Low key day today, our last day in Hutchinson KS. We took off this morning and drove south to Yoder, the largest Amish community in Kansas. It was plotted in 1906 as a central point for surrounding Amish communities. Our destination was Yoder Meats as Doreen was in search of Amish spices, specifically a delicious coleslaw mix she buys in Wisconsin and cilantro.
The Yoder Meats is their retail store adjacent to their Yoder Meat Processing facility. They have a full meat market selection there plus all sorts of canned and pickled products, cheeses, souvenirs and other items. Everything but spices! I guess we will have to make a road trip to the Antigo WI area and restock.
As long as we were here we cruised downtown Yoder, and it was quaint, like stepping back in time a bit, and everything was "Yoder". We found the Yoder lumber yard, the Yoder post office, the Yoder market, well, you get the idea! But we found no where to get what Doreen was after, so we headed the long way back to Hutchinson. On the way we passed the Morton salt facility. We stopped at Walmart and restocked the pantry a bit and then found diesel for $3.969 which is better than we have been paying.
Back at the campground we did our normal 'day before we leave' stuff. We also started to tweak our inventory spreadsheet. It is kind of a painful process, but this spreadsheet identifies everything we carry on the coach and exactly where it is located. That listing would be very important should we suffer a catastrophic loss, such as an accident or a fire. Luckily we are not starting from scratch, rather just refreshing the spreadsheet a bit as things change from year to year.
This time of the year it also serves a very critical purpose in that it identifies everything we have to unload and take home when we get there in a few days and what we will leave in the coach in totes. Next spring it helps us reload the coach and get ready to hit the road. We also spend time identifying anything we need to do to the coach when we get home in preparation for putting it in storage. There are a hundred moving parts to this and organization such as what this spreadsheet brings, really helps. Now my kids and those I worked with forever will laugh when they read this as I am known for my exotic spreadsheets, but they work!
The clock is really ticking for us as soon as we arrive home. We talk about what we have to do when we get home, which is going to happen in just three days! We will pull our coach into Griff's RV Park not far from our house, but we will not be camping there. Griff's serves as a place we can park the coach on level concrete sites with full hookup and we can unload and work on the coach in preparation for our winter storage.
We only have reservations there for two short weeks. We do not have room to park it at home, unfortunately. Once we arrive there Saturday afternoon, we will unload a list of items we need at home right away. Having those items identified in advance is important. Then I will start on my "to-do" list. I plan to replace the bushings and wet bolts in the suspension. I need to install an electric heating system I purchased from my son-in-law at the Rally in Goshen this summer, in preparation for our adventures next spring. The roof needs cleaned and the sealant joints inspected and resealed if needed. The slideouts need to have the Eternabond tape replaced. The coach needs washed and waxed. All of the seals need to be inspected and treated. Believe it or not, they actually recommend using Lemon Pledge on those seals! The entire coach needs cleaned inside. The water system needs to be drained and antifreeze run through the pipes and fixtures - they call that 'winterizing'. Everything electronic that has batteries mush have the batteries removed. And the list goes on. Owning one of these is not for the faint of heart!! Maintaining the coach, trip planning, etc is a whole ton of work, but if we did not enjoy the 'execution' part we would not do it.
We have really enjoyed our stay and adventures here at Hutchinson KS. Sand Hills State Park campground is really nice. Liberty is looking forward to leaving the 'land of the sand burrs'! Hopefully you enjoy reading the blog as it is a ton of work too, but, again, we enjoy documenting our trips.
Next report tomorrow afternoon from West Omaha/NE Lincoln KOA Holiday Campground!
No comments:
Post a Comment