St Louis and north.

We decided to stay a couple of days after the rally so we can explore Sedalia and see the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival and the Truck and Tractor Pulling. Should be more fun.

Several artist were performing live Scott Joplin recitals in the street.

The Scott Joplin Festival was fun, and Sedalia was a very interesting place with all the old buildings preserved so well. There were 6 of us from Chapter 25 Marty, Peggy, Rey, Loretta, Barbara and I after the majority rally goers left, we went to the local Mexican restaurant for a very enjoyable meal. That and a few drinks made me sleepy enough we didn't bother with the tractor pull. We watched a DVD then settled in for an early night.

Nice well preserved building downtown Sedalia

Very atmospheric

After a week in one place the old “Hitch Itch” was getting bad and we happily drove to Kansas City to see the National World War 1 Museum. The Blue Springs Elks welcomed us warmly to their excellent lodge and camping area. 

Elks camping.

Funnily enough we pulled in and another rig pulled in seconds later. They were the couple who had been parked directly across from us at the Rally! That started a chain of coincidence. 

L to R Me, Barbara, Jeanette and John

One of the Lodge members introduced us to John who's wife Jeanette was from our home town in UK! The next night she came to the lodge and we all talked for hours about home, they in turn introduced us to another John who as a Marine was attached to the US Embassy in London and met a girl who was also from our area. He told us he'd been to visit her family in Upton. We all laughed when we told him that our daughter is the mailman for Upton.

The World War 1 Museum is under the Liberty Tower

Truman Presidential Library

Looking at the garden where the Trumans' are buried

We walked for hours during our stay, finding more and more amazing places. The World War 1 museum took 5 hours and I'm not sue we saw everything. Then the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and home the next day was 6 hours. Finally the Steamboat Arabia Museum which took a meager 2 hours!!

The Arabia sank with a complete load of supplies for the frontier towns

Everything from Boots to Bullets and more

The old Courthouse Dome scene of the Dred Scott trial.

Our friends from our very first days of full timing Scott and Suzanne called, they were staying with their daughter 50 miles away and we all had dinner at the lodge. Our new friends John and Jeanette were there too and a good time was had by all.

We finally managed to drag ourselves away and next morning headed for St Louis to see the Arch. Unusually we decided to just get on I70 and head straight there, so it was just another amazing coincidence when an RV went the other way towing a jeep just like John and Debbies! Barbara grabbed for her phone and it rang before she even dialed the number. It was Debbie asking of we were going east on I70!!

Rainy day at the "Arch" St Louis

A dull rainy look down at the city from the top of the arch.

St Louis was OK, the arch was good even if the weather wasn't, hot and rainy doesn't make us happy. I'm not sure why we keep coming back to cities like this, we don't like the traffic and searching for parking spaces. We haven't got out of “Tourist Mode” even after 3 years!!

Davenport Iowa was next simply because it was about 200 miles from St Louis heading North. We found a nice route up Illinois 67, very little traffic and 4 lanes for many miles. Lots to see, with some awesome old farms and barns.

If you've seen the show you know what this place is.

I love the motorcycles.

It's construction season in Illinois and it's hard to understand why they have to close of sections of road completely instead of going from 4 lanes to 2. It seemed everywhere we went a road was closed and we got diverted. They are building a new bridge over the Mississippi too and that's got to be nightmare in rush hour.

Casino camping on the banks of the Mississippi

We stayed at the Isle Casino 2 nights for free and got 2 breakfast buffets for $5 total using the 50+ offer and the free point we got when we joined their “Player Club”.

The National Motorcycle Museum

Evel Kdowning

Side trips to “Antique Archaeology” and The National Motorcycle Museum were worth while we thought.

More gorgeous motorcycles

I want to paint some of these pretty bikes.

And next? We're thinking Wisconsin.

Sedalia and the Escapades RV Rally

Also luckily we posted on Facebook that we were in the area and our good friends Marty and Peggy sent us a message that they were in the area too so we went stayed an extra night and caught up on their news.

The famous Big Chicken in Branson

Friends were popping up all over as we got closer to Sedalia and the Rally. After a very pleasant couple of days at the Joplin Elks Lodge with a side trip to the Springfield Bass Pro museum and store we headed South to Branson and pulled in to the Turkey Creek SKP RV Park about 10 minutes after John and Debbie. We took them completely by surprise. The 4 of us wandered around Branson and caught up on each others news, then up popped Larry and Marilyn from our Florida chapter 57 at the Sunday Ice Cream Social.

