Side Quest: Chapman

My mom used to tell me that when I was a child, I hated summer. I craved the structure of school. She's not wrong about me. Even as an adult, I like to have a plan. Something more important to look forward to than if I should have some coffee or take a nap at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

So, this morning my husband and I decided to drive over to Chapman and explore. We had done some research last night on line and had a basic plan. Check out the town, get some groceries, and see if they have decent tacos at the local Mexican restaurant. In our Texas version of this trip we were going on a quest to find the best taco in Texas. Well, so far we've had tacos twice. Not sure they know much about tacos in Kansas. It may not be their fault. I'm sure their tacos are pretty good to the average person. But my husband makes THE best tacos around. He cooks white onion in with the ground beef and adds cilantro, lime juice, cumin and lots of other spices. It is beyond yummy. Possibly glorious might be a fitting word for it. I may just be spoiled. Having had the best taco meat in the world makes it hard to be an unbiased judge of restaurant tacos.

My husband thought the tacos at the restaurant were good. I shrugged. “Maybe we should keep the RV and turn it into a taco truck?” I said to him, “Once they had your taco meat – they would never want anything else.”

My husband smiled. “Let's tuck that idea away. We'll revisit it once we get settled.”

Chapman was a cute town. They are all Irish and proud of it. There are four-leaf clovers on everything. My husband is Irish – right down to his leprechaun tattoo. We were surprised they had a 24-hour fitness place right as you come into town. My husband thought he would see what the cost is – he would like to start working out again.

There was a little brick hardware store downtown. I said, “let's go in. I need a laundry basket. I doubt they will have one – but let's go check.” Sure enough! They did have one. A nice sturdy one for five dollars plus tax. I don't think I've ever owned such a sturdy laundry basket before. They also had garden hoses on the roll – cut to whatever length you want. Appliances, kitchen gadgets, nuts, bolts and even pet supplies. They even had recliners on sale. Great store. It was built a little like a maze and the worker guy followed us at a distance. Maybe he thought we were going to pocket some tools if he didn't keep an eye on us. He did help us find the laundry baskets. I think in the end he was a little disappointed that was the only thing we bought since we spent a good half an hour looking at everything. Lol!

I bought a local paper from the grocery store and read through it when I got home. Only one help wanted ad – for a school bus driver. Yeah, I don't think so. Not for me. I did find out that there is a farmer's market tomorrow at the RV park that we are currently living at. We will check it out. Until then – time to update my resume.

The New Chad

Our permanent RV spot is not open until October 1^st so we are still in an overnight spot. We cant quite put everything away if we are going to have to move again in a day or two.

In our old RV park – there was a man that lived there named Chad. He could fix anything on an RV. He had fixed a couple of heaters on our old RV and replaced a mother board for one of them. We heard there was a man here, at this new RV park, who could fix stuff on RV's. We were calling him the new Chad and waiting for him to work miracles on our fridge.

“Yeah,” the new Chad told us, “your fridge is toast.”

Bummer. So we headed to Salina to look for a new fridge. The first appliance store we went to – we found a nice fridge – in our price range. The lady was telling us that all the kids going back to school had bought up almost all the fridges. We asked about the one we liked. “Sorry, we are out of those.” she said. My husband asked if we could buy the one on display. Nope. We asked if there was another store around. She gave us directions and we drove to the other store.

We were able to buy a similar one and drove it home. It was a lot smaller once we got it in the RV and emptied the cooler. The Lord reminded me that the prophets of old were lucky if they got a camel to travel across the desert and certainly didn't have anything like ice. I was suddenly very thankful with our new little fridge.

Another step accomplished.

Abilene

The speed limit on I-70 is 75 miles per hour. Try as I might, I can't seem to get my car to go that fast. A life time of following the speed limit in Oregon has tainted me. I am unable to go over 65. Semi trucks are passing me and I feel bad. I step on the gas.

Abilene, Kansas, was the childhood home of Dwight D Eisenhower and the location of his presidential library. Everyone here loves Ike. The library is currently closed due to – well - you know.

There are no national supermarket chains in Abilene. Bill West owns the local Country Mart and three generations of West's work there. According to their website, they have bananas on sale for 39 cents a pound on Wednesdays. Today is Tuesday. There is a sidewalk sign advertising their Tuesday 5 dollar sushi sale. The American roll consists of crab meat, tempura shrimp, cream cheese, avocado and (lol!) cornflakes. Unfortunately it is too early and they aren't ready yet. Will have to try some later.

There were some people wearing masks in the store. Two women with a little boy, who was probably 8 years old, were all wearing masks. I'm thinking to myself, I don't care what anyone else thinks – that's child abuse. The little boy grabs onto my cart and starts pushing it back and forth. He throws an unholy fit when his mom tries to stop him. His mom chases him around my cart until he finally lets go. Brat. I change my mind about the child abuse.

