On our way....Jell-O

We left Bo Wood COE this morning about 11:00 am. Had planned on leaving earlier but we got to talking to new neighbors in the site next to us. Bill and Marlene are from Mendota, IL and have been wintering in Apache Junction, AZ the last 4-5 years. We told them we were new full timers and got their email address and cell phone numbers and plan to contact them once they arrive in late December. They're not full timers but having been retired for a few years, They still own a home in Mendota but they have had some time to check different parts of the country out as they travel during the winter. They enjoy hiking in the Superstition Mountains so we plan to have them show us some trails while we're there. Looking forward to meeting up with them again.

Once we got started we traveled down Route 32 to Effingham, IL and onto I-70W then connected to I-55S into St. Louis. We were able to get through the downtown area pretty quickly and then picked up I-44W toward Tulsa, OK. The terrain was somewhat hilly so I was able to see how the Tow/Haul mode exhaust brake worked by applying some brake at the top of the downhill to get the speed I wanted and then let the exhaust brake do its work at maintaining the speed. It worked great.

We made a stop at a rest area and had a sandwich and some water along with a bathroom break. We whittled the miles away and finally made it to the Ladybug RV park off exit 204 near Cuba, MO on Highway F.

 

 

The park has 34 RV sites with pull throughs and full hook ups. They have showers, laundry room and free Wi-Fi. We were able to take advantage of our Passport America membership. Passport America is a 50% discount club which made the typical $28.00 site fee only $14.00. Great savings and will look for more opportunities to use this membership in the future on our limited budget. I even was able to set up our satellite TV dish myself. It took some time to figure out the elevation but I got it finally. Glenda couldn't miss her Dancing with the Stars. We talked to the owner and asked about where to get diesel and some dinner. He recommended going into Cuba, MO and try the Phillip 66 station near the Interstate and for dinner....the Missouri Hick BBQ.

The Missouri Hick BBQ is on historic Route 66 in Cuba, MO. The place has been around for years and the décor is very rustic and hillbilly. Great for a BBQ restaurant.

The food was incredible and the service was very good too. I had the sliced smoked turkey with mash potatoes and baked beans. Glenda had the Pulled Chicken with a sweet potato and red beans and rice. The nice thing about this BBQ is they let YOU put the BBQ sauce on. That way you can have as much as you want or as little.

We drove over by the Interstate and got our diesel for $3.39/gal. Hope we continue to get fuel at prices like that. It'll really help the budget.

Remember I said that full timers plans are made in Jell-O. What I mean is Jell-O jiggles and wiggles and isn't solid. Neither are OUR plans. We thought we would be traveling down to Gold Canyon by way of Holbrook, AZ, Snowflake, AZ and then on into the Canyon Vistas(our winter destination) but we changed our minds. We originally thought we would spend a couple nights at each location as we traveled but decided to move quicker and do a slightly different route. So we're only staying one night here at the Ladybug RV Park and then moving tomorrow to the Will Rogers KOA in Claremore, OK.

We will stay one night and move onto the Elk City/Clinton KOA in Foss, OK again one night then onto the Tucumcari KOA in Tucumcari, NM (why so many KOA's? We have some gift certificates the kids got us for last Christmas....so that helps)and then at Albuquerque, NM we will be heading south on I-25 and staying at the Elephant Butte RV Resort for about 3 nights. Elephant Butte RV park is near the entrance to Elephant Butte State Park. Elephant Butte Lake is the largest and most popular lake in New Mexico. So we plan to do some exploring and hiking.

Then on to Tucson, AZ and the Justin's Diamond J RV Park. This way we can do some more exploring in the Saguaro Nat'l Park to the east of Tucson. We plan to spend about 5 days there before we head to Gold Canyon and the Canyon Vistas RV park. So we're taking a more southerly route to Canyon Vistas but we think a more interesting route with some fun and exploring. This should be interesting. Hope you follow along as we enter this phase of our full timing lives. We're just getting started. Who knows what we'll do next. We don't. Ha-ha