Hollister in the Spring

On Thursday we wanted to leave early and get as many miles behind us as we could before a mid-morning breakfast.  However, we met a very nice couple from Ontario at a Love's gas station in Tucamari.  They were pulling a 27 foot 1995 Award 727 with a Roadtrek motor home.  Well, they had to talk to us , and we had to talk to them about our Awards.  They have a very nice set up.  They can park their Award and take out the Roadtrek to tour.  The Roadtrek is a motor home about the size of a mid-size passenger van.  But the best thing about their rig is that the Award is fully solar powered.  They spent the winter in the Yuma Arizona area and dry camp.  Their solar set up provides for all their needs.  As I recall, they had 4 solar panels on the Award and two more stored in boxes to be installed on their Roadtrek.  They are using several AGM batteries to store their electricity matched with a pure sine wave inverter to distribute the power.  As he is a retired electrical engineer, he knows what he is doing.  Very impressive set up and great people too.

Once on the road we drove from Tucumari to Joplin, Missouri.  We dealt with high winds and very dry conditions most of the way. Fire warnings were posted along I40 and I44 due to the conditions. We passed through Amarillo, Oklahoma City and Tulsa but did not see green grass until we reached the far eastern portion of Oklahoma.

Missouri is quite green this time of year. Spring has most definitely sprung.  We arrived in the campground (Turkey Creek in Hollister) on Friday morning and were welcomed with a green lawn highlighted with yellow dandelions and trees enrobed in red and pink blooms. It was quite a sight especially coming from arid lands of dust and low brown grass. However, all good things have a dark side. We were also welcomed with highs in the upper 80s and high humidity as well. And a thunder shower sailed by us at about 4:00 AM Saturday morning. Overnight lows sunk way down into the mid sixties. Welcome back to the mid west.
Today we have had more of the same. We tested our air conditioner (the test had nothing to do with the hot, humid weather). Though it has been idle since last August, it tested out perfectly. Cool air came from where cool air should come from. The test had such good results we accidentally let it run all day. Not sure how that happened.

We expect to be here only a few days, and then we will make a run back to the Madison area between the fore casted rain storms sometime next week.