Switch crew campout, Missouri

Switch Crew campout, Missouri 

Friday October 20, 2023

This morning when we woke up we saw deer across the road again, a doe and a fawn.

Soon our Switch crew will arrive.

Our Hosts this weekend Dwight and Kristie.

We left late morning to go do some errands. First we went to Harbor Freight, to get a AGM compatible battery charger. He has not been able to get them charged since we've had inverter issues.

Then we had our first time experience at a Whataburger for lunch.

My salad had way to many Craisins.

Then next door was this cool store.

The only reason Jim went in with me was they had beer. Also amazing meat counter.

 I was able to finally find wild rice. 

 Then we went to Ulta Beauty. I decided I wanted to get a kit to do my own gel nail polish. 

I ran in by myself and found one fairly quickly. 

Then we went to Aldi's. Jim dropped me off and went to get fuel while I was in the store. Then he texted me, and I was thinking, you just left, what could he possibly want. 

He was getting fuel and saw Cindy and Billy at the station. Then we headed  back to the RV. The crew is all here how. Counting us, eight couples here.

We all gathered together for an evening fire together and went home later for dinner. 

Steve, our official crew chef, did make beef and cheese quesadillas for everyone.

Had a great time with everyone hanging out the rest of the evening.

Saturday October 21, 2023

This morning after our coffee we went over and Tom made pancakes and sausage for breakfast for everyone.

Kelly made a great breakfast cake. 

We have a potluck plan for tonight. We left about 11:20, we had 6 riders for a bike ride. Jim road Cindy's bike. 

It was a great day for outside activities.

 I did the walk. Was almost 4 miles around the lake.

 So beautiful. 

 I got back Cindy and I ran to Walmart and Aldi's for a few things.

 Then we came back and I started cooking. I made yellow rice and mixed veggies, peanut butter cookies, rice krispie treats, pigs in a blanket.

Then we got ready for this evening's potluck and Fire.

I picked up a piece of fire wood, Ken and Robin brought from the family farm they work. I got stung from a bee in my hand.

We had way to much food, we all took alot of leftover food home for tomorrow's travel day.

 What a great night we had.

Watkins Mill State Park, Kearney Missouri

Watkins Mill State Park, Kearney Missouri 

Wednesday October 18, 2023

This morning we got up and we're finally leaving the HDT Rally in Hutchinson, Kansas. Sad everyone was great.

 We were treated to a beautiful sunrise. 

Jim took alot of great shots this morning. 

At 10:00 this morning Jim made arrangements to go to the campout with the switch crew for the Tampa RV show. Now we wait to see if we get accepted.

 Again it was super windy, but we headed over to get the camper and truck weighed. I feel there's going to be a need for an RV diet in our future. Then we pulled up onto the scales,  per there instructions.

It took only a few minutes. He had to unhook the truck. Then they went over the numbers with us. So basically we need to loose  about 1,000 lbs on RV. And or get a bigger truck :)

Then we headed for Missouri, for a Switch It Up campout, starting on Friday.

The drive was about 4 hours. We had to go around Kansas city, was quite busy. There was crazy clouds on the drive.

We arrived at the Watkins Mill State Park. Was quite beautiful, there a lot of trees changing colors, reminds us alot of Pa.

First we had to fill our tank with fresh water. They only have electric at the sites.

 Then we checked in and got backed into our site. 

Kind of tricky backing in around trees and a narrow tight drain pipe next to it.

It was nice they had a water spicket right next to our site. Which was nice to keep filling the Berkey with.

 Once we got plugged in, we realized our inverter wasn't working.

So therefore the fridge and outdoor counter height freezer wasn't working on the whole trip. That's a big stressor for me.

Jim tried the rest of the day to get it working again. This will be our third one since we started full-time over 6 years ago. The original lasted a couple years. Then we had Jim from Sycamore Hill RV in Pennsylvania install the second one. Lasted 4 years and the last one Jim put in, with a monitor inside the RV, so he wouldn't have to contort himself to try to read when it would throw a code. 

Every time they stopped working we were never able to get them on again. We discussed it the rest of the day. As we started looking for one. I called 8 to 10 places looking. I called a Camping World and got the best employee ever. He kept checking and then called us back and told us what he found. He's like " I'm not done yet, now it's a challenge "  he'd check and called us back again. He never heard of the brand we had. 

Jim and I decided we should get a different brand.  I wanted to get one that was compatible with lithium batteries. So we have it when we are ready to change.. As this one is not compatible, right now we have three AGM's.

Later we had dinner and tried to de-stress.

See what tomorrow brings.

Thursday October 19, 2023

This morning Jim was up first and got the coffee going. Stressing about the inverter. Trying to come up with a plan and find one online. 

