We are now at McConnell AFB in Kansas, near Wichita.  Our friends back in Charleston are having to endure 108F heat indexes, so I won't lament about 100F ambient, as it's a dryer heat here.  Wendy and I got a chance to walk/jog (you know which one applies to me :)), before the sun came out from behind the clouds.  It was actually quite refreshing.  Seems the base closed up the golf course some time ago and paved a path through the fairways.  It stretches 2 1/2 miles with asphalted pathways throughout.  The asphalt was mixed in with red granules , probably bits of recycled rubber.  I think they did a good job.  One point of contention I must make.  There are many, many exercise stations scattered throughout the serene landscape.  A sight I would not give a second thought to a mere 40 years ago.  There were many opportunities to swing on monkey bars, sit in awkward positions to stretch and test various parts of your body, step ups, step overs, hop overs, slick gloss painted push up and pull up bars, places to do inclined sit-ups and a few other apparatuses I never did understand.  I tried the pushup bars.  They were brightly painted a glossy green, I suppose to blend in with the ex-golf landscape. The bars were about a foot off the ground so I was forced to put myself in a position I've not been in for many years.  I do my own style of pushups so I'm accustomed to the torture.  I'm sure to pay dearly for that tomorrow!  One slip and my teeth would have left a bright red stain on that glossy green steel bar.  Later  I managed 2 pull ups, a feat I would have been able to easily multiply by 10 in a previous life. Wendy tried most of the challenges and won.  We'll see how she feels tomorrow.  I, for one, could not appreciate the many constant reminders of things I loved to do 40 years ago but am now unable.  Here ends my rant!  I did enjoy, and am thankful for, my walk this morning and will ignore the distractions on tomorrow's walk.

These are probably not exercise structures :)

These are nice shelters.  Hope we don't have to use them!

Our site for the week.  We figured to homestead here for July 4th weekend as campgrounds tend to be very full on holiday weekends.  Shade around this park is scarce but we managed to find a tree to cast some late afternoon relief.  As you can see.....more washing and waxing!

After a 5 1/2 hour drive we arrived here.  Mostly an easy drive.  But I will tell you that occasionally, when we were not expecting it, we did encounter some pretty massive potholes.  The bone jarring kind!  Part of the life I guess.  I am training my eyes to be better detection devices, lol.  Here are a couple pictures of our site.  I was in my relaxed mode :)

Easy trip today, about 120 miles on decent roads.  The work Terry and Josh did yesterday on Cassie made a huge difference in our driving comfort!  We will enjoy the next two nights and days here.  No traveling on our Anniversary tomorrow.  This is our first day traveling to nowhere, YAY!

I just want to give a little shout out to LHOTR for such great work on our "Cassie".  We enjoy every visit with them!

Terry and Josh hard at work on cutting off and grinding previous weight distribution brackets and rear Atwood stabilizers. They also put on a couple of scissor jacks and weighed the trailer.  The result is a more comfortable tow down the road and improvement in leveling Cassie at the next campground, a job Wendy greatly appreciates since that is her AOR (area of responsibility) :)

We made it through the storms last night, no damage.  It was very windy and rained heavily throughout the night.  Shoes and mat were blown across the neighborhood.  Our little cement pig, Kaytie, took a trip across the lot and sustained minor injuries, lol. We had to move to another spot for one day because of reservation issues and will have to move again tomorrow for 2 days, all within the same park.  Then our adventure really starts!  No destinations and no time constraints until mid October.

That is another Casita parked in the shade beside us.  Dale and Deborah are our wonderful neighbors for a day.  We were supposed to go to a different site but someone ran over the water spigot and we had to move to our current "emergency spot".  Very seldom do we see any other Casitas and now we are parked next to one :)  And they have many modifications to their trailer, so I may have some project ideas for myself in the near future :)

Had to put Reflectix up for all the windows as hail is indeed headed this way.  Winds are really strong so hopefully the Reflectix will slow down the rain if windows are shattered.  Will update a little later.  We are next to a shelter if the sirens go off.

For some strange reason I felt compelled to change rims since we needed new tires anyway.  Unfortunately the Casita factory was on the other side of Dallas so we got up at 0430 to beat the AM rush hour.  That strategy worked for morning traffic, but backfired for the afternoon traffic :(

It was good to get back and relax.  BTW, this is Hickory Creek COE in Corinth,  Texas.  The sun was down to provide the only shade we had.  No choice of spots because of weekend reservations.  Reflectix in the windows really helped keep the heat out and the cool in.  Fires had to be in the fire ring so I put my grill in their grill,  lol.

