#MidAmericaRV – Chasing Sonshine

November 5, 2020

Splish Splash

We celebrated our birthdays in Arkansas. Our trailer needed a few final tweaks so we left it with the friendly folks at Mid-America RV in Carthage, MO and continued on our way to Hot Springs. Since we were without our ‘home’, we splurged on a hotel and enjoyed the luxury of a king-size bed.

Hot Springs is a fun town to explore. The main attraction is Hot Springs National Park which is on the city’s main street. Historic bathhouses line Central Avenue with the Grand Promenade behind the bathhouses at the base of the mountain. From the Grand Promenade, numerous hiking trails offer opportunities to explore the mountainside.

Because of Covid, only two bathhouses were open, the Buckstaff and the Quapaw. We enjoyed a relaxing soak in the healing mineral waters at the Quapaw. Both bathhouses use water collected by the National Park System from the mountain’s natural thermal springs. Each day, over 700,000 gallons of water flow from the springs. When the water emerges from the earth, it is a scalding 147 degrees. The mineral water is cooled for use in the bathhouses.

This former bathhouse now houses the only brewery in a national park. They make root beer and beer with the mineral water.

In addition to the baths, thermal spring fountains are available for drinking the water. We didn’t realize this until we watched a local resident fill about 20 jugs to take home. We followed her lead and filled our drinking cooler with the water. The water did not have a mineral taste and we enjoyed drinking it.

From the Grand Promenade, we hiked the Peak Trail to Hot Springs Mountain Tower. While the trail was short, just 1/2 a mile each way, the 12% grade made it seem longer. When we got to the tower, we decided to continue our workout and used the stairs up the 216 foot tower. The views of the city and the surrounding mountains were worth our efforts.

Hot Springs Mountain Tower. Stairs or elevator?

In addition to the national park, we explored the Garvan Woodland Gardens. The landscaped gardens cover 210 acres and include numerous waterfalls, bridges, trees, and flowers.

Several unique structures exist in the garden including the Anthony Chapel, The Anthony Family Trust Carillon, The Bob and Sunny Evans Tree House, and the Garvan Pavilion.

Lake Ouachita offers hiking as well. We did a section of the Caddo Bend Trail and encountered a fuzzy arachnid along the way.

Beautiful view of Lake Ouachita from the Caddo Bend Trail

EEKS! He would have filled the palm of Bill’s hand.

After relaxing in Hot Springs, we headed south to Dallas, TX to help our daughter and son-in-law move from there to the northwest Arkansas area. Kyle’s family helped clean their apartment and load the truck. Our son and daughter-in-law and Cy’s sister and nephew came to help unload the truck. Everyone’s assistance was greatly appreciated!

Upon leaving the Arkansas kids’ house, we picked up the trailer and drove to Kansas City. We spent the week at Smithville Lake. When the weekend arrived, we dropped the trailer at a friend’s home and went to Kansas to spend the weekend with our parents.

On the way to our parents, we planned a second look at some property outside of Manhattan, KS. When we were about 30 minutes from Manhattan, Bill opened his email to discover two properties of interest had popped up near Smithville. Since land has been selling so quickly, we detoured back to Smithville. Once we looked at the land, we decided it wasn’t for us so we headed west again. This time, we made a flying trip, hoping to see the sun set over the land. We were about 10 minutes past sunset. When the coyotes started howling, we ended our brief visit. The property has a stark beauty and we really like it; however, it has some usage restrictions that give us pause. Because of that, we continue to monitor the real estate listings in the KC Northland and in Manhattan. At some point, we know God will lead us to the property He has in store for us.

Lesson Learned: Until you experience something, you don’t know what you’ve missed.

August 18, 2020August 18, 2020

Keep a Knockin’

When we called Mid-America RV to get an update on our trailer repairs, we learned that the dealership was waiting on parts. With the Covid-19 pandemic, RV parts were delayed considerably because the manufacturers were not running at full capacity. Since we needed a place to sleep at night, the dealer agreed to install a temporary strap to secure the kitchen. They added the strap. We picked up the trailer and we finally were off on our initial camping experience.

Just to clarify, we are not campers, nor have we ever been campers. The most camping experience we had was a week at Nationwide Youth Round-up in Colorado in 2006. Our friend and then-youth minister, Matt, needed adult chaperones for the church’s annual trip to NYR. We agreed to go. We spent a week in a tent on a mountainside, worshiping in rain and mud, showering with water drawn from the pond, and using port-a-potties. We survived, but that week solidified that we prefer the comfort of Comfort Suites over the naturalness of nature. For both of us to have peace about living for a season in a glorified tent could only come from the Lord, demonstrating His sense of humor.

For our first trip, we stayed close to ‘home’ at Watkins Mill State Park. The park is five miles from our former home and, more importantly, close by our storage units. We loaded the trailer and truck with everything we thought we might need: Pyrex dishes, cast iron skillets, pantry staples, cleaning supplies, bedding, and our clothes and toiletries. Our free standing tent became an extra room for sorting and storing overflow items. And we had a lot of overflow items! As we thinned and organized our belongings, our new living space started to come together. We made almost daily trips to Home Depot, Walmart, and our storage units. By the end of our week long stay, we were satisfied, more or less, with our new home.

To celebrate our first night in the trailer, we ordered dinner from our favorite Mexican restaurant, LaFuente. Our meal was delicious (as always) and it must have smelled delicious too as the empty take-out containers in our trailer’s garbage attracted a steady stream of nighttime visitors. Raccoons! When we arrived at Watkins Mill, the camp host warned us not to leave any food items or coolers outside of our vehicle or trailer. He didn’t warn us not to leave food scraps inside our trailer! During the night, we were awakened multiple times by the hungry creatures scratching on our window screen. The flashlight’s beam and our shouts frightened them away but the persistent animals were undeterred. They returned again and again and continued their unwanted visits until dawn. We kept them out of our trailer that first night, but the raccoons weren’t willing to go away empty-handed.

Lesson Learned: Everyone, including raccoons, loves LaFuente!

He was as persistent as chewed gum on the bottom of your shoe, just keeps sticking around!

August 2, 2020

King of the Road (Trailers for Sale or Rent)

Ever since our youngest son started K-State’s architecture program, we have hoped he would design a ‘forever’ home for us. His recent graduation has made that hope a reality, especially now that we sold our house. Building will be a long process since we do not have land yet. Since the house sold so quickly and we needed a place to rest our heads each night, we were forced to decide what was next. We discussed buying another house or renting an apartment until our custom home could be completed. Instead, we came up with another solution…..buying a travel trailer. However, this decision led to more options. If you haven’t paid much attention to travel trailers, anything imaginable is available. Some trailers basically are apartments on wheels. They have all the comforts of home, and often, cost about as much a home, especially if you include the massive truck needed to pull those beasts.

With the help of our son and Google, we stumbled across Intech Trailers. Intech specializes in micro camping trailers. Even better, the Intech Flyer Explore is a micro toy hauler, meaning we could take our motorcycles with us. After discovering a Flyer Explore with the options we wanted at Mid-America RV in Carthage, MO, we made the trip to check it out. While the camper is small, just 14 feet, it offers a fold-out full-size bed, a slide out cookstove and electric cooler, heat and air conditioning, and ample storage space. After a conversation with Salesman Scott and writing a check, we owned our ‘new home’.

Lesson Learned: There’s a whole lot more to buying a trailer than just writing a check. Stay tuned!