If the rain comes...

 

... they run and hide their heads (when the rain comes).  If you said, "The Beatles song Rain, 1966," you get 15 bonus points.

We did not run, nor hide our heads, but the rain did come.  Leaving Nebraska and into Kansas.  We left last night's campground with gray skies this morning... it eventually turned to rain.  Fortunately, nothing severe.  I've seen The Wizard of Oz - I know what can happen here.

We looked at campground options and decided to go for a park in Wichita that has paved streets and paved RV sites.  Not too far off the freeway, but definitely more off the road than the park last night.  The price was good last night, at only $20 for the Passport America rate.  Tonight's park was about 3 times that rate, but did I mention: paved.  I really like paved.  Especially in the rain.  Seems that fewer places are taking Passport America, rates for RV sites have gone up significantly... and all the RV parks are full (or nearly so)... they don't have to offer a discount to fill up sites.

Not much to write about or photograph today: the Interstate to a 4 lane road to more Interstate.  Hey, it gets us home, and no insecurities about gas stations that can accommodate the motorhome.  Through the windshield...

On the bright side: a paved site.  Good cable TV (we got two channels over-the-air last night).  Green grass between the sites (not as nicely spaced as Hart Ranch).

And most importantly: Rufus was a good boy again today.  What?  Yes, he's always a good boy.  And by "always," I mean almost always... he is a cat.

We're in early enough that Joan is making us pasta and meatballs for supper.  With the rain, I only hooked up electric and cable; if it lets up, I have the option of connecting water and sewer.  No, we haven't been doing without water and sewer - we're using our tanks.  Livin' large.

Rolling...

 

We left Hart Ranch today; pulled out of our site around 8:00 am...

 It rained all night, but gave us a break when it was time to unhook and head out.  Looking at radar, we know we are going to be dealing with rain off and on, as far as we care to go.  We generally make our first night stop in Ogallala, NE - there is an RV park there with sites that are plenty long enough for us.  We'll go further if we feel it.

Some shots on the road...

Low overcast for the first few hours...

Rufus slept on my lap...

Here's a short video of the view through the windshield (above).  A few minutes of sunshine...

It didn't last long...

Driving through the Sandhills in Nebraska...

More nap time...

That doesn't look comfortable to me, but the boy is adaptable.  Plus, he's a good boy.

When we got close to a perspective campground, I called to make sure they had a site - yep, one site left.  I gave the lady on the phone my name, and she told me which spot I'd be in.  And then we ran into road construction...

It was stop and go... mostly stop... and then painfully slow.  I called the campground again to assure the lady we were coming - she knew about the construction.  It was one of those two lanes into one, and both east and west traffic on the same side of the road... I couldn't see any reason why we were stopped for 10 minutes or more at a time.  Repeatedly.  And then three wreckers when by the other direction, one pulling a semi, then a fire department truck, and a Nebraska Highway Patrol.  Someone was having a worse day than the several miles of traffic that was stopped.

The description of the campground said good gravel interior roads and sites.  Reasonably accurate, but they have had a LOT of rain, so huge puddles everywhere.  It looks like the campground is full of construction workers (probably working on those miles of road where we got stopped)... I'm guessing it will be an early morning as they all head out tomorrow.

Progress...

 

Steph and Dan sent us the weekly progress photos on the new house... significant progress happening: carpet installed, window blinds installed, interior painted, toilets, sinks, and faucets installed.  There is a giant pile of gravel in the driveway, so that means the front yard landscaping will likely happen this week.  The last big items to go will be appliances.  The air conditioning is on, water is on.

Some of the photos:

From the front...

 The porta-potty and the dumpster are gone.

 The tankless waterheater (above).  Kitchen sinks and faucets...

Their kitchen above, ours below.

Bedroom(s) carpet...

Rooms for poopin', peein', and showerin'...

An area where tile and carpet come together...

Window blinds...

Significant progress once again.

Less than a month from now, our stuff will be on its way to Arizona, and we'll be close behind.

The Morning After...

 

If you said, "Maurine McGovern, 1972, used in the movie The Poseidon Adventure," you get 25 bonus points.

I did a walk-around this morning to check out our conveyances.  No damage that I can see.  I can't get high enough to give the slide-out awnings a good look-over, since the ladder is packed towards the bottom of our "trunk" storage in the motorhome.

