We spent 4 nights in Greensburg, Kentucky and were feeling well rested, but now it was time to leave. We’d planned to get away early to avoid the heat, but these things never go as planned. 

I forgot to mention that yesterday Mike fixed the problem with the battery draining when he forgot to flick the isolator switch. He found a fuse that was on with the ignition on and the engine cranking, but off when the ignition was off. He then put piggyback fuse on this and wired it into the coil. This meant we no longer needed to switch the isolator switch. This was all working well until we drove away.

Now, suddenly the petrol gauge and speedo weren’t working. I make Mike to back to our camp, just in case there were other problems. I didn’t want to get stranded on a Sunday needing a tow. Back at camp he quickly found the problem. The other fuse had blown. Thankfully it was a quick fix and we were on our way.

As I mentioned, we also bought a generator, but it only had a fabric cover and I was worried about the generator getting ruined if it rained or was dusty. So we stopped at Home Depot (Mitre 10 equivalent even down to the orange!) and bought a plastic outdoor storage box to put on our rack.

Mike put it together in the carpark and it was hot already! The storage box wasn’t cheap and it was pretty flimsy to put together, but hopefully it won’t fall apart. We put other bits and pieces in there too, like power cables, fuel containers etc.

Then we were on the road again and it was so hot. We are heading west now, and the sun is coming straight in at us and we are both getting very grumpy with the heat. We eventually made it to our camp at Land Between the Lakes, the same spot as we camped on the way up. It’s gorgeous spot overlooking the lake, but no time to enjoy the view. We collapsed out of the car, it being no cooler outside. First thing we did was dragged our generator out, fired it up, and got our AC running. And thankfully it powered it ok! So we sat inside in the cool until the thunderstorms and torrential rain came. 

Then it was a mad panic to get the generator undercover as it’s not supposed to get wet. But I must admit, standing out in the rain was so pleasantly cooling, I just stood there and raised my arms to the sky like I was praying to the rain gods. Okay, maybe I’ve been in Kentucky too long!

It stopped raining long enough to cook some dinner and pack up the generator properly, then the real show happened. Thunder and lightning, hail, heavy rain, Rodger leaking. It was all kinda exciting and scary at the same time. Then we settled down, played a few games of Monopoly deal, and went to bed.

We decided it’s too hot here to suffer with the heat so we went out and bought a generator, so we can run our A/C when we are off grid. We also had to buy an external rack to carry it on, so that meant getting rid of the bikes. We never really use them anyway. We’re still not sure it’s a good idea or not, and haven’t tried it out yet. 

We spent the last few days in Kentucky, and it was nice catching up with Ro and the family. The  thing we are finding weird here is the gun thing. Mike’s nephew walked in with a hand gun, placed it on the fridge, then grabbed it when he left again. His niece also has a gun. It’s weird how something can be so normal to Americans, and so abnormal to us. I couldn’t imagine having a gun for “protection.” Protection against who? Someone else with a gun? That could get messy. I’d just let them take all my stuff.

Not much else has happened. It’s been really hot, and thankfully we have full hookup so can run our AC!

We had a leisurely morning at our lovely lake spot, then hit the road, heading for Mike’s sisters place in Kentucky, which is about 3.5 hours drive away. It was a smooth run for most of it. We went through one small town where a guy was driving a ute wearing a full-face balaclava in the heat, and that freaked me out a bit. Especially since not much earlier we had an amber alert come through on our phones (kidnapping). Most of the time, America seems safe, until you see something like that.

The rest of the drive was pretty cruisey. It’s very hot and humid, but we’re used it to it now. We arrived at the camping place in Greensburg. It’s just a few RV spots on the side of the road with some permanents living here. We’d stayed here once before and had no problem.

Then we went to visit Ro, Mike’s sister. She was having lunch when we got there, but she seems to be doing ok considering the extent of her Parkinsons. She has to have around the clock care, which her three daughters take turns doing. We sat and chatted for a couple of hours, then headed back to set up camp, with a small detour via MacDonalds.

