8-2-04
8:46 p.m. on Monday night. Low temp this morning was about 64
degrees. High temp today was about 97. Today again, we ran
mainly non - interstate roadways. We stopped at 4 hardware stores
this morning. 3 were in the same little town of Limon, Colorado,
just a few miles down the road from the Denny's restaurant that we
slept at. A few miles down the road was a town with a population
of 870 or so, and we happened to spot a hardware store there, so we
stopped and looked around there also. Looking at hardware stores
is something we enjoy. One never knows what goodies are lurking
in the back of the shelves of hardware stores that have been in
business for long time. When the price tag on the item is
yellowed with age, it is a give away that it has been there for a
considerable amount of time. We crossed back into the Central
Time zone this afternoon. We are currently in a little town named
Norton. It is in the northern section of Kansas, approximately 15
miles from the Nebraska state line to the north, and about 1/3 the way
across from the western end. Population of this town is 3,012
according to the road atlas. This is actually a big town for this
area. Annville, Pa., just for comparison, is listed by the atlas
as having a population of 4,518. Kinda puts things into
perspective, don't you think? We are sitting in a little city
park right along route 36, which is the main highway that runs through
Norton. There is an older Bounder motor home sitting in front of
us. They were here when we got here. There isn't a whole
lot of parking space here, but there is a dump station, and water if
needed, plus enough space to park maybe half a dozen motor homes on the
one side of the little road that runs through the park.
Tomorrow we have an appointment to tour the factory that makes the
Excel 5th wheels. They are a manufacturer of higher end 5th wheel
trailers, and I would like to see their operation. We are maybe
about an hour or a little better away from their manufacturing
plant. Their tours are given at 1:30 in the afternoon and last
about an hour and a half or so. After that, I would like to head
north for York, Nebraska. The King of the Road manufacturing
plant is there, and that is the manufacturer of our 5th wheel. I
would like to see how they are made, just for my own
satisfaction. I will have to call and see what time of the day
they give their tours and see if we can get there for Wednesday or
not. If not, we'll get there for Thursday. After touring
the King of the Road plant, we are again heading south to Junction
City, Kansas. The best rv trailers in the world are made
there. I think that will be our last rv manufacturing tour on
this trip. We'll just have to see how the time works out. I
have a couple of pictures that I will try to upload tonight. I
guess that is about all for this evening.
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