Update from Kansas!

Heyyyyy.

We finally made it to Kansas after a long day yesterday.

We woke up and Dave started working on the exhaust while I started getting the camper packed in. He finished the exhaust, and we left Mulberry Grove IL. We got on the road...around 12. And we're off, towards St. Louis...about 60 miles.

From about 20 miles off, we could see the archway over the landscape. We parked in the RV parking, which was pretty far down the road from the archway. THE ARCH IS HUUUUUUUGE! It's pretty damn cool. We took lots of pictures, and we went to go on the tram up to the top, but the next one was leaving an hour later than we were there, and that would have set up way far back. We had to go through metal detectors and they xrayed our stuff on the way in...that took up time.

We decided against going on the tram, so we went into the gift shop and bought postcards! And then we looked at the Westward Expansion museum...and then went out and took more pictures. We selftimered one of us with the arch in the background, pretty cool. We then went to eat, at a pizza place with St. Louis style pizza, which was square and thin and flat. On the way walking to the restaurant I took my phone out of my bra, where I was keeping it due to lack of pockets, and it says it needs initial programming. There is no service in order to call the number...so phone is screwed. We eat, and then walk to the car and GTFO of St. Louis. When we stop for gas in Wentzville MO, we find a Verizon store. We tell them what happened, that it stopped working after the X-Ray machine...and they don't seem to want to really help me. They try to update the software, but it doesn't help...so they want to call Asurion and get a new (refurb) phone mailed to me. I tell the guy I don't have an address. He asks where we will be staying tonight, and we have no idea. He really doesn't want to help me...at all. I'm getting annoyed, but trying to stay calm...
Finally he says he will do an emergency in store insurance claim and get me a new phone. I pick out a EnV Touch, and pay the 50 dollar deductible, and boom, out of there. Took over an hour to get the guy to do that.
Annoying.

Back on the road...it's around 630 now. Drive until we need gas again, and we eat then too. Ends up we eat truck stop food, what a shitty dinner, but oh well. We still have a long way to go...

Finally we hit Kansas...and then finally get to Salina KOA at around 2am. We fill out a registration card, covered in bugs, bleck...
and go to set up the camper. Dave goes "Lover, what'd you do with the crank?" and I told him I remember putting it in the cabinet where it goes. It's not there. Then I remember that Dave cranked the camper up in St. Louis to get another shirt to change into, so I ask him what he did with it. He figures he didn't put it away, so now we are crankless.
He has to figure out another way to open the damn camper. He sticks a wrench handle in the hole, and uses vice grips to turn it to crank it up...takes FOREVER!
Finally we are set up, and I basically pass right out. I had slept in the car on and off too, I was supposed to drive, but Dave never told me to so, that didn't happen.

We are now in Kansas, I'm waiting for Dave to shower so we can leave...
It's hot here. I'll try to update again...tonight...

Update from Illinois! Part 2

Okay, so we survived the night...camper intact...so lets get caught up here...where was I?
Right, we just got to Ohio...

So we are back on the road, and I'm trying to find us a campground. We are looking about...3 or 4 hours ahead at this point...so I call the campground and tell them we will be there late. They say okay...