We took a 500 mile detour for this event!  3 years ago we came across the town of Garfield, Arkansas and discovered "the world's largest cone".  This was our 2nd time back and I suppose it won't be our last.  We overnighted at War Eagle COE in Springdale, Arkansas and as you can see it was a challenge fitting our rig. 

Anticipation was building as we stood in line awaiting our turn!!!

OH NO!  Wendy's a little disappointed.  She ordered a LARGE cone and this is all she got.  Wendy felt a little short-changed.  I must admit last year's was a little bigger.  We'll have to try again next time through and be sure to post the comparison!  I will tell you that the ice cream did not melt enough for her to lose a drip :)  We have become pretty adept at consuming them before any is lost due to melting.

On the way back we stopped to visit Pea Ridge National Military Park, a park preserving Civil War history.  Pretty interesting and a beautiful park.

Maumelle COE Park, about 5 miles north west of Little Rock, Arkansas.

This was a relaxing 3 night stop.  Pretty uneventful this stop except the fridge started acting up.  It wasn't cooling properly.  Ice buildup on the fins and freezer.  3 and 1/2 months into camper living and realized the longest we've be in "Cassie" before now was 6 or 7 weeks.  So we need to check the frosting every couple of months. 

This caused me to do a double take.  Thought I time warped back to Highway 17N in Awendaw, SC.  Those are Arkansas state road signs, not US Highway road signs.  :)

The best trip planner there is, planning our next trip!

Today was wash day!  The clothes, the camper and the truck...lol.  It actually wore me out :) Tonight Wendy's giving me a break....she's doing the cooking.  One of my favorites, spaghetti!

I need to really think twice before using any tomatoes from this plant!  Yes, that's the septic tank cap over there.

The Oliver factory visit was a grand success,  After meeting our totally awesome salesperson, Jason, we walked around the Oliver trailer factory observing the various stages of assembly.  We were very impressed with everyone's attention to detail as they constructed the trailers. 

We arrived in Tunica, Mississippi, after negotiating another line of severe thunderstorms.  Wendy is now very proficient at storm avoidance.  We'll see how she does when tropical storm Cristobal comes through in a couple days.  Seems like bad weather has been the theme of this trip so far.  The frogs came out to greet us from within the framework of our picnic table.  One sounded like a dog instead of a frog!  Really!

A picture of our campsite.

A couple more pictures of us.

Well, we made it to Hohenwald, Tennessee after a moderately long haul through the mountains (really just big hills).  I did get quite a bit of much needed practice with the transmission, manually shifting up and down hill grades.  We ate Mexican this afternoon and retired to the Casita and started chillin' out.  Wendy tuned into the one local news channel and saw a weather person highly excited, trying to relay information about a tornado warning.  I listened for a few minutes and determined there was indeed a tornado spotted on the ground some 30 miles from us and generally heading our way.  But the weather person was not making much sense and her panicked attempt to relay information was only succeeding in freaking me out.  They would never pan out more than a 1/2 mile or so and we couldn't get a fix on the track of the storm.  And they would just spin the map around, up and down.  Well, from all the info I could gather online, it looked as though it would come within a couple miles so we decided to gather everything up pronto and get out of Dodge.  We ended up traveling a 70 mile or so loop to avoid the storm.  A 70 mile or so loop back through the hills, at night and bugs so thick it looked like it was snowing. Not to mention 20 foot drop-offs less than a foot from the highway edge lines.  Yes, my fists were tightly wrapped around the steering wheel.  We made it back around 11 pm, just in time for another thunderstorm attack.  This one however, does not seem severe according  to the online resources.  So we will stay put.  BTW, the tornado did pass just north and we returned to our site and found it undisturbed.  We are thankful!

We made it to Cartersville, Ga. after an uneventful trip from Appling Ga.  This campground is ok but not very well laid out.  It is nice and quiet though, with laughter of children playing in the distance, a sound we find very welcome.  We'll probably try a different campground if we come back this way.

We met Bonnie and Dennis at our last campground in Appling.  Fellow Casitans!  We didn't talk long but he showed me all his trailer modifications and I shared mine.  Hope to see them again soon!

Finally we are on the road again.....yay!
Short Stay is in the rear view mirror as we head out to new adventures.  We couldn't have started out any better than Worship at the 0830 Pentecostal Sunday service!

Our wonderful Pastors Ginger and Kris.  We are so blessed to have you in our family at All Saints.  We wish you all a fun-filled and safe summertime and we look forward to seeing everyone this fall.

We did make it, without incident, to spot 27 in Winfield Campground, Appling, Georgia.

Word has it Sasquatch has been sighted around these parts.  Wendy may have even captured him in the above picture.  I looked and looked but couldn't tell for sure.