force Museum and of course he brought me a souvenir so a nice little plush eaglet joins the collection.

In case anyone thinks otherwise, there is actually a good bit one has to do on a daily or near daily basis living in an RV. Timmber Wolf has to have the gray and black water tanks emptied on a regular basis and of course the freshwater tank has to be filled. If you're hooked up to the park's water you're not using up your freshwater tank but any water use when you are not hooked up runs the tank down and that tank is even smaller than the 35 gallon black or gray tanks. When you are preparing for departure you make sure all your tanks are full or empty depending on what they are and you keep track of your propane tank level as well. Remember, the frig works off the propane when you are not plugged in to a 30 amp service!

So, to get ready for our leg of the trip crossing the midwest from Dayton to Denver, we'll empty our tanks tonight after dinner, fill up the freshwater tank and gather up all our trash. When we leave in the morning all we will have to do is unhook the water, sewer and electric lines, drop our trash off at the dumpster and turn left as we go out of the park, headed for I70. We've checked the propane which is about half full but this park doesn't have propane available so we'll make sure to fill the tank up at one of the travel plazas along our route.

Of course that doesn't even mention making sure everything on the inside is where it can't fly around as we go. The extra chair gets folded up and put between the bed and the wall and the the suitcase and laundry bag take the floor space on the other side of the bed. The big trash can gets folded up and secured in the shower with a few other things and all the small stuff gets put away in drawers and cabinets and then all the drawers and cabinets as well as the frig doors are checked to make sure they are properly shut.

The trip across the Midwest has been more or less uneventful, it is Friday morning now and we are in Columbia, Missouri. We had some issues with the tires taken care of yesterday afternoon - the stupid TireMinder we had installed at the beginning has been useless and made airing up the tires difficult for professionals and impossible for us. We went to Big O Tires here in Columbia and they removed the system, added extenders on the valve stems where needed and aired us up. If you ever have tire problems look for a Big O Tires!! They are all over the country. If they are anything like the one here you will be glad you did.

By the time we were done at Big O it was time to stop for the night so we are at Cottonwoods RV Park which was only a few miles away. Very nice here. Still having some refrigerator issues we are keeping an eye on as we head out towards Kansas and Colorado.