Toto we better tell Santa we aren't in Kansas anymore!

We hit the road a little earlier than we expected as we both came down with the flu and felt we could not return to Amazon, as the flu had zapped all of our energy!   For the most part we did enjoy Amazon this year, as we were trained in multiple departments and got to know the place a little better, and we also enjoyed getting to know several workampers!  So where are we now, we are back at Jellystone in Canyon Lake, Texas; it will be great place to get some rest that is needed and will get to visit with friends we made this past year! 

  The temperatures have been in the 50’s and 60’s with lows in the 30’s and 40’s, not bad compared to single digits at night in Kansas!  We will be here until the end of the month and then off to Arizona! 

Root Beer, Oil & Strippers

So what have we been doing with our time since we have been in Kansas?  Well the title above says it all! In Tulsa, Oklahoma we found some awesome root beer called Weber’s Root Beer, the recipe has been around since the late 1800’s.  It really is the best tasting root beer we have ever had and they also serve up some great hamburgers and onion rings! The resturant has been around since the 1933 and is still run by the same family and in the same location! The family story says that in 1891 Oscar Weber Bilby made a grill for cooking burgers from a piece of 3' x 4' iron, they still use this same grill to this date to cook the burgers on. Oscar and his wife are credited with creating the hamburger as we know it today, they were the first to put a burger on a bun!!!

No we did not strike oil, but we were able to visit the Phillips 66 museum in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and find out the history of the Phillips brothers who did strike oil!  They almost gave up, but on the last try they struck it big, and one thing led to another!  The museum was very nice, and we ended up spending about 2.5 hours there, so much to see and learn.  There was no charge to get in, but we are sure we have paid for it at the pump.

And then there are the strippers, one in particular, Big Brutus!!  Big Brutus is the coal strip mining giant of SE Kansas, it is the second largest shovel in the world, it stands 16 stories tall and weights 11 million pounds, that is one big stripper! 

Here are the links, as you can find out more information on the places we have stopped at.

http://www.webersoftulsa.com/

http://www.phillips66museum.com/EN/Pages/index.aspx

http://www.bigbrutus.org/

Hello, and an update from Marnie & Rich

Hello Everyone,

Hope this finds everyone healthy and happy.  It has been a while since we sent out an update, so we will try not to be too long winded.  We were in Canyon Lake, Texas from December 24^th to September 21^st, we were at Jellystone Hill Country Resort, which is in-between Austin and  San Antonio.  We spent 9 months with Yogi Bear and met many fun and interesting people!!  Just down the road from the campground was the Guadalupe river, which brought the area to life with tubing!  The river was pretty low this year, because the area was in a drought, we probably only saw a handful of rainstorms while we were there, and about 2 weeks before we left, it rained so hard the dry creek bed in the campground looked like a raging river! 

 <><>After leaving Jellystone in September, we came back to Independence, Kansas to work for Amazon.com for another Christmas season.  We are staying at Elk City state park again, it is about 20 miles from Amazon, but the drive is well worth it.  Several nights we hear coyotes in the distance and just in the trees behind the camper we hear owls hooting!  Deer have come to visit, after getting home from work around 4am we have seen them just around behind the camper.  This year we are working a really odd schedule for Amazon, Wednesday – Saturday from 5 Pm to 3:30 AM, we are picking orders again this year, which means on average we can walk anywhere from 8-15 miles a night!

Around the 21^st of December our assignment with Amazon will end, and we have decided we will want some time off before heading off to our next workamping assignment, so we have decided to  head to Arizona for some rest and relaxation.  You may need your reading glasses to find Tonopah, AZ on the map, but it is about 50  miles west of Phoenix, we will be staying at the Saddle Mountain RV Resort.  Tonopah is also in striking distance from Quartsite, AZ which we have always wanted to check out; as  in January and February as they have an RV show, car show, gem show, and a huge flea market.  The last week in February, 2010 we should be heading to Moab, UT for our next workamping assignment, we will be at Archview Campground and Resort from March 1, - October 31, 2010!  Ok, so we have been to Moab before, but not for 7 months straight and have never worked there. It will be nice to stay longer then a weekend!  For those of you who may not know, Moab was one of our favorite places to go when we lived in Colorado.  In fact it is only 90 miles from Fruita, Colorado, where we last called home, so it looks like Grand Junction will be our town for major shopping next summer! 

