6 Apr 2025 - Last Day at McConnell Air Force Base and More Grandson's Baseball

 

Today is our last day at McConnell Air Force Base FamCamp.  We were able to watch our grandson Calvin play baseball via the Game Changer app and they took Silver in the tournament!  For quite a few years they have been handing out rings as the trophy for placing, and Calvin proudly displays his here.  .  

Doreen did what little laundry we had accumulated so far since the FamCamp laundry facility is within walking distance from our coach.  While she did that I worked an itinerary change.  Our friends Paul Bobby and Chuck Leonard were going to be unavailable during our stop at Bull Shoals (stop #7) so we are diverting to Branson MO during the same timeframe (14-17 Apr).  I was able to cancel our reservation at Bull Shoals and found a new campground at Branson not far from the downtown area.  That is OK.  It has been since 2015 when we were in Branson last, I believe.  I'm sure a lot has changed.  The one thing that has not changed is how Veteran-friendly they are, and that is greatly appreciated!  So we will be at the Branson Lakeside RV Park for those four nights with a site overlooking the shores of Lake Taneycomo!  One place we always enjoy visiting is Dick's 5&10 which is a spacious, long-running store carrying old-fashioned candy, retro toys & vintage-chic home decor. I also want to visit the Veterans Memorial Museum.

Later in the afternoon we made our way to the grocery store to restock the pantry and fridge a bit, and stopped for fuel.  Back at the campground, well, you know the routine.  Empty the black and grey sewer tanks, flush the black, stow the sewer and fresh water hoses and make preparations to depart in the morning.

Freeze warning popped up on our phones for tomorrow morning, but the "Cheap Heat" system I installed is purring right along and keeps the coach at a very comfortable 70F, or whatever temp we set the thermostat, without using any propane!  We have ducting that heats the underbelly area where the water pipes live and heat pads on the sewer and fresh water tanks, but it is not supposed to get that cold tonight.  

Over the past few days we have been able to keep up on our daughter Michelle and her husband Keith as they explore Ireland!  They are over there celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and enjoying what Ireland has to offer.

Our middle daughter Chief Master Sergeant Jennifer had drill weekend this weekend at the Michigan Air National Guard base in Battle Creek where they live.  We called her after she got home tonight to find out how drill weekend went.  Her son (our grandson) Lucas is busy finishing up his senior year of high school and making preparations to depart for Army basic training right after his high school graduation.  The physical preparation is pretty intense, but you have to be in great shape when you arrive.

Tomorrow morning we will pull chocks and head west/south to our next destination:  Liberal KS.  And that is not a political statement!  Liberal is the home of the Mid-American Air Museum.  Doreen is looking forward to visiting Dorothy's House, the Coronado Museum, and the Land of Oz ! Yes, we are in Kansas now, Toto!!   From their web site:  "Enjoy an immersive Wizard of Oz Tour that combines a colorful recreation of the film with stories of actual life on a 1900s farmhouse. Learn about life in Dorothy's Kansas, see the lasting influence of Wizard of Oz, and learn why there is truly no place like home!"

Next report from Liberal KS!!

5 Apr 2025 - Brunch at Stearman Field Bar & Grill with John Kimball

 

This morning we drove NE of Wichita to Stearman Field Bar & Grill to meet up with our great friend John Kimball.  Once a month they have a fly-in event there called "Planes and Pancakes" but the weather did not cooperate today and there were no airplanes to be seen.  The wind howled all night into this morning and the cold rain came as well.  As we left the airfield the rain changed to snow flurries but they did not last long.  

Inside we had a nice breakfast from their buffet and some great conversation with John.  This winter John lost his partner Jane to an injury, so it has been a tough time for him.  They traveled around and camped in his trailer a lot.  Since then John has traded for an Alliance camper, same brand that we have but a bit smaller than his previous one.  We hope to connect up with John at a campground in the future.  

After breakfast we headed back to the FamCamp to let Liberty out and tune into our grandson Daniel's first high school baseball game. Most teams stream games on an app called "Game Changer" and it is either live video/audio like shown above, or a mechanized equivalent with announcer audio. I can "cast" the audio/video to our 50" TV in our camper, so it is really nice!

Daniel is in 8th grade and played high school varsity today,  He spent some time behind the plate (catcher) and picked two runners off at first base, one from a knee.  He also pitched two innings striking out five!  Other innings he played center field and first base.  Pretty exciting times for Daniel as he plays up at a different level with high school players older than him.  We are glad technology allows us to tune into our grandkid's events even while we travel.  Tomorrow grandson Calvin plays three games and all three will be on Game Changer.