There are signs taped to the door in the frozen section apologizing for the lack of products on the shelves. It really pisses me off. Manufactured scarcity. What a lie.

The girl that bagged my groceries takes them out to the car. I ask her if they get tips.

“Well, we aren't really supposed to but, you know...”

Yeah. I know. I ask her about the signs and the lack of products. She tells me that some products haven't been available for over a year. Others come and go but the lists of products that are no longer available get longer and longer as time goes by. I thank her and give her two dollars. I was, after all, pumping her for information.

Due to the construction on the road, and the fact that I was thinking about cornflakes, I missed my exit. I had to drive all the way to Chapman (5 miles away) before I could turn around and come home.

Okay. Living out of a cooler is beginning to suck. I think that may be the next step.

Step After Step

When I woke up this morning it was 5am (central time). My husband was already up, re-taping the overflow tank. “I've decided,” he said, “that we are not going to use triple AAA. I think we can make it.”

Our original plan involved having one tow truck for the RV and one for the car so we could return the tow dolly. It did seem to be a huge complicated mess to do it that way. “Ok honey.” I said, and we started getting the RV ready for travel.

We were 9 miles west of Salina and we needed to get to the tow dolly rental place in Abilene. It was approximately 40 miles east. We needed to get to Exit 272 and we were starting around Exit 250. 22 exits away.

“Ok babe,” my husband said as he pulled out. I started praying. We need you Lord, this thing is going to die any minute.

It was a very rough ride. The engine was backfiring every time my husband let off the gas – so he kept his pedal to the metal so to speak.

“Pray!” My husband shouted.

“I'm praying!” I yelled back.

It was like a spiritual battle was taking place over the RV. I shouted encouragement to my husband. Exit 260! Exit 270! 7 miles to Abilene! Next Exit! 

Phew! The hard part was over.

I had written down instructions from the exit to the rental return and then from the rental return to the RV park we were hoping to stay at. The sweet guy at the rental place said, “Nah – you don't want to go there. You want to go to (redacted)'s RV park. That guy is awesome, I take my kids there all the time. If you have any trouble at all you tell them that (redacted) sent you.”

It was liberating to have the car back. They let us park the RV there temporarily so we could take the car and find the RV park. I could see the map in my mind but I didn't have the directions with me. It was a straight shot down from the rental place – I should be able to find it. Lol! All the way down this road and then all the way down the next road. We finally located it and had a good time checking the lay of the land. They are really big fans of greyhound dogs here. They even have a greyhound dog racing track that we thought we would go to sometime.

The RV park did not have a long term spot for us. We decided to check out (redacted)'s place. We asked at the gas station if anyone knew where (redacted)'s RV park was? A lady who was a customer said she lived near there and it was off Exit 281. Ouch.

10 more exits. I was relieved that I was just following my husband and not inside the RV in the thick of battle. I was still praying for him though.

(Redacted)'s RV park was very nice. We had to sign a lease for at least 4 months. It sounds like we will be wintering here in Kansas. The sweet guy at the rental place had told me that I would really like Kansas because they have 4 distinct seasons. It was 96 degrees here today. I can say I'm looking forward to autumn and what the Lord has in store for us.

Day 6: We may not be leaving Kansas, Dorothy

During the preparations for our move my husband and I had several conversations about the same topic. We discussed it a couple of times and were in agreement that this was what the Lord was telling us. It was that if we broke down somewhere before we got to Texas than it was God's will. That God wanted us there for whatever reason that only He knows.

My husband actually brought up the conversation again that first night when we seemed to be stranded because of the overflow tank. “Well,” he said, “I guess this is where God wants us forever.”

“No”, I answered, chuckling to myself. He was still upset at the time. “I know God wants us out of Oregon. After that, I'm not so sure.”

The RV started out this morning running really rough. We actually believed we got some bad gas that was affecting it and it didn't help that Kansas was having a record breaking heat wave. It probably would have been OK if Kansas was flat like people think – but Kansas is NOT flat. It is hill – valley – hill – valley – all the way. At least the part of Kansas that we were in.

We took an exit that had an RV park and a gas station. The RV park had a locked gate and no people although there were RV's parked there. My husband had to pull off to the side of the road under the shade of a tree because the RV was close to dying. I said, “Let's stay here for an hour and look at our options.”

The RV was not going to be able to make it to Texas in it's present condition. We counted the money. OK – we have some money, but not enough to get the RV worked on AND go to Texas. My husband jokingly said we should make a break for it and abandon the RV and drive to Texas in the car. I said, “what about the tow dolly. We have to return it.” Hhmmmm.

“if we were in Oregon – do you think the Lord could have convinced us to move to Kansas?” I asked.

