Back to our Sunday shopping trip

I can hear it now:  "What?  You're not done talking about shopping?"  
Listen, any shopping I get to do beyond grocery shopping is a memorable experience for me!  
As we left Sam's Club, I said to Cliff, "Since the day is shot anyhow, we should go to Bass Pro Shop and look at the tents; if we're going to go camping when you retire, we need to find a tent we can stand up in.  Besides, we need to check the place out, and with the Chiefs playing, maybe it won't be too crowded."  
Bass Pro only recently came to the Kansas City area; we've been to the Springfield location in the past, but hadn't visited this one.  We'd heard horror stories of crowds and high prices.  
"OK, so Bass Pro is that way," Cliff said, motioning toward the east.  
"No, I'm pretty sure it's in the direction of Kansas City," I told him.  "It's west."  
So Cliff headed south.  Seriously.  
We circled this way and that way, with a few u-turns and Cliff using some colorful language, before we finally arrived at our destination half an hour later.  The place was not crowded at all.    
Most of the tents we found were either not tall enough, or far too big for us; we don't need a four-room tent, thank you very much.  In fact, there was only one tent that seemed right for us.  It's six feet tall at the peak.  

 I took a picture of the box so I'd have the brand and name of the tent, because I wanted to go home and do some research.  It's the Columbia Bugaboo II Family tent.  
I must have spent two hours reading feedback from people who had purchased this tent, first on the Bass Pro site, then on Amazon.com.  The price is the same on both websites, with free shipping from Amazon.com.
There were dozens of glowing reviews, some cautioning to be sure and use the sealant that comes with the tent so it won't leak at the seams.  I'd say 90% of the feedback was positive; I was impressed.  
But two of the negative comments trouble me:  these were people who stated that the poles shatter easily.  This made me visualize me and Cliff, with a motorcycle as our transportation, being stranded in the middle of the night in a rainstorm in a collapsed tent.  If you're in a car, you can sleep in the seats in an emergency.  With a motorcycle, I guess the only option would be to take refuge in the campground toilet.  
Just how much of an adventurer am I, really?  
It's food for thought.  
By the way, did you know that Bass Pro Shop allows dogs inside the store?  

We looked at some really nifty camping devices, discussed whether canned heat is hot enough to make a pot of coffee, and then went home, where Cliff watched the Chiefs win on our DVR.  
That's it for our Sunday shopping day.

I got the adventure I wanted

We rode all morning and came back to the motel for lunch and some rest.  Then we went for another ride, one that took us to a ferry across Table Rock Lake, through downtown Branson, and back to the motel.  However, something happened along the way.  In Branson.  Where our motorcycles always break down.  

Even from the back, you can tell Cliff is distraught.  Here's what happened:  We stopped at the McDonald's east of 65 in Branson to get ourselves a mocha frappé.  When we got on the motorcycle to leave, Cliff started it up and I said, "This thing is making a noise I've never heard."  
"That's just the fan," says Cliff, who not only can't hear well normally, but hears even less this weekend because he left his hearing aid at home.  
"No, I have NEVER heard this noise," I said, panicking.  
Finally he turned the key off.  But the starter wouldn't quit.  It was stuck.  
"Don't you want me to get off?"  I asked the question twice before he finally said yes.  
He got off, with the horrible noise still going on.  He did this thing and that thing, and finally disconnected the battery.  That stopped the noise.  
"Find that book with Gold Wing riders' names in it and see if there's anybody in Branson."  
I found three people, and he called one; there was no answer, but Cliff left a message.  While he was doing that, I suddenly remembered that his Kansas brother, Donald, was camped out at Table Rock Lake, not a half-hour away.  And he's a mechanic.  
"Cliff, you have a brother here right now," I told him.  
I saw instant relief on his face.  "Oh, yeah; that's right!"  

Never have two people been so happy to see my brother-in-law, Donald.  He would have had it fixed in five minutes, but Gold Wings are horrible to take apart.  So getting to the area he wanted to work on took awhile.  However, once there, he fixed it.

The starter relay was stuck.  Don hit it a few times with a pair of pliers and that fixed it.  Cliff will need to buy a new relay once we're home; but for now, it's working.  
Our vacation will proceed as planned.

Seen on a road trip

Cliff and I went on an overnight camping trip on our motorcycle and saw this deer as we left the park heading home.The deer bounds away...
crosses the road...

And disappears in the timber. Click to see more detail... that deer appears to be flying, in this picture.

While we were in the vicinity, we also visited the John J. Pershing boyhood home, in Laclede, Missouri. He's the only person ever to become a six-star general... unless you count George Washington, who received that sixth star posthumously in 1976.

The house in the background is his boyhood home.

Our Colorado vacation plans

We've been making plans for months to vacation in Colorado. The original plan was that Cliff's sister Charlene and her husband Pat would go along. We'd load up our motorcycles... our Honda, their Harley... and take them on a trailer to Colorado. Once there, we'd spend a few days as free spirits, leaving the car behind.

After a recent trip to southern Kansas pulling that trailer, we realized the car didn't like pulling it that well and gas consumption was high. We discussed this back and forth and decided, finally, to throw caution to the winds and ride the bikes all the way. So that became the new plan. Charlene and Pat were quite happy with this switch.

This morning I told Cliff, "The best I can tell, we'll need to figure between $200 and $250 a day, counting motels, gasoline and eating out."

"No way!" Cliff exclaimed. "Hell, if it's going to cost that much, I'd rather forget about the whole trip and stay home!"

I was a little deflated, to say the least. Yes, it makes me nervous thinking about that long a trip on a motorcycle; but it's an adventure, and I love adventures! Still, I didn't try to change his mind.

"You'll have to break the news to Charlene and Pat," I said. "I'm not going to be the one to tell them."

"I will," he said.

An hour went by with no more mention of the trip; then he said, out of the blue, "I guess vacations always cost a lot of money; and maybe we should go this year, because we might not be able to, in another year or two; you never know what could happen."

So I guess the trip is on again.

Bolivar? In Missouri?

We went on a motorcycle ride to Branson Saturday with Cliff's sister and her husband; you can see them up ahead of us in this picture of us crossing Truman Lake.

Coming home, the brother-in-law felt the need for protein and stopped at a McDonalds. Cliff and I had eaten at the motel, so we strolled around and soaked up some local facts about Bolivar, Missouri. Click on the picture and you'll be able to read what the marker says.
Indeed, it's a statue of a South American hero right here in Missouri. And a town was named after him.