Paddle Wheeler tours

While we were doing laundry the next day in walked Lynn and Becky who we last saw in Florida. To top it all on Wednesday we got a message from Peter and Donna Ward who adopted us into the Florida chapter 2 years ago! And we have some BBQ sauce for them that they can only get in Arizona.

They named it after us!

It's fun here in Branson it should be a riot once we get to the Rally and meet all the rest of the crowd! We found an “English Village” around the corner from the campground with a street called Downing Street and a Craft Beer pub called the Downing Pour House!

The Prime Minister wasn't home.

After a night in another Elks Lodge just 30 miles from the Missouri State Fairgrounds where the Escapades Rally was being held we drove to the rally campground in heavy rain. That quit after a couple of hours but the ground was really soft and several rigs sank in as they parked. Luckily not us!

The RV's roll into Sedalia

Just walking in to registration had us meeting Marty and Peggy who were manning the desk. Pretty soon we saw Rey and Lorreta then Carol and Matt, John and Debbie, almost the whole of Chapter 57 from Florida. 

Our camping spot was right on a corner where everyone walked by. We looked on Facebook and Nancy and Art were back to back with our rig.

Marty and Peggy doing registration

Parties started breaking out, the RV dealer show had a happy hour each evening then there were chapter parties. Entertainment every evening, seminars, I taught 2 painting classes, I had 3 entries in the photo contest and one of them got 3^rd place! We even ended up running the Photo Contest registration for a couple of hours too so with the time we spent running the “Row” booth and teaching painting we qualified for tickets in the volunteers prize drawing. 

Us running the Chapter 25 booth on the "Row"

Our luck ran true to form and we didn't win anything.

A full painting class

Nancy loves my classes!

First class

Second 

Closing ceremonies were followed by a street party with a very loud band, food vendors, a beer and a wine vendor, and the finale for the whole week was a firework display.

The Chapter 57 crowd fill out campsite

Our "Adopted Family" 

Serious partyers

The chili cookoff

We decided to stay a couple of days after the rally so we can explore Sedalia, see the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival and the Truck and Tractor Pulling. Should be more fun.

First time in Kansas

I a definitely teaching an art class at the rally so I have to stock up my supplies. Hobby Lobby here I come!

Moving further East and still on I70 took us up. And I mean up too! Over 11,000 ft at one point with many miles of 8% and steeper grades. The rig was down in 1^st gear, flat out at 4500 rpm going 30mph. Still the old girl made it and didn't overheat or anything dramatic.

Yep a tunnel at 11,158'

We had a couple of nights in Golden Colorado where we visited the Colorado Railroad Museum. This is definitely worth a stop. Look up their schedule to get a ride on a real steam train. Their workshops are interesting as they restore both the rolling stock and the actual engines in their Roundhouse.

Colorado Railroad Museum

You don't see many of these around!

We also found a nest of Elks Lodges. There were 3 withing about 15 miles of the campground we were staying at. We found out too late that one of them has camping facilities that aren't listed in the RV directory. We visited the Golden Lodge first but they had a power outage and told us to try the Lakewood Lodge which is famous for a big stained glass window they rescued from Denver Lodge 17 when it was being redeveloped. Along with seeing the window we lucked into their Boche Ball league. They have about 5 Boche lanes and 60 active players. Better yet they have the grill going outside and a nice shaded area to sit and eat burger and hot dogs. No guessing where we ate dinner that night!

Finally we found ourselves in Kansas. It's the first time for us and we get to add another state to the list at the side of the blog. I had found a campground called High Plains CG right off I70 near Oakley KS. It was shown as having “Captain Jack's Pub” on site. It turns out that “Captain Jack” and his wife who own the CG were from Hampton VA. Not only that but they served Chesapeake Bay seafood! We had their Maryland Crab Cakes made with Old Bay seasoning. It took us back to our 25 years around Baltimore and Annapolis MD. Very pleasant.

Barbara saved a buffalo from being killed by an illegal hunter right outside the Buffalo Bill Culture Center. What are the odds! Very brave Barbara.