 “Not very likely,” my husband answered, “Why would we move to Kansas?'

“Exactly,” I said.

We had the beginnings of a plan. We drove back to the gas station and asked about the RV park. It was online registration only. We have no smart phones and no internet. The girl was very sweet so she used her phone to register us and then called the owner (who is a regular of hers and is on a first name basis with) to get the code so we could get in.

We parked and hooked up and had decent internet. Today is Sunday and everything is basically closed.

We can't really do anything today. Phone calls will have to made tomorrow – we have a general idea of what we have to do.

I like to have some sort of confirmation that this was the direction the Lord wanted us to go. So I typed, “walking by the Spirit of God. What do we do?” I know – it seems like a really corny thing to do. But I came across a blog post by a man named Tony Evans. This section hit the nail right on the head:

“Walking is continuous. Like the filling of the Holy Spirit, our walk in the Spirit is ongoing, so we must maintain our dedication. To walk is to continue taking one step after another.”

Wow. You can read the entire post here: 

Walking in the Spirit | Tony Evans

One step after another. We can do that. Thank you Lord!

Day 5: RV Living - the Atlas is your Friend

 

My husband is the driver. I pick the mutually agreed upon CD's. Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, Hank Jr., Ray Charles, Sheryl Crow, Bob Seger. Our tastes are eclectic.

I'm also the navigator. While we were preparing for the trip – we wanted an atlas. Thankfully there was one at the store. The checker said, “Wow! They have atlas's in? That shelf is usually bare.” I'm sure in today's technology laden world, no one uses atlas's much anymore. I had written the mapquest directions down in a notebook and the atlas was just a back up. Ha ha ha. That atlas cost $13. It is priceless.

So we are in Wyoming and the original plan was to take I-25 right before Cheyenne until Denver when we would catch I-70. I'm looking at the state of Colorado on the atlas along I-25. There are big letter towns all the way from Fort Collins to Denver and all I could see in my mind was four lanes of semi's and Prius' and horrible lane changes with exits all over the place. I saw an alternate route that would take us on the outside of Denver but we would have to drive on a toll road with at least 3 toll stops. Then I saw another route.

“If we stay on I-80 until Nebraska we can catch 385 South. We can avoid all the traffic in the Denver area and catch I-70 from there. The atlas says 385 is a primary highway. I'm sure they must maintain it – its not like it is a secondary highway.” I said to my husband. I was a little worried about changing the plans at the last minute. We did not have any plans to go as far as Nebraska.

“You're the navigator.” my husband answered. We stayed in Cheyenne for the night and set out with the new route in the morning.

I wouldn't use the term primary highway – it's kinda misleading. “Back-road,” would be more accurate and ixnay on the aintenancemay. But it was a beautiful drive. All by ourselves on that road – no other cars. I would text my dad as we changed states. Entering Nebraska. Entering Colorado. Entering Kansas.

We passed local farmers with their million dollar tractor's prominently displayed on their well maintained front lawns. Corn fields for miles on either side. Despite the bumpiness of the road in certain spots, it was a great way to see Colorado. We passed through amazing little towns that time forgot. I really liked Holyoke. I would want to live there if we were staying in Colorado.

We eventually turned onto I-70 East and were back on track. We stop at an RV park in Kansas. At night we draw the curtains and get ready for bed. We are already home.

Day 4: Part Two: Thieving in Rawlins

 

“Of course they have no ice.” I said sarcastically to my husband as I brought in the groceries and the new cooler. You would think a superstore in a fairly big town would have ice. “But it was only $77 altogether.”

Wait. Hmmm. Suddenly $77 didn't seem right. I looked at the receipt. The lady at the superstore had only charged me $6.35 for an item that is normally $66.35. Darn. I was going to have to go back.

I walked across the superstore parking lot and found the same checker who had undercharged me. I showed her the receipt. “I'm sorry,” I said, “you undercharged me and I'm here to pay the rest.” She was shocked. In fact, she was so flustered that her glasses got all fogged up from her mask. “Thank you for your honesty.” she said, “most people wouldn't do that.” I thought, I know, but just smiled at her and paid for the rest.

We loaded up the cooler and had a yummy breakfast of Swiss cheese slices and the best green grapes ever. They were so cold and crisp. It was turning out to be a great day. I gave the dog one of the grapes and we laughed at her trying to eat it. I think she liked it.

We continued down the road and luckily a little gas station had block ice – which was what we wanted. Our make-shift fridge was operational.

We found a little RV park outside of Cheyenne. My husband is wiped out from all the driving for the last 3 days and really needed an early night. We didn't have a reservation but the office girl had one 30 amp pull trough spot left (Thank you Lord!)

We are resting tonight and will hit the road again early tomorrow.