Our neighbours at the camp brought us a key and showed us the shower and toilet, which were locked away in a building. It was weird. She told us how her support dog was with someone else and the guy she was with was her support “human”. I didn’t want to ask what had happened to her dog and it all seemed odd. She also said they sometimes get people driving around doing crazy stuff around there. If anyone bothers us to knock on their door. If anyone is bothering us, I won’t be getting out of the van!And now I was worried about crazies visiting in the night when I wasn’t before!

We awoke late in the Walmart carpark, thankful we hadn’t been attacked in the night. We mucked around a bit this morning, both really tired from lack of sleep. We didn’t get away until just after 10.

It was another day of lots of driving, but at least the scenery is getting better. As we crossed into Kentucky, it became very green. Lots of green trees, large houses, and everything seemed to look so much cleaner.

I saw a place called “Land between the Lakes” coming up. I’d heard about it, and thought it might be a nice place to find a camp, as I’m getting sick of Walmart carparks. It was almost 4pm, so we turned off to have a look. It’s really beautiful with lots of little inlets. 

We found a spot to camp at Taylors campground, a primitive camp for only $5 a night. It’s gorgeous. When we arrived the lake was calm, and a deer stood out on a headland, perfectly reflected in a standoff with a crane. By the time I got my camera to take a photo it had gone. This is the perfect place to spend a few days and explore by kayak. After we’ve finished visiting family, we may come back.

It’s still hot, and since we got to Kentucky it is now humid. We sat outside and rehydrated with beer. Mike had zero Guinness and I had zero Corona with lime. Both taste like real beer, without the hangover. Mike cooked up some beef with honey, garlic, soy, noodles and vegetables for dinner outside. I think it’s our first meal we’ve cooked. We’ve just been settling for salad wraps in the evening as it’s easier. We were both so tired we were in bed by about 8pm.

We had a great sleep in the Walmart carpark, but black clouds loomed this morning. We checked the weather to make sure there were no tornados forecast (we are in Kansas after all). But no warnings so we heading on our way. 

We are staying off the interstates now, but the roads are still really busy. It was pouring with rain when we left and I was a bit worried about our wipers failing like they always do when it rains, but they hung in there.

After a while the rain stopped and we just drove and drove, along long straight boring roads. Mike drove, I read my book. And they we crossed into Missouri. The roads became slightly less boring with green grass, trees and the occasional corner in the road. But we’re on a mission now, to make it to Kentucky to see Mike’s sister. Hopefully we can have a rest when we get there.

We stopped at another Walmart in Mountain Grove for the night. I asked if it was ok, she said it was fine, just to park over by the service station. I’d read this wasn’t a very nice town and asked if they ever had problems. She said, “you’ll be fine… here.” So I asked, “as opposed to where?” She replied, “ten minutes in any direction”. So, this made me a bit nervous, but Mike had already driven 500 kms today and we needed to stop.

There were a few trucks parked up here, so we figured it was safe. Still didn’t stop me looking out the windows at regular intervals. There seemed to be a lot of noise around. Mike said he heard a rattly old car circle us a few times, and wondered what was up, but thankfully didn’t wake me to tell me, otherwise I would have freaked out. But we had an ok but restless night.

As we were leaving our campsite this morning, I saw the worst thing possible. Walking across the road was a giant tarantula! “Watch out” I yelled but it was too late. Mike had run over it. I’m sure I heard a thunk as the wheels hit, but it could have been my imagination. Anyway, now we have tarantula gunk all over our wheels.

Then I did a stupid thing. I googled it. “Tarantulas in Kansas.” Turns out they all come out this time of year looking for mates. Apparently you can can see hoards of them crossing the roads. Now this thought terrified me beyond the scariest thing I could imagine. I would rather drive through a 24 km tunnel than see that!

Next thing, I am seeing all these critters scurrying across the road. They weren’t tarantulas, but they were very big spiders. There was no way I was staying on the back roads. There were a couple of cool places nearby I had planned to explore, but nope, not happening. So we got on the interstate and drove as far away from that place as we could.

We kept on driving until we came to a small town called McPherson, not far from Witchita. We decided to camp in a Walmart parking lot, rather than anywhere in the wilderness. I think we are now fast tracking it to Kentucky. 

