It was not a good night at WalMart. A truck came to pick up the semi-trailer parked next to us during the wee hours of the morning. Next time maybe we’ll remember to park by only RVs not trucks.
Since we didn’t have hookups I decided to try another water saving device. Dave had discovered he could dip the soap into water rather than wetting his whole body before washing it so I decided to try my version of that. When taking my morning shower I just dipped my washcloth in water in the pitcher left over from his shower the night before. Brrrr. That was a cold wash. But, at least I didn’t have to turn on the water until I was ready to rinse. I am determined to find ways to use less water so when we get to places we want to boondock for a long time we’ll be able to do so.
We also used pocket inverters to run our computers off the 12 volt system until Dave started to worry about draining the batteries. Then we powered up the generator to recharge everything. WalMart parking lots are good places to run generators since no one minds the noise there. As a bonus, we ran it long enough to cook breakfast. It’s important to run the generator under load at least an hour a month to keep it functioning properly. We have trouble remembering to do that since we hook up to shore power electricity most of the time.
For our first tourist stop in Carthage, Missouri, we visited their Civil War Museum. It’s hard to remember that the war came this far west but it did. In fact the first full scale land battle took place here on July 5, 1861 preceding First Bull Run by 16 days. The displays are interesting but the descriptions they wrote are hard to read so I didn’t get to learn everything I wanted to before my eyes gave up on me.
Then we drove by some of Carthage’s places of the past. Check out that glass block ticket booth at the drive in. They are still showing movies there in the summer.
From Carthage we headed west into Kansas. We stopped in Galena, Kansas, at the former KanOtex station for lunch. This place is being rehabbed by a group calling themselves Four Women on the Route. They have great plans for what they want to do here. I think they are doing fine already; don’t you? Check out the vehicles that were the inspiration for some of the ones in the movie Cars.
In Riverton we stopped to take pictures of The Eisler Brothers’ Old Riverton Store.
Since we didn’t need to buy anything we didn’t go in. We probably should have, though, since the owner of the KanOtex station grill made it clear she watches everyone who stops to take a picture to see if she’s going to get any business from them. I like to support the people who are trying to keep Route 66 alive but we don’t have room to store something from every shop along the way so we mostly buy food we can consume rather than store. But, we filled our larder at WalMart last night then ate lunch out so we have no place even for food right now.
Then we drove across the rainbow bridge. This place is known locally as graffiti bridge since this is where the youth come to record their conquests. Apparently, we got here just after the town gave them a clean slate to start on again.
Finally, we drove into Baxter Springs, Kansas, where we decided to stop early for a change. We are parked at a city campground here that charges $10 for electric and water hookups. That provided us lots of time and energy for me to do some more research and Dave to play his piano. We are content.
TTYL,
Linda