Up early to get this show on the
road. Received official notice that the camper was ready, ate breakfast, and
said goodbye to our hosts. Got to Hoyt’s
and Kim inspected the tires and thought there
might be an issue with a piece of
metal that was a little too close to the tire.
Shawn thought of a quick fix for it so back into the service bay we
went, but this time the truck stayed hitched to the camper. Mission accomplished and we were on the road
by 10:15 a.m. And, yes, it was a good feeling when we made it farther than 20 miles from Topeka. 😎
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While all the camper business was taking place, I amused myself by
watching the eagle cam. Whichever eagle was sitting on the nest was very busy cleaning
the area around it; made me wonder if it was Scout since he seems to be the
more meticulous housekeeper. It’s best
to see both eagles at the same time to make the comparison, but as of 10 a.m.
(Central Time), the mate hadn’t come in. Could have rewound the video feed but
it wasn’t that big of a deal; I’ll stick with my assumption that it was Scout.
I’m a bird watcher, which is different than a bird aficionado. While I’m
enthusiastic about birds, I am not very knowledgeable as I have a hard time
identifying them. Too many little bitty
things to look for: a dark eyebrow, a mark above their beak, a swipe of color
on their chest, etc. That kind of thing escapes me; I just enjoy watching them.
And what fascinates me most about birds is how they manage their lives without
hands: eating, preening, itching, etc. This
eagle cam takes that a step further by showing us how birds manage nest
building and maintenance as well as caring for their young without the use of hands. For instance, in the short time I’ve been
watching it, I’ve seen Scout fly in with
nesting material clenched in his talons that he spread around with his feet and
beak and he also rearranged the sticks with his beak, either by rolling them or
picking them up. And I’ve watched Bella stand
up, roll the eggs around mostly with her beak but sometimes with her feet, then
sit back down on them. Next, she
stretched her neck out, jammed her hooked beak into the hard nest to anchor
herself while she shimmied her body around, presumably to get the eggs situated
just right underneath her. It was the
use of her beak for leverage that intrigued me.
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During our time sitting along US 70 West on Friday, it was very hard not to notice the oodles of birds in the sky. As they flew low overhead to settle onto fields, I could see that some were dark, but the majority were white with black wingtips…snow geese with some Canadian geese mixed in. Migrationtime. I read that they can shoot northward to their Arctic breeding grounds rather quickly in warm weather, but cold temperatures may cause them to stage up for rather lengthy periods at various
Anyway, when they were flying, I saw no discernible v-formation like one
expects with geese; they looked more like swarming bees.
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Once we got past that 20 mile mark out of Topeka that was the bane of
our existence on Friday, Kim asked if we could get back to the audiobook. We had about 5 hours to go and the book took
us all the way to Liberal, Kansas. I totally had the ending figured wrong, even
though I’d read the book years ago.
With about 13 hours total left to Picacho, we figured we’d have enough
time to listen to another book. Next up for us is the second book in the Harry
Bosch series, The Black Ice. It clocks in at just over 11 hours, so we should
have plenty of time to finish it. Queued
it up and away we go.
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Stopped for lunch at about 2:00, which gave me an opportunity to get my two
cents in about the performance of the camper without interrupting the
book. From my perspective: the camper
seems to be riding better. Feels a little more rigid but in a good way, feels more
stable on the bumps and seems to have less sway. From a driver’s perspective, Kim agreed with
my assessment and mentioned that it’s been pulling very nicely. And he also
mentioned that we got 6000 lb. axles instead of 5200 lb. like we thought. Seems
like overkill on the axle weight but that’s fine, as we don’t want a repeat of
Friday’s adventures.
During a brief stop, Kim checked the area that had been fixed this
morning and said that everything is looking good. On the bypass around Dodge
City, both of us had a moment of concern because we were hearing a strange noise;
it disappeared about a ½ mile down further on when the road surface
changed. New tires, new road noises to
get used to, I guess.
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Had a small argument with Rapunzel today. We’ve driven through this region of the
country enough times, either with the truck or on bike trips, that I know the
various routes and I’ve determined which ones we don’t want to take. Rapunzel rerouted
on her own a couple of times because there’s a route through northern New
Mexico into Arizona along I-40 that would save 11 miles; but that route has
some extreme curves and switchbacks. We just don’t want to deal with those
types of roads after our recent event…we want to stick to the tried-and-true
route. You might say that my appetite
for adventure has dampened a bit at this point.
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It was a mostly sunny day which felt so good, but it was still necessary
to have the heater on. Despite the sun, it
was still wicked cold when venturing outside the truck as the temperature was in
single digits all day. However, all forecasts
indicate that warmer days are coming. Bring
it on!! We haven’t run out of snow yet
but it shouldn’t be long. Snowy roads
through the Dodge City area but in Texas, the roads are clear with just traces
of snow in the fields.
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Staying at an Econo Lodge in Dalhart, Texas, where the bed is tall but
not as tall as the one in Kansas. 😉
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