Topeka, Kansas

October 19-21, 2016

Texas to Topeka, KS - over 800 miles in 3 days

Had a hitchhiker when I left Texas.

I was washing the exterior of the RV a few days before I left and saw these little frogs on the outside of the door

Guess they wanted to go to the fair.

                                                                                                                                       
Usually, I take my time traveling, stopping every few hours along the way, but I wanted to make sure I arrived in Topeka for the opening of the fair.  I left the gulf coast on the morning of the 19th and drove as far as Salado, Texas, 237 miles. 

I was following Google's advice to go straight north, up to I-35, big mistake.

I ended up paying an expensive toll and getting into a construction zone on I-35 and it was difficult finding an RV park, north of Austin, that wasn't full -  probably with highway construction workers.

I stopped for the night at TranQuil Gardens RV Park near the highway and started early the next morning to get some more miles in.

Salado, Texas

Thursday morning, I got back on I-35, but the construction and traffic was terrible and I was driving north into a storm that was headed south.  The skies looked terrible.  I exited the highway near Waco and took the side roads northeast towards Tulsa, OK. I avoided the rain and wind and even had some sunny weather. I stopped for the night at Tulsa RV Ranch in Beggs, OK (407 miles today) - there were some tolls on the Indian Nations Turnpike, but not anywhere near as expensive as the toll near Austin. 

I would not recommend either of these RV parks, except for an overnight stay. I know that many of you would just park up at Walmart for the night.  I like to arrive early enough to a site to walk around and stretch my legs - even if it's not a very scenic RV park. The Tulsa RV Ranch complex has a seasonal rodeo, steak house and grazing longhorns. There was plenty of room to get out and walk around.

I pushed myself today, so I would have a shorter drive on Friday, only 231 miles left to go.

Friday October 21, 2016

An easy, uneventful drive from Tulsa to Topeka, just stay on Hwy. 75.

After I exited the highway, I stopped at Walgreens to pick up a few snacks and then headed to the ExpoCentre.  Just like at most exposition/fairgrounds, they allow RV parking on the grounds.  Many of the exhibitors arrive with RV's, trailers or horse trailers.  
The parking is convenient at a reasonable price.  Some of the sites had electric and I saw a dump station at the end of the parking lot. I didn't ask if there was water available. 


When I arrived, I checked in with security and picked out a site, they needed to unlock the electric box and tag the site.

The Mother Earth News Fair was held at the Kansas ExpoCentre. I did not visit any other areas of Topeka during my time here. Everyday, I walked around the neighborhood, a hotel and a wedding venue share the parking lot.  There are some older, Art Deco style building, that may have been the original buildings of the ExpoCentre.

A suburban-like area has grown up around the center, I wonder if it the center was originally "out in the boonies", surrounded by fields.  

Home for the weekend, a nice corner site.

Techie Question: I use my iPhone for all photos.  I have 2 small cameras, but do not like to carry them around.  I am having problems with all of the photos that I took during the last few weeks of October.  I can not "share" them from my phone.  I get an error message and then I have to take a "screen shot" of the photo, crop it and then I can email it to myself.  When I copy all of the photos from my phone to my laptop, it skips those dates. 

Did I accidentally turn something "off or on" on the phone???

I notice now that these photos have an exclamation point a corner of the photo.

I am still on the Sprint network, with free roaming, I wonder if this has anything to do with it.  I am sure I was out of Sprint's zone during much of this trip and would have been switched over to Verizon's or AT&T's towers.


coming up:
-pics and info from the vendors at the fair
-visiting some of the Kansas Byways and Prairies on my way to Denver