After exiting the highway on our way to the RV park in Hannibal Friday afternoon I noticed a potentially good spot to take on diesel fuel on our way out of town Sunday morning. I usually fill up at truck stops where I can take advantage of my EFS fuel card discount. TA travel centers, in particular offer the best deal. However, we're no longer travelling the Interstate and the big truck stops are few and far between. There was a Love's further back on route 36 but I passed it up in hopes of finding a TA before reaching Hannibal. This small gas station had a single free-standing diesel pump and there appeared to be plenty of room for me to maneuver the coach in and out with the car in tow. To get to the diesel pump I would have to pull through the two islands of gasoline pumps so there was the possibility that I might have to idle in the street (or with the coach's back end and the car hanging part-way into the street) if there were cars at the pumps blocking my path. When I arrived at the station Sunday morning there was just one car at the pumps. He had finished fueling and was getting into his car. I left him plenty of space to exit around me but he very considerately backed away from the pump allowing me to pull forward and off the street after only a brief stop. Just one a-hole blew his horn during the 30 seconds my rear end was hanging out into the street.
Unlike the high-velocity truck stop pumps, this pump was s l o w. I mean s - l - o - w ... and my 150 gallon fuel tank was reading 3/4 empty. It took a good twenty minutes to fill up... but at $1.89 a gallon, it was worth the wait! I love having a full tank of diesel fuel.
The 190 miles to St. Joseph, MO were uneventful and we arrived at Beacon RV Park around 12:30pm.
Umm... not The Ritz.
Every once in a while you end up at a park that just doesn't quite live up to your expectations... or the pictures on their website. This is just such a park.
But hey, the price is right and we have a full hookup. It could be worse.
Actually, the entire city of St. Joseph is a little thread worn. Because of the towns historical roll in the creation of the Pony Express, I'm reminded of the old adage, "Ridden hard and put away wet". That pretty accurately describes downtown St. Joseph.
But there's a cool little museum here...
The Pony Express National Museum
... and Suzanne and I spent a couple of hours there learning all about the origin and operation of the Pony Express. One thing that struck me was that the oldest surviving P.E. rider lived to the ripe old age of 105, dying in 1955! That's just a year before I was born! A reminder that our country's history doesn't go back all that far.
In other news...
Yeah, it snowed overnight. Only about an inch... but snow nonetheless.
In anticipation of overnight temps in the upper 20s I disconnected from the water bibb and retracted the hose before calling it a night. We have a 90 gallon fresh water tank onboard so disconnecting from a parks water supply isn't an issue.
While we were in Hannibal I took care of a couple minor problems I've been having with the coach. There are three control pods on the steering wheel...
The one in the center allows for remote operation of the entertainment system (radio) and has been giving me problems for about a year. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I push the desired button a dozen times before it finally works. I took a half-baked whack at repairing it several months ago.. to no avail. This time I completely disassembled it, cleaned up some questionable looking areas on the circuit board and re-soldered a couple wires. It now works like a charm! I no longer have to reach over to the radio to adjust the volume, change stations etc. Ain't nobody got time for that!
Also, my in-dash navigation has been barking directions at me for about a year which requires my entering the NAV menu on the radio and selecting like 3 options in order to shut him up. I have to repeat the procedure every time I shut the engine down and restart. Again, I've taken a couple half-assed swipes at fixing it over the past several months but nothing took. I finally reset the thing to the factory settings... and I haven't heard a peep since. I should mention that we purchased a Garmin Trucker GPS device a couple years ago that far out-performs the in-dash NAV ... and raised my comfort level significantly.
Next "project"...
So tomorrow we continue west on US36 to the small town of Belleville, Kansas (about 160 miles from here) where I'm hoping to spend the night at their first-come-first-served town park where they provide 50 amp electrical service and a water connection for 20 bucks a night.
Fingers crossed.
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