Hope everyone had a great Halloween, for us it was our 28^th Halloween together, pretty spooky!!?  We have updated our blog page and made it more user friendly for us, so we will be posting on it more often, please feel free to check it out along with all of our photos, there is a link to it on our page.    Our photos are slow to update as our internet connection is not the best, but is current from when we left Texas.  Here is the link to our site:    www.mnraaron.com    you can link direct to our photo site from this page.

Happy Trails!!

Marnie & Rich

Pete & Lopi

Happy Neewollah!

When we arrived in Independence, KS about a month ago, there were several banners that stated welcome to Neewollah.  Ok, so we are in SE Kansas what the heck is Neewollah?  When we went into the State Park office one day we asked Diane who works three, what it is. It is Halloween spelled backwards she said and handed us a brochure and it explained Neewollah.

About Neewollah………………………. Neewollah which is Halloween spelled backwards, began in 1919 as an effort to provide positive activities for kids of all ages in place of the typical Halloween pranks that occurred in Independence, Kansas.

Today Neewollah has grown to be one of the oldest and largest celebrations in Kansas, featuring parades, a queen coronation, a carnival and professional shows from some of the top performers in the entertainment world.  Smashmouth was here this year, sounded like fun but we had to work! 

On the final day of the now 10 day celebration,  the town of Independence grows from a small town of about 10,000 to a city of over 80,000 people, as people from all over gather for the celebration!

http://www.neewollah.com/

Cafe On The Route

Last weekend we drove over to Joplin, MO to do some shopping.  On our way home we stopped at a nice restaurant called Café on the Route, it is in Baxter Springs, KS which is a very small town along Route 66.  The building was originally a bank and was robbed by Jessie James back in the day!  As far as the restaurant, it was amazing, we had quite a nice dining experience, some very unique items on the menu, and it was very reasonably priced!  Very well worth the drive, if you happen to be in South East Kansas and are traveling Route 66!

http://www.cafeontheroute.com/ 

So where have we been?

So now that we have made our blog more user friendly, we will start updating this much more often!  Since we really haven’t posted in a while, here is a timeline of where we have been.

2008

February 29^th 2008  Started our fulltime life and left Fruita, Colorado

March  – Lake Havasu, Arizona  and Wickenburg, Arizona

April  – Colorado Springs, Colorado

May-September  – Curtis, Michigan, The Upper Peninsula – Log Cabin Resort and Campground           

September – November, Cortland, Ohio, Visiting family and friends

November – December, Independence, Kansas, Elk City State Park, working for Amazon.com

2009

January – September, - Canyon Lake, Texas, Jellystone Hillcountry Resort (In between Austin and San Antonio, TX)

September – December, - Independence, Kansas, Elk City State Park, working for Amazon.com (we had so much fun last year)!!             

Over the course of this time, we have meet so many great new people, and seen some great new places, from small little towns, to great big metropolitans.  Can’t wait to see what the upcoming year has for us!

                                                                          

Tire woes!

After being in Kansas for the past couple of weeks, we moved to a quieter
section of the State Park. The employment agency finally started having the
honey wagon (sewage truck for you non campers) run out and service all the
extra RV's that do not have full hookups.
Well after moving the camper we noticed that one of our tires was kind of
low on air. While inspecting it I noticed that the valve stem was leaking.
The next morning I removed it and was going to take in into a shop for a new
valve stem. When I took it off the trailer I noticed a large piece of the
sidewall had gotten torn off, amazing that we did not have a blow out. Well
off to the shop we go and have them try to get us a tire. No tires within
1000 miles, it had to come from Minnesota, they were the only place they
could find the same tire. Luckily we were not in any hurry. At least
Goodyear warrantied it for us, it still cost around $75, would have been
closer to $200.