Meet Me in St. Louis

I’m in St. Louis for a few days.  Sunday truly was a day of rest for me, and it felt really good not to move.  Although I knew this in the back of my mind, I’ve confirmed that we will need to build in more “down days” than originally anticipated.  OK, Tim, you can say, “I told you so.”

The main reason for the stop in St. Louis was to return to Van City RV for yearly maintenance on the RV, as well as to address a few minor warranty issues.  As usual, the staff was wonderful, resolved all of my items and had me out of there in just a few hours.

Up On the Lift



Wow, This Is High!

Tonight, my friend Jane arrives.  She is flying in from Miami to travel with me on the second leg of the trip to Albany, New York.  We’re staying in a hotel near the airport since her flight does not arrive until after 10:30 pm.  No way am I driving into a campground near midnight.

Since Van City finished with the RV so quickly, I checked into the hotel early.  Tonight is another milestone – Kitty’s first night in a hotel.  She may have been happier staying in the RV, which is now her home, but it’s just too hot outside and there are no hookups for AC.  So, I traipsed into the hotel carrying the cat carrier, portable litter box, food, bed, blanket and other assorted supplies.  That was just her things.  Is this what parents of babies have to deal with?  There weren’t enough arms to carry much for myself.

After thoroughly checking out the room, Kitty apparently has determined that it is safe.  It’s now time for a well-deserved nap.

Sleeping With One Eye Open

Good-Bye, Linda

Before I dropped Linda at the St. Louis airport, we had a few stops to make.  We first made a detour to the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site despite the rain.  This property, known as White Haven, was the family home of Julia Dent, Grant’s future wife.  The home represents their personal life during the tumultuous times of the nineteenth century.



Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site

We had time only for a short stop before heading to Verizon and a hopeful fix for the MiFi.  The issue seems to be the firmware update, which has been causing grief for customers and staff alike.  Since there was not enough time to complete the update before Linda needed to catch her plane, I left with directions to another Verizon location closer to the airport. 

A quick stop for White Castle hamburgers and a dash to the airport ended the first week of the trip.  I will miss Linda, and so will Kitty.

The day ended on what appears to be a positive note, with a most cooperative group of Verizon employees determined to fix my problem.  A firmware update and a new battery promise to get me connected once more.  I’m dead tired, but more hopeful than I’ve been in a few days.

I Love Missouri State Parks

I love Missouri’s state parks.  Linda and I stayed at two of them last year on our trip back from St. Louis – Babler Memorial State Park and Knob Noster State Park – and were very impressed.  The campgrounds in particular were wonderful, with beautiful natural settings, lots of trees, spacious sites, as well as concrete pads and electric hookups.  It was the best of both worlds.

For Linda’s last night on the road with me, she searched for a Missouri park where we could relax.  Long Branch State Park in the middle of the state fit the bill.

Long Branch State Park

After setting up, we took Kitty for a walk to the lake.  The little bit of sand may have seemed like a big litter box, but the gently lapping waves were a bit too scary.  The known comfort of the woods was a much better fit. 


Peaceful Lake at Long Branch



What's This Wet Stuff?



I Can Hide Here

Perhaps because I still didn’t have wireless service (hopefully that will be resolved tomorrow in St. Louis), we enjoyed a relaxing and peaceful evening around our first campfire of the trip.  Hopefully it won’t be the last.

Campsite at Long Branch State Park

Stumpin' Across Kansas (And Missouri and Colorado)

Because Tim could not take any more time off from work, I flew back to St. Louis with my friend Linda to finalize the purchase of the Free Spirit and drive it back to Colorado.  We decided to take our time and make an adventure of the trip.


I signed the papers and became the proud new owner of a Leisure Travel Vans Free Spirit.  Whoever would have thought that I would say such a thing?  John had removed most of the decals at our request and the rig looked beautiful.  John then gave us a complete walkthrough of all of the systems in preparation for our drive home.

Signing My Life Away

The Free Spirit Is Ready for Me at Van City RV



Explain That To Me That Again

By the time we learned everything we could think of and stocked up on supplies, it was late afternoon, so I braved rush hour traffic and headed to Babler Memorial State Park.  What a nice campground.  We spent the evening repacking the RV and ate dinner before it started to rain.  We only had to call John once when we forgot his instructions on how to turn the microwave on.  Silly, it has a separate switch.

We followed a scenic byway along the Missouri River the next morning and stopped in Hermann, Missouri, a charming town known for its wine.  Of course we had to purchase a few bottles for that evening.

Driving the RV was much easier than I had even hoped it might be.  I tested it on back roads, state highways, interstates and even dirt roads.  Wind didn’t seem to affect the stability, which was a huge relief.  Sitting up so high was also lots of fun.  I never quite mastered the art of backing up, although that’s not a surprise.  I don’t even like to back up my Subaru.

Linda found another wonderful campground at Knob Noster State Park, and we camped without hookups.  We quickly settled into a routine in the RV and at campgrounds, and we each assumed responsibilities for the duties that had to be done.  We developed checklists so that we would not forget anything important.

Linda at Knob Noster State Park

Our Moose PJs

We crossed into Kansas the next morning and headed for the Flint Hills and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.  On the way, we stopped in Council Grove, where we looked at one historic tree stump after another.  I appreciate that important events took place under each tree, but what remains of the trees is really sad.  We quickly dubbed our trip “Stumpin’ Through Kansas.”



