Trying to avoid cliches

It would be easy just to type in the subject line "SHOW ME", but, of course, most of you would know I was making a corny, cliched reference to Missouri aka: The Show Me State, however, I just couldn't bring myself to slip into cliche mode one more time.

It rained on and off most of Friday night, and into the early morning hours of Saturday.  We had wanted to depart Lincoln, AR and our friends John and Cathy around 10am, but around 9am it was still raining, and the forecast indicated it might continue on, and off for several more hours, so we just bit the bullet and began preparations for lift off.  When I had finished rolling up the electrical cords I had used to plug in to John's home we went in and said our goodbyes, and then got in the coach to begin the very slow, and careful egress from their property.  My biggest concern was transitioning through the driveway to the gravel road without putting the trailer in the ditch, and, of course, we were successful.

Within a  few minutes we were on US 62 east bound toward Fayettville and I-580 north into Missouri.  By the time we reached Fayettville around 30 minutes later it had stopped raining the roads were very dry.  The Interstate does not go all the way to the Missouri border, and changes to US 71 for the last 40 miles up to I-44, but it still felt like Interstate most of the time, except when we hit an occasional signal.

Around Noon time we merged on to I-44 and continued eastward.  Our destination this day was Springfield, OH where we planned to dry camp at either the local Walmart, or at the Cracker Barrel, however, when we stopped at a rest stop to take a break TLE noticed that the carpet on my side of the bed was wet......hmmmm?  It turned out the water was coming out of the cabinet below the TV, but we could not figure out where it was coming from.  There were no plumbing leaks.  We figure that while we were parked at John's that somehow rain water infiltrated into that area of the coach.  We were kind of at a weird angle in back and I think somehow the water was sitting on top somewhere and found a way in.  This happened several years ago when we were at a soccer tournament where it rained a quite hard during the night and we found the carpet around the drivers seat was soaking wet.  Then, too, we were sitting at a funny angle due to the slope of the parking lot.  It has never recurred, and we have been in some very torrential downpours in the 8 months we have been on the road.  We put a few of our beach towels down and sopped up the water, and made the decision that we needed to be in an RV park this night where we could plug in and keep our fan blowing air on the carpet to help it dry out faster.  We found a small park just past Springfield in Strafford, MO (Strafford RV Park) which had a perfect overnight site for us for $20 and got parked around 2pm.  I first got out the shop vac and pulled what water remained out of the carpet, then set up the fan.  By the time we went to bed it was almost completely dry.  This morning I turned on the gas furnace in the bedroom that has a vent that blows right on the damp area, and that finished the job over a couple of hours.

After we got settled and had the fan going we walked down to the local Harter House Super Market, a local regional chain, and did some shopping.  By the time we got back it was time for some college football, and the Ryder Cup.

It was a pretty routine day, and a small surprise in the form of the wet carpet, but that is life whether you live in a sticks and bricks home, or in a motor coach....stuff happens, and you deal with it.  We'll keep an eye on that area to see if we get water in again.  Once we get to Campbellsville I'll spend some time inspecting the roof and that side of the coach looking for a way that water could have infiltrated.

Another point of interest is that tomorrow, September 30th marks the end of 8 months on the road for us.  

That was our Saturday....on to St. Louis tomorrow!  Thanks for stopping by!