Thursday, January 2, 2014

Leaving Amazon & Coffeyville

Friday, Dec. 20 -  We have been released early from Amazon.  We left the plant at 11:30 and stopped at Cox Communications to drop off our modem and cable box.  Then home.  As we drove to the motorhome, we discussed when we were going to leave.  The forecast that morning said rain/freezing rain would be starting Saturday morning.  The Captain thought we should still wait and leave Saturday AM, concerned that if we tried to pack up quickly we might not remember to do everything before leaving.  We decided to stay.  Once home, I started doing laundry and we had lunch.  Gary did some paperwork and then took a short nap.  Then he went outside and started putting our lights and other hoses away.  He came in and said it was getting colder and damp.  He checked the weather again and found out the freezing rain was now to start at midnight.  Then he said, "how fast can you defrost the freezer?  I think we should drive to Kansas City tonight and beat the weather".  It is 3:00 PM.  We got right to work on that and putting things away.  I had food in the frig yet for the day and a half we thought we were staying, most of that went in the trash.   We put the condiments and our ice packs in our 5 gallon beverage cooler to stay cold while we were gone.  The clothes were done washing, but not dry.  I kept them drying until he was ready to unplug, then had to drape them over furniture to finish while we are gone.  Long story short, we had everything done, in the car and left Coffeyville at 5:30 PM.  It had just gotten dark, but was still dry out and not windy.

We drove up Hwy 169 to Kansas City, it was just two and a half hours.  We stopped for a sandwich and checked the map and the weather.  Kansas City was to start getting snow at noon on Saturday, 6-8 inches.  The Captain decided to push on a little farther, we stopped and stayed in St. Joseph, MO for the night.  After checking in to our room at the Drury Inn (very nice) we checked the weather for Coffeyville and found out the freezing rain had already started.  We made a very wise decision to leave early!

A good night's sleep (we would have been worried all night if we had stayed in Coffeyville) and back on the road by 9:00 headed for South Dakota.  Again, dry roads and no wind.  We did not see snow on the ground until north of Beresford, SD and then more and more all the way in to Sioux Falls.   And cold!  Later checking the weather, we realized we would have driven all the way through Kansas on icy roads if we had left there that morning.

Here are pictures others posted of the ice in Coffeyville.  Some that stayed could not get their slides pulled in because of the ice and others had trouble hooking up their tow rigs to the trailers.  We were so lucky!
These pics are courtesy of Becky at InterstellarOrchard.com.  She had to stay and work Monday!






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