Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Heading to Kansas City

Saturday we decided to take I-64 west thru West Virginia & only saw a few small leftover snowdrifts on mountainsides & fence rows. As I looked at all the houses on farms & towns during our travels, I started thinking of AAAALLLLLLL the reasons why I’m totally happy, at peace, & thankful we no longer have a house, property, or a permanent residence.

I never particularly liked doing landscaping or yard work. We no longer have any gutters to clean, roof shingles to inspect or replace, flower beds to tend, walls or windows (inside or outside) to paint or stain, decks to sweep or shovel snow off of, or LOTS OF ROOM to clean & keep organized.

Yes, we still have to wash/wax the trailer & truck, check wheel  bearings & tire pressure, keep good tires, maybe even paint some rusty spots on the frame, buy groceries & gas, & clean the floor, dishes, laundry, frig, & toilet — but on a much smaller manageable scale.

We can move on down the road if threatened by floods or fires or even earthquakes (we’re mobile, so we’re meant to shake). I don’t trust ANYTHING to survive a tornado tho except maybe a cave so we just hope to stay away from those areas during tornado season We can just go where the weather fits our clothes.

Now my only remote complaint about being mobile is that so far we’ve been pretty much surrounded by other people all the time. I’m not unsociable, but the more people I’m around for long periods of time, the more it zaps my energy [don’t know why, can’t explain it any other way]. I just enjoy — actually require — quiet, alone time frequently. My favorite thing to do is watch the leaves grow!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Saturday night we stayed at Carter Cave State Park in eastern Kentucky, north of I-64, for $15 electric/water & dump station. It was practically deserted — yeah!!! Unfortunately we believe there were just too many trees to get a satellite TV signal thru, so we spent a very quiet & early night in silence. Only got a few photos of the area.

The weather has been scary warm, but we finally hit the cold front during the day. Got gas in KY for $3.06 & kept on trucking west. We’d planned to stay at a Corps Lake south of Mt Vernon IL but an hour east of there, Jeff decided he was getting back his old trucking for hours ability & wanted to make it to St Louis for our next gas fill up. We also opted NOT to spend the time at an Applebee’s free Veteran’s meal like we have for the past three years.

So I looked for an RV park in the St Louis area but didn’t find anything that appealed to me & then remembered Sam & Donna’s (of 5th Wheel Vagabonds) offer a few years ago to driveway dock if we’re passing thru. After a stressful trip thru downtown St Louis at dusk in a rain storm, we finally made it to their very welcomed driveway.

Such a great, friendly, down-to-earth couple. Had spaghetti & corn bread, & I even had several glasses of chocolate wine. Hmmmm, I might develop a taste for wine yet. LOL We could have talked for days!

Unfortunately, we’ve used a little electric cube heater instead of our propane furnace that was a bit much for a 20A home circuit, & with the connection being in the rain, it shorted out & we lost power in the middle of the night. Oh well, we snuggled & just pulled another cat/dog near for warmth. Our surge protector did it’s job tho preventing any electrical problems inside, but needs to be replaced now.

We made it to my girlfriend’s familiar driveway in Kansas City by early afternoon & had a relaxing evening. Kira sure loves running around off leash in their big, grassy fenced backyard. This is our holiday visit with Jeff’s daughter/grandson before heading south for the winter.

4 comments:

  1. It's refreshing to hear you don't miss the bricks and sticks home as that's where we'll be sitting next year. And what a special driveway parking spot...chocolate wine? Sounds devine! Enjoy your holidays with family...I'm pretty excited for turkey day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ahhhh, so many of us who love the soliditude that can be found around us, gravitate to a smaller "house" (on wheels) that leaves a smaller footprint and provides us the opportunity to "watch the leaves grow" anywhere.

    Have a good holiday season.

    ReplyDelete
  3. sorry to hear about the electrical problems. It was such a pleasure meeting the 3 of you. Glenda I felt like I had known you a long time with the easy way we had of conversing. Kira was so well behaved in a strange place. Take care and stop by again.
    Donna W

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glenda, there's a simple explanation for why you feel drained when you are around a lot of people.

    Extroverts are energized by other people. How I envy them! But introverts are drained by other people. And even though we love people, we need time alone to recharge our batteries after a lot of social contact.

    I'm really enjoying following your blog, and am just delighted that you are still enjoying full time Casita living.

    ReplyDelete

Comments must be approved, so if your comment is promoting some irrelevant website or makes no sense in English, don't waste your time. It will be marked as spam & deleted.