We end up getting there around midnight...set up, cook a bit, and pass out. Wifi doesn't work...we find out the next day that the lightning storm knocked it out. We get up around 10, pack up, shower, and leave. Breakfast at Waffle House because Dave loves Waffle House...it was pretty damn good...chocolate chip waffles...
We try again to find Wifi, at McDonalds this time, but they wanted 3 bucks + tax for 2 hours, forget that....
On the road again. We are now headed for a goal of Illinois. In Indiana we start to look for an auto parts store, because the exhaust is aimed towards the gas tank, and heating that up a ton, and vaporizing the gas...making a ton of pressure, and we are getting crap mpg...
We find one, but its off backroads off backroads...it takes us down some beautiful farm land roads...Indiana is pretty in the country parts...
We find the autoparts store, even though GPS took us the wrong way...
I run into a clothing store and buy a bra, because I realized I didn't pack one...and we are on the road again...
We make it to Illinois, and stop for dinner at a Steak N Shake. Had steak burgers and a cookies and cream milkshake...good dinner. MMM. We brought in the atlas and the AAA campground books and find a campground within about...60 miles of St. Louis, our next destination...
We find one within 58 miles, call them, and tell them we're coming. We get there around 9:00...
Check in...it is so humid that it is hard to breathe. In the office they tell us that it got up to 110 degrees here today...holy crap.
It is so hot, we set up the camper and take cold showers before settling in..
WIFI YAY! So that was last night...a big storm came in and the camper was blowing in the wind, I was nervous...and kept checking the weather...Dave stayed up until the wind died down...which was pretty late...
and now it is 11:40 in Illinois, Dave is going to fix his exhaust and then we'll be on the road again...I hope we get to Mid-Kansas today...otherwise we're going to be behind again...

Hopefully we will get Wifi again soon so I can update you all again...

Update from Illinois!

Finally, internet connection. The campground we stayed at last night was supposed to have it, but the storms that have been running through here with all the lightning knocked out their internet. So a day later, I am 2 states farther, and updating now.

But back to the beginning,

We left my house around 11:15 Thursday morning, and went to Mallory Kotzen, and blah blah ran errands. We got on the highway towards New York at 12:20pm. We were doing well, everything was going fine, until we hit some crap traffic and the car overheated. We pulled over into the shade and let the car cool a bit. 10 min later it was super hot again. We pulled over again and let it cool. One more try, it overheated in 15 seconds this time...Dave says the trip is over and apologizes to me. I tell him it doesn't have to be over, we will find a garage and get it fixed. Okay, so we go to a truck stop...and I ask a mobile mechanic guy what it could be, and where we could find a garage...he said call Kisenweather, it could be the thermostat or it could be the head gasket. I tell Dave, and we call Kisenweather...they're dicks, so I ask the girl in the store where another mechanic is...she says there is one right around the corner, she calls and they are waiting for us. During this time, Dave has been outside with the trucker whose shade we borrowed to park in. (We didn't get his name, so we are calling him the Black Trucker from Texas...) He gave us lots of water for our radiator, and told us we should flush it out. This guy was so happy and smiley. And the first of our helpers along the way... He gave us 3 jugs for water, which we have used many many times...
Anyways, by now the jeep seems to be doing better, so we plan to drive around and see how things go. We end up over heating again, and park at the Stage Coach restaurant for Dave to wire an Aux fan to help with cooling. We go to the garage that is waiting for us, and the guy says he doesn't think it is the head gasket and tells us that an Autozone is 30 miles away...

Off we go, slowly, with a lot of water, and a lot of stopping...

We make it to the Autozone, which is now in the middle of farm country PA...and while we are working on the Jeep...this freak rain and thunder storm rolls in...pouring huge drops of rain on us. We take a break from working to hop in the car to stay dry, and finally it ends. Dave finishes work on the Jeep and back on the road we go.

