Trip from Boise to Georgia: St. Joseph, Missouri

We are still in Rock Port awaiting our tires.  Since we have already explored anything worth seeing (and a lot of things that weren't), we decided to drive down to St. Joseph, Missouri, Friday.  We visited the Remington Nature Center on the bank of the Missouri River.  Check out the pictures:




More Trials and Tribulations:
Power fluctuations in this campground fried our power converter (used to charge all the 12-volt stuff) and our bedroom TV Friday night - to the tune of about $700.00!  We had to drive to the nearest Camping World in Council Bluff, Iowa, to get replacements - 60 miles one way.

Trip from Boise to Georgia: Rock Port, MO

Windmills above Rock Port, Missouri

We are currently camped out at a KOA west of Rock Port, Missouri, awaiting some new trailer tires.  The campground hosts are treating us very well and the weather is beautiful.  The campground is nice and flat - a good place to practice my bicycle riding.

Rock Port is a small town of around 1400 people about 8 miles east of the Missouri River.  It was the first community in the nation to convert entirely to wind power.  It is the county seat of Atchison County, which is the very northwest corner of Missouri.

Image by jimmywayne via Flickr

Atchison County Courthouse in Rock Port, MO

Charity Lake

Fall is certainly in the air.  Yesterday, we took a short drive to the Brickyard Hill Conservation Area about 5 miles up the interstate and hiked around Charity Lake, enjoying the fresh air and the crunch of leaves under our feet.  We were too noisy to see any of the local deer or wild turkeys.

Fall Colors

After our walk, we drove to the shore of the Nishnabotna River, which flows into the Missouri.  This is one of Lewis and Clark's stopping points.  It is also a popular fishing spot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related articles

• Cause for Community Celebration: New Missouri Wind Farm Dedicated Today in Atchison County (eon.businesswire.com)

Trip from Boise to Georgia: Trials and Tribulations

Lots of stuff has happened.

• We bought bicycles, helmets, and a bike rack from George's Cycles, where Karen works.  
• We ended up having to stay with Starr and Karen over two weeks while we had some repairs done to the trailer. Topper and Ayla stayed in their garage and got to play in their fenced yard.
• We cheered Starr on at two other races:  the Dirty Dash and the City of Trees Half Marathon.
• Once the rig was ready to go (Wednesday, October 23), we beat it down I-84 to I-80, driving until after dark every day.
• The third day at a fuel stop we noticed a huge knot on one of our trailer tires.  Luckily, we were in front of a truck repair shop and had the spare put on.
• That night the trailer brakes locked as we tried to pull into the campground. The breakaway cable had caught on the spare in the back of the truck.  We slept with brake fumes.
• The next day (Saturday), we stopped at a rest area in Missouri and found a huge knot on another tire and the beginnings of a knot in a third tire.  This time we were one exit away from a truck repair shop.  We ended up ordering 4 new tires under warrantee and settled into a KOA in Rock Port, Missouri, to wait for them.  They are expected Thursday or Friday.

Here are some pictures covering this time frame.

The Dirty Dash:

The Mud Flap Girls before (Starr and I made the mud flaps)

Starting out - Starr in the center waving

Starr making her way through the mud pits at the finish line

Starr leaves the mud pits

The City of Trees Half Marathon:

Starr and Leslie cross the starting line (behind the woman in red)

Starr on the home stretch

Starr and Leslie with their medals - joined by their friend Shannon

One of our beautiful Load Star tires

What's wrong with this tire?

The next post will contain information about Rock Port.  It's actually not a bad place to be stuck.