A Trip to Attend a Special Anniversary
Wichita, Kansas
December 2001

The Trip to Wichita

This trip would be the first long journey with our new class-A motorhome. It was decided to begin our trip with a slight change in the route we've taken many times in the past. We began our trip by using I-580 to take us to I-5 instead of using highway 152 as we've done on previous trips. This change was made because it might be easier driving our larger motorhome over to the central valley.

We had a very pleasant surprise when we saw a friend from our RV club enter the highway on I-580. Melody saw us as she entered the freeway and waved when we drove by the on-ramp giving us an enthusiastic send-off..

As I settled into driving south on I-5, I began to get used to driving a building among the big-rigs on the road. I'm very glad that I ordered the larger engine option with our motorhome. I was pleased to see that the engine didn't hesitate or lug down once. The only sign I saw that we were climbing was an increase on the turbo boost guage. The transmission downshifted only a half dozen times on the trip. I'm also pleased that the fuel milage is running just slightly below 10 MPG.

The trip to Wichita was fairly routine; we've followed the I-40 route many times in the past. Our first stop for the night was at the KOA campground just outside Barstow next to I-15. This was our first time to stay at this particular KOA. The young man behind the counter turned out to be very helpful and seemed to have a good business presence. He gave me a tip about a shortcut to get back to I-40 without having to return to Barstow.

It seemed a bit strange to be driving across the desert toward Arizona during the daytime. We normally would drive into the night on this stretch of our trip. Our daytime travels were the result of getting a late start the day before. I was able to get as far as Gallup, New Mexico on the second day. We pulled into the KOA campground in Gallup with a half-hour to spare before the office closed. We were told it was going to get down to as low as 10 to 12 degrees during the night. This was going to be a test of our new motorhome's cold weather survival ability.

I was up once during the night when I heard the utility systems heater running in the RV basement. It was working as designed. The heater is enabled to come on when the temperature in the basement drops below 50 degrees F. The heater keeps the water pump, basement plumbing and the holding tanks from freezing.

When we awoke in the morning our outdoor thermometer reported that the low temperature during the night was 18 degrees F. Not nearly as low as we expected. There was a heavy coating of frost on the windshield. I was not able to get underway until the frost was gone, which took longer than I thought it would. The windshield is a lot bigger than we have been used to in the past. This makes for a lot of ice on the glass.


A lot of frost became a lot of water when it melted

We were finally on our way heading east on I-40. The scenery looked very familiar, however, we were looking at it with a different perspective. This was due to the fact that this was our first trip back to Wichita in our Monaco motorhome.

When lunchtime arrived we were not near any convenient placed to eat out, so I looked for a place to pull off the highway. It wasn't very long until an opportunity arrived that allowed us to get off I-40 on to a short stretch of historical Route 66. There were a couple of 18-wheelers stopped in the same area. I pulled up in front of an old abandoned, roadside attraction.


We stop for lunch near a place that has seen better times

The old attraction had buildings that were designed to look like an old west town. There are many places along the old route 66 like this that went out of business when I-40 bypassed the direct access to the attractions making it difficult or inconvenient for travelers to stop. The whole place looked as if it was only a short time until the structure collapses.


There isn't much holding this old building together

I put in a long day behind the wheel to take advantage of the good weather we had so far during our trip. This time of year the weather can change suddenly making it take longer. I was able to get all the way to the Clinton/Elk KOA campground in Oklahoma.

I discovered a new experience with our new motorhome. In years gone by, when we traveled in our Lazy Daze type C mini-motorhome, I hadn't noticed how short the distance is between a sign announcing the next exit and the exit itself. With the shorter, lighter mini-motorhome, I would have just enough time to slow down and make it off the freeway. With the larger, heavier motorhome, I did not have enough time to slow down from freeway speeds in time to get off at the exit. I missed the exit to our destination for the night.

When we finally arrived at the campground, the office had closed. We found a site that was easy for me to get into in the dark. The next morning I had a nice conversation with the husband/wife team who owns the campground. After settling my bill, we were off again on our way to Oklahoma City.


Notice there aren't many other motorhomes at this time of year

As I drove along I found that about half of the exit signage was located too close to the exits for me to slow down enough to make the exit. Then as we approached Oklahoma City the road surface of the Interstate became very rough, or so I thought. The worse was yet to come. I turned off I-40 to take the bypass around the city. Our new motorhome took a really bad beating. A section of the highway was so rough that it was as if I was driving down a railroad track on the railroad ties. California has developed a reputation of having some of the worse roads in the United States. This section of the bypass was worse than anything I've experienced in California.


A great price for fuel

It was a relief to get to the turn off for I-35 and it was nice to see the signs for Wichita once again. We made our last refueling stop before getting to Wichita and as usual I found that Oklahoma always has the lowest prices for fuel. I paid 98 cents a gallon for fuel that would've cost about $1.65 per gallon in California.

We had been fortunate on this trip to have really good weather that allowed us to travel longer distances each day. This made it possible for us to have an early-afternoon arrival time in Wichita. Our plan had been to stay at the RV campground on Highway US-54 west of town. With us arriving early, I decided to drive our motorhome to Jim and Donna's place to show it to them. Then we would go to the campground in the evening.

I turned onto Jim and Donna's street and approached there house from the opposite direction I normally do. I did this so our motorhome would be on the same side of the street as their house. The street is a narrow, neighborhood street, so it made our motorhome look very big when we pulled up in front of the house.

Jim and Donna came out to see our behemoth on wheels. When I told them of our plan to go to the campground later, they both said that we didn't need to do that. We were told it would be okay for us to leave the motorhome parked next to the curb. I was a bit concerned about parking on the narrow street during this time of year.

During past visits this time of year, the streets would be covered with ice. I didn't want to run the risk of the street icing over during the night and having a vehicle slide into our RV. So, I thanked Jim and Donna for the offer. I told them of my concern and that we would go over to the RV campground later.

About then Jim suggested I park our motorhome in their driveway. I put that idea off as not being realistic because I thought our rig was just too big for the driveway. Jim insisted we try, even going so far as to getting a tape measure to see if the drive was long enough. Jim exclaimed that his driveway was 39 feet long from garage door to curb, giving us 3 feet to spare. He was so insistent that I felt as if I should at least try to park in the driveway.

It took a little maneuvering to get our motorhome to turn into the driveway from the narrow street. Finally the motorhome was lined up so I could pull over as far as possible on the left side of the driveway. This would allow us to open our slide-out IF our RV was to fit. I pulled up as far as I could. Then I got an idea of backing down to the curb so there would be a path in front of our motorhome. To my surprise it looked as if it was going to work.


Campsite is tight fit for our motorhome - That's our rental car in foreground

I extended the slide-out and put down the levelers. We were now in a very familiar campsite that we've used many times in the past. This time though we were on the opposite side of the driveway from where we have parked during previous trips. Our motorhome was wide enough that we had to set the entrance step so that it always pulled in when the door was closed. This left just enough room for Jim to get his car out of the garage.


The other side of our favorite campsite

I thought that Jim would leave one car on the street and one in the garage, but he actually found a way to have both cars in the garage and get them in and out okay. We now were set up for our stay to attend the 60th wedding anniversary celebration. I have to thank Jim and Donna for insisting that we use their driveway as a campsite. And thanks again to Jim for his determination that our motorhome would fit in their driveway. This campsite would make our stay much more convenient and enjoyable.

 


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