Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, and Colorado(workcamping)

Our saga has begun.

We are in our third morning out.  Waking up in Amarillo Texas. 

First night out spent in Winslow Arizona at the Wal-Mart.  Second day a long long drive to Amarillo TX and another Wal-Mart.  Waking up at 4:30am and thinking it should be 6:30 am.  Hard to get used to two time zone changes in one day and now we are on Central time. 

Amarillo is one of our favorite towns.  Flashy, lots of restaurants, lots of ten gallon hats, clothing stores, very modern and glitzy.  ?Amarillo by Morning? as George Strait says, but we don?t have time to go to the free 72 ounce steak (if you eat it all in 1 hour) restaurant.  ?We are on the road again? as Woody Nelson says, and want to make Tulsa, OK by nightfall and another Wal-Mart. 

Then it is on to Branson MO, and our first real campground.  We are hoping for 3 nights and a great show.  Probably doing the Broadway special.  Get a chance to dump our tanks, and take a swim.  Then on to multiple Wal-Marts until we make our next destination and a little campground outside of Nappanee IN while we wait our turn to check into ?Camp Newmar? and get our warranty work done.  Can?t wait to get our pea soup (this time we are going to freeze a supply of it) at the Nappanee delly and the bird nest eggs at the corner breakfast joint.

Then on to Spartan in Michigan and then finally to our camp hosting job at Colorado.  Hope to make Colorado by June 23.

Our first fuel stop was somewhere near the New Mexico ? Texas border and we rung it up at $335.  Ouch.  We made it into Amarillo with ? of a tank so are in pretty good shape to get our of here this morning.  Fuel bills will be big, but not as big as the mortgage we used to pay before going full time!  <g>

Smokey,

Since you didn't mention how much fuel you took on or the price per gallon for your $335 fuel fill up, I'm not sure how much you paid per gallon.  But I thought you might like to hear that diesel hit $5.23 gallon here in the Southern Sierras of California.  We didn't have a mortgage with our old house; nor do we have one with our new one.  So these gas prices are gonna be a major eyeopener for us.  It's cheaper for us to stay home.....which is very sad :-[

Marsha~

Looks like if we are gonna play we are gonna pay --- through the nose.

I agree Ron, if we are gonna play it will costs us.  I think a lot of folks will do shorter trips.  I know we will relook at what we plan to do.  Maybe more boondocking, or staying longer in campgrounds to get the week or month discounts.  I don't think it will get any better.  It's such a great lifestyle and I don't want to give it up.

Marsha~

To keep things on thread , we left AZ in April  ;D

As for fuel prices, we had a leak in our fuel tank and scheduled at stop at the Spartan factory where we are now. I had run the tank down pretty far to make the servicing easier. After they gave me back the coach they asked for me to fill the tank to check it out. It leaked even worse and it turns out the problem was deteriorated fuel hoses between the fill necks and the tank. They replaced the fuel and no more leaks. There isn't a Flying J within 50 miles, but the local Shell station was the same price. 114 gallons at $4.899/gallon. Anybody have a good source for a loan ??? ;D

As a matter of fact.. I do (Have a good source for a loan) however I"m not sure you would want to go that route

In another forum they linked to a so called expert (Let's see. an EX is a has been and a SPURT is s drip under pressure right)

Who said that gas price had peaked and will now drip, ur, drop.  I do admit it's gone down a penny or two this week where I'm at (Since the Holiday)

I'm not sure this is so much a peak/drop as it is a holiday gouge however

Bernie,

Aren't you glad you got the leak found and fixed?  At these prices I would hate to be throwing it on the ground.

Marsha~

Marsha/CA said:

I agree Ron, if we are gonna play it will costs us.  I think a lot of folks will do shorter trips.  I know we will relook at what we plan to do.  Maybe more boondocking, or staying longer in campgrounds to get the week or month discounts.  I don't think it will get any better.  It's such a great lifestyle and I don't want to give it up.

Marsha~

Click to expand...

Come over to Sam's Camp.  I guarantee you can't find better rates and the fishing is great.

Don't look for lower prices when you hit Colorado. Durango is hovering at 3.999 for gas, diesel was about 70-cents higher. Right now, I'm kind of glad we don't have a DP.

I agree that a lot of folks will be traveling shorter distances and boondocking more. We're thinking of actually spending the summer traveling around Colorado for a change. But I can't imagine a price per gallon that would make us actually park the MH and quit traveling....there's always the campground 10 miles up the road on the Dolores River if prices get too high.

Wendy
Cortez CO

Marsha/CA said:

Aren't you glad you got the leak found and fixed?  At these prices I would hate to be throwing it on the ground.

Click to expand...

Marsha

I'm glad I got the leak fixed, but I wasn't losing anything since I left about a 30 gallon head room when I refueled and it didn't leak when not full. My biggest frustration was not being able to fill up as the price climbed and then had to refuel at the current peak.

Bernie,

I'm sure glad you didn't drop the precious stuff on the ground.

