It is different today.

Today is a travel day.  Although we have had many travel days in the past month they have all been to get to one place or another to get official matters done so that we could finalize the process of becoming fulltimers.  We have had some fun along the way, seeing family and friends and the short layovers in fantastic Texas State Parks (even if it was 106 deg).  But today is the first day we have started for a new destination that had no other purpose than because it is where we wanted to go.

Dinner with Mike and Sharon, a couple from Florida that had been at New Horizons all week with us while they got work done on their rig too, was good.  I am glad Sharon got it organized or else we would have just wasted the evening sitting around New Horizons.  We'll be keeping up with them and chances are good that we will meet again at a New Horizons Owners Group rally.  There is one scheduled for Sept. of 2014 in Iowa.

But today we took I-70 and transected Kansas for almost five hours on our way to Colorado.  We drove uphill all day, it was a gentle rise but it was almost constant and we gained a little over three thousand feet in elevation.  Tomorrow we'll gain that much again but in about a third of the distance.

Today's drive gave Big Gulp a workout.  He can usually take hills and hold speed with little effort or, he can punch through a stiff headwind, albeit using plenty of fuel to do it.  But it is a whole different deal when trying to do both at the same time.  We had one hill today which would normally be of no concern but today with a diagonal cross-wind of 40 mph or better we barely topped the hill at 45mph.  And to top it off, it was over 100 deg before noon and topped out at 106 deg before we crossed the Kansas/Colorado border.  But then we had a stroke of luck and the wind essentially vanished, the rest of the drive to Seibert, CO and the Shady Grove WiFi Campground was a breeze.  The auxiliary cooling fan that had been sounding like a jet engine running all day was no longer needed, the fan clutch automatically disengaged and we a got a welcomed drop in the noise level in the cab of the truck.

Our spot at Shady Grove was literally in the yard of the campground owner's house.
It was a dirt site and not level but power was good (50 amp), water pressure was good and a sewer connection.

A large, dark cloud was building as we got hooked up to utilities.  And I might add that it was a real pleasure working with the folks at the campground.  I was guided into my pull-thru spot and helped getting power plugged in and switched on.  But it was only a little while after getting inside and putting the slides out that the mild storm let go of some welcomed rain.

With the coming of the rain I learned what those cable TV commercials that slam satellite TV because of their sensitivity to weather was all about.  It had only begun to sprinkle and our picture started breaking up and within a couple minutes more there was no picture or sound at all.  And it stayed that way for the entire time it rained.  As soon as the rain stopped our signal was steady and strong.

Now that Cyndee has the clothes washing machine up and running and a sewer connection here in Seibert, we are getting laundry done.  It is a good thing too, the underwear drawer was getting pretty darn empty.  Yes, we could have used a laundromat but we would rather enjoy using our own equipment.

Since leaving the Texas panhandle there has been an absence of critters.  With the exception of a couple of cotton tail rabbits, we have not spotted a single living wild animal.  Maybe our luck will change when we get to Cheyenne Mountain tomorrow.