The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Boondocking night #8...Lake Scott State Park

We had some internet work to do yesterday morning, so we left the free city RV park at McCook, Nebraska and headed for their local library. They had a nice parking area there and even though the library was closed when we arrived, the wi-fi internet signal was on and unsecured.

Last year we bought the Bear Extender long range wi-fi antenna, and it works really well. It enables us to sit in the comfort of our motorhome and use our laptops while connecting to a sometimes distant wifi signal such as a library, coffee shop, hotel or McDonalds or many other fast food places. Also, most Home Depot locations have an unsecured signal available.

You can buy the Bear Extender here...

BearExtender PC USB WiFi Booster and Range Extender for Microsoft Windows

It was after 12:00pm when we hit the road. I had set us a route to a Kansas state park 128 miles (205 kms) away and I had read that it was $7.00 a night for dry camping. We like the state parks for camping, but we find that so many of them are overpriced. And sometimes (Texas!), they charge a day use fee on top of the camping fee.

We've been to Kansas before, but never to the western part of the state.

Had to stop along the highway because the compartment door to access our propane tank had come open. It doesn't seem to want to latch properly so I'll have to have a closer look at it another day. I said to Ruth that for now, I needed a piece of mechanics wire to wire it shut, but I didn't think that I had any. So I get out of the motorhome and walk around to look at the door, and what do I see lying on the ground but a one foot long piece of mechanics wire! Too funny.

It was a windy day, but fortunately it was in our favor for most of the drive. A nice strong tailwind is a motorhomer's dream! Might have broken the 11 or 12 mpg mark yesterday!

Drove by this big pile of sand. Not sure what it was, but we thought it was colorful!

A pretty boring drive. This part of Kansas is flat, with huge farm fields. Most of what we saw growing was corn and sorghum. As we got to about 3 miles (5 kms) of the park, we wondered what the park would look like. All we saw were these huge farm fields. But, like our park back in Saskatchewan, you suddenly arrive at a valley and down below is a reservoir surrounded by trees. Nice!

Indian statues on the hill.

It's a big park, with 175 "primitive" campsites, and another 55 with hookups. We paid our $7 USD ($9.30 CAD) at the self serve fee station, and drove in. Not at all busy at this time of year, and we found a beautiful spot right by the water. Most of the campers here are in the hookups section, but by the time evening arrived there were two other RV's in the primitive section.

The view out our front windshield.

Nice spot by the water.

We went for a walk, and talked to two other couples along the way. One lived near Winter Park Resort (where we went spring skiing two years ago) near Denver and they are actually ski instructors there. And the other was from Denver and this was their first stop on a 6 week journey to visit family on the east coast. Nice people.

This was another good site. Lots of choice at this time of year.

Dinner!

It was Happy Thanksgiving holiday Monday back in Canada, but there was no turkey for us. Instead, we had a nice chicken dinner, followed by a couple of games of backgammon and a couple of episodes of I Dream of Jeannie. I had bought the entire 5 seasons (10 DVDs) on sale for $18.00 CAD ($13.50 USD). It was the 50th anniversary of when the show first aired. I had looked it up and Barbara Eden was 34 years old in the first season. So she's 84 now and from the recent pics I saw, she still looks fabulous!

Went for a bike ride before leaving the park this morning, and today we're heading into north Texas!

Sherman, Ruth, and Kevin at Lake Scott State Park, Kansas.


22 comments:

  1. We lived in Wichita, Kansas for a year and never saw anything other than cornfields! Lake Scott looks like a nice place to stop for the night and you can't beat the price (if you have to pay a fee that is!) Safe and happy travels through Texas.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Definitely lots of corn fields here! The park really reminded us of Cabri Regional Park when all of a sudden the ground gives way to a beautiful oasis. This is a much bigger park than ours though, sure glad we don't have to manage it! :-)

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  2. A great looking thanksgiving dinner you had and a nice campground as well.

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    Replies
    1. It was a good dinner but we still missed having a turkey dinner with the family.

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  3. Nice view for your $7. I love those old tv shows, much better than the stuff on tv these days.

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    Replies
    1. There are certainly benefits to being self sufficient and set up with solar. We had a much better spot than those that wanted water and electric and on top of that we paid less. :-)

      We wish they still made shows like that on TV, one of the reasons we don't have a TV any more.

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  4. Replies
    1. Plus State and National Parks, other than some of them can be pretty expensive.

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  5. I lived in Topeka, KS but went pheasant hunting in western Kansas and Colorado with my uncle. I was a teenager then.

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    Replies
    1. Then you should be familiar with this area.

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  6. I remember Kansas, lots of corn. We stopped at an RV site there in Deerfield called Deerfield BEACH Campground that had no deer, no beach and basically no real campground. We didn't stay long.
    Just google it and you will see what I mean! LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We'll remember to stay away from that place. We don't really care much for the private campgrounds, to often they let you down.

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  7. After watching a Golden Girl's episode every night for the last 25 years (and we still do), we are now watching Andy Griffith episodes. Send me a FB message so we know when you're coming.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TV these days just does't come close to those old shows.

      Kevin will be in touch with you Chris. Won't be much longer now. :-)

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  8. What a fabulous spot, would you swim in the lake if it was summer?

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    1. To be honest we aren't really into swimming that much but if it was a really hot day then yes, we would go for a dip for sure. They had a really nice beach area.

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  9. I used to drive thru Kansas every summer on the way to Colorado and never found farmland boring, however th at seems to be what most people think. That is a nice park.

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    Replies
    1. I agree with you. Kevin tends to think of it as boring but as we were driving along I said that I was having no problem with things to look at as the scenery past us by. Many people think the same about Saskatchewan and now we are learning that there is a lot more to see then just what you see along the main roads.

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  10. We are from Southeast Kansas which is very different from the western part of the state. However as much as I love our part of the state, I don't think you can beat the Flint Hills through the middle of the state. We make several trips to Wichita a year to see our kids and grandkid living there. I never get tired of the open prairie and hills as we drive through the area on 400 highway. It is really beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have been through the eastern part of Kansas before but never in the Flint Hills area. We will have to remember this if we make our way through Kansas again. I don't have a big problem with the prairies but Kevin gets tired of them pretty quickly. We find we get our most enjoyment when we are driving through mountain areas.

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  11. The Flint Hills are beautiful.

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    Replies
    1. We will definitely try and remember this next time we are passing through Kansas.

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