Western National Parks and Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
Day 1 Sunday August 10, 2025
Today is day 1 of a new adventure that has been 6 years coming to fruition. We originally booked this trip and paid the deposit in 2019 while on the Canadian Maritimes Tour. The trip was scheduled to take place in 2021, but due to a family health issue and COVID it got cancelled.
We are headed West to join another Fantasy RV Tours Caravan. Our meeting point is Virgin Utah and from there we will visit 7 National Parks and 1 State Park and many interesting places along the way. There will be a total of 25 RVs in the group.
After a 5 day break we will join another Fantasy RV Tours group at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. We will stay in one place for 5 nights at the Fiesta to watch all the activities with hundreds of hot air balloons. Will we be brave enough to ride in one, well stay tuned.
We don’t expect to know anyone on this Caravan. We do know one of the Fantasy Staff that will be at the Balloon Fiesta. Her and her husband were the Tailgunners on our 2019 Canadian Maritimes Caravan. She is now a Fantasy employee in charge of coordinating all the Wagonmasters and Tailgunners for the Fantasy Caravans.
Then we head to Red Bay Alabama for the annual service on the motorhome before making our way home.
We will be on the road for 68 nights, stay at 29 different campgrounds, Harvest Hosts or Boondockers Welcome locations, drive a little over 6,000 miles.
We will stay in one state, Nebraska, that we have never stayed or traveled in. Our route will take us through North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and back home for a total of 19 states.
We hooked up the Toad (our Jeep Cherokee) to the motorhome and departed at 7:30AM, hoping for a good trip with no problems. By the time we got on Interstate 40 we knew there was a problem with our Garmin GPS. It was not talking to us at places it should have and was not showing the next turn ahead as it should have. I downloaded a new map updates several days ago, so I am wondering if the maps got corrupted during the update. And we had a very annoying squeak coming from the dash area on the drivers side. We also had the freezer drawer to come open twice today. That has never happened. Lena moved some things around and that solved that problem.
We stopped at the Warsaw I40 exit at the new Sheetz store to top off the fuel tank and get something for breakfast. I tried a few things to resolve the GPS issues but nothing I tried worked.
We knew the exits/turns we needed to make all the way to Greensboro so we continued on and stopped at the Farmers Market there to get some fresh garden produce and peaches.
Before we left I set up my iPhone and Lena’s iPad with the address of our destination for tonight and we used them to get us to Round Peak Winery in Lowgap NC which is a few miles from Mt. Airy.
They are a Harvest Hosts location. We will be staying at several Harvest Hosts and Boondockers locations on this trip. A Harvest Hosts is usually a winery, farm or other type of business. Boondockers Welcome Hosts are private individuals. Both allow RVers to stay on their property free of charge but the Harvest Hosts usually have items to sell and the RVers support them by purchasing some of their products. Most host locations do not offer any hookups, such as electricity or water but there are some that do. We are Boondocker Welcome Hosts and we offer 20amp electric and water hookups but do not accept any money.
We got to our destination just after 2 PM. They have changed the locations where they park RV so I came in the wrong driveway. Lena tried to get me to use the other driveway but I didn’t listen. We would of had to unhook the Toad to park where they wanted us unless we turned around which we couldn’t do on their property so we left, drove back about 2 miles to the main road and turned around at a Sheetz and returned and came in the correct driveway and parked without having to unhook our Toad.
Lena heated up some leftover pork chops and gravy for lunch. Then we visited the winery and bought a bottle of one of their wines that had blueberries in it.
I did some research on how to reload the maps in our GPS and have started that process as I write this but it will probably still be running when we go to bed. Sure hopes it solves the GPS issue.
After it cooled off some we set on the back patio of the winery and enjoyed the view over the vineyard and mountains off in the distance.
The GPS update finished about 9PM and it looks like it worked but will not know for sure until we start driving tomorrow. Keeping our fingers crossed. It sure would be a problem drive 6,000 miles without an GPS designed for a large RV. Using a regular GPS for a large RV is asking to get into some places you might not want to be.
