At last the day has come to head north (to Alaska!).
We left Tahlequah about 7:25 this morning. That's about 25 minutes later than I wanted to get away, but I hadn't counted on how much time it would take to get packed. I had spent most of Tuesday loading stuff in the trailer, but there were still a few items that I needed to wait on until this morning. What I didn't realize was just how many there were. And then there was the process of closing down the house. So it just took a little longer.
I admit that I left with a little anxiety about how the truck would perform. I had taken it on several short camping trips, and it had done fine, but none of those trips were any longer than 40 miles from home. And none of those trips involved as much "stuff" as this one would. There must have been an extra thousand pounds of food, clothes and other supplies that were loaded aboard the truck and trailer. But the truck did fine. We were able to cruise along at 65 mph with all that extra weight and the truck handled it with ease.
Actually, since Google Maps estimates driving times based on speed limits, it underestimated the amount of time it took us to get to Kearney, Nebraska, where we're camped now. Even though we were able to drive 65 (actually, we could have gone faster, and did at times, but for the sake of gas mileage, I wanted to keep the speed to 65), that was usually below the posted speed limit, so we got here about an hour and a half later than Google Maps said we would. No problem. There was still plenty of daylight and we didn't even unhook the trailer from the pickup.
The high point of the day, other than the beautiful hills and prairies of Oklahoma, Kansas, and southern Nebraska, was our stop in Cawker City, Kansas, the home of the world's largest ball of twine.
We had no idea that we would encounter this amazing and iconic tourist attraction, but as we were driving north in Kansas, we saw the sign on the highway welcoming us to Cawker City and we just knew we had to look for the ball of twine. Sure enough, it was on the main street and we couldn't miss it! Who would have thought it?
We arrived in Kearney about 5:30 and were able to set up the trailer and fix a meal with little hassle. Maybe I'm getting the hang of this thing. Now if I can just get some sleep tonight, tomorrow will be a lot less anxious, I think. Tomorrow we head for Hill City, South Dakota.
We left Tahlequah about 7:25 this morning. That's about 25 minutes later than I wanted to get away, but I hadn't counted on how much time it would take to get packed. I had spent most of Tuesday loading stuff in the trailer, but there were still a few items that I needed to wait on until this morning. What I didn't realize was just how many there were. And then there was the process of closing down the house. So it just took a little longer.
I admit that I left with a little anxiety about how the truck would perform. I had taken it on several short camping trips, and it had done fine, but none of those trips were any longer than 40 miles from home. And none of those trips involved as much "stuff" as this one would. There must have been an extra thousand pounds of food, clothes and other supplies that were loaded aboard the truck and trailer. But the truck did fine. We were able to cruise along at 65 mph with all that extra weight and the truck handled it with ease.
Actually, since Google Maps estimates driving times based on speed limits, it underestimated the amount of time it took us to get to Kearney, Nebraska, where we're camped now. Even though we were able to drive 65 (actually, we could have gone faster, and did at times, but for the sake of gas mileage, I wanted to keep the speed to 65), that was usually below the posted speed limit, so we got here about an hour and a half later than Google Maps said we would. No problem. There was still plenty of daylight and we didn't even unhook the trailer from the pickup.
The high point of the day, other than the beautiful hills and prairies of Oklahoma, Kansas, and southern Nebraska, was our stop in Cawker City, Kansas, the home of the world's largest ball of twine.
We arrived in Kearney about 5:30 and were able to set up the trailer and fix a meal with little hassle. Maybe I'm getting the hang of this thing. Now if I can just get some sleep tonight, tomorrow will be a lot less anxious, I think. Tomorrow we head for Hill City, South Dakota.
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