Leaves and tree debris on the patio and in the roads, but no big branches down.  It really pounded last night.  And then, around 5:00 this morning, more thunder, lightning, and pounding rain... but nothing solid falling from the sky. 

A 15 - 20% chance of rain today, with the percentages ramping up by 10:00 this evening... and then solid rain overnight and tomorrow.  We'll have as much done as possible before calling it a day so it will just be putting away the utilities and driving away tomorrow.

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Tires and suspension air bags are all aired up.  Utilities undone so we could take the coach to the gas station here at Hart Ranch, then come back to the site and hook the trailer behind the motorhome...

Lights checked, trailer locked, utilities that we'll be using set up.  Just to make it more comfortable, we put the slides out (after I took those images above), but they'll probably go back in this evening, when the rain is predicted to start... and not stop.  If you can believe 'em, of course.

The "fancy driver" should be ready to roll in the morning.

 

Keep Packin', Packin', Packin'...

 

Though my back is crackin'... Pack up all that craaap... Move on.  (Sung to the tune of Rawhide.)

We are leaving Sunday morning.  It really does take a couple days to pack for the long haul after being down for a couple months.  The weather weasels were calling for rain tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday.  With that in mind, we went after it today, to get as much done as makes sense.  The CTX and Xmax are in their chocks and tied down in the cargo trailer, all the patio stuff (including the griddle and table for it) have been scrubbed and packed, the e-bike has been charged up, folded up, and put in the Equinox; all the misc patio stuff is put away.  The fresh water tank is in the process of being sanitized.

That leaves grocery shopping, checking tires and fluids on vehicles for tomorrow.  We'll do one last dump of the holding tanks, top off fresh water, then put away hoses.  Hook the trailer up to the coach.

And now the weather weasels have moved the rain back to Saturday night and all day Sunday.  I don't much like driving in the rain, mostly because it makes a grubby mess out of the motorhome exterior.    On the bright side, all we'll have to do on Sunday morning is unhook electric and cable TV and we can roll.

That's the plan.  We'll see how the execution plays out, but we got most of the packing up done today.

What's that?  Yes, I already miss riding my motorcycle on these great roads.  I do have plenty of ride video to keep me occupied... if I need something to keep me occupied.  It's a long drive home, and then the last of the packing for our move.  It may be a while before I get to do anything with that video.

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Well, shit.  I guess Mother Nature heard we're getting ready to head out.  Yep, it hailed.  I guess I should say it is hailing.  9:30 to 10:00 pm or so.  Pea to marble size, again.  Again.  It happened fast - we didn't get the slides pulled in before the rain and hail hit.  We've been through this a couple times this summer, with no damage.  We won't know until tomorrow where I can check it out in the light.  So, that's fun.

 

More Today Than Yesterday...

 

If you said, "Spiral Staircase, 1969," you get 25 bonus points.  If you said, "Hey, isn't that your song, for you and Joan?" you get another 25 bonus points.  I still sing and play it for her.

Out on the bike one last time (probably), since the bikes will go into the cargo trailer and get strapped down tomorrow.  I was thinking I'd get out early... Mother Nature had other plans, when rain showers rolled through (see the earlier post today).

I waited long enough for things to dry up (another plan).  I was looking to get out and run the whole length of Iron Mountain Road.  I did shoot some video with the Go 3 on the ride, and will probably do a POV ride video of that when I have time to edit and do a 30 minute voice over.  But, for now, here are some stills of the ride, starting on Hwy 36...

 And then onto Iron Mountain Road...

Today's ride was a LOT better than yesterday's... only 4 vehicles in front of me the entire stretch of this great road; 3 let me get around, and 1 I passed, in short order.  But most of it, was unencumbered with a vehicle messing up my forward view.

Some motorcyclists on a break (above) and wet roads (below)...

The rain obviously happened here, too, and in the shadow of the trees, it hadn't evaporated, yet.

Curves and pretty scenery - that's what this road is all about...

Off Iron Mountain Road, through Keystone, and "a sign" that it is time to wrap up our riding here: Hwy 40, that runs from Keystone to Hwy 79 is being resurfaced.  Going south from Hart Ranch and staying on the twisties, you have to ride or cross Hwy 40.  It's time.  One more tunnel on Hwy 16A, north of Keystone...

I will be working on some "paused" video (shot, but not edited) in the future... as time permits.  But, for now, thanks for riding along on the blog.  Tomorrow will be the start of the getting ready to roll.