Tomorrow is our last day here.  They have a nice laundry facility right here so Doreen will do what little laundry we have before moving on to our next stop and I will do my pre-departure tasks plus watching Calvin play baseball.  We need to pick up a few groceries and we need to fuel up the truck.  Pretty low key.  We may be making a slight change in our itinerary so I will research that as well.

4 Apr 2025 - Arrived at McConnell Air Force Base Wichita KS

 

We departed the KOA campground in Lawrence KS in the rain this morning at 1000 hrs,  We called Outdoor Rec office at McConnell Air Force Base and our site there was occupied last night.  As we discussed in yesterday's blog, check-in is not until 1400 hrs, and our trip today is only 161 miles, soooo no sense in leaving early.  

I was really glad we took care of the tanks and hoses yesterday so we did not have to deal with all that in the rain this morning.  The rain continued pretty much the entire trip today.  It was overcast and dreary, but no wind and no issues.  We noticed the Flint Hills as we passed by. We stopped once for a potty break and rolled into McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita KS at 1306 hrs.  Seems like no matter how you cut it, we average 50 mph on our travel days which is just fine with us. 

After a quick stop at Outdoor Recreation office to check-in, we made our way to the Krueger Recreation Area, what they call their FamCamp #1.   

The adjacent site was vacant when we arrived but they are 100% full now.

We really like this campground . The sites here are really nice, full hook-up 50 amp with a level, wide paved slab, and just $28 per night.  There are a couple lakes nearly, plenty of walking/jogging trails and of course all the amenities that come with life on an Air Force Base.  The area this campground was built on used to be the base golf course but the overhead involved with maintaining a golf course took it's toll and it was unsustainable.  We have seen this at many of the bases we've stayed.  

Nice view from inside 0our coach!

We noticed across the road there are freshly paved slabs so they are apparently expanding the FamCamp which is good news!

Looks like a campground expansion!

We are only here three nights, and like Lawrence, we have been here many times.  Tomorrow morning we will travel northeast about 30 minutes to the Stearman Field Bar and Grill's Planes and Pancakes breakfast event and meet up with our great friend and military comrade John Kimball.  John served in the Communications unit here with the Kansas Air National Guard at the same time I served with the Communications unit at the Iowa Air National Guard.  We both were chosen to be Command Chiefs.  John retired as the Kansas State Command Chief and I retired as the Iowa State Command Chief.  John actually taught my Command Chief Course! 

Command Chief Course, Lackland Air Force Base, May 2007

Wichita, Kansas, earned the title "Air Capital of the World" in 1928, and its aviation history is rich with iconic aircraft manufacturers like Cessna, Beechcraft, and Stearman, with the city playing a crucial role in both general and military aviation. Today, Wichita boasts more than 450 aerospace companies and suppliers, including Textron Aviation, Beechcraft, Cessna, Bombardier Learjet, Spirit AeroSystems, and Airbus.   So "Stearman Field" where we will be visiting tomorrow is named in honor of aviation pioneer Lloyd Stearman and there are seven Stearman World War II-era training biplanes based there.  It will be great see see them and any other aircraft that fly in,  and have breakfast with our great friend John Kimball!

A Boeing-Stearman Model 75

3 Apr 2025 - Nothing Significant to Report (NSTR) - Last Day at Lawrence KS

 

Not much to report today.  Neither of us felt like diving into the tourist thing today so we had a nice breakfast and worked around here.  This is our third stop here in Lawrence so we have checked out many of the things to see on previous stops.  Liberty got caught up on her naps and took a few walks. 

I took care of some admin tasks including some phone calls.  Since today is the last day here, we typically dump and flush tanks, stow hoses and anything else outside.  I then switch over to onboard water so that tomorrow morning all we have to do is unplug the power, stow it, hook up, retract the levelers and depart.  That especially works out good if there is a change of rain so we are not having to do all that in the rain.

Later we drove south a few miles, past the University of Kansas, home of the Jayhawks, 

We stopped in the Home Depot to replace a PEX fitting I used out of my kit when I was working on the water leak before we departed Griff's.  This is the first time I've had to use the kit I put together back when we first bought this coach.  I carry various PEX fittings and the tools to remove and replace them, all in case of emergency, either mine or my neighbor's.  I also carry a digital multimeter kit, a borescope kit, a CAT 5 Ethernet kit, an RG-6 coaxial cable kit and of course an extensive assortment of tools.

PEX kit

PEX tools

 

Splices, tee's, elbows; straight and 90 degree swivel adapters, plugs and crimp rings

That is about it from here.  Tomorrow morning we will break camp and head SW towards Wichita KS and McConnell Air Force Base, our next stop.  We will not be in a hurry leaving here as check-in time is not until 1400 hrs and it is only 161 miles there.  Towing our "tenement on wheels" as Clark W. Griswold would say,  we average about 50 miles per hour with stops.  So that puts our departure sometime after 1000 hrs.  