Day 2 Monday August 11, 2025
We had a very quiet night at the Winery. There was another RVer here last night also. We had breakfast and pulled out at 8:30 in a light rain and headed for a KOA Campground 250 miles down the road in Argilite Kentucky.
The GPS is working perfectly now and we still had the squeaky dash until we stopped at a rest stop and I tried one more thing to stop the squeaky dash and it worked. I sprayed silicone spray all around the area that we thought the squeak was coming from and WOW what a difference, NO MORE SQUEAKY DASH. That squeaking was getting on our last nerve.
We had a beautiful drive through the mountains of Virginia, West Virginia and on into Kentucky. We had to go through 3 toll booths on the West Virginia Turnpike. We have the E-Z Pass transponder so we don’t have to hand over cash. The discounted toll fee is deducted from our account. Some states have modern toll plazas, but these three are the old style where you have to squeeze into the lane that is barely wide enough for our motorhome to get through. We saw numerous lug nut caps that had been scrubbed off of 18 wheeler truck rims lying near the concrete barriers at the toll lanes.
The traffic was not too bad, some road construction but no hold ups. Sure glad we were not on the opposite side of I77 at Fancy Gap VA., there was some road construction on that side of I77 and the traffic was squeezed down to one lane and it was backed up for several miles with dozens and dozens of 18 wheelers in the line.
We got to our KOA campground about 1:30 and set up in site 9. It was 90 degrees when we arrived, much hotter than yesterday. We are 500 miles into our trip.
Day 3 Tuesday August 12, 2025
After a peaceful night and breakfast we pulled out for our 250 mile drive to Steckler Farms in Dale, Indiana. This is another Harvest Hosts location. They raise sheep, goats, cows, chickens, etc. and have a farm store where they sell to the public.
We had mostly good roads, with some construction but no delays. We did have one 18 Wheeler pass us on an on-ramp to the Interstate and almost forced me into a row of orange construction barrels that were lined up on the ramp leading to a construction area. I don’t know what the idiot was thinking but we came very closed to getting both sides of the motorhome damaged. I had to thread the needle between him and the construction barrels.
We stopped at a Loves Truck stop in Waddy Kentucky for fuel, then parked and went inside to the McDonald’s to take a break.
We got to Steckers Farm about 2:30 and pulled around his farm store and parked on top of what looked like the concrete base of a former silo. Jerry has this site setup to provide 50AMP power for $20 if the guest wants to use it. We did because it was 95 degrees when we got setup. This saved us from have to run our generator for several hours until it cooled down outside after dark.
Lena prepared lunch and then we walked around some and took photos of the farm and some of the animals. A cloud came up and provided some cooler air and some rain.
After Jerry returned from a meeting we joined him in the farm store. We bought some pasture raised eggs, goat cheese, cheddar cheese from their cows, chicken quarters, two grass feed ribeye steaks and some goat milk blueberry gelato. We will eat good for a few days. We have already tried the gelato, mum good.
Jerry has turned over most of the farm operations to his sons. He told us he had been a Harvest Host since early 2021 and has hosted around 650 guests. Counting us there are three here tonight. He said the sales of there farm products helps the farm but his favorite part was meeting all the people that stay here.
We had a heavy thunderstorm roll through with heavy rain, thunder and some lightning about 45 minutes before bedtime.
Day 4 Wednesday August 13, 2025
After breakfast Lena put a pot roast and seasoning in our small slow cooker and set it in the sink to cook while we travel. Our motorhome is all electric but we have 6 batteries that are charged by the engine while we drive down the road and we have an inverter that inverts the 12 volt DC power to 120 volt AC power and that’s how our residential refrigerator operates while we drive and it also powers the 120 volt receptacles in the motorhome so we can use the slow cooker to cook while we travel.
We didn’t have any idiot drivers try to wreck us today. The roads were mostly good, lots of road construction but that just required us to slow down to 55 with no delays. Indiana grows thousands of acres of corn. We could see corn fields everywhere along the interstate. We left Indiana and passed through Illinois and on into Missouri before reaching our destination at Cottonwoods RV Park in Columbia Missouri. We saw the St. Louis Arch in the distance as we were passing St. Louis. We went up in the arch last year when we were taking the Mississippi River Run Caravan. We are 1100 miles into our trip.
