Lindsborg

More than a week has passed since my last post.  We spent three days in the Venango Corps of Engineers campground south of Salina, before hurrying west to Colorado Springs for a family wedding.  Since we left Venango, we haven't had good enough internet for me to post.

While at Venango we drove to Lindsborg, a town along I-70 with a decidedly Swedish feel. We have been here before and enjoy looking at the shops selling Swedish goods and foods. One store offered lutefisk, but we passed on that. If you don't know what I am talking about, don't feel bad. You aren't missing anything.

Throughout the downtown area we saw painted Dala Horses everywhere. Traditionally, Dala horses are decorated with Swedish folk patterns. Those in Lindsborg have used modern American images in interesting ways. Here are a few of my favorites.

The one below was named "tellacomma."

This one draws on traditional Swedish dress.

Even an old telephone booth had been painted with Swedish designs.

And here are a few more horses.

Our Winter Home

Wednesday we arrived at our winter home, Valle del Oro in Mesa.



This is our 8th winter to stay here. The first year it was for only a week. Each year the stay has gotten longer. As we parked, we saw that three couples we know on our street had already arrived, so we feel even more at home.

We left Kansas on Saturday, going to Oklahoma, then Texas. Next, it was New Mexico.



As we drove toward Albuquerque, we saw this ominous smoke on the horizon.



We were relieved when we learned it was some sort of trash pile being burned.



Then, we were on to Arizona.



In Colorado, we were surrounded by pine and spruce forests. Then we spent six weeks passing through flat farm fields and prairie grass. The mesas, buttes and mountains of western New Mexico and Arizona are familiar and welcome sights.







We saw some honest-to-goodness fall colors.



And a structure that I believe is used to burn wood chips or sawdust from lumber production.



Wednesday morning, we left Holbrook, AZ, at nearly 6,000 ft elevation, then went up and down, over 7,000 to eventually 1,400 ft here in Mesa. That meant numerous stretches of road with signs like this.



And roads that look like this.



We began to see the familiar creosote bush and prickly pear cactus. Next came teddy bear cholla and ocotilla. But we know we are almost here when our favorite cactus, the saguaro, comes into view.



Now we begin reorganizing all the storage in our new RV. We put everything away before leaving Kansas, but we don't know where anything is. After moving things three or four times, it will take a while to remember where we put it last. But we are beginning to make progress.

Goodbye to the Old, Hello to the New

Finally, Thursday we took possession of our new 2014 Mobile Suites 5th wheel trailer. We went in to Kansas RV Center at 8 am, signed the papers, and were given a 2-hour walk-through of the unit. That is the best orientation we have ever had when buying a new RV. Then, we backed our truck into the dealer's garage and they helped us hook-up. Here we are, ready to pull it for the first time.



We drove it about 2 blocks to the Chanute, Kansas, Santa Fe Campground. Our first time unhooking.



Our 2009 Montana was parked there, too, and we began moving all our worldly possessions (except for a few boxes and file cabinets in Colorado) from one unit to the other. Ugh. Hard work. We called the dealer twice Thursday and Friday with minor problems and they sent technicians out to correct the problems. About 1 pm Friday, after the second visit, they hooked up a truck to the Montana and pulled it back to their shop. That was sort of a sad event. We loved that trailer and spent our first 5 years of full-timing in it. We have been to the Canadian Maritime Provinces, Alaska and the US East Coast in that RV. But we are delighted with the new one.

Moving belongings and stowing them away is a big task. We were in a mess most of the time.





Finally, by bedtime last night, things were pretty decent and almost everything had been put away somewhere. Now the task is to find it when we need it.



This 46 inch TV is a bit overwhelming when our chairs sit only 6 and 10 feet away.



What do we love about our new home? There are lots of things. One, it is very pretty. Two, it is a little over 2 feet shorter than the old one. Three, it is built much better than the Montana.

But two things , while not deal-breakers, are certainly high on the list of great things. First is this control panel.



We have 6-point automatic leveling. I have always been in charge of getting the trailer level. Now, all I have to do is push one button to raise the front of the RV so we can unhitch, then another to level. Then we just stand back and watch it go up and down, side to side until it is level. No more driving up on boards on one side or the other, checking the level and often doing it again, then lowering the front till we are level front to back, then putting out boards and putting down the rear stabilizers. It's wonderful!!! And it saves us a lot of time.

If you look back at the photo when we had things put away, and you are familiar with the standard RV day-night shades, you will notice that we don't have those. These shades have one shade that acts as a sun screen and another (the white ones you see in that photo) that blocks out the light and provides privacy at night. All it takes to put them back up is give it a little tug and it rolls itself back up.

Something else I like is the 4-door refrigerator-freezer. It has nearly twice the space of the old one did. And the shelves have small barriers to keep things from sliding off during travel.



Tonight, we are parked in Oklahoma City, enroute for Mesa, AZ. Ain't it purdy? And it pulls really great, too.

What a Month

What a month it has been. One month ago tomorrow, we saw our new RV on the assembly line at the DRV factory in Indiana. We were very excited about what we saw. And we really doubted he was telling us the truth when the production manager said it would be at least 2 weeks before the trailer was done. "You've got to be kidding" we thought. What more is there to do? It had to go out for painting, for one thing.

Go forward two weeks. We contacted our dealer in Kansas, who contacted DRV in Indiana. He was told the RV should be back from Mor-ryde (where the suspension was being balanced or adjusted) by the end of the week. Then there would be another week of final details at the factory.