2 Apr 2025 - Dinner with High School Classmate Elaine

 

We had a wild night here last night with severe weather moving through Kansas east into Missouri and northeast into Iowa.  We tracked it closely and had our "bug-out" bag packed and ready to go with the essentials should we have to evacuate the RV and take shelter.  I need to formalize this a bit more with a checklist, but we pack medications including dog meds/food; cash and important documents; clothes, water, phones & chargers, and other items.  We had torrential rains in the middle of the night and some small hail but luckily very little wind.  I checked everywhere in the coach but we remained high and dry.  

Red dot is where we are camping near Lawrence KS

After the storm came the sun!  Today was really relaxing and enjoyable.  We took a break today, worked on a few tasks around here and really enjoyed the sunny, warm (67F) weather outside with lunch on our patio.  This evening we drove about 25 minutes up I-70 to Bonner Springs to meet up with one of our classmates from Northern University High School Class of 1973, Elaine Burkhart Dubray.  Elaine and Doreen were friends most if not all of their school years,  I was late to the party arriving after my Freshman year moving from DeWitt IA.  We have stayed in touch with Elaine and many of our classmates all these years and try to get together with Elaine each summer.  Mid-summer we will gather with several of our classmates at Okoboji for a get-together there.   

So we had a great meal and shared a lot of laughs at El Porto Mexican Restaurant tonight.  It is so much fun to get together with Elaine when we are in this area!  

  Tomorrow's plan is yet to be determined.  It is our last day here before heading SW to Wichita and McConnell Air Force Base for a few days.  So that means fueling the truck and making preparations to depart Friday morning.  This is our third stay here in Lawrence so this is more of just a stop-over than a tourist stop.

1 Apr 2025 - And We Are Off!

The Schellhase 2025 RV Adventures is underway.  I had intended on posting an update this spring and we were overcome by events. I had rotator cuff surgery in December and Doreen had foot surgery in January, so we are both recuperating as well as trying to get ready for this trip. I started working on reservations in November and had most of them wrapped up shortly after the first of the year.  

This year we are doing a loop that we are called "Phase 1" (Stops #1-11) that will take us through KS, OK, MO, AR, back through MO, IA and home for grad daughter Hailee's high school graduation.  We will be camping near home 5-12 May (stop #11) before heading east for the start of "Phase 2".  More about Phase 2 later.  This journey will be about 8428 miles point-to-point and 43 stops.

On 12 March we got the RV out of storage and the following day we took it to the dealership for it's annual "physical".  Since I have no room at my house to work on it I hire them to clean and grease the wheel bearings, inspect and grease the suspension bushings and wet bolts, and do a top to bottom inspection of the entire coach.  

The following Friday 21 Mar we took the coach from the dealership to Griff's Valley View Campground & RV Park and that is where we clean it, load it and un-winterize it in preparation for this year's trip.  Thankfully the weather cooperated and we were able to un-winterize.  Some years that does not happen until we get further south and warmer weather.  The game changer for us is a system I installed last year called :Cheap Heat".  It is an electric add-on for our furnace that allows us the easily heat the coach and the underbelly area to help prevent the pipes and water system from freezing.  Running the furnace on propane you can empty tank after tank very quickly.  The "Cheap Heat" system allows us to run the furnace on the 50 amp electrical connection at the campground.  This year we used it quite a bit the days leading up to our departure.

So we unwinterized early in the week and I discovered a water leak.  It was leaking behind the main water panel, the same place it leaked last year.  So I ordered parts and installed them as soon as they arrived.  This delayed our moving in until Friday 28 Mar but then we were able to exercise all the systems and make sure we had everything we needed.  

This morning 1 Apr (no fooling) we departed Griff;s at 0837 hrs and headed south on I-35 through Missouri to Lawrence KS, our first stop after Griff's, on this year's journey.  The drive was uneventful but the headwind really chewed into our fuel mileage.  The foliage was blooming the further south we traveled.  

We stopped for fuel once and again for a pottie break before arriving at the KOA in Lawrence KS at 1335 hrs, our stop for the next three nights.  247 miles today.  We stayed at this campground twice before including last year.  On Friday we will proceed to Wichita and McConnell Air Force Base FamCamp.

We got set-up quickly and everything worked great.  We took a relaxing walk about with Liberty and enjoyed the slightly warmer temps.  

Some of the trees are in bloom as are the flowers.