We woke up in the lovely state park overlooking the lake/resevoir. I thought about staying another day, just to catch up on laundry and videos. But as I stepped out of the van, I screamed. I’d nearly stepped on a snake. The creepy thing slithered under the van and I didn’t see it come out the other side. Now I’m worried its made itself at home in Rodger somewhere. That quickly made up my mind to get out of there, much quicker than we’d planned.

Today we just drove and drove and drove and kept on going until we got to Kansas. The roads were very straight and boring. We navigated to Scott city and found a nice state park overlooking a lake. I didn’t want to camp right next to the lakes due to snakes, so we parked up on a hill overlooking the lake.

And if I thought the snake was bad, what I saw the next day was even worse!

Yesterday we woke up in a stunning location, today we woke up in a carpark. It’s just the way it goes sometimes. And it was raining. So we headed to the historic town of Salida to have a look around, and hopefully find somewhere nice for a typical American breakfast.

We wandered the streets, and while it was a nice town with quirky shops, it was very damp and rainy. We tried to find somewhere for breakfast, but we failed. Then I saw a diner on the outskirts of town, and we thought, perfect!

We had a typical American breakfast of biscuits and gravy with a side of bacon, and a pot of coffee. All of it was delicious. It was still raining by the time we finished, so we had a little afternoon nap in the van. By the time we woke up, the rain had cleared and we moved on.

We drove through a gorgeous gorge on our way to canon city. There were a few nice spots to stop and camp beside the Arkansas river, but unfortunately they were also close to the busy road. So we kept on driving.

We struggled to find somewhere to camp, so we ended up at a state park overlooking the water. It was really nice, with power, flush toilets,  and showers, so we were able to have our first shower of the trip (since our hotel in Vegas).

Today we took a drive up to the north rim of the black canyon, and it was an amazing drive. We stopped at Hermits rest, which overlooked a deep green river way down below. We were going to continue to the north rim, but I realised I had left my jandals at Hermits rest, so we had to go back down to get them. Then we decided to keep on driving back down.

We stopped in Gunnison, a reasonable sized town, and got a few supplies. I saw there was an oil change place there, so we drove up and nobody was there. So Rodger got some new oil. We also managed to get a small powerstation to power our Starlink mini, so now we can have satellite internet where there is none (there are many places in the USA where there is no internet).

Then we went to the library, as I needed to get my video uploaded. By the time we’d finished it was time to find somewhere to sleep. There was nowhere decent in Gunnison,so we drove on, over a steep mountain pass over Monarch mountain.  It was 11300 feet at the peak where we stopped to take a photo.

We saw about 3 or 4 deer on the side of the road, but thankfully they stayed in their place. It was almost dark by the time we stopped at a visitor centre which allowed overnight parking. There were two other vans camping here, so we figured it was ok.

It was dark and late when we arrived at our camp so we had no idea where we were. I stepped out side this morning and was blown away by the view. We had parked overlooking the mountains and a beautiful lake. We were both pretty exhausted, the heat and altitude really taking it out of us, so we decided to stay another day. We had plenty to do as the van was a mess.

I mentioned yesterday we bought a safe to keep our laptops in, so that was Mike’s first task to bolt that down. Then he got the bikes off and gave them a good clean off. I made coffee and worked in a video. 

A man from Texas camping not far away, came over to chat. He asked if he could sit, and then he just chatted away. We were both a bit shocked by his forwardness, but Americans aren’t as reserved as us British/Kiwis. The other thing I find is that they always like to know what you did as a job, as if that somehow defines you. I think I’m gonna start making stuff up. Mike can be an architect and I’ll be a marine biologist. Anyway, he finally left. I’m just glad the conversation didn’t turn to politics.

There is lots to explore around this area, but neither of us had the energy. The mornings are cool, but the days are hot. We’ve been camping at close to 8000 feet, and I think it takes a week or more to acclimatise. My HR is still quite high, and I’ve had a slight headache at times even though I’ve been drinking heaps, but other than a bit of shortness of breath on hikes, we both feel normal. 

The rest of the day we just sat and admired the view, trying to keep out of the heat.  We got the car tidied up, put up some fairly lights, and had bacon and eggs for lunch and a chicken and salad wrap for dinner.