On Friday, Oct. 11, we again inquired about the delivery date and were told it was on its way to Chanute, Kansas, from Howe, Indiana. We could come to the dealership on Tuesday and it should be ready then. We had been hanging out in Peculiar, MO, near Kansas City, doing genealogy research, playing tourist and seeing family.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we spent in Iola, Kansas, just north of Chanute. The park only costs $11 a night with our Passport America discount, so it was very inexpensive. There we relaxed, planned and toured the small town. We drove to Chanute on Monday (leaving our trailer in Iola)and were able to go in the finished rig--without the slides being extended. We were told we could probably do our walk-through Wednesday, then begin moving into the new RV. We were getting everything ready for the short move when we received a call saying the DRV techs found that the black tank dump valve was broken. A new part would be sent overnight from Indiana, but the trailer wouldn't be ready by this afternoon. We decided to come to Chanute anyway.

After setting up in the Santa Fe Campground in Chanute (first 2 nights are free, after that it is $10 a night), we went to the factory and learned it could be as late as Monday when the RV was ready for us. Since we are so glad they found the trouble with the black tank dump valve, we decided to settle down and enjoy the area. It would have been extremely difficult if we discoved this problem as we were driving to Arizona. Who knows what it would have taken to get it repaired then.

You can imagine how delighted we were when the phone rang just before 3 pm, telling us to come in at 8 am for our walk through. After that, we sign some papers, then we begin to move from one 5th wheel to the other. Whoopee!!!

When we get moved in and catch our breath, I will post lots of pictures of our new home.

The Old and the New

Our waiting has moved from Peculiar, MO, to Iola, KS.  Today we took a walk from our mediocre RV park in Iola  to check out the small old town.  On the way, we came across the Southwind Rail Trail.  It follows an old railroad bed, but the trail just opened this year, so it is the new.

We crossed an old steel railroad bridge.



The trail builders were really serious about keeping the folks who use the trail from jumping or falling into the water below.



As we crossed the creek, we could see the nearby highway.





We had a big rainstorm last night and there was standing water near the trail, in addition to this pond.



I thought these grasses were pretty.



We passed the shell of an old train signal tower.







It appears the local fox can enter the private property on either side of the trail, but not the humans on the trail.



After walking about 3.5 miles on the trail, we went into town. They are proud of the high school sports teams. If you look closely, you will see the first championship was in 1915. Iola was established in 1855.



We saw a sign that reminded us of our Colorado roots.



Modern buildings just don't have the charm of those built decades ago. We saw lots of neat old buildings as we walked around downtown Iola.











Have you ever heard of General Frederick Funston? We hadn't, but maybe we should have. This is the house where he was born.



Funston spent 2 years in the Arctic, returning 1,500 miles on the Yukon River in a canoe. He spent time in South America, fought with Cuban insurgents and served in the Spanish American War. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor for capturing the commander of the Filipino Army and was made a brigadier general. In 1914, during an intervention in Mexico (has anyone every heard of that? I hadn"t.) and commanded Vera Cruz as military governor, being made a major general. He died in 1917.

Only 3 More Days

Finally, our weeks of waiting may be over on Tuesday. Hopefully, our new RV will be at the dealer's lot in Chanute, Kansas, and we can sign the papers, pay some, or rather a lot of money, and begin moving in. We have been so excited ever since we received the email yesterday giving us this tentative time table.

We have made good use of our time while waiting. In addition to doing genealogy research and watching the barbeque cook-off, we had the truck serviced and got our flu shots. These new trucks are great. It is no longer recommended that we change the oil every 3,000 miles and the oil life is about 7,500 miles. The truck's computer lets us know the oil life remaining and warns us when we need an oil change. Given the cost of an oil change in a diesel truck, changing the oil less often is great.

We have seen some interesting places as we moved from Indiana to Illinois and through Missouri and Kansas.

One morning we woke up to fog as the sun rose in Anderson, Indiana. We don't see fog very often in our travels.



In Illinois, we stayed at a Corps of Engineers campground on Carlyle Lake. There were lots of sailboats in the marina.



And we saw one set out across the lake.



That was also where many of the campers had strung party lights. I lightened the photo so you could see the RVs as well as the lights. All I can do is ask, "WHY?"



I think this was the dog walk in our Columbia, MO, campground. We don't have a dog, but we did enjoy the small landscaped area.



We visited Lecompton, Kansas, the first capital of the Kansas Territory. This building is Constitution Hall. In this building the first proposed constitution of Kansas was written, proposing that Kansas allow slavery when it became a state. It was approved by the people, but only because the election wasn't fair--many Missouri "ruffians" came across the state line to vote in favor of it and the anti-slavery members of the Kansas residents boycotted the balloting.



As you can see, after the capital was moved, the building was used for other purposes over the years before it was preserved as a historical building.

This is the historic one-room Lanesfield School in Kansas. This is the second school built here. The first was built in 1866 and this building was constructed nearby in 1903. Before either of these structures was built, the first school opened in the house belonging to John's great-great grandfather, William Gans.



School children, especially 4th graders, visit the school on field trips. Cursive writing and penmanship are no longer taught most places. When the students visit the school, one of the activities is penmanship. The young man conducting the classes said it is the children's favorite activity. Here are the ink bottles they use. When did you last write with a fountain pen or quill pen?



One day we stopped in a large mall in Kansas City. It has probably been six months since we were in a mall. What a change from small town and Walmart shopping. We even saw this carousel there.