Early departure to Smith Center, KS

We checked the weather and saw where there were going to be strong north winds tomorrow along with the possibility of severe weather. As we were going to head north to Smith Center, KS in the morning, this got us thinking about leaving this afternoon. We had paid for two nights but by leaving early, we could beat the weather and there is no charge at Excel's Service Department's hookups so we wouldn't be incurring any extra expense by leaving early.

After driving in to Hays to check out the town, go to the grocery store, and pick up a weather radio, we decided once I finished the laundry, we would dump tanks, pull in the slides and head north. The wind was blowing very strong out of the south today so we thought, good, we'll have a tailwind. We left Russell, KS around 3:30 p.m. The wind didn't have any affect on us until we turned east for 9 miles and we were hit side-on with the wind. John was happy when he turned and headed north again. We were almost to Smith Center, when the wind shifted and we had a headwind. John said darn, we were doing so well on the mpg's until the headwind.

We pulled in to Smith Center around 5:15. When we pulled up, we noticed a medium duty International truck sitting in the parking lot. John commented that it looked like Rick and Y's truck. Sure enough it was. We met Rick and Y (Yvonne) last year when we were at the Service Department in May. They are a very nice fulltiming couple that are about our ages. Rick and Y's service work was just about done so we got lucky in crossing paths with them. Another couple, Dick and Phyllis, also came in early like we did due to concerns about the weather. We got parked without any difficulty this year unlike last year . . . experience does pay off. Once we got parked, we came back in and the six of us chatted until Dick and Phyllis went to their rig. The four of us then went up to Duffy's Restaurant to have dinner and sat and chatted until almost 9:30. Luckily we left before the staff had to throw us out so they could close up.

We love our rig and coming to the service center has been a pleasant and informative experience. We have a large lovely lounge with coffee, soda and snack machines, a computer with wifi, two large TV's , bathrooms with showers, washer and dryer, AND are provided electric hook-ups while we are waiting for our service work to be completed. We are left with the feeling that PI appreciates our business and brand loyalty.

Smith Center is a small town and pretty much exists because of the manufacturer of the Excel Fifth Wheels, Peterson Industries. The owner, Vaughan Peterson lives here in town. You can always count on the newest model of Excel to be in his driveway unless he and his wife are out on the road in it. Peterson Industries has suffered during our economic downturn just like everyone but through wise leadership, they have been able to remain in business whereas other brands have not been so lucky. PI makes a great product and as owners, we want them to be around for a long time. We were told that the factory has orders to take them up to July and are producing three rigs a week. In the past, they use to produce seven units a week so that tells you that there aren't as many people working as there used to be.

We will be cooling our heels in the service lounge until Monday when possibly our rig will be worked on. Thankfully, none of the items on our list is serious (we hope). There will be five rigs here in for service for the week. It will be interesting to see if anyone comes in that we met last year or if we get to make new friends. We are planning on being here for the week and cross our fingers that the severe weather they are forecasting doesn't materialize.