Abilene, KS to Seibert, CO

Last night we set our alarm clock for 6:30 so we could get an early start this morning. We wanted to get in to the campground tonight about the middle of this afternoon instead of 5 p.m. like we've done the last couple of days. As things turned out today, it was a wise idea. After getting gas in the RV at the Shell station at Four Seasons RV Acres ($3.759 a gal), we headed west on I-70 at 8:30.

From Kansas

There was more thunderstorms moving in and we ran into them a little west of the campground. The rain only lasted about 45 minutes and the windshield wipers worked really well. So well, in fact, that they wouldn't turn off! Mike pulled over about 10 miles west of Salina and had to pull out the fuse for the wipers. About 20 minutes later we pulled into a rest area so Mike could clean the windshield. At the rest area there was a historical marker telling about the settlers in the area.

From Kansas

Apparently trees were scarce on the plains and the inventive settlers made fence posts from the limestone strata. There were signs along the way marking this as "Post Rock Country" and the limestone fence posts could still be seen in the fields.

From Kansas

At noon we stopped at a rest area near Ogallah for a 40 minute lunch break before continuting west on I-70. I called Shady Grove Campground in Seibert, CO while we were stopped for lunch and made a reservation for tonight. As we drove farther west the skies in the distance were getting darker. 

From Kansas

We stopped at a rest area just west of Colby, KS and Mike put the fuse for the windshield wipers back in and they were fine - they started and stopped like they were supposed to.  A little while later (35 miles east of the Colorado state line) we crossed from the Central Time Zone into the Mountain Time Zone and gained an hour. Then we saw this highway information sign --

From Colorado

We tuned our Sirius radio to the NOAA weather station and found out that we were heading into some really bad weather - heavy rain, high winds, quarter-size hail. We were about 8 miles west of the Colorado state line when we ran into the storm - heavy rain, wind and pea-size hail. After only driving in this storm for a few minutes, Mike pulled us over on to the shoulder and put on the hazard flashers.

It wasn't too long before cars were pulling off the highway and then we were joined by semi trucks. The temperature outside before the storm started was about 65° and dropped almost 30° within several minutes. By now the hail was coming down so heavy the interstate and the ground looked as though it was covered with snow! We sat there for 20 minutes being pounded with heavy rain, winds and hail that changed from pea-size to marble-size. I used our digital camera to film the hail storm. Go to our Colorado Web Album to see the video. Turn your volume up and you can hear the hail storm sounded like inside our RV.

Once the hail quit and the worst of the storm had passed on, Mike slowly pulled back out onto the interstate. The hail was 2-3" thick on the road and Mike drove about 45 miles an hour for awhile until the hail had melted.

From Colorado

We arrived here at Shady Grove Campground at 3:45 (Mountain Time). We paid $13.60 for the campsite & $3 for 50 amp service with our Passport America membership. It is 49° with a wind chill of 40° and 35 mph winds.

We'll get some photos of our campsite here tomorrow before we leave. We are about 130 miles east of Denver.