Our lunch was ready to eat when we got setup in site 80. It sure was nice to have a hot cooked meal ready for you when you stop for the day.
The commode in the full bathroom would not flush when got here. It is a macerating commode and has an electronic flush on it. I tinkered with it a few minutes and got it flushing.
Then we drove to the local Farmers Market and got some tomatoes and a cucumber.
The battery charge in the Jeep was low when we got to the campground. We had not unhooked it from the motorhome since we left home on Sunday so I guess there is some parasite electrical draw while we are towing it. I run a dash camera in the Jeep when we travel and that might have contributed to the issue. I had to put my jump pack on to start it. When we left for the Farmers Market the display for the radio and GPS would not come on. Everything else worked but not the display. I checked all the fuses and all were good so I did some research on the issue and found a tip to unhook the battery for 30 minutes and then reconnect it. That solved the problem. I guess it rebooted all the electronics in the dash.
Maybe that is the worst of any issues on this trip.
Day 5 Thursday August 14, 2025
We booked a one hour tour of the 300 + acre Budweiser’s Warm Springs Ranch today. This is the ranch a few miles outside of Columbia where the Budweiser Clydesdales are breed, raised and trained. We visited the Budweiser plant and Grant Farm in St Louis last year while on the Mississippi River Caravan.
We arrived about 30 minutes before our tour started so we got to see two of the Clydesdales and two trainers out in one of the pastures training.
We met our tour guide Alysa, got our ear phones and watched a short video. She told us a lot about the history of the Clydesdales and how they became part of the Budweiser Story. The Clydesdales breed originated in Scotland. These horses are pampered as they are given the best of care, have wonderful facilities and food.
We learned that the gestation period is 340 days and the average birthweight of a Clydesdales colt is 150 pounds. They had one born here that weighed 189 pounds. The adult horses weight about 1800 pounds. Budweiser has about 200 horses between this location, the one in St. Louis and those that are traveling to events.
When the male Clydesdales are retired from the Hitch (pulling the wagon at events, etc) or the females too old to breed they have a easy life at Warm Spring Ranch where they live until about 20-25 years old.
We saw several horses, the 18 wheeler that hauls the equipment for the events and the horse trailer that hauls the horses. And the highlight was there were three young colts that we got to see with their mothers.
She showed us the scale that is used to weigh the horses and asked for volunteers to get on the scale to see how many humans it takes to equal the weight of one adult horse. It took 13 of the tour group to equal to the weight of one horse.
Our guide was very good. We were surprised that there is only a 6 person team that does everything at the ranch, except the veterinary and horse shoeing needs. This team cares for the horses, trains them, feeds them, does tours and even mows the grass and they have a lot of grass.
We headed back to Columbia and stopped at Grind Coffee Shop North for a Latte and cinnamon bun before returning to the campground.
Day 6 Friday August 15, 2025
We departed about 8:30 for our 334 mile drive to Rock Creek Station in Fairbury Nebraska where we will be for two nights. Interstate 70 was a fairly good ride not too many potholes except some at the bridge transitions. The bridge transitions are always the worst part of the interstate roads it seems.
The traffic around Kansas City was as to be expected around a large city but we got through with no problems.
Our last 150 miles or so was non interstate, mostly two lane and some 4 lane and the road was in better condition than the interstate. The farms were beautiful, corn and soybeans as far as the eye could see on both sides of the road.
We did have to cross several railroad tracks which I always slow down at. The last one had a bad dip in the road. I was really glad I had slowed way down but it still was bad. They really need to fix it or at least put up a warning sign. If I had of been going highways speed I feel sure I would have broken something. When we got setup at the campground Lena found about half of our clothes in the closet on the floor and that never happens.
Lena spotted a McDonalds at an exit to the small town of Hiawatha Kansas so we took a chance and took the exit hoping to find a place to park and get some lunch. We got lucky as there was an abandoned hotel with a large parking lot just across the street.
