Hanging out in Kansas

Good afternoon, my friends. Well, it's been a harrowing overnight and part of a day since we last spoke, which explains why I'm so late posting today. We were supposed to be in Lake Scott State Park in Scott City, Kansas, this afternoon. Instead, we ended up rerouting ourselves, and we're now in Limon, Colorado. I'll explain in a bit, but let me tell you first about the lazy day we had at Wilson State Park in Kansas yesterday. 

First off, Mike got out his drone and played with it some. We created this little "Hey there, y'all!" video for your viewing pleasure. If you can't see the video, then click right here.

I spent the morning taking the first stitches on covered bridge #4 for the Grandpa's Bridges quilt.

It was very windy out, but eventually it was warm enough to take this short rocky path down to the water's edge.

Looking to the right, it looked like this.

There were some nice flat rocks for sitting, and I did just that.

When Mike finished with his drone activities, he sat down beside me and we enjoyed the activities on the lake together.

He made this video of the surrounding area. It's a little less than three minutes. While watching, look for the fifth wheel with the swoopy black and brown paint job, and that will be our rig. If you can't see the video, then click right here.

We sat outside for a while after lunch. While there, I was able to capture this white-breasted nuthatch. He was more cooperative than the western meadowlark from the day before.

He seemed to be collecting fluff from the nearby cottonwood tree, probably for a nest.

There were a lot of boats on the lake yesterday, and the kitties didn't like it. Not one little bit. Smitty spent his day in the bedroom napping on his purrsonal quilt.

 

Sadie hid beside our bed. They both decided to come out when dinner was served. As a precaution, they both turned on their lasers. (If you're wondering about the quilts lying everywhere, just know they protect the fake leather upholstery from kitty claws. When the kitties are with us, we keep things covered up.)

By then, the boat traffic had settled down quite a bit. Sadie got a case of the "adorables." 

Smitty reflected on the day from his window perch.

Eventually, we all watched the setting sun. Sadie enjoyed it from the comfort of her catio.

From our table, it looked like this.

Eventually, a thin layer of clouds formed, making an interesting sunset.

So everything was going along fine. The wind died down, and we were looking forward to a quiet night of sleep. Then, around 3:00 a.m., I awakened to a sound that could easily have been a train headed straight for us. A BIG WIND came up, scaring the bejeezus out of us. There was no indication of anything amiss on any of the sources we checked...two different iPhone weather apps, television news, weather radio...no mention of it. And, believe me, I had in mind the surprise hurricane/tornado that went through Houston recently. Also I reminded myself that the weather radio was only as good as the county we were in. I wondered whether anyone was monitoring the situation. It all worked out, and the wind died down after a couple of hours, allowing us to get a little more sleep. 

This morning, we were to travel again, and we cannot travel in high winds. Mike checked the conditions and realized we had just a small window to travel when the winds would not be a problem. So we dropped everything, packed up, and got the heck out of there. We traveled due west with the wind pushing us from behind. That was fine until we turned south to head for the next state park. There was a dark, dark cloud ahead of us, and the sky was looking extremely threatening. After a brief discussion, we pulled off onto the shoulder and rerouted to head farther west. We really just wanted to get out of Kansas. It meant forfeiting a night at the state park, but that seemed like small potatoes when contrasted with the night we'd just been through.

So...here we are my friends. I haven't yet taken pictures off my camera from today's drive, but I'll give you the gruesome details in tomorrow's post. For now, just know we're safely off the road in Limon, Colorado. And I've been waiting for the whole trip to be able to say this: We're not in Kansas any more!

We'll spend just one night here before heading off to one of Colorado's state parks at Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs. Phew. I'm glad that's done, aren't you?