We're going to be mighty cold......

Jim got a call this morning from Colorado. ACK! They want him back out there. We wanted to go back, but we really weren't prepared to be going back out there until sometime in April. We're going to freeze our butts off! (that won't hurt me a bit) He needs to be out there by Monday for work, so I guess we'll be leaving not later than Wednesday morning.

I am anxious to see the area this time of year, just not anxious to travel the roads getting there this time of year. We are going to have to go somewhat out of our way in Kansas because there is a section of I-70 that's closed until March 16. Guess that means that we'll be detouring through Wichita and across KS 400 into Garden City and then up KS83 to I-70.

Jim promises me that if we hit icy roads, we will absolutely stop until it's safe to drive again. Ice scares the blue blazes (and more) out of me!

I can't say that I'll be sad to leave Georgia. It's coming into severe weather season and they do get a lot of tornados in the area. Americus, last week, for example. We're only about 70 or so miles from there. I'm very thankful that we have a good weather radio.That thing has been a Godsend for us being on the road. I have to say it's probably one of the best gifts we've ever been given since we started RV'ing. (Thanks, Chirs!)

As soon as we can after we get there, I want to make a run to Sierra Trading Post. I love their prices and they've got some great stuff! We'll only be about 45 minutes away from their store that's in Cheyenne, WY.

I'll add more to this post later. For now, I need to worry about getting the coach ready to go tomorrow.

UPDATE March 13, 2007:
Well, it was a fairly uneventful cross country trip. We arrived (exhausted) at Greeley RV park on Saturday morning, the 10th.

Mother Nature cooperated with us quite well. the weather was beautiful all the way. The first night we stayed in Brinkley, AR. at a little RV park that we stayed at on the way east last fall. They've made some improvements, but they are still remodeling. Heck, for nine bucks on the Happy Camper rate, you can't beat it. :) 50 amp electric service and long, level concrete hookup with free cable TV too!

Thursday we hit the road and stopped in Russellville, AR for fuel, both for us and the coach. Flying J (FJ) keeps telling us that our debit card is no good at the pump. Then you go inside and have them slide the card again and it's fine. This has been going on since the Saturday before Christmas. We've not had a problem in 6 years, and now all of a sudden they don't like our debit card. This doesn't happen anyplace else. It seems only to happen at Flying J. I don't get it, and I don't think they do either. But since they don't seem to be doing anything to correct the issue, I think I'm going to put a "trouble with FJ" page online pretty soon. We've run into a few people standing in line to pay that have also had the same problem. They haven't called customer service to do anything about it, but I have. At first I got a wonderful response. This time, I e-mailed them on Thursday night, and so far, no response.

Anyway, we left there and headed on out across Interstate 40. At the end of the day, we were in Oklahoma City and stopped for fuel again since it would be the last FJ stop where we could get fuel. The FJ in Limon, Colorado was too far and too small. It's not a truck stop with an RV island. It's just like a regular gas station. The FJ in Oklahoma City was pretty crowded, so we opted not to eat there. We were just going to fuel and go. I should have gone in to handle the debit card problem. Jim said the pump said it was authorized, (but it always says that), so I left him to go in and get the receipt. WRONG! When he came out he was furious. The clerk told him his card was no good. He tried explaining to her what has been going on since Christmas time, but she'd hear none of it and insisted that the problem did not lie with FJ. There was an ATM behind him so he stepped over to it, got the cash and paid, asking her how come there's no problem at the ATM and there is at your fuel pump? All she said was that we saved a whopping 36 cents today on our fuel. WOW!!! It cost him $2.80 to get the cash out of the ATM. So, let's see ----Saved 36 cents, but it cost us $2.80 to save that 36 cents - in essence, it cost us an extra $2.44 to get our fuel. Now hears the kicker; we go to FJ because their fuel is about 5 cents a gallon less. We only needed 36 gallons. So the other station would have been $1.80 more, but because FJ ended up being $2.44 more than it should have been, it cost us an extra 64 cents and a lot of aggravation to go to FJ instead of the competitor across the street. That's not good business! Jim has vowed to not go to FJ again, but I think he'll get over it the next time we hit the road.

Moving on down the road, we wanted to get through Oklahoma City before rush hour started and maybe get settled down for Thursday night before it got too late. The laundry was piling up and that makes me crazy. So at Exit 108 in Oklahoma (our intended exit) we stopped to go into the KOA that's right there by the Cherokee Trading Post. What a shock to see that they were closed. The place was all dug up like they're doing a lot of work on it. I couldn't find a listing for another park on our route for a very long way and we sure didn't want to be out there in nowhere after dark. We took the option of eating at the Trading Post restaurant and sleeping with the truckers in the parking lot. So much for getting some laundry done. The food there is pretty reasonable and it was good too. Once again Mother Nature cooperated with us. It was a beautiful, warm night for this time of year. When we woke up Friday morning, it was just a little bit chilly and only took the furnace about 20 minutes to warm us up to toasty.

We left at about 6AM our time (5AM local time). The ride up US 270 and US283 into Dodge City, over to Scott City and up to I-70 was a lot less hectic than driving on the Interstate. It was a very nice ride. The roads were quiet and we just leisurely made our way through Kansas.

The first snow we saw was just north of Scott City on US83. As we headed on towards Colorado, there was more and more along the sides of the road. It just amazed me that there could still be snow with the weather in the 60's. As we came into Colorado, there began to be more and more snow along the sides of the road. In the welcome center area, there were snow mountains where the trucks had dumped the snow they'd cleaned off the highways. Not an unusual site for the locals, I'm sure, but it was quite a site for me. ::smile::

We gained another hour right about mile marked 35 in Kansas as we entered Mountain Time and arrived in Limon, Co. at about 3PM (that's 5PM for you time challenged easterners) We pulled into the KOA behind the FJ there. WOW! There was still a good foot and a half of snow all around the edges of the park and it was a muddy mess from what had melted. The coach and car had stayed pretty clean until now. (Jim has this fixation about keeping the car and the coach shiny all the time) I fixed dinner, we watched a little television and headed for the bed. It had been a long, long day. Thankfully, it hadn't been on a crowded Interstate highway.

Saturday morning we awoke to a cold 30 degrees, had our coffee and headed out. We arrived in Greeley at about 10AM (local time) and got everything set. We had to head out for the Camping World in Longmont right away though. We remembered how hard the water here is, and the hours I spent getting the hard water deposits off the fixtures, and the severe itching after showering in it, so we went and invested in a Water Softener for the coach. There were two choices. I wasn't sure which would be the best choice, so I e-mailed the day before, while we were traveling, a friend of ours who had gotten one while they were out west last year and got their recommendation. This thing really works!! Half the amount of detergent in the washer, I'm not itching after a shower and I'm not using half a bottle of shampoo to get a little bit of lather anymore. Thanks Pete and Donna!!! The recommendation was a good one.

Sunday morning, we wanted a little relaxation and some breakfast, so we headed up to Estes Park. You have to know how I love that town. It was beautiful. the snow on the top of the mountains was a lot less than I'd expected to see but it was still a gorgeous site. We had breakfast at the Big Horn because The Trailhead Restaurant (they have a good breakfast - don't know about other meals) is closed for the season.

We got home in time for Jim to watch the Nextel Cup Race and that's about it for us for now. Y'all come see us in Colorado!!! The weather is almost alarmingly warm right now. I can't help but think we'll pay for it in a few weeks.