Nice having and end spot

The sites are tight but we don't notice it on the end.

Tomorrow we made plans to meet up with a very dear high school friend Elaine Burkhart Dubray in Bonner Springs for dinner.  Other than that we don't have any firm plans here as this is just a stop-over before getting to Wichita.  

I will do my best to update the blog nightly during our trip this year again.  Thanks for checking in on us.  Please bookmark this URL:  https://schellhasetravels2025.blogspot.com

15 Jan 2025 - Trip Planning

 

Greetings from Iowa! We hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. We have been very busy since we returned from our 2024 RV travels in August, about a month sooner than planned. Thankfully the health issues that forced our early return turned out to be non-issues, but better safe than sorry. So we took advantage of being back a month early and dove into several projects that we had planned.

One of those projects involved a facelift for our garage to include a polyaspartic/polyurea floor coating, a complete paint job, some trim work and new LED lighting.

We hired the same company that did the garage work to demo and replace the concrete in our front entryway patio area and apply a decorative coating there as well. It not only looks great but corrects a settling issue causing severe ponding and ice buildup in front of our main door in the winter.

Finally we completed a landscaping project around our garden shed with the help of our grandsons, and it came out fantastic.

But while working on the landscaping project I severed my left rotator cuff. Ugh! So we got that diagnosed and had surgery to repair it on 13 December. Recovery from that is ongoing - slow and painful, but the surgeon assured me that as long as I behaved myself and was diligent on the PT, we should be good to go departing on our 2025 RV travels on 1 April .

Once the projects were complete and while we heal from surgery we started the planning of our 2025 trip. I created this 2025 blog framework which includes this first post. This will allow you to bookmark the URL for future reference, which is: https://schellhasetravels2025.blogspot.com Notice the URL is the same as in year's past except for the year. You can go back and revisit any of our travels from 2016 through 2024 just by changing the year on the URL. Here is a map that illustrates our travels since 2016:

We took that map, compiled a list of factors for 2025 and created our 2025 travels which looks like this:

In 2025 there are several significant events that helped shape the route. In yellow, above, is Phase 1. This is a month-long counter-clockwise loop taking us south through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, back into Missouri, Arkansas, back into Missouri and finally back to Iowa to attend our grand daughter Hailee's high school graduation.

Then Phase II is in blue on the map, also a counter-clockwise route. We will depart home after Hailee's graduation and head east through Illinois and Indiana to the Elkhart-Goshen IN area to attend the Alliance RV National Rally. After that we head north into Michigan to see our daughter Jennifer and her family to include our grandson Lucas's high school graduation. Part of the rest of our trip will also involve Lucas as he has enlisted in the United States Army. He departs for basic training in Ft Sill OK shortly after his high school graduation. We plan to attend his basic training graduation the later part of August at Ft Sill (Stop# 40 on the map. So on through Michigan north to the Michigan Alliance RV Rally, into the Upper Peninsula and then down to the Milwaukee WI area to see and hopefully camp with our daughter Michelle and her family there.

From there we start our long journey west, through Iowa stopping for a gathering with some of our high school classmates, then into Minnesota to camp with the Thornells, great friends and a military comrade, We will also see one of my cousins there. Then north to Fargo ND and west all the way out to Idaho and Oregon. There we are basically "filling in the holes" in our previous travels. We will see my cousin Nancy in Madras Oregon and also camp with Barry Barton, another great friend and military comrade from the 70's, We are looking forward to visiting Crater Lake and then down to Utah where we stumbled onto the 2025 Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats at Wendover UT, a gathering of land speed racers! Then we will head SE with a swing through the south.  It will bring us through Gallup, Albuquerque (Command Chief (ret) Mitch Brush's AOR),   and Amarillo before we arrive at Ft Sill Oklahoma and grandson Lucas's basic training graduation the last week in August. After graduation we head home, to arrive approximately 8 September.

185 nights, 43 stops, 8425 point-to-point miles, hundreds of interesting sites to see and many, many friends, relatives and military comrades to reconnect. Should be a great trip!

The trip is planned, 93% of the reservations made, and now "we" just need to heal up so we can get the coach out of storage in March and launch on 1 April. And when I say "we" need to heal up I am talking about Doreen also. She was having an issue with her left foot and so we had that checked out and it will require surgery which is scheduled for a week from today, 22 Jan. This age stuff is not what it is cracked up to be!

Stay strong folks, and stay tuned for updates. Thank you for tagging along and, again, here is the URL to bookmark for future reference. https://schellhasetravels2025.blogspot.com/ The blog will be updated daily once we launch in April.

Take care,

Ed and Doreen Schellhase and Liberty, too!