On the way out of Emporia we spotted a flea market in the parking lot of a shop. My mom and I jumped out of the RV in search of some lamps we could plug in to extension cords to provide lighting for us while we were in the RV on the last night (since our power converter thingy was now shot thanks to the Emporia RV Park). A guy at the flea market was selling stuff yard sale style and we got 3 old and abused yet working lights, we were pleased.

We drove for about an hour or so and then we saw a fun sign about Noglastia Ville, USA. It is a cute little gift shop and since my mom needed to buy herself a new bag for the airline (her current one busted out the zippers on the RV) we thought a cute souvenir duffel bag would be perfect.

We ended up stopping and spending some time at the gift shop. My mom got a cute bag, my brother got a poster and we bought 3 postcards we sent off to some people. Here is a photo of us outside the shop.

While we were in the shop we saw a fun flier for the Merimac Caverns so we grabbed it and headed for the car to debate our next move. After our shopping fun we agreed to take a detour from Kingdom City, MO (where Noglastia Ville was located) because we wanted to visit the Merimac Caverns. They were south of our current route (we were on the 70) and we needed to be on the 44. I was concerned that the only route to the Caverns was by a very small highway that takes you south of Noglastia Ville to Stanton where the Merimac Caverns are located.

After the family all agreed to do the caverns we headed down on our detour road. We took the 19 south to the 44 so that we could stay in Stanton, MO for the night  and visit the caverns first thing the next morning. Problem was it was such a long scenic drive and it was starting to get dark. Oh and N is still crazy charred from the tanning experience!

After the hectic morning we were all a bit on edge and I guess my mom opted to take an Ativan to calm her nerves while we were on the road. Our detour route was about 2 hours out of the way and my mom was way over being crammed in the RV with 11 other living things (5 cats, 2 birds, a bunny and 3 other people) so she popped her pill and sat back and relaxed.

Then she began getting all worked up, she was commenting that we must be lost and that the caves “better be worth it”. Tensions were rising and we were all ready to be at our destination and to have some quiet time, too bad we still had to focus on getting to our destination for the night.

The animals were very lovey despite the crazy tensions between us humans, see how they were trying to lower our stress?

By the time we parked at our KOA (the Cross Eyed Cricket) for the night I was also now stressed and ended up blowing up at my brother who in turn became stressed and upset. We went our separate ways to cool down, like I said tempers were high by this point in the trip.

We had some spaghetti for dinner with shredded chicken in it (it was the only defrosted meat we had on hand). I guess my mom had started drinking her Captain Morgan while we were on the way to the KOA and the combination of the Ativan and the alcohol was beginning to take it’s toll on her. As soon as she finished her dinner night she promptly threw it right back up up and fell asleep.

I know this is gross but my mom is the quietest throwing up person I have ever been around. I discovered this on the trip. She didn’t even make a sound folks! After she threw up she was just fine, she wiped her face and then handed us the bowl of throw up and went to bed…

My brother, N and I went and explored the campground and then also turned in for the night. Eventful huh?

Check out the next posts in the series:

• Day 6 – Stanton, MO to Evansville, IN
• Days 7-11, We are here but the chaos continues
• Sitting in the garage, watching Ike blow through.
• OMG, we are actually living in Evansville…

or you can checkout the previous posts in the series:

• Day 5 continued – Kingdom City, MO to Stanton, MO
• Road Trip Day 5 – Emporia, KS to Kansas City, MO
• Road Trip Day 4 – Dodge City, KS to Emporia, KS
• Road Trip Day 3 – Logan, NM to Dodge City, KS
• Road trip day 2 – New Mexico to New Mexico
• Road trip day 1 – Arizona to New Mexico.
• We pull out tomorrow…

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When we got to our overnight destination last night I attempted to upload the photos and found out that my September image folder on WordPress is not writeable or something, so I had to upload them to my photobucket account instead. If you click back to yesterdays post you’ll now be able to view the photos. Sorry about that.

Okay, so on to the updates on day 3! We went from New Mexico, through the top west corner of Texas and Oklahoma then entered the southwest part of Kansas.

We awoke after staying the night at Ute State park in Logan, NM. When the sun came up we were happy to see that our site was right by the lake. We headed out to get a group photo with the lake in the background.

The morning started out with us visiting the campground bathrooms for shower time. It was sure eye opening! The showers were button operated and there was no temperate control so that was the first odd thing. Once we got undressed and in the shower we were unpleasant sprayed with what felt like a power washer. I couldn’t believe how painful the water pressure spray was and it was not warm either.

My mother and I were cursing and going on about the painful experience. My nipples practically sprayed off and to top it all off the water would turn off every 10 seconds so you had to press the on button repeatedly while trying to rinse your hair and body. It was the most unpleasant shower experience ever!

If you are staying at Ute State Park in Logan, MN I would not recommend using the site showers. It think a sponge bath would suffice or you can just stay dirty. The pain is not worth it, trust me.

The entire day we were quite chilly and bundled up, it started with the cold showers and continued with the overcast weather. We did not encounter any real weather but we sure had to use blankets to keep warm while in the RV. We also didn’t have too much planned for sightseeing but we enjoyed visiting things we spotted along the way like the “Back At The Ranch” Antique shop out near Dumas, TX where my brother got his girlfriend some cute earrings.

We were planning on stopping in at a starbucks to get our WIFI fix along the way but as fate would have it actually finding the hidden starbucks locations was not happening. We ended up driving down a residential street and “WIFI jacking” some persons unsecured wireless internet. We needed to map out a gas station and we were also on the hint for a Walmart so we could buy sweatshirts to keep us warm.

We were planning to hit the Dorothy House in Liberal, KS but failed to consider the time change between states therefore we arrived in Liberal about an hour and a half after they closed so we sadly missed that attraction.

Our evening destination was the Watersports Campground in Dodge City, KS which was also on a very pretty lake that we were able to enjoy. We treated ourselves to a dinner out at Casey’s Cowtown Club where we enjoyed some fabulous Kansas steaks.

Check out the next posts in the series:

• Road Trip Day 4 – Dodge City, KS to Emporia, KS
• Road Trip Day 5 – Emporia, KS to Kansas City, MO
• Day 5 continued – Kingdom City, MO to Stanton, MO
• Day 6 – Stanton, MO to Evansville, IN
• Days 7-11, We are here but the chaos continues
• Sitting in the garage, watching Ike blow through.
• OMG, we are actually living in Evansville…

or you can checkout the previous posts in the series:

• Road Trip Day 3 – Logan, NM to Dodge City, KS
• Road trip day 2 – New Mexico to New Mexico
• Road trip day 1 – Arizona to New Mexico.
• We pull out tomorrow…

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The post Road Trip Day 3 – Logan, NM to Dodge City, KS appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.