2020 Trip To South Dakota

[BigAl52]

Safe travels back home. Were on a travel day tomorrow also. Moving to the town of Montrose,Co close to the river there. We will stay there until friday. If I 70 isnt open we are in good position to go the alternate route home. We check one other route only to find that the road construction is terrible for 6 miles. Roads out here are rough enough as it is without taking a rig over that.

[JEBar]

safe travels to you guys as well .... last year's trip was heavily impacted by road damage from heavy flooding .... thankfully, this year we haven't had to contend with them .... we hope to get on the road this morning somewhere around 9AM .... today's 4+ hr (265 mi) drive is scheduled to take us to a campground just east of KC where we are looking forward to linking up with Evan (ESquared) this evening

[brm4450]

The Estelline/Hendricks football team announced the postponement of their first two games of the 2020 season. Due to 2 positive Covid-19 cases

[JEBar]

we heard that yesterday .... the Athletic Director was exposed at a conference meeting and contracted it .... he had a very mild case, suffered no issues .... he was isolated from his family and none of them have tested positive .... they are unsure where the two players were exposed

[JEBar]

our second day's drive from Onawa, IA to Grain Valley, MO took 5 hrs to cover 291.2 miles .... our biggest surprise was seeing how dry the farm fields seemed to be .... some of the corn looked wilted .... the highlight of our first day in Grain Valley was getting to visit at our camper for most of the afternoon with Evan (ESquared) .... we can't help but be amazed at how well he's handling his hip replacement and the subsequent setback from a mysterious infection .... tonight we ate at Jack Strack BBQ .... we can't recommend it highly enough .... my task for today was remaking coax of various lengths to work with our Pathway X2 .... must say I'm looking forward to getting back to a campground with clear view of the southern sky .... tomorrows project is to replace the 7-wire connector that connects our camper with our truck .... hopefully, that will take care of a few bugs

[ESquared]

A good time was had by all, both at camp and at dinner! Great to be with you and Maureen, as always!

Man, that guy needs a haircut!

[JEBar]

its been one of those days that we got some things that need to be taken care of done and some left undone .... first thing was to fill the truck .... we hadn't completely filled both tanks in well over 1,100 miles .... about half towing and half bobtailing, over that distance our truck got 10.4 mpg .... we are very happy with that .... next we drove to the KC B Bass Pro to purchase a replacement camping stove .... naturally, the one we want was sold out, more not due until next week .... next stopped at a car parts to purchase a can of Dry Lube PTFE Spray that we use on our camper's auto leveling system ... they were out so we found a Home Depot, they were out so we found a Walmart and, thankfully, they did have some .... next on the agenda was to pick up ice to add to the coolers in which we are hauling South Dakota steaks back home .... once again we met Evan for dinner and are now settled in for the evening

[markiver54]

its been one of those days that we got some things that need to be taken care of done and some left undone .... first thing was to fill the truck .... we hadn't completely filled both tanks in well over 1,100 miles .... about half towing and half bobtailing, over that distance our truck got 10.4 mpg .... we are very happy with that .... next we drove to the KC B Bass Pro to purchase a replacement camping stove .... naturally, the one we want was sold out, more not due until next week .... next stopped at a car parts to purchase a can of Dry Lube PTFE Spray that we use on our camper's auto leveling system ... they were out so we found a Home Depot, they were out so we found a Walmart and, thankfully, they did have some .... next on the agenda was to pick up ice to add to the coolers in which we are hauling South Dakota steaks back home .... once again we met Evan for dinner and are now settled in for the evening

Big sigh of relief at this point I'm sure!

[ESquared]

Great to be with you this week, Jim, and always nice to see Maureen! Safe travels on your last few legs of the trip home!

Here's to a true revival of the KC Gathering next year!

[JEBar]

245.7 miles covered in 4 hr 19 min after leaving Oak Grove we are setup in the West St Louis KOA in Eureka, MO .... while in Oak Grove we put 112.3 non-towing miles on our truck ... as a side note, we dropped off the first $650 worth of South Dakota ribeyes to a friend who has ordered them for several years .... our thermometer showed 92 degrees while we were setting up and I believe every degree of it .... its been a good while since I've been in high heat and humidity like this and it really shows .... tomorrow's plan includes trap shooting in the afternoon and for our friend to come over and service our camper's AC's later in the day