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Trip02

Monday.

Got our ten hours. And we were still up and off at seven am, central standard. Well before sunrise. Uneventful day. We spent last night in Kansas. Midway USA: the geographic center point of the contiguous forty-eight. Dropped south out of Kansas and through Oklahoma. Ended up just north of the Texas border, at Murray Lake, State Park in Oklahoma. It’s set in the Arbuckle hill country. Very nice. Beautiful campground all to ourselves this off-season. Picture attached, but I forgot to take it until late. Saw more birds today. Saw an owl on a phone pole this morning at dawn. Got to see meadowlarks, flocks of blackbirds, and soaring hawks. Cardinals, juncos and mockingbirds. By this time last trip, we were having electrical trouble in Shamrock Texas. No such luck this trip. Marty Malone, owner and operator of M&M Sales and Service, fixed it last time, and it has stayed fixed. Thanks again Marty. Stopped at the worlds-largest-factory-direct-Christmas-store. Lots of nice stuff; stuff we haven’t seen before. Nothing we can’t live without: at least until the return trip. We got their catalog, phone number, and web site address just in case. It rained all day to the south of us as we drove. It had stopped just before we got there. Didn’t get to sleep to the sound of rain on the roof. Slept well anyway. Had Judy’s homemade spaghetti dinner. Last year at this time, we were dealing with the heart-healthy diet. This year, our diet is something else. This trip is all about wood ducks. Nothing else matters as long as we see the wood ducks. I don’t think it’s a particularly elusive critter. I think we just haven’t been in the same place at the same time yet. Another four hundred miles today.

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Trip01

Sunday. We did it. Sunday morning. Bright and early. Actually, it was dark and early. We were on the road by six am. I don’t know why. It’s not like we’re in a hurry. I just like to leave early and watch the sunrise to start the trip. Judy humors me. We have had some painfully bright sunrise departures, driving east. This one was only colorful (evidence attached). Here is the plan for the trip. We’re going to drive east to the middle of Kansas, turn right and drive south through Oklahoma into Texas, fade east into Louisiana, and end up in the Bluebonnet Swamp in Baton Rouge. We hear there are wood ducks there in the winter. That’s it. That’s the trip. When we’re through with Baton Rouge and the Bluebonnet Swamp, we’ll either turn left, or turn right. No way the mysterious RV sleeping sickness is going to get us this time. We’ve been up since five am, and we feel great. In fact, we drove all the way across eastern Colorado to Kansas before we stopped and took a nap. But one nap. Only one. All day. Last year, we were watching harrier hawks all day. Tons of them. This year, zero. Wonder if it is fallout from the drought. Saw a few house sparrows. No big birds at all. Had a wonderful warm sixty degree Saturday for preparations. Perfect. Got the motorhome de-winterized before we even left home. Driving across eastern Colorado, Interstate 70 passes a town called Bovina. I can understand town names like River City, or Skunk Creek, or Grand Junction. But Bovina? What kind of sense does that make? Bovina? Unless, of course, there is some connection to cattle ranching there. Right on the border between Kansas and Colorado is a town named Kanorado. As a Coloradoan, I’m proud to announce that that town name was thought up by people in Kansas. Stopped nice and early, about four pm. Got to listen to the Bronco’s finish their season with a convincing win. If only the previous fifteen games could have been so convincing, they would still be playing. Russell Kansas. 400 mile day. Nice sunset.
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Trip

We’re getting a nice warming trend here for our trip start. It has been single digit cold. Saturday is forecast for a high in the fifties. Sounds like a good getaway day.
We’ve got the motorhome plugged in, the refrigerator turned on, and the furnaces idling.

I’m still at work, but I’m gaining on it.