Stumpy, the Treaty Oak, in Council Grove, Kansas

We learned several lessons on our journey.  Probably the most important is to fill up with diesel before the tank gets too low.  We had to drive 30 miles out of our way to find a gas station with diesel.  Diesel is not always available in more remote areas, even on main highways.  I also learned the value of traveling with a smartphone.  After seeing field after field of a distinctive brownish crop, Linda decided to search for it on her iPhone.  She quickly determined that our mystery crop was sorghum.

 

Sarah in Tall Sorghum

I introduced Linda to the “Passport to Your National Parks” program, and she quickly became a convert.  Visiting national parks is one of my favorite activities, and I will stop if a park, or other unit of the National Park Service, is anywhere near my route.  I collect National Park passport stamps as a record of my travels.  As a result, we stopped at Fort Larned National Historic Site in Kansas and Bent’s Old Fort and Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Sites in Colorado.

Fort Larned National Historic Site

Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site

We arrived back in Estes Park without incident.  I’m going to love driving and traveling in the Free Spirit.

The Search for the Perfect RV

After our experience with the rental, Tim and I were on the hunt for a Class B motorhome that would be the perfect fit for us.  All of the models are very well made, and all of them share certain similarities, but we needed to find the chassis and floor plan that would meet our requirements.

We looked again at the few Roadtrek, Pleasure-Way, Airstream and Winnebego models that were in stock near our home, but none of these seemed quite right for us.  By this time we had focused our search on Class Bs that were built on a Mercedes-Benz (or Freightliner) chassis.  These models were much taller, but narrower, than the Excel we had rented and provided full headroom in the shower, as well as a full-height entrance door.  Tim was pushing for the long Sprinter to give us more living space with the cat.  Although the longer length scared me somewhat, I agreed with his reasoning.

We then determined that a trip to St. Louis was in order.  St. Louis is the home of Van City RV, the top-ranked Class B motorhome dealer in the country, representing multiple manufacturers.  Why not go there and look at virtually all of the available models in one spot?  We might never see all of them in Colorado, and we wanted to look at all possibilities.  However, we did not want to buy an RV so far in advance of the trip, which was not scheduled to start until September 2011.

We flew to St. Louis and immediately drove to Van City, where we spent the rest of the afternoon.  John Chelist walked us through all of the models and quizzed us on what we were looking for.  He helped us to focus our search and never applied any pressure to make a sale.  It’s too bad that all salesmen are not like him.

We reconfirmed that a Sprinter was right for us, but which one?  I had already given in on the length, so that narrowed our options to a Roadtrek Adventurous, Pleasure-Way Plateau or Leisure Travel Vans Free Spirit.  John helped us rule out the Roadtrek because it features a second row of seats, which we do not need.  That left the Plateau and Free Spirit, both of which we took for long test drives.  I felt surprisingly comfortable driving both of them.



Two Free Spirits On the Lot

The Free Spirit was completely new to us and was not a model that I had carefully researched prior to the trip.  It was a beautiful rig with lovely finishes, as was the Plateau, and both would meet my design sensibilities.  Both would meet our other needs as well.  We left Van City with a lot to think about and planned to return the next day.

Tim and I spent a lovely evening in downtown St. Louis, sampling toasted ravioli, a local specialty  We came back to our hotel and listed the pros and cons of each model.  Tim came to the conclusion that the Free Spirit had a feature that no other model had – a “basement.”  This was a cut-out, lidded compartment under the sofa between the rear wheels where the spare tire is often stored.  What a perfect location for the litter box!  The Free Spirit was also completely open between the main living area and the area under the sofa, allowing free access for the cat to access the litter box.  This would not be possible in the Plateau.  None of the other features seemed to be as important once we knew that the cat could be easily accommodated.

Tim came to the conclusion that the Free Spirit had a feature that no other model had – a “basement.”  This was a cut-out, lidded compartment under the sofa between the rear wheels where the spare tire is often stored.  What a perfect location for the litter box!  The Free Spirit was also completely open between the main living area and the area under the sofa, allowing free access for the cat to access the litter box.  This would not be possible in the Plateau.  None of the other features seemed to be as important once we knew that the cat could be easily accommodated. 

Nice Interior

The Lid to the "Basement" Is on the Left

There were two 2009 Free Spirits on the lot, and we decided over lunch the next day that we would buy one of them on the spot.  No waiting for us.  We just knew that this was what we wanted.  The Free Spirit was as perfect an RV for us as we could possibly hope to find.  We returned to Van City, selected the model with the lighter, birch cabinets and made an offer.  John made a counter offer and we sealed the deal.  What a pleasant experience.  No hard sells or dealer shenanigans. 

John and Sarah at Van City RV

It's Ours!

I can’t believe that we just bought an RV!!!  We would later name it “The World’s Most Expensive Kat Karrier.”

We spent one more night in St Louis enjoying a wonderful dinner and visiting the Gateway Arch and the Museum of Westward Expansion.  The next day we toured St Louis’s rehabilitated downtown district and Union Station before jumping onto the plane for our flight back to Colorado.  We had an uneventful flight, wondering what we had just done.

Gateway Arch

Union Station