Then when I got up I looked out the window and there was four deer across the road from us. As all those sites were still empty.

There was 4 they disappeared into the woods.

This morning I even called Dwight and Christy to see if they knew anybody that we could call for help with our inverter issues. He called me right back and was very helpful.

 None of the crew are here yet, we are the first to arrive. Everyone will get here on Friday.

Later I took a walk all around the state park here. 

Jim was looking for an inverter. When I called the campground in Branson to see if they would accept a package if we had it sent there. They said they would.

Once I got home Jim said he ordered one to have sent there.

I Told Jim firewood was $5 a bundle.

He went down and got $20 worth and had a lovely fire, hopefully it helped him decompress from the day.

Happy "sick" Monday

Happy "sick" Monday 

Monday October 16, 2023

Jim did not feel great the whole day today, so he didn't do much. He kept saying I have alot to do tomorrow, and I will be hurting. Love his positive attitude. Stupid phone, you type positive and covid comes up not attitude. I hate that.

This morning I went out and watched more people pack up. This older SpaceCraft had a huge garage and I watched as they put the Jeep in the back.

Quite the process.

 Beautiful HDT with a New Horizon. I feel like we talked to them at the open house. 

The campground is really emptying out a lot of empty spots. I think I counted six to eight HGT or LGT's, like us here yet. A few more non Rally attendees came in too.

As I walked around the campground I saw this cool, Pollinators Sanctuary, a bug Hotel.

Alot of empty space around us now.

 This is Kansas State Fairgrounds building we had our activities in. There is alot of buildings here. Place is huge.

This is the Lair White House, Kansas Fairgrounds Foundation Offices and Conference Room, Kansas Fairgrounds Museum.

I left 2 messages with Susan that we needed another paper to fill out to get weighted on Wednesday 

morning, she dropped one off for us.

 I love this Volvo license plate. 

Can't believe it's so dry here. This pond close by, was so low, they had a floating dock, it was touching the bottom of the pond. 

Later in the evening I got beautiful

 sunset pictures.

Tuesday October 17, 2023

Jim felt better today thank goodness.

After lunch I wanted to stop at the post office. I had hair products I wanted to mail to Mia my youngest granddaughter. Also a box of German cookies we wanted to give to his mom before we left. I had pre-made address labels for them both. We got there and what a production it was to get those packages together. Not them, US. At the last second, Jim realized I put the labels on the wrong ones. Oh I guess we can't be left alone. 

Then back to Aldi's. After I looked at the receipt, there was some questionable things on there.They rung up 3 different items 2 or 3 times, void one. So it looked like they charged me extra. But when I asked, they said it was fine. OK then...

 It was funny there was a Mennonite couple buying a case of butter, cream cheese sugar Etc. When I went out to the truck. We realized he was putting everything in the back of a horse trailer. And the horse trailer was being pulled by a John Deere tractor, and they both got into it. I told Jim I wish I could have got a picture of that.

 So then we went to Walmart. I got a head start and Jim went to get diesel fuel. He met me inside and found our toothpaste. Got a few groceries and then went home. On the way we passed the Tractor and horse trailer. 

Guess they had more errands to do too. Not the best picture, but so funny.

We had to work on our sheet to get weighed for Wednesday morning. Figure out all our numbers.

I also got some pre travel cooking done.

He started by putting the golf cart and everything outside away. Together we even gave the camper and truck a quick wash as it was so dusty from all the wind.

Can't believe it is soon time to leave here.

Last Rally breakfast

Last Rally Breakfast 

Saturday October 14, 2023

This morning we got up to the building and Jim had his last Rally breakfast.

I was anxious to see the aftermath from the wedding this morning, curious to see how they left the room. It was way better than I anticipated it would be. People in the kitchen said they threw a lot of food away last night.

Alot of cupcakes left.     Our donuts.

 As the breakfast was underway Steve told everyone that is staying tonight, they were going to have leftovers with all the food from the week. They had a lot of macaroni and cheese, pulled pork, chicken and pizza, baked beans and green beans, cookies chips, sodas etc. Decided to do it at 6:00 p.m. again tonight. 

Jim had his last breakfast and David and Sondra came in. They had their breakfast, and we got the chat with them for probably close to 2 hours I'm guessing. It was so enjoyable they are the nicest people. After we left we went home and relaxed finally after a long week.

 Then I decided to make something for the leftover potluck, as I was calling it. You didn't really have to make anything but, to entertain myself I decided to make triple chocolate cupcakes, I had all the ingredients for them. Felt like being creative.

Right as I pulled the last one out of the oven, Karen knocked on the door and asked if we wanted to drive her smart car and HGT. She basically threw the car keys to us.

