Hutchinson, KS

It has been 10 amazing days since we left Maysville, KS. We arrived in Hutchinson Wednesday a week ago to attend the MDT gathering. Well, since Henry and Devina had problems coming down from New Hampshire and did not arrive until Friday, we pretty much just hung around with all our friends from Retama Village and made a few new ones at the daily happy hour. We had so many snacks and goodies at happy hour that I really did not have to cook dinner. It feels so good to catch up with people we know after spending the summer traveling pretty much just by ourselves. When you stay only seven days in one spot it is hard to make new friends. Most of our time was spent checking out the area we were visiting.

On Saturday the HDT rally started and as many of you know, we do not have a big rig. It was no problem at all. We were welcomed into the group as one of them, which I thought was pretty cool. The week went by with daily seminars for the guys and of course happy hour every day. On Wednesday we had a ladies day. A bus was chartered, we went shopping in a couple of towns outside of Hutchinson and had a great lunch in a local Amish restaurant. Believe or not, I actually drove one of these big trucks in the campground and this time it did not die on me when I first started of.


Can you believe I actually drove one of those. It is so intimidating to me, I am not convinced that we should get one. Since our Teton Homes is bigger, it also is heavier and the truck drives a lot rougher with all that weight, which is hell on Doug's back. We have to go over scales to see how much we really weigh and make a decision on what comes next. There are trucks out there that are not quite as big that would make it easier for Doug to go down the road. At this point we will check out a guy in Texas and then think about it some more when we are back in Mission.

Friday afternoon was set aside for a group picture. Now I thought that meant that it was going to be a picture of the people that attended the rally. I was soooooo wrong. They took a picture of all the trucks with the people that drive them. It took about 30 minutes just to line them all up.


Well, after they were all done with their big rig pictures, we were allowed to bring in our "Little Girly Trucks". I have never thought we would be that, but standing next to these big trucks, our truck almost looks like an offspring.

Our truck is the one furthest to the right in the front. Here are some more pictures of some of our friends with their trucks.





Well, we left Hutchinson yesterday and drove all the way to Thackerville, OK. It was 350 miles of mostly highway, but I was still tired by the time we got there. Today Bonnie & Gail, Gayle & Tom, and Dale & Mark will join us at the campground for a couple of days. We will be moving south again most likely on Tuesday morning.