Rykal's Retired and Traveling: May 2020

May 5 2020
And we are home after 8,884 miles and 7 months on the road. sept 28 2019 to april 28 2020. Saw many things along the way, and no damage to camper, truck or us. A first for us I think,..Got together with brads family twice and stopped at kevins after leaving Pine Harbor last fall.
After leaving Fredricksburg TX we went to Bowie Tx with plans to stay 3 nights but after totally setting up we find out we cant get any tv stations in, no wi fi, and cable doesn't work. even tho these things we advertised as a plus. Note to self dont' go to Kozy Days..So we found another park Sunset Rv park,packed up and moved to a passport America park for $17.50 #24. tv was ok, wi fi good and free laundry. . only stayed one night as there wasn't anything to do around there.
We moved on to El Reno Ok. Stayed at El Reno Rv city park. Stay 5 nights. $20 a night. Beautiful campground right on the lake. FHU, good tv, had to use data for wifi. Gas 94 cents a gallon for regular and 1.59 for diesel. cheapest around. Again due too the Covid-19 shut down, not much to do in the area but it was a pleasant stop.
From there we went to El Dorado Ks state park. stayed 4 nights but had to move the camper 3 times. First time was because the spot we were in was booked when we wanted to stay longer. so we moved to the next spot over. That night the people that had reserved were young and incredibly NOISY. They had their music blasting and the boom boom boom of their system vibrated right thru our camper. I nicely went over and asked them to turn it down some and they did....right up until I got back in our camper and then they turned it back up...ass holes...so we moved again the next morning across the park to another spot but before we left we CRANKED up our outside radio as loud as it would go to a nice religious station, made as much noise as we could, set off the car alarm and honked repeatedly as we left. It was 9am I hope they were sleeping. Never piss off an older woman with no sleep. the park host did report them I guess. I should mention that no one else was on that side of the campground but us and them so our noise did not disturb anyone else but them.
After leaving there we went to Marysville. Stayed at their city park. Lovely. Price FREE, for up to 5 nights. Water and electric included. dump station on premises. No tv or wifi would come in so we went and bought movies at Walmart and watched them at night. This is the home of the last standing pony express station and home of the black squirrels. They had statues everywhere. Stayed 3 nights.
From there we went to Winterset Iowa. Could only stay one night due to the virus. Home of John Wayne and the covered bridges of Madison County. Srayed the one night allowed at their city park. $22, #27. Lovely city park with walking trails. good tv, no wifi in our spot but I think we were in a low area.
From there we were going to stay in MN somewhere but d/t the virus no campgrounds would let us in unless we were a seasonal camper. Thought ok southern wi.. nope...no one was open yet. so we ended up at the Walmart in Chippewa for the night. It was cold and rainy when we arrived and even tho Brett (campground owner) said we could come in early we opted to not set up in the rain. so we came over the next afternoon and set up in the cool sunshine. Good to be home.
Most of these towns would have been so fun to explore if anything had been open. We did what we could by exploring walking/driving trails. or walking city streets. but missed a lot.
Now we are home and have gotten together with Joel/Karen, went and got my car at cindi's, saw mom and uncle jack at the Manor. Outside at their tables socially distanced of course. Ed/pat stopped over as did wanda and mark. Opening weekend at the campground was quiet as most seasonals didn't come up. they are going to wait until the virus slows down I guess.

Pony express station. Marysville Ks