Kansas

We left Kentucky on Sunday morning - and it was such a beautiful day to drive - that we kept on going until we reached Topeka, Kansas!   We were thrilled to wake up Monday morning and only have a couple of hours to drive before we arrived at our last campsite in Wilson State Park between Salina and Hays in Kansas.

It was a lovely site - right by the lake and the views were great.  Luke took the opportunity to fish with his new rooster tail lure - and actually caught a fish!  He was elated!

Our campsite was literally right next to the lake - there was about a 15 foot drop onto a rocky shore - so sitting inside the RV or at the picnic table was just wonderful.

That evening there was a great sunset that Michael and I watched while the kids slept.  Everything was peaceful and serene.

That should always be my clue that something crazy is about to happen.

Shortly after it got dark the Kansas thunderstorms began.  The lightening was really high up in the clouds; it looked a bit like a strobe light with a gray blanket over it.  It went on and on.  Then the rain started.  POURING RAIN.  Then the hail came and with it came the WIND.  Now I can handle lightening and thunder, and the RV is pretty water tight so rain isn't an issue.  Hail is obnoxious, but I could have lived with it.  The big problem was the wind.  It was really strong - the RV was rocking back and forth so hard that the metal window blinds were smacking into the walls.  It was really, really scary.  Remember the lovely campsite with the 15 foot drop to the rocky shore of the lake.  Not so ideal when your "house" is rocking back and forth towards and away from that drop.

The storms took short breaks, but pretty much it was like that ALL NIGHT.  I didn't sleep much and in fact I finally understood the story in the New Testament where the apostles are on the boat with Christ and the storm comes and they start freaking out and ask Him "Master, carest thou not that we perish?"  I had a very similar conversation that night because I literally was praying most of the night for the winds to calm and for our safety.

The next morning we were SO READY to get out of Kansas.  Especially because another wind storm showed up shortly after the kids woke up and then they started getting scared.  (Lucky things slept all night despite the crazy rocking)  Michael and I decided we were bugging out and going home so around 6:30 am we hurriedly got everything all packed away and went to turn on the RV and it WOULDN'T START!

We had already had the issue in Maryland where the starter wouldn't turn off after the car started, and that was fixed but now we couldn't get it to start at all.  Thank goodness for Roadside Assistance.  It took until almost  2 pm to get everything all taken care of (it ended being the coil for all my car fixing friends) - and then FINALLY we were leaving Kansas and going home.

Michael says we aren't going back to that lovely state park, and I have to agree.  :)