As we came through the town of Maryville Kansas we saw a sign declaring it the town of the Black Squirrel and there were several black squirrel figures along the main road through town. I googled it and there is a community of black squirrels that live in town. The belief is that they escaped from a traveling circus. The road in this area was named the Pony Express Highway. The town is located on the Oregon Trail and has an old Pony Express station downtown.
The last couple of miles before the campground included about a mile of dirt/gravel road which we already knew about but it was in good condition and not terribly dusty.
We setup in site 15 in this small but really nice shady campground. We only have 50AMP electrical service, no water or sewer on site but we knew that and are carrying plenty of water and have empty holding tanks.
Rock Creek Station was a Pony Express Station stop back when the Pony Express was carrying the mail. Also the Wagon Trains traveling on the Oregon Trail came through just down from the campground.
It was 97 degrees at 4pm, so when it cooled off later we walked around the campground and then got our chairs out to set outside and enjoy the cooler weather and the quietness of the campground. There are only about 6 RVs in the campground. We got lucky with the site I chose because it was really easy to back into and is almost totally shaded which really helps when it is over 90 degrees.
Day 7 Saturday August 16, 2025
I went outside a little after 7am and there was a tom, hen and several young turkeys behind our campsite. Then I got out my cleaning supplies and washed the windshield this morning before breakfast. It was a mess. We murdered hundreds of some kind of small black fly yesterday. When I used the windshield washer/wipers to clean them off they just smeared the windshield so some of our photos will have some streaks in them.
Last night was the first night we have ever stayed in the state of Nebraska so that makes 42 states we have stayed in with our motorhome.
After breakfast we drove over to the park visitor center. It was closed so we walked on down the hill to the historical site where Rock Creek Station was located. The Pony Express riders and many wagon trains on their way West stopped here. Another thing that made this place famous was James Butler Hickok killed David McCanles here and three of his men over a money dispute. This event earned Hickok the famous name Wild Bill Hickok. Wild Bill would later be killed at another location during a game of cards when someone shot him in the back of the head.
In 1980 archaeologists excavated the grounds here to establish the locations of the buildings of the two ranches that were located here. When the wagon trains first began crossing the Rock Creek here they weren’t a bridge so the wagons had to be carefully lowered down into the creek and pulled back up the opposite creek bank. Later a toll bridge was built and a fee of $.10-$1.50 was charged for a wagon to cross the bridge.
Rock Creek as also the location of the third post office in the nation.
There were a few restored covered wagons setting around the area and one at the visitor center. I sure would not want to travel hundreds of miles in one of those wagons. I think our motorhome is a little more comfortable than those wagons were.
We walked back up the hill to the visitor center and toured the museum there after paying $5 each.
Then we drove about 30 miles to visit the Hollenberg Pony Express Station which is a few miles into Kansas. The building is still standing and we got to tour it after talking to the lady at the visitor center. It was the last stop on the Pony Express trail in Kansas, a stop for the wagon trains and a tavern/store. The lady told us that the field behind the building sometimes had a hundred wagons parked there when the wagon trains were passing through.
She also told us that a half ounce piece of mail sent by Pony Express cost $5.00 which she said is equivalent to $85 today. And I thought the price of stamps were expensive today.
The Pony Express began it first ride on April 3, 1860 at precisely 5 PM in St. Joseph Missouri headed to San Francisco CA and the East bound rider departed at 7:15 PM headed to St. Joseph Missouri. After 2000 miles the East bound rider reached St. Joseph April 13th. The West bound rider reached San Francisco at 1AM April 14.
The Pony Express made its last run November 20, 1861. It completed 300 runs each way over 600,000 miles. Riders had to weigh less than 120 pounds and carry 20 pounds of mail and 25 pounds of equipment for $50 a month plus room and board.
One of the rider, Jack Keetley, longest ride was 340 miles in 31 hours without stopping to eat or rest. When he got to his destination he was taken from his saddle sound asleep.
Usually each rider rode from 75-100 miles and changed horses 8-10 times on each run. There were about 150 stations, some were just to change horses and some were where the riders slept, rested and ate their meals and the end of there run.
We went from there to Fairbury Nebraska for lunch at a Mexican restaurant before returning to the campground. It was another hot day but the nice breeze helped.