We are still overheating, and the last time we pull over...around 1130...we hear a weird thumping/griding noise ... sounds like the driveshaft. Dave hops under the car, says everything looks okay, we let the car cool a bit, add some water...and go to leave. HORRIBLE GRIDING NOISES COME FROM THE CAR...and it doesn't move. Okay, not good. Try again, same thing. Dave hops back under, sees nothing...utoh. We worry that the gears have blown, but that wouldn't make sense, because we didn't hear a big noise that it would make...
So we put it in front wheel drive, and limp off the highway to a truck stop.
Kylertown Truck Stop is our first nights sleep. We sleep in the car...because when we arrive...5 minutes later another freak storm shows up, pouring rain and huge thunder and lightning (this is the storm that blew out the internet at the campground...) Im in the back seat, but with the leather I'm all stuck to it and miserable...Dave is in the driver seat trying to get comfortable...we finally fall asleep...
In the middle of the night...Dave says okay, lets switch, so we do...he is in the back and I'm in the driver seat. Fall back to sleep uncomfortably...I wake up at 5:50 am, and it's beautiful out, but Dave doesn't want to wake up, so I go back to sleep, and I wake up around 8...he still doesn't want to get up. It is so humid, I am sweating, and Dave is cold and under a blanket. Ridiculous!
Finally around 9 we get up, maybe 9:30...and open up the rear differential...well Dave opens it while I try to organize the car/camper. Ends up that 3 bolts from the ring gear sheared off and the rest backed themselves out of their holes. Okay, not horrible...definitely fixable...
Dave goes off to get water for the radiator...and I'm still organizing and cleaning and situating...when this guy from the motel comes over and asks if everything is okay. He tells me he saw us parked out here last night and he was going to ask if we wanted to sleep in his room cause he had an extra bed, but thought we would think it was weird. (Dave and I both agreed it would have been.) I told him what was wrong with the Jeep, and that Dave is probably off finding out where parts stores are...
I guess he figured out I was nervous, because he was like...okay I don't want to make you nervous and he went back to his room...I went back to cleaning...
He came over again a bit later and told me that if we wanted to use his shower before he checked out so we didn't have to pay 10 bucks to use the truck stop one we could. I thanked him and told him I'd ask Dave what he wanted to do...
Finally Dave walked back, and he told me later that he was like, oh crap creeper when he saw the guy talking to me. They started talking and it ends up that this guy wasn't really creepy at all. He ended up getting us ice from the motel ice machine for our cooler, and let us use his shower...
We exchanged emails, and we gave him the URL to this blog so he can see if we ever made it farther than that truck stop in Kylertown. So...hey to Sid from Mississippi if he's reading this!!! He left, and we walked over to get breakfast and then to the hardware store to get the bolts we needed. Thank god for there being a hardware store in the same plaza...
We got what we needed after 2 trips to the hardware store, Dave ended up drilling out the 3 broken bolts...
and we were on our way. We were headed to NAPA to get a radiator hose. We finally got it at Advanced Auto Parts...then ate lunch at Sheetz. Really by this time it was 430pm so that was dinner.
We decide we need to skip rollercoasters this time around, considering we are still hours from Ohio...and we would maybe hit them on the way back. No big deal.
So we start heading south towards St. Louis. We hit Ohio finally, and stop at the visitor center at the first exit. We grab a campground book, and I start flipping through it when we get back on the road.

I can't even concentrate right now to finish this...maybe tomorrow...there's a big storm coming through, and the camper is swayyyyyyying hardcore in the wind. There aren't any tornado warnings...but they've been wrong before...

I hate wind.

0 days...

It seems we have errands to run before we leave...

but today is the day...

1 day, 2 hours...

Clothes are mostly packed.

I forgot to mention I'm bringing Nermul from Garfield so we can take pictures of her everywhere...

Can't wait to leave!

2 days, 3 hours...

Uhm, hello, WTF am I doing on the computer?

Clothes are not packed, everything else is.

2 days!

Work wednesday, errands tomorrow...

Oh damn.

7 days...

Dude, one week.
Camper is packed.
Just need to pack clothes, and food...and little stuff.

9 days, 23 hours...

Packing has started to become situated.
Next step is to open the camper and getting everything organized in there...

It'd help if the rain would stop...

20 days, 4 hours...

National parks annual pass. (check)
Camping reservations for Roswell. (check)
Find out no reservations needed for camping at the place we are in Ohio...(check)

slowly the list is shrinking.

22 days, 1 hour...

Uhm, where did the month go?

I'm starting to think about how we will pack...
not a very easy thing to figure out.

Clothes in suitcases? or a big tupperware bin?
Necessities in a box in the car? or something else?
Maps and books...how to keep them nice in the car...

bof.