First Day on the Road 2012

That's Kansas City ahead - we drove right into the centre of Kansas City from this point in about 15 minutes

After spending our first 2 nights in the RV, it was time to hit the road for the first time this trip. It was fun stocking up with groceries at Walmart on our first day in the RV, especially when you can find great deals like skinless chicken breast filets at $1.79 lb ($3.90 kg). Bananas were 53 cents/lb ($1.15 kg). We filled up with fuel at $3.18 gallon (85 cents/litre) just before we set out from Kansas City - for our last fill up here in September last year we paid $3.63 gallon. Now if Murray can catch some fish we can get by on this trip fairly cheaply!

We got away today at a respectable 9.30am, drove past the home of ex-President Truman heading west towards Kansas City - you can see us heading there in the photo above. We swung a right and headed north until we crossed the border into Iowa. We couldn't have picked a lovelier day to drive out in - the sky was blue, it was cool enough not to need the air conditioner on, and red-wing black birds kept crossing the road as we passed. They move too fast for me to get a photo of them in flight (which is the best time to see the pretty red triangle on their wing, so I borrowed this photo from the web.  

Red-wing Blackbird courtesy of flickriver

Assume the RV navigator position...

After driving for 2 hours we pulled over under a tree and had our lunch - missed morning tea altogether! We moseyed on and topped up with fuel, and then I did a stint my first stint of RV driving during this trip for the next hour until we reached our destination on a 200 acre man-made lake in a State Park. We saw lots of cornfields with very young corn crops. I guess they won't be ready to harvest until the end of summer. It is a delight driving along seeing well-manicured properties along the road. 

Lunch along the way - pick any shady spot

Neat and tidy properties with young corn

Our parking spot for 2 nights - Lake Anita State Park in Iowa

When we arrived and got settled at the campground (a very modest $19 a night for water, electric and sewer), I made some blueberry pancakes for afternoon tea. Then I thought I would check out the weather for the next 2 days. Tomorrow (Wednesday) looks ok - albeit 10 degrees C cooler than what we have had for the past week or so, but Thursday looks positively spooky! See the outlook on the iPhone weather app below. For our American friends 13C converts to 55F and that is the HIGH!! Note the low 6C (43F) - you have got to be kidding! Thankfully it jumps up to 27C (81F) for the weekend - remember we came here for the summer!