When we left Palm Springs last January after Quartzsite, we filled up at something like $3.17, much of it is still in the tank.  Tim wants to get the most he can out of the tank.... ;D

Marsha~

Keep storing the fuel.  Just look at how much your investment in fuel has increased in value. ;D ;D

Like Wendy, I can't imagine a fuel price that would make me want to give up the lifestyle.  We have actually been very very spoiled as Americans.  Welcome to the rest of the world!!  ;D ;D

At any rate, I figure there is nothing to be gained by bitching about it.  And there is so much fun to be gained by focusing on what is right about the lifestyle!

Another Wal-Mart and Oklahoma City.

Today we are shooting for a 2 pm arrival in Branson Mo, for a three day stay and hot showers and dinner out and a show.

Will be hard to beat last night?s dinner however.  One of the delightful surprises about a Wal-Mart stay, is how you can stumble upon a really magnificent restaurant.  Who would have thought that in a strip mall across the street from the Wal-Mart would exist an old dilapidated (at least from the outside) family owned Italian restaurant that had magic within its walls.  Exit 136 on Interstate 40, just east of Oklahoma City is where the magic occurred. 

Once we located ourselves and batten down the hatches, we checked our surroundings for stores and restaurants.  The only hope other than chains like MacDonald?s appeared to be a decrepit Chinese restaurant and an old ribs place that meant navigating a busy street.  We managed to get across the street but then had several 4 foot retaining walls to navigate.  Finally we made it across the obstacle course and peeked inside the Chinese restaurant.  It was dirty, nearly abandoned, and what was worse was one of those chain restaurants with all the food prepared ahead of time.  Not a family owned independent restaurant at all, much to our dismay. 

Another 5 stores up was an apparently run down Italian restaurant.  We almost passed it by, but there was an unusually large collection of cars outside.  We decided to check it out.  Spilling out the doorway were several happy couples who seemed to have filled up inside its environs.  Once inside the doorway a magic transformation occurred.  We were greeted by several employees dressed in waiter finery and escorted into a wonderland of fine dining.  Italian paintings combined with bas relief sculpture met our eyes.  And a rather large appetizing menu was laid before us.  This was no chain restaurant.  It was a glorious independently owned restaurant and for the next two hours we were lost in a dream come true. 

We started out with the spinach and bacon dip appetizer.  Delightful bread sticks complete with Italian seasoning and a salted crust formed the main implementing of the dipping.  Then Sharon had the steak marinated in some of the finest sauces that ever touched a palate.  I engaged in the seafood alfresco, complete with shrimp, clams, scallops, and squid.  It was a feast to end all feasts and the service was superb.  We finished it off with a desert that was indescribable.  Really.  I couldn?t begin to describe it.

Who would have thought that behind the doors of what almost appeared to be an abandoned Italian neighborhood restaurant was a gourmet delight?

Now it is 5 am and a stuffed me is warning up the coffee and getting ready to disturb the Admiral for the next leg of our journey.  I hope sugarplums are dancing in her head and that she is too happily sated to complain much about waking up.

Oh the bad news is that the fuel bill was $262.22.  But the good news is the $4.599 a gallon was the best price so far on our trip at Loves.  Oklahoma prices are cheaper than either New Mexico or Arizona prices.  Today we will find out what Missouri prices are like!

Smokey,

I know you are focused on getting to Indiana for "coach work" and don't have the time; but the last time we were in Oklahoma City we took the opportunity to go through the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial.  We are not people who would usually do that, but decided to check it out.  It was really something to visit.  Instead of staying only an hour or so; we ended up there for several hours and learned a great deal about the bombing, the investigative procedure and the people.  It was quite interesting.

Marsha~

We also were surprised and very impressed with the memorial, a definite must do in OKC. Also enjoyed an afternoon on their new "Rver Walk" including the short trip on one of their barges followed bu dinner at the Toby Keith's "I Love This bar and Grill" restaurant in Bricktown.

We have also been told we need to get back to spend time in their National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

The OKC Memorial requires 2 visiits, one during the day to view the memorial and tour the museum and one at night. The lit chairs of the memorial is truly moving.

Jeff,  I didn't know OKC had a River Walk, let alone the rest of the stuff.  We'll have to go back and check it out.  When we were in San Antonio, TX we made a couple of trips to their River walk, which we really enjoyed.  Even took the dog.  River walks seems to be the up and coming revitalization of down town areas in cities now a days.

Where did you stay when you were in OKC?  We had a hard time finding a good campground.

Bernie, I wish we had gone back to see the seats lit up.  The way the designers of the memorial strategically located the chairs in conjuction to where the people were located in the building was very unique.  Kinda hard not to be moved by everything.

Marsha~

Marsha, if you and Tim are Elks, the Elks Lodge in OKC has 30A electric for several RVs.  We stayed there last time through.

Ned,

We are not Elks, but are thinking about joining.  There is a really nice Elks here in Kernville and we heard their fish fry dinners are GREAT........ :

Guess we better join.

BTW, are you still in the Midwest?  If so, how is the weather.

Marsha~

We're in Joliet, IL, with the Cousins, but tomorrow we head north to Milwaukee.  Had some heavy rain and winds yesterday, and a tornado watch, but today is sunny and near 80F.