2024 Estelline Trip

[JEBar]

all reservations have now been confirmed for the trip home and can be seen in post 1 in this thread

[JEBar]

with the exception of last minute stuff, our camper is pretty much ready to go ... so far as I know, its pretty much the same with the truck .... its 89 degrees right now with a Real Feel of 100 .... for tomorrow they are forecasting periods of sun; breezy, warm and humid with a gusty thunderstorm in the afternoon; thunderstorms can bring flooding downpours, hail and damaging wind gusts .... we can only hope that things won't be any complications

[Hatchdog]

with the exception of last minute stuff, our camper is pretty much ready to go ... so far as I know, its pretty much the same with the truck .... its 89 degrees right now with a Real Feel of 100 .... for tomorrow they are forecasting periods of sun; breezy, warm and humid with a gusty thunderstorm in the afternoon; thunderstorms can bring flooding downpours, hail and damaging wind gusts .... we can only hope that things won't be any complications

I bet that South Dakota weather is looking pretty inviting right now.

[JEBar]

I bet that South Dakota weather is looking pretty inviting right now.

you got that right

[JEBar]

a heavy thunder storm rolled through this morning .... in its wake we are left with a muggy feel in the air ... when we went out to work in the camper after breakfast, we were surprised to find our TV wasn't working .... took me a bit to trace the problem to a faulty end plug on the HDMI cable that connects our Wally receiver to the TV .... fortunately Amazon says they can deliver a 10' one and some heavy duty zip ties tomorrow .... with us due to pull out day after tomorrow, that's handy ..

[JEBar]

trip preparations continue .... changed the camper's RO system filters last Friday .... today we hooked up water and am happy to report, no sign of any leaks .... more out of paranoia than out of any real need, fired up the truck and let it idle a while .... steady rain this morning has delayed packing ... not a problem, forecast for tomorrow is really nice

[JEBar]

Day 1 drive --- 423 miles -- 9 hrs 13 min .... happy to say that our longest day's drive is now behind us .... we are once again camped at Soaring Eagle .... the sites are still very narrow but as can be seen below, some have been upgraded .... ours is B2 .... its long, plenty long enough to accommodate our rig, unhooked we can park our truck with no problem .... water pressure, very good ....power good ...short sewer hose run .... good satellite signal using our roof dish .... $49.48 per night with our GoodSam discount .... when we were here back in 2020 our cost was $40

[brm4450]

Safe travels

[JEBar]

thank you

[JEBar]

cool 50 degree morning at Soaring Eagle .... with less than a 5 hr drive, no hurry to get on the road .... we do plan to take on fuel so we will have at least one stop

[GeoBoy]

JEbar, we stay at Fern Lake campground in Paducah, great Mexican restaurant across the street from the campground.

[JEBar]

Day 2 drive ---- 291.9 miles -- 5hr 29min .... today's drive threw us a major curve and we are lucky (make that very lucky) things didn't go terribly wrong .... to get out of Soaring Eagle I had to make three very sharp curves .... after doing so, I didn't give it another thought .... looking back, that turned out to not be a good thing .... a few minutes after getting back on I-40 a fellow drove up by me and urgently signaled for me to pull over .... the instant I opened the truck's door I smelled very hot brakes .... the smell was coming from the driver's side rear camper tire .... it was hot and I do mean hot .... in retrospect I'm very relieved and surprised they hadn't set something on fire .... my first thought proved to be correct .... during one of the tight turns made earlier, the breakaway safety pin had been pulled .... after reinstalling the pin, I let the camper sit for a few minutes before getting back on the interstate .... a check of our tire pressure monitoring system showed an elevated tire pressure in that tire ... as we rolled on that pressure fell and within a few miles the pressures were normal .... one concern remains, our brake control is not detecting a trailer is being towed .... I've checked all fuses but that proved to be a dead end .... tomorrow we have another 300 or mile drive which should take us to Columbia, MO

[markiver54]

Thank goodness you are both ok and no fire. Hope that problem is taken care of.
Be safe. Hope the rest of your journey is problem free.

[JEBar]

concern and good wishes appreciated .... the truck can handle stopping our rig without the camper brakes but I hate to rely on that .... tomorrow we drive around St Louis and the next day around Kansas City .... traffic at both of them is such I'd really like to have the brakes working on both

[markiver54]

concern and good wishes appreciated .... the truck can handle stopping our rig without the camper brakes but I hate to rely on that .... tomorrow we drive around St Louis and the next day around Kansas City .... traffic at both of them is such I'd really like to have the brakes working on both

Very much understood.

[JEBar]

Day 3 drive ---- 300 miles and should have taken about 4 hr 25 min ---- however, with a fuel stop and slow moving traffic in a long construction zone it took us a bit over 5 hours .... our truck got 9.7 mpg on the last 530+ mile stretch, that beats the heck out of the 8.1 mpg we got crossing the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains .... we are now setup in Cottonwood RV Park in Columbia, MO .... trees block our satellite signal so we are having a classic western movies night .. .. per weather radar, one heck of a rain storm is minutes away .... looks like it may be a noisy night

[JEBar]

Day 4 drive ---- 289.6 miles -- 5 hr 4 min .... no fuel stop ... we are now in Victorian Acres Campground near Nebraska City, NE (link in first post in this thread) .... light rain for the first hour, heavy cloud cover for all but the last few miles .... very humid, camper AC's keeping it comfortable .... truck ran well but don't think its mileage was a high as yesterday's .... with it being Saturday and bypassing KC, traffic was very light .... they are calling for thunderstorms here tonight and tomorrow morning .... sure hope we can dodge them

[RetiredSeabee]

We just got home from our trip to Mesa AZ and back. Long days on the road and it is good to be home. I wish we had the time to break it up into 300 mile stops. We are considering flying out next time and renting a RV to travel a bit. Then flying back home.
Safe travels to you and your lady.

[JEBar]

we are settled in for the night in Estelline as thunder rolls and wind is gusting .... it appears our immediate area has been spared the worst of it .... today's ride passed quietly, my favorite way .... our only stop was for fuel .... ribs with corn on the cob and fried taters at one of Maureen's brother's place .... that was most certainly a treat .... we hope to complete our setup tomorrow and then settle in for the summer

[JEBar]

shortly after posting the above comment, a very strong storm rolled in .... we left the camper and went back to one of Maureen's brother's home where we rode out the storm .... during the something over 2 hours we were there, his rain gauge collected just over 4 1/2" of rain .... lightening was nonstop .... just under a mile from where our camper is parked, strong wind turned over a larger travel trailer .... our last day's drive covered 302.7 miles in 5 hrs 5 min .... my computer mouse died so we road 20 some miles to Walmart in Brookings where we also grocery shopped and picked up a few batteries