Plans Change

Plans change often when you make few plans. Today we were going to move to a lake just west of Fort Scott, Kansas, but yesterday we realized we had a tiny pressure leak in the water connection below our new bathroom faucet. I’d never repaired this kind of a connection before and wanted to watch an educated person do the work before I attempted it and blew water all over our bedroom. So we changed our ‘plan’ and headed due east for the town of Columbus, Kansas, where there was a wonderful small RV dealer willing to take care of our problem right away.

It was a good thing we did as it turned out, as so often happens with RV repairs, a ‘repair’ isn’t possible; you have to replace.  NOT the faucet, thank goodness, but the connection pipe.  So Don fixed it for us, and took the time to adjust our sink drain plunger a tad as well and answer some questions about getting a faster cool down on the inside of our new reefer when we add items just purchased to it. It works fine, just takes a while to do get to optimum temp, about 33 for the refrig and 0 on the freezer.

 Bottom line, Don told us, is that in this heat (100 in the shade) these big two door reefers take a long time to cool down at all.  He did say we should invest in one or two of the $16.00 battery powered interior fans for it.  They run all the time and gently stir the air throughout the unit which will speed up cooling time.  The reefer has a large fan on the cooling tubes on its back already, but we can help it along with the minis.  He was sold out so we’ll find them elsewhere.

An hour later we were back on the road but not far.  Don told us of a VFW park in town where we could dump and take on fresh water at no cost so we moseyed over there and took care of that task.  Then a quick visit to a local store for some much needed ice cream (yes, we must have it daily and it’s a lot cheaper in the box than in the restaurant!) and a few other things.

Then a drive to the library and the ONLY cafe in town for lunch.  But it was Mexican so Mona wasn’t too unhappy. We challenge ourselves to have lunch ‘out’ daily and make it a good one for a total bill with tip of $10.00. so far this is working out since my diet and Mona’s bird-like tummy mean we can share almost any meal. And some of these small town cafes are the BEST!  And some are not. But you takes your chances…

It was about 2 pm when we hit the road out of Columbus. We didn’t hitch TOAD since we were only going about 24 miles to the location of BIG BRUTUS.

Big Brutus is not a dog, or a Popeye cartoon character, but a 5,000 ton behemoth coal cruncher that worked the strip mines of Southeastern Kansas for about 20 years.  Second largest in the world when she began digging the high sulfur local coal out of the prairie there are still bigger units working in some parts of the world today less concerned with soil conservation and the pollution strip mined coal often provides.

  

She sits today at the very spot she dug her last pit, southwest of aptly named Pittsburg, Kansas. Volunteers have spent the last couple of decades turning her site into a museum and restoring her to former glory, minus some of the more dangerous parts of her anatomy.

Some years ago we visited a cousin behemoth of Big Brutus up in Southern Canada’s western coal country, Sparwood, British Columbia. He, too, was silenced by the end of Canadian strip mining coal.

So tonight, instead of camping along the planned lake, we are camping along a strip mine pit.  That’s right.  When the mining ended the coal companies and your tax dollars began a huge reclamation project that turned the thousands of diggings all over the mid west into lakes, wildlife refuges, and fisheries.  And every one is FREE to camp in… no hookups, of course.

We are parked at the bottom of the gravel drive just south and west of center. next to the dots; which are really boulders.

Fort Scott tomorrow!  Maybe.

-Ken