Our Time in Missouri was CRAZY!

 We were up early on April 29th. It was our last night on the boat for a while. The boat was almost empty, other than our bed and the things we would be taking with us to Missouri. I had reserved an Uber for 8:30 to take me to the rent car place. He showed up at 8:00. I learned a lesson...don't make a reservation. That cost me $10 extra dollars. Oh well, we don't do that much. The only problem was that the car rental place did not open until 9:00, so I had some waiting to do. We got the car and I went back to pick up Kim and our stuff. 

We started our drive north. We had a hotel reservation in Birmingham, Alabama. About an hour into the drive I got a text from my brother, Alan. He told me to watch out for the weather. He did not know we were driving, but he was warning us about a big storm out in the Gulf of Mexico. The bad news is it was heading north and would impact our travel. Kim started watching the Radar and changing our routing to a more north path to stay out of the worst of it. After an 11 hour drive we pulled into our hotel. The next day went well. When we left Florida the temperature was in the 80's with high humidity. When we pulled into a gas station in West Plains, Missouri, it was in the 40's. I had to pull on some sweat pants and a hoodie. Kim had no warm clothes, so she looked stylish in some of my clothes. 

We stayed at our daughters house for a night and our son, Mark let us borrow his car to go back to the ranch and get ours. All of our vehicles had been sitting for 8 months, so my first order of business was to get them running. The truck took a bit, but rumbled to life. The mustang did not start. Not sure what was wrong, but I just left it for later. I had my trusty Ford truck after all. I drove it 14 miles to the town of Ava to get fuel for both the truck and the mustang hoping that fresh fuel would help. After filling up gas cans and the truck I jumped in and it would not start. I tried for a while with no luck. I went to a local auto parts store to get fuel filters. When I determined that I could not change them with the tools I had, I was about to give up when I tried it one more time and it started. I drove it quickly to a local auto repair shop and called Kim to come get me. 

We also had to fill up both of our 30# propane tanks from our 5th wheel. They were full when we left, not sure if I have a leak or what. We picked up some food and headed back to the ranch. When we got there, Kim pointed out a soft spot on a wall in the 5th wheel. It turned out that we had a leak in the side of the trailer and it had rotted a slide frame and a main support to the wall below the water heater. That took the entire next  2 days to fix, but we got it done. I hate the cheap construction of an RV, but at least I can usually fix it. 

I worked on diagnosing the Mustang and determined that the fuel pump had failed. I looked for a place to take it, but the ranch is so far out in the country, towing it was going to cost a fortune. I decided to get started changing it. In the mean time, I was having a hard time reaching the shop that had my truck. When they finally answered the phone, they had not been able to work on it. I asked them if it would be OK, if I came down and changed the fuel filters out. It is a small town shop, so that was fine with them. It is a messy job, but I got it done and the truck started and ran fine. I also needed some brake work done, so I left it for them to do that part. I finally got it back a few days later and thought that we were good to take a trip to see our oldest son, Michael and his two sons in Arkansas. 

We stopped to see Amelia's last soccer game in Ozark and then took our son Mark's car back to him and they were headed to Arkansas. We stopped in a small town to get a bite to eat and that is when the truck failed to start again. Just as luck had it, there was a small one man auto repair shop right next door. I went over to ask if he had a suggestion for a tow truck and we got to talking about the truck. He knew a lot about Ford diesels. I asked him if he could fix it, and he said sure. So that is how my truck ended up in Reeds Spring, Missouri at a one man repair shop. 

Our granddaughter came and picked us up and our daughter let us borrow her backup car to drive to Arkansas. 

We had a great time in Arkansas with Michael and the boys. It was so good to see and spend time with them including their maiden voyage on their new to them canoe. We also had a rousing game of 2 on 2 football. I was sore for a week, but loved every minute of it. 

This was Amelia's last soccer game. She is the blonde in the middle of the picture.

Launching the canoe for the first time

Perfect for the three of them

Fishing was at the top of the list for Connor, so off they went to catch some bait.

Good looking strokes

Michael had to be at work early on Monday morning, so we stayed and took the boys to school. We had made contact with some RV friends of ours, Dick and Cathy. They happened to be in Russellville at a COE park we have stayed at many times. We had a nice, but short visit. Dick had to go to a doctor appt., so we said our good byes and they drove off. We got in Shannon's Prius and...you guessed it! It would not start. Then the craziest thing yet happened. While I was trying to figure out how a Prius worked, my phone rang. It was my brother, Alan. He wanted to get my son's phone number because he was visiting Russellville, Arkansas with his wife, Denise in their motorhome. I said, "in what park?". Some place by the dam called Old Post Park. As it turned out we were 9 sites apart. My engineer brother, who lives in Texas, that I have been working on cars with since I was 13 years old was there to help me. I was blown away. As it turns out, we just needed to jump the starter battery and all was good with the Prius. We had a nice visit and then headed back to Missouri. 

When we got back to the ranch, something else really amazing happened. I had jacked up the mustang and put the rear tires on ramps to get started dropping the fuel tank to change out the fuel pump. I don't really know why I did, but I tried it one more time and to my amazement it started. I yelled for Kim and she just laughed. At least we now had one car running. 

On Mothers day, Shannon and some of her kids and Michael came to the ranch. It was a great day because it is rare to have water in our swimming hole and it be warm enough to get in. The water was cold by Isabella and Will had a blast. 

You can see Isabella in the water and Will getting ready to jump. The water was about 7 feet deep. This is a beautiful spot at the ranch.

Is and Will enjoying the swimming hole natural water slide. 

We had this little visitor in the trailer one day

He let me pick him up and set him free

We had some wonderful weather while we were at the ranch in early May. I was able to get two great rides on my dirt bike with some old and new friends. I still love to do that even though the years have taken their toll on the old body. 

I was waiting to hear from the guy about my truck and a week went by. I finally was able to talk to him and he said he was having trouble getting all of the parts needed, but he should have them by the end of the week. The problem was that most of the family including us were leaving on May 22nd to go to Disney to see our granddaughter Isabella play with her band. We would be gone a total of 9 days. He promised to have it done when I got back.

I will end this entry there. It is long, but I can assure you that I have left out many details that also happened. In my next entry, I will write about our trip to Florida to go to Disney World and the crazy process of picking up the truck and the boat from their major surgeries.