Caught Up At Last and Movin On

Hooray! This catches me up because we're leaving Burlington and Riverside West CG on COE's John Redmond Reservoir this morning heading North about 40 miles to Lake Pomona. That's far enough until we finish checking out that area.

We came here from Fall River Lake where we stayed at Whitehall Bay which was difficult to find as there were no signs, very unlike the COE parks. We had our mail going to Fall River and planned to buy a few grocery items while there but there were no stores so we drove on to Fredonia.

Our stay at Whitehall Bay was very nice and our camp host was very welcoming. We pulled straight into our site instead of backing in which gave us a beautiful view of the lake and we had a terrific breeze coming in from the open lake. On our second night there I happened to wake up around 2 a.m. and saw lightning constantly flashing in the north. Yikes! I thought, we're in Kansas, tornado country. I woke up Boyd and we turned on the weather radio which was warning areas close to us about heavy rains, wind gusts up to 60 mph, golf ball sized hail and flash floods. They were predicting it to get to our area later in the day and that night so at 5:30 that morning we were getting ready to move up the hill where we would have more protection from wind and hail. We were all prepared but it never came, just clouds. We are so lucky.

That day we hung our hummingbird feeder out and within 4 minutes we had our first Ruby Throated visitor and they came and went the whole time we were there. They're such fun to watch. We saw no other animals in the park, not a single squirrel. we hadn't seen any in Baxter Springs either which we found strange. As a matter of fact we were almost the only campers in the park except for the night before the storm was to come and another came in the day we left. We really enjoyed the peace and quiet.

When we left we didn't travel too far to the CG, Riverside W, as I mentioned before. We arrived a day early since we skipped our planned overnight stay at Emporia. We had found diesel for $4.29 a gallon and filled up there and saved the trip over to Flying J which was out of the way. The most we've had to pay for diesel is $4.83 down between Little Rock and Hot Springs. I've seen on the Internet that in Kansas City it's down to $4.05. That sounds cheap now!

Burlington seems to be a very progressive little town and we had fun exploring the area. They have 2 city parks where you can camp in an RV and a Chamber of Commerce which hands out packets of info to tourists, good info too. That's how we found out about the restaurant we had our 32nd anniversary dinner in yesterday, Aug. 14th. You're going to love this - it was in a T/A Travel Center. BETO Junction Restaurant at the intersection of I-35 and Hwy 75. I had the shrimp dinner and Boyd ate spaghetti and meatballs, it was a cross between Red Lobster and the Olive Garden all rolled into one. The meal was great, we had to have 2 boxes to bring home what we couldn't eat, the salad bar was small but was fresh and had some side salads on it that were also terrific. Lots of truckers were in there naturally and they were our entertainment. One, sitting at the bar, had the hair I would love to have, still don't know if IT was a man or woman. An anniversary dinner we won't forget, that's for sure.

While I'm on the subject of anniversaries, I have to say that it's been a great 32 years. Sure it's been rough at times and I was ready to quit but I'm glad I didn't. Boyd, as everyone knows is crazy but his craziness is loved by all who get to know him. He's one of the very few good guys around, honest, sweet, generous,funny, compassionate, caring, and kids flock to him and he always has time for them. That says a lot about the kind of person he is deep down. You have to know him to appreciate him, a diamond in the rough some might say. Anyway I love him, he's made my life terrific and I wouldn't trade him for anyone. Happy Anniversary Boyd, I hope we have many many more.

On our way home from the truck stop, we took a ride down Old hwy 50 to Lebo. We caught a glimpse of deer eating some farmers crop but there was plenty there for all, saw an old cemetery on land donated by a family originally from England after they had acquired their wealth. The sheep and kids (baby goats) were found too. I took pictures of the rolling countryside but the camera just couldn't do it justice. So serene and green it must be like heaven will be.

We're on little back roads most of the time, there is so much to see and it's all wonderful. I can't explain this to people who ask me "why don't I want to stay home?" You're only on this earth once, unless you're Shirley McClaine, How could you not want to see this beautiful country? It's all so different and you never know what's going to be around the next curve or over the next hill. We see so much that interstate drivers don't see. Farms, lakes, gardens, wild animals, domesticated animals, fruits, graffiti on trains and the people are so much fun to see, meet and talk to.

Back to the CG and the big reddish brown squirrels, hummingbirds and turtles. We're in a pull thru right alongside the old Neosho River where the snake birds fish all day and the cliff swallows fly over every morning and evening catching bugs. Over by the dam we see big white egrets, seagulls and big white pelicans, birds you normally wouldn't associate with Kansas. Bugs! We sure have those, poor Magic was loving it outside in the x-pen until a horsefly bit her, now she's afraid to go outside. The little white bridge separates the two cg loops but we've been the only campers once again in this beautiful park.

It's 11:37 and the A/C is still off. It's been so delightful the whole time we've been here and it's been a great place to ride our bikes too. We're all packed up and ready to go as soon as I finish this.