Eastbound

Opal parked at a rest stop with the sun setting on the very flat landscape behind her

We left Colorado on Monday, after a fun week of hanging out with friends, rock climbing, and celebrating Halloween. Since we’re further east than we had originally planned, we have time to slowly make our way home (hence why we took Sunday to just chill instead of heading more east). We’ve learned our lesson to not plan on having huge drive days when we know we’re going to be tired, so our plan was to just get as far as right over the border in Kansas, just south of Goodland, KS. We also made a rule that we would only go to free campsites that we find on Free Roam that have been reviewed, so we spent the night at the Soldiers Memorial County Park. It was a free campsite next to a dried up lake (or what once used to be a lake? I don’t know the story behind it). It was a fine place to spend the night, but I had a cold, and the way our heat kicks on when the temperature drops wakes me up multiple times a night, so it wasn’t a great night sleep.

A picture of the sideview mirror with a fiery red sunset in the reflection

We woke up to construction in the empty pit that used to be a lake—still no idea what’s going on there, so we decided to get on our way and go to a Starbucks about forty minutes east. We love supporting smaller coffee shops, but if we are not in a big city we usually opt for the consistency of Starbucks, knowing that there will probably be plugs for our computers and decent coffee. We had found another highly rated campsite south of Salina, KS so we headed there after our Starbucks work session. I decided to drive with the trailer for the first time!! I know it took me a while, but it just didn’t make sense for me to drive most of the time because we were always in a time crunch and even without a trailer I drive very slowly. It was dark when we showed up at the campsite, but it was a really beautiful spot. It was on water filled lake, surrounded by trees and rolling hills (small hills—we are still in Kansas after all).

Black cows in a golden field with grey overcast skies

The weather was perfect—a little overcast, and warm enough to just wear a sweatshirt. A welcome relief from the blizzard we were in in Colorado! After Corey got his work done, and I did some macramé, we locked up the trailer and took just the car to the Planet Fitness in Salina to work out and shower. It was VERY windy so I religiously checked the various different severe weather apps we use to make sure there were no tornado warnings. We went out to a Mexican restaurant, ignoring our wedding budget and feeding our addiction to margaritas and endless chips and salsa, and then headed back to our campsite forty minutes down the road. When we got there the wind had seriously picked up, and Opal was parked under a tree with some low hanging branches. So even though I was pretty convinced that there wasn’t a tornado coming, I was now sure we were going to wake up pinned under a huge fallen branch. The wind was gusting like forty mph, and besides my paranoia, Corey agreed we should get out of this campsite. We quickly got packed up and headed to our safe place, Cracker Barrel. Almost all Cracker Barrels are cool with you staying overnight, and even have specific RV parking. They close at 10, so besides some highway noise they are generally pretty quiet to sleep at. I never thought I would say Cracker Barrel is my safe space.

Our Jeep and Opal parked next to a lake with trees surrounding it in hues of gold and green with overcast skies

Today we came to the realization that we will be hopping from Cracker Barrel to Starbucks all the way home. Sprinkled in there we will be checking out some cities and trying to find walking/hiking trails here and there. Side note: as I’m writing this, Corey and I are cracking up because I keep forgetting where we are and if we’re in the same place we were yesterday because every plaza has a Cracker Barrel, Walmart, Starbucks, and Planet Fitness, so I’m just slightly losing my mind.

A closeup of a black cow with a white face looking right at the camera in a golden field

Tomorrow we will head to Kansas City to eat some BBQ (I will eat BBQ, Corey will eat mac ‘n cheese or some other side that isn’t cooked in pork fat, mac ‘n cheese could be out of the question…) and see some awesome live music! After that we head down to Arkansas, and then east to Tennessee. We are soaking up the last few weeks of this adventure and looking forward to seeing our families!

Spooky, barren trees surrounding a small algae covered pond