Sewer dump and guitar shop...

Not at the same location.

This morning as we were preparing to leave, I put the steps up and before I could get to the dump station, a guy in a motorhome got to the dump just before me.  This city park has paved sites, 30 amp electric, and water, but no sewer at the site - there is one dump station on the way out.  All for the low, low price of: free.  You can stay the first two nights for free, it is only $10 per night after that.  We were only here for two nights.  With a nice view out our living room window of the golf course.

But, I digress - about that guy who got to the dump station first: he was running around pulling hoses out and spraying water everywhere.  Swell, I get to stand in all that wet when he leaves.  At one point, I was beginning to wonder if he was going to leave.  He pulled out what looked to be a 50' sewer hose... seriously, I have never seen a sewer hose that long (as one piece).  Well, he pulled that out after he pulled out a shorter one... with no connecting pieces on either end.  Yeah, that isn't going to do him any good.

Most RVers dump their black tank, then dump the gray tank(s) (our 5th wheel has two gray tanks) to flush the sewer hose.  Easy.  Efficient.  This guy was flailing all around with the sewer hose, trying to hold it up with one foot (??), then used a regular water hose to rinse off the outside, then the inside, of the sewer hose.  Then, he sprayed into the sewer compartment of the motorhome.  Then, he sprayed all over the pavement and ground around the dump station.

Thanks for making it muddy for the next guy... me.

If I had been a few seconds earlier, I would have gone first... and taken less than 5 minutes to complete the dump.  He took just over 20 minutes, and I could tell he was really trying to hurry.  I am certain he was soaked up to his knees the way he was swinging that hose around.

When he left, we pulled into position, dumped, and hit the road.

Yes, we were in Chanute to check out some other RVs.  We are thinking it is time for a change, but not certain what type of RV we want to do next.  Well, we are planning something motorized, but looking to keep it as small as we think we can be comfortable in.  We will be doing some more looking over the next few days.

When we came through the south part of Kansas on the way to Chanute, we drove through the town of Arkansas City.  Joan saw a music store that looked interesting.  Later that evening, I looked it up on the internet - they have an amazing inventory of Taylor, Martin, and other guitars, as well as all kinds of live sound equipment and accessories.  It is a 45,000 square foot facility!  I could not imagine a small town in Kansas would have a selection like this.  We agreed that we should stop there on the way back south.  Not a darn thing I need, but Joan said, "They have guitar t-shirts in the front window!"

Works for me.

We parked the truck and 5th wheel on a side street, then walked around.  It wasn't particularly impressive from the sidewalk...

But once inside, there were racks and racks of guitars.  Guitars on the wall.  A very nice selection of amps.  An even nicer selection of PA equipment.  Seriously, a better selection of guitars than I've seen in most big city shops; in this town of 12,000 or so.

We were the only customers in the store.  One guy working in there.  We visited for a bit - I complimented him on the great inventory while I was looking at some Taylor guitars.  He said, "Yeah, these are our 'kicked out' guitars."

"Huh?"

"Our Taylor room is in back - head back that way, and you'll see some really nice Taylors and Martins."

"There's more?" I asked.

"Lots more."

I had to explain that all I was really looking for was a Taylor t-shirt.  (Something that is hard to find in any music store.)  He said, "We have those hanging in that Taylor room."

There was a lovely Presentation Series Taylor (around $7,000) that caught my eye before I saw the shirts.  Oh, and a Martin D-28 Authentic 1941 (around $6,700).  Oh, and... more.  I could spend hours in here... but, we need to get down the road.  I have never seen a music store like this in a town this size.  I will remember this when we come back this way.

Oh, and I did find a new black t-shirt.

Back on the road.  The howling wind from yesterday had died down quite a bit... but decided it would be more fun for us if it were a quartering headwind... dropping our fuel mileage below double digits.  Across Kansas and Oklahoma.  It was in the low 40s when we left this morning, but slowly made it to the mid-70s by the time we stopped.

Big Red and the Love Shack handle it all just fine.

We stopped for the day at an RV park near the Oklahoma/Texas border.  There were four young cats on the porch of the office when I went in to register.  The guy who checked me in said, "You can take as many of them as you want with you."

"I don't think my cat will let me have another cat."

They were cute, though...

Joan shot that from the truck while I was inside the office.  "No, you can't have another cat."  Guess which one of us said that.  ;-)

Little Izzy, once we settled in...