"Bill's Excellent Adventure!"

4/8-9/07 Easter Sunday and Monday. Happy Easter Everyone! This has become quite the exciting trip! I headed for a motel Friday and Saturday night, expecting the weather to improve for Sunday. Well, as usual, I was having dinner on Saturday night (some special German pork dish at the Bavarian Inn…yumm!) and decided it was really nuts for me to continue to tempt fate outside (that’s what I did Friday night at the Pizza Hut). Temp on Sunday night was projected to be 25.

It took a while to make the decision, but I decided to stay in my motel room through Thursday night (booked for the weekend.) They gave me a price I couldn’t turn down…$25 night or $125. Combined with the two nights over the weekend at $30/night I paid about $193 for the week which is an excellent price. Now, I went back to the Kettle Campground and talked with the owner. I was going to just pull up stakes, get a refund, and come back in a week. He said that I paid a higher daily rate ($17/night) by originally staying three weeks rather than for the month. He did some refigurin’ and offered me a $300 rate for the month (or $10/day), giving me back $51. I thought that was a fair deal. I like this area and still have more to see and I was trying to work out my next stop in Oklahoma and really didn’t want to incur more motel costs until at least my retirement check hits the bank on the 25^th. So my net cost for the month is turning out to be $493. Of course I’ve spent a fortune on eating out and “winterizing” my campsite and some extra camping gear!

Having said all that, the weather is still projected to be rainy and windy for this coming Friday and Saturday, so I’m not out of the woods yet, although the temps look like they are starting to moderate some. Wind Chill right now at 9am is 36!

The jury is still out whether I think this camping routine makes sense for me as a long-term option as I travel, but these are some very unusual weather conditions this year. I’ve had a touch of a sore throat, and my fingertips are drying out and peeling on me. I ‘ve had to put ointment and bandaids on one finger to help it recover. So, staying out in really cold weather may be a test of my character, but it’s not doing my health any good! The better part of valor is to get my butt in a warm environment for a while. Plus I now have the option to just stay put and conserve the bucks for a few days.

While I still have WiFi access at the campground, I do not have it here at the motel…that sucks, but for $25/night I can put up with the inconvenience. Also, when I go to the library, I have access there as well.

I am not sure what I am finally going to do about Oklahoma City. I have reservations there from April 23 through the end of the month. If I pull out early at the campground, they are probably going to up my daily rate back to $17/night. Also, I have heard of these amazing caverns that rival Carlesbad in NM that is run by the National Forest Service. It’s located about 80-100 miles from here. So I may ditch my reservations for Oklahoma City for the last week in April and take in this cavern during that week.

I really need to wait to do much out of the area exploring until my retirement check comes in on the 25^th. With all I‘ve been spending, probably a tank a gas every other day, the price of gas going out the roof, admission fees, etc., I need to pull back and conserve more. Instead, I’ll probably just cancel Oklahoma City altogether, leave around April 30^th and spend two nights on the road getting to Albuquerque and check in on 5/2. I do have a reservation in Amarillo as a stop over one night, so I need to do the same as an overnight someplace about half way, around OK City or beyond.

Well, I am writing this in a WORD document and will copy and paste it into the blog when I get access again later today.

So see all you later!

Bill