Oct 7, 2012 - HDT Rally

We are at the Heavy Duty Truck Rally in Hutchinson, KS. This is where the HDT owners show off their trucks and trailers. There are a number of informative seminars related to the trucks and their systems. Having one of the newest rigs at the rally we expected to get some praise. What a surprise. They picked the rig apart finding even more things wrong then we had. The truck and bed were a real disappointment for the attendees as well as for us. We knew the hitch was not mounted correctly and did not work correctly. A new hitch was on...

Sep 13, 2011 - Replacement Parts

We had originally planned to leave AP, TX for Kansas on March 1, 2011 for my scheduled knee replacement surgery on March 9 in Hutchinson, KS. We received a packet of information from the surgeon that said I needed a pre-surgery physical and lab work done by my Primary Care Doctor prior to my surgery. So, we needed to head to Tribune instead of Hutchinson, which meant we needed to leave TX earlier than planned to be able to accomplish everything that was needed. We drove to Abilene and spent the night and drove on to Ulysses, KS for the...

Apr 7, 2011 - First Of Many Stops In Kansas

What a very interesting day. I left Oklahoma City at a decent hour but late enough to miss most of the city traffic. Once I got on the road to Kansas, I couldn't help but be impressed by all of the neat and beautiful ranches and farms that lined the road. Magnolias, redbud, apple, plum,- all manor of flowering trees are in bloom . It's as if someone came and splashed cherry, pink, purple,and white paint around. I arrived in Hutchinson, Kansas in time to take the 1pm tour of the Kansas Underground Salt Mine. After a safety video, I put on my...

Jun 28, 2009 - Garden City to Hutchinson, Kan.

The inspiration for this trip came from Davis resident Jamie Jensen’s “Road Trip USA” book. Many of our activities are based on his excellent recommendations. Today, however, we took a detour. We survived our night in the musty, smoky camping cabin at the RV resort in Garden City, Kan. (A former KOA that must have had its membership revoked.) It could only get better. And, of course, it did. I regret disparaging Garden City before I’d seen its highlights. This morning, we went to its really charming zoo, which is in a lovely park befitting...

May 7, 2009 - Hutchinson

May 6 - We had a catered breakfast this morning, and at 9:30 the group met downtown at the Cosmosphere. Now, this was a real highlight of the rally. Who knew that Hutchinson was the site of a world class space center? We have toured the space centers in Florida, Alabama and in Houston, and did not expect this to be any bigger or certainly not better than those. Well, it was. It is affiliated with the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and it was apparent. It is 105,000 sq. ft. of "galactic splendor" as declared by the brochure. We spent almost...

May 7, 2009 - Day 7 - Newmar Rally in Hutchinson, KS

Miles Today: 0 Day: 7 Total Miles: 703 Eight of us made reservations to tour the Kansas Underground Salt Museum this morning. Our tour also included about 15 middle school kids, but they were good. It starts with an elevator ride down 650 feet into the salt mine. This is still an active mine, but they were not working close to where we were. We were taken on a tram ride through some of the mines shafts that was very long and very wide. The salt here is not used for human consumption, but for road salt, animal feed and in production...

May 6, 2009 - Day 6 - Hutchinson KS

Miles Today: 0 Day: 6 Total Miles: 703 Another couple has decided to join our caravan to Alaska. Bill and Cheryl Wessels are from Arkansas, so now we are a group of 4. They are a fun couple that will add much to the trip. Cheryl is very very good at her crafts, so her and Bonita will have a lot to talk about. Take a look at Cheryl's home-crafted Greeting Cards here: http://cherylstoys.blogspot.com/ They are really very very good. Tuesday May 5th. Today was another busy day at the rally. It started with a Craft Sale/Garage Sale. Bonita had...

May 5, 2009 - Carthage to Hutchinson

April 24-May 2 We were scheduled to leave Carthage on Thursday, April 30, but extended two more days in order to take care of a couple of maintenance items at the next door RV dealership. My coach batteries (the four 6 volt house batteries) had not been holding a charge and were about three years old, so it was time to replace them. We did not want to have battery issues while on the GAT! Then, after the batteries were changed out, we had three electrical outlets in the coach stop working. What? I checked the ground fault outlets, looked...

May 4, 2009 - Day 4 - Newmar Rally - Hutchinson, KS

Miles Today: 0 Day: 4 Total Miles: 703 We went with our traveling companions Don and Alice Faye today to get Alice Faye a blood test. We ended up in Wichata, KS to get it done. Went to the Egg Crate Cafe for lunch. Got to be good with a name like that, well it was. Very good food. Back to Hutchinson where we all went to the building we will be using here for registration. Got that all taken care of so 6 of us decided to play Pegs and Jokers until time for Orientation. There is a Pegs and Jokers tournament on Wed night, so we needed...

May 3, 2009 - Day 3 - Hutchinson, KS

Miles Today: 85 Day: 3 Total Miles: 703 We arrived at Hutchinson, KS today. Only about 85 mile drive. We will be here until May 8th attending a Newmar Regional rally. There will be about 85 rigs here, so we should get to meet a lot of people and have a lot of fun. The place we are sitting is the Kansas State Fair grounds. It a nice RV park, but they also have had a lot of rain, so it is a little muddy. We are surrounded on both sides by people from Arkansas, but they are good folks. Don and Alice Faye are fulltimers like us, but originate...

May 18, 2008 - Hutchinson , Kansas

We made it to Hutch, as the locals call it here. We got here early enough to make it to our primary reason for coming here. "UNDERGROUND SALT MINE/MUSEUM". As Marianne puts it, another one of Lenny's strange places to visit. We stopped at a Welcome Center on I-35, and mentioned to the woman our destination,and she asked me if I would like some Tickets, worth $13.95 each, of course you knew my answer. As Marianne put it, only Len gets the deals. LOL Anyway, we got our hard hats, and special breathing apparatus, as required by the US Bureau...

May 15, 2008 - Hutchinson, KS - Quivira National Wildlife Refuge

(Ron Writing) After a late start this morning we continued southwest on Hwy 156 to Great Bend, KS. We then headed east on Hwy. 56 to Ellinwood, then south following the signs to the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. We drove through the refuge with stops for a 1-mile hike on a self-guided nature trail through the salt marshes, and a stop at the visitors center. We saw many song birds and water fowl. This is one of the more important stops for migratory birds. Most of the ducks have already left for points north. We weren’t able to get many...