Perfect timing, and we went over with her as it was still so windy and cold, but Jim and I each took turns driving the Smart car around the campground. Hers was an 09 and we were recommended by David, this morning that we should buy one 2016 or 17. Anybody have one for sale??

And the three of us got in her truck and Jim got to drive it around here. Everyone says how great the turning radius is. Jim didn't believe it, because the 450 does so well. But he was amazed, he said it was even better. It was just so cool, sitting up so high having all that room in the truck. To have a fridge and a porta potty and a microwave. To be able to have a little car, the safety and stopping power, hauling capacity. Would be an incredible change for us. I guess the search begins for the perfect truck. Everyone keeps telling us we already have half the battle,  because we have our RV. We don't have a time frame. They said that's the best scenario.

At 6:00 we went up for the leftover potluck. We got there early so I did some line dance practice while we waited for everything to start. Jim was looking for trucks, on his phone. He said look at this one, and there was some terminology in there I didn't know what it meant. Neither did he, I wanted to ask Jack, but he wouldn't let me. Some guy came in named David and I said do you have an HDT, and he said he did. I asked him if I could ask him a question, he said sure. So I asked him what it meant about the truck. We chatted about it for a while and then he was talking with us and I said I feel like I knew what my mission profile was. I proceeded to tell him what it was we were looking for in a truck, and I ask him if I missed anything that I should include. He said he didn't think so.

 So later after the meal he went to get something and come back. Jim went to get another Margarita and came back. When David came back, he said I think I found you a truck. WHAT... He showed Jim pictures pretty much everything I said I was looking for. Except maybe the color of it and it's in Canada.

The great team and our Rally hosts.

I cut Steve in half, wife Lisa, Jack, wife

Heidi and her hubby and the solar guy

Some older guy was so funny he started passing out my cupcakes, above, I said thanks for promoting them. I never did eat one.

We had another wonderful meal and everything leftover,  they started giving it away we got extra soda, baked beans, green beans, chips, etc.

Sunday October 15, 2023

This morning it was nice to sleep in and not rush out to go anywhere. 

Jim did alot of trip planning on the Garmin RV. This is our route to the Keys, so far.

Later in the afternoon Jim dropped me at Aldi's. First major shopping all this month that I did. Then he went to fill up the propane tank and had lunch at Arby's. He picked me up again we went home and put everything away.

Later our neighbor Bunny called and said Don was going to be putting the smart on the truck. So she invited us to come watch which we did. 

It was very educational to watch his process.

She came over later, she liked our fifth wheel. We chatted for a little bit we should see them in Florida this winter too.

 Later we had dinner together. Still quite a few people here, some packed up and left today. A lot of people get there rig weighted right before they leave. As we will be doing that Wednesday morning. 

 I went for a nice long walk around the campground. Got some laundry done, was a good day.

Wedding Prep @ HDT Rally

Wedding Prep at HDT Rally 

Friday October 13, 2023

This morning Jim had breakfast up in the building. They slowly started moving us out of our side, so wedding preparations could begin. I guess the couple thought Friday the 13th was a good wedding day. Kind of weird we thought, but whatever.

 After breakfast we headed down to listen to the owner Greg of SpaceCraft talking about where RV manufacturing is heading. Spoke a lot about RV parks requiring the RVIA sticker. 

The wedding preparation continued all around us. It is amazing how they transformed the room . 

Heard our coordinator had a couple interesting conversations with the brides soon to be mother-in-law. We all said good luck to her, apparently she was not very pleasant and under a lot of stress. He said his mom was nice though.

Then they had a solar talk which included Jack, Greg from SpaceCraft,  and some other guy that does solar insulation, don't know his name.

 I decided we definitely don't need solar, I just want a couple lithium batteries.

 Then we went back to the RV for lunch. The guys could listen to lighting connection requirements. While the ladies had a talk with Jack and his wife, in one of the other buildings. They have been Full-time 23 years.It was freezing cold walking over there.

 I guess so we could have privacy. It was called R.D.B.E. = rigs driven by estrogen. 

I guess they wanted to give a safe space for women to ask Jack questions. Of course I had some.

After we got home, Valetta came over with the pie she bought at the ladies lunch.

 She wanted me to take it to the potluck tonight. She had to go to the dentist and go see a client, so sadly they were leaving early.

 Then last workshop of the day, we had a group discussion on the week in review and a good time to ask any lingering questions. The wedding started same time as our potluck.

Then happy hour, then we had a massive potluck. 

The food was amazing.

Even alot of leftovers 

They suggested we send our recipes in we could make a great cook book with them.

Today is the last full day of the rally.