Kansas and Missouri- July 17- August 26

We decided to spend a month back at the starting place of our RV Adventure, Missouri.  This seemed like a good way to close the 5 year circle.  We started RVing on July 28 2008!!  On the ride from Colorado to Missouri we hit some of the densest fog we have every seen - here is the view out the front window of the RV!  One of the tougher drives we have experienced - yup, this was a "white knuckle day."

 

But we finally got through it and had clear sailing for the rest of the trip

We took advantage of the opportunity to visit one of our favorite outdoor theaters - The Starlight Theater - with tickets to see "Footloose."

We also got to catch up with some of our friends:
Rich and Joyce Brown invited us to join them for a delicious dinner at their beautiful home.  Rich and Joyce have also bought an RV and we sometimes get to connect with them when they visit their grandchildren in Tucson.

I had a wonderful day at the "Plaza" in Kansas City.  The shopping is just amazing!!!  As an RVer I don't have much space but I had fun in Williams Sonoma and Sur Le Table.  Then off to meet my good friend Tracy for dinner at Brio (yup, the ladies in Arizona love this restaurant as well).  Tracy and I "scored" a table on the upstairs patio and there was a great live band playing on the street across from the restaurant.   We had so much to talk about we just about closed down the place!!

There are no RV parks near Kansas City so we stayed at a park in Independence, Missouri.  Judy, who used to work with me at Lake Lotawana, was such a sweetheart.  Mark went to play tennis and as I didn't have a car, Judy drove out to Independence and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Café Verona!

We also met Sheldon and Mary Oxner for dinner but I can't find any photos.  ???

While we were in the Kansas City Area, where Mark's hiking buddy John lives, they decided to take a drive out to Colorado and hike one of the most challenging 14ers, Crestone Needle.  Mark and John backpacked to the base of the mountain where they set up base camp so they could get an early start of this treacherous hike the next morning.  Base camp was at 11,600 feet and it went down to 26 degrees overnight in the middle of July!

Its one of the toughest 14ers and you can tell it wasn't an easy hike from this view.

But they did have a great time and, although John doubted Mark's ability to build a great fire John really did  enjoy the result!  Now isn't that one amazing bon fire!!

One of the interesting things they saw on their trip was Bishop Castle.  This amazing castle is being built by the owner, Jim Bishop who in 1969, at the age of 25, started building his castle.  Fighting  zoning and planning regulations at every turn, he has a spectacular creation even if it is a work in progress.  Snow doesn't melt at 9000 feet until mid May so with a very short summer building season the work goes on daily.

Here is a view of  "The Great Room"

 

And, here is Mark on the top of one of the towers.

The Kansas stop turned out to be a lot of work.   In addition to all of the appointments we had scheduled we did an unplanned emptying of our storage shed!  The biggest job was going through 8 boxes of pre digital age photos.  I ended up trashing about 7,000 photos and sent a little over 1600 to scan café to have them put onto a DVD.  So, we didn't have time to call anyone and we just did dinners with the people who called us.  We'll try and do a better job the next time we pass through!

We did get in a few trips to visit Mark's Mom and family in Pittsburg, KS.  One trip was with the Honda CRV filled stem to stern with items for Mark's Mom and his niece Vanessa to have a garage sale.

We had to keep extending our stay to get everything finished.  But, now that it is all done it is time to head out to Hot Springs Village, Arkansas.