The gigantic pretzel I got to share at Godofrido's pizza in Oklahoma

It’s been a few days since we’ve last posted so we’re a bit remiss, but today was an. Well. Adventure. Nothing super bad, unlike the last time we were in Kansas and got rear-ended, but I’m starting to have misgivings about this state.

Why travel is awesome

The reason we’ve been slacking on this brand new blog is that we got to see friends whom we haven’t seen in a couple of years. Many of you know that we escaped the great state of California for a number of reasons, including the random power shutdowns by our lousy power company.

You may also know that there are people whose company we enjoyed tremendously who did the same thing we did. Flee. For whatever their reasons are.

Well as we went from the Girl Camper Camper College that we taught in Texas to the one we’re about to teach we passed through Oklahoma where two of those friends now live.

Catching up with some wonderful friends at Godofrido's Pizza in Oklahoma

It was so great catching up with them and comparing our story of the great escape with theirs. We all agree that the move out of California was a good decision, we’re all working hard not to be “former Californians” and doing our best to fit into the places we’ve moved to. In other words, none of our circle wants to change where we moved to, we want to assimilate into these new digs. Dig?

This most recent podcast was about the wonderful foods and eateries we’ve found in our travels and Godofrido’s Pizza was definitely worthy of a mention. And I didn’t even have pizza!

What I did have was their pulled nachos and a huge pretzel along with a couple of locally-brewed IPAs.

That pretzel made quite the impression and we all got plenty to share with just the one pretzel. It was literally as big as my head.

The pulled pork nachos with home-made chips at Godofridos Pizza in Oklahoma

The nachos were so good, and so plentiful, I defrosted some green chiles that we brought from home (because, hello, now we’re New Mexicans!) and made chilaquiles for breakfast the next day. The friends whom we stayed with have a bunch of chickens so I used some of their farm-fresh eggs, scrambled in some green chiles and reheated those nachos.

Godofrido’s makes their own chips for the nachos and I love the red onions intermingled with melty cheese and plenty of pulled pork. The place was a happenin’ spot!

We happened to be there on a Tuesday night and that’s trivia night. Our team came in third which isn’t half bad because some of the questions were about current musical artists and, well, since I don’t have to listen to the latest hits since I’m not DJing any longer, I don’t have to care.

Incidentally I specifically brought the Uranus Fudge Factory shirt just because I knew my friends would initiate 12-year-old mode (I spend a lot of time in that mode) and get a kick out of it. In fact, we named our trivia team after this unique piece of Americana and won the portion of the contest for best team name.

Incidentally I wore that same shirt when I shot our latest boudin challenge video and then was reminded how some of you might find it inappropriate. Oops. As Peggy often says, be careful that what you do does’t cross the line - you might end up on Tony’s side of the line.

Last time we were in Kansas our trailer got rear-ended - Kansas may have it out for us

Oh, Kansas

Let’s start with the state’s motto which is AAd astra per aspera” which means “To the stars through difficulties” and is aptly illustrated on the state seal, which depicts a farm below a sky of stars.

Today as we drove from Oklahoma through Kansas to our destination Kansas saw me coming and brought out the blower.

Since we got the Ram 2500 I am less concerned about some wind conditions but always aware. If the trucks are running, I usually will too.

But my word the headwinds were strong such that, even though I slowed to about 55 miles per hour, I was still getting a recorded 5 miles per gallon. Yikes. And, while I like how stable this truck is, these winds did what they could to make the drive more challenging.

As you can tell by the fact that this piece is written and posted, we made it. But now I’m trying something new.

Using ratchet straps to tie our wheel chocks together to see if it helps stabilize our Rockwood Mini Lite 2205s

Something new

I have seen plenty of you using X-chocks on your travel trailers. X-chocks are a brace that goes between the two wheels on a two-axle trailer and helps to steady the trailer from the general shaking that happens.

Our friend Bill lent me his X-chocks at one point and I wasn’t overly impressed with the results. But his trailer and ours have very different axle stances.

So I thought I’d give something a try. I went to the Wally World and bought a couple of ratchet straps. I always say have good-quality chocks and here’s something I have been thinking about. One of those middle of the nice revelations.

I took the ratchet straps and more firmly secured the chocks at the wheels. Sort of a poor man’s X-chocks. I’m curious if this has any effect whatsoever and these winds should be a good test of things. Of course I’ll let you know and do a full video or story or something. Stay tuned!

I did it to myself

Warning. This is super gross and you probably shouldn’t read this.

Lastly, I’m going to blame this on Kansas as well. As you may know we installed a bidet in our RV recently. This morning I did what most folks do after a cup of coffee. Since I was going directly into the shower I used the bidet but didn’t dry afterwards.

Man this is crossing a line.

Well, apparently I also forget to flush the toilet.

So the winds and terrible roads in Kansas (I think I have it out for this state) conspired to splash said contents of the toilet bowl all over the bathroom. Yes. It was that bad. No. I’m not sharing the pictures. Yes. Peggy took some.

So after buying those ratchet straps at Walmart we got to spend a lot more time in their parking lot than anticipated as we attempted to remove any evidence of this incident. It wasn’t good.

I got to get up close and personal with what had happened due to inattentiveness.

After a very, very, very thorough cleaning I think I got the bathroom in our camper cleaner than it’s been since we first picked it up. At least I hope so.

Well that’s today’s word from the road. I hope you’re starting to see some wonderful spring weather, staying safe from wind, hail and all of those things and I plan to make time to write one of these tomorrow after our first day of Camper College.