After finishing up our RV maintenance in Kansas City, we continued our westward journey yesterday, making it to Venango Park at Kanopolis Lake just outside of Marquette, KS. We experienced our first very heavy crosswinds while driving yesterday with a constant wind speed around 26 mph and gusts much higher. Strong winds like that make for stressful and physically tough driving, so we were glad to make it to our destination safely. Now that we are parked, our little home is doing a great job at keeping us sheltered from the crazy wind outside.

Venango Park is managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, and we didn’t have to pay a dime to stay here. We’re thankful for some of our tax dollars going to free camping in great places. Since it’s offseason, we have no amenities. We brought a lot of water, and our generator is up and running to give us enough electricity to cook meals. We used our fancy new Instant Pot to prepare all three meals today – huge shout-out to our friend Darla for suggesting such a smart device for RV life!

Sheltered from the wind in site C33. We think we’re the only ones camping here tonight!

With temps in the 70s, we did get out to run some trails (Katie) and to do some driving lessons on our dirt bikes. We are slowly learning the rhythm of this new way of life. Nic worked on the dirt bikes for part of the morning and enjoyed taking a ride in search of water. Katie kept reading about New Mexico and wrote a letter. The dogs love their time outside exploring and nap the rest of the time. They are more relaxed and tired than we have ever seen them.

We’re eager to continue west to New Mexico, but Kansas has definitely shown us some of its beauty. It’s a quiet sort of beauty that comes on slowly and asks to be observed carefully. We are enjoying the view.