Barbara saves the Buffalo

Buffalo Bill has several museums across the country. We visited the one in Cody WY a couple of years back. It turns out that Buffalo Bill was very much a product of his own ego and of several dime novels written by Ned Buntline. The same gentleman invented Wild Bill Hickock who's name wasn't William or even Hickock! It's apt than that this center is in Oakley KS. Which has nothing whatever to do with Annie Oakley, and the

Buffalo Bill Culture Center has nothing much about him, mainly because he never came here! It does mention that his legend was formed “In the area” which considering the size of the Prairie here about is a pretty broad description!

Street art in Dodge City.

We also stopped in Wichita for a couple of nights, one of which was spent watching huge thunderstorms circle around us and hearing reports of tornado's forming and softball size hail. Luckily none of it came near us. Also luckily we posted on Facebook that we were in the area and our good friends Marty and Peggy sent us a message that they were in the area too so we went stayed an extra night and caught up on their news.

L-R Me Marty, Peggy and Barbara

Time to go, Escapades is calling.

To make up for that we stayed at the Elks Lodge in Chula Vista and naturally caught up on all our old friends and neighbors in town. Days of partying turned int nights of partying. The diet went completely out of the window.

After so much fun with great friends and ex neighbors it felt strange to be heading out again. Towing the Miata got a little less stressful every day, but I still had Barbara peering out of the rear window as we pulled away to check the wheels weren't locked!

Hitched up and ready to travel

We are starting our summer of travel for 2018.

First we had decided to try and get together with our Aussie friends Mike and Lynne who were currently around Moab UT having a great time exploring all the tremendous National Parks nearby. Zion, Canyon Lands to name but two. They were heading West slowly and we were heading North East. It looked like we could meet up in Utah somewhere.

We posted on FaceBook that we were stopping in Parker Arizona and suddenly Paul and Karen our friends from Sundance in Casa Grande were on our doorstep. What a nice surprise. We chatted for an hour then went our separate ways.

We stopped in one of my favorite places “Valley of Fire State Park” North of Vegas. I have always promised Barbara I'd bring her here and we had 2 great days exploring this spectacular spot. We even hiked the Petroglyph Trail and felt the spirit of the ancient people in that special canyon.

Valley of Fire gets it's name from the vivid red sandstone formations

Hauntingly beautiful Petroglyphs

Prickly Pear cactus in bloom

Lost City Museum in Overton Nevada I feel a painting coming on!

When we first started this trip back in 2015 one of the early stops we made was in Panguich UT. For sentimental reasons we stopped there again before driving the stunning UT 12 thru the Dixie National Forest and Bryce National Park. If you drive this road don't expect to make fast time. If the breath taking views aren't enough to slow you down then the 8, 9 and 10% grades should! Twisting and climbing we crossed the snowline and crested the highest point at 9400'.

9400' and above the snowline on Utah route 12.

Mike and Lynne were dry camping on BLM land but the entrance was too rocky for the Miata to get into that spot and we picked a little campground called Sand Creek based on the RV Campground Review app. It was quite expensive for what it was but it's a popular place so we took what we could get. Mike steered me to another app that gives the location of BLM spots on a map iOverlander might be our “Go To” now for that kind of camping, it's really easy to use.

We had a great couple of days and nights catching up with all their news and their trip down to Baja Mexico. A nice dinner at Rim Rock Hotel and Restaurant followed by a beer or so at our rig with a trip into the Capitol Reef NP to round things out. It's funny how you can make friends so easily when you're RV'ing, and we just love these guys.

Barbara, Lynne and I in Torrey Utah

Capitol Reef NP Scenic Route

Sunday Farmers Market with a band in Torrey

More Aussie's! Turned out these ones were from the same city as Mike and Lynne

On we went, breaking our “No Interstates” rule to drive 100 miles up I70 to Grand Junction Colorado. Happily the Elks Lodge was open on Sunday and we were welcomed and given bowls of the soup somebody had thoughtfully provided. It turned out that the Exalted Ruler was an artist too and we were soon chatting away and showing pictures of our work to each other.

We were told to go visit the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River while we are in the area so we elected to stay 2 nights and do some exploring.

The Escapades Rally is at the end of this month and we are trying to hook up with one of the groups we are associated with to camp together. It's more fun if we are in the same area and cuts down on how far we have to walk to “Happy Hour”!!

I am definitely teaching an art class there now, so I have to stock up my supplies. Hobby Lobby here I come!

San Diego again.

Did I mention that we are getting SERIOUSLY frustrated with this!!

Finally we got a call to pick up the Miata from the body shop. We had moved from the SKP KOFA park to the “Q” casino intending to head off to San Diego if the shop gave us one more excuse. I had called Geico again and their rep had made some more threatening calls, plus I called Gerber's corporate office and told them what I thought about their Casa Grande shop and what I intended to post online to every site that had reviews for body shops if I didn't get the car back immediately.

Suddenly it got done! A miracle. When we collected it they knocked $200 off the bill for “Inconvenience”.

Barb and I jumped into the Fiesta and drove to Casa Grande picked up the Mazda, dropped the Fiesta in a covered storage facility and drove back to Yuma. That took the whole day and we planned to leave the next morning.

All fixed up.

It seems like we must have run over somebody's black cat lately as as soon as the Tire Pressure Monitor System (TPMS) was turned on it started beeping for low pressure on the 2 outside rear tires. Worse we were dry camping and had no power to plug the compressor into. My anxiety disorder just went off the wall. I had to try and calm down so I could work on a plan to get out of this mess.

When I got calm again I realized we could start the generator which we'd been running for the last coupe of days to run the AC. Of course the geny decided that it wasn't going to cooperate and wouldn't start.

A TPMS sensor, this screws on in place of the valve cap.

More calming down had me remember that we'd bought a rechargeable portable compressor just to save having to get the big one out to top up the airbags in the suspension. That little thing said it was capable of 120 psi. Time to find out!

Well a welcome surprise, that little thing did it! It took a long time but it got those tires up to 100 psi even though it wasn't fully charged from the last time I used it!

Rear wheel with the hub cap removed. The hose at the bottom is one of the valve stem extensions.

When I'd finished I tried the geny again and it started! Talk about timing!

Two metal valve extensions, this is what was leaking slowly.

I spent 15 minutes playing with the steering lock on the Miata to figure out what position it had to be in to NOT lock the steering. Seems it has to be in the “accessory” position. We hooked up and set off, or we did after I got the parking brake on the rig to release! It decided to pay hard to get and I had to press on the parking brake pedal as I pulled the release handle to get it to release.

Finally we got going but only after we made a few sharp turns and got out to check the Miata wheels hadn't locked!! Driving on I8 isn't too fascinating, 100 miles of dead straight road thru the barren desert. I was driving with one eye on the rear view camera looking for smoke coming out of the Miata or other drivers flashing their headlights to signal some new disaster. Barbara made a couple of trips back to look out the rear window too! Fortunately nothing happened. We made a stop near El Centro and I checked the temperatures of every tire on the rig and the car, lifted the hood and checked under there. Everything was just fine and I started to calm down a little.

By the time we'd climbed from below sea level in El Centro over the mountains at 4200' and down the other side into San Diego I was almost a happy guy again. There is still a problem with the 2 outside rear tires on the rig loosing pressure over a couple of days, and the Miata has rubber valve stems which I don't think are suitable for use with the TPMS sensors so I will have to get those sorted before we leave San Diego but I am hopeful that we are putting our series of problems behind us at last.

Writing this latest post has also been therapeutic. It helps me get over the anxiety that has been dogging me for the last month. I'm quite impressed with how I've been able to get it under control and I'm 1000% better than I was 4 years back when it first hit me. So thanks for letting me share my story with you.

There was plenty more frustration dealing with AT&T trying to straighten out the mess that Directv Now had left my account in. Suffice it to say that I wouldn't wish Directv Now on my worst enemy and it took 2 days, endless phone calls and hours (literally) on hold before I just canceled it and walked away.

To make up for that we stayed at the Elks Lodge in Chula Vista and naturally caught up on all our old friends and neighbors in town. Days of partying turned into nights of partying. The diet went completely out of the window.

Chula Vista Elks RV park.

I redid the valve extensions on the rear wheels and I hope now the TPMS will work without alarms. Unfortunately when I looked at the valve stems on the Miata they are rubber not metal and I'm not sure they will be safe to hang the TPMS monitors on!!

This one piece valve stem extender is what I hope will fix the problem.