End of our 7th RV USA Trip

We drove south from Nebraska into Kansas, and fittingly came across these beautiful fields of sunflowers. I say 'fittingly', because Kansas is known as the Sunflower State. 

Mind you there are a lot of wheat and corn fields here too. In fact, while we were in our campground, Murray noticed a chap working in an adjacent field. By the time he had finished doing whatever he was working on and wandered to the field to chat to the chap, there was no sign of him. However he found a few bits of ripe, golden wheat left over from the harvester. He put it in a sheaf for me to share with you all. 

We were due to drive to Kansas City the next morning - our final destination once more, before we put the RV in the cave for storage during our absence. Murray was doing his usual maintenance check, and detected that one of the inside, back tyres was flat. The Gods were smiling on us that day, as there happened to be Don's Tire business directly across the road from our RV Park. Even though it was 7.30pm, it was still daylight, and Murray noticed there were still some guys in Don's Tires so he walked over and asked if there was any chance of getting our tyre fixed in the am. Sure enough, we just had to be there at 8am and they would take care of it. Perfect. 

Nasty blow out

Time for the spare tyre

We left Don's Tires with our spare tyre fitted, and were on the road by 9am. After driving for a while, we saw a nice, new Walmart en route, and we couldn't resist dropping in for a final farewell, and to break up the 2.5 hour drive west to Kansas City. Before we knew it, the city of Kansas City, Missouri was right in front of us (albeit a tad hazy as it was a hot, hot day), and we knew we weren't far from our last RV park of the trip. As we turned into the street where our campground is, this horse and wagon pulled out in front of us. A reminder of days gone by from this very area (the wagons that participated in the rush for land in California passed by on this block of land and it is maintained as a National Heritage area). 

Kansas City

Wagon days

We had only been checked into the RV park for a few hours when we got a text from our friends Randy and Andrea saying they would be at our door at 5pm. You may recall in a previous blog where we met up with Jess and Bobbie - they are Randy's daughter and mother, respectively. It was great to see them again, and we spent time catching up on the past 12 months, as we had called in and visited them at their home near St Louis last year. We then decided to head to a nearby Outback Steakhouse for dinner, but not before giving them a tour of the cave where we store our RV each year. 

Murray, me, Andrea, Randy

Talk about a small world. The chap, Bruce, who served us in the Outback restaurant overheard Randy and Murray mention Northern Pike - a fish commonly caught up in Missouri and North Dakota. He asked where the fish was caught, and I mentioned how Murray had caught a 48" Northern Pike in North Dakota a few years back - it even made the paper! Bruce then said his wife grew up in a small town in North Dakota, and when I asked the name of the town, it was the same town where our friends that we camp with each year live. Milt, the chap that owned the boat that Murray was in when he caught the 'whopper' fish lived in the same town as Bruce's wife was from. Bruce asked the name of our friends, and he said that he knew of them. However, when he got home and relayed the story to his wife, she knew the name of our friends intimately, as she and our friends' son were playmates as children, and my girlfriend Kathy used to babysit her. She quickly got on the phone and rang Kathy in North Dakota and told how her husband had met her Australian friends etc etc. I got a phone call from my girlfriend the next morning asking how we enjoyed our dinner at Outback! I knew I hadn't mentioned it to her, so I was wondering how she knew - the story came out, and we both were amazed at what a small world we live in. It turns out that Bruce and his wife are going to be staying in our friend's camper next week during a family reunion up there in the little tiny town of Underwood. Population <800 again="" and="" as="" at="" balance="" boom="" closed="" count="" down.="" even="" has="" home="" last="" less="" might="" mining="" nbsp="" nw="" oil="" out="" probably="" retirement="" span="" that="" the="" there="" though.="" to="">

After dinner, it was still light (it doesn't get dark until around 10pm), we took Randy and Andrea on a quick tour of the Independence, Missouri area around our campground, including President Truman's home where he lived with his wife and what became their 'Summer White House', and also the area where he spent 64 years of his life. The County Courthouse here is where he started his political career. So much history within a few blocks.

The next day we were packing our suitcases after yet another great time visiting the USA. We visited 15 states and had a fantastic time with lots of great memories and some unforgettable experiences. You only have to read through the blog to get an idea of how we spent the past 4 months, and you can see a rough outline of our travels in the map below. 

People keep asking us when we are going to sell the motorhome, but we are taking it year by year. At this stage, all we know is we want to come back one more time...after that, who knows...We drove our RV into our cave where it will sit in a constant 62 F or 16.5 C year 'round, until we come and turn on the ignition to